November 29, 2022

Uterga to Puenta La Reina 6.9 km

November 29, 2022

Saturday, April 16th, 2022
Holy Saturday

6.9 km
Total 91.3 km

Today’s walk was so easy. If I didn’t have reservations, I would have continued on to the next town. I have reservations tomorrow too. After that, I want to push myself to do longer mileage. I know I am capable of doing more miles.

I have a very small blister on the side of my foot where there was a callous. It’s probably from the weather heating up today. My shoes are starting to stink too. I’m not sure what I can do about that. I need to think on it.

The Spanish countryside is beautiful to walk through. I stopped to take a million (well, maybe not a million) pictures today. I read somewhere that the camino is like walking through postcards. It truly is! I never get tired of looking around at the fields filled with the yellow flowers called colza.

I started early enough to see the sunrise. I’m glad to not walk this afternoon due to the temperature warming up. Tomorrow we are supposed to have the same weather. Although the sun is great for pictures, I prefer to walk in cool temperatures.

I spent some time walking with a Canadian woman, but I can’t remember her name. Also with an Englishman/Scotland guy named Ed whom I met at the last albergue.

I checked into the Jakue Albergue that is located on the edge of town. It’s connected to a hotel and restaurant. The rooms are interesting due to the fact they are separated by walls and doors, yet connected with an open ceiling. Should be interesting with the many snorers on the camino. There are two bunkbeds in my room. I have a lower bunk next to the window. There is an Australian man Chris on the bed above me. Alfredo from Mexico is on the opposite lower bunk. Susan from Nova Scotia is on the top bunk. Susan has walked the camino 6 times! She was not too happy about getting a top bunk. She also didn’t want to visit at all. At dinnertime she sat in the garden with a book and ignored all conversation. I was impressed that she wore full make-up, jewelry, and was carrying a thick hard backed book. I then realized she was sending a bag ahead each day. When I planned my original camino for 2020 I was going to utilize luggage transport too. I changed my mind after hiking on the Appalachian Trail. I had a long conversation with Alfredo. What a nice young man he is.

After checking in and getting settled, I explored Puenta La Reina. I stumbled upon an outdoor market so, of course, I had to peruse all the booths. There was a beautiful silk scarf I came close to buying, but didn’t want to carry an extra item across Spain. I found a lapel pin in a shop so I did buy a souvenir of the town.

I visited three different churches today. Each one I sat and said a prayer of thankfulness. In one of them, there was a guitar player practising. His music sounded lovely. I visited two of the churches with a new friend Margaret. She is an attorney from Berkley who is walking the camino with her daughter.

The Puenta La Reina bridge was awesome. It is a Roman bridge dating back hundreds of years. Puenta La Reina means Queen’s bridge in Spanish.