[Gocamino] Galicia Albergues & tourists

[Grant Spangler]

I am forwarding this on-the-road-tale by Mike Smith who is did the Via de la 
Plata in May. The albergues are were real circus, but Mike kept his sense of 
humor....

What a marathon, but now we’re into Galicia where the grass is greener, some 
of the distances are shorter and we’re meeting all sorts of strange people. 
At one albergue the dictator allocated beds and woe betides anybody who 
stepped out of line. He announced that we should be very tidy because a 
group of pilgrims would arrive late in the afternoon. Much to our surprise a 
busload of people arrived and was allocated beds. They chucked their bags on 
their beds then went into town for an evening. At 9:30 pm a lone Spanish 
pilgrim arrived .... he’d walked 50 km! We let him in and he was in the 
shower when El Lider arrived in a towering rage and tried to throw the poor 
man out. We remonstrated and got told to mind our own business. That got my 
dander up and I was prepared to toe the line with the albergue’s own 
fascist. But I sweetly remarked that the man was a real pilgrim, not like 
the bus tourists. Oh, dear! Something of a scene .... but we found him a 
bed. The bus tourists arrived back at midnight. Today in Ourence we found 
the albergue (very nice too) invaded by a bunch of tourists in a bus. They 
must be football team supporters .... the noise didn’t stop for an hour 
despite our asking the hospitalero whether we were in a pilgrim albergue or 
in a hostal touristico! Strange things happen on the Via de la Plata.

Don't ya just love the Road?

Grant

Grant Spangler
GASpangler at hotmail.com
http://groups.msn.com/ElCaminoSantiago
http://community.webshots.com/user/ElCaminoSantiago