Baños - Calzada de Béjar 13km

I had been warned last night that the walk out of Baños began with a long steep ascent but when I woke up I was quite calm about it. I had to wear my fleece this morning for the first time as it was quite chilly at 0530. I walked through the town until I reached the old Roman path up the hill, and I was quite surprised by the ease with which I made my ascent, it felt like I was up and over the summit in no time at all.

I had decided to have a short day's walk, in part because I was not sure how I would cope with the hill and in part because it had been hard going the past few days. So I was going to stop at Calzada de Béjar. When I got there I wasn't sure if I had made the right choice, it was a very small village, in fact there were less than 100 residents and many of the buildings looked like they were about to collapse. I was ready for a coffee so I went along to the café, the sign on the door said open but it was closed, when I asked about it the answer I got was that it would open when the owner felt like opening.

Just then another peregrina arrived looking for the cafe and so I told her it was closed, she was in a little bit of a panic as she had run out of water and had some distance to go, so I gave her my water.

The reports of the albergue were good so I went along to find it also closed. The neighbours a few doors down were getting ready to go somewhere so I asked them when it would open and they basically phoned the owner to say I was there. The lady made a point of telling me it was a good house and that the lady who ran the albergue was a good person.

The owner arrived and I got booked in to a lovely large room, double bed and ensuite. I got my washing done for a few euros which was great. The lady had to remove the sheets she had drying on the line and was somewhat surprised when I offered to help her fold them, but she accepted the offer.

I went out later to go see if the café was open (it was, someone had phoned him to say there were half a dozen people waiting to get in), as I went out the door, I saw the owner sitting out front. She had an open Bible in her lap, and a large notebook and what looked like a study book. In my poor Spanish I told her that I was a Baptist pastor and she was astonished, she then told me that she had three sons, two of whom were Baptist pastors in Madrid and a third who was in seminary training to be a pastor. She was delighted to have another pastor as a guest in her home.

The café was open and I asked for the menu del dia, but instead of getting a menu I got the food they had available that day, that's how it is sometimes in Spain, but the food was good and not expensive and the owner and his wife were both very friendly.

There was no shop in the village so I had to make do with the fruit I had in my bag. The albergue owner left stuff out for my breakfast and with that there was nothing for me to do except read and listen to some music.Read more