Camino Day #8

?Habla Usted ingles?

Romanesque door dating back to the 10th century. 

Winery and monastery (disbanded in 1985)  where you can fill you bottle with WINE or water for free. The vending machine dispensed wine glasses for 1€

Pilgrim drinking fountain

Today we walked 11.1 miles. I did much better today. We arrived at Villamayor De Monjardin (name is bigger than the town) at 3:15pm. The hostels were full. We took the last hotel room in the town  ( only 3 rooms in the whole town). There were 50 hostel beds in town but they were full---offering people to sleep on floor. Remember our rule---no floors. We feel extremely blessed to get this private room.  The next town is 5 miles away. 

Yesterday was grueling. I am not GI Jane.  Sam updated the blog because I couldn't lift the IPHONE.  The pack is killing me on the walks greater than 10 miles (yesterday was 12.6 miles). My hips felt like I'm was wearing an iron jacket ( it would be lead in the USA but everything is rusty, old and iron here). Snails past me on the trail yesterday. 

After 3:00pm on the Camino you are risking not be able to find a bed, let alone a room in your village. Yesterday we arrived at 4:30. We came to the first Albergue (hostel) into town and I parked my sorry ass on the barstool in front if the kind señora running the place. Sam wanted a private room because we both slept very little the night before because of multiple señor snorers in the 16 bed-one room hostel on Sunday night.  No amount of Ambien could have silenced that night. 

I wasn't walking any further to look for a private room. My iron coat had developed matching boots. Sam is so strong. He looked and felt great. He was carrying my sleeping sack already and was now offering to carry my entire pack + his about 1 mile back.  I couldn't do that to him--I persevered. He was very encouraging. I was a little cranky. 

So we got a nice room with 4 beds and nobody else arrived after us so we had the room alone. Shows how late we were coming off the Camino. Yahoo!

It's disheartening for me when old people pass me on the Camino. Christine (66+years old &  from new Zealand) and her husband, Eric (same age) stayed in The same hostel Sunday night. We shared a shower so I feel like we are best friends now. Well they flew by us on the trail. Chatting it up about stopping for sardines and wine for lunch. I mean flew by us like she was on speed or had a cape.  Then Sam notices that she doesn't carry a pack. Huh?

So we all sit down for the pilgrims dinner at 7:00 pm last night and we sit across the table from them. I commended them both on their stamina and speed. Then Eric tells me that Kristine was miserable before the backpack service started moving her pack to the next destination. What????  Backpack service????  Huh??

Yep. So you can bet that this morning Kristine and my pack were tagged together and waiting for the service today. The best $10 that I have ever spent.  Sam took some stuff out of his pack to lighten his load a bit, too and crammed it into my bag. 

So I'm cheating a bit until I become a stronger pilgrim. I booked the service for tomorrow, too!  

Dinner time. Adios. 

Look sis...no pack!!!  I was trying to make it look like I was wearing the archbishop's hat.  

pinot Grigio  anyone ?