October 08th, 2015

    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.
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    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.