Tuesday, June 16, 2009

15

Went looking for some sandals but the arch support was not great enough. (I left the flipflops at an albergue by mistake.) Then I asked for slippers as in many albergues they ask that you take off your boots and leave them downstairs. No again, he didn´t have a pair in my size. Then I got some tissues in a pocket pack. Most pharmacies used to sell them, but now, only in packs of six. Instead you go to a Tabac - a shop that sells all sorts of stuff including tobacco products. The one today was also the post office, sold comics and goodness knows what else.
I met a young Aussie, Michael Brooking from Melbourne. He has been in the army and is now seeking a job in the building game in England. We met to have a Menu del Dia of 8€ which was quite nice. Unfortunately we had to eat it inside although it was a lovely evening. We invited Pieter, a retired German chemical engineer, to join us and had a fine time. Both blokes like to travel alone but we will be staying at the same village tomorrow night and will most likely get together again.
The paseo was on again as usual. All the families out with g´parents, parents, and kids. The atmosphere is just lovely.
Manfred did not show in Belorado. We had made tentative plans to travel to Silos monastery on Monday together but it may be he has decided Sunday is a better day for the monks and taken the bus to Burgos. Whatever, I´ll get tomBurgos on Sunday, find a boot repairer on Monday morning, and get him to stretch the ¨good¨boots. The earliest I could pick them up would be the day after and it might even be longer. I won´t be able to stay in the same refuge and it may not even be possible to move to another refuge in the same city. If so, it will be a hotel, and I hope it will be quieter than the last time. The Spaniards seemed to believe that hotel corridors were designed to sing and talk loudly in. Anyway, it will give me a good opportunity to here these famous monks sing. It may even be possible to stay there overnight and have some more services with them.
Because the service was available and my clothes were filthy (hand washing with Dove is not the best) I had almost all my clothes washed and dried in the albergue. And by the way, five years ago almost all the places were called refugios. Now they are albergues. Such is progress. Anyway, time for bed.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for taking the time to create this beautiful blog in memory of your father.
I am enjoying reading it. I can see your dad had a wonderful sense of humor and he was( and still is) a gentle and beautiful soul.
I will walk my first camino in September and am getting some wonderful insights from your dad.
Rita