Carrion to Ledigos

The walks between villages brings new views and challenges everyday. It is easy to take for granted that a field is a field and the mountains to the north never seem to change. Each village has a church that by itself could be considered a castle and many of them were built before Christopher Columbus made his voyage. So many things are the same but different slightly just enough that they are a delight to the eyes at each glance.

One thing has remained constant each and everyday we have been in Spain. The Spanish people have been the most welcoming we have ever met.  Some have even at times taken pilgrims into their own homes as family. 

This all changed when we made it to the albergue we planned to stay in for the night.  We knew something was off when the street was lined by pilgrims that we knew intended to stay here as well.  Each of the pilgrims sitting in the shade had decided to walk an addition 6 kilometers to the next town and were just hiding from the afternoon sun before taking on the extreme heat of the meseta.  when we went in the bar was empty beaides two young female bartenders dancing to videos on the TV.  they wouldnt let us see the albergue unless we were staying there and made us feel very unwelcome.  Jenni made the decision to leave as well based on how rude the people running the albergue were to us when we wanted to look at the beds.

Jenni's feet were in pain with her new blister between the toes and my blisters all felt like they could use a rest. I have learned that walking in the heat has been the root cause of most my blisters so I wanted to stay and convinced Jenni that she should as well. So we bid good day to all our friends and signed in to the albergue. Not much changed with the staff and we soon realized we that they did not give the respect to pilgrims that everyone else up to now have.  They cut whatever corners they could to make a buck and we were not pilgrims as much as we were dollar signs that needed "clean" sheets.

Fortunately we did not come here for them so after having to deal with paying for our night we did not need to be around them.  The night was saved by our new German friend named Suzanna that we met a day earlier.  She loves to cook and walked around the whole albergue inviting everyone for dinner.  

Jenni and I helped her, an Italian guy, Spanish couple, and a French couple prepare the meal.  The Italian got involved when he heard we were having Risotto.  He was worried Suzzanna would ruin it and to quote him, "pasta is the food of the god's".  So he was going to show us how to do it.

Suzzanna single handedly saved the night for us.  It would have been easy to eat a small meal just the two of us and them go to bed.  Instead we met a dozen new friends and had a blast despite the rude hosts.

Another Camino triumph.