Yesterday sometime in the wee hours I lay sleeping in my bunk bed dreaming that a male voice was chanting over and over:, Buongiorno, Buenos Dias, Señores.....Buongiorno, Buenos Dias, Señores... The voice was getting closer and louder, and I woke up just a moment before the door to our dorm room opened and a hand reached inside and flipped on the light. Then the chanting voice, Buongiorno, Buenos Dias, Señores, continued down the hall. It was one of our helpful Italian hospitalieros giving us a friendly 6:10 am wake-up call. I'm glad he did. Otherwise I don't know how long I'd have slept in yesterday morning. We walked 17 kilometers yesterday from Ponferrada to Cacabelos. We saw a new style of Camino marker along the way, ...along with the good old ones. The high point of our walk today, something we'd been looking forward to for days now, was a visit to the pastry shop in the village of Columbrianos. We happened to discover this wonderful little spot on our last Camino and decided it had the best pastries on the Camino if not in all Spain, or maybe even the whole world, the pastries we had there were that good. Now we were looking forward to reliving the moment. And we did. The pastry shop at Columbrianos. It was hard to choose from among all the yummy possibilities, though we settled on cream puffs and a vanilla éclaire - a vanilla eclaire, what a concept! - to share. We ate our pastries on a bench in a little square across from the shop. The Camino passed by our bench, so we told every pilgrim who passed by about the best pastries on the Camino in the little shop on the square. We sent that shop at least six pilgrim customers. After we finished our first round of pastries we decided that we needed one more vanilla éclaire to share, so back to the shop I went to procure us another. 'Twas a little taste of heaven. As we approached the town of Cacabelos we began seeing advertisement signs for a hostel called La Gallega with albergue beds as well for 10€ each, which is on the pricey side for an albergue bed, but then usually albergues tacked on to hostels or hotels have really nice dorm rooms and facilities, plus this place advertised a bar and restaurant as well, so we decided to try La Gallega. The reception and restaurant/bar area of the place looked nice, so we paid our 20€ for which we ended up stuck on the top bunks in the smallest, most cramped and squished-in dorm room, I swear, on the Camino. I'd venture to say that this room was built as a single hostel room, with a private bathroom, into which three bunk beds were later shoe-horned. Now, it's hard explain why a common bathroom out int the hall with two shower stalls, two toilet stalls and two sinks works better for 20 people than one all-in-one bathroom attached to a room works for six, but it does. But to give credit where it's due, the beds were comfy, the food at the restaurant was good, ...and our laundry came out dry.
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Yesterday morning, as there was no water at the albergue in Acebo with which to brush teeth, wash up, or do much of anything else one usually does in the morning, we were back out on the Camino before 7 am. In this part of Spain at this time of the year the sun doesn't rise until 8 am, and then the sky brightens up quickly, click by click. But at 7 o,clock it was still pitch dark outside, and as we were deep in the mountains and far from any city lights the sky was black and filled with the most and brightest stars I ever remember seeing. But walking on the Camino in the dark by the light of one's flashlight is dangerous. Luckily during the darkest time we were walking along a road and it wasn't until well after sun up that we encountered for the first time on this trip my old nemesis, the Wretched Stones. But these were far from the worst Wretched Stones we'll encounter on the Caminio; the worst are yet to come when we reach the mountains of Galicia. We spent about 3 1/2 hours descending the mountain and negotiating the stones until we reached the pretty valley town of Molinaseca, ...where we finally stopped for breakfast. In the bar where we stopped we met two young pilgrims, a German boy and an Israeli girl, who'd also spent the evening before in Acebo but at an albergue in a room in the town church. When we told them our alberge in Acebo had no water during the night or early morning they said that their albergue had had no water during that time either and that there was a sign in their albergue explaining that the water was turned off in the town from 11 pm every night until, well