Riego de Ambros

(Molinaseca to Las Angustias: 22.7 km; 34,953 steps, plus 3860 later)

Philippians 2:12-18
v. 14 Do everything without grumbling or complaining.

Uh huh. How, then, am I supposed to discharge my miserable fatigue? “Come to me, you who are weary and burdened,” says Jesus (Matthew 11:28), and so I will. I am so very tired, Lord. I am tired of walking. I am tired of junky paths and rocks underfoot. I am tired of carrying this pack. I am tired of carrying the poles when I don’t need to use them and tired of taking pictures and tired of friendly greetings with passing pilgrims. I am tired of getting up at 6 am and trying to quietly get ready in the dark. I am tired of squeezing out my laundry as hard as I can and tired of it not drying anyway. I am tired of potatoes. I am tired of the search for restroom facilities. I am tired of people smoking in my space and tired of not having any space. I am tired of chewing as fast as I can and not being able to properly compose my pictures and rushing through the day because we have to do the kilometers. I am just tired. The rest and the motionless sitting in the sun we had on the plaza in Leon seem very far away. Please, Lord, energize me and refresh me again.

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The bathroom facilities in this albergue are quite adequate even though they are in the basement. Breakfast was OK–orange juice, a hot drink and two big slabs of tostada with plenty of butter and jam. But the smoke! People started puffing on the porch before dawn and the smoke was sucked into every open window and door of this otherwise lovely albergue.

We had a nice enough walk into Ponferrada, mostly downhill but not too steep. We took selfies by the castillo in the sun then spent over an hour walking around looking for an ATM, a grocery store and a bar with bacon and eggs. Ha. How about a bar with a chocolate croissant? Nope. Finally just a bar with a WC would do.

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