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Search 69,459 Camino Questions

O Cebriero - the worst place to stay ...??

Gillyweb

Active Member
Time of past OR future Camino
Villafranca - Santiago (2013)
SJPP - Santiago (2014)
Portugues (2017)
O Cebriero must surely be the worst possible place to stay on the Frances. Having simply walked through last year, weather and mileage made stopping here this year necessary. I have never anywhere experienced such indifferent and downright abominably rude behaviour. Not just in one bar but in several. Waitresses deliberately pretending not to hear, coffee prices changing from 11am to 12am, clearly being made up on the spur of the moment. We walked out of one restaurant because we refused to give them our service after the way they treated us. Pilgrims are clearly considered nothing but a nuisance and treated appallingly. The Albergue is pretty basic ( Yes I know it's a typical Xunta but that's not the point ). Worst of all everything for miles around is booked out. I didn't experience this last year when at the same time of year I had no bed problems at all. It's only my personal opinion - but give this place a wide berth.
 
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O Cebreiro is one of my favorites. A warm and welcoming albergue and the restaurants have delicious food and good service. Stayed there three times so far.
 
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One of the restaurants serving the queso de O Cebreiro.
Painting by @catherinemccoy
 

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Okay, I would not have started a thread about this, but I did have the same experience as the OP last fall. So, I just walked on after taking many lovely photos. I'll give it another try this fall though.
 
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I found it to be a real tourist trap. I'll stop for a coffee and some food next time, but then just keep on walking.

We can't all like the same places, can we.
 
We're in the good memories camp.....daughter fell over and hurt her arm there (two days later we would discover it was broken) and the bar staff willingly furnished us with ice despite the fact that we were not buying anything.
 
It was the first place on the Camino where I felt the presence of "tourists" - tour busses, crowds, and clearly the community was responding to those who were "feeding" it. Once that died down and the tourists left I thought it and the church were the essence of the Camino, even when cold, windy, and rainy.
 
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I turned up on a Sunday night in November, the place was packed out then as well. I asked for Queimada to be made for me in one of the comedors. they did it, preparing it properley and not charging me an arm and leg for it while they had a full bar with pilgrims demanding attention. They even had the recital to go with it. I have had places where I have stayed on the Norte twice, and the experience for both is so different. You could go there again and have a wonderful experience, because that is the beauty of of experience it changes if you approach it as new.
 
We stopped at O'Cebreiro for desayuno after a very relaxing overnight in Laguna de Castilla. It was pouring rain and the restaurant/albergue was extremely busy. True, the service was slow, but the staff seemed to be working under trying circumstances; at best the facility was understaffed. We made allowances due to the circumstances as they appeared to be that morning, and the poor Spanish economy in general. Quite frankly, in the albergues/bars along the Frances, several times I was amazed to see how so much work was being accomplished by just the one person.

My walking sticks and dripping poncho were still outside the restaurant when I was ready to leave that morning, so all was well.
 
Interesting post. I walked through O'Cebreiro this June. As I said in my post home about the bar where I had breakfast, "tavern was charming, the innkeeper was not." Nor were the shop keepers next door or across the street. I chalked the rudeness up to having had too many tourists. Dealing with the tourist trade requires a certain patience and I suspected the bar and shop keepers I interacted with had had enough. I really hope it had nothing to do with my limited spanish.
 
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I loved O'Cebreiro but, sadly, have to agree with the OP. I stayed at Casa Carolo, so no opinion on the Albergue. Service at the restaurants I went in was dismal;, but I have to say that often there was only one person checking in guests, serving drinks, taking orders, serving orders, it really seems like this is a town simply overwhelmed by visitors. If anything, the Pilgrim's Mass at 7pm was lovely and the town itself is beautiful. Would I say that it is a "must" overnight?...nope.
 
Stopped in 2008 in Ruitelan.
On a warm day we eventually had a 30 plus day and avoided O'Cebreiro.
Was fortunate after only 8km Laguna [a new alberque] had just opened....cold drink...lovely.
Was going to stay at hospital [ Alto de Polo] but after a wonderful soup for 2 euros and of course a beer we had the strength to reach ** Biduedo.
A new Casa Rural had just opened and magnificent room for 30 e/night and after sharing a drink in their beer garden with a french couple that had MMDD we shared the best meal in this village for the whole camino.
Just an old home with a wonderful dining room under the house.
The french knew because it catered for pilgrims with donkeys/horses.

