We owe Barry for last night’s recommendation of Albergues. Even with the Asian crowd getting up at 5:30 and turning on all the lights after closing us into a tomb all night (why do they hate air flow at night so much?) this was still a great place.
Surprisingly, Pam and I weren’t the last ones out. Pam wanted to go check out the meditation house in town and then we would grab some breakfast. On the way to the house, we passed Pam, Mike, and Rachael in front of another albergue having breakfast. We talked a few minutes with them and headed on.
The meditation house was pretty cool. It was more of a living art exhibit. The owner definitely has the heart of an artist. He has mood lighting and background music. It really is a tranquil space, inside and out. There are gardens out back and grottos in the cliff side behind the house. We spent a lot more time here than I thought we would.
Coming out, we face a decision. Go forward and look for a restaurant or go back to where we saw Mike, Pam, and Rachael eating. We chose back. Just as we arrived, they left. I’m sure it’s just coincidental and nothing to do with my charming personality. I decided to try a potato and cheese tortilla, egg is just a binder (or so I hope). It wasn’t too bad, I just hope I don’t get sick eating chicken abortions.
As soon as you get out of town, the trail climbs about 400′ straight up. It looked harder than it actually was. I made it all the way to the top without stopping. I had just dropped my pack and was getting ready for a rest until Pam got up when she popped up in front of me. She didn’t stop either and almost kept up with me all the way to the top. We decide to wait a few minutes to see if Shaun was behind us. We hadn’t seen him since we left and we had part of his lunch with us.
Ten minutes of waiting and we decided he must not have gotten any breakfast in town and just decided to head on. We took off to catch up with him. Sure enough, he was at the rest area on the other side as were Pam, Mike, Rachael, Maria, and Anton. That was a quick 5 miles and the only hard part we had today.
Everyone took off ahead of us except for Shaun. We caught up with the PM&R at the crossing from Burgos Provence to Palencia Provence. About 50 yards later we saw Maria and Anton coming out of the woods. I yelled at them to get their clothes on and Maria said they were fully dressed “this time”. They are sweet kids and fun to mess with.
It was just a short mile walk to the cafe in town where we stopped for a second breakfast (I’m going to convert everyone to Hobbits yet). By this point in the trail, we see twenty to thirty people every day that we know to some degree and the cafe was a good gathering spot.
We had a five mile stretch up to the next town of Boadilla del Camino where we hiked with Pam, Mike, and Rachael. We didn’t get to talk to them much the first night we met because we were at opposite ends of the table. Pam and Mike are both retired and have just sold their house. That means, we finally met another homeless couple. They are going to box everything up as soon as they get done with the Camino and put it in storage. Next step is to move to Seattle to be closer to their two daughters and decide if they like the Pacific Northwest better that Alabama. To me, no competition.
When we made it to town, Shaun and I were out front and we saw a bar called Tatas. We knew this was where we had to eat lunch. Pam (my Pam, not Alabama Pam) followed us all the way. We lost track of Alabama Pam and her posse. We dropped our packs and I got change for the vending machine to get a couple of Aquarius’ (like Gatorade but not as sweet). The machine ate my second donation without returning a drink. I tried to get help, but the owner was convinced I was lying and wanted more money. He eventually gave me the drink, but bad feelings were left behind.
It was at this point he came over and licked my sandwich behind all of our backs. Or maybe Pam had been playing with a dog’s butt. Or maybe we shouldn’t buy refrigerated salami a full day before we need it and carry it in our packs on a hot sunny day. Whichever it was, I started feeling a little churning in my stomach not too long after lunch. It’s still suspicious to me that Pam only took two little slices of the salami and gave me the vast majority of the package for my sandwich.
I know this will sound unlike me, but I struck up a conversation with the only other couple still in the courtyard before we left. They were a young couple, obviously American because he had a big “G” on his shirt. I couldn’t place it, but I accused him of being a GreenBay fan. He vehemently denied it and said “Georgia”–almost as bad, but it’s just college. Blake and Taylor are blasting through the Camino already cutting 2 days off our pace. He’s thinking about quitting his job next year and hiking the AT. At this point, I would like to apologize to his parents for all the money they spent on college, but I encouraged him to do so. I asked if they had trail names yet. They don’t so I’m taking the it to task and assigning them the names of “Swift” and “Lively”.
There was only about 4 miles left to make it to Fromista. It was an eneventful walk along a canal. The Spanish have a very extensive canal and aqueduct system in this region. Also, very old. When we crossed the gates, there was water coming out of all the walls holding the water back. I was afraid to stay on the bridge long. If one little kid and a pinky can make such a big difference, it would take an entire grade school to stop this from going.
I was really dragging now. I’m usually the fastest walker in the morning. Pam is the fastest walker after lunch. Shaun is the fastest at the end of the day when he’s tired and beer is close by. Shaun took off. We were running to try to keep up. He headed straight for the municipal.
We passed Paul, Bob, and Chris having a drink outside a restaurant. We couldn’t stop to say more than hi. We got 3 beds in the back room of the municipal. To ensure our ability to breathe through the night, Shaun took one side of the window and Pam and I got the other–this damn thing was staying open tonight.
As soon as we got in, I fell down on the bed and took a nap. I have never done this. About an hour later I woke up and Shaun asked me if I was OK. He said I looked more like I did a 32 mile day instead of a 16. I ran to the bathroom and proved him right. This is when the vomiting and diarrhea began. Pam and Shaun went to dinner without me. They knew the 75 foot path they would find me along.
