My sister Romaine asked in a comment referring, I think, to my commentary on room-reservers and day trippers, if the hostels were getting hostile. Nah. Crowded to and sometimes beyond capacity, but never hostile. The pilgrim albergues are still friendly, welcoming refuges and the pilgrims, day trippers and backpackers alike, still all look out for each other and help each other. Still, on a couple of occasions it's seemed to me that groups of older day trippers have arrived at an albergue with an air of expectation about them that the albergues would be more comfortable the they were; They were expecting more privacy, more amenities, more hot water, and they sure don't like to be given the top bunks. One time I heard one pilgrim say to another regarding the albergue staff, "Do you believe it? All they speak here is Spanish.." But there are still plenty of back-packing pilgrims on the Camino, ...though even the young backpackers are calling ahead and reserving the rooms. I guess that's just how it is on the Camino these days. Anyway, yesterday, fortified by an albergue breakfast that was a true celebration of bread, - you consume more bread on the Camino than you will over the course of rest of your lifetime - gluten-free folks beware ! - we started out on the long 22 kilometer - 13 mile - trek from Agés to Burgos. We started out walking in an ethereal misty fog, ....that lifted as the morning rolled on and the sun came out. Which was a good thing because for the first few miles the path was quite rocky. At one point we had to negotiate a patch of solid uneven rock. The road into Burgos is kind of a rough slog, for which reason many pilgrims, especially the older ones, of which there are quite few on the Camino, many more than last time we were here, hop a bus for the last 10 kilometers or so. There are actually two ways by which to enter Burgos. The standard way, the way most pilgrims take, requires walking on concrete sidewalks - hard on the feet while toting those backpacks! - along miles of industrial highway past the Burgos Airport, factories and big-box stores. After all the weeks of walking through mostly scenic and rural settings this environment is kind of a jarring dose of urban reality. You then must pass through a run-down part of town before finally reaching the pretty old part of town by the famous cathedral. The other way of reaching Burgos is called the River Way The River Way is about 1 kilometer longer than the highway way, and goes through fields then along the river and through a city park and leads you to a nicer section of town close to the Cathedral area. The reason more people don't take the River Way is because it's hard to find and confusing to figure out. On our first Camino we took the highway approach. but this time we managed - with some head-scratching and near misses - to figure out the River Way, which was a considerably more pleasant approach. We reached the old city of Burgos at about 4:30 pm and were trudging up the hill towards the municipal albergue, which is located right next to the cathedral and is a big, modern, tightly-packed, tightly-run, 120-bed, 6€-per-bed facility hidden behind a 16th Century stone facade, when a group of young, weary-looking, still backpack-laden Asian pilgrims approached us from the opposite direction waving their arms in warning. "All albergues full, all albergues full!", one of them cried, "no albergue beds! Hotel!" We understood the dreary message and turned around to begin looking for a hotel or hostel. A few minutes later we ran int two young American pilgrims who told us that, though they'd arrived early in the afternoon, it was only by the skin of their teeth that they managed to get beds in the municipal albergue, which was completely full by 2:30. Aside from a small religious albergue with a few beds, the municipal is the only pilgrim albergue in Burgos, The first hotel we tried was full. Now, tired out from our 13-mile trek and bummed over not getting an albergue bed, we were also starting to feel slightly panicked in spite of our vow of faith in good Camino Karma, We were trudging aimlessly through the tourist-crowded streets looking for another hotel.when a middle-aged man, obviously a pilgrim, approached us and asked us in accented but very good English if we needed a hotel. When we told him yes he suggested we try the place where he'd found a room. "Right over there," he said, pointing to a building not far behind us. So we hurried to the hotel our fellow pilgrim, a Swiss man who's the doing the Camino by bike, pointed out to us. Located in a pretty square, It turned out to be a lovely, kind of upscale-looking place called. Hotel Norte Y Londres. View from the front of the Hotel Norte Y Londres: Gross, sweaty, and none too hopeful, we dragged ourselves to the front desk and asked the receptionisto if he had a room. "Si," he answered, but explained that all he had left was a triple for 60€ - about $69 - and that it was the last room left in the hotel. Camino Karma, forgive me for doubting, thought I. And though our room was cheery, comfortable and spacious, View from the window of our room:: ...we were still in the grip of exhaustion-fueled post-bed-anxiety coupled with the frustration of not getting an albergue bed, so that we didn't at first realize how extremely fortunate we were not to have snagged a coveted albergue bunk amidst a closely crowded sea of pilgrims and where we'd be shooed out the door at 8 am sharp.. It was only a little later, when Tom started to experience the sore throat, head ache and runny nose that herald the arrival of a cold, that we realized our luck to have landed in this quiet, comfortable room.
