Day 5

The place we stayed in last night was an absolute gem. The room is very modern and the breakfast was outrageously good. It was still a buffet style and without eggs or bacon. Still the assortment were wonderful fruit, chocolate croissants, lots of toast and cereals, of course.

I got a big surprise from Iberia Airlines. They sent me a note saying that my flights had been changed and now I was going to be handled by their partner airlines. This made minor changes to my schedule, ultimately but it means that I have to be quite quick, especially in London. My new routing is from Santiago to Barcelona, then flying to London Heathrow, then flying to Toronto. At least I don’t have to go through Madrid.

After getting all that straightened out, I decided to look at Carol‘s flights and have discovered that she arrives at 7 AM, the morning before I arrive. I checked and checked and checked to make sure everything was right and it is.

Then an explosion went off in my head. I had forgotten to take my bags down for the transfer today. The arrangements are with Correos (Spain’s postal service) to have the bags at the pickup place no later than 8 AM and here it was now 9:30 AM. So I slammed everything into my bag and ran down to find that none of the bags have been picked up yet…. thankfully. I’m not so sure I evaded a heart attack with that one.

Yesterday was a bit costly physically so today I’m going to take it easy and probably only walk about 12 km or so. It’s going to be much nicer than it was yesterday. Let’s see how this goes.

So out the door I go and decide to make this a bit shorter I’d a day as well. My left foot isn’t any better but I think my right knee actually feels a slight improvement. Keeping today to 11 or so kilometers is likely sensible. Oh yeah, that and Spanish Ibuprofen. You can get 600mg Ibuprofen across the counter here. The best you can get in Canada is 400mg and in many markets around the world only 200mg are sold. So taking rigs painkiller really helps.

Today starts at a crossroads. There is a small cafe where 15 or 20 pilgrims are taking a break. I jump out and start walking….up hill. I ask you…why wouldn’t the taxi let me off at the top of the hill. Oh well.

I have my wireless headphones on and have a mix of The Travellin’ Willbury’s, George Harrison, Bob Dylan and a couple of songs inserted by Apple Music. The problem I’m having is these headphones drop the audio level when there is a loud sound outside. I’m guessing the idea is to save people from being run down in traffic because they can’t hear what’s going on around them. So…… I put up with blank sections on every song.

After the initial incline there is a gentle decline, followed by another longer incline. Low an behold another incline. This one carries on upfor kilometer or so before we come to a significant path leading down. This path continues for several kilometers until we start seeing cafe’s and bars. This is a welcome site as the  breakfast has long time worn off.

Much of today’s walking is beside roads, but at times the road goes straight and The Way goes through a forest. There’s a combination which is nice.

Eventually Ivar and the rest of the A-Team amble down the trail. We join up and walk the rest of the way into  the town of Pedrouzo. Straight to our lodgings for the night….and a long hot shower. A very long hot shower.

My watch says I walked 11 to 13 km and well over 20,000 steps. All-in-all a really good day.

Now, let me see. What will my plans be tomorrow, the last day of this mini-Camino. There is the dreaded airport to walk around. A nasty bit of business. Let’s see…..?

Because tomorrow is another day…….