(Distance 25 kms Time 7 hours)
The Day: Today was a good day. I made a strategic decision to walk in my hiking sandals vs my boots and it gave my little toe a break and my Achelle's heel only hurt a little. So we not only made good time but we were both finally able to really enjoy our surroundings. Early in the morning we met Mike from Canada and walked a bit with him. His pace however is much faster then ours and he moved ahead. We did however make our first mistake in directions. There were multiple options on ways to go and we had decided on one of the more traditional trails. God had a different plan. We thought we were following the right markers but somehow we ended up on an alternate route which took us to the town of Cardenuela. Upon arriving at an albergue we were surprised to find Mike and many of our new friends including a group of Italians that we have been "with" the past few days. We met some new friends too, Dami So from Liverpool England and Claudia from Germany. The albergue is not only nice but very reasonably priced as we got a private room with our own bath for just 18 Euro ... that is luxury on the Camino!
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| our path in the morning ... the moon in front of us and the sun behind |
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| cross at the top of the mountain |
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| sun flower fields as far as you can see |
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| laundry lines at the albergue |
The People: I've mentioned our new friends. Dami So and Claudia who are college students and Mike works in a mental health hospital in British Columbia. The mix of people is interesting with many of the people we meet being younger than our kids. Age however is not a barrier on the Camino ... the path and challenges are the same for everyone and there is almost a family feeling with all. In a special way, there are the Italians. They are all friendly and all very loud & animated ... but in a fun way. Tonight before a communal dinner and after a few pitchers of sangria, everyone took turns singing there national anthem ... we had Italy of course, France, Mexico, Germany, England and Betsy's attempt at USA which the Italians goaded her into singing by starting the tune (just like in the movie where they greeted Martin Sheen). Kind if cool and a lot of fun.
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| the Italians! |
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| Dami So, Mike, Jee Young, Claudia and Betsy |
