Incredible Day: Day 5 on the Camino

 As bad as day four was for me, day five was tremendous. As we were making our way toward the last mile of day four I was moving pretty slow. My partners told me we had just 15 minutes to make it to our albergue to guarantee our spot for the night. With my blisters, now I also had to walk fast! But we made it. I was greeted by a beautiful lady and a glass of cold water (believed it or not, cold water is not always easy to find!). 

A word about albergues. As I mentioned in my first or second post, an albergue is a hostel that caters to pilgrims on the journey.  You must show your pilgrim’s passport to stay at the albergue. There are usually dorm style rooms, most of the time filled with bunk beds. The cost is usually $10 per person in Portugal and $15 per person in Spain. On our third night, in the town of Ville do Conde, we splurged for a semiprivate room $25. Mark, my new friend from Michigan, and I shared a room. A lot of the albergues are former convents and monasteries. 

As I mentioned in my last post, we have added a day to our walking. We are now doing the 172 miles in 11 days. We cut off 4 miles of day one by taking a train through the city; we are going to cut off another four at the start of day 7 the same way. This will keep us to 12 mile days which is all I can do. 

Another change we made is to take the coastal route the entire way. Great decision. Today was absolutely gorgeous as we meandered our way through village after village in Spain. We were walking ocean side 90% of the day. Thanks to our traveling companion Carolein from Holland, a nurse and an experienced hiker, my blisters were uncomfortable but not painful and did not get any worse. 

When we reached our $15 bed for the night we discovered it came with an ocean view. Check out the photos on Facebook. The weather was perfect. We had some great meals and great conversations as we walked. I “attended” Mass with all of you at JPII; congrats to our newly. 

Thanks for all the prayers. I really felt them today.