Sticking to the working system of the past days, Johanna and I set off around 7. Today we would have only 20 km to go, but all uphill. Good thing there were lots of fountains on the way – like for example the “fountain of pain”…
We walked up on nice and non-alsphalty paths and dirt roads through mainly forests but with some nice views in between until we reached the first village.
We had breakfast at the third village, as planned, around 9:30/8km, using the tables in the garden of an albergue there.
When we were all finished and full, the guys showed up and we continued together. After a while of silence and random talk, we got back to solving riddles and were extremely surprised when we had a look on the map at some point and found out that we had already reached our destination Tineo.
It was only 1 pm when we checked into our albergue, which was actually a 4-star-hotel with an albergue section (with saunas) for pilgrims use. We felt kind of odd standing in the clean and nice lobby in our dirty and sweaty clothes and boots full of cowshit.
The dorms were very clean too and had nice and private departments of 4 beds. Everything looked very fancy at first but it soon became clear that people who construct hotels don’t really understand the needs of pilgrims. Mixed bathrooms with glass doors and no hangers nor curtains so all your stuff gets wet when you shower, no place to hang washed laundry despite in the steam of the bathroom, no hangers around the beds etc…. It was a nice and clean place nevertheless.
Early as it was, we all did our own stuff after showering. Shopping for lunch and breakfast, walking around the village and enjoying the sun, pairing up to get something to drink or walk around together… The afternoon was long and sunny and we even took a little nap before dinner.
At seven, Johanna, Mitch and I went to eat the pilgrims menu in the hotel’s dining room. Or, more correctly, in the separated second class space of the dining room that was designated for pilgrims and separate from the fancy nice tables for the first class hotel guests. We were really relieved we didn’t have to sit down at the fancy tables in our leggins and bathing slippers with hiking socks.Dinner was good, even the wine was really good and we had lots of fun.
