A great day! Off to a bit of a slow start this morning - it was 11pm before I knew it last night (that's what you get for starting dinner at 9:30!) and I had to pack and get organized so 7am rolled around far too early this morning. 7:30am sounded better, so I rolled over and got a few more zzz's. Showered and out for my cafe con leche, and back to fiddle a bit on the Internet and reserve a room for my return to Madrid. I left an empty duffle bag at the hotel, the one that my walking poles were checked in and unnecessary to carry to Santiago. Hopefully it will be there for on my return, but okay if not, at least the poles arrived safely for my walk.
With all the above, it wasn't until 9:30am that I boarded my train at the Plaza del Sol for Tres Cantos and 10am by the time I first took my first steps on the Camino but that's the luxury of only having 12kms to walk, you have so much time for other things!
The Camino is very well waymarked right from the train station with little yellow arrows cheerfully pointing the way to the highway overpass and out into the country. Immediately I saw my beloved red poppies, as well as bunches of lavender and thistle. I was happy! The path is a nice sandy farm road, and the Camino shares the way with the GR124 and the Via Pecuaria, the latter marked by a pic of a silly looking cow and is apparently a favorite mountain-biking road as I saw several spandex-clad bikers whizz by. Two actually stopped on their return to have a chat, apparently they had biked the Camino Norte last year!
It was just three hours to Colmenar Viejo, but sufficient for my first day. My pack was heavy (lots of water and where on earth did that container of peanut butter come from??) and legs unused to the weight so happy to stop. I looked for Hostal Chabeli as noted in my guide to the route but there wasn't any label on the door and from what I gather from the shop next door, perhaps not open. The very nice lady in the shop drew me a map for a pension nearby and here I wait in the Bar Greco next door for the proprietor to return from church.
Note: I love rural Spain: a glass of wine with free 'pinchos' (they always serve a little snack of some sort with alcohol) = €1.40!! I think I'll have dinner here... I did see a McDonalds sign but far too soon for a MacAttack! :)
The rain has arrived as I wait in the bar, pouring rain. I had perfect weather walking: overcast and slightly cool with the occasional break of sunshine but I could see the dark clouds over my shoulder the whole time...
Back in the bar after getting my room. It'll do just fine. Having vino #2 (and it's pronounced 'beeno' here, asked about a 'veeno' corkscrew yesterday and was shown to the pen aisle - have no idea what that was about). Anyway, sitting here and as I'm unilingual I find myself a keen observer of Spanish life rather than a participant. There's a family around the corner of the bar, they've been here for a bit. The parents are having a beer while the little girl plays with a balloon and the boy has 2 cell phones, doing a quick draw with each hand like he was in an Old West saloon. The dad catches him and laughs, does he remember playing with toy guns when he was a child? Or of all the functions of today's phone he laughs because his son chose his imagination instead?
A couple of young men have come in. Saturday afternoon in a small town, what else to do? Thankfully the TV is off, must not be a soccer match on today.
Patrons try to park right out front but the Guardia Civil office is right across the street so the officers keep coming over and making them move - don't they know this? Or is it just a game to see if they can't get away with it just this once....
There's a new girl behind the bar. She frothes the leche quite tentatively and I see her sneaking bites of the pinchos all the time. Either the proprietor or her waistline will soon cure her of this....
4pm and the 4 ladies who work here have sat down to lunch. They've closed the door, poured their cokes and beers and 2 of the 3 boys at the bar have sat down to join them. There's a camaraderie here that shows that these could be careers, not just put-your-time-in-jobs, or perhaps it just at the way it's done in small-town Spain.
6:30am, Day 2. There's been a party in the street outside my window since 2am (that's when the rain stopped), it's just winding down now. Perhaps there was a game after all?
No comments:
Post a Comment