A day in Almería

We slept ok in the hostel, there were a couple of other people in the room, and English guy and a French girl who was a bit noisy but she quietened down before it got too late. As noted in the previous footprint, the all-important showers were good, however, the WiFi was dodgy, as in Google warned me that I shouldn't join it, but that was ok, I have a great mobile contract, and had no worries about using data while in Spain, and we had 5G coverage in the albergue. It is surprising how many people come to Spain to walk a camino who don't make sure that they have suitable mobile coverage. On my last camino I met an American who had thought his phone would 'just work' in Europe. Due to the number of camino apps now available, giving a gps trail of the camino, a mobile phone has become one of the most important pieces of equipment on any camino.

We didn't have to check out until 11 am, but there was no reason to stay, and just like airports, most albergues are designed as transitory spaces, but we both also wanted breakfast, so we checked out about 8 am. The sun was shining, and the city was waking up, slowly coming to life, a bit like us really. It didn't take long to find a café that had opened early, and so we got the classic camino breakfast of tostada and coffee, and it was good. I have never had a bad coffee in Spain (unlike Berlin where I never had a good one), and the average cost of a cup of coffee here is €1.30 compared to £3-£4 in Scotland.

We would not be able to get into the albergue, La Estrella del Camino, until much later in the day, so we had a lot of time to fill. So, we decided to go and find where the cathedral was, as that would be the starting point for the camino tomorrow. It is quite an impressive building, much more like a fortress than a cathedral. It is the only cathedral in España that doesn't have a cupola. The flat roof was designed to help hide it from pirates sailing by, knowing that churches would have items of gold and silver if they saw the cupola they would attack the church, and so the cathedral was remodelled to counter that threat. Any pirate would have been mad to try, as I said it's built like a fortress.

The history and culture of modern España have been shaped as much by its muslim past as by its Christian one and so moorish names and architecture are everywhere in the city. I wanted to visit the moorish fort (The Alcazaba) at the top of the hill above the city, Ken wasn't too keen but we had nothing else to do, so off we went.

It was a bit of a climb, especially with our heavy backpacks, but it was worth it. Entry was free, and it was quite busy with a steady flow of tourists going up and down the hill. The architecture and history of the fort was fascinating, and the views were amazing, but surprisingly, there was no gift shop. The toilets, however, were terrible, not just bad, they were truly terrible. To be fair to the cleaners, there was just one male toilet and one female toilet for one of the busiest tourist attractions in Almería, and there was queue that never seemed to get smaller.

We wandered back into town, heading for the seafront, thinking we could find a bench to sit at and get our towels dry in the fierce heat of the sun. Instead, we stopped at an outdoor cafe and had a fabulous lunch. Afterwards, we were almost at the seafront when Nely, the hospitalera from Albergue, messaged us to say we could drop off our backpacks if we wanted to, and boy, did we want to.

We met Nely, and my first impression was that she was a joyful person, the kind of person you warm to instantly. She also turned out to be a goldmine of information about the Mozárabe. She confirmed that booking albergues is essential in some places on the route. Not all are manned, and for some of them if we didn't book for saturday and sunday before 3pm on the Friday, we wouldn't get in. Some albergues needed to be booked as much as two weeks in advance, and fortunately for us Nely, very kindly called some and booked them for us. I should say that we had a very detailed route plan worked out and so we knew when we would be in a particular town. We were so glad that we had decided to stay with her.

She took us to the cathedral for the pilgrim blessing service that evening. It was a lovely service, and I found it quite moving when the priest prayed for the six people about to embark on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, with a response from the congregation.

It was very different from my faith tradition, but it made me wonder if we are missing something of the mystery of Christ and the glory of God in our services. It also gave me opportunity to reflect on religious prejudice. Many Christians from Protestant traditions, especially the so-called evangelical traditions, are very negative about Roman catholicism. In his homily, the priest spoke about people's perception of Jesus as a good man who said and did good things, and he acknowledged the truth of that. However, he said, Jesus was more than just a good man who said and did good things, for he is the saviour, the only saviour and we can only be saved because of his blood shed for us on the cross. I doubt very much that any evangelical Christian would disagree with that statement, but I think they would be shocked to know that it was a Roman Catholic priest who said it. Of course, I doubt very much if those same evangelical Christians have ever been to a Roman Catholic service, or have any Roman Catholic friends. Prejudice thrives in ignorance. I personally know several Roman Catholics who are more Christ-like than some of the so-called born-again evangelicals whom I know.

After the service we all had our Compostelas stamped by the priest and would begin the camino in the morning, and so we went to bed, it had been a long day, but a good one.Læs mere