Change of a Day

Have you ever had a bad day and then received the gift of good things over the next few days?

Funnily enough, everyone we talked too had a bad day the same day too. We all hoped to get over it, whether it be caused by pain, heat or any other issue.

Our next day, to Villafranca de Montes de Oca, was just as hot and my right foot hurt just as much, but it was a short day (I must remember that at home: 15 km is a short day!) and our accommodation was incredible. It looked like a parador, but was a grand house decorated in gloriously ostentatious and eccentric Spanish style. The long, wide corridors held armchairs with 6 foot high backs, heavily carved dark wood furniture, gothic tapestries, paintings in the El Greco style, colourful plastic floral displays in huge urns, and big white candles in glass vases.

It is an old Hospice of Saint Anthony the Abbot that has been restored, with an albergue added by the new owner. He had walked the Camino himself at some point, and built the albergue, attached to the grander hotel, as a way of paying back.

There was a formal dining room for dinner and a breakfast room decorated in black and white so lavishly it had the feel of being in a circus tent. The food was good, there was a garden with a bar/pub that served excellent sangria, and a resident dog and cat, both of whom ignored the guests. Our thick walled, charming room looked over the church and the hills of the valley across the road. 

In the evening a small group of stout elderly people arrived with wooden batons which were set up for a game I’d never seen before, with a large, wooden, self-handled ball thrown through 9 of these skittle-like posts to try to topple the single one at the other end of the plaza.

Our next day was grey, with a thick misty cloud hanging over the hills and a stiff, cool wind blowing. Glorious! The cat actually came up to me and let me scritch it, while purring. It was a steep climb up, then down, then up again, but through a forest of pine and scrubby oak, will tall grasses and ferns and heather. Little purply flowers with no stems lined our path. We think they might be a type of autumn crocus, but the flowers opened right from the ground, as if dropped there from the trees. 

Clumps of mistletoe in the trees look like circular birds’ nests. It’s a pretty plant, but parasitic as it feeds off its host tree before eventually killing it, and thereby killing itself. It’s hard to imagine evolution would allow this sort of thing to happen for very long.

The alto opened out, and the clouds started to part, exposing blue skies, but the air remained cool and the breeze was refreshing. It was easy to accomplish today’s mileage goal.