May 13 2018 Olite-Ujué-Sos del Rey Catolico
An agreeable day in a pleasant environment. The only thing that was a bit annoying was that the shop and the café in Ujué was closed for the day. But when asking a local where to find something to eat he made his wife put forward a loaf of bread and a big salami 🙂 No charge! Came in late, 2230, to Sos del Rey Católico.
May 14 Sos del Rey Catolico-Petilla de Aragón-Biel
Not much to talk about. There was supposed to be a pilgrims shelter in Biel but they didn’t answer my calls. So I began to check out booking.com and the only place I found nearby was a Casa Rural that charged 90 € a night, breakfast not included. In a mail conversation with the proprietor I tried to offer him 45 € but he turned me down. Entering Biel I asked a guy at the water fountain that told me that there was going to be a party for the locals at the pilgrims shelter that also had an assembly hall and a kitchen. He also told me that there ought to be no problem for me anyway to have a bed for the night. I went into the village café and the guy there made some calls and then told me to go to the albergue and ring the door bell as there were people in there right then preparing the evening meal. After a bit of haggling I got a bed but also got a half invitation to the party 🙂 I went back to the café and thought i’d better have something to eat if the invitation was to be withdrawn for any reason. There was a man in his forty’s there and when he heard that I wasn’t sure about the evening meal at the party he said that he could assure me that the matter was closed and that I of course was invited! The guy turned out to be one of the village elders that was in charge of the place. Part from that he was a working as a programmer in a bank in Zaragoza that was in the midst of the process of migrating their computer processes from Cobol, and hierarchical databases on mainframe computers to SQL Server on PC networks. SQL Server was my main area of expertise for many years so we had a lot to talk about during the evening. There were some twenty locals at the party, a few of them were migrants from Romania working in the nearby pig farm. My guide tried to convince one of the Romanian girls at our table that she ought to make children with her fiancée as soon as possible in order to bring children’s laughter to the village once more. The countryside in Spain as elsewhere in Europe is losing its young people at an ever growing pace. After having tasted city life while studying young people don’t want to move back to their village. They certainly do not lose touch with it but they prefer to work and raise their families in the city. I paid 6 € for the bed and nothing for the meal that had three courses. The proprietor of the farm house that I tried to convince that he should charge me only 45 € also attended the party and when he left he shook my hand and thanked me for visiting their little village.
May 15 Biel-Murillo de Gállego
Decent seven hour stroll with a couple of nice views. Good hotel. Good restaurant at another hotel a kilometer away.
May 16 Murillo de Gállego-Loarre-Bolea
Nice couple of hours in the beginning with rock formations made for climbing. Passed over a river with rapids for rafting. Found a shelter in Bolea for 5 €. Became a little bit nauseous probably from a tapa made of pigs blood. There was another pilgrim at the shelter that was moving towards Santiago but had been forced to sit still for a couple of days as he’d injured a leg.
May 17 Bolea-Arguis
Demanding walking/climbing up to 1500. The higher the altitude the more often you have to stop for a few seconds to catch your breath. Good hostal in the outskirts of Arguis with a very busy restaurant.
May 18 Arguis-Nocito
A demanding stretch again but not quite as demanding as the one yesterday. Passing through several abandoned villages and a couple of very nice rivers. Expensive but good accomodation and decent food. The inn’s shrew didn’t like me very much it seemed 🙂
May 19 Nocito-Paúles de Sarsa
Took in at albergue El Condor. 60 € dinner and breakfast included both of which I had together with two very friendly french couples speaking a mix of english, spanish, and french. In El Condor they don’t accept credit cards so I had to pay thru PayPal as I did not carry enough cash that day.
