Day 09: Jorba to Cervera

Date	May 31 ( Wednesday )
Today's Distance:	12 miles /   18 km
Jorba to Cervera Stats	Route Video
Total This Camino:	74 miles
Total 2023 Caminos:	74 miles
Total All Caminos:	1809 miles
Lodging:	$ 70 @ Hostel La Savina
Total Lodging:	$ 506
Planes:	$ 1350
Total Planes:	$ 1350
Buses / Trains / Taxis:	$
Total Buses / Trains / Taxis:	$ 0 / 30 / 32 = 47
Food:	$ 20
Total Food:	$ 245

Meaningful Moment

From Deb: Unexpectedly tempestuous day. Started off with a lovely 9 mile walk. With about nine more to go, the sky became stormy. 

Rather than spend the night at something of a truck stop Hotel. We decided to go the next 9 miles. 

About a mile or so in, a thunderstorm rolled in with some rain so we hid in some bushes and took a selfie while we waited out the rain. 

When the rain stopped, we went on our way and soon encountered a downpour and impressive thunderstorm. 

We were not smiling quite as much then and tried to hide under some very low trees, but we were quickly soaked. 

In fact we went down a gully lower than the road and of course were covered with all kinds of stuff. And the second time we found two very low bush trees as well.

I knew we didn't want to be the highest point in a field and I knew we did not want to hide under trees.

We then made our way to an underpass. 

There, an incredibly nice woman stopped to help and drove us the rest of the way to our final destination, Cervera.  She was a real Camino Angel.

Well, we are now dry and fed and ready to rest, so what more can we ask for lol

--- Deb

Random Thought of the Day

Have spoken with several people who say the weather forecasts for the next several days are  for afternoon showers.

So much freaking road walk, pretty much the entire day. And the first half, 9 mi, was a slow constant upgrade. 

On the Road / Notable memories

The summit of the long incline up was La Panadella, the halfway point of today's hike. We stopped for a rest and a drink.

Shortly after we started walking again, we ran into the thunderstorm mentioned in the memorable moment above.

...

Was starving by the time we got into Cervera. 

We were walking around the city about 7:00 p.m., which in Spain is way too early to find a dinner. Kitchens and restaurants open up about 8:30 p.m. and I couldn't wait that long. 

I had forgotten the Spanish custom of late dinner. 

While walking around, we finally found a Chinese restaurant that was open in the University quarter.

I had a corn and crab meat soup and vegetable and shrimp dinner. I was afraid that I had ordered way too much, but that turned out to be absolutely not the case. It all disappeared.

...

Cervera is a city atop a hill and surrounded by stone walls going back I don't know how many hundreds of years.

So walking around the streets can easily get you into a dead end alley.

Deb and I ended up down such an alley. We asked a guy who was unloading stuff from his car for help.

He let us into his building to cut through in order to get to the Calle Principal. He had the cutest small dog with him who seemed to adore him.

Anyway the point is that this guy was a Camino angel, because he could have simply had us go all the way back down and double back.

	The west side of Cataluna is beautiful.
	Marcelo chatted with us. He had not seen another hiker in days
	Thunderstorm headed our way. No way around it. La Panadella was a trucker town and we did not want to spend our rest day there.
	Caught a ride to Cervera shortly after this. We were taking cover under short trees.
	Cervera sits on a hill. Much of the old walls remain.