We climbed on up and then walked by the side of the road. It was so misty that we couldn't see any of the views, and the sun took a long time to break through and burn off the mist. It was a good 7km before the first cafe/bar ,and it was crowded. Nico was also not feeling good, but we persuaded him to walk on another km to the next bar, which we did. He ate a banana and some sports beans to keep going. At the next bar was a group of cyclists who had passed us on an uphill section, and we had cheered them on. I was dragging by now, and they returned the compliment. They were a funny group, who then entertained us with a dance.
We had coffee and colacao, sitting at at table with another couple of Irish people, who moved on sooner than we did. With a little more coffee in me and Nico, we started out again, and just kept walking. We filled our water bottles with cold, cold water from the fountain about 2.5 km down the road, and walked on. We decided to stop at the next village for a drink and something to eat, but it turned out to be a water stop only. I had to take my boots off, because I had got little pebbles in them that were really uncomfortable, and I felt my feet shudder when I had to put them back on.
Fortunately, the next village was less than a km down the road, and there we saw Andrew, sitting with the 2 Irish guys we had met earlier, so we joined them for a drink. There was no tortilla, but a rather nice looking cake, so Nico and Jonathan shared a piece, while I had a beer. We sat and talked and the conversation was very interesting. We could have sat and continued, but all of us knew that there was still almost 8km to go before Palas do Rei, and we had to make tracks.
I was walking on muscle memory, because my mind was elsewhere. I didn't want to walk, I just wanted to get finished, I didn't really enjoy the scenery, it was getting to hot, and I just wanted to be done. As a result, I have not taken any pictures so far today.
Eventually, we arrived at the outskirts of Palas do Rei, and walked past the large municipal albergue, down a track and into the town itself. We very quickly came to the albergue that Jonathan had picked out, went in and it was a bar. However the upper floors have been converted into dormitories, and so we registered, were shown our beds, set out our sleeping bags and went downstairs for a well-earned lunch of bocadillos. It is still very hot, and even after a shower, we are still a little uncomfortable.
We went through our afternoon routine of showering,washing out clothes and resting, before going to the supermarket to buy food to cook. Back in the albergue we found that although there were lots of utensils, there were no knives, so Jonathan and I went down to the bar to ask to borrow some. I had to go back down again for a lighter, because there was also no way to light the gas stove. The barman/hospitalero seems to be amused by all of this, and told Jonathan that a good pilgrim always carries a knife, a fork and a spoon with him. It is only in Galicia that we have been faced with this problem. The municipal albergues have kitchens, but no utensils at all, and now even the private albergues expect us to have a knife. From here on in to Santiago many of the albergues don't even have kitchens, so the boys' adventures in cooking might be over for a while.
We ate supper and then went down to the bar of a drink. I had a beer and the boys had colacao. It was a nice way to end what had been a difficult day.
The bar/albergue in Palas do Rei
No comments:
Post a Comment