Lucky 13! Belarado to Villafranca!

Last night I had dinner with 2 Irish ladies. They are traveling together and will finish by doing a bit of a bike ride. Anne was the talker while Bernie was the quiet one. Charming women.

Here is a picture of old town Belarado.

10 or so km today, trying to rest up my body before hitting the hill tomorrow. Alta de la Pedraja which is the next challenge between me and Santiago. Then on to San Juan de Prtega.

I walked with Marty today who is from Canada. She walks at my speed and is pleasant. Many youngsters were racing on ahead of us, planning to combine our two day hike into their one quick one. It was nice to take this day at an easy pace, stopping for cafe con leche and chocolate croissant and lingering over it, visiting with fellow pilgrims.

I didn’t leave the Albergue until 8am so no sunrise photo but here are a few I took along the way.

Gotta say something about life in an Albergue. You are bunked out with anywhere from 8 to 150 a room. You have, in this case 3 showers and 3 toilets to cover about 50 women and 1 sink to wash your clothes. In this case there are the same amount of facilities for the same amount of men. Here the facilities are separated by sex, in the last one they weren’t. There is some pretty weird stuff you see here. This morning a fellow couldn’t find space in one of the 2 toilets so he just entered the shower and relieved himself there 😩😩.   Albergues also have a communal room which serves as a lounge/kitchen.  Well equipped kitchens have a microwave, refrigerator, vending machine that serves beer as well as other things and a coffee machine that serves all manner of coffee including con leche, cappuccino, espresso and cafe americano. Some kitchens are better equipped than others. More about albergues later.