We arrived at a small town called De Palas De Rei this afternoon. After sunny, dry Leon region, the Gallican district is green and lush. But it also means: rain, rain and rain!!! It´s pretty tough walking 25km+ each day without the rain, but it rained for about 3 hours yesterday. It´s like a test of faith.
Still, there are only 69km to go until Santiago.
The closer we are to Santiago, the more privately provided albergue there are. They generally are more comfortable and never more expensive to the state option. But somehow, the "proper" pilgrims avoid them. Something to do with authenticity. It´s a good reminder that despite what liberal-marketeers might think, there are people who still find the market facilities more "vulgar".
This weekend is a long public holiday in Spain. There are thousands of "day-trippers" doing the Camino. They start about 100km away from Santiago, and have their bags sent from town to town and therefore walk quite a lot faster than we do. And also smell a lot nicer.
The iPod still rules. Listening to Larry Lessig´s Free Culture again.
Actually, i would like to point out that the private albergues are usually a couple of euros more expensive, and it is a fixed price and not a donation. The municipal ones often run on donation so if you are truly skint you can get away with not paying.
Posted by: RP | October 18, 2004 at 07:59 AM