When I last posted we were waiting in Roncesvalles for the pilgrims office to open. At just after four the doors opened and we were let in. we were all handed forms to fill in with our vital statistics and were then given our pilgrims stamps. For the grand sum of six euros we also bought a bed for the night in the pilgrims' hostal. We then crossed the road to the hostal which looked from the outside like a huge barn. Inside were beds for as far as the eye could see, (our book said about 120).
We were greeted by the Hospitalaros who were volunteers from a Dutch society of St James, running the hostel on behalf of the Roncesvalles monks. We were issued with pillows and told to find bunks. After showers and laundry we headed to one of the two hotels in Roncesvalles to book our pilgrims' meal. At seven we sat down for the said meal, which started with pasta, then Lesley had fish, while I had a salad with a slice of Tortilla, this was followed with yogurt and all washed down with lots of red wine, all for the sum of 9 euros!
Following our meal we went to the abbey for the pilgrims mass and benediction, where we saw Donna the birthday girl from last night. After the mass was over I went for a nightcap with her, and she told me that we had faced 100 kph winds as we crossed the mountain.
After saying goodbye, I headed for the hostal which at 10 on the dot, was locked up and the lights were put out. After a reasonable nights sleep, at 6:30 the lights came slowly on and classical music was played to wake us all up. As a precaution, I had donned my eye patch and put in my ear plugs and at 6:45 Lesley had to gently prod me awake as I was the last person sleeping.
Before we left I had a long chat with one of the Dutch hospitalaros, who told me that they only did a two week stint at the hostal as early morning and late nights took their toll, especially if they had guests (as they had last night) who tried to get up at 4:30 to pack their bags and prepare to leave, and had to be told to go back to bed. She also told me about a book they kept with weird or unusual things that happened in the hostal. We are now in it as last night I had asked for a stamp for our Bear Gio´s pilgrims passport. Gio was their first pilgrim bear!
By 8 am we were on our way, walking through woods and meadows. 
However, within a very short space of time we got lost, this happened again later in the day as well. In five weeks in France we got lost once, in 1 day in Spain we lost our way twice. After a couple of hours walk we stopped in a small village for coffee and a snack. At about 1 we had our lunch of Chorizo and bread.
As we left the village of Zubiri the sky darkened and I said "it looks like rain" very soon after the heavens opened. We just had enough time to get waterproofs on before in came down in torrents, with great peals of thunder. Half an hour later, the sky cleared again and we began to roast in our waterproofs.
At about 4 we arrived at the town of Larrasoaña and went to the town hall to book in to the hostal. We had read that the mayor of Larrasoaña had made his own pilgrimage and knowing what pilgrims needed had set up the hostal. We had also heard good reports from our friends Sam and Martin, who had completed their own Camino a few years ago. Sadly things are now different, perhaps because of a change of mayor, the hostal has moved from the town hall to a converted garage across the road, where there must be about 30 or 40 beds all crammed in close together. The trouble is that there is only one toilet for men and one for women, which causes some log jams. However, every cloud has a silver lining and we discovered ours over beers and our meal later in the evening. It came in the form of three really nice people; Lucas from the Flemish part of Belgium who had begun his trip from his house, and had many tales to tell; then there was Gabriel a German Psychologist, and finally Jonas from Sweden, who is between jobs and fulfilling a dream of many years to walk the Camino. We had a great evening talking to the three of them, but there was also a bonus as well. Jonas had an Iphone, and when he heard our tale of woe about our charging cable, he brought his charger down to the restaurant where we ate, so Lesley and myself could recharge our Ipods. I was able to reciprocate the favour by showing him BlogPress the software we use for blogging. He was so impressed he immediately bought and downloaded it from Itunes as he had been having major problems with his blog that BlogPress should sort. this was the true spirit of the camino at its best, pilgrims helping each other with problems they face.
After a fantastic evening we headed back to the hostal contented with the world.
On the Camino in Spain
1 comment:
Ooh er! I don't like the sound of log jams at the toilets says Fred!
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