whatever time they turn it back on. So I guess the Albergue Meson El Acebo is off the hook for turning off the water. But at least they could have let us know After breakfast we walked along the highway and through small towns, ,..a total of 17 kilometers for the day, to the city of Ponferrada, ...where we stayed at the Albergue San Nicolas de Flüe, a big, lovely albergue sponsored by a religious order and run by a group of devoted Italian volunteer hospitalieros. The albergue had a nice big kitchen and dining room so at dinner time many of the young pilgrims bought food and cooked and ate dinner together. We were put into a nice but crowded room with 2 bunk beds that we shared with a Canadian girl who'd taken a vow of silence while on the Camino and a friendly middle-aged Spaniard with a loud, booming voice who was so portly and tall that he took up most of the space in our small room. After we were settled in, showered, and had given our clothes to the laundry service we were craving some nourishment so we walked to a bar in town where we ordered salads to tide us over and whiled away a couple of hours. Then it was time for dinner so we left the bar to go search out a restaurant. Now, I've come to a conclusion about the Spanish people: they're not so much into chowing down as they are into snacking on tapas -little snacks - which may be why thery're so slim and trim. I think this must be especially true of the Ponferradans, as we walked up one block and down another in search of a restaurant and all we could find was one tapas bar after another. We were on the verge of giving up our quest for a hearty meal when we finally came upon a restaurant which turned out to be sort of a Spanish version of Chuck E. Cheese, with a big play room full of toys, art supplies, cartoons, one of those cages full of little plastic balls, and, of course, children. It delightful being around all these little ones and we found ourselves thinking of our two little grand daughters and how much they would love this place. I don't think Chuck E. Cheese serves wine, though. After dinner we walked through the city back to the albergue. Though Ponferrada is famous for its magnificent castle built during the Middle Ages by the Knights Templar, .....this city has a serious graffiti problem. It's everywhere, and there's hardly a building, structure, or wall that isn't marred by spray paint, which gives what would otherwise be a beautiful city a run-down look and a sinister feel.
Of course, as s true of any city infected with spray-paint graffiti, Ponferrasa's defacement can only be a symptom of some deep and serious social problems. Yesterday we walked 16.5 kilometers from Rabanal del Camino to Acebo. It was a day of steep rocky paths, ...and beautiful mountain vistas. It was late, close to 6 pm when we arrived in Acebo, and we worried over whether at that hour we'd still be able to find beds. We did, at the Meson El Acebo. But unfortunately by the time we arrived all that was left in the close, crowded dorm room were a couple of 7€ top bunks. Now, I've slept in albergue top bunks before, but the one I got was so close to the next bed that if I'd weighed one pound more I wouldn't have been able to squash myself between the beds and squeeze up the ladder. Still, crowded bunk beds was the least problem at the Meson El Acebo. Sometime before 12:30 am, when I got up to use the bathroom, the water had been turned off in the albergue. It was still off when I woke up this morning at 5.50 am, my usual wake-up time. I shook Tom awake and asked him whether he wanted to wait around and see if the water came back on or leave in case the water didn't come back before the rest of the pilgrims woke up. We decided to bolt. Later this morning on the Camino we met up with some other pilgrims who'd been at our albergue. and they said the water was still off when they left at 7:30. I'd say the Meson El Acebo has some 'splainin' to do. But yesterday, though we covered only 16.5 k's, was a long day, and not only because of the rough trail; it was because we spent so much time stopping to converse with people along the way. Our first long stop came before we even left Rabanal del Camino and evolved over breakfast at the bar next to the albergue, Posada El Tesin, where we'd eaten dinner the night before.. We got into a conversation with the friendly, hard-working young barkeepers, Alba, whose parents own the bar, and her fiancé Hector. Hector and Alba. Alba told us that she and Hector are close to their dream of opening their own hostel in town. They have their location and