The Big Walk

Refuelling in Sarria – Day 10

There’s absolutely nothing to do here, which is good news for Helen’s foot. Away from the old main street, the rest of the town is a grid-plan of typical Spanish blocks of concrete flats. I’ve never spent a more relaxing or enjoyable day in my life, sitting alternately in the sun or shade as time floats past. There’s a delicious feeling that we’ve earned this, things are on track – and that there’s no point in worrying about the days ahead.

Spanish eating hours are very late – four o’clock for lunch, nine at the earliest for dinner. This is completely unsuited to pilgrim life – we’ve learned that we need to keep getting up at dawn to beat the heat – so we decide we’ll start to make the lunchtime slot our evening meal. There are no visible restaurants here, but we catch a glimpse of a couple of tables in a room curtained off from a bar, and are shown through for the set meal. Caldo gallego (Galician cabbage broth), steak and chips, heaps of crusty bread, ice cream and a bottle of wine are all lingered over. When the bottle is empty the barman brings more – and the total cost is that of a couple of pints in our York local. The food was better than there too.