This morning Tom woke up achy,congested, and miserable from a restless sleep but nonetheless extremely grateful, as was I. I booked the room for two more nights. Burgos at night:
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Yesterday we set out from Villafranca Montes de Oca and climbed the Montes de Oca, the Goose Mountains, a steep 650 feet to a height of 3600 feet. It was a sunny, windy day, great for backpack-drying the clothes that didn't quite dry on the line yesterday. We walked about 16 k's - about 9.5 miles -passing through a pasture full of friendly cows along the way,. ...until we reached the town of Agés Now according to the guidebook Agés is a town with a population of 60 people, though the sign at the town entrance says population of 20. The town has a church dating from the 16th century which, beautiful as it is, looks as if it could fall down any day now Small as Agés is, though, it has the most awesome municipal albergue, with a great cafe on the first floor. When we entered the albergue and approached the registration desk, the hospitaliero was busy with pilgrim before us, with whom he was in the midst of some long back-and-forth in Spanish that I couldn't follow. When the pilgrim, who appeared to be a middle-aged man, was finally registered he sat on a chair across from the registration desk to take off his boots and put them on the boot shelf, as we pilgrims all do before entering the dorm area of an albergue. Note the stacks of newspaper on the top shelf. The newspaper is for pilgrims to stuff into our boots to help dry out the insides of the boots if they get soaked in the rain. Then it was our turn to register. I told the hospitaliero that we'd been at this albergue two years ago and had really liked it. He seemed pleased to hear that. He told us that just a bed was 8€ and he asked us if we wanted the "completo" package at 22€ each that included a bed, dinner, and breakfast. When we said yes, we'd like the completo, the hospitaliero turned to the Spanish pilgrim who was still taking off his boots and joked in a mock-reproachful tone, "See? These people stayed here two years ago and when I asked them if they wanted the completo they said, yes, yes! right away!" The Spanish pilgrim good-naturedly retorted that he didn't care, he still didn't want the completo. But after that the hospitaliero treated us like best friends for the rest of our stay. But maybe he treated everybody that way, he was such a friendly guy. The dorm room had 36 beds, but the room was so spacious that we didn't feel at all crowded. And once again we lucked out with gender-segregated bathrooms, though there was only one sink in each bathroom, which made for a bit of a crunch this morning. when we all wanted to brush our teeth, though all teeth eventually got brushed.. But the sink did have a soap dispenser and paper towels with which to dry our hands, amenities practically unheard of in the albergue bathrooms, where if you want to wash and dry your hands you have to cart along your own soap and towel. Camino confession: Most of us don't bother. We just rinse our hands in the bathroom sink and shake them dry. On the trail I carry a small bottle of hand sanitizer for the job. We had dinner in the pretty albergue dining room. Now, I'm gonna put it right out there: that dinner was the best pilgrim meal I've ever had on the Camino. I know that's a tall order to prove considering that just about every pilgrim meal we've had could be tied for first place. But what made this dinner soar above the rest was not the salad, though it was certainly a work of edible art, ...nor was it the Cornetto I had for dessert, ....which was of course delicious and fulfilled my goal of while on the Camino having myself a Cornetto - a confection one can find in any bar along the Camino but not in the U.S. - in honor of "The Cornetto Trilogy", which you fine film buffs out there will understand No, what made this meal so exceptional was the entree, the house specialty called Pork in Sauce. And what a sauce! And the meat was so tender, it just fell apart with the fork. I asked the hospitaliero how this meat was cooked and he said it was simmered in wine and a puree of vegetables. Boy, was it good. At one point during dinner the hospitaliero, who spoke only Spanish, came into the dining room with a telephone in his hand and called out, "Is there a Polish pilgrim in here?" As I appeared to be the only one who understood what he was saying I called out the translation in English. An American pilgrim popped up from his seat and cried, "There's an Polish pilgrim at the albergue next door!" When I translated for the hospitaliero the expression on his face seemed to say that this situation had risen o a level beyond his pay grade. He then shoved the phone at Tom and said, "Ingles", which means "English". Tom took the phone from the hospitaliero and began speaking to the man at the other end of the line who spoke English with what sounded to Tom like a British accent. Turned out the man wasn't looking for a Polish pilgrim but for a reservation for the next night. So Tom told me and I told the hospitaliero, who waved his hand distainfully and said, "No, I don't accept reservations! No reservations at this albergue! Now there's a hospitaliero after my own heart. Yesterday morning we took off from Belorado with a mission: to get to the village of Villafranca Montes de Oca in time to snag a room in the Hotel San Anton Abad, which dates back to the 14th Century when it was built as a pilgrim hostel. These days the San Anton Abad is upscale hotel, ... a section of which the owner still reserves as a pilgrim