their plan - their hostel will be handicapped-acessible - but Alba had one concern for which she solicited our opinion. She and Hector want to call their hostel Tierra Salvage - Wild Earth - but were wondering if we thought that was a good name, as her parents didn't think it was. A young Austrailian pilgrim in the bar thought it was a wonderful name and said that she would choose their hostel on the basis of its lovely name alone. I told Alba that she and Hector should follow their hearts on naming their hostel, and if Tierra Salvage called to their hearts, well, they should go for it. Besides, I added, it wouldn't really matter to their guests what the name of their hostel was; if people enjoyed their stayther then they'd spread a good word, the hostel would get a good reputation and they would succeed. In the meantime here's the information Alba gave me on their hopefully soon up-and-running new rural hostel: Tierra Salvage (maybe) Calle Del Medio, 4 Rabanal del Camino Spain I wish Alba and Hector the best. Though we were now an hour behind schedule we ended up taking another extra-long rest stop, which happened when we stopped for lunch in a cafe in the town of Foncebadon, ....where we got into several interesting discussions of history and politics with several German pilgrims. After lunch, now two hours behind, we continued our climb up the mountain path that would bring us to the highest point on the Camino, Punto Alto, at 4,970 feet. But a few kilometers before Punto Alto we reached La Cruz de Ferro, an iron cross on a high wooden pole that sits atop a hill of stones Some pilgrims carry with them along the Camino a stone representing a special prayer or intention, and when they reach La Cruz de Ferro they place their stone on the hill with the rest of the prayer-stones. I didn't carry a stone with me - though sometimes it feels as though I'm carrying a whole backpack full - but I picked up 9 stones from the from the ground around the hill: one for each of my four children, one for each of my three sons-in-law, one for each of my two grandchildren. I then added my stones to the hill beneath the cross with a prayer for well-being and peace of mind for each of my loved ones Then I saw on the ground a stone in the shape of a heart.. I added it to others with a prayer for my mate and me. We had one more stop along the way, but this time a brief one. We had to spend a few minutes in Manjarin, a colorful Camino town with a population of 1.. The guide book said that there was a pilgrim albergue in the town. I managed to meet the town's sole resident, a hippy-looking gent around my age. When I asked him if he owned the albergue he told me that it wasn't an albergue, it was a redugio, a refuge, and that he was a Templar, a protector of pilgrims. He explained that he ran his refugio on pilgrim donations. The money he received from today's pilgrims he would use to provide food for tomorrow's. And I thought, now there was a person who'd found his life's calling.
So, we survived yesterday's wet-laundry drama, our clothes dried well enough pinned to our backs as we walked in the sun, and we made it across the 20 kilometers and up the mountainside from Astorga to Rabanal del Camino. The remnants of an ancient pilgrim hospital At the hillside town of Rabanal del Camino we stayed at the pretty little albergue La Senda. ....where for 7€ each we shared a bright, cheery room ....with 3 Spaniards and a lovely, lively university professor of biochemistry from Rio de Janiero who spoke impeccable conversational and technical English. She was biking the Camino before going to Lisbon next week where she'll be on the faculty selection committee at the university there. The albergue living room was warm and homey, with a fire in the fireplace and bowls of lucious local grapes on the table for the pilgrims to munch on. We had dinner in the bar next door, ...with our Brazilian room mate and an American girl who taught World History in an inner city high school in San Francisco. We all hit it off so well that we talked and laughed for almost two hours. Tom and I were wishing that we could have these two pilgrims as our dinner companions every night. There's a chance we may meet up with the young high school teacher again some time down the road, but our university professor friend is a biker, and so has already left us walking pilgrims far behind. After dinner Tom and I returned to our albergue where we joined some of our fellow pilgrims who'd gathered in the living room to sit around the warm fire, chat, and munch on grapes. It was really nice.
