We can’t quite get the zero days down to where we get quality rest. Even though we said we were not going to drink…we drank. And drank. And didn’t eat anything more than popcorn for supper. To make our rest day even tougher, we scheduled early morning massages so we couldn’t even sleep it completely off.
Pam’s massage was first at 9 with mine right after at 10. I had to sit in the lobby of the massage area because she is uncomfortable with a male therapist. Carlos was good. He had the feel more of a chiropractor in addition to massage therapist. He made adjustments to our frames as well as a deep tissue massage. He also taped my right Achilles’ tendon because it tends to flare up after 14 miles or so with all the road walking.
After the massage, I headed back to the pensione to find both Pam and George asleep. I’d also run into Shaun just as he was headed to an Albergue and told him he could stay with us since we have a fourth bed not being used.
Pam was cranky which means one of two things: 1) she’s awake, or 2) she’s hungry. We had ran into Linda, Peter, and Brenda on the way to our massages earlier and we ran into Brenda again when we were heading out to get some food. We wandered around for quite a while but couldn’t find an actual restaurant that served food until 1p. We settled on a snack to hold us until a pizza place started serving. Brenda skipped the pizza after her snack. We agreed to meet back up in Astorga in 2 days to help celebrate her…39th birthday?
Pizza leads to naps for men who might have imbibed too much last night (Shaun and George) while Pam and I headed out to find a laundromat and blog for a while. It’s a bigger chore than you might think to find a laundromat. It took us over an hour to actually find an open one. While we were sitting there working, Helen and Lise walked by. They had also taken the day of in Leon and will be heading out in the morning.
Pam still had two more missions for the day–find lip balm, and eat ice cream. We thought George would be interested in the latter but when we got back to the room, he and Shaun were gone. They texted us and told us they were heading to the same bar we were at last night. This was one of those times when Pam and I agreed we didn’t want any more alcohol.
We went and met them for a bit. We also ran into Andre and Kathleen again. They are going to b heading to the same town we are going to tomorrow so we’ll probably end up hiking with them again for some of the way.
George is planning on returning to the trail. He’s going to walk for several days out of Leon to get to the Cruz de Ferro (the famous cross where you leave a stone you’ve been carrying with you). From there, he’s going to catch a bus forward to Sarria which is the required location to hike in from to be a pilgrim. He’s timing it so we will all end up in Compestella within a day or two of each other. I’m glad he’s returning to the trail and I’m happy to see him tackle it at his own pace rather than trying to go at our pace and be miserable.
Madrid is playing in the football semi-finals, so the normal hopping town of Leon is all sizzling tonight. George and Shaun couldn’t be tempted to leave the bar even for ice cream. Pam and I left them to walk around town a bit before ice cream and left over pizza. We’re going to turn in early so we will feel refreshed in the morning to resume our pilgrimage.
