We woke early in the dark to the sounds of many people packing up and preparing to leave. We got ready quickly, had breakfast, and then said a quick goodbye to Fabian, Marek, & Kirin who were all still in bed.
I decided to make one more quick trip to the bathroom before putting my pack on & heading out. While waiting for the one toilet to open, I stood inside the bathroom next to the sink. All of a sudden the toilet door burst open and just as the unbelievable stench hit me, so did the little old Italian man who had become my biggest fan in the past two days. With a giant beaming smile, he came straight to me placing one hand on either side of my face and said, "Ahhh, giorno bella, bella!"
All I could do was stand there cringing & holding my breath under my smile, all the while thinking, "OMG, POOPY HANDS ON MY FACE!!"
After a few more minutes of tortuous smelly conversation, he finally left and I washed my face several times.
Once we finally get moving, we find that we are covering a lot of distance quickly. This is surprising since we are still up and down hill after hill, but our bodies are growing much stronger with each day. We stop in Vianna for a coffee & snack and decide we have time to visit the supermacado & the cathedral.
As we enter Iglesia de Santiago, we are just awestruck. There is classical music softly playing and I instantly get chills. This is the first time that either Jenny or I have visited a cathedral, and we've chosen well. We linger inside for about 45 minutes taking it all in and upon exciting, make a pact to visit the cathedrals in each village along the Way, regardless of time constraints. This is, after all, why we have chosen to walk this Way.
We continue along and the sun comes out just as we meet Fabian (Fabby) and Marek on the path. We walk along with them into Logrono, but they get into the line at the Municipal albergue just before us, getting the last two beds. We quickly head to the parish albergue that is attached to the cathedral but don't have high hopes as our guide books tell us that it's not open until June.
When we arrive, two cyclists are waiting outside the front door. There is a sign saying they will return at 3pm. We all sit quietly in the sun hoping that we will have a bed for the night. After 20 minutes a tiny little man with a huge smile shows up to welcome us. We are the first through the door but within minutes there are 75 smelly, hungry, and tired pilgrims crammed in the building with only two bathrooms. You can imagine the chaos that ensues. We tend to hit places like a swarm of locusts. Upon arrival, we are greeted with smiles & bathrooms full of toilet paper, within a few hours, the toilet paper is all gone and so are the smiles.
We are told that mass is at 7pm in the Cathedral, immediately followed by communal dinner prepared by volunteers back in the albergue, and then a special service for pilgrim prayer after, which is when our passports will ceremoniously be stamped. The entire evening was amazing from start to finish. I was again the lone American but am getting used to it by now and am becoming quite skilled at small Camino talk in other languages.
We go to sleep feeling very blessed, warm & dry with full bellies of pasta.
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