But, alas, I fear we may have run into a patch of bad Laundry Karma, for that night the clothes that I'd given to the hospitaliero to wash and dry came back damp. But in the end it was all good, since we had all night for them to dry. Yesterday we walked about 17 kilometers -about 10 miles - from Hospital de Órbigo to Astorga through intermittent rain and sun,.. ....and copious mud After we left our albergue we walked a few blocks through Hospital de Órbigo until we found a place open for breakfast, the bar of the hostel Don Suero de Quiñones. It was a cute place, ...but for our breakfast of two slices of toast each with butter and jam, a coffee, a tea, and two OJ's our bill was 12€-about $13.80! Talk about high Way robbery! Now and then on the Camino one comes across pilgrim graffiti. Today we saw this: Though there are pilgrims who choose to walk a silent day once in a while, I wouldn't say that real pilgrims walk in silence. However real pilgrims don't sing or whistle while on the Camino, or play their music so loud that other people can hear it, or walk in big yakking, singing groups with their fellow bus tourists. Except that once in a while they do. But most of the time the Camino is a quiet enough place where one can find as much solitude or sociability as one wishes. On the hill above the city of Astorga we met a couple of friendly Spanish biker dudes from Granada who took our picture for us and we took theirs as well. Pilgrims place rocks that they've picked up and carried along the way and place them at the foot of the cross with a prayer or special intention. When we arrived in Astorga, a city known for its cathedral, ....and its Neo-Gothic architecture of its Bishop's Residence, ...we headed for the albergue San Xavier. ...a cute, cozy rustic-looking place with a pretty court yard, ....and a summer-camp kind of feel. The sink, shower, and commode facilities were co-ed but plentiful, ..though the shower was the kind where you press a button and get a 15 seconds of water - cold - then you have to press the button again for 15 more seconds of cold water. But no matter, we were happy campers. Until the laundry crisis. After we'd showered and settled in I'd handed our dirty clothes and 8€ to the young hospitalero to wash and dry for us. Actually, 8€ was a bit on the expensive side, as most albergue laundry services run about 6€. In fact this albergue was a bit on the high side, 9€ per bed, for as basic as it was. But it was all good. After a great 3-course dinner with wine for 10€ each at a little bar we found called El Salvadore, I ...we returned around 9 pm to the albergue.
On the way to our dorm I swung by reception to pick up our laundry. It wasn't done yet. As lights-out was at 10 pm I returned to reception at 9:55 and asked the young hospitaliero if my laundry was ready. An aw, shoot! expression flashed across his face and he told me not to worry, as soon as my laundry was done he'd bring it to my room and set it next to my bed. When I woke up this morning my laundry was not sitting next to my bed. I returned to reception but there was no one there. I grabbed my flashlight and went outside into the dark courtyard, wandering in the direction I'd seen the hospitaliero taking the laundry the day before. In the corner of the courtyard I saw a washer and dryer. On top of the dryer was my laundry bag and inside the dryer was my wet laundry. I pressed the "start" button on the dryer and by the light of my flashlight noticed a plastic tub full of wet laundry on top of the washer, presumably the clothes of the poor pilgrim whose wash was next in line to be dried after mine. I went back inside the albergue and after about 20 minutes I returned to the courtyard to check on my laundry. Another young hospitaliero, a different youngster than the one who'd been on duty yesterday, was loading the next batch of wet laundry into the dryer, while mine was now in my laundry bag. It was still wet. "No, it's not wet," said the hospitaliero, "It's just cold from being outside." However he capitulated to my insistence that my laundry was still wet, pulled the other pilgrim's laundry from the dryer and put mine back in. I went back inside the albergue, paced around for about 10 minutes, then wandered back out into the courtyard. My wet laundry was back in my bag and the next load was in the dryer. This time I capitulated and brought my laundry into the albergue, hanging our clothes over chairs in the common room, as if I thought they'd dry in the brief time we had before we'd have to be out and on our way. The pilgrim whose clothes were now in the dryer asked me how my clothes were. "Still wet," I told her. "I'm not leaving here until my clothes are dry," she declared. When we left 45 minutes later she was still there. Tom, whose anxiety level was now about a degree and a half lower than mine, suggested that we let the clothes dry in the room for a little while. "Pull out your laptop and work on your blog," he suggested. So I pulled out my laptop and tried to work, but I was anxious, distracted, stopping every three minutes to check if our clothes were any dryer than they'd been three minutes earlier. Finally it