Day 12 Grañon to Belorado (March 30)

When we woke up the wind was still howling! Alberto and David (hospitaleros) had breakfast ready for us (bread, coffee, juice). Alberto took Cullen and I into the church before we left. Another beautiful church. Mass last night was in the chapel so it was nice of him to show us the church. When we left the albergue the wind was blowing as hard (or harder) as it was the afternoon we arrived in Roncevalles! The first 4 miles it was blowing right at us. I can´t even tell you what the scenery was like on this leg of the journey since my head was down against the wind the whole way. And, all I heard all day was the wind blowing. We walked only 10 miles today, but it felt like 20. We finally arrived in Belorado and went directly to the bar. We got on the internet, sent some emails posted a day or two to our blog, then decided where to stay the night. There were 3 albergues. The parochial, the Cuatro Cantones and another that was new and no info in any of our references. So we stayed in Cuatro Cantones. I think there were 18 or 20 beds in the room. A women´s toilet, a men´s toilet and 2 showers with cold water only. We passed on the chicken dinner offered by the hospitalero. Instead we went to the grocery store and Cullen bought the fixings for a tortilla with 6 eggs, 2 potatoes, onion, chorizo. We ate the whole thing plus a half loaf of bread and a bottle of wine to wash it all down with! Although the bathroom and showers were clean, the kitchen was not so much. Also only cold water to hand wash our clothes tonight. After dinner we walked over to the Church and went inside. An older woman started talking to me in Spanish and I communicated (in Spanish) that I was a pilgrim from the U.S. Cullen came over to join the conversation and she told him she was 90 years old. She said the procession they have in Belorado is quite grand and it was a shame we wouldn´t be there for it. I´ve met more pilgrims each day who have started in Logroño. We went to bed around 9.