On to Manresa

After breakfast at my Zaragoza hotel, I took the train to Manresa. It’s a little milk train, covered with graffiti on the outside. The inside is nicer than it appears from outside. It’s a two hour trip, but it wasn’t bad. The car was air-conditioned, which was a plus.

However, the walk up to the Jesuit center once I arrived was like walking through HELL!! Straight up the side of a mountain from the train station, which wouldn’t be so bad except it was in the 80° and I was sweating buckets by the time I got up here.

The Jesuit center is quite nice. If you decide to come here, I suggest you get a regular room and do not stay in the albergue. There is no air conditioning so unless you come in the spring it’s pretty hot in here. They have provided our fan in my room, which helps. Washing my shirt and putting it on wet also helped. Even though it says on the website and on a brochure in my room there’s a place to wash clothes and hang them, there is not. I took my clothes into the shower and washed them. You must bring your own sheets and towels, and that’s OK because I carry both. The room is not particularly clean, but that’s the way it is with albergues . It’s not horrendously dirty either.

I guess for the amount of money I paid I just expected more. My bad. I think it’s only about €20 more for the better rooms and to me, if I ever come again, it would be worth that.

(((CORRECTION: In my previous post, I said dinner might be soup and bread. Boy was I wrong! We were served a full three course lunch and dinner complete with wine for those who wanted it. The food was excellent! The first night we had a yummy savory pumpkin creamed soup, mixed arugula salad, something that reminded me of chicken Kiev, fried potatoes, and fruit. Breakfast the next morning was toast with jam and butter, hard boiled eggs, fresh fruit, yogurt and cereal. Lunch was some type of wonderful thing that reminded me of a layered eggplant Parmesan. It was so good! The salad was filled with fresh greens, figs and goats cheese and a sweet dressing. Raspberry ice cream was dessert. Dinner the following night was a big salad with fresh peas, a loaded type of pizza, grilled eggplant, fruit and yogurt. )))

Dinner is served at 8 PM and so I’m trying to stay awake. I didn’t get much sleep last night - I’m still fighting the time change.

I did take a quick walk down to the Cove, which I’ve seen before. I did not take photos because there’s a large group of young people down there right now. I will try to take photos in the morning right after breakfast. It really is beautiful.

I felt a little discouraged when I first got here and was wondering if I bit off more than I could chew trying to walk this route in this hot weather. Especially after trudging up the hill to the Jesuit center. Luckily, the first few stages are short and if I decide it’s dangerously hot, there are two towns where I can catch a train and change course around Wednesday or Thursday. So that is an option if it’s just too hot.

The biggest issue is the amount of water that I would have to carry if this heat doesn’t change. At any rate, there are many Caminos to go walk if this one is too much for me right now. If that happens, however, I would certainly come back in the spring because it looks like a great trail.

OK more tomorrow and I will post photos tomorrow.

Love,

Annie