No tourists in this tiny, pleasant hamlet.
 
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We have always stayed at the Albergue La Escuela in La Laguna, last village before O'Cebreiro. Anne
 
I've stayed in O'Cebreiro twice now, and am so glad I did. Sure, you might get some indifferent service, but the views from the top are magnificent. I loved just sitting there and enjoying being in the landscape after the climb uphill. I also loved the snippets I learned about the history of the place, Celtic, Roman and Christian. For me, it was a magical place. And then in 2008 as I left in the morning, there was a superb orange line of sunrise that appeared over the Galician hills, with cloud in the valleys below. Wonderful- truly the kind of stuff that made my Camino.
Margaret
 
We walked through O'Cebriero in 2012, just stopping to visit the church on a cold misty morning. We visited the little thatched shop and bought postcards for home and a few things for the grandkids. The man who ran the shop couldn't have been nicer and told me if I wanted to write the cards there he would post them later, he then gave me a biro to write them. We did not eat there so I cannot comment on any of that.
 
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The municipal albergue in Najera is far worse than O'Cebriero but the absolute worst, the pits, the place where galley slaves go to have it easy is the so called pilgrim pavillion, Os Chacotes just before Palas de Rei. I would rather sleep outside in the rain! Santa Maria de Carbajalas in Leon can be skipped as well.
 
Agree, Najera muni was AWFULL!!!!, but Najera was nice though
 
+150.000 pilgrims walk through Cebreiro every year, nothing is free anymore and the novelty has clearly worn off. We are just another euro for them and the Camino is just business as usual. Furthermore, I'm convinced that the day after the bones were found in 813 someone set up an inn and starting selling mulled wine to the first pilgrims.

That said, El Cebreiro rocks; beautiful place and local businesses are nice enough, as long as you are not expecting freebies and take it as it comes.
 
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
I never expect, nor ask for, freebies. Why should you?
 
nothing is free anymore and the novelty has clearly worn off. We are just another euro for them and the Camino is just business as usual.
I have always been grateful to the Spanish who provide services along the Camino. Pilgrims are notorious penny-pinchers, and many of them are very demanding. The revenue stream is seasonal, so merchants must weather the slow winter times to be there in the busy times. I am sure that they are reluctant to profit from their friends, but they may have discovered that their enemies do not patronize them.
 
Local cats are spoiled also! They refused to share my sardine, peanut, and hot sauce sandwich! Took forever to get someone to sell me a baguette...and place was not busy. As I sat there I was amazed how many "Hikers" arrived in taxis and vans. Believe it is a local scam to tell people that it is a difficult hike up hill just so people pay for a ride. Not very hard climb from valley, but walking after O'Ciebero was much steeper than expected--guidebook vertical scale makes one think it is flat afterwards and it is not.
 
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="wayfarer, post:We walked through O'Cebriero in 2012, just stopping to visit the church on a cold misty morning.

O'Cebreiro? . Then it is true that the Irish wanted to take over O Cebreiro.

Well, we can reach an agreement. What about taking Gal(icia)way as a compensation.:D
 
O Cebreiro, whatever it has become, is the mother of the camino as we know it.
Don Elias Valina, a homeboy, was parish priest there in the 1960s and 70s. Don Elias was a brilliant scholar who started studying the camino and what it once was to his village and the mountains and valleys around it. Elias was a sociologist/anthropologist, and a fine writer, very charismatic. His academic work led to him inspire a number of students and friends to re-discover the Camino Frances, which had fallen into history. Together with little groups of historians and faithful in Estella, Ponferrada, Palencia, and Galicia (and probably other places I forgot) they started painting yellow arrows, reclaiming the camino from asphalt and oblivion. They used paint cadged from road repair crews, thus the "safety yellow" color.
He wrote the first modern guide to the Camino Frances, using the strip maps we all know and love -- his was the guide I used way back in 1993!
Elias opened his family home to the pilgrims who trickled into town. What is now the municipal Albergue was his house. He operated on a donativo basis, and insisted on pilgrim attendance at the Mass next door (so much for "it's all YOUR camino!") A memorial bust is there today.
The first tour bus that pulled up, he gave everyone aboard a meal and a welcome. He invited them to worship, but he wouldn't let them see the "chapel of the miracle," because they had not sacrificed to get there. He told them, "You have turned the holy Way into a racetrack."
Don Elias died just at the dawn of the current camino renaissance. His family still lives in O Cebreiro.
You wonder what he would make of what it has become.
 
