August 15, 2013

Today is the Feast of the Assumption so it’s a national holiday in Spain. Last night, there was a procession of the Virgin Mary and Christ Child through the streets of Azofra. A folk dance troupe led the way around the small village. The procession started and finished at the church where mass was held at 8 pm. As soon as Mass ended, the disco cranked up in the town square and the bars started getting crowded. For those who haven’t been to Spain, the normal dinner hour is 9 pm. You’re lucky if you leave your table by 11 pm. It’s a very civilized way to live.

The music and drinking continued all night long but it was remarkably quiet at the albergue. I walked back to the town square at 0800 this morning for coffee and the bar was still filled with highly inebriated people who were singing and harassing any young females who wandered past. I was told that the party was planned to continue for 2 more days. Luckily, the camino traveling circus was leaving town.

Like yesterday, I found myself walking with someone right away. This guy was named Marc and he lived about 1-1/2 hours south of Paris. He was in the final few weeks of his Camino from Le Puy to Santiago. He has walked all of the sections in random order and he needed to walk to Ponferrada to connect everything together. I found a lot of people take years to complete the trip. My experience will be the same.

Notes from today:

Left Azofra at 0830, arrived Granon at 1545
total time 7.25 hours
Total distance 22.4 km
average speed 3.1 km/hr

The photos below are in random order.