Samos

[Jack Christensen]

Although I didn't overnight at Samos, I visited it on my walk in 2001.  What
an amazing place.  As I talked with the guide, I discovered that there were
only 18 brothers living there.  I must have supported hundreds when it was
built.
Jack

-----Original Message-----
From: Road to Santiago Pilgrimage [mailto:GOCAMINOapete.uri.edu]On
Behalf Of Sue Kenney
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2004 10:31 AM
To: GOCAMINOapete.uri.edu
Subject: Samos


Richard...yes I stayed at Samos and you are right it was bone chilling cold
and damp. To this day when I get cold it triggers a link in my memory back
to the night I slept there. There was no hot water and no heat. It was
December and it went below zero at night.

I arrived with another pilgrim just before 7PM and we were informed that
vespers were at 7. There were 6 or 7 Brothers who participated in the
vespers at the chapel in the monestary and only 4 pilgrims. I remember the
beautiful paintings on the walls of the dark hallway to the chapel. I
believe part of the monestary was built in the 6th century.

Partway through the evening the Swiss pilgrim left. We saw him later that
morning sitting near a building meditating. I wondered if it was actually
warmer outside.

Thanks for memories.
Sue

Richard Ferguson wrote:

> I had the same experience, not taking the road route out of Leon.  I had
started in Leon, gotten way off route, only getting back on the "other
route" at Chozas de Abajo.  I spent the night in Mazarife, but stayed at a
kind of Bed and Breakfast because the refugio was kind of trashed and no one
else was there.  It was a rough start.   I did not meet  my first pilgrim
until I was at the bridge at Hopital de Orbigo, after two days of walking!
I remember talking to the pilgrims at the bridge, and I must have seemed
upset, since one pilgrim told me "Animo!  Estas aqui!".  (Take heart, you
are here!).  Everything started to look up from Orbigo on.
>
> Relative to the crowds, the vast majority of the people stay on the usual
route, and any variation offers the oportunity for a little solitude.  I
went to Samos before I went to Sarria, and saw relatively few pilgrims on
that route variation, although I did walk with one couple for a few km.
There were quite a few pilgrims in the refugio at Samos, but that is one
cold refugio.
>
> Richard