It was a wonderful rain last night!! Thunder. Lightning. And I slept thru most of it. 😩
We were up at 5:45am. I took a shower this morning, first time I have done that. We are mostly packed each morning from the night before, so it didn’t take long too be ready to go. We walked outside and over to the kitchen, hoping for a cup of tea, but we couldn’t find any cups. Some small juice glasses served the purpose, although it was hard to hold onto them they were so hot. We had a piece of bread with cheese for breakfast, plus some muesli.
Back to the room to retrieve our packs and we were out the gate. That was a wonderful place to stay. Grassy yard with lounge chairs. Clean private room.
The trail continued where it left off yesterday, tree lined the entire day. 11 miles of London Plane trees lining the route, providing afternoon shade.
Sally and Becky walked together and I got out in front a little. I put in my earbuds and listened to “Iberia” by James Michener. It was good to learn the history of Spain, along with lessons in Spanish culture.
The first town, Religios, was 8 miles out. We took a number of short breaks and were soon walking with the “Georgia Boys” (2 men in their early 70’s from Georgia) and Sue (52 yr old woman from Toronto). We stopped at the first cafe in town for sodas and a tortilla de patata. At this point we only had 3.5ish miles to go to Mansilla de las Mulas. Flat, straight and still tree lined.
We stopped to pose for pictures at one of the pilgrim statues, mimicking the exhausted poses of the statues.
We walked down the street looking for our hostel/hotel. The further down the street we went the seedier the town looked. At #12 the doors were locked. We inquired at a bar a door further down the street. No help. I went back to #12 and phoned. A woman picked up. A few moments of broken Spanglish between us was confusing until I said “Nosotros Aquí”. Right after that the door opened and a woman with cell phone to her ear beckoned me in from my position across the street. We walked through the empty restaurant to a bar, registered and she led us to our room on the 1st floor.
Our trip in the front door and through the restaurant gave us a sneak preview of what our room was going to be like. The
Entrance way was in disarray with stuff piled in the corners. The restaurant, shuttered until later in the evening was tidy enough, but felt like walking thru a 1943 European themed movie set, all square tables with white table cloths and centered vases, lights off with just enough light thru the front windows to reveal the shapes of the tables and the path thru them. We followed her up stairs and two doors to the right to room 102. She let us in, handed us the key and disappeared. I don’t think she wanted to stay and hear our gasps of dismay. The room was as stark as can be imagined with three uncomfortable looking beds. The walls were dirty, the floor needed sweeping and the curtains were torn. We giggled to ourselves and repeated the mantra that gets us thru events such as these, “Well, we wanted an adventure!”
Becky pushed the drapes aside to reveal floor to ceiling windows looking out on the two lane Main Street through town and the bank with ATM across the narrow street.
hmmmm . . . Let’s go find dinner and a grocery store. Our attempt to avoid excessive time in this depressing room.
Consulting mapping apps on our phones we found only one store selling groceries open, a gas station quickly store. It is Sunday, and voting day for regional elections, making everything closed. But, It was open until 10:00. As an added bonus it was down near the bus station that we needed to visit to make a reconnaissance foray to for Sally’s planned bus trip tomorrow. We decided to find a restaurant for dinner first, before they closed for the afternoon, then to the grocery store and bus station.
We found a restaurant only a block away and ducked inside just as the brooding thunderstorm overhead decided to mix falling water in with the lightning and thunder we had been watching and listening to for the last half hour.
They offers a pilgrim’s meal, but would not let Sally and I share one. What we hoped would be a €12 meal became a €24. Cream of vegetable soup and salmon and fries with dessert.
The sky was done with rain for the moment so we walked across this small town to the bus station. Of course it was closed so we could not even ask questions. However, a bus was at the station and the driver was collecting fares. Sally went over to ask him questions, standing behind two elderly women waiting to board. This is when we met the town drunk.
A man in his 40’s (I’m guessing here, he could have been anywhere between 30 ans 65) was screaming loudly in the door of the bus and hassling the poor bus driver. The two ladies moved away from the bus to avoid him. Eventually he stood back from the bus, yelling at it or someone inside, somewhat taunting both.
We did meet a pilgrim we knew who was also riding tomorrow morning and we found a schedule that confirmed what we had seen on the web, so we were satisfied we knew how to catch the bus in the morning.
We walked down to the grocery. Little did we realize the inebriated dude was headed that way too, arriving just after we did. We were inside selecting what we would eat tomorrow for breakfast and lunch when we saw the owner outside the window yelling at someone and waving him away from the door. The drunken man wanted in to by booze but the owner obviously knew of him and refused to sell him anything. This went on for a few minutes. Frustrated, the drunk turned around and dropped his pants, mooning the store owner, then walked away. Soon the owner was back inside ringing up our items as if nothing unusual had happened. An everyday occurrence?
We walked back to our room on the opposite side of the street from our stellar citizen and spent the rest of the evening relaxing, packing, reading and writing. The Internet worked in the closed restaurant, but didn’t reach to our room. I spent some time on the cluttered outside 2nd floor deck where I could get signal uploading this blog and hoping the thunderstorm would let loose while I was out there under cover, but other than a momentary sprinkler of rain there was no show.
Sally and I slept in our sleeping bags rather than under those suspect sheets. Becky slept in the sheets and even took a blanket from the cupboard for added warmth. Brave person.
Stork nest are on nearly every church steeple and bell tower
The path is lined with trees for tens of miles
It is hard to believe corn can germinate in this rocky ground
Instructions for human waste disposal
Me, Sally, Sue (Canada), Jeff(Georgia) Becky, and Doug(Georgia). The Georgia Boys
Wide sidewalks on bridges
Another photo of the tree lined path
Exhausted pilgrims, both stone and human
Less than stellar accommodations in Mansilla de Las Mulas
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