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Nine times have I climbed up to the mystic and mythic O Cebreiro; whether in sunshine, rain, or snow it is for me always a most special place.

During the middle ages due to the strong faith of one simple parishioner the wine and bread of the mass are said to have truly changed into Christ's blood and flesh. The church became famous and royalty sent priceless gifts. Today this small church is kept immaculate; it and the tiny village form a protected historic site.

Elias Valinas Sampedro
, the local priest who late last century revitalized the ideas of the camino with its network of supporting albergues and painted the now famous first yellow arrows which mark our way is buried here. You can see his photos in the cafe/restaurant still owned by his family which is nearest to the church; reprints of his now famous camino guide are also for sale in their shop.

Like Rebekah and all who love the camino I, too, worry about it's future while wondering what Valinas might feel when seeing hoards of casual tourists tramping along 'his' path? ...Long may the unique traditions of this very special place continue.

Margaret Meredith
 
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I never expect, nor ask for, freebies. Why should you?
never said i did, if the question was meant for me; there are, however, pilgrims who still may associate walking the Camino with free soup in the evening and locals offering you whatever fruit is in season... and yes, this did happen (on an occasion) on my first Camino in 1994.
 
Wasnt for you Jeffery, but more in general
 
Thank you, both Rebekah and Margaret, for reminding us of the modern renaissance of the Camino and of those who have contributed to its present availability and popularity.

And in doing so they have reinforced and underlined the fact that the camino is not, and should never be considered, as just some sort of "jolly"- albeit with some accompanying possible physical discomfort.

It carries far more import than that.

Those that think otherwise will find themselves spiritually tripped up.

Believe me.
 
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It cannot be the worst place when the Banda de Galicia shows up with the family and performs for an hour:

This place has the great cheese and honey, and the sometimes indifferent service...
 
I went through there one wet, chilly afternoon. Had a bowl of hot soup and warmed up by a fire in a little bar. The service wasn't so hot, the bar keep a tad surly but the soup was good and hot. The church was lovely. I was especially taken by the Pilgrim's Prayer on the wall there. I got one of those post cards and carried it all the way to hand deliver to a friend at home. I learned early on my first walk (like in SJPP) that it was a boost to the local economies and people were cashing in. Not so different a few hundred years ago. There were crooked inn keepers in cahoots with highway bandits. And some very spiritually guided folks who saw it as a sacred duty to care for pilgrims. And there was everything in between. Back in O'Cerebriero I saw some locals arriving in very expensive cars. "La crisis, la crisis". Heard that a lot. Guess what? There is a tiny minority getting filthy rich off the economic crisis. Thus is the way of the world. Going back to the really early days before Saint James and his legend were even born, think about the man and the credo he had followed. The legend says that he ultimately died because he believed in that message. When I walk in these footsteps my question to myself is: How can I be a better person today, what can I contribute today to make the world better?
Ha ha ha ha.... I'll try to remember that when I'm soaked to the bone, cold and hungry with no place to rest and mad as a hornet. Walking a pilgrimage allows me to embrace my humanity with all it's warts and defects. And what is the message? God loves us anyway... And if any of you are offended by the God word, that's your work.
 
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Fixed, I think.

Thanks falcon, that is pretty definitely the Venta Celta. I stayed there a few weeks ago. The rooms are around to the right and up the stairs. I had stayed there on a very early camino in the early 2000s and hadn't been back since. To my surprise, the same woman (a "transplant" from Santander) was the owner, though she now has three or four employees and was in and out a lot during the day. And yes, there is a lot of indifferent service, but a little chatting with them makes them human. And one of the cooks is actually pretty good, I thought, their daily special that day was a lamb stew of some sort and it was good.

When I stayed there the first time, she was a former pilgrim, she was in love with the camino, she was running the show, and she did a great fixed meal, I thought. Kitchen opened at 8. Huge ensalada, tortilla de patatas, and caldo gallego. And THE CHEESE. Great quality, plenty of food, served family style to whomever filled up the table. Now food is served to anyone at any time of the day. Kitchen is always open. I asked her why the changes, and she said the pilgrims demand it. I also remembered that she had told me that she was going to sell the business, yet here she was more than ten years later. Well, you know, she said, it's awful some times, but it's a good income. No former pilgrim anymore, not surprising, I guess.

