Food

First course on the first meal.

Our very first night in Rocesvailles we walked into a very busy and full bar/restaurant and were immediately shown a table which happened to have an open bottle of wine on it.  This puzzled me but it was my first evening on the Camino and I was just not prepared to question anything.
 The wait staff came and offered us our choice from the first course, garlic soup,lentil soup, pasta, green salad or vegetable stew.  We then had our second course choices, beef and potatoes, lamb and potatoes, fish and potatoes, chicken or rabbit or goat or pork and potatoes! Our dessert choices were the best! Flan, yogurt,chocolate cake, rice pudding or cheese cake and sometimes ice cream.
We find out half way through this first Pilgrim's meal that the wine on the table was ours.

Once,  we stayed in Gañon at an Albergue that is donation only but the hospitadae fed us dinner and breakfast. We ate pasta and bread and then pastries on long tables with 35 other pilgrims, singing songs, telling stories and drinking wine. Some played music for us as well.

It is unusual that  the Albergue people also feed us. Some though have kitchens and several times we shopped and cooked our own Pilgrim ' meal.

 Because we are walking 12 to 27Km a day through hills and mountains and valleys and towns there are usually plenty of places to eat along the way.  When we see that there are no towns for that day of walking we buy bread and cheese or a couple of nights ago made rice balls in the kitchen of the albergue to take with us for the walking day.  Otherwise there are restaurants and coffee bars along the way.
Our Pilgrim's meal is always at 7P.M. and my first three days of walking I was too tired to stay awake for it and suffered for that.  You need to eat and eat well every day and the Camino businesses make it easy for you.

Coffee

 Yet,one time I had to wait 3 hours of walking until we came to a town with a coffee bar but it was worth it.  Every cup of coffee is freshly ground and brewed when you walk in the door.  I had been enjoying café con letche but now I have café americano  which is black but is prepared differently somehow. 

It is good food, fresh, local and homemade.
 The Pilgrims are honored on the Camino and folks think about what our bodies need and serve us well.  They  ask that we pray for them when we get to Santiago and charge us form 5 to 9 euros for our meal
It is at that evening Pilgrim's meal that the days healing begins with the shared stories and laughing .  We are getting full and letting go and ready to begin again.

Coffee

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