was getting so late that we couldn't hang around any longer waiting for our clothes to dry, so we just started pinning out wet clothes to the outside of our backpacks. Though it was well past "pilgrim be gone!" time at the albergue, the young hospitaliero wasn't rushing us. I kind of felt sorry for him, this whole laundry mess wasn't his fault, after all, and he was just trying to make the best of the situation. So before we left Tom and I said good-bye to him and thanked him, and, despite the laundry drama, we parted on good terms. Which in retrospect was probably fortunate as a few moments after we left the hospitaliero came hurrying after us. "Is this yours?" he asked, holding up my laptop, which, in my distraction over the laundry, I'd left in the common room. So, an hour late, we headed off, 20 kilometers and a steep mountain climb ahead of us, our wet laundry pinned to our backs, and me with a mild case of PTSD over my laundry saga and my near-laptop-castastrophe. But it was a cool, sunny, beautiful day on the Camino. Breathe, I reminded myself. Doug commented yesterday that, inspired by the photos of all the sweets on the Camino, he's become a regular at Panera. That's good. Somebody has to keep the Panera sweets department in business while I'm away. Doug also mentioned that he watched the Martin Sheen movie about the Camino, "The Way". About "The Way" I'd just like to add that, though that movie really captures the spirit of the Camino, the grief and personal issues many pilgrims have come to the Camino to try and work out, and the way that Camino families bond, still the movie leaves out how hard the hike can be and doesn't address all the blisters, foot and knee problems and aches and pains people develop along the way The movie also plays fast and loose with the Camino landscape and locations. But it's still a lovely movie. Yesterday we started out the day with a beautiful breakfast set out for us at the San Anton de Padua ....of tostadas with butter, jam and cheese, muffins and croissants, cereal, fruit, orange juice, coffee, tea, hot chocolate and warm, yummy churros. I thought that churros and hot chocolate was a Mexican specialty, but it's a very popular combo in Spain, as well. Then after breakfast we put our rain gear and still-wet from-yesterday boots back on and headed back out into the rain, being careful of all the little snail families out for a walk on the Camino. There are two basic pilgrim rain-gear fashion styles: First, there's what I call the Camino Rocket Man look, ....which consists of a rain suit and water-proof back-pack cover and is Tom's choice. The other basic look, christened by myself as The Camino Tortoise look., ....involves a poncho over rain pants, or, my preference, knee-high water-proof gaiters. We all end up with wet feet after a while, though. We walked 14.5 kilometers - about 8.7 miles - in the on-and-off rain and blow-you-over wind from Vilar de Mazarife to Hospital de Órbigo. Hospital de Órbigo is famous being the location of one of the longest, oldest, medieval bridges in Spain The bridge was also the site of a famous jousting match in 1434, at which time Christopher Columbus's grandpa was probably not yet knee-high to a knicker. We stayed at an albergue called La Encina built onto the back of a bar/restaurant where we stayed last time and really liked. One can get a bed in a 4-bed dorm room for 9.50€ each or there are private-room options. We went for the dorm option, ....though we ended up having the room - and bathroom - to ourselves. And the door even had a key, so we could lock it, just like a hotel room. It was great., especially since we were able to put put boots on the radiator to dry out. After we settled into our quarters, took our showers, handed our gross-as-usual clothes to the hospitaliero who washed and dried them for us for 5€, and rested up for a while, we headed down to the bar in front of the albergue, ...to while away a couple of hours before dinner.
Tom had a couple of glasses of red wine, I had a couple of cups of hot tea, we had some snacks, and basically sat around and watched the rain fall. I said to Tom, "Can you imagine back home sitting around for hours with nothing to do, no work or obligations,, no entertainment, no books to read (except our guide book), no TV? We'd be bored and antsy like crazy." Here on the Camino it feels just right. Julia made an interesting comment yesterday that during her genealogical research in Europe she came across some of the old Camino routes and that there is an effort to keep these routes marked, but that there aren't many albergues along these routes. I expect that's because these days most pilgrims take one of the more established Camino routes that start in France, Spain, or Portugal. I have met a few European pilgrims who started their Caminos by walking out their front door, but I never thought to ask them how they found their way or where they stayed at night before they reached a more well-traveled route. I guess if I ever again meet another of these pilgrims who started walking where they live, I'll ask them about it. Yesterday morning as we were leaving Leon at dawn's early light we