18.5 km
A Beer Day!
October 17, 2011
Well this day did not start off that great. About ½ km down the road, I realized I couldn’t find my camera. I had quite a nifty set up, I thought; I attached my camera to one of those pull out cables, normally for keys. Then I would attach it to my pack or pants so I would never leave it or drop it. I kept it in the right pocket of the hip-belt of my pack but it was not there this morning. I quickly searched my other pockets but to no avail. I told the others about my situation and said I would have to go back to find it. I would maybe see them later.
So, back I went with thoughts of lost pictures and what would I do, but somehow I calmed and was already thinking about a Camino with no pictures. There would be nothing I could do if I had lost it.
When I got back to the albergue, I saw the Japanese pilgrims. It was already after 8 am and we were to be out by then. I came through the back way and saw the woman doing some kind of stretches and her things were strewn all over her room. She wasn’t in any hurry. I checked the door where I had come in to register and it was locked. The people didn’t live there and wouldn’t likely be back till 1 pm. Again, I resigned myself very quickly to waiting because I was sure I must have laid it down in that room.
I took my pack to the dining area and decided to pull everything out of it. And there it was! My camera had slipped to the bottom my pack when I was in a hurry to put everything in earlier. Well, that was a relief! Off I went and really hadn’t wasted too much time.
I walked 5.5 km to the town of Belorado. As I searched for a bar to get a coffee con leche, and take a rest, I ran into my German friends sitting outside in the sun, having second breakfast, as we liked to call it. Martina had pulled up stakes the night before, at the albergue she had registered in along Camino behind us. She felt a little creeped out as there was no one else there so she took the bus to Belorado, ahead of us, to stay at a parish hostel.
The four of us walked basically together today, or would decide to meet up at the next bar in the next village. It was a wonderful day of walking and drinking beer and eating jamon bocadillos (ham on crusty bread). I was not extremely fond of these as I felt I had to fight with my sandwich to get a bite out of it. One fellow I spoke to said he cut his lip on a piece of crusty bread. It’s tough!
We walked about 18.5 km today to Villafranca Montes de oca. This village was situated at the bottom of a pretty good climb that could wait for tomorrow. Hans and Martina decided to get their own rooms in the nice hotel to get some privacy and sleep and Gerti and I checked into the adjoining albergue. It had a couple of large rooms filled with nice wooden bunks and the bathrooms and showers were nice and clean. I almost felt like I had a hotel room. We picked the bunks by the window and stuck our smelly boots out on the ledge. We had failed to see where to put them, on the way in. Most places made you put your boots in certain spots. Good idea cause...well...Whewww! It was smelly enough!
With the big city of Burgos just two days walk from here and the last two days of walking for Gerti and Martina, Hans was already planning. Gerti told me he wanted to pay for our hotel rooms in Burgos. Wow! What a generous offer. I was planning to get a hotel room and have an additional rest day in Burgos. I would have to think about it.
I had time tonight to get some email messages sent and I bought some food from a small store for the trip the next day.
 |
| Martina and Hans relaxing in comfort |
We enjoyed a pilgrims menu in the hotel but it felt like fine dining! As usual, the conversation was in German, with Gerti translating. It was a nice treat and the wine flowed again, but, the good little pilgrim that I was, I was in bed by 8:30. My legs were just throbbing and my feet felt really hot. I used vaseline mixed with drops of peppermint essential oil to cool them off. It seemed to help.
It must have been a beer day cause I hardly took any pictures today!
No comments:
Post a Comment