albergue. The albergue entrance: And what accommodations! There are bunk beds for 5€, or for 10€, the option we chose, one could have a twin bed in a long, bright, cheerful room lined on either side with beds divided into compartments with one or two beds. We snagged a two-bed compartment. View from the dorm room window: There's also a lovely sitting room, ...and a kitchenette for pilgrim's who'd like to fix their own meals. And - oh happy day! - the bathrooms were gender-separated so that you didn't have to drag your clean clothes into the shower stall with you where they get wet, but could leave them on a stool outside the stall. This, of course, involved a wee bit of parading around in the buff, but, believe me, that's better than wet clothes. There was no washer but there were sinks in which to wash out your clothes and behind the albergue there was a meadow set up with clotheslines. By the time we got to the albergue Tom and I were SOA - starved on arrival - so as soon as we tossed our packs next to our beds we headed down to the hotel cafe for tortilla sandwiches. After lunch we returned to our albergue and showered - always the first thing you do, organized our space - always the second thing you do, washed and hung our laundry, then spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out in the hotel lobby or on the terrace chatting with the other pilgrims, .....or strolling the grounds. The 12€ evening pilgrim meal was served in the hotel dining room I had the mixed salad, rabbit in a most delicious sauce with a side of fries, and for dessert a bowl of heavenly rice pudding with cinnamon. Tom had mixed salad, pork filet with fries, and ice cream for dessert, all of which he also pronounced delicious. Our dinner partners were an Englishman and a Danish man, both around our age, both of whom, like us, had walked the Camino before. We discussed, among other things, politics, social issues, and how much the Camino has changed in the few years since we all last were here with the proliferation of the Day trippers, pilgrim lites, our British friend called them, the pilgrims who don't carry backpacks but have their luggage shipped each day to the albergues or hostels where they've reserved rooms. We wondered if pilgrims who walked all day with their packs on their backs and found food and lodging at day's end at the pilgrim albergues without a reservation would soon be a thing of the past. This morning we started our day with the 8€ breakfast buffet offered by the hotel and served in the breakfast room. ....scrambled eggs, sausages, cold cuts, baguettes, cereal, fruit, OJ, coffee, tea, pastries.
How sweet it was! Yesterday at the Casa de las Sonrisas, The House of Smiles, we met a 69-year-old German pilgrim who’s been walking the Camino non-stop for the past nine years. Now, there are a dozen different Caminos that pilgrims can take to get to Santiago, starting from different points in Spain, France and Portugal, though in truth a pilgrim can start from anywhere they want; I’ve met at least three Dutch pilgrims who started walking their Camino from their home in the Netherlands. But the most popular and most-walked Camino by far is the one Tom and I are walking, the Camino Frances, the French Camino, that starts in St. Jean Pied-de-Port. Anyway, this elderly pilgrim who’s been walking the Camino for nine straight years varies his Caminos, walking one, then the other, and when he reaches Santiago walking or sometimes taking a train back to another starting point. I asked him what about his home and family? He answered that the Camino is his home and the pilgrims are his family. "Don't you get tired?" I asked. "When I get tired I stop," he replied. He told me the shortest distance he'd ever walked was 2 kilometers and the longest was 64 k's. I asked him how heavy his backpack was and he told me 10 kilos-about 20 pounds - before water. I asked him didn't his backpack feel heavy, didn't his back, feet, knees ever hurt from carrying it all the time? He said he didn't even feel his backpack anymore. "Do you ever get sick?" I asked him. He answered that he never gets sick anymore, though when he was 12 years old he was always sick and was taken from doctor to doctor to doctor. But, he said, he hasn't seen a doctor since 1994 and takes no pills. "Wow," I said, "you're going to live to a hundred and six, and you'll still be walking!" He replied that he didn't care how long or short he lived as long as he was healthy to the end. I didn't tell him that that's pretty much how we all feel except that it doesn't work out that way for most of us. Still I think that that pilgrim does have a leg up on most of us. We walked 15.7 kilometers yesterday from Grañon to the town of Belorado, leaving the region of La Rioja and entering the region of Castilla y Leon. Along the way we stopped for brunch at the albergue cafe in the village of Viloria de la Rioja. This cafe was the most charming little spot, ...where the hospitaliero whipped us up a delicious omelet sandwich, ...on the freshest baguette. And there was a poster on the wall that I loved: It says "Let's go to a quiet place to talk and try to reach an agreement". When we reached Belorado about 3 hours later the town was, as has generally been the case, jammed with pilgrims seeking lodging. I found myself feeling a weence doubtful about finding a bed in the albergue in Belorado which we had our hearts set on staying at, one of our favorites along the Camino, a place at the far end of town called Los Quatros Cantones, a pretty, rustic little albergue with 7€ beds and and an 8€ pilgrim meal run by the lovely Cantone family, three brothers and