Grañon to Belorado

Wednesday, May 15
Today trended upwards all day although with all of the downs we only gained about a hundred meters. As usual though, we walked those hundred meters quite a few times during the day as we went up and down the hills.
 We left the church bell tower at about 7:30 after a community breakfast of coffee and cookies, with some white bread and jam thrown in. The church bells rang on the hour and the half hour all night long so many of us woke up at least briefly for each set of dongs. This albergue - Alberge de San Juan Bautista - prides itself on being different from all others. There is a sense that they feel they are more authentic or at least like they all used to be. In fact there is something special about Grañon although inevitably it is losing some of that unique charm it had a few years ago.

One thing that is unique is  the fact there are no beds. We all sleep side by side on mattresses on the floor - without any space between the mattresses. Those mattresses are thin and covered with some kind of plastic - think about the mattress pads used in gyms. Upstairs, nearest the bells and with a railing that overlooks the dining area were 17 people - including us. Downstairs there were another 25 or so, also on mattresses on the floor.

The hospitaleros worked hard ( and loudly) as they made our dinner using the money that was left by those who stayed the previous night. Several of us helped peel potatoes and chop vegetables. After many hours of chopping and peeling we ended up with a substantial potato soup and a salad for 44 for dinner - as always served with lots of bread. Everyone one helped with the clean up.

Another unique aspect of this albergue is that there is no set price - it is 'donativo' which in the original sense means leave what you can, take what you need. It is an honour system which is surprisingly abused by few. You leave whatever money you wish in the morning in a box as you leave.

The walk today was shorter than was outlined in our books and I doubt they moved the towns. There were several stops in between and we took advantage of two. Since breakfast at our albergue was unappetizing, we stopped at the first community and had a café con leche and a small ham and cheese croissant. It was our first rainy day in a long time so feeling a little sorry for ourselves for being cold and wet we also made another stop at a place called Villafranca del Rio. That was a great bar which was very elegant so the 'peregrinos' were somewhat out of place. The owner was horrified when one woman took off her boots in the middle of his fancy restaurant and started to perform some kind of surgery on her blisters. There's a lot of foot talk on the camino but even we were less than impressed with her lack of consideration for what the guy was trying to do with his place. But in spite of all of that,  we had a huge glass - 8 or 10 ounces of freshly squeezed orange juice that was so delicious it still makes my mouth water just thinking of it. And we had a bocadillo with scrambled eggs in it - known as a bocadillo francesa.

The walk today is described in our guidebook as the 'peregrino treadmill' and it's an apt description. The scenery seems quite pretty but was hidden by clouds today and the path is straight and goes on and on with the others visible for long distances. Completely boring as far as the walk went so one had to be telling oneself some pretty good stories to make up for it.

We arrived just after lunch, even with our two stops and are now clean and warmly ensconced in the Albergue de Cuatro Cantones in Belorado.