Both Sides Now

 Rows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I’ve looked at clouds that way...
Joni Mitchell

You know the rest of the song.  We saw a lot of clouds today. And yesterday.  And the day before.  That’s why I thought of the song.

I know this song has a downside, but I thought of it all day.  The upside of the song is really positive.  I’ll stay with that.

We almost met our maker today.  We got to our hotel and checked in.  But we knew our next day was going to be 21/22 miles. So we decided to check in, walk three more miles and then taxi back to the hotel. Someone from the hotel picked us up in a car she apparently hadn’t driven before.  As we were moving along on the city street, all of a sudden, the car slammed on breaks.  She said something like “automatica”.  Like the breaking happened automatically.  HOLY MOSES!  We were scared to death because we knew we weren’t close to the hotel.  Fortunately, it only happened one more time, and we were almost parked at the time.

Today included 1900 feet of ascent and nearly1400 feet in descent and 16 miles.  Three more days til Santiago.  Tomorrow is a long one.

Sandra was back on the Camino today for sixteen miles.  Not bad, MaMascia!!  Not bad at all.  Or as the Aussies say:  “Good on you!”

Something new for us on this trip is the “unapillow”.  What’s that?  It is a torture device for sleeping.  It is when one pillow stretches across a whole bed and is meant for both spouses.  Just imagine.  Your side has gotten a bit warm so you want to turn it over.  Not happening.  Your side feels a little too flat, so you want to plump it up.  Also not happening.  We’ve really racked our brains trying to figure out what the advantage is of a “unapillow”.  Alas, we have no idea.  If you do, please let us know.  We may learn to hate it less.

The pictures below tell the story from today.  A few comments as usual.



This dog has his own backpack and is walking the Camino with his owners.   

There were more rocks.  Always more rocks.   

We thought Sandy had come to visit.  He looked so much like the Sandy we miss!!
Young Pilgrims, taking a break.




Jan, Yvonne from Denmark and Sandra after 16.1 miles.  

Yours truly when she was finally at the hotel ready for a beer!
A note about this hotel...a rectory that has been redone into a boutique hotel. The rooms and ambience are awesome.  Here’s our hotel room and door.
 And a final one.  

Off to Arzua tomorrow.  Rated as a three difficulty.  (Five is the max.)  We’ve had two fives at the very beginning.  We will let you know what tomorrow is like.  Today was a 2.  

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