September 23rd, 2013

Yesterday there was bed anxiety on the Camino.  That happens when there is a large herd of pilgrims heading for a town where there may not be enough beds for everyone.  The main problem was the heat.  Tom & I headed out from Los Arcos with the herd (or I should say behind the herd, since the hospitaliero of the small albergue where we stayed didn´t really care what time we left, whereas in the big municipal albergues the pilgrims are shooed out at 8:00 am) and decided to follow to the next guidebook stop,  Logrono, a big city and capital of the Spanish state of La Rioja (By the by, Miguel, you´re right the name of the town we stayed in the other night is Viana), since we were a little spooked by our not-lonely lonley albergue experience the night before.  But after walking for a while we all started to sweat and wilt and change our minds about walking all the way to Logrono.  But the second problem was that there are only two stops with facilities between Los Arcos and Logrono:  the first, Torres Del _Rio, is only a few km´s beyond Los Arcos, and the second is the town of Viana, which is about 6 km´s before Logrono.  So everyone, us included, was deciding to stop at Viana.  The third problem was that, according to the guide books, there´s only one 54-bed albergue at Viana with 16 additional mattresses available to be set out on the floor of the parish hall if needed for piilgrim overflow.  So the question being asked all up and down the Camino was, "Where are you stopping?"  And the answer was invariably, "Viana".  I was feeling the bed anxiety myself.  I walked for a few moments with two middle-aged Irish ladies.  One asked me where I was staying, and when I answered "Viana", she said , "Not many beds there!"  and hurried away with her companion.  Bed runners, I thought.  A bed runner is a pilgrim who rushes to the next albergue to be sure to snag a bed.  A few miles later  we came across the Irish ladies sitting under one of the few shade trees along the way, sweating like crazy and fanning themselves with their hats.  "It´s too hot,"  one of them said, and  I agreed sympathetically.  It really was to hot for us old folks to be doing this, but here were were, doing it!  As it turned out, there really was no need for any of us to have feared for a bed.  Because as it turned out there was a big, new, spotlessly clean albergue in the town, probably built since the latest edition of the guidebooks, so we all ended up getting a bed.  Another good day on the Camino!
Peace and a good night´s sleep to all.  Patti 8)