Day 29 – Ventas de Naron to Palas de Rei

The parish church of Palas de Rei

I only had a short walking day today, about 12km plus an optional diversion to Vilar de Donar, a church which was a national monument and ancient seat of the knights of Santiago from the 14th century. According to my guide book, is has stone effigies of knights and unique frescos. This diversion would only add 4.6 km to my journey and as it was a short day, I thought it might be worth it.

I stuck my head out of the albergue and immediately went back inside to put my jacket on. It was quite cold and there was thick fog. At first, I tried to use my head torch but it was useless in the fog so I let it hand around my neck to illuminate the track in front of me like fog lights on the car. The fog was also dripping from all of the trees so that it seemed it was raining, and I would have to keep veering from side to side to avoid getting a soaking.

After 6km, I turned off the track towards the Vilar de Donar church. The only problem was, it didn’t open until 11am and I got there at 9:30. I ate my breakfast in a posh bus shelter, checked my emails and made a few calls. When 11 O’Clock came, I went to the church door and waited.

I had a sinking feeling, with my previous experience of taking an optional diversion. At 11:15 I gave up and made my way back to the route. It was only another 5.5km to Palas de Rei, but I felt a bit dejected by the time I found my albergue. When I tried to check-in, I said that I had a reservation but the guy couldn’t find it.  This wasn’t a problem as I was quite early but it could have been different if I had turned up at the end of the day as it might have been full!

The albergue was a modern, purpose built hostel, with rooms hosting 6 pilgrims. Each bed has a power socket and light, which is great because everyone has a mobile phone and other devices that need changing at the end of the day.

The albergue also has its own restaurant but this was currently closed, probably as a result of the COVID pandemic.

I tried to eat at a restaurant but there were queues of Peregrinos outside. This must be the bulge in numbers of Spaniards taking advantage of the nice weather and a bank holiday weekend. Hopefully they should pass me tomorrow, moving onto towns ahead of me. I went to the supermarket and bought a 460ml tub of ice-cream for my tea!


Comments

  1. Pete10 October 2021 at 12:13

    At least you managed to find a decent ice cream so that was a plus (-:

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MartinV10 October 2021 at 13:51

      Yes, it was a shame I had to eat it all before it melted! 🙄

      Delete

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