Priscillian said:
(P.S. Monte de Gozo "Albergue" is enough to depress anyone.)
Actually, I thoroughly enjoyed two nights staying here!!! The first night, we hadn't intended to stay, but rather to walk on into Santiago from Brea. However, it turned out to be a very hard wet day's walking from Brea, and when we reached Monte de Gozo the mist was so thick we could barely see the path ahead, let alone find the albergue. We decided that enough was enough, and we would stop off at Monte de Gozo for the night, then walk into Santiago fresh in the morning.
We were greeted in a very friendly manner by Manuel, the hospitalero, and it was a pleasant surprise, after so many large dorms, to find that we were in spacious eight bedded rooms (four bunks.) There was plenty of hot water. It was also a 'reunion' place where we re-met other people we had met walking along the way.
But best of all was the atmosphere amongst the pilgrims. There was a kind of joyful expectancy, as we all knew that 'tomorrow' we would be standing in front of the Cathedral in Santiago.
We were allowed to leave our large backpacks at the albergue, and for our last day of walking, we used only a day pack. What luxury!!! When I lined up at the Pilgrim's Office for my Compostela, I ended up being just behind a French couple I had shared the room with at Monte de Gozo. They knew I had walked all the way from Le Puy, and when they reached the front, they pushed me in front of them, as a sort of acknowledgment of what I had done.
At the end of that day in Santiago, no longer being pilgrims on the journey, we returned to Monte de Gozo by bus!! Then we used the wonderful laundry to clean up all our gear, after which I decided the stains on my main t-shirt were irremovable and I threw it gleefully in the bin...
That second night in Monte I have to admit I was a bit fearful for my sleep, as several large groups of Spanish young people arrived for the night. However, you could 'guess' that part of the talk they were given by their leaders was that they needed to be considerate of other pilgrims, some of whom had walked a long way. Come 10pm, these exuberant, lovely young people were suddenly quiet and all in bed. Next day, I enjoyed seeing some of them sitting in the sanctuary area during Mass, taking an active part in what was happening.
Margaret