Breakfast was at 8 pm. By serious pilgrim standards, that was a bit too late. And everyone knows Alan, Rosan, and I are dead serious pilgrims.

We would have made it out of there much earlier but I had a where-are-my-sunglasses moment, so we didn’t get out till about 7:45 AM.

Two hours later and we still hadn’t found a bar or cafe that was open. There was a sign that advertised a pilgrim’s rest stop (which Rosan kept referring to as “the recreation center”) that might as well be located in Santiago because it certainly wasn’t down that road.

I wanted to do another short day because, not long after we had started out, the balls of my left feet began to hurt. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t make it to our destination, Hospital de Obrigo.

I told the others that I would go only as far as my feet would allow me. Saint Martin seemed to be the perfect choice to stop and Raffy and Stephen could easily catch up with me the next day.

I didn’t notice it until later but, almost as soon as I made this decision, I no longer felt the pain in my foot or the weight of my backpack. Had I finally been enlightened in the Way of the Pilgrim? Was I finally getting my Camino legs? Had I finally made peace with my backpack? Were it and I now one? Had I really already lost the weight I had gained in Leon?

Of course, when we got to Saint Martin, it was only 12 o’clock, a bit too early to stop walking. Plus the drab town and albergues screamed, “Run away!”

So we did.

The 7 km. to Hospital de Obrigo was uneventful…

… so we were pleasantly surprised to arrive at this charming little town.

And we love our new albergue: Albergue San Miguel, run by Arturo and Piera from Venezuela.

7 euros for a bunk bed, 3 euros for breakfast.

They encourage pilgrims to paint and have walls of pilgrims’ artworks, a tradition they carried on from the albergue’s previous owners.

Lorraine-in-Spain-stays-mainly-in-the-plain, UK nurse who is also an e-book author on “the law of attraction”, attempted a painting of her own.

We were sad to say goodbye to Arturo, who has some very interesting stories about his life in Venezuela, and our newfound cyclist friends from Belgium.