[Gocamino] A Camino Completed!

[Virginia]

Ahhhhh yes, the prison matron of Rabe de la Calzada.  I stayed there, poor unsuspecting pilgrim that I was.  And yes, what Rita and Wes said is consistent with my experience.  

Several times on my Camino I ran into pilgrims who had shared my night in Rabe and they were still dealing with some residual anger about the experiences with Michelle (she has actually walked all the Caminos in Spain and proudly displays her certificates on the wall of her wonderful Camino museum.  (I must say her spouse is a delightful man - filled with good humor and good stories...)    

I should have known it would be bad when she initially grilled me ("Are you happy?" to which I responded, "Yes, I'm happy." She said, "You don't look happy!"  I was inclined to stand up, salute and say "Yes Ma'am, I'm happy, Ma'am!"  but I refrained.) and she told me in no uncertain terms that I was not a pilgrim, but a tourist ("look at you bracelets and your long hair..these are not pilgrim ways!")  There were privacy violations (she charged, with nary a knock, into the bathroom to micro-manage how one woman was managing her shower!) 

There was great concern about bedbugs so Michelle had a rather complicated system of bagging our things and lots of rules about how to conduct ourselves during our stay.  One of my fellow inmates (oops, I mean travelers) broke into tear tears after a reprimand from this woman. 

Interestingly enough, she wrote a few motivational words on my pilgrim credential. 

Yes, Michelle reminded me of a drill sergeant(I am retired US Air Force).  

I will share an extended version of my stay in my blog - I am slowly transcribing my notes so it will be a while. Suffice it to say, I would certainly not recommend staying at her lovely home...

Just a bit of my experience in Rabe...

Despite this, I say: life is good...

"Ginn"
Virginia J. Pulver
In Sunny Santa Fe
http://pilgrimageofgratitude-mycamino.blogspot 

______________EXCERPT FROM ORIGINAL MESSAGE FOLLOWS_______________
...We also found the woman at the albergue in Rabe de la Calzada to be 
> extremely unpleasant (the albergue is in her home).  She kept us waiting 
> long after the time on the door for opening, then had us come inside in 
> groups according to languages spoken (at least I think that was what she 
> was doing) and so we waited a long time again. When we finally were 
> beckoned with another English speaking couple, she left the room and we 
> waited for more than 20 minutes again.  When she came back she asked 
> people inappropriate questions about where they came from and where they 
> were going the next day and how were our feet, informing us that she will 
> tend to them (despite the fact that we told her we didn't have any foot 
> problems).  But when she told us that it cost 20 euros each (!) and that 
> included dinner and I said we didn't want the dinner, could we just pay 
> for the bed, we were informed that that was not possible.  We got up and 
> left at that point and went to the bar in town and asked !
> if there was any other place to stay.  Vincento at the bar said his 
> brother had a place for 8 euros each and after we said "great," Jose Maria 
> came for us in his car to drive us the few streets up to the top of the 
> town where we had a little room with 4 other peregrinos and Jose made us a 
> wonderful little dinner with whatever we wanted to order, which we ate 
> outside on the patio.  We recommend this albergue if you are going to be 
> staying in Rabe -- just stop in the bar and ask Vincento about it!
>...Buen Camino
> Rita and Wes
>