Mon 12 Oct - Day 28: Astorga to Foncebadon 26km

550km walked. 235km left to walk.

Today is Hispanic Day, a national public holiday throughout Spain. It was also a day that didn't turn out at all the way I expected. Let me bring you up to date. 

Not a big photo day today you the way. 

The weather forecast for today was for rain, rain and more rain and possibly thunderstorms. While it certainly did rain over night, quite a downpour at times, as I woke up just before 6am it was suddenly all quiet. 

I did not have a good nights sleep as everything, and I mean pretty much everything, over night was noisy. 

The floorboards of level 2, I slept in the first floor, seemed to amplify all sounds including backpacks moving, people walking and even people moving in their beds. Perhaps the last argument was only in my imagination. However, the hostel has the worst water hammer issues that I have ever heard. A toilet flush several rooms away could be heard throughout. Loud!!

I was out of Albergue San Javier by 6.45am or so after having a cup of tea. 

This is how it looked outside the albergue at that early hour. 
The ground was wet all right but no rain was falling. It was still dark and would continue to be so for a few more hours. My tactic at this time is to find a fellow pilgrim with a light just in front of me. I soon did find one. Deb from Marybyrbong, Melbourne. 

So Deb, not Debbie, and I would hike together all the way to Foncebadon which was her intended destination for the day. I didn't have one. I was just going to go as far as I could without being drenched. And I ended up walking all the way to Foncebadon, which is longer than one stage in the guide book. 

Wet wet wet but very little rain. 
We stopped for breakfast at Murias de Rechivaldo 3km down the road and then another coffee at the Camino institution of Bar Cowboy in the small town of El Ganso. 
Not particularly cowboyish inside but certainly eclectic. 
Deb and I stopped in Rabanal Del Camino for a refreshment. Rabanal Del Camino is the destination for stage 23 in the guide book. That got to be worth a beer. Heck, this particular bar had a local craft IPA. A nice shift from the usual suspects of San Miguel and Estrella.
 
I had the Kadabra IPA thank you. 
Aussie Deb went for a grande San Miguel. She claimed to not drink beer in Australia. Hmmm....

Around 1.30pm, we arrived in Foncebadon and found refuge in Albergue Roger de Lauria. Big place with pilgrim beds in the basement, a restaurant at the back and a hotel section upstairs at the back. 
Services were cleaning clothes through a washing machine. And drying them, for free, as per below. Yes, the wood fired burner certainly made the place cozy... And wet clothes dry. 
Lunch in the lovely restaurant. I had garlic soup for Primero. Nice. 
The owner clearly was a classical music fan. As the restaurant emptied, right of a sudden Beethoven's 5th symphony followed by a bit of Mozart. Symphony no 40 in G Major. Yes, I shazamed that to get the right symphony. 

Plenty of drinking in the warm and cozy bar followed. Can you believe it, Ben, Aaron, Sophie and Win all turned up in Foncebadon. Only Marg was missing in action. Let the drinking begin. 
Aaron was out for a cig at this moment. 

The others stayed at another albergue but that was apparently very crowded so they went to the albergue I was staying in for a drink or three. So after a while they all left. Deb and I stayed put. 

The weather started to clear around 6.30pm. View from just outside Albergue Roger de Lauria. 
Dinner at 7.30pm was for Primero, drum roll, French onion soup, one of Good Mrs favorite dishes. 
The rest of the dinner was a big salad bowl, tortilla and as a segundo / main a tuna bake. Not wine to drink this time but sangria. OK but I prefer wine. 

Post dinner at 8.30pm or so, we all were tired and gradually retired to bed. 

Yes an interesting day that turned out quote differently to what I expected at the beginning of the day. 

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