A Short Day

Today was a short one, since we walked extra distance yesterday to get to the church. We only had to go 16km, which felt like almost nothing after all of the 25-30km days we've had lately. We all but flew through the first few towns, getting there even before the cafes were all open, and not even stopping. We did eventually stop in the third town we crossed, and the chicken empanada I had there really hit the spot, as dinner last night at the church had been delicious, but somewhat spare.


The rest of the walk was uneventful, and we got to Belorado around 11:30. This was great, as it meant we had tons of time to rest and relax, but it was less good in that our albergue did not begin accepting check-ins until 1:30. To kill two hours, we went down to the main plaza and bought some snacks, having a bit of a junk food picnic. (I ate my first bagged popcorn of the trip, which represents some pretty substantial self-control for me.) We met up with a few other folks, briefly pet a dog, and toured the church when it opened, but otherwise mostly waited.


We did get to see some men in military dress uniforms, as it turns out that today is Spanish National Day, which may have been why they opened the church. Unfortunately, it also meant that every grocery store in town is closed today, and since the holiday falls on a Sunday they may be closed tomorrow as well for the observation of National Day. The only options we could find, aside from the shop where we bought our junk food, was a bakery that sold some cured meats and a few restaurants. Some people loaded up on meats, while I decided my popcorn would tide me over until dinner at our albergue, but we are all a bit concerned about the uncertainty around the food situation tomorrow. (Though I do have a giant chocolate palmier I've been waiting for the right time to break out.)


Eventually our albergue opened, and, after a delay waiting on another guest to sort out an issue of wanting different beds than the ones she got, we were finally able to check in. We dropped off our laundry, unpacked a bit, and then headed outside — because this albergue has a pool. It was inside a greenhouse, so the temperature was absolutely lovely, and we all enjoyed putting our feet in the water, and it felt quite nice on my ankle especially. One of our companions who was staying at a different albergue popped by as well, and we enjoyed spending time catching up.


Eventually we all headed out from the pool, and tried to find ways to pass the time until the restaurant opened at 7:00. For example, I wrote this blog post, up until this point. (And then didn't finish it until the next day. Whoops.)

After killing time, we went to the restaurant, and were treated to a quite dramatic meal. The table ahead of us had clearly been pregaming, and enthusiastically sung happy birthday to someone, despite it not being their birthday. Meanwhile, the table behind us introduced one of their number as a famous Korean singer/songwriter, and had him play a song on a guitar. Then one of my companions discovered that her fish dish was garnished with shellfish, to which she is anaphylaxis-level allergic. Thankfully nothing came of that, and the dinner ended with nothing more dramatic than some more music.

I ordered two whole dinners, and ate them both. Walking can be hungry work!

After that we all headed to bed, to get ready for a longer day tomorrow.

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