On Sunday, we left Montserrat and had the mountains as backdrop till we turned west and had to turn around to see those wild shapes growing smaller and smaller. We got to our destination at about 3 pm, still time enough to eat in a restaurant before the kitchen closed.
The. time flew by with our constant "getting to know you" chatter and of course many camino related conversations, since we have both walked a lot. But we were both very glad to see our destination of Jorba appear and get into the albergue. It was along hot day--the long walk through Igualada's industrial park on the outskirts was very tiring.
We were in an albergue run by the local priest.
He also has two big rooms where he was serving lunch to several big groups. We had heard he is a very good cook, but unfortunately we had to go to a place down the road since he was way overbooked. So either the priest is moonlighting or these side gigs are part of his pastoral mission.
Monday was a slightly shorter walk, to the town of Cervera. Only 35 km instead of 36. It was much more pleasant than yesterday. The first ten or so kms were on asphalt, but then it went off road, through some nice little villages with ancient churches, and up and down through some pretty woods.
In the first bar we came, about 15 km in, there was a bus of school kids who had just flown in from Mallorca to spend three days in the Pyrenees. They were very sweet and chatty.
We are sleeping tonight in a convent. Up on the top floor, there is a long hall with little individual cubicles curtained off. Where the novitiate a used to live--no novitiates here anymore.
The small city of Cervera used to be a fortified city on the hill. There are some very nice old reminders of that era.
Laurie, is it necessary to walk 30 k stages on this route? That's a bit more than I can do these days.
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