a sister who’s a chef by profession, so the food’s super-good. However in truth I was feeling a weence doubtful about finding beds anywhere in this pilgrim-crowded town. But Tom said not to worry, there were many albergues along the way through town before we'd reach Los Quatros Cantones so hopefully the herd would be 'way thinned by then. And the pilgrim herd did, in fact, thin greatly the farther we walked through the town, until we turned a corner and saw that the line at Los Quatros Cantones was out the door. "This doesn't look good," I said. "Let's just try," said Tom. So we stood in line, and at one point I thought I heard the hospitaliera, one of the Cantones who was also the chef, call out the door that now it was reservations only. But I wasn't completely sure. "Let's just wait," said Tom. Two ahead of us was a group of older Americans, day trippers with a reservation for six. Day trippers are my name for pilgrims who don't carry backpacks, but have their packs or luggage shipped from albergue to albergue (or hostel or hotel) at which they have, of course, reserved a room. Back when we walked the Camino two years ago you saw the occasional day tripper, usually a pilgrim who was injured or feeling sick or just needed to take it easy for a bit. But now the day trippers have greatly proliferated along the Camino, and some days appear to be as numerous along the way as the backpacking pilgrims. Anyway, after this group with their reservation for six I figured our chance of getting beds was dead on arrival. "Let's wait anyway," said Tom. Directly ahead of us was an older Spanish couple without a reservation. I'm not sure exactly what their conversation with the hospitaliera entailed, but the exchange sounded quite heated, with the hospitaliera on the defensive. Then into the reception area whisked one of the American party of six, a woman who looked about my age, totally indignant over the fact that half of their beds were top bunks when they wanted all bottom bunks, or something like that. Between dealing with the ticked-off Spaniards and the ticked-off American, the harried hospitaliera looked up from the fray for a moment and our eyes met. I smiled sympathetically at her. The Spanish couple huffed out of the albergue and it was our turn. "This is hopeless," I muttered to Tom as we approached the reception desk. "Let's see," he muttered back. In sheepish Spanish I told the hospitaliera that we had no reservations, but..... She told me she was sorry but there were no more beds unless we had a reservation, and didn't I hear her tell the people in line that it was reservations only? She seemed upset that we'd stood in line so long for nothing, but we smiled and told her that it was all right, that she shouldn't worry about it, and we thanked her anyway and wished her a nice day. We turned to leave and she said, "Wait, wait! Maybe I can help you! What time is it?" It was 2:20 pm. She explained to us that they only guaranteed reservations until 2 pm. She looked through her book and called to the line, "Paolo! Sergio! Estan aqui? (are you here?)" The call for Paolo and Sergio went down the line until it was determined that neither Paolo nor Sergio were present. The hospitaiera hesitated a moment, sighed, the said in English, "What the the hell, I give you the beds!" Now, I know we've been having a great run of Camino Karma, but this was downright spooky. But in a good way, and it got even better when we saw our accommodatons in a beautiful first floor dorm room right off the bathroom: ....and we had the bottom bunks! Later when we thanked the hospitaliera for giving us beds she said, "how could I resist you, standing there so nice?" I kind of think we had the "two cute old folks" thing going on. Los Quatros Cantones albergue: ....and there's a pool. The beautiful town of Belorado
My friend Marianne asked why there are so many more pilgrims on the Camino this September than last time we were here in September two years ago . A couple of hospitalieros we asked about it both said that, as the summers have been so hot in recent years, the crowds are starting to come in May and September, with the numbers 'way down in the hot summer months. So I guess now the formerly busy summer months are the best time to come to avoid the crowds. But I can tell you of another recent phenomenon that has to be contributing to the pilgrim jam: the Americans have arrived. When Tom and walked the Camino two years ago it was rare to meet an American along the way. Now every other person you meet is American. I'm not at all exaggerating. One young American pilgrim I met mused that all the interest among Americans in the Camino bloomed when "The Way" came to Netflix. "When something comes to Netflix, the whole culture changes," she said. Yesterday morning we set out from Circueña and on the way we saw the lovely, ethereal illusion called cloud islands that occurs in the mountains when the morning clouds float below the mountain tops so that the mountain tops look like islands in the sea. We stopped for brunch in the town of Santo Domingo de la Calzada- we've taken a hankering to a plate of sunny-side eggs, potatoes and bacon a few hours after our usual 7 am typical Spanish breakfast of tostada, which is also very good, Anyway, Santo Domingo de la Calzada is a tourist spot where people come to visit the 13th century cathedral. When we reached the town of Grañon, 13 k's from where we started, we decided to call it a day. We arrived in Grañon a little before 2 pm and the first albergue we tried was already full from pilgrims who's made reservations. We headed on until we arrived at the Casa de las