passed by a pilgrim monument in San Marcos square. On a concrete block at the base of the monument there sat a life-sized bronze statue of an ancient pilgrim. Next to his bandaged feet were a pair of worn sandals that looked as though they'd been kicked off. This bronze pilgrim leaned back against the base of the monument in a posture of exhaustion with his eyes closed. The expression on his face seemed to say, Oy, my feet are KILLING me! Change the clothes on this pilgrim and put a backpack next to him and hiking boots instead of sandals he could be a modern-day pilgrim. Yesterday we hiked 21.8 kilometers - about 13 miles - in the rain and wind from Leon to Villar de Mazarife.. I shouldn't complain, though, as by this time on our last Camino we'd already had many days of rain. Last time it rained every day on the Meseta and while in Galicia, which is yet to come, it poured sheets of rain for 9 days straight. There's two more days of rain predicted according to the pilgrim weather-watchers I guess you have to get your ration of rainy days on the Camino. The first few hours of our walk yesterday was through urban Leon. Just before we left the outskirts of the city we stopped for brunch at a warm, cozy cafe full of pilgrims and run by two cheerful, hospitable ladies. It was so nice to be out of the rain and the pilgrims were all so sociable that we ended up staying there for an hour and continuing to order one item after another - eggs, tostadas, pastries, drinks - until we'd rung up a bill of 22€ - about $25.30. Then it was back out onto the Camino, which eventually took us back to the countryside in all it's rainy, muddy glory.. Hours later we reached the village of Villar de Mazarife where we were hoping to get, and, happily, were able to get, beds at the place we stayed at last time - another of our most favorite albergues - Albergue San Anton de Padua. The San Anton de Padua is owned by a nice, nice gentleman named Pepe who runs his albergue with his staff, a sweet family of .hospitalieros, a husband and wife with their teen-aged daughter. Pepe, on the right, and his staff stirring the awesome paella they made for our dinner. Pepe and his hospitaliero family are dedicated to the spirit of the Camino and to offering pilgrims a warm welcome and good food. Saying the food was good is an vast understatement. We ordered the package deal, 21€ -about $23 - each for a bed, breakfast, and dinner. And what a dinner! The pilgrim meal was served in communityat a beautiful and lovingly set table in the cozy dining room The first course, set out when we arrived at the table, was a salad, the plate decorated with a line of delicious home-made fig dressing. Next came a bowl of out-of -this-world gazpacho, ...next came the wonderfully tasty paella scooped from the pan, a vegetarian version, as the staff at The San Anton de Padua believe the pilgrims don't get enough vegetables on the Camino (they're right). Dessert was a chocolate-topped crepe which everyone raved over but, not being a chocoholic, I gave mine to Tom. It was a wonderful pilgrim meal, but less for the delicious food than for the love with which it was served and shared.
Beautiful Leon. The little running man. Yesterday morning we slept in in our comfy beds at the Hostal San Martin until well after 8 am, which is shoo-out time at the albergues. On our way to seek out some breakfast we were talking about how wonderful it felt to be walking without backpacks. A few minutes later we came upon a group of backpack-laden folks, their heads bent over the guidebook, pilgrims in search of an albergue - there's only one in Leon - or hostel. "Buen Camino," we said as we passed. The pilgrims looked up and we recognized one of them as a Camino friend from a few towns back. and she recognized us as well. We hugged and she introduced us to her companions, and we all hugged. She'd found herself a Camino family to travel with. . . Most Camino families stay together for a while, then break up as they start travelling at different paces, the members making new Camino friends or families that they'll stay with again for a while, until they again breakup and find new groups, and so it goes. Unlike Martin Sheen's Camino family in "The Way", most familes don't manage to stay together the whole time, though I've beard of Camino families who become so attached to each other that, even though they break up along the way, as each one enters the town before Santiago they wait for days until all the family members have arrived so that they can walk into Santiago together. We found a splendid cafe for breakfast, ...after which we spent the morning visiting the Leon Museum of History, which displayed artifacts from the Castilla Y Leon region from pre-historic times to the present. There was a translation of a Latin text found carved in stone: ...and I thought to myself, that's how I feel about my writing. As the Camino de Santiago has been integral to this region since pilgrims began walking it in the 9th century, there was a considerable display on the history of the Camino. My favorite was this translation of a 13th century document describing pilgrims: And we're still doing it.
