June 19th Thursday, Itero de la vega
Right at this moment 10:25 pm sitting outside an open window to an alburgue municipal in Itero Spain. It is still barely light and the deepest shade of blue in the sky. No clouds and I can see a chimney, two olive trees about 15 feet from the table I am writing at, and about 70 degrees. It is another beautiful day in Spain. I am sitting in a courtyard between buildings and there are two doorways to my left. One leads to the banyos, and one leads to the cocina (kitchen). There is a cool breeze blowing through the olive trees and rustling their leaves. In the distance I hear a perro (dog) barking and the occasional shout of someone watching the world cup in a cantina. I just heard the low and loud clicking of a huge stork that has a giant nest on the church steeple across the plaza in front of the alburgue. England must have just made a goal from the shouting.
It was a longer walk today but only because there were no towns to charge on the way in. We were told that the Camino today would be a little too rocky on the path for Deb’s chair so we took a road. The owner of the camping alburgue where we stayed last night insisted on driving me all the way to the town where we would be staying tonight so I could see for myself that it was a good carratera (road). He was correct, we walked through the first town about 4 or 5 km away from Castrojariz and would have stopped there to recharge the chair but there was nothing there. The name of the town was Castrillo de Matajuderios, which translates to town of murdering the jews. Kind of okay that there was nothing there to keep us there. The next town was over 7 km away over about 4 hills. That was further than we have ever done I think on a single charge but off we went through the sun.
It was a fine walk, it wasn’t too hot about 80 degrees with a slight breeze, but there were maybe 6 cars in the entire walk. We could walk down the road with no worries about traffic, it was wonderful. About halfway there we found the only shade tree and took a little break on the road, Deb leaned back and I took off my pack, leaned it against her chair, and rested for about fifteen minutes in the shade. Then back to the walk. We actually got to listen to some music with no fear of being squashed by a car.
We passed the option to go see the castilla de Itero but it would have been another 3 km and we weren’t sure we had that much juice. We also walked by the monestary alburgue that everyone said was really cool. It was only lit by candle light and had no electricity, but they had a communal meal. We kind of need electricity.
As we walked into town who pokes their head out of an alburgue but Gala and Annika. They are staying in the first alburgue at the beginning of the town, it looks okay but we want to check out some others. The first one is nice but deb would take up the whole aisle to sleep, so we head for the municipal. It turns out to be a little rundown but we really like it. There are very few people there so it should be relatively quiet. There were two Italian guys as we walked in and they said we just pick a bed and the hostelerio would be by later for us to pay. There were two French ladies asleep on the back row and a bed with a sleep sack on the right next to the computer. The only plug ins we saw were next to the computer so we took those two beds. Later the Australian gentleman who had that bed offered it to us as it was more comfortable. We were fine we assured him and it was very comfortable.
We found the bathrooms and there was a kitchen by the courtyard in the back, I took a shower and washed my clothes while I was in there, hanging them to dry before we went to eat. We went out to eat with Gala and Annika at a little bar around the corner. There were a few steps so we almost went somewhere else but the lady came out and said she had ramps. We had our one with us so we got in with hers and ours no problem. It was really cool we did. As we were deciding what we wanted to eat the lady came over and told us she had heard about us before. She had seen a picture of Deb while we were in Burgos about three days ago. Someone had come through and told her an Americano woman in a silla de ruedas was walking the camino and she should watch out for her. Now here we were. She was very impressed.
We then went back to the alburgue to see if we could post anything but no wifi. We walked around town until we got a signal and uploaded our post but could get no pictures to upload.
The next morning, after a rough night of sleep, D couldn’t get comfortable. I put her in a bed for about an hour and that seemed to help immensely. Once again the Americans were the last to leave. The Italians at 6, French at 7, Australians at 8, Americans at 8:30. Everyone said we could do the next section all the way to Fromista, smooth and no rocks. Apparently their idea of no rocks and Debs are different. The first 3 km were great but the last 5 into Boadilla were very rocky and took us over 2 hours to negotiate. We were very discouraged when we got into town and the first bar we went into told us no electricidad. Maybe I asked it wrong but we have never been turned down before. We were a little frustrated when we left and Gala could tell. She came over and wanted to pray with us, It was very nice and lifted our spirits greatly. We went around the bend to the next bar and they had electricity on the porch even and we had a nice meal of pizza and bocadillas. We will leave shortly for Fromista.
Annaka gala dinner lady had seen picture told to watch for deb.
I am the toro, kids in Leon.