October 25th, 2013

Yesterday morning we pulled the newspaper out of our still-damp boots (most of the albergues and even bars and cafes along the way keep old piles of newspapers for pìlgrims to use to stuff into their boots to help them dry out over night)  and left the tiny- dot- on- the- map town of Portela (Marianne: some of these villages are just a building  or two) and headed out again into another day of  pouring rain.  The population explosión of the day before had disapprared and once again the Camino was mostly empty.  I expect that´s becasue the pilgrim tour groups only walk along parts of the Camino and travel intermittently by bus.  But the crowds will for sure be back along  on the road into Santiago, since Santiago is the destination of all pilgrims, whether we arrive by foot, foot and bus, bike, or, as some pilgrims do, grandly upon a horse which they´ve rented from one of the "enter-Santiago-on-horseback" outfits, which horse will then proceed to tear up the foot paths with its heavy hoofs, turnig rivers of mud into oceans of mud and leave great gross stinky, fly-covered piles of horsey-doo along the most foot-sure parts of the path.  Anyway, it rained in sheets all day yesterday without  two minutes of respite.  So 15. 7 kms.later  we were two grateful pilgrims to arrrive  at the village of Salceda where we follwed the signs to the Albergue Turistic Salceda which, though it technicaaly had a few albergue beds, was first and foremost a hotel, which if I had to describe in one word, that word would be beautiful!  The building was, according the owner-hospitaliero, a 250-year-old building that he took  seven years to renovate iinto what it is now, its interior a wonderful mix of Galician Stone and modern glass, with  hanging plants, a glass elevator and soft blue lights glowing up from behind the baseboards.  Even though the place is a modern hotel, it´s run by the hard-working hospitaliero and his hard-working family.  As soon as we stepped into the reception área he greeted us, told us to go upstairs first and rest at bit, take a shower and settle in, then we could come down and resgister and give all our wet clothes to his wife to wash and dry (for 8 euros, but, hey, I didn´t care !).  Then he proceeded to whisk us out of our wet rain gear and water-logged boots which he ran off with, promising to return everythign dry by morning - and he did!  Well, we figured all this first classs treatment was because it was kind of an expensive place, 40 euros, until we calculated that 40 euros was about  $56!  The room:  stark white and stone wals with a tall white glowing cone on the floor that served as a floor lamp, a soft blue exit-light over the door and a white bed with a bright orange head board that lit up.  Tom named the look "Las Vegas On The Camino", thought with the over-headrecessed  lights turned off and the room lit only by the glwoing cone, the bed, and the blue exit light, we thought the effect ws reminiscent of the hotel room in the movie "Blue Valentine". (Great movie!  See it if you haven´t yet! (The next morning  our breakfast companion, who´d also seen the movie, agrred that her room had the same  "Blue Valentine" feel). the 9.5 eruo pilgrim meal was wonderful, and each dish looked as if it could be photographed for a gourmet food magazine!  We both started with lentil soup, the I had a piile of pork ribs cooked in what tasted like a marsalla suace over another piile of round fried potatos.  Tom had fish with vegetables and buttered potates, and for dessert  we had somethign called San Marcos cake, a layered cream cake.  The next mornign  after breakfast our awesome hospitaliero ade the announce ment that there would be no no rain today.  We thought maybe he was just trying tot cheer us all up, but so far his prediction has proved accurate - no rain so far, praise be! Anyway, rain or shine, tomorrow, God willing, we´ll be Santiago, so today is a real mix of emotions for all of us pilgrims. Dear   Linda : Don´t worry for me, dear girlfriend, ´cause  Tom has, in fact, been the reincarnation of Sir Walter Raleighesque  helpfulness, to me and to many others alnog the way,  and, beleive me, that day I wa stuck on the rock he was on the front line, trying to get me to take his hand, but it was me who couldn´t move. (Just to set the record straight!. )   May you all make it over any tough rocks that might pop up for you today - though hoepfully none will!  Love, Patti 8)