Camino Primitivo 2012: Grandas de Salime to Castro

6kms:
We left Grandas de Salime to walk the short distance to Castro, where we had phoned ahead for beds in the private albergue. Looking back we could still see Buspol dominating the skyline beyond Grandas. There was mixed track and road walking to Cereijeira, 3kms along the Camino, where we stopped at the Bar Federico for a coffee. It was good walking too after this, with the Camino well signed along tracks, wet in places after earlier bad weather but passable.
Arriving at the albergue at 11.30, and climbing over the dog to get through the door, we were told that the museum opens for a time, then closes for the conducted tour round the castro (hill fort) itself. We left our packs in the main room as we were so early, and walked up the hill arriving at the museum at 12.00. This gave us time to look around before our guide took us over to the castro (behind locked gates) Excavation and preservation work is ongoing and our guide was very informative and enthusiastic. He then took us back down to the albergue where a room, and menu del dia, were ready for us.
The albergue has 4 rooms, each with 2 double bunks, and your shower/toilet is colour coded to your room. Very effective. We had the red room to ourselves, and the heating was on as it has been everywhere so far. Although it appears grim from the outside it is lovely inside.There were 6 more pilgrims who arrived during the afternoon, by which time it was raining. We were glad we had seen the castro in the morning! The six were of varying nationalities but included 2 from Poland and 2 Germans. Although we had eaten at lunchtime they invited us to join them when they had their evening meal and we had our lighter supper. We communicated in a mixture of English, Spanish, Polish and German, with various folk translating in turn for the benefit of others. They said that Berducedo had been full the previous night (both albergues) and they and others had walked through to the albergue at La Mesa.
We enjoyed the company (and were later glad to see the Polish couple in Cadabo near the albergue). It was raining hard so further walking round the village wasn't an option and we spent the evening talking.