Day 26. Castrojeriz - Boadilla de Camino.

We started uphill and I was walking so slow because my knees were very sore.  Jeff and Christina caught up with us and offered their sore muscle cream Voltare fuente.  I had also applied a Ben gay type tape and had taken Naproxen. Jeff also walked with me while Christina walked with Dick.  I kept pace with Jeff and surprisingly my knee loosend up and I walked much faster.  We had met Jeff and Christina a few days back at a cafe stop after a long uphill and downhill hike.  She also recognized me and called me out at a tiny town where a bunch of peligrinos were drinking wine in the middle of the day and being loud and boisterous.  This town was only a stop over for most peligrinos and here so many were drinking in the middle of the day.

If you are travelling first class, which we are not, expect some surprises on the road such as this.  The tour guide has a picnic waiting with all kinds of hams and cheeses and two bottles of wine and some other snacks and a waiter to boot!  The rich pilgrims walk a little, ride to the next town, stay in nice hotels.  Nothing wrong with this, each one does their own Camino.

This is our reality, no table cloth.  We carried our own snacks and shared with Erich and Manfred from Germany who we have been running into at hostels and eating dinner with since El Molino.

A long and satisfying walk and we spent the night at a fun family run hostel with a pool and an amazing bean and chick peas soup cooked by the mother.  We also roomed with a nice Italian couple Laura and Guiseppe.  Laura gave me some home brewed potion to rub my sore knee, made from alcohol and Rosemary.  She was also so considerate.  Since there were only 4 of us in the room, she asked when to turn off the lights and when to wake up.

We had planned to walk further but in the morning I decided to cut our walk shorter because my knees were sore.  We ran into Susan and Pat again, but Val, Peter and Erik had walked further on.