Now for today's tale. It was to be a very simple 15 km's to the town of Calzada de Valdunciel. We are down to just Bernard the Irishman and myself at the moment, as many of our crew had to return home from Salamanca. Like many Europeans, the do the Camino paths as their holidays allow. Paul the Aussie is taking time out to recuperate by visiting his son in Amsterdam. He plans to rejoin is in Orense for the final 100 km's. Some start at Salamanca, so let's see who we can add to out travelling squad. So back to today's trails and tribulations. The first part of the walk leaving Salamanca was nice, passing by a huge bullfighting ring, and a soccer stadium. The next part, sent us on a country path that was very hot and dry. There was a town to stop at, where we could stop for a break. Back out onto the hot dry path, we came across a small building with chairs to have a break. It was set up by an albergue up ahead that had pictures of a swimming pool, lots of food, great beds, etc... Natural we had visions of staying at a resort like place with various tasty delicacies to be had. It would require an extra walk of 6 km's past Calzada, but we figured we would do it. We marched along figuring that we would soon get to Calzada, where we would have a break, and then continue onto the "spa albergue". On this very poorly marked trail, we arrived at this albergue without ever seeing the town of Calzada. Turns out the town was of the Camino trail and there was no sign to it. We thought that's great were done. However upon approaching the entrance, the GATES WERE CLOSED AND THE SIGN SAID CLOSED! After many Irish blessings from Bernard, we looked at our options. 1 - Walk another 15 km's to the next town for which we had no provisions Or 2 - Walk back 6 km's and find the town of Calzada. We took option 2, and headed back. About half way back, we came across 2 Dutch pilgrims walking that we know, and told them about the albergue ahead being closed. The had the same brochure, and phoned the number. It turned out that the lady running the place had returned and opened. AHHH!!! At this point, Bernard and I were half dead. The Dutch pilgrims went on, and we decided to just finish going to Calzada to get something to eat. After that, we figured we would just have a taxi take us back to that albergue gate, since we had already walked that distance, and it was getting late. The taxi picked us up, and we handed him the brochure showing the location of the albergue. He drove around for about 1/2 and hour, before he finally called the number to ask where they were. He was kind enough to stop the meter though as he would have gone over the quoted price. So now we are here with the 2 Dutch pilgrims, and have our skid lumber beds, ready to shower and get to sleep. Here are a few pics. Terry
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Author
|