Ahhh jugo de naranja (oj), tostado y café con leche. I'm in heaven. Short walk, but downhill today. On the morning I left Acebo. The hike down was as expected very steep pretty much the whole way down. What was unexpected was that it was made up of loose rocks and large pieces of worn stone. My instructions from Josef for going down hill was to take small steps, take normal flexion, and keep your feet straight. None of that is possible on this kind of surface. But I made it down and the knee was ok. The views were incredible and the trail was often times open and other times like an open tunnel. I have pictures, but I've been having trouble uploading photos to Facebook. I stopped in this one little village for café and the lady gave me a couple of different coffee cake things, one from a bakery. Very yummy. So I made it to Ponferrada, did my usual and got settled in the Albergue. Then I went sight seeing to see the large castle of the Knights Templar. It was in fact huge. I also had to go to the Basilica and La Torre del Reloj. Then there was dinner to be eaten, and well, then it was time for bed. So there was no time in my busy schedule to write.
Today I went through a string of little villages. I stopped several times for café or coca cola lite, and sometimes something to eat. At one of these stops I wrapped my knee again. I had decided to leave it unwrapped today because the trail was pretty flat. But, for some reason it started squawking, so I wrapped it. I think yesterday took a toll. After I wrapped it, it was pretty happy and I cocked right along except for all my refreshment stops and all my church stops. All of these little villages we went through had at least one church and sometimes two or three. And they were all right there along the sidewalk and they were all open. So often the churches are closed when we go by them. I lit lots of candles, said lots of prayers and got my passport stamped a lot. I filled up the Credential I brought with and now I'm starting on my Spanish one.
It just occurred to me you might not know what I'm talking about when I say Credential. You get an official Camino Credential from one of the Confraternities and it is filled out with your name, country, province or state, your government passport number, and the date and place where you start the Camino. These serve two purposes, one you can't stay in the Albergues without one because only pilgrims can stay in the Albergues. Second, when you get to Santiago, you need to present it as proof that you actually walked or road a bike or horse on order to get your Compestela, which is a certificate showing that you completed the Camino. Actually you only have to walk 62 miles or ride 124 to get a Credential, but everyone gets them stamped from the beginning. It's a badge of honor. Though I hear some people cheat. Imagine that!
The last part of the walk today was up steep hills and seemed to go on forever, coming, as it did at the end of fifteen miles. But the views and scenery were very nice. I finally got to the municipal Alberguegot checked in, found out the had wifi, and was getting read to shower etc. when the bed bug drama began. First they found one in one room and everyone scampered out of there. Then another one was found in another room. My bed was in a hallway, but I was still starting to itch at the thought. Bed bugs are a problem on the Camino because you have people from all over the world coming and the beds are slept in by a different person every night. It only takes one person bringing them from home and it spreads. I have a sleep sack that has been treated to keep them out and I sprayed my back pack before I left Pamplona. But I still got itchy just thinking about it. So I packed up a moved to the Albergue down the street. It was the one of the four I did not want stay at because of reports that it wasn't in good shape. But it's fine and they had a communal dinner that was good for seven euro the bed was five. So twelve euro for a dinner and a place to sleep. Not too bad.
Tomorrow is another fifteen mile day, if all goes as planned. The last part will be a steep climb again and the following day will start with the rest of the climb up that mountain into Galicia. I have a blister or blisters, I can't quite figure out what is going on, on my long toe, next to my great toe on my right foot. And it hurts like a son of a bitch. I hope it calms down by morning or I may have to amputate.
Well it's lights out and time to sleep. I look forward to waking up in the morning with lots of messages from all of you. Nitey nite.
No comments:
Post a Comment