Sonrisas, The House Of Smiles, ....the arty albergue owned by hospitaliero Ernesto, ...who takes in and feeds homeless people as well as pilgrims and so doesn't stamp pilgrim passports soa as not to distinguish between the more and less well-off. When we entered the albergue and asked the hospitaliero if he had any beds he pulled aside some curtains on the wall just inside the entrance, ...and showed us all he had left, three mattresses on the floor. He said we could have the whole room to ourselves. Camino Karma comes through yet again! We jumped on his offer, but insisted that if another pilgrim came in who needed a bed of course they could stay in "our" room. Over the course of the aftenoon several pilgrim couples came in and - in the caring way typical of the hospitalieros - to each he offered that one could sleep on the mattress and one could sleep on the sofa in our room, but they all turned down his offer, even though by then there were no more albergue beds left in town. Maybe they wanted to try the hotel down the way. Once a group of four pilgrims came in and he offered them the mattress and couch in our room, the couch in the hallway, and the couch in the living room, ...which was comfy enough, I thought. But this group, too, decided to seek greener pastures. I hope they all found beds somewhere. Late in the afternoon an exhausted Danish pilgrim, a lovely woman about our age, came dragging into the Camino. She was thrilled to share our space on the floor, and so we finally had a roomate. Anyway, this is the cutest, most whimsical place. The living room has a fireplace, in which the hospitaliero had a nice, cozy fire burning. Here's the garden, where we could wash out and hang our clothes, The walls were covered in Ernesto's art work and pilgrim graffiti. There's only one bathroom and one shower in then whole albergue, but as there were only 15 of us, it all worked out.. Ernesto doesn't charge a set fee, but asks for whatever we're willing to give for a bed, a dinner that he requires all the pilgrims to eat together as a family, and breakfast in the morning. A few minutes before dinner Ernesto came into the living room where most of the pilgrims were gathered chatting around the fire, ...and told us we all had to go outside. As we stood in a circle outside the albergue the hospitaliero told us that the baker next door had our dinner ready but that she wouldn't give it to us until we gathered into groups by our language and each group sang a song in their language. It turned out the languages represented among us were English, German, and Danish. I suggested the English speakers sing "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands", so we did. The Germans sang "Oh Tannenbaum", and I'm not sure what our Danish friend sang. But it was fun. After the singing our hospitaliero called for five volunteers to go onto the bakery while the rest of us waited outside. A few minutes later the volunteers came out with trays of food,.. ...in mandatory wigs.. The volunteers carried the food next door to the albergue then we all sat down to a dinner of potato and canned tuna soup (an acquired taste, I fear), lentil soup, baked potatoes, baked squash, salad, fresh bread, and fresh figs for dessert. After dinner the pilgrims cleaned up and washed the dishes. Tom and our young Camino friend Susan Each evening Ernesto prepares for dinner whatever he can afford to buy from the contributions left by the pilgrims the day before. Sometimes the pilgrims don't leave enough for him to buy food for the next night's dinner. We left him 60€.to help with tonight's dinner. View on the way from Najera to Cirueña. It had been our plan to walk 21 k's - about 12 1/2 miles - from Najera to the city of Santo Domingo de Calzada, but 15 k's later when we reached the small town of Cirueña, my body parts were ready to stop for the day. So when we saw this sign while walking through the town, ....we followed it off the beaten path to the Albergue Virgen de Guadalupe, which turned out to be a homey, cozy, lovely little place., .....run by the nicest hospitaliera, here in his kitchen/office., ...and his two sweet old dogs. For 7€ each we got our own room, ...with this view from our window:: ...that is, before it started to rain. Unfortunately, as soon as our hospitaliero washed our laundry for us with the plan that we'd hang out our clothes to dry in the sun and the wind, the weather changed suddenly and it started to pour rain. But no problem, we just hung our wet clothes up all around our room. The walls of the albergue are decorated with the hospitaliero's art work and he built a little chapel in the attic for the pilgrims to use. Our hospitaliero, while he prepared dinner, played lovely,soothing classical music: Mozart's "Theme From Eliva Madigan", Bach's Arioso", a Baroque Adagio. Dinner was 7€ each, for which he cooked us a delicious lentil and chorizo stew and for dessert there was yogurt served with the hospitaliero's scrumptious home-made fig preserves. After dinner we sat around in the living room with a very nice Dutch couple and discussed among other things, politics, Tom's pit bull bite, and the problem with pilgrims reserving all the beds in advance. Like us, these pilgrims don't believe in calling ahead to reserve a bed, It's okay for those who want to do it that way, but we agreed that for us it's not our idea of the spirit of the Camino. In any case, we were all grateful to have been led to this little place. It was very Spirit of the Camino. Oh, Marianne - as I'm now about out of computer time, I'll comment tomorrow on theories as to the pilgrim population explosion on the Camino.
