23 April to Los Arcos

This was just the sign I didnt want to see when I walked up to the Municipal (read: cheap) Albergue a couple of hours after it had opened. I keenly remembered staying here in 2014. We had breezed into the church, which to be honest seemed Awfully Gold, and sat in the plaza under umbrellas having a special restaurant meal instead of our usual cook.for.ourselves routine, because it was our youngest´s eighth birthday.
Today could not have been more different. It was cold. Oh so cold. It rained almost all day. The church was closed. The umbrellas were down. The tables and chairs packed away. And the albergue, a very nice one by all means, was full.
So I had to pay twice as much to the hostess in her dressing gown for a bed so close to the next one that our backpacks barely fit in between them. The hostel is grubby and messy with bits and bobs scattered everywhere. And cold. Oh so cold.
Three middle.aged Italian guys sat babbling their bellissima language at the dining table as I journaled and then they dragged me into the conversation with some halting English. “You like here?” I hesitated half a second and they babbled some more, something I imagine like “See, we knew it was an awful place, didnt I tell you just that? It is not just us, she agrees!” We all agreed, though, that it was good to have a bed, even if it was overpriced, and for all of us it was the first bed that was not really so pleasant.

The hosts from last night´s accommodation had invited me to a praise and prayer meeting they were having with their team this morning and I had decided to go. This meant a quick car ride to a neighbouring village (which handily enough was right on the camino path of another variant, so I would be able to walk straight from there after the meeting)
Part of me was tempted NOT to join them because I knew I didnt have a booking, but I figured that 70 beds in the Municipal Albergue would be plenty. Perhaps more importantly, I knew rain was forecast for the afternoon and I would not start walking until noon. But I joined the meeting.

So there are no photos from the beginning of today´s walk where the path was just wider than a (literal) foot and totally overgrown by grass. Said feet were sodden in seconds.

But I took a few photos whenever the rain stopped.