And the Venta Celta is expanding -- she is the owner of the new grocery store in the thatched stone house across the street (across from their patio, so sort of out of town) and down a few steps. I don't at all fault anyone who is making business decisions on the camino for their own individual economic benefit, but I did have a much nicer time at the "old" Venta Celta.
 
Yes, Venta Celta is my favorite also.
 
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O Cebreiro remains one of my favorite memories of my Camino Frances. However, it is very normal for there to be diverse opinions about one's experiences. Doesn't make anyone wrong and doesn't influence me to change my opinion. I will still hold fondly the memories of the view, the nice people, the church with the Pilgrim's Prayer that was so inspirational at just the right time, reading some of the history about Don Elias Valina on the sculpture honoring him outside the church, my first taste of the wonderful Galician soup, the unique architecture, the wine and cheese, the photos overlooking the valley, etc. Yes, there was a brief period of tour buses, but it was unable to overcome all of the things that I "took" from this wonderful village. Hope if someone has had a bad experience that they will give it at least one more try.
 
BTW, here is a shot of the new grocery store owned by Venta Celta. It's not immediately visible from the town, but signage points you across the road and down the stairs. It's very nice actually. O Cebreiro competition is heating up in a new direction, now there are at least two or three places selling groceries.

Venta Celta store.jpg
 
I agree that some of the best food and service was on the Camino in O Cebreiro. It is true that pilgrim has a different experience. We stayed at the public aubergue in O'Cebreiro last September. The person that checked us in was not so welcoming, but the place was nice.
 
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I enjoyed this thread, both the positive and negative comments. I have only one point to remind my fellow pilgrims of. It is Rule Three of "The Camino Rules"
...
3. A tourist complains, while a pilgrim is grateful...
...

If you have had a problem with O'Cebreiro, simply arrange your walk to stay slightly before or after this celebrated place as others have done. Stop for a meal, a Mass, or just a coffee. Then continue on your pilgrimage. On my first Camino, I stayed in the attic of a small pension in O'Cebreiro. On my second Camino, the weather was so bad, and accommodations non-existant that I chose to walk further, to the next available lodging. This of course, points to Rule One of "The Camino Rules:"

1. The Camino provides...
...

I hope this helps.
 
O Cebriero must surely be the worst possible place to stay on the Frances. Having simply walked through last year, weather and mileage made stopping here this year necessary. I have never anywhere experienced such indifferent and downright abominably rude behaviour. Not just in one bar but in several. Waitresses deliberately pretending not to hear, coffee prices changing from 11am to 12am, clearly being made up on the spur of the moment. We walked out of one restaurant because we refused to give them our service after the way they treated us. Pilgrims are clearly considered nothing but a nuisance and treated appallingly. The Albergue is pretty basic ( Yes I know it's a typical Xunta but that's not the point ). Worst of all everything for miles around is booked out. I didn't experience this last year when at the same time of year I had no bed problems at all. It's only my personal opinion - but give this place a wide berth.
Stayed in O O'Cebreiro Oct 2013 – bed at the municipal Alberque it was ok , a large room at bit crowded, beds close together ,however it was clean and functional

But the scenery is marvellous, the whole area has the alpine feel as it is high in the mountains.

Getting back to the subject of meals, I had a decent dinner with wine in a local restaurant for about 12/13 euros. I had a problem next morning trying to get breakfast in a different café by the road front, the person inside the counter just ignored me but after a long wait eventually I was served.
 
Interesting post. I walked through O'Cebreiro this June. As I said in my post home about the bar where I had breakfast, "tavern was charming, the innkeeper was not." Nor were the shop keepers next door or across the street. I chalked the rudeness up to having had too many tourists. Dealing with the tourist trade requires a certain patience and I suspected the bar and shop keepers I interacted with had had enough. I really hope it had nothing to do with my limited spanish.

I stayed in La Faba and made the ascent into O'Cebreiro the next morning and experienced the same thing on my breakfast stop.
I still think O'Cebreiro is a charming little town, I even bought a crepe from the old lady on the way out of town.
 
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The crepe lady used to be in Fonfria. Has she moved to a better location?

Maybe it was Fonfria, you kind of lose track of the towns you pass through.
 
Maybe it was Fonfria, you kind of lose track of the towns you pass through.
The crepe lady used to be in Fonfria. Has she moved to a better location?

