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Palas de Rei (1)

I've arrived at Palas de Rei, which is where Ben is due to meet me tomorrow. It's not a very big town but big enough to have a good reasonable range of shops and cafes.  So I've got quite a peaceful 24 hours to look forward to. 
Yesterday afternoon brought something of a coincidence. I'd arrived at the alburgue and selected my bed for the night, and then other people started to turn up. One of them was Jimmy Lee, who spoke with an English accent so we started to chat. He was telling me that he had walked some of the new English Camino which starts at Finchale near Durham, and mentioned that he had been to University at Durham. The next natural question of course was 'which college' and it turned out to be Castle (University College, for the uninitiated). So what are the chances of two Castlemen separated by some 30 years meeting up at an Alburgue in a small village in Northern Spain?  
We ate at the Albergue with Toby (from Holland) and Matteo (Italy).
I started today's walk a bit later than usual as it was quite short - and anyway after a couple of early starters left at 6:30 no-one else was moving early so the rest of us could sleep on!  It was also remarkably peaceful. I think what has happened is that the crowds stay at the standard larger places, and by staying outside those places I've found myself getting started before the crowds arrive.
This bit of the walk was very green, through woodland and small villages. With the peace comes sadness again. Louise would have loved this peace, these views.
One of the villages had a church dedicated to St James - locked up but with a grill in the door so you could see the altar.
 Jimmy caught me up as I was taking the picture, and we walked together into Palas de Rei, where we had a drink and some lunch.   Then he went on, and I checked into the hostal for the next couple of nights 


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