It was another lovely day for walking, although we had fewer clouds and less cool winds than yesterday but there were more flat sections. We still had some steep parts but they were quite short, rarely more than 50m high. We only had a total ascent today of 670m which is less than if we had walked halfway up the Pyrenees to  the Refuge Orisson on the normal first day, a day we missed by starting in Pamplona. 

Because of the short distance today, we stayed in bed a little longer than normal and enjoyed the comfortable beds at the Pension Los Arcos. We could not check-in at our hotel in Viana until 2:00pm anyway and we didn’t expect to take more than five hours to walk. We also stopped for tostas / Napolatinas / café Americano / fresh squeezed orange juice.  That stop for breakfast was after the first grueling distance from our accommodations, 200m down the road to the café.  Our initial effort in walking today was justly rewarded with good food. 

Once again,as we meet new pilgrims and meet up with those we have already met, we have more and more conversations with strangers along the way.  Actually, I shouldn’t call them strangers since we learn so much about them from our walking conversations.  Today we walked several kilometers with a Canadian couple who were a delight to spend time with.  I can tell you that the wife, Laura, is going to have a knee replaced soon.  Also, they don’t expect to reach Santiago on this trip because she wants shorter mileage days. I know she felt pity for me due to “the situation” in the US (but everyone we meet here says the same thing).  A funny story was when the husband mentioned that he walked several kilometers yesterday with a lovely young woman from Barcelona who is a agricultural engineer.  He said he was shocked that she would talk so long with old farts.  Hey!  That was Aina and that was MY story.

I have to mention that we have pretty fancy accommodations tonight. Yesterday, while looking in Booking.com for a place to stay in Viana, I saw a highly rated hotel (by our standards) that had a double room available for 34€.  That can’t be right, I thought.  I showed it to Melanie and she said to book it immediately before someone discovers the error or the place sells out.  It turns out that it wasn’t a mistake or a scam. We are now sitting in a very pleasant room in the Hostal Palacio Pujadas. That’s right, we are staying in a real ex-palace for 34€ which is likely a last minute “fill up the rooms” price but we don’t care.  We are sleeping in a palace.  The facade and entrance room are probably the only parts left in original condition but we don’t care. We are sleeping in a palace!

The final story of the day was that we bumped into g German Susi today and arranged to have dinner together. At 6’30pm, the only restaurant in town that was opened “so early” was our hotel’s restaurant.  That was fine with everyone since we rarely get to eat in a palace. It turned out that the only person eating inside when we arrived was a 77 year-old American pilgrim named Art who Susi had previously met. We asked him to join us and as often happens, we get blessed by getting to hear about someone else’s Camino experiences and stories.  We have already all agreed to meet up in Navarrete tomorrow night for dinner too. Slowly the pilgrim family grows. That said, collectively, we already knew about 90§ of the pilgrims who walked in the restaurant door after us. Right now, those are our Camino cousins, I guess.

Again, it’s late so Peace y’all!  Good night George, Leo and Stella!