DAY 36 To Melide

What a difference a good night sleep makes.  With just the two Italian ladies in the Albergue main room and us in the private room, all was quiet.  We all awoke after 7am  and didn't leave until after 8am.  We were feeling good and ready to knock off some more Kms.

While walking we met a nice college girl from Virginia who is attending a semester at a college here in Spain.  She decided to walk the last 112  Kms  of the Camino to earn a Compostella while on spring break.  A noble pursuit given her other options.  I am forced to rethink this whole touragrino thing.  I wonder if this is how the Grinch felt?  You go girl!

As we entered Palias de Rei, we were momentarily halted by a group of teenagers.  Their number had to be over 35.  They were being gathered for a group picture and we used the chance to put some distance between us.  Our escape was slowed by picture taking, a rock bridge, and cows on the Camino.

I guess you could say we had a Pamplona running with the bulls moment.  Okay, so maybe it was more of a fast walk in front of the cows, but it made our morning.  Hey that brown cow had a set of horns on her!

Before long the youngsters caught up with us.  Yes they were loud, but a few of them were very polite, respectful, and nice.  Who knew?  While taking pictures of the sheep, we met a couple of girls from La Mancha.  They were happy to learn that I knew about Don Quiote and Sancho.  A couple of others had been exchange students in the US.  We all stopped at the bar for lunch.  Being old and cunning we hit the restrooms before the herd.  We left knowing they would be in line for some time.

We stopped for our chocolate break.  This was the last of our orange chocolate from Astorga;  Alonso brand for anyone visiting Astorga.  We had passed a mom walking with her young son.  She was
heavy laden with her backpack on her back and her son's on her front.  Boy when it is humble pie day for me it comes in a delivery truck.  We asked them if they would like some of our chocolate.  The boy was timid at first, but his mother assured him it was okay.  They thanked us and enjoyed the chocolate .  We heard the mother say Umh a couple of times.   It is fun to see  the amount of joy a little chocolate can bring.

As we walked further we heard the cookoo birds again.  I told Vic there sure were a lot of cookoos out today.  She said "yes, including us."

As we made our way to Melide, we came to the old bridge.  We were happy to cross it until a car came up behind us honking for us to hurry along.  Apparently in Spain it is okay to hurry turtles.  That's what I've nicknamed peregrinos since we wear backpacks and extend our necks to look both ways before we cross the highway.  I took a quick picture of the car as I was running away.

The oldest cross marker on the Camino is in Melide.  When I took the picture I didn't even see the palm tree in the background.

After a hard day of being chased by teens, cows, and a jeep we retired at a nice Pension for the night.
Tomorrow we go to Arzua.