I left together with Matthieu, after Lone had already gone. The day was somewhat misty, but the landscape was beautiful and our conversation was good as well.
We reached a small town in which the church door was open, so we went inside. Since it was Sunday, we were thinking of staying for mass, but when we heard that it would not begin for another hour, we just went in for a brief time of silent prayer and then moved on.We met Lone and the three of us continued together. The walk to Somo was easy and uneventful. From there we were to take the ferry into Santander. I had misunderstood Matthieu, however, when he had said something about the shelter being "just before the ferry." I'm not sure if that's what he had said, but I had assumed that he meant that the pilgrim shelter is in Somo. So I let Matthieu and Lone go ahead to Santander, while I looked around Somo for a pilgrim shelter. I asked some women, but they told me that the only one they knew about was in Santander.
I took the ferry an hour later.
In Santander I hung around a park for a while, and found a tourist information booth. I eventually found the pilgrim shelter, and reserved myself a bed by putting my backpack on it. The man working there was strongly opposed to this gesture."That backpack has been all over the place!" He yelled at me. "You've probably had it lying on the ground, where it's dirty and where people have spit on. And now you put it on a bed!?"
I mumbled an apology. This seemed like obsessive cleanliness to me, especially when compared to the state that most pilgrim shelters had been in.
The shelter was closing for the rest of the afternoon, and I could come back in the evening to spend the night. I was told that there was a pilgrim's special at the restaurant downstairs. I went out into the city to walk around. I felt guilty for craving a McDonald's hamburger.
