Our tiny Air B&B gave us a much needed night of sleep. C picked up breakfast while I packed a piece of luggage to be shipped to our end point, Santiago de Compostela. He was amazed to spend 3e in total on a loaf of bread a whole melon, a huge nectarine and a banana.
We rolled our 40lb suitcase down three flights of stairs, over sidewalks and cobblestone to the post office, which has a pilgrim shipping/storage rate of 28.50e. Spain supports people on pilgrimage with a number of discounts, but I wasn’t expecting shipping on that list.
Madrid’s Plaza Mayor was the next destination. We weren’t 1k in when my phone rang. I understood enough Spanish to learn that the post office clerk had forgotten to return my passport. I told him we would be there ahora!
The walk to the plaza was good training for our Camino, over 90 degrees hot and up and downhill. The walk was followed by a typical Spanish menu-del-dia, a reasonably set price for a meal of three courses including a glass of wine, followed by a true uderstanding of siesta. I think it was the huge pannacotta that gave me the serious sleepies.
Or maybe it was combined with a course of jet lag.
We rested in a nearby park to the strains of an accordion, violin and canned music playing tango. As tired as I was, if I knew how to do it properly, I’d do a happy pilgrim tango across that park. I thought it appropriate when they played a rousing version of Viva Espana right before we picked up our pilgrim passport at the Church of Santiago, which officially marks the beginning of our Camino. It was the last song we heard in the plaza in Santiago as we ended our pilgrimage in 2016.
Tomorrow: a train to Zamora, our starting point.
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