After a nice normal breakfast, we headed out into the chilly morning to one again immediately start up a hill. Not a small hill. It was a roughy 500 foot uphill climb for a good 3 kilometers. Then a quick, steep downhill descent for about 150 feet. Right after breakfast. Right outta the door. Whew. Warmed us right up.
The rest of the day was a very gradual decline through some lovely forests with dense woods and flowering things. And quiet. No semis zipping by. One could hear the wind whipping thru the trees, and the birds chirping. Very pleasant. It sprinkled on and off throughout the day, and threatened to really come down, but we miss that, thank goodness.
Bruce and I have been taking photos things that pique our interest. Mine is doors, and his is door knockers. There are certainly some really great ones that we’ve run across recently. I’ll be posting those in the videos at some point.
The miles are starting to get easier. What I mean is, that we aren’t stopping as much as we did before. Whenever we see a bench or a pilgrim resting point, we try to stop, take off our packs, stretch, snack, and drink some water. But those last 3 miles are always the toughest. I’ve been listening to audiobooks, or chatting with someone who has joined us for a little while until they get tired of our slow pace. Today it was Catie for the last bit. She’s been great to talk to.
We rolled into Atapuerca, which has an ongoing excavation site attributed to the earliest know hominids in Western Europe. Too bad we are too tired to go to the site. And even if we did manage to visit, likely there isn’t anything in English that can help us understand what we are looking at. Yes, yes. Google translate helps, but it’s not always great and is somewhat cumbersome to use for large amounts of text.
Tonight we have the pleasure of staying in a dorm room. 😳 The bunks themselves, were really quite cozy. They were built right next to the walls of the converted goat barn, with 2 USB ports for charging your things, a reading light that was almost too bright, and a nice curtain to pull across for some privacy. Which was great to be able to dress or undress. I chose one with a small shelf to hold stuff. The proprietor handed us disposable sheets and pillows cases. Ladies, it was made out of the same stuff as the disposable dressing gown you get at the doctors office for your Well Woman visit.
We pulled out our silk bag liners, our camp blankets, and I finally used my Fillo pillow – this thing is awesome – and they provided another quilted, thick blanket. It was quite cozy. We laid on our mattresses for the afternoon, snoozing and reading until dinner. The wind is picking up and it’s getting chillier, so I was under the blankets trying to get/keep warm.
I elected to NOT shower. I know, it sounds gross, but I didn’t sweat that day so my stink factor was only about a 3. It was cold, and it was the worst part of the bunkhouse. No place to put any of your stuff while showering. And the way the door opened into the bathroom was a direct view of the shower. Nope.
I know I may sound like I keep harping on the small town attitudes, but geez Louise, can we get a smile? We show up at the restaurant that opens at 7 and walk in. I smile at the Señora sitting in front of the TV and greet her in Spanish. She doesn’t acknowledge me at all. Maybe she didn’t hear me? These masks can be difficult to hear thru. So, I try again. This time she glares at me, and gets up and walks behind the bar into the kitchen. I ask the husband/bartender if they are serving dinner. He makes a BIG show of craning his neck to look at the time, then take out a photograph to say, “this is all we have for you”. Great. We will take it. Cripes. Do they treat all the Perigrinos that way? I’m pretty sure they DO have other stuff, but we only get the one thing. It wasn’t cheap either €15.
We are grateful that there is food in the little town, but would love to have someone be happy we are there. We head off to bed to find that we have 2 roommates. We left the light on because we didn’t know if it would go off at a certain time automatically, if the last person in would turn it off. Nope. About 11pm, I got up and shut it off.
24 Sep 2020 ~ 28,478 steps ~ 11.9 miles ~ 55º F 🌦
