Extra Pics related to previous entries

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I have tried adding additional pics to prev entries..... but that doesnt seem to be working too well ..... sometimes can only be done one by one, sometimes the titles and descriptions are mixed up ! and I have also noticed that many pics appear much more faded/washed out than they do when I view them via picasa or another program..... I am going to try now just a NEW entry with a few more pics related to prev ones.... before I begin new locations...... so away with me now....... and YOu have a look at the end of this text for the pics... and we'll ALL see how that goes .......

2 hrs later ...........Well THAT was a frustrating wasted few hrs............ the multiple uploader is really bad, you know when you scroll down a web page and half of it comes down with the scroll so you get sort of multiple mess of things and cant read anything, then it just sort of sticks there and you have to leave it .... well thats what happened..... continually ( or is it continuously? does one mean intermittent and the other not? any pedants/superior grammar knowledge anyone? anyone? ) But I digress........

OK .... my decision is this.... I will continue with blog, with only minimal pics for each entry.... AND I will start a Camino pics folder on Facebook - frankly the pics LOOK better there and its MUCH faster to upload them... there eventually will be many let me warn you !

So - back to blog/text.......

Now I am really going to mess up the chronology here because I'm going to backstep as I've missed out quite a bit when I skipped and blogged my birthday date then continued from there....

11/4/12

After the walking past and stopping at the lovely church Aynuntamiento Del Villatuerta where all the prayers/notes were left, we walked on to Estella... its another larger city with a poulation of about 15,000...... we are finding cities and large towns really difficult and draining to walk through... I think because of the contrast between the peace of villages and countryside, to suddenly be among traffic and the visual and auditory cacophony that goes with it, the need to be aware of traffic and signs etc is just.... unpleasant...

Anyway the first plan was to stay at an Albergue that is run by ANFAS - a society which supports the 'mentally handicapped' (Guidebook description) , and is run with the assistance of the intellectually disabled.... well we looked and looked at the approp spot, found an office door which belonged to ANFAS , which was locked.... and eventually a passerby told us it was closed down, last year .... so off we set to find another place to stay.......... we simply didnt like the look of the next place..... found ANOTHER one after climbing a hugely steep hill for about a kilometre - pretty tough after already doing 20 + km - only to be told yes beds WERE avail.... BUT a school party of teenagers had also booked in for the nights ( it was also a youth hostel).... after quickly weighing up the thoughts of spending an evening with noisy spanish speaking teens , we decided to move on.... to the LAST Albergue in town........THIS we have nicknamed 'the purple room' because it was - AND it was under a squash court - it had NO windows and only the one exit ?? fire regulations?? ..... there were already about 20 people in there - it was a bit hard to see as was L shaped and we tended to hover where beds were free....... Initially chose a bunk by the door ( with fire safety in mind??) but moved across the room to the other side as while we were just standing there contemplating , the people going in and out the room was irritating... ..... We unrolled our sleeping bags, went to shower.... and found it WAS a true squash court with open showers from the walls and no curtains or cubicles or privacy - EXCEPT one where there were two together so we grabbed that ...back to the room and chatted for a while with Mathias.... a Social Worker from... ? somewhere Nordic possibly ?? He spoke v good English and was amusing with his complaints about chafing his blokey bits...:-) Diane and I decided to go see what was avail locally to eat, but it was only early ( 5pm or so) ... we roamed nearby streets and found a supermercado ( supermarket) and a cafe..... we bought fruit and yoghurt for the next day- but decided to go BACK to the squash court to eat.... I have to say it will prob be the only time in my life I will have a meal while watching an Indoor Soccer game ! The cafe area overlooked the courts.... it was a pilgrim menu meal and is memorable for having the WORST soup we had in Spain - Think chicken noodle dishwater - salt free- and that kind of conveys it really.... but you know -that was just the first course and the bottle of red wine to share helped it all go down quite well...we finished the meal and headed for our beds in the purple room - and who knew/cared whether the sun was down or not (we couldnt see - no windows!) - we were tired and slept EXTREMELY well .....

Hmmmm I have just reviewed this prior to publishing.... and really this blog is now all over the place ! I do apologise .... pics appear without explanation, or labels, I think my dates are a bit mixed up....Maybe I will just aim for an interesting whole - as opposed to accurate articulate parts lol.... will begin pics on FB also now - starting with London I think .

Ciao xxx

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