I remember her as being in Fonfría, too, but last month when I walked through I didn´t see her. I asked a few people later on if they had seen her, but no sightings. I think the last time I saw her was in 2006, has she been seen recently? Buen camino, Laurie
 
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The crepe lady used to be in Fonfria. Has she moved to a better location?
Maybe it was Fonfria, you kind of lose track of the towns you pass through.
Thanks for this. I too, could not remember the name of that little town. As I recall, there are two Camino routes through this little pueblo; one in front of the establishments (parallel to the road) and the other at the back of the establishments. We went along the back route and that is where we ran into the crepe lady - she asked for a donativo; we were going to give something anyway. Later in Triacastela, we ran into a Spanish woman who had heard about the crepe lady and had been looking out for her. She was very disappointed to have missed her - it turned out this woman had used the 'front' route when she passed through Fonfria.

It was a lovely treat, running into the crepe lady.
 
I remember her as being in Fonfría, too, but last month when I walked through I didn´t see her. I asked a few people later on if they had seen her, but no sightings. I think the last time I saw her was in 2006, has she been seen recently? Buen camino, Laurie
We saw her in May '13.
 
My experience in O Cebreiro was wonderful. I pretty much ignored the tourists, and went straight in to the church where I had TWO Camino moments that I will never forget. Got a warm attic room over the gift shop across from the church - very nice folks - I was the first one to arrive so got my pick of the three rooms. Took clothes down to the laundry / store and had clean, warm things 90 minutes later - and shopped for cold meds in the store - also a very nice lady helped me there. Dinner across the way was tasty, but the service was ehmm, well, the food was hot and good! And the sunset was fabulous!! On the other side of the road - coming from La Faba & Laguna - the view to where I had been six days before was just as fabulous! I'll stop there again this fall.
Buen Camino a todos ~
Terry
 
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Curious--any one see any wildlife in the area? Prior to walking up the hill to "O", I stopped in a café for coffee. Café walls were filled with pictures of local hunters with wild boars. Some pictures had 10 or more boars in the picture. Assume they were hunted on the local hillsides.
 
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Curious--any one see any wildlife in the area? Prior to walking up the hill to "O", I stopped in a café for coffee. Café walls were filled with pictures of local hunters with wild boars. Some pictures had 10 or more boars in the picture. Assume they were hunted on the local hillsides.

Interesting that I noted the same type of wild boar hunting photos along the VdlP last year. Every cafe and shop seemed to have them
Also, coat hooks, hat racks and lamps made from wild pig trotters.

Never saw a wild pig...but lots of huge hogs on farms as I passed by.
 
and of course, as alluded to in earlier posts, O'Cebreiro is said to have been home to that miracle:

A priest whose faith was shaky at the time, a wintry Sunday morning. Only one man risked the dangerous trek up to the church building. (which by the way, was built because of the Camino.) As the priest lifted the cup and patin, he thought, "Why did this guy put himself at risk just for some bread and wine?" And at that moment, the elements turned into blood and flesh. (Literally.)

the story makes the location one of the gems of the camino
 
Agree, Najera muni was AWFULL!!!!, but Najera was nice though
I really enjoyed the irish host at the Najera muni...but there are just too many beds in that room and not ceiling fans! Oh the snoring, tossing and turning, early morning risers, and how many toilets? 3 shower stalls for the women?
Good people and great location tho.
But after that evening I started to really check out the alberguie before staying in them. So many options available.
 
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DSCF2315.JPG Although the Albergue was only OK and I can't remember the food, O Cebreiro was a highlight! We were there on a cold April day. It was rainy, foggy and totally atmospheric. Mass at the church was lovely and we lit a candle there for our daughter who first told us about the Camino and who loves O Cebreiro. And then we sat around one of the bars and talked and sang and drank vino tinto and talked and sang ..... This is one of my favorite pictures of our walk -- friends bought a guitar in Leon and were taking turns carrying it. As I said, we were just having such a wonderful time. The man in the picture is either a Spanish peregrino or a local (we never did figure it out!). He borrowed the guitar and was serenading one of our friends.
 
I though O Cebreiro sucked both times I did the Camino. If at all possible I would bypass it. The second time I was there some of the peregrinos in the municipal albergue got ripped off. Money stolen. Seemed like it was the kick-off point for a lot of tourist peregrinos.
 
Of course the views in Cebreiro are amazing but I find the bad vibes emanating from cafe/restaurant staff imposible to ignore. Surly, unsmiling service, bordering on rude.
Bad experience from the lady checking me in to municipla albergue ... she barked some orders to me in Spanish then got annoyed when I didn't understand.
I'll just keep on walking next time...
 
