Granon

We had to leave this hostel at 9am. So we thought we could sleep in. No such thing! The toilets were right next door. Anyway we could take it easy. It rained a tiny bit not enough to put the poncho on. We bought some food for on the way as the next town is 15km further on. The path was mostly level. After 7 or 8 km we came to Ciruena. It was awful. It looked like a North-American suburb with new houses, a park, a golf course, but no square, nor shop, nor church. There was no soul here. There was somewhere you could have a cup of coffee but we didn't want to stay a moment longer than necessary. The weather was cool and cloudy. Eventually we arrived in Santo Domingo de la Calzada. A nice town with a beautiful middle age centre. The town was named for a shepherd who wanted to enter the monastery but was refused admission because he was illiterate. He decided to look after the needs of the pilgrims. He built a hospital which is now converted into a parador. There was a cistercienser monastery and a magnificent cathedral. We went inside but could only see the back portion as there was a Mass going on. We had something to eat in one of the restaurants where we met Elsa, a Canadian girl. She was waiting for her Hungarian friend. On the way out we took some pictures. Another 6.5km to go. In Granon we entered a hostel full of graffiti made by previous pilgrims. We waited there for a while but nobody showed up. We decided to check out the other one. That was in the church. We saw a room full with mattresses on the floor. We were not sure. We saw quite some boots and shoes so there must be pilgrims here. We climbed the stairs and came into the cosiest sitting room we have seen so far. We decided to stay and chose a mattress. We met Elsa and her Hungarian friend and a couple from Alaska. We talked and read and went across the road for a glass of wine. Back in the hostel they were preparing for the evening meal. We put some more tables up and got ready for the meal. There were thirty of us. We had a delicious meal with sangria. After the meal everyone helped doing the dishes. Then it was time for the reflexion. We went to the little chapel and sat in a circle. We passed a candle around and if you wanted to say something you could do so. After that we all hugged each other. Back in the living room Doug played a game of chess with a Russian