Calzadilla to San Nicolas on September 26th

We had a hotel buffet breakfast this morning and lollygagged longer than usual.  We had breakfast with Collum and Vanessa from New Zealand who we had not seen since Ciruena.  We were joined by Michael from Australia who is in his early 70s (we think) walking for the second time.  He said the first was not good because he raced through it.  He is taking his time this go round and looking at the churches.  We also met Ernest from Belgium who is 77 and walking the Camino in yearly parts, three weeks at a time.  We didn’t get started until 9:15.  It was okay because we were taking a short day of walking.  When we got to the Hostal we had booked it looked great but when we got to the room Joe found something that made Ag nervous and a change of room didn’t help.  We decided to walk on to the next town where there is one alburgue with a bar/restaurant and another bar.  They had two lower bunks for us and we might be alone.  Worked out nicely.  Had dinner with Ernest from Belgium, Dirk from Germany and Mariela from Poland.  Dirk is a chemist and loves to travel.  He and a friend spent a month in a camper going from Arizona to Lake Tahoe (with a stop at the Ponderosa) to LA to Yellowstone.  A smart man who likes people.  Ernest is a pharmacist who had his own pharmacy.  Mariela’s English is better than our Polish but not by much so we couldn’t communicate very well.  We have the bottom bunks of four and are alone.  Nice.  All in all another great day on the Camino.