Since we started walking, we have not really had any serious problems, bad luck or anything similar but there has been some struggle or problem or disappointment every day.
Every day but today.
Nobody knows what happened today but we were extremely lucky and everything just worked perfectly for the first time yet.
We started at almost 8, a little later than planned at beautiful Santillana and made our way towards the east while changing from hot to cold and back every 2 km. The Camino took us over small country roads from little village to little village (all very pretty and idyllic) and along many grassy fields with cows (and even some Alpakas). One must admit that while the Basque country clearly wins at hospitality, landscape, food and hiking paths, Cantabria really is convincing us with its beautiful villages and small towns!
We came by a small romanic chapel on the way which is generally always closed but was open today and even stepped in for a moment. We were received with a glass of hot tea with cinnamon which warmed us up very well and was delicious (first lucky fact of the day).
After the first 6 km, which we had walked very fast for some reason, we had breakfast at the side of the road.
I had sent a parcel with food to Comillas – today’s stage destination – in the beginning of our trip and it occurred to me to check the opening hours of the post office there (second lucky fact of the day). We found out that it would close at 14:30, much before our usual hour of arrival at our destinations. We also couldn’t go get the package the next day because the office would have opened at 8:30 which would have been too late for tomorrow’s 27-30km stage. So we didn’t have many choices but to just power through and get there on time. We finished breakfast quickly and started to walk even quicker than we had already done before.
Motivated by the past two days of walking with the American guys, we now knew how fast we were able to walk and moved forward at high speed. Our continuing training might have something to do with it but we also reused yesterday’s technique of making time fly and played black stories for almost 6 hours while walking. These puzzles seem to create the perfect workload for the brain not to be overwhelmed and exhaust your body more, but to take away the thoughts focussing on your pain.
When we came by our Catalan friends, they told us about the albergue to which we had planned to go in the evening and that it had only 20 beds but that you could make reservations. We called them at 12 and got the last two beds! (Third lucky fact of the day).
Thanks to our incredible speed, we reached Comillas a little earlier than 2 o’clock, which was by far the earliest we have ever arrived at any stage destination. We had walked the 22 km in exactly 6 hours and were super proud (Fourth lucky fact of the day).
While we made our way towards the post office, we already saw pilgrims coming back and telling us that they hadn’t gotten any bed in the village. We also noticed that Comillas was extremely beautiful. Very impressive castles and churches and palaces are standing around everywhere, with nice parks around then. The town itself seems rather small, has narrow roads with cobblestone pavements and nice houses with wooden, decorated balconies.
We got to the post office half an hour early and my parcel was actually there, no problems at all! (Fifth lucky fact of the day).
We stepped out of the post office, absolutely amazed by the fact that everything was just working today without any problems and the first thing we saw was a sign that said “gluten free pizza!” (Sixth lucky fact of the day, and a pretty big one).
We quickly made our way to the albergue where our two reserved beds were waiting for us, again without any incidents (seventh lucky fact of the day). On the way, we met several pilgrims who were desperately searching for a place to sleep or thinking about going on to the next village.
The albergue was not public today but a private hostel (the Public albergue had to close a couple of months ago which is why there are so many problems now). The hostel had just opened two months ago and was incredible. There were bed-boxes with curtains, power plugs, lockers, everything super new, super clean, sheets, pillows, blankets with sheets, a towel for each one of us, and a kitchen and livingroom! (Eighth lucky fact of the day).
At 3, we sat down in the Pizzeria and enjoyed this extraordinary lunch while outside it started raining (ninth lucky fact of the day).
Afterwards, we had to wait a little while for the supermarket to open and did some shopping, got Johanna an ice cream and then went back to the hostel.
We are sharing our room with a very nice older Swiss couple, a Spaniard and some non-pilgrims. After a shower and some talking we went up to the kitchen to cook dinner and met the group of German girls, and our two Catalan friends who had also arrived here today. We also met the English mad who had been the only person to walk the difficult mountain path from five days ago apart from us. We shared our different adventures, had some interesting conversations about our lives, backgrounds, and reasons for doing this Camino with the Germans and got offered some wine by the Catalans.
The perfect day ended perfectly early by half past nine in our super private, comfy and luxurious bed boxes.
