Day #19

Ancient Roman bridge leading into the village

I can't fill in the name of this village because I forgot where the hell we are today. 

Sam is asleep so I can't ask the navigator. But I can tell you about our hostel & dinner group tonight!

We walked 9.2 miles today in the pouring rain. I didn't want to wear my rain pants when we left this morning because they make me sweat. Instead I got soaking wet through my hiking pants, but I didn't get sweaty. Sam wore his rain pants--I bet nobody's surprised with that news. It only rained 3 hours of our 5 hour walk so that was nice. 

We are at a private hostel call "Verde" in Hospital de _______.  We have a private room with twin beds for 12€ each.  We could have stayed in the 14 bunk bed dormitory for 9€ each,  but we splurged tonight. Its so rare to get a private room in a hostel.  1€=$1.40 approx    

Dinner was a vegetarian meal and offered to pilgrims for a "donation". Sam's sister-in-law, Leisa, would have loved it since she is a vegetarian. It's very Buddha here. It's our first Veg. Meal since we've been in Spain. Leisa would starve on the Camino. She is still having nightmares over the picture of the pig hooves at the counter of the lunch cafe. 

We had miso & orzo soup, vegetable & rice curry and banana/pear cake. Everything was homemade by our hostel manager/chef. She does not use any animal products at all. They are all green hence the name "Verde".   It was very good. 

At the dinner table tonight we had 7 people from 4 countries speaking 3 different languages.  It was quite a challenge. Thank you to my sister, Nancy, for downloading Google Translator for me. It was fun to play with the App at the table. We took turns passing    around my IPhone and speaking German, English and Spanish directly into the phone and showing everyone the written translation. Everyone laughed and thought it was amazing. The Australian young woman downloaded it at the table onto her smartphone. 

Also, thank you to Nancy for setting up this blog for us. I never thought it would be so fun to blog!  I'm not a good sleeper, so I have always read books in the evening & the middle of the night to get sleepy. Books are too heavy for the Camino so now I write instead of read. Thanks big sister!  I love you so much!   

Stopping to smell the sunflowers.  We have passes acres and acres of sunflowers but they are all past their prime except for this little guy by the side of the road. 

The Way

Rain, rain, rain. 

The cornfields have replaced the vineyards. Corn isn't nearly as much fun to nibble on while walking on the trail. 

Adios!