Day 05: Molins de Rei to Matorell

Date	May 27 ( Saturday )
Today's Distance:	10 miles / 16 km
Molins de Rei to Matorell Stats	Route Video
Total This Camino:	24 miles.
Total 2023 Caminos:	24 miles
Total All Caminos:	1759 miles
Lodging:	$ Hostel Torres @ $75
Total Lodging:	$ 395
Planes:	$ 1350
Total Planes:	$ 1350
Buses / Trains / Taxis:	$ 15
Total Buses / Trains / Taxis:	$ 0 / 30 / 32 = 47
Food:	$ 25
Total Food:	$ 165

Meaningful Moment

Deb and I had the cutest experience today. 

While we were on the trail, having a small picnic, this beagle ran up out of nowhere and began checking out the backpacks. 

Shortly after that the owner came along, and we all had a good laugh.

Our lodging for the night is a hostel / hotel that is located outside of the nearby city of Matorell. Too far to walk to get food.

Being flexible is always good. When Deb and I got to the hotel this afternoon, we quickly discovered that the cafeteria is closed on Saturdays and Sundays. 

The lady at the reception desk gave us a menu for a restaurant nearby that offers a hamburgers and pizza and delivers. 

The upside was that we sat outside in the patio on the terrace and chatted and talked while we waited for our food to arrive. Otherwise our routine would have been walking around the town trying to find a place to eat.

Random Thought of the Day

Although the path was very pretty today, we were snuggled in between and expressway on one side and the high speed rail on the other side. So a lot of hum of traffic kept creping into the walk.

...

It pays to double check your plans. Deb and I were discussing our day tomorrow at the Abbey of Montserrat. 

However in discussing where we were spending the night, we were noticing discrepancies. 

Essentially, it came down to two towns about an hour and a half hiking distance apart with similar names.

We discovered that we had booked a hotel in the wrong town. 

To be accurate it wasn't so much that it was the wrong town, because there was a tram that could have got us over to the Abbey of Montserrat and that town. But it would have been inconvenient.

After hiking all day and the last part being a climb up a mountain, it's just so much easier to be lodging next to the Abbey instead of a tram ride away.

Anyway the incorrect booking was non-refundable, but we did get a reservation at the hostel in the area of the Abbey, and that was much more important because it was much more convenient.

On the Road / Notable memories

Very hot sunny day with temperatures up to 85°, plus a fair amount of road surface adding to the heat. Although a shorter distance than yesterday, we ended up feeling more tired today.

Made it into Matorell, but the combination of the above conditions, just made it worth taking a cab for the 2 mi to the hostel. 

It would have been essentially road walking on pavement to get to the room, that was not part of the Camino.

Matorell seemed like an uninteresting city, but that could be due to the route that we used into the city. It seemed more like an urbanization, rather than a quintessential place.

Got to the hostel, and found out the reason it was so hard to find a room in the area was due to a Coldplay concert in Barcelona.

According to the lady at the reception desk, given our location about 2 mi off the Camí de Sant Jaumé, there is an alternate route for us to get to the Abbey of Montserrat, that does not require us to walk 2 miles back into the city. Took a look on the map and it seems to make sense. According to the receptionist, it will be a much quieter route. Sounds like a plan.

	Today's path along the Rio Llobregat.
	Rio Llobregat
	Shade was a highly priced commodity this morning in the hot sun
	Hiking in a dry river bed
	The cute beagle that crashed our picnic
	Tonight's lodging. It's outside of the nearby city in what we would call an industrial park :-)