Day #3. No Room at the Inn!

Did you ever have a good idea at noon and then it's 5:00PM and it's not a good idea anymore?  Well, let me tell you an American tale. .  .

The plan today was to walk 7.5 miles across the foothills of the Pyrenees Mts--up and mostly downhill. We left Roncesvaloes at 8 am with the other 400 pilgrims. We arrived at noon at the village we were planning to stay overnight at, but feeling super good and that little village was "not happening, we decided to push on to the cool town of Zubiri---another 6.3 miles further. I realize that 6.3 sounds better than 13.8 miles total for the day...now. The difficult part was all the downhill--tough on the knees and calves. Oh well, we got here at 4:30 and all the hostels and hotels were full. No Vacancy. Ughhhh!  

One hostel offered us a mattress on the floor for 4€. I wanted to tell the nice Spanish lady , "you don't understand that it is a stretch for me to stay at hostels.  I prefer Hyatt or roughing it at a Hampton Inn, but I won't sleep on the floor--I have to draw the line somewhere. But my Spanish is not good, so we went looking elsewhere. 

A man was smoking in the street in front of the hostel he operated so I asked him where we could get a bed or a room. . He said " go to the bar, speak to the bartender, as for "Aurora". (His English was excellent). 

So we walk to bar and do what he says. This bartender does not speak English , but understands "Aurora.  He takes us outside and finds a sweet señora (Aurora) and she has rooms over the bar!!   We climbed 5 flights of stairs (did I mention my knees were aching?) and got a nice simple clean room for 30€. Sharing a bathroom in the hallway with 3 other rooms.  The Dutch couple we met in another hostel are also here.  Yahoo!

Tomorrow we walk 11 miles to Pamplona. We have a hotel reserved because we have a rest day planned for Saturday and site-seeing planned in the city.  

PS. No blisters!

Adios!