Day 20 – Sept 25, 2022 – Villafranca Montes de Oca to Agés (15.7 km / 9.76 miles) 

We sent Rex’s pack ahead again. Unfortunately, lightening the load hasn’t changed his pain level. But until he sees a doctor, I didn’t want him adding his pack weight again when we are walking.

We started the day exhausted from lack of sleep and it was a very cold morning (39 degrees). We’ve begun thinking we don’t have the cold weather clothes needed for October in northern Spain. We will need to buy a couple extra base layer items in Burgos before the next phase of the hike. 

Patience and tolerance is being tested for both of us right now.  Last night we were in a large albergue which included a smaller group of Italian men traveling together.  This group of young men had not been taught basic consideration of others. When they came into the dorm in the afternoon while several were napping (including Rex and I) they were loud, throwing around their packs and boots, then they began singing and hollering across the dorm. Ugh! Then this morning at 5:45a one of their alarms sounded like a siren for over a minute.  Once it was turned off, they got up, turned the bright room light on and loudly began packing their things to leave. There were only 5 of them out of the 24 in the room. I couldn’t believe it. I took a deep breath, in and out, counted to 10 and then did it again, and again, and again. 

The walk today was beautiful. We left the rolling farmland and climbed for much of the morning a path lined by thick, almost jungle-like trees which provided a nice change of scenery and kept us shaded and cool all day as we hiked.

Once we arrived at our Albergue we n Agés, our people-tolerance tanks near empty from the night before, we walked into the large sleeping area to select our bunks only to find a large group of Korean pilgrims had strewn their stuff everywhere making it difficult to get to our top bunks and settle in. Cultural differences are very noticeable to us lately. Common courtesy seems to be seriously lacking – or maybe it’s our American ideal of common courtesy?  Either way, we’re excited for a few days off the trail in a hotel room in Burgos to reset. 

Once settled in, it was shower time. The shower was possessed… it would go cold or hot whenever it wanted. It started perfect, then after getting all soaped up, it would scald, making you jump back and wait, so then it would be freezing. Ugh. How can I rinse off?  Grrrr. As the shower head rained down it also sprayed upward from a leaky seal around the shower head drizzling our towels and dry clean clothes. This happened to both of us. Some serious maintenance and s needed here. I am not in the right mindset for this at all. 

What to do when everything seems to be going wrong or is just harder than it should be?  Find the closest bar and have a drink! It was cold outside so we selected a table inside. When a small group came in and said they wanted food, I was told to stand and give up the table. I am a paying customer and was there first. The bar owner wasn’t nice at all. She didn’t try to reseat us. Merely barked and shoo’d me away. Wow!  We finished our drinks and left. 

We’ve really enjoyed the communal dinners each night at most of our albergues. They are usually cheaper than going to a restaurant and definitely more convenient. You typically pay 10-12€ per person and you eat what they serve you. Pretty simple. The communal dinner didn’t turn out to be a o communal after all.  There were about 30 people dining. We sat at a table for four and met a lovely couple from the UK. When the meal started we were served soup, then the sides and main were brought out to the large table. There they stopped. We sat patiently expecting to be brought smaller serving platters of the dishes and when they didn’t arrive, we asked where our servings were. The hostess said that everything had already been brought out and needed to be shared. Everything was placed on the table where the huge group of Korean pilgrims were seated. They ate everything!  There was nothing else. To be honest, much of the blame needs to be placed on the hostess for not explaining this and not allowing it to happen. If you serve food to my table, I’d expect it to be intended for my table. Our table mate who was fluent in Spanish expressed our concern over a 12€ bowl of soup and a single chicken leg, but wasn’t making much progress with the hostess. They served all the food they had and couldn’t just make us more. We were offered a special ice cream cone for the misunderstanding. 

What is the Camino trying to tell us?  I think it is time to make a change in how we book our lodging.  We’ll look to book albergues with smaller rooms or fewer beds per room. The giant barracks-style rooms with 30-40 beds are not for us anymore – been there, done that. 

This too, shall pass. Today was just not our day. No matter what, we will keep moving forward. We will not stop until we reach Santiago. We know this is supposed to be hard. Nothing worth achieving is ever easy. We expected the physical challenge of walking 562 would be our toughest test. We never expected the time off the trail would be even harder at times. 

Tomorrow is a new day!