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Surly, unsmiling, bordering on rude ... people getting annoyed when you don't understand ... Funnily enough, I hear a lot of people who work on the camino say the same thing about pilgrims! I have walked certain stretches including in Galicia many times, stop in many of the same places and have gotten to know some of the people a bit over the years. They all say the same thing - (some of) the pilgrims are turning into demanding tourists and complain about everything. At one place the hospitalero worried he hadn't received our luggage; when we told him we only had the packs on our backs, he immediately shook our hands, gave us a cold drink and upgraded our room! I think some of the people working on the camino see that many pilgrims don't even bother carrying their own stuff or walking all the 'boring bits', so why should they make an effort? Their working day is hard enough as it is.

Yes, during the day O Cebreiro can be full of tourist buses, and no wonder they get sick of them at times, but after the tourist buses have gone and only the locals and pilgrims who are staying the night are left, it's still a magical place. Oh and the CHEESE!
 
Stayed overnight twice, both in June. Don't particularly recall the surly service, but remember, it is not just a pilgrim stop, but also gets a lot of conventional tourists. But here's the reason to stop there--I've said this on the forum before: The Pilgrim's Mass was a highlight of my Camino last year. A non-religious, non-spiritual cynical guy like me was moved to tears. I still don't understand it. There's just something wonderful that happens in that Pilgrim's Mass.
 
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Walked into town around lunch time May last year all fogged out, no views. Lunch at the bar on the left before booking into the Municipal Albergue, the middle aged women behind the bar a bit indifferent but had a pot of soup ready to go..

Ended with a cold shower after all the early book ins rushed for a wash, bought some groceries at the thatched store and then 4 pints at the bar on the right(down a couple of steps) as you leave the church and head towards the Albergue. Beers were served quickly, three ladies at end of bar talking while I reflected on the day's walk. Gave a wave to them as I left and said thanks and they waved back, apart from the fog no real worries.
 
I've stayed at O Cebreiro twice. The first time I slept on the floor in front of the fireplace in the common room at the inn which was full (there was only one and no albergue). It was really a magical experience and made me feel like a medieval pilgrim.

The second time was about three years ago in the Xunta albergue. It was my first experience in a Xunta albergue and I will admit that my teenage son found the showers (with no doors or curtains) a bit of a challenge. The town had changed, too - full of tourist buses and souvenir shops. I had remembered it being full of pallozas and, on the day we arrived, I only saw one and it had been turned into a museum. But I don't remember the dinner or service being particularly bad by camino standards.

When we left early the next morning in the Galician mist, before the souvenir shops had opened, I discovered the little side street of pallozas I had missed the day before. O Cebreiro was looking much more like what I remembered.
 
O´Cebreiro is the first of only two miserable stays that I´ve ever had on any camino.
I came grateful to the top after ending an agonizing rainy day where the ascent was like going up an extended stairwell, where ten lorries had dumped their rubble down the shaft and started the water coming as well.

The hospitalero at the municipal declared the place full. I said I was willing to sleep anywhere, on the floor, under a table, but no....
When a passer by stated the top floor was still unopened, I inquired if this could be opened, I would do chores if it needed attention , but no....

It was when he started shouting as if if I was an idiot school boy, I started to fluster; I was tired, cold, I needed a shower and to rid of my wet clothes.
Turned out the only place I could stay was at a 44 euro place that his wife apparently owned (!!)
Being still furious, I had to borrow around to collect the cash needed, too late and too dark to go further, or to down to the German hostel that I had passed...

At last I collected what money and loose change I had and booked the room, she, the wife, was visibly uncomfortable when I told the story.
At the restaurant/café, very late, all I could afford was a scalding hot Caldo Gallego and spring water, as the now infamous Hospitalero stepped in and tried to chat up the young waitress, but she wasn´t having any of the smirking. My only satisfaction at the moment was burning my evil gaze into his back and hoping he was tossing and turning in the night himself!!

The expensive room had a minimum of hot water, only electric heating for one hour and the coldest stone building that I have ever slept in, I felt colder than a well diggers a****.
Needless to say, I would have loved a warm and cosy dormitory and would have suffered any number of three part harmony chorus of Roncadores !

- I agree with t2andreo, that only tourist will complain, but here I could not communicate and whether it was due to the roof actually having been caving in, or that he was just happily indifferent, I shall never know, but I have really, really tried to forgive him, but I still cannot....

