Day 17 - 11.07.2020

Hello dear ones, it seems that age has made its presence known say, and I forgot to tell you something! On our way through the wonderful villages, when everything gets monotonous and becomes full of boredom, every time someone comes to warm our hearts.

This time the "angel" who came to get us out of the monotony is Jose, a Spanish "chico", who lives in Germany and carries the Way in his soul, he came by bike from Germany and rides the whole Camino and if he has no problems he will he also ride his bicycle back home to Germany. Jose gets off his bike to keep up with us and to keep us company part of the route. From story to story he tells us that he visited Romania and with regret he told us that he did not get to see it all.

Today's stage continues like the previous day, passing through rural areas and intersecting small villages. In the first half of the route, starting from 350 meters altitude, you reach 725 meters altitude, after Hospital da Cruz.

We arrived quite easily in Palas de Rei, passing through huge chestnut forests. When booking a hostel we find that it is totally inaccessible with many stairs, so we decide to look for something else. We finally find another hostel, but because of the Covid-19 hostel itself it is not open, so we get a room.

This whole stage is very tiring for me, not physically, but mentally, because going through many small villages that did not have bars and restaurants, I had nowhere to go to the toilet. We arrived around noon, it was exactly 2 pm, when we finished the accommodation procedures, and the rest of the day we do nothing but rest.

Day 16 - 10.07.2020

 I forgot to tell you a story yesterday, after leaving Samos, walking full of boredom but still admiring the beautiful oak and chestnut forests, at one point we met a pilgrim who was returning from Santiago on foot.

Among other things, I related with the lady when I was able to sympathize with her feelings during the pandemic. I had a deja-vu and it was as if I went back in time 8 years ago, a few months after my accident, when it had been months since I had seen the sun's rays, except through the window.

Maybe you remember those who read my "story", at that time I lived with my family in an apartment, on the 2nd floor without an elevator, so if I wanted to go out I needed a real adventure. This is probably why I missed being on the go, but also my stubbornness to motivate other people to travel, even if at first with fear or shame, but then I can guarantee that it is worth it.

Let's go back to our story, everything goes smoothly until we reach the albergue in Portomarin, when we want to take up quarters, we notice that we do not have any identity documents. Crazily, we unpacked our bags to look for them as we didn't understand how or where we could lose them, because we always kept them in our fanny pack, and the other things were all in place. Scrolling through the previous day, we realize that the last place we used them was at the pension`s reception in Sarria. We check to see if they're there, and the gentleman on the phone tells us he forgot to take them out of the scanner and return them to us. The gentleman offered to send them to us in a taxi, so that we don't have to go back after them, our forgetfulness cost us 25 euros.

Being the only pilgrims in the hostel again, the owner lets us use the kitchen, make our own food and coffee, even use the cutlery and plates in the albergue. The owner of the albergue tells us that every day at 7 pm there is a service for pilgrims at the church of St. Nicholas. To our surprise, about 30 people gather at the church, the priests were very nice and at the end of the service, they stopped to talk only to us.

A pleasant sensation warms your heart, being a stranger thousands of miles away from home, when someone tells you that you are a person with a gift and a special mission.

We didn't expect that. 

Everything is divine.

Day 13 - 07.07.2020

We start a fast and beautiful day, used to walk many kilometres in one day, today's stage is a blessing, until Villa Franca del Biezo we do not find many shady places, but we went early in the morning so we had no problem.

The next route to Trabadelo is a real pleasure because most of the route goes parallel to the river, which gives you a generous shade due to the vegetation, but also an invigorating feeling due to the water.

We arrive at Trabadelo quite quickly during the day, we try to find out about the difficulty of the next day's stage, because the climb on O Cebreiro makes us uncomfortable and nervous. The rest of the afternoon we enjoy the pool of the pension where we stayed, but also on the banks of the river Valcarce, thus reducing the foot edema that accompanied me for several days.

Day 11 - 05.07.2020

  

Astorga – Foncebadon - day 11

We start quite quickly, from the chic Astorga, barely visible by day, but in passing we admire once again the wonderful architecture that is shown to us in a different light, as if springing from a fairy tale, stone houses, piled one along the other, narrow alleys dotted with multicolored flowers at the windows.

The classic stage of this part of the route ends in Rabanal del Camino but we extend it to Foncebadon. Basically today we start crossing the mountains in the Leon region. The ascent is quite gentle up to Rabanal del Camino, but a continuous ascent, which is going to be accentuated to Foncebadon, a town located at an altitude of 1437 meters. 

For the first time in this adventure we feel swift and when we get to Rabanal del Camino relatively quickly we decide to eat at the restaurant at the entrance of the town that had a generous terrace and we can sit quietly in the generous shade. 

We buy a combined plate consisting of eggs, french fries and grilled sausages but also salad, coffee and cola for cooling. After the hearty meal, you can barely move, but seeing that other pilgrims are catching up, we get up as if in a hurry, stepping up. 

Around 3 pm we arrive in Foncebadon, we are the first pilgrims to reach the hostel. After we stay and we wash , other pilgrims start arriving: 4 Italians and 3 Spanish. We are not very tired so we sit on the terrace in the inner courtyard of the hostel and seem much more confident in our chances of success. The only thing that can make our souls bitter is the distance and the lack of trust of the other pilgrims, no one talks to us or sits down with us at the table. The afternoon passes quickly and the evening gradually envelops us.

