The Tasty Pilgrim

Well now, my idea was to write a lot about the food and the places such as restaurants, but it seems that I only write about amazing people that I meet and I meet so many of them. I am very happy to say that I set the tone of warmth and friendliness and humour and understanding here. Yesterday there were two girls from Holland, they they told me that everyone agrees it feels like a warm bath to arrive here. In other refugios you are never greeted with anything like WELCOME TO THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF GAUCELMO.

Only the private refugios do their best to be welcoming for pilgrims. The large ones are run by a civil servant and he does not really care. Every day the sun comes up earlier and since it is warm in the daytime more and more pilgrims wish to be on their way before the sun comes up. This morning I heard the first one at a quarter to six, so I got up and opened the kitchen and started arrangements. Three men just wanted some hot water for their Nescafe´and of course I helped them. Then someone else came in and wanted some hot water for a cup of cocoa. Then the Hungarian arrived was shocked. In his communist mind I had done it all wrong to help these guys. But you know it is no use starting a discussion with someone who does not have any social intelligence. He does not understand that if you say to pilgrims " I am not going to give you any hot water although I have it right here "  these pilgrims will be terribly disappointed and walk off.

They will remember this refugio as extremely unfriendly. My aim is to create the opposite. The refugio Gaucelmo should be an oasis along the Camino, just as the refugio L´Esprit du Chemin is in St Jan Pied de Port. You know what, the old hag from England (mad dogs and Emnglishmen go out in the midday sun) , agrees with the Hungarian. This is then the English type of hospitality. I just shake my head and go on doing good towards my pilgrims. After the two witches left, Lips my friend from Finland arrived. You will remember that we met in Pamplona. The two witches had brought her along and in a former life I had met Lips before ( even kissed her tasty lips, as far as I can remember). Like so many others, she also had sore feet and blisters and so on. In the evening we went out for a meal together. In Rabanal there are two restaurants which offer a Menu Pelegrino. For 10 Euro you get a three course meal with bread and water and the red house wine. You can choose from 7 starters and ten main courses and six deserts. Just to give you some idea here is the menu.

And at the restaurant Gaspard they have garlic soup, and a wonderful salad of the house The ratsurants both have a fish soup on the menu, but Antonio puts langoustines in the soup, while Gaspard has shell fish in the soup. So they taste very, very different. For lunch I keep on creating my own salad or pasta with a breadcrumbs and cream sauce. The two Dutch girls that stayed here yesterday are celebrating the Camino every day with lots of wine. Yesterday evening we sat in the large garden and they offered me a glass and we laughed a lot together. There was also an American family staying, a mother with three grown up daughters and two boys. They thought this was the nicest place so far where they had stayed. It all boils down to a warm heart and sharing it out. They all wanted to be with me on a photo, hugging and smiling.

THE HOTTIE PILGRIM