Cindy asked in a comment if there were pilgrims sleeping on park benches and in the streets when there's no room at the albergues. I can answer that no, I've never seen a pilgrim sleeping outside in a public place for want of a bed, though once on our last Camino when there were no beds in one town one of the hospitalieros was letting pilgrims sleep on the concrete sidewalk in front of the albergue if they wanted to and use his facililities for free. I can also tell you that the hospitalieros do jump through hoops to try and find a bed for everyone, even if it means putting us up in their own homes or calling a neighbor to take us in. But if there are no beds to be had I guess the bedless pilgrims would have to taxi to the next town that had beds. And not only are the albergues running out of beds but sometimes the restaurants are running out of food and have to turn people away. Other times they'll just offer whatever food they have left. But in spite of the crowded conditions and even a bit of bed-panic that was running along the Camino yesterday, there's still a wonderful spirit of caring and concern among the pilgrims for the welfare of their brother and sister pilgrims, ...and we all do what we can to help each other along. And the state of pilgrim jam is only in the albergue towns; out on the Camino there's plenty of solitude and peace and space to be alone with your thoughts. Anyway, yesterday we walked about 18 k's from Navarrete to Najera. As we're now in the La Rioja region, wine country, the path is lined with vineyards. The grapes looked so beautiful on the vines, ...that I felt tempted to snitch a few but didn't because I think it's wrong for the pilgrims to steal the farmers' grapes. We stopped in the town of Ventosa and went into the town bar, ...where we had the most magnificent breakfast we've ever had on the Camino or maybe anywhere: a plate of salad, fried eggs, french fries, Spanish bacon and, of course, a basket of bread to mop it all up with. At around 2:30 we arrived in Najera, a pretty medium-sized city that in any case appears to be kind of down on its luck. Of the four private albergues in town one was already full because of pilgrims booking ahead their reservations and the other three appeared to be out of business. At the municipal albergue there was a long line out the door. So we walked back towards town and found a hotel, which was also out of business. But across from the hotel we found a hostel, the Hostel Hispano, which we figured was probably our last option, other than going back to the municipal, getting at the end of the line, and crossing our fingers. In her comment yesterday my sister Romaine said that Tom and I must have good Camino Karma because we keep getting the last or almost the last beds in every town. Well, our Camino Karma must have been in play again yesterday as, once again, we snagged for 50€ the last double room in the hostel, seconds ahead of the folks behind us. The Hostal Hispano. These fortunate pilgrims had a reservation. But Tom and I have decided that we are not going to join the albergue-reserve-ahead crowd. Well, we can't anyway since don't have a phone. So we're going to just stay calm, have faith, trust our Camino Karma, and accept that the last part of our journey each day will be the search for a bed. And whether we end up with a 7€ mattress on the floor or have to spring for a 50€ double room, we'll take whatever comes our way. Was this a sign we saw yesterday? Today we walked 22.7 kilometers from Viana to Navarete where, once again, we managed to get beds just by the skin of our teeth. It's that the Camino is so crowded. July has always been the most crowded month on the Camino with the numbers traditionally winding 'way down in September since most albergues, close for the season in November., But apparently this September the number of pilgrims has skyrocketed, leaving July in the dust, not mention June and August. Subsequently the albergues, hostels, pensions and hotels in every town have been jam-packed, and unless one arrives at one's destination town early in the afternoon one will find oneself scrambling for a bed. Unless, that is, one has called ahead and booked one's room in advance, which a lot of pilgrims, young and old, are doing on their smart phones. Anyway, today we crossed from the Kingdom of Navarra, Basque Country, into the region of La Rioja Spanish wine country. Along the way we passed through Logrono, a big, busy, pretty city.. Logrono kind of reminded me of Boston in that the cars stopped for the pedestrians crossing the street; In New York, Chicago, Madrid, they'll run you down for a nickle. But in Logrono and Boston they'll stop for you. We stopped for lunch at a nice Paneraesque cafe with a name that even sounded like Panera: Panaria. We had the 4.50€ lunch special: a generous slice of French bread Spanish ham and vegetable pizza, a soft drink and a coffee. When the cafe owner caught me snapping photos of the yummy desserts we ordered, ...she came over and started talking to us. Turns out she was a flamenco dancer in New York City years ago. She then returned to Madrid where she opened a flamenco dancing school. But she recently sold her school and she and her husband came to Logrono and opened this cafe. The owner is on the end, dressed in black. After lunch we had another 12 long kilometers to walk to Navarrete, and when we arrived at around 5:15 pm we met first one pilgrim in the street,then another, who told us there were no beds left in town. The first albergue we tried was filled, and even the town's 3- star hotel had a completo sign in the window. But as we were walking down the street still looking for a place we passed a bar where a group of our young Camino friends were sitting outside on the patio. There was an old man sitting with them. One of the youngsters called to us and told us that the old man sitting with them was the hospitaliero of the municipal albergue next door and that he was just telling them that although he had no beds left he had a couple of mattresses left that he cold set up on the floor. The boy, a Spaniard who spoke wonderful English, said if we wanted the mattresses he'd ask the hospitaliero for us. Long story short, we grabbed those mattresses. Turned out that although the hospitaliero had the mattresses setting up against a wall,, tbere really wasn't any floor space to lay them down in the already crowded dorm room. So we laid them in the aisleway along the top of the stairs.and hoped nobody would trip over us, which, fortunately, they didn't. While we were setting up our space a young Danish pilgrim we'd been chatting with along the way came into the room.
