12 May 2008

We were up and on the road by 6:30. The day off did us good and we were full of energy and without pains. We had to cross the city which took about 2 hours on hard pavement. It was tough on our feet but frankly, everything is, especially the terrible rocky roads which we will share pictures of with you upon our return. On the way out of town, the path took us through the suburbs and finally through the interchanges leading to Leon. It was here that it became confusing as to where we needed to go, there were no real markers indicating the Camino paths. To make matters worse, there were a couple of choices. We wanted the road which was shorter by 6 kms and it was not clear which one that was. That is when we met a guy from Britain who had done the Camino 3 times already and was doing it now for the 4th time. (Crazy... ) He pointed us in the right direction and we set out. We moved from one small town to the next, in an almost seamless fashion. The landscape was much more industrial and far less pleasant to the eye not to mention really noisy because of traffic. Our path followed the road for about 24 kms. At on point, we stopped for cafe con leche and hot chocolate and, guess who we ran into yet again, Amanda and Stephanie. We were leaving and they were just arriving for the cafe so they suggested we meet for lunch in Villadangos del Paramo. When we got there, there was nothing but a panaderia where Bernie bought himself a sandwich. We sat on a bench outside and ate. I had been carrying a couple of yogurts and apples which we polished off which lightened our load. We did not see our friends in the distance even after eating so we pushed on to San Martino del Camino. Since we had always been in the habit of checking into the first Alberque in town, we decided to hold off and check in at the Municipal Albergue, at the end of town. Bad decision. It was so bad that we were the only people in the Albergue. A huge room with probably 50 bunk beds, a kitchen, men and women toilets and shower facilities, all to ourselves! Even there, we were on our own because the hospitaliero did not reside there. She just dropped in to tell us to close the door and lock it from the inside when we were ready for bed. To make matter worse, there was no place to eat in town. In Spain, most bars have a Comidor (a room where they serve meals). In this case, one bar was filled with elderly men, all of them smoking and playing cards and the other one was also full of elderly men playing cards but not much smoke. Neither place served food. The only option was the Mercado (grocery store) and they had nothing much. We settled for a Paella which is ready made and on the shelf. It had an expiry date of December 2009. How can chicken and seafood stay on a shelf for so long and not kill one? We microwaved our dinner and had it. We are still alive so... Since there was no one else with us, we were able to move a couple of beds into a good spot and plug in a heater found in the kitchen to warm us up a bit. I (Danielle) felt like big bird when I got into bed. The mattress sank so badly to the middle that I was like in a nest. We could not wait to get out of there. I (Danielle) went outside while Bernie was showering and, low and behold, Amanda and Stephanie were walking by on their way to Hospital del Orbigo. I felt like packing up and going with them. It was another couple of hours walk and we were both sore. Bernie had quite a lot of pain in one leg and Stephanie rubbed it with an analgesic cream. They sat and rested for while and took off. They cover a lot of ground because they have much less time than we do.