Thanks everyone for the kind birthday wishes. I did in fact have a good day, most of it spent without my backpack on my back. A couple of days ago Tom and I made a command decision to hop a train from Sahagún to Leon, cutting out about three days of walking. We took the same "Camino cheat" last time, too, and for the same reason as we did it this time: we're so slow (translate: I'm so slow) that we risk running out of time if we don't cut out a couple of days somewhere. And what better place to cut out a couple of days then on the Meseta? 8) So we took the 7:48 am train from Sahagún and arrived in Leon at 8:30 am. I love Leon. , It's my favorite city on the Camino. As we hadn't had time to eat before we caught our train, the first order of the day after arriving was to find some breakfast. We stopped in a cafe that looked promising. ...and ordered our usual, two sunny-side up eggs with bread (and patatas fritas - fried potatoes - when available, which they weren't here), orange juice, coffee, tea. Then we dug into the pastries. We started with a couple of churras, fried dough coated with sugar and cinnamon, ...then we ordered a napolitana, a chocooate- filled croissant, to share, ,...and the server, who by now must have had us pegged as a couple of hard-core cases, threw in a rosequilla, ....a sort of doughnut, but crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. Goooood! Now, I've seen churros in the States, but I can't seem to remember if the napolitanas are only in France and Spain or if they're at Panera, too? After breakfast next on the to-do list was to find a place to stay for the next two days, as we'd planned an extra rest day to visit Leon. We'd hoped to stay in the same hostel we stayed at last time in we were in Leon, but the place was full. We found another place that the guidebook recommended but that place was full, too. We were wandering around when we passed an old stone building with a sign on the outside for an attorney's office and an orthopedic shoe maker. "Let's try this place," said Tom, who was walking behind me. "Nah, that's a shoe store," said I, walking on as the two-headed turtle poked its heads out. I walked a few more steps then turned around to see that my mate was no longer behind me. He'd gone into the building, which looked like this on the inside: "Didn't you see the little "Hostel" sign next to the other signs outside the door?" Tom asked. I hadn't, but we walked on until we came ro a staircase, ...which we climbed up a couple of flights, .....past the shoe maker, past the attorney's office, until we came to this door with the little "H" for hostel sign the next to it. We rang the door bell and a friendly lady let us into the reception area, a charming,, homey little room with a nice view. She asked us if we had a reservation and I said no, but that we were looking for a room for two nights. She smiled sadly and said no, she was sorry but she was full. We thanked her and turned to leave. "No, wait!," she called after us, "maybe I have something for you." I promise you I'm not making this up. She gave us this nice room with a lovely bathroom for 43€ per night Camino Karma comes through again. With the our sleeping quarters squared away, the name of our hostel was the San Martin, we decided to go visit the Santa Maria de Leon Cathedral. Again with the bars. ....but this cathedral's stained glass windows had the most beautiful and interesting designs. While wandering around the cathedral I ran into one of our Camino friends, the Episcopalian priest we met and had dinner with back in Hontanas. It's funny about Camino friends. You meet each other along the way or in an albergue and you bond so quickly, and you may or may not continue seeing each other here and there along the way for a few days, then you'll travel on from each other, But if you happen to run into each other later along the Camino you'll be so happy to see each other again, you'll hug as if you were dear old friends. That's how it was running into this Camino friend, we were just so glad to see each other again, ask about each other's aches and pains and each find out how the other was faring.