What will the next day bring us?

Day 8 - 02.07.2020

An endless day through huge fields of wheat, you can barely see someone, a tractor gathering huge bales of straw or a combine harvesting wheat.

We advance all day on dirt and asphalt tracks, being very early when we left the hotel, and we got lost, instead of turning left towards Itero de la Vega, we go forward towards Boadilla del Camino on the road.

Without energy and moody, we didn't even take photos slowly, the only interesting thing from this stage is the Roman bridge, which is still used today, being transited even by cars.

We do not find accommodation in Fromista or in the following villages, so we have to go to Carrion de los Condes, where we spend the night in the hostel of the monastery of Santa Clara. We are expected by a gentleman, the nuns do not interact with anyone. Not being renovated for many years, the doors are so narrow that every time I have to go to the toilet Vasi has to take me in his arms.

After the 43 km, the fatigue makes its presence felt, but also Vasi's hip pain, in the evening other pilgrims, two cyclists and a man and three boys (about the age of my son, Raul, 17 years old) start to arrive.

We spend the rest of the evening studying the map and trying to find out what awaits us next, but also to decide what to do, because the muscle pain, according to the pharmacist, makes its presence known even while resting.

We decide to go by bus to Leon the next day because there are still two difficult stages ahead of us, including the climb on O Cereibo. All day long we have our nerves stretched to the limit.

Day 7 - 01.07.2020

    I forgot to tell you, after our short visit to the cathedral in Burgos, on the way to the hotel we stop at the pharmacy, the pharmacist tells us to try a medicament before going to the doctor, remedy used by athletes and pilgrims. I'm surprised when I notice the active substance: ibuprofen-arginine, which has enhanced anti-inflammatory effects. That night Vasi takes a pill and to our surprise after it his leg no longer hurts, so we decided to postpone the visit to the doctor. In the morning he takes another pill and we set off. The exit from Burgos is beautiful, we are happy that it is not raining anymore and we will be able to reach our destination before it is too hot.

We booked beds at a municipal albergue in Hontana, which opened its doors the same day. In Hornillos del Camino we stop to eat sandwiches and have a coffee, it's 11 am, we find that  albergue here aren't open, but we anyways have reservations so we don't worry about it.

Long dirt tracks and huge cereal fields reveal little by little the famous Spanish meseta. We find less shade, but at least Vasi's leg doesn't hurt anymore. Until Hontana we cross two long and lonely portions of the meseta, the last part contains a more accentuated and stony part, which gives us headaches.

    However, we are happy because we are talking to the lady from the albergue, to confirm the reservation, we find out that on the same day the famous mochilla de la luz will arrive.

    Before leaving Romania we spoke with one of the organizers of the project to commemorate the victims of Covid-19, if we could join: to take a piece of the road, a backpack as a tribute to all victims around the world, we forgot about project because it had started before we left Romania and we didn't think we would catch up with it. But we did, so in our joy, we thought we had another chance to join the project.

    The descent to Hontana strained Vasi's foot, as the part is rather dangerous for me and my bike, the stones, gravel and ditches on the agricultural road made my bike a real sleigh, which I could not control even with the brakes from my wheelchair. Vasi is forced to whitstand the brunt force of the descent. I was nervous and I was very scared, but at least we could see the town and we knew we almost finished for today, but we will not finish as we thought.

    We arrived at the albergue very tired, we had done 31.5 km on a stifling heat, it's 2 o'clock. In front of the albergue at a table were two men who entered and got out of the albergue patio without masks on, there were two ladies talking between them without masks or other safety methods against the virus, I was in the street and Vasi wants to enter the patio (right out of the street) to put down the backpack so he could put on the mask, when suddenly one of the ladies started screaming and pushing Vasi out the door on the street. I didn't understand what was happening, among the screams she told us that we didn't have masks and that maybe we were infected, to leave quickly because we didn't have a reservation and she certainly won't welcome us. Dismayed, we didn't understand what was happening and what we were supposed to do. I called the number I had made the reservation earlier that morning, a gentleman answered, I introduced myself and I asked why we were not allowed to enter, even though we had masks and a reservation, he told me that we had no masks and we were not welcome there, they had no masks on! He starts threatening again, which I couldn't stand and I turn off the phone. Tired as we were, we had no water and we had nowhere to buy, we rest for a few moments on a bench below the hostel and set off again.

    At the exit of Hontana we find an open swimming pool, from where we take a water and a cola, we keep the road to Castrojeriz, we walk about 5 km, when behind us stops a police car  (civil guard). He identifies us and in the meantime they tell us that the lady from the albergue in Hontana called the police because we tried to enter the hostel without masks and they ask us what happened. We tell them that even though we had a reservation and masks, she didn't want to receive us, I didn't understand why so we left. After our documents were checked, both Romania and Spain (we had the NIE for more than 15 years) politely ask us if we want to denounciate the albergue or the lady from the hostel to consumer protection, because they personally have seen that we had reservations. I tell him I don't want to, and the documents are returned to us and we receive a warm buen Camino. 

    We go to Catrojeriz, even though we don't have accommodation, at the municipal albergue they tell us that although they are open, they don't receive pilgrims, so we continue searching. We find a place in a hotel, we were alone in the whole hotel, so we rest for the rest of the day. With all the good and bad, one more day ends.