The Meseta Keeps Continuing

Today was a slower day. My guidebook indicated that a church in the next town on from us was an absolute must-see, but did not open until 10:00. Even with a leisurely start, me and the friend I'd met up with the night before rolled in around 8:30, and were looking for ways to kill time. I went down to a bakery, got some pastries, and sat in front of the church, eating, blogging, and reading on my Kindle, until it opened.


Inside it was... Interesting, but not an hour and a half interesting. There were amazingly intricate and unique stonecarvings on all the pillars, but aside from that the church was fairly spare. Definitely worth a stop, but maybe not quite as impressive as the guidebook had made it out to be.


We continued on, opting to take a slightly longer route so that we could walk next to the canal (and thus some greenery) instead of through more empty fields. We had a couple of strikeouts looking for lunch, and ended up sitting for a while in a rest area and playground in front of a closed seasonal bar. When we headed out again, we saw, you guessed it, more Meseta.


But thankfully not as much as the previous days. I was glad to have company today, anjd doubly glad that it was someone I knew well enough that we could walk together in companionable silence for much of the day, and it gave me a lot of good thinking time.

We got into town for the evening, and I found a room in a Filipino-run seminary that was closed for the season. The ladies running it didn't speak any English, so it was a fun opportunity to see how much I could manage with my Spanish. As it turned out, I could manage to book a room, specify what time I planned to leave in the morning, navigate the process around using the washer and dryer, and generally make do. There was a lot of mutual confusion, but they were very kind and patient, and it was satisfying to feel like I had navigated a somewhat more complex interaction in Spanish successfully.


After that I went grocery shopping, bought a few things at the pilgrim supply store, and had a nice call with someone I'd made friends with on the Camino who has since gone back home. Once it hit 8:00 and the restaurants opened back up, my friend and I met up and went to get some food. The portions were huge, and neither of us finished more than half, but it was all delicious. Then it was off to bed early, for an early start tomorrow. 


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