Only about 1/10 of a mile walk to and from lunch place so most of that 9.66 was on the trail.
We really enjoyed our stay in Villatuerta last night in a beautiful private room with two good beds and a window! Slept well, got up early for a simple but nutritious breakfast (coffee, boiled egg, yoghurt, toast) that had been left for us in the albergue. Chatted at breakfast with a man from Phoenix who complained quite a bit about Trump while we ate. (He was a republican.)
Got on the trail by 7:15. We’ve been trying to leave early in the cool mornings so we don’t have to walk as much in the afternoon sun. It’s been in the mid 70s and very sunny the past few days. The sun is quite hot when you are in it with no shade, especially going uphill. We are glad for the partly cloudy forecast tomorrow.
It was a pretty walk through green rolling hills. Tonight we are staying in Casa Rural Montedeio. We stayed here in 2013 and 2014. Worth repeating! It is now run by a family from the Netherlands. We will have dinner tonight with the family and any other guests who opt to dine with them. 17 euros each.
Getting an early start. Mornings are cool enough to require ear covers.Standing by itself in a field near the Camino path. Abandoned monastery built in the X or XI century. Now hermitage of San Miguel. The Irache wine fountain for pilgrims. The handle on the left dispenses wine, the one on the right dispenses water. We met this delightful young Spanish man from Andalucia there. He was friendly and asked us where we were from. We said United States. He asked “where in United States”. We said Albuquerque, New Mexico. His eyes lit up and he said “Breaking Bad!”Yes, I got some wine. Just a sip. Too early in the day. And not their best wine, I’m sure.Nice views on the walk. A great bar to take a break, get out of the sun, listen to classic rock music. They had a juke box booming. CCR, Beatles, Lennon (Imagine), Elvis, whoever it was who did Johnny B Good. This was the third or fourth bar we’ve been in in the last two or three days that has been playing classic American rock music.We’ve spotted a number of Palestine flags hanging from people’s balconies along the way.Now we are blogging on the patio of this casa rural.
There are big fields of mustard plants. I assume these are farmed and not just weeds. Solid yellow color. At first I thought they were rape plants (canola) but close up we were able to identify them as mustard.
We are definitely in farm country. Starting to see huge fields of wheat (I think) and also starting to see vineyards and even some olive trees.
Just leaving Uterga. Fields of mustard. Plus wheat.I had the bottom bunk in the corner. Charlie the bottom bunk next to me. They were good solid beds. Didn’t shake when someone turned over or climbed up and down the ladder.In Puente la Reina on the street as we walked through. I thought it was a pretty still life.Group dinner in the albergue. That’s Hyen (Korea/New York) on the left and Cathleen (Germany) in the middle. The man on the right was from Denmark. There were 8 of us at the table. 5 of us were from the USA, counting Hyen.Terrace with large table at the albergue.
Flights of stairs climbed equivalent per my watch: 63 (i.e., some up and down but not too bad)
One of those miles we walked today was from our albergue to the restaurant where we had lunch, and back. So, a relatively short distance covered today. It’s always tricky finding towns just the right distance apart. We aim for 8 miles give or take one or two.
We’ve gotten so far behind in our blogging. The past few days have been especially hectic. Last night, as mentioned, we stayed in an albergue room with 8 sleepers (including one pretty bad snorer). I’ll describe the albergue in my April 15 post. Which means I’ll probably be posting things in backwards order for the next few posts. There wasn’t a good place to blog at the albergue and no bar in the town to go to for that. There was a large table to sit at the albergue but it was filled with friendly and talkative pilgrims so no chance to blog there.
I didn’t sleep well last night. The snorer was in the bunk above me, a nice woman from northern California. Then I worried that maybe I would snore, too, although Charlie has never complained. He says I only make “sleepy noises” but I’m never sure if he’s just being nice to me. Then at midnight I remembered I’d forgotten to arrange the bag transfer for this morning. I tried to do it online on my phone in my bed (quietly) but they wouldn’t accept it so late.
The bag transfer story has a happy ending. There was another bag in the waiting area to be shipped by Jacotrans, the company we’ve been using, so we were able to leave a Jacotrans envelope on our bag with money in it and instructions and they took our bag when they came for the other person’s bag. Whew!
More about today in photos:
Today’s path. Up ahead, that’s Cathleen from Germany and Hyun from Korea (but 20 years in New York). We got to know them pretty well from the past two nights in two different albergues.Candice from Australia, a retired school teacher. We talked with her a long time at the albergue yesterday and she popped up today where we’d stopped for coffee (sitting out front of the bar). Always fun to see someone we’d met before. We walked through a few tunnels today. They are usually under roadways.Some of today’s path was an old Roman road. And over an old Roman bridge!Our albergue for tonight. We have a really nice private room.And our room has a window!
No, not technical problems . Lack of time to blog! We’re staying in a real albergue tonight. Bunk beds, communal dinner and all. Very, I mean very, chatty pilgrims.
Not clear why you can’t walk there. This was by a magnesium mine so maybe they just don’t want you wandering around. Basque has a lot of Ks, none in Spanish Don’t bicycle down the stairs Enough said
9.1. miles, up 546 feet, down 1363 feet, six hours on the trail
We started in Roncesvalles on our 2013 Camino so we were anxious to see how much we remembered. Quite a lot it turned out although lots of details had been forgotten, as is the way with memory. Will just talk about the day with photos.
This is the obligatory photo of just about every pilgrim who leaves Roncesvalles heading for Santiago (hi, Holly and Barbara!) Charlie posted the one of me earlier, from both this year and 2013.Stopped after a couple of miles for lovely breakfast. Avocado toast, tortilla (Spanish omelette) on toast, cafe con leche, and fresh-squeezed orange juice.These very cute kids were profiting from us pilgrims. They came skipping up to us and sold me a little yarn bracelet for one euro.When we made the reservation for Lintzoain, we thought we were getting a private double room in a hotel-like place, Posada del Camino. It turned out to be an albergue. So, we had three beds, but we had the room to ourselves.We had a very nice group dinner in the albergue. Shared with Antonio, from the Canary Islands (Spain), and Anika, from Denmark.
