Day 17 Hormillos to Castrojeriz Happy Easter! (April 4)

Had a good night´s sleep. The noisiest one in the room was Cullen. And, his alarm went off at 0645, which was probably a good thing because the Austrians were suppposed to get up at 0630. Despite the weather forecast, it was a clear morning. It was very cold, but the sky was blue and the sun was shining. The mud puddles were frozen. Perfect walking weather! Stopped for a coffee in Hontanas since San Bol didn´t appear open. another 2 hour walk without a first cup! If we could have walked another 11 km yesterday I would have gone on to Hontanas from Hormillos. If the Irish couple would have been with us we would have! Hontanas seemed much nicer than Hormillos. Anyway, while we were enjoying our coffee and bocadillo, the church bells started ringing in the church right across from the bar. They rang and rang and rang. It was really loud so I hurried Cullen up . It was a nice walk the rest of the way. Beautiful weather and scenery. I did slip into a mud puddle, thought I could walk around it, but in I went. Oh well, its only mud. We passed the Convento de San Anton - amazing. There is an albergue there. We got to the Albergue Traditionale in Castrojeriz around 1320, but it doesn´t open until 1500 so we went to the Meson Restaurant for lunch and had a great big plate of green beans, pimientos stuffed with some kind of shrimp stuff and rice pudding. Delicious! The 2 Korean girls decided to stay at the same one even though there are 4 other albergues here.
So the Albergue Traditional is quite primitive. Two things would have made it perfect; heat and toilet seats. Other than that the hopitaleros were wonderful hosts. They invited us up to the dining area for a ¨Quemada¨, which is a Spanish drink. It was quite an elaborate preparation and presentation. I don´t recall the ingredients except for sugar, raisins, absinthe and water. But he lit the whole thing in a ceramic bowl, off went the lights and with a ceramic ladle provided quite a show of flame pouring from the ladle into the bowl while speaking some incantation about light and flame and cleansing. When that was finished he did a rendition of Amazing Grace. Then off to bed. This was one of those nights when I´m dreading getting up in the cold and sitting on the toilet without a seat, thinking I can´t do this another day. And then, we get up have the breakfast provided by our hospitaleros Emilio and Jose. Emilio walked us out and as we started down the street he sang Auld Lang Syne in Spanish. A Camino moment!