This year I started my journey to Spain on August 27th. I arrived in León after a crazy day of travel that included 2 flights, and 3 trains. I walked from León to Santiago to complete another Camino Frances. From Santiago I traveled to Madrid for a few days, which included an adventure to Costco in the Madrid area to get Coffee for my stay as a hospitalero in Nájera. The funny thing is that I was trying to save a few bucks / Euros and ended up spending more than 50 euros to save zero. It was a fun and educational experience. lol.
After Madrid I traveled to visit my good friend Jose Miguel in his city, Miranda de Ebro. What a treat, he showed me all around that area, we went on a great hike up in the hills near his town and then had a delicious lunch with his friends. We went non-stop for two days. What an amazing place.
From Miranda de Ebro I traveled to Pamplona to visit my compañera Jacqui and her family. They live in a small village near Pamplona called Sarasote. Jacqui’s husband Keith and I share a love of red wine. We had a great time seeing the area, I got to spend time with their grandkids Oscar and Lucia and Helen their daughter the kids mom. It was fantastic. What an idillic place. Oh, and I got to meet their dogs, Cupa,(That would be Cooper, in American English) a Golden retriever, and Thor, a Great Dane mix who is big as a horse with a heart of gold. We had a great time.
Next Jacqui and I drove to Nájera to spend a few hours getting acclimated and being introduced, well at least I was being introduced to the new registration system called Pilgrim Pass. We had a chance to look around the albergue to figure out what we needed to do to get it in shape. We took over on September 16th. Did a deep cleaning and got everything arranged the way we wanted it.
Tomorrow is the last day of our shift this year. We have served almost 700 pilgrims who have stayed with us and many many more that we helped find beds when we were completely full. Most days we fill writhing an hour and one day we were full in 40 minutes. After that we simply spend time helping tired pilgrims find beds in town. We even go so far as to drive them or walk them to the albergue where we found them beds. They are always grateful as are the albergue owners who we assist in filling their beds.
We have had many from Italy, Germany, Spain, France, South Korea, Taiwan, China, Japan, Israel, Slovenia, Ukraine, Hungry, Belgium, Holland, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Finland, and many more.
There is nothing better than the sounds of happy pilgrims cooking a communal meal and laughing and singing. This year they have added a guitar to the albergue. It is amazing how many pilgrims will sit down and just start playing. We have had some amazing concerts and even had an older gentleman from Andalucia in southern Spain who was not even staying with us sit outside with his wife and play amazing sevilliana songs.
Jacqui and I have had an amazing time here serving the pilgrim community. We work well together and have a really good rhythm. I am an early riser and get up with the first pilgrims, which could be as early as 3:45 but normally around 4:30 or 5. Jacqui sleeps until 6:30 but stays up until 10 while I go to bed at 9.
We both went our separate ways today, Jacqui home to her family and me to Barcelona. I took a bus from Nájera to Madrid. About a 4 hour ride. I then had 3 hours before my train to Barcelona so I took the metro from the bus station to Sol which is really the center of the tourist/shopping area of Madrid so that I could walk over to Casa Toni to have lunch. Casa Toni is a little hole in the wall restaurant that Beth and I were introduced to via a food tour in 2013. I have been going back every time I am in Madrid at least once and this year twice. It is simple delicious food. The restaurant is called a Parallada which means grill. They make grilled meats, sausage, Padron peppers, fired foods like pigs ear, and other specialties. I love their food for its simplicity and it is delicious.
I then caught the fast train between Madrid and Barcelona. This train reached 300km’s per hour on our ride. That is over 180 miles an hour. The trip takes just a few minutes more than 2.5 hours. It is roughly the same distance between Sacramento and Los Angeles. That is crazy fast. Oh, and it cost about $60.
I relaxed last night and today I went to Montserrat which is a Monastery up on a high mountain among other things. It takes about an hour by train to get to the bottom and then you either take a train or a funicular up to the top. I took the funicular up and the train down. It is really a place to go early and spend the day. There are so many things to see that a day is about right. I did not plan for the day but got to see a lot and was able to attend mass in the basilica which was really great. Tomorrow I fly home. I’m looking forward to seeing the family.
It’s been a great experience as always.