My friend told me that yesterday on the Meseta he experienced the high point of his Caminio. He came upon a group of twenty Lithuanian pilgrims who began walking their Camino in Lithuania 5 1/2 months ago. As they walked a group of them carried a large crucifix, which they took turns carrying. They were doing this pilgrimage as a show of support for the beatification to Roman Catholic sainthood of a Lithuanian woman named Barbora Zagarieté. The English-speaking member of this pilgrim group who told my friend all this then asked him why he was walking the Camino. When he told her that he was an Episcopalian priest she translated for her group and they asked him to bless them. So he blessed each member of the group, laying his hands on the head of each one. He said that he experienced a beautiful feeling of community with these pilgrims that transcended the differences in their languages, cultures, and religions. If there's one thing the Camino is about, it's community. Pilgrims taking advantage of the only shade tree on the 17- kilometer stretch of the Meseta between Carrion de los Condes and Calzadilla de la Cueza. Yesterday, or the day before yesterday, or maybe today, depending on which guide book or informed pilgrim you choose to believe, we crossed, or will soon cross, the halfway point on the Camino Francés. But by the day before yesterday I was sure I'd reached the end of my endurance to go another step. That day's walk was 17 kilometers - about 10 miles - from Carrion de los Condes to Caldadilla de la Cueza, not overly long distance-wise.. But it was 17 k's on the Meseta without a town or bar along the way to stop into for a drink or some food. There wasn't even a even a water fountain off the path from which to refill your water bottle.. And the path was relentlessly dusty, stony, gnatty and shadeless, the vista excruciatingly changeless. As the hours dragged on the road seemed endless. By the time we reached the municipal albergue in the first town we came upon since we started out that morning, the tiny village of Caladilla de la Cueza (I've come to the conclusion that the rule of thumb must be the smaller the town the longer the name), .....I was completely wiped out. I had no energy to do anything except shower then collapse into my 5€ bottom bunk bed. After I'd lain around in my bunk for an hour or so in sort of sleepless twilight zone of exhaustion, I dragged myself down to the pretty albergue court yard and sat on a bench. There was a pilgrim from New Zealand who was a yoga teacher and she was leading a little stretching class in the courtyard. You really should join them, said my brain. No can do, said my body. I also managed to drag myself to dinner, served at the only bar in town, which was crowded with pilgrims. Once again I wondered where the local folks - all 60 of them, according to the guide book - go when they feel like eating out. Maybe they just don't. Over dinner we mostly talked about the day's journey. This day had been a hard one for most of the pilgrims. Some of them shared how they dealt with the tedium of this grueling stretch. A French-Canadian police officer said that after a while he just looked down at the ground as he found looking up at nothing but the road ahead to be depressing. A Dutch woman said she pushed herself ahead, forced herself into "6th gear" and sang songs in her head all day to make herself keep moving. Another Dutch woman came up with the best idea of all: she hopped a taxi and skipped the whole stretch. To each her own Camino. The next morning, yesterday morning, amazingly, I woke up feeling refreshed, renewed, and ready to don my pack, grab my sticks, and hit the Camino again. It probably didn't hurt that we started the day with these apple custard pastries that we'd been looking for since our return to Spain, ...and had finally found in the town's one grocery store, a little room about half the size of my kitchen. We kind of got addicted to these cellophane-wrapped confections on our last trip. They're kind of like the Tastykakes of Spain. We then walked 23 kilometers - almost 14 miles - from Caladilla de la Cueza to the city of Sahagún. It was a much easier walk than the day before's, with a bit more variety in the scenery. ...and some shady rest spots along the way. We also stopped for some cheese, tomato and olive oil bocadillos - sandwiches - in the village bar in San Nicolas del Real Camino - you can imagine how small that town was! We were keeping our fingers crossed that in Sahagún we'd be able - and subsequently were able - to get beds at the same place where we stayed on our last Camino, an upscale hostel called Domus Viatoris that also has an albergue with beautiful facilities and beds for 7€. The dorm: The dining room, where we had a delicious 10€ pilgrim mea:l I went with the mixed salad, a juicy steak filet & paper-thin fries and rice pudding. The showers were plentiful, ... but co-ed, and were of the cubicle variety with no dry place to hang your clothes So I had to do the old, "hang-your-clean-clothes-over-the-shower-door-and-cover-them-with -your-dirty-clothes-to-keep-them-dry-but-don't-let-the-whole-pile-fall-on-the-floor" trick. I'm getting pretty good at it. |
AuthorPatti Liszkay Archives
November 2015
CategoriesThe sequel to "Equal and Opposite Reactions" in which a woman discovers the naked truth about herself.
A romantic comedy of errors. Lots and lots of errors. "Equal And Opposite Reactions"
by Patti Liszkay Buy it on Kindle: http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa or in print: http://www.blackrosewriting.com/romance/equalandoppositereactions or from The Book Loft of German Village, Columbus, Ohio Or check it out at the Columbus Metropolitan Library
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