While we woke up early, we had a nice leisurely start. Breakfast at 6.30, easy pack up with the lights on and we set out the door around 8. We ended up doing only 10 miles today and so we pulled into our hostel around 1.30. We knew we would want to walk on, but we compromised by walking 2.2 kilometers past our original intended spot. If we had continued on we would have committed to mountains and 10 more miles. Even though we were feeling fine-after another 10 miles we would be REALLY HURTING if we continued on. OH my gosh. Can you tell that the hiker in us feels a little bad about not walking more?
However, the hostel we are in is adorable. I am so happy we are here. It has a lovely courtyard with seating up on the balcony. The wood beams are painted a really festive blue and the lady and husband who run it are young, friendly and efficient. Also, it's nice and clean. I'm really happy we ended up here. We've also been promised eggs and bacon for breakfast tomorrow. I really hope that's true! This morning we paid 4euro for breakfast that was essentially bread and jam but also had cereal and chorizo. However, the bread was toasted which was a delight.
We tried to drag the walk out today by going slow and sitting for a leisurely lunch. We walked mostly through dried hay fields,but all day we had the mountains in the distance. It was a really dramatic hazy morning when we started off with the sun turning the fields a beautiful golden color and the mist hanging low in the mountains. It made all the pilgrims look picture perfect as we walked along the road.
We wandered through a tiny town at about 11am. Everything was quiet except for the pilgrims having second breakfast and a little old lady with her tiny dog. It's interesting how quiet the villages are. This one (and most that we've gone through) have the church bells on top of the church in a wall that just sticks out from the top. Picture the images you have of little chapels in Texas or Mexico. It's really fun to see.
We are not sure what we will do tomorrow. We might do another short day into a bigger city, Astorga, or we might continue if we are feeling fresh and fine.
So far we are really enjoying the walk. Mostly it's very clear and easy to follow. However, there are times where there are millions of arrows pointing it a variety of directions and some are blacked out and then painted over with another arrow in a different direction or blacked out and painted over with an arrow in the SAME direction. While we have never truly gotten lost-the arrows will take you somewhere certainly- it is a bit frustrating. But aside from that water, coffee and food are all so easy to come by that you don't have to worry about carrying lots.
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