Itero de la Vega to Fromista

May 22 - Itero de la Vega to Fromista
A short walk planned today as we wanted to stop in Fromista - a small city instead of a little village with a dozen or two homes - as we needed to replenish a few odd things. We had tentatively chosen an albergue from Miam Miam Dodo but when we got to town we didn't feel it would be suitable because of its location, so we ended up staying at a spot called Estrella del Camino. Today we didn't feel it would be necessary to reserve a spot because we would only be travelling 16 kilometers and would get there about lunchtime.

Sure enough, we were the first people to sign into the albergue as it was a little bit off the beaten track. It was a really pleasant atmosphere with a little courtyard in the middle and they had washers and dryers! All you had to do was give the woman your dirty clothes and a few coins and she ran them through the washer and dryer. Good deal. They also had some basic food but we chose to go out for dinner with Nancy and Bea from Cambridge and and Irish man, Adrian, who had been walking with his son also joined us. We had a nice dinner in a hotel that had really interesting tables and wall decorations. The tables are big old boards that had long saws fitted into them in strips about 5 or 6 inches apart. Between the strips are rows of sharp pieces of rock. Apparently these were once used for thrashing the wheat from the chaff. Then about 4 inches over the top of that was a big piece of glass. It looked quite unusual and really nice.

As we entered into Fromista there was a canal with what appeared to be a series of locks. It didn't look wide enough for serious boat traffic but there must have been something going on there. We had a pleasant afternoon, picking up things from the drugstore and buying a few groceries for the next day. It was nice to have the whole afternoon to idle away in the sun.

The albergue is private and they run a tight ship. Some of the young people were still outside just before ten and were being quite noisy. We were starting to worry about it being a noisy night. But the owner came in and told them they had five minutes to get in bed and be quiet or they were out on the street - and she sounded like she meant it. Obviously the young people thought so too because they shut right up and we all had a good sleep!