Camino bore, day 10: the supermercado

9th May 2010, Villafranca Montes de Oca to Ages.
My first full day back on the road.

The list of things in this life that make for good albergue living are basic things like 'a chair by the bed', 'a hook to hang clothes on', 'bunk bed with rails suitable to hang clothes to dry', 'plenty of phone sockets for recharging mobile' and 'potatoes' - NOT the ubiquitous Spanish lightweight chips! Thus I recorded a 'satisfying sludge' of potato at El Pajaro inn last night, and in Ages we dined on slices of quince with soft cheese for pud. We have hopes of our quince tree here in Barton....

Villafranca Montes de Oca church

Villafranca is just a long steepish street, and today we headed uphill and dived into the pub where we found the 'supermercado' promised in the Confraternity  www.csj.org.uk guide; it was behind an unpromising dark wooden door into a back room. In a corner there was a Spanish ham on a stand, and all around the room was a selection of almost everything necessary to life - chocolate, fruit, bread, toothpaste.... no need for a gynormous super-sized Tesco; just a small room with the things you need to get through the day and onto the next place. Enough for just one day. Interestingly, I saw a report the other day (The Week, 16th April Issue 813 p.19) that said that the more often people shop, the longer they live. It can mean that frequent shopping is a sign of health, not its cause; but also that more fresh fruit and veg tend to be bought and eaten. See Exodus 16 for the daily manna idea; it seems to have a lot going for it today.

Portugese quince - in Barton.

Did David get ideas for the vicarage garden here?

The pink camino at San Juan de Ortega; still more than 500 km to go.

San Juan de Ortega - annunciation.

The paper camino continues...

A few pics for today... Our spindly little quince has flowered well this year...While I was not walking with him, David took a pic of a garden; his idea for the vicarage garden? .... The church at Montes de Oca that suddenly became alive with flashing lights, hundreds of young pilgrims streaming in.... The Pink Camino leading out of San Juan de Ortega (normally it's yellow): the towns and villages are very proud of being on the camino, and here they really make sure you know you are on it, even when we are still more that 500 km away from Santiago.... The anunciation carving at San Juan de Ortega, on which a ray of light falls at 5.10 pm at the Spring and Autumn equinoxes (and we heard of an albergue here where there was running water - sadly, running down the walls and onto the beds...); the paper camino continues......