So is the camino plan getting ripped up?
Of course it is.
First, to recap, Salamanca was great and the apartment off the clock. £150 apartment for £50, very happy.
We practiced the walk out of town and it was just as well. At 8:58am it was much the same but the further we went the worse the whole roadside stuff got.
We arrived at the first stop and needed a helping hand to find the cafe for breakfast. Patatas bravas and mint tea. Onwards we went and the next town we found a shop and sat outside eating ice cream. Both times we had trouble finding anything and in the heat it was easy to get worked up but once you calm down st Jacques always provides - something!
At last we left the roadside and had a nice 4km like the walk into Santo Domingo and Calzada was a nice we town with a cafe or two, more importantly a toilet. Next time I would bus Salamanca to Cubo before walking.
We carried on walking as there was an albergue in the motorway section and so we walked there to this lovely oasis Casa Saso. Seeing it on the way back from the bus it really was in the middle of a 25km stretch of motorway.
Next morning we watched the opening drives in the Ryder cup and 15km later we found they were now on the 11th. Slow play or what! We'd hammered 3 hours walking in rising temperatures and stopped at Cubo for bus to Zamora. We got the 1:10pm bus having just missed the 10:50 as we rolled into town
That meant that we could scoff lots of food and drink, tea menta poleo, ice cream, Aquarius, coffee and finally a cheeky couple of wee beers.
The bus travelled to some beautiful villages and then dropped us 5 mins from the hotel.
We like Zamora but we had to leave and the bus station was beckoning. We had planned on getting to montamarta and walking to Riego.
It seemed a simple walk around the water. What we hadn't bargained on was the reservoirs were empty.
You don't realise how hot it gets. We got whistled in and out of the motorway and then we arrived at fontillas. We managed to walk through the town and no joy with a cafe so carried on to Riego. What a town. We missed the bar and the Albergue and thought no it must be here. We divided up and took different streets before finding ourselves at the bar and then at the Albergue another 5 minutes later. It was locked so Stu phones the number and 2 minutes later Dorita appeared speaking loads of helpful Spanish. Helpful if you could comprehend it ! There were three rooms and 2 pilgrims so Stu and I took a room each. Mine had 4 beds and I tested the bed and found I sank so far in I'm sure I hit the floor. Continuing to stalk out my territory I used toilet before returning to pay my donativo dues. I looked at Stu, and asked if he'd been bitten. Yeah, me too I thought. Best plan was shower, swap mattress with top bunk and get off to the bar. Stu likes to clean for a while.
The bar has strict rules about no photography. Dunno why as you really wouldn't want to remember much, especially not the cleanliness of the toilet.
A lovely old woman ran it with her older lazy husband. We loved the woman....
She needed her siesta at 4pm so gave me a clue when she turned all the lights out and took my plate as I lifted the cocktail stick of olive, gurkin and pickled onion. I smiled , apologised, took my bottle and vanished down the silent alleyways, where I met a freshly showered Stu.
He turned around and back to the wee midgy bites albergue. We couldn't work out what was biting us but we knew we had 10-20 less bites when we arrived.
An afternoon watching the Ryder cup and footie scores on the phone whizzed by and with hibs winning we headed up to the bar at 6:45.
We met Pedro who had just had a beer, apparently the Bar Pepe lady's siesta was a short one. Pedro I should mention is our Romanian pilgrim. He arrived after we had met Dorita the hopitalero, or landlady of the Albergue.
Just as we strolled up to the pub, Jacob and Linka appeared and Stu had to do the honours as we had the Albergue key. Dorita clearly likes to delegate Albergue management so Stu showed them the room with Pedro and said we both snore. That's what he told me!
Our lovely lady asked if we were ok with salad and chicken. On the basis that she was the chef we were definitely ok and so were our late arrivals. 5 salads arrived and 5 additional plates were set out. Everyone immediately put the salad plate on the other one only to be chastised by our curmudgeonly chef. What we didn't know was that the chicken would hit the other plate as soon as the microwave pinged, which it did as we tucked into our cut lettuce and diced tomatoes.
Being a fat boy I got breast but poor Pedro was clearly too thin and got the scrawny leg.
Waiting for veg was pointless as an apple arrived and we knew that was dessert. Suddenly the 6 bits of bread got our attention. The others were good pilgrims so Stu and I split the last piece.
I managed to part with an extra €5 for the wine which came home with us. Pedro got his share and we all slept well.
Next stop benavente well that was the plan!
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