H Asturias - Baños de Montemayor 24 km

The Dutch man whom I had passed on the way to Riolobos was also staying at the Hostal Asturias but he feeling very unwell, it was obvious that he was in need of some medical attention. It was agreed that since Rita was already organised to go to Aldeanueva del Camino by taxi, I would go with her so we could take the Dutch man (I forget his name) to the medical centre there. We dropped him off and wished him well, I was pleased to meet him six days later in Salamanca and to hear that he was fully recovered. From Aldeanueva, Rita and I set off together to walk to Baños de Montemayor.

The walk was almost entirely on the road and steadily uphill, and that's about all you could say about it. I arrived at the albergue just ten minutes before it opened. It was very nice, clean with good toilets and showers, and my room was very comfortable. The albergue doubled up as a tourist museum of sorts, they had an area with two ancient Apple Mac PC's that still worked. By mid afternoon another Peregrino arrived in my room, a Spaniard called Manuel, he was friendly and polite. A German cyclist arrived at 1730, she asked me where I was from and when I said Scotland, and she immediately made comments about how the Scots speak English so badly. Her English was flawless. It reminded me of an encounter I had early in my camino when a French lady asked me what country I was from because the language I was speaking sounded a bit like English! Later in the evening the German cyclist came in wearing an actual dress - you don't see that often on the camino, and she invited me to mass, I thanked her and declined the invitation.

Baños is a lovely town, it has been a spa town since Roman times, many tourists come to visit the spa and Rita and the French ladies were going to have a go. I preferred sightseeing. I had a nice dinner, arroz negro (black rice), it was only weeks later that I discovered the rice is blackened with squid ink and that it wasn't prawns but pieces of squid in it. I would never have chosen it had I known, but it was delicious and I would (and did) have it again.

For such a popular town, Baños lacks shops, there is no supermarket, just a garage 'shop', and a very, very tiny corner shop, that sold a little bit of everything, and I was able to get a few snacks for tomorrow's stage.Läs mer