A Day Off

With mallet finger and something happening in my jaw: is it a wisdom tooth, abscess or just a result of too much air turbulence from two flights recently, here I am up in a Café, just away from the core of the city.

Being here i am reminded of Cahor in some way, but there it was the river acting as a boundary looping around two thirds of the city, here it is the finest mediæval wall I know - and it's all the way round. How would all British cities look with them entire? York has a fair allowance of walls, and so does Canterbury (rebuilt in Victorian times?) But most bits and pieces I've seen in Newcastle, Exeter or London have to be sought out.

I've been on an extensive perambulation and now, although it's a quarter before noon, I need a restorative beer and Racíones. The only place which has true beer and doesn't have a television on in the corner or music blaring out seems to be Cervercía La Barraca therefore I will stop there, before back to the Albergue for 'boo hiss' a shower!

***

In every way I must confess that Ávila is a fantastic town for a day off, even though it makes me feel I'm undoing something. Such guilt. Having any fun in anyway makes me feel guilty. I had the afternoon in the bar I like, drinking Belgian beers, and returned to the Albergue to sleep. Somebody disturbed my siesta, and they didn't know it, there was another peregrinos! Outrageous, I was expecting to be the only peregrino for the get together planned for me by the Amigos Association!

When we were sat amongst twenty or so local organisers, we had a couple of glasses of Sidra and Cava with some snacks, but fatigue got to me and knowledge that I'd be walking again come the morning.

They were a nice bunch, but the French pilgrim annoyed me for some mindless reason - I've liked having the whole of this Way alone, and have enough companions on other Caminos, and she said she'd mainly caught buses between cities...