On the evening however, I was warmed at the Caldo Gallego and then met Jimmy for a chin wag into the small hours, and whose tale of exile from the States touched me and I still remember.

Concluding: - here the Camino did not provide, but it persisted.....I was thouroughly being tested...
 
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A selection of Camino Jewellery
The Xunta albergue in O Cebreiro is only one of two albergues on my "do not stay again" list after ~125 days on the Camino. I've stayed in albergues with worse facilities but with warm hospitaleros that made up for it.
 
I enjoyed the town and the Sunday Mass. The tourists, I expected. The surprise was just how big a deal it is for the Birth of St. John (had I known, I would have stayed in other lodging than the xunta so I could stay out late).

I recall my issue being the rising hordes of pilgrims . . . like the crew drinking until 2am and jumping over bowls with paper they lit on fire in the kitchen, then coming into the dorm as quietly as you would expect a bunch of drunks trying to be quiet . . . like the lady in that group from the kitchen who drunk-stripped to nothing and climbed up the ladder into the top bunk (my 15 year old son got an eyeful that night!) . . . like the drunk pilgrim yelling at the top of his lungs at 3am to wake the snorer who was keeping him awake.

That was when I realized the final leg of the Camino wasn't a test of physical endurance, it was a test of charity.
 
I have had some of the best food and service on the Camino in O Cebreiro. Each pilgrim has a different experience.
Well said!
 
€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
I've never stayed there, so cannot say one way or the other. But I can say from experience that the albergues in La Faba and Fonfria are really wonderful alternatives. And that the CR at Biduedo was OK, too, though a bit damp. (The way is much less crowded if you stay in the places that the guides put in the middle of their stages. And the drunken party animals do not tend to stay in tiny pueblos without places to drink.)
 
I stayed in O Cebreiro four times, in different places, never in the albergue though.
Of course it is touristic but once the day tourists go, it’s fine (I thought).
The last time I stayed there, all the pilgrims attending were given a little stone at Mass, with a yellow arrow painted on it. A lovely memory that has pride of place at home 🙂
 
O´Cebreiro is the first of only two miserable stays that I´ve ever had on any camino.
I came grateful to the top after ending an agonizing rainy day where the ascent was like going up an extended stairwell, where ten lorries had dumped their rubble down the shaft and started the water coming as well.

The hospitalero at the municipal declared the place full. I said I was willing to sleep anywhere, on the floor, under a table, but no....
When a passer by stated the top floor was still unopened, I inquired if this could be opened, I would do chores if it needed attention , but no....

It was when he started shouting as if if I was an idiot school boy, I started to fluster; I was tired, cold, I needed a shower and to rid of my wet clothes.
Turned out the only place I could stay was at a 44 euro place that his wife apparently owned (!!)
Being still furious, I had to borrow around to collect the cash needed, too late and too dark to go further, or to down to the German hostel that I had passed...

At last I collected what money and loose change I had and booked the room, she, the wife, was visibly uncomfortable when I told the story.
At the restaurant/café, very late, all I could afford was a scalding hot Caldo Gallego and spring water, as the now infamous Hospitalero stepped in and tried to chat up the young waitress, but she wasn´t having any of the smirking. My only satisfaction at the moment was burning my evil gaze into his back and hoping he was tossing and turning in the night himself!!

The expensive room had a minimum of hot water, only electric heating for one hour and the coldest stone building that I have ever slept in, I felt colder than a well diggers a****.
Needless to say, I would have loved a warm and cosy dormitory and would have suffered any number of three part harmony chorus of Roncadores !

- I agree with t2andreo, that only tourist will complain, but here I could not communicate and whether it was due to the roof actually having been caving in, or that he was just happily indifferent, I shall never know, but I have really, really tried to forgive him, but I still cannot....

On the evening however, I was warmed at the Caldo Gallego and then met Jimmy for a chin wag into the small hours, and whose tale of exile from the States touched me and I still remember.

Concluding: - here the Camino did not provide, but it persisted.....I was thouroughly being tested...
Usually I don’t have much sympathy for people who write about their hardships on the Camino, but you have my sympathy here. Points for trying to forgive the hospitalero.
 
Technical backpack for day trips with backpack cover and internal compartment for the hydration bladder. Ideal daypack for excursions where we need a medium capacity backpack. The back with Air Flow System creates large air channels that will keep our back as cool as possible.

€83,-

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