Castuera to Campanario

As we were getting the bus today, i turned my alarm off, we had agreed that we would have a long lie in bed until Ken's alarm went off at 0700 - had had set it to that time at the start of our camino and couldn't remember how to unset it. Of course, it was all a waste of time anyway because he couldn't hear his alarm anyway. True to form he never heard his alarm today.

We got up and had a light breakfast and returned the keys to the police station before heading off to the bus station in town. The cafe in the station was open and so we sat for a while and had the treat of a proper morning coffee.

People started to arrive for the bus, and before long it was time to go, the journey of 20km cost €1.80, yet in Scotland, a bus journey of about 1 mile to the supermarket costs over £3, it was another reminder of how rubbish and expensive public transport in Scotland is, and the bus was air-contidioned and immaculately clean.

The journey didn't take long and we arrived while the cafe's were still serving breakfast, but way too early to register in the albergue, so we went to the Plaza Espãna and had second breakfast, hobbit -like. We waited until 11am before going to the town hall to register for the albergue, they told us that the albergue was open and that if we made our way to it, someone would meet us there.

The albergue was just over 1km away, someone let us in and said they would be back at 5pm to register us and take our money, it was as described on the Gronze.com website as basic. We chose our beds and turned the mattresses over, but the underside wasn't any cleaner than the topside. The toilet/showers were not great, the shower was like an army barracks shower from the 1940s and the toilet was missing the button for the flush mechanism. Not great.

Just along the road there was a cafe, that seemed quite popular and so we went there, for lunch. the proprietor was a jolly guy who was absolutely delighted that to meet someone from Scotland, his favourite movie was Braveheart. I ordered tostada and he asked what I would like on it, and I, jokingly said that I would love bacon but would settle for butter and jam. A short time later, he brought out a plate of tostada with bacon and cheese on it, and it was amazing. we took our time, ordering beers and coffee, and phoned the hostal we would be staying in tomorrow to book our room.

we also chatted about the albergue, it had south-facing windows high up on the vaulted ceiling, and the room was already like a furnace by late afternoon, it was already in the 30s, and there were no windows we could open. Given that and the very basic standard of the accommodation, we decided to leave and see if we could get a room in the hostal we had passed further up the road. It turned out to be owned by the guy who owned the cafe where we had breakfast. The room was small and basic, but we each had a proper bed with clean sheets, and a decent bathroom along the hall, it cost us each €13 more than the albergue but it was well worth it.

I am still concerned about my blisters, they are a lot more painful than they should be. we have a rest day planned for tomorrow, as we will once more be getting the bus, as the nurse had told me to take two days off the camino. The hostal we were going to stay in had its own restaurant, so we can go there reasonably early and not walk about looking for a cafe. Apparently, the bus stop is the same one that we got off at this morning.

We settled down for a good night's rest in our clean beds.Leggi altro