"We got the last beds in the room," I said to him, assuming that he, too already had a bed. "No," he said, looking around the room in confusion,"My friend and I just arrived and the hospitaliero told us we could sleep on mattresses on the floor up here." Now, there was really not a spot in the room upon which to put even one more mattress, let alone two. "Know what?" I said, "why don't we just move the beds closer together?" So we did, and two more weary pilgrims had a place to lay their weary heads for the night. And so we were packed in like sardines, and the co-ed showers had no latches and there were no shower heads so the water came out from a pipe in the wall in cold 30-second spurts. But still, except for one Italian pilgrim who was ah-fungooling all night long, we were a cozy group of happy campers. Susan, yes, it probably was in Los Arcos where Chris and his friends cooked dinner, as the municipal there did look like a big, nice place - we couldn't get in, though, it was filled - and probably had a nice spacious, well -equipped kitchen and dining area as many of the municipals do. Yes, buying food from the supermercado and cooking up a meal was a smart idea on the part of Chris and his friends. In response to my friend Birdie's observation that my backpack doesn't look light: actually, it does fell a lot heavier this time than last time, The computer I brought along this time has, unfortunately added about 3 pounds by the time you add the protective case bought I bought and the charger. And, small as it is, it takes up space in the backpack and kind of squishes everything together. And then there's the half-dozen rolls of TPand all the little jars of vaseline I also had squished in there But read on. Yesterday we walked another 19 k’s from Los Arcos to the town of Viana. Though the trail was much hillier today, with some inclines and descents, today’s walk was much easier for me than yesterday’s. This may be because yesterday morning I removed from my pack the Giant Eagle shopping bag I’d been using to tote laundry in and in it put a spare pair of socks, my camping pillow, my extra toothbrush, about half-dozen wooden clothespins, my bottle of sunscreen (Tom has a bottle, too), my wrist brace, a pair of free earbuds I’d gotten on the train from Madrid to Pamplona to use for the movie (Spanish trains show free movies), and one roll from my TP stash. I then left the bag of stuff on the “help yourself” shelf in the albergue. Next I removed two of the three remaining rolls of TP from my sack, gave one roll to Tom to carry and stuffed the other roll, flattened and minus its cardboard center, into one of my side pockets. I also removed a couple of my small jars of foot-Vaseline and shoved those into my side pockets, as well. My backpack now felt lighter than it had been the day before. But now, with all the new stuff I’d just stuffed into my side pockets along with all the stuff already in them, I was now definitely the hippiest Pilgrim on the Camino. But my back felt better. Anyway, a few kilometers outside Los Arcos we passed a flock of sheep within which some of the big-hornedrams were having a head-butting tournements. They'd separate, then run towards each other.and bump heads. Then they'd separate and run together again. They reminded me of football players. Off to the side some young lambs whose horns hadn’t yet developed were also practicing their head-butting. I guess they were the junior lamb league. Lamby see, lamby do, right? After we’d been walking for about two hours we passed through Torres del Rio, the last town until Vienna, about another four hours away, though we didn’t realize it was the last town, otherwise we’d have bought some provisions for the way.. After a few more hours we had our eyes pealed for a little town where we could get some , but of course there weren't any. But we did pass a pilgrim rock-garden where pilgrims piled rocks and stones for their prayers and intentions. Lunch time came and went and we were beyond ravenous with nothing on the horizon but fields and mountains off in the distance. Then suddenly on the crest of a hill in the middle of nowhere there appeared, like a dessert mirage, this: A lovely man and wife from Vilna drive up to this hill every day to set up this little Oasis called Casa Lucia to sell grateful pilgrims cold drinks, snacks,and the most delicious ham and cheese canines, with a panini machine powered by a generator they lugged up to this place. The man told me does this because he was a pilgrim, too, having walked the Camino twice. When we got our food the couple’s little dog Foo-Foo became our best friend, especially when I shared. Little Foo-Foo sure loves her some ham and cheese panini. When we arrived in Viana, a beautiful, hilly town with architecture dating from the middle ages and the place where César Borgia was killed in battle, though I don’t know the details, as HBO just had to go and cancel the “The Borgias” after the second season, Anyway, we headed for the same albergue we'd stayed at last time, the Izar, a big, modern building with bunks for 8€ or, a new option, private doubles for 40€, of which we snagged the last one. It was by luck that we happened to be in Viana at this time, as this week is the running of the bulls here. Every evening is a big fiesta, and the streets ar filled with people, especially the youngsters, dressed in the traditional bull-running costume, white tee-shirt and pants with a red neckerchief and red sash belt. There were costume-structures of the festival characters that the children could climg into and dance around in. It was so sweet.. For