Dinner last night was great! We sat at long tables with pilgrims from all over. We ate paella and drank wine and compared journeys and shared stories. So much fun! Met a woman from Brighton, England who had blisters so bad that she was walking in her flip flops! Geez she was lucky she still had her toes! I have been carrying a pair of "fake" crocs, have only used them once or twice so gave them to her. At least her toes would be covered! We met another fellow from Ireland, probably in his 60's or so that looked a mess! He had a big black eye and cuts all over his face. Apparently he had taken a tumble going up a hill with his back pack on and wearing glasses. Five stitches later and broken glasses! There were some cyclists from Calgary & Scotland, some other walkers from Japan, Spain and France.
Left the albergue about 8am, ready for the day! We knew that the first part of the day would have us climbing about 200 m. The first village we come to is Irache where there is a fountain which has both water and wine. Alas there is no wine, :-(, we take photos and carry on. We come across a cisteron apparently built in Islamic times. Pretty amazing that it is still in use. We had a fairly easy morning, approx 9km, and got to our planned overnight stay at 11:20ish. After an ice cream and a refill of water we made the decision to press on. The next town/village/ populated area was a measly 12km downhill. We can do that, lots of breaks planned, check our water and we are off!
We walk through farmland, not too big of a downgrade, the path is pretty good. But it keeps going and going! Looks like we will round a curve and be done but nope another field! We have found a type of rhythm, I seem to like the hills and move along, I wait until I can see Sandra and then I head off again. I walk with a couple from Ireland and 3 people from France. I finally get to the next town, Los Arcos at 4:15ish. Sandra had sent her bag ahead so we knew where we would meet. I get to the albergue but there are no beds. They have Sandra's bag and have beds for us for tomorrow night. The woman at the reception said that she would have Sandra wait there until I came back, so am off looking for beds. All albergues are full, pension #1full, hostel #1 full, hotel full, the second hostel yippee we can have one room with 2 beds! Kicker is it will double our nightly budget. Too bad I take it! :-) Dumped my pack and poles and go to find Sandra. I find her as she is just about at the albergue that we originally booked. We leave her pack where it us and find the hostel. Yay my boots can come off!!!!
Sandra is sound asleep so I shower and head out, found a beer (big) and a sandwich and explored a bit. After a big nap, explored some more, Sandra joined me and we found an amazing church, wall, gates, etc, A little breaky shopping and we found a cafe and a beer. Will be a great sleep tonight! :-)
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