Beginning the Camino de Santiago

It was a lovely evening. There were about 30 pilgrims in two dorms last night. We met lots of new people who were walking the Camino for the first time and a few that were veteran walkers.

This albergue is staffed by volunteers from the Dutch Confraternity of St James. Their coordinator had contacted us a few weeks ago and asked to do a story for their newsletter. They have a monthly spotlight of volunteers, and Phil and I are a known entity on the volunteer front. The volunteer in duty took several photos of us. It was almost embarrassing to have so much attention. The interview will take place by phone while we are volunteering in Grañón.

We attended Mass and helped bring pilgrims up for the special blessing at the end. The priest didn't speak English but welcomed everyone warmly. He had a beautiful, strong singing voice, and he and the few regulars sang a special song just in honor of pilgrims.

After Mass, we went to a community supper in a local restaurant. The menu never varies, but it is always good. I had pasta, followed by chicken and potatoes. My dessert choice was cheesecake, which the others all shared since I don't eat dessert. Others had fresh vegetable soup, grilled trout, and potatoes with ice cream.

We were tired and went straight to bed. I had a top bunk again. We were right by the bathroom door, so the automatic light kept me awake much of the night. I finally got up at 5:30. Phil got up about 6:30 and we left the albergue about 7:30 to walk to the next town for breakfast.

We had a couple of coffees and split an omelet sandwich . We said goodbye to several of our new friends there as they were walking much further today than we were.

We stopped at the grocery store to get supplies since our town tonight does not have a store. Then we went to a recommended hairdresser to get Phil's haircut. We were still very early for our checkin at the next town, so we stopped for another coffee to get fully caffeinated.

We arrived at noon, and the owners let us leave our bags. We went to the local restaurant for lunch and had ham and eggs. We met another pilgrim from Belgium while there.

After checking in at 2 p.m., we showered, washed our undies, and took a nap. We have a bedroom with twin beds and a shared bathroom. Our current housemates just arrived. They are two ladies from Holland on bikes. I think there will also be another couple before too long. It is interesting to see where everyone is from.

Tomorrow, we walk about 15 km or just under 10 miles to our next town.Read more