dnner we got our 9.5€ yummy-as-usual pilgrim meal at a little bar on a tiny street Then after dinner we returned to town to watch the running of the bulls. The main street was barricaded off and the crowds watched as about a dozen bulls the bulls ran up and down the street. Several teen-aged boys participated in the sport of running with the bulls, that is, running ahead of the bulls with the purpose of out-running them. Happily, all the boys did. My Facebook friend Susan asked if I would share what motivated me to do the Camino a second time. Wow. That’s the question I’ve been asking myself ever since I decided that I wanted to do it again. What made me want to walk the Camino the first time was the movie “The Way”. Of course the movie made the journey look much easier than it actually turned out to be, at least for me, so that after I returned from the Camino I swore I’d never again put a backpack on my back. But then about a year later I started thinking about the Camino again, as if were calling to me. I found myself wondering how it would be to do the Camino a second time, just one more time. I guess I think of walking the Camino was kind of like going through childbirth: afterwards you think, boy, I never want to go through that again, but then two years later there you are, doing it again. I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t really know why I wanted to walk the Camino again. I just did. Anyway, yesterday we walked 19 kilometers – about 11 ½ miles – from Ayegui, the suburb of Estella where our albergue was located, to Los Arcos. The walk wasn’t terribly hilly or rocky, but, boy, did it feel long today But,as always, there were some lovely views. A short way outside of Estelle we passed the famous Irache Wine Fountain, a spigot in the wall of a winery we from which pilgrims are invites to fill their scallop shells with wine to fortify themselves for the road, which is great if you like drinking wine at 9 in the morning when you have ahead of you a 7-hour walk carrying a 20-pound backpack. Fortunately there was also a water fountain, of which most of us pilgrims availed ourselves Along the way we also hit the mother lode of sweet blackberries, of which we pilgrims also availed ourselves. We stopped for lunch in the town of Villamayor de Monjardin where we had the most delicious and ingenious- tortillas, kind of a tortilla sandwich with tomatoes, lettuce, and melted cheese (not sure they melted that cheese) between two “slices” of tortilla. A Spanish tortilla, by the way, is like a crustless potato and egg quiche, though other ingredients are often added. Like tuna. At lunch we got into a conversation with another pilgrim, a friendly young Australia woman who told us she first began to feel the call to walk the Camino several years ago. I asked her how her journey was going so far. “Well,” she replied, “It’s not always mystical, but it’s always magical.” I think she nailed it When we arrived at Los Arcos, a small city with a lovely square bordered by a cathedral on one side and a row of restaurants on the other, ery albergue we stopped at was completo – full – until we came to the last albergue on the edge of town, the Casa Alberdi, a small albergue that looks like it was once a big lovely home with a court yard and where the albergue entrance and common room is in the converted garage. The hospitaliera told us that there was nothing left except mattresses on the floor. Perhaps our faces showed our distress, because she then offered us, for 45€, a private room with a “matrimonial” – that means double – bed. We grabbed it. The hospitaliera then led us up some steps to a side entrance into her family’s living quarters. The room she gave us looked like it belonged to a teen-aged girl. We figured her daughter was probably on the phone with her friends, complaining about how she had to sleep on the couch again tonight so some stupid pilgrims could have her bedroom. Trying to find some dinner in the town of Los Arcos was an ordeal last time we were here. This time was no better. There were no seats at the indoor or outdoor tables of t any oc the restaurants in the square. We walked around and found a few bars that sold sandwiches, but the bars were all jammed, and we found another nice-looking restaurant in a nice-looking hotel, but the hotel had a completo sign in the window and the server said he couldn’t serve us, the restaurant was completo, too. The whole town was over-run with pilgrims. So we walked back to the square to see if there were any free tables. There weren’t. We walked into one of the restaurants and the harried server told us there were no seats inside, try outside. Just then an old gent sitting outside the restaurant pointed out one lone 2- seater table in an obscure, rather hidden spot. He told us to go sit there then he called to the server and let her know that we were sitting there. The server eventually came hurrying over to us, apologizing for the wait, took our order, and about half an hour later we had our meals, a delicious seafood paella for me and a delicious sausage and mushroom paella for Tom, served up with more profuse apologies from the waitress. I figure she must run from table to table apologizing to everyone all night long. an Anyway, I asked our server if this was a busy night or if the restaurants were this busy every night. Every night, she replied, and every day, all day, morning to night. “But it’s good for the boss,” she said with a smile, “and good for me, too.” Los Arcos at night. |
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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