Warm-up day to Rioja

After an interrupted 11hours of sound sleep, and upon some sensible reflection, I decided it would be really silly to walk 38 km on my first day. I enjoy those distances, but probably not on the first day. So I decided to walk 15 km out to a little town on the Camino and take a bus back to Almeria. Then tomorrow, it will only be 23 km to the albergue in Alboloduy.

So at a little after 9, I went down to the cathedral to start walking. There I met Nina, another peregrina, from Denmark. She will start tomorrow. On the way out of town, I met Veronica, a member of the local association, with whom I have corresponded. She was waiting at a bus stop to take her daughter to the doctor. Magical encounters like this abound on the camino.

The walk today was a typical first day walk out of a city. Lots of asphalt, through commercial areas, until about halfway. Then the arrows (which are excellent by the way) then took me to a stony dry riverbed. Not exactly a scenic highlight but it took me to Rioja and the bus stop. Santiago must have been looking out for me because a bus back to Almeria arrived exactly four minutes later.

After another visit to the castle with my Norte pals, we Took a tour of the Civil War shelters. That was really something. In a span of 14 months,500 Almeria citizens built 4 km of tunnels,where more than 30,000 people could go to escape the Nazi and Franco army bombings. Almería was the last province to surrender to Franco, and today it is certainly a badge of honor.

Then a great meet up with the Mozárabe folks anda bunch of wonderful folks I had never met in person, a few wines in a bar, and we are ready to go tomorrow!Read more