Pertusa to Huesca, May 12

We'd planned another short stage for today.  But as we were walking about an hour out from Pertusa I received a text from Annie (who is now ahead of us) that the albergue we'd planned to stay in (Pueyo de Fananas) is closed due to termite damage.  Good thing we had an early start: we were looking at a 30 km day.

After climbing out of Pertusa, we walked through rolling farmland as the day gradually warmed up.  We stopped for a quick sandwich in Pueyo,  and on we went.

 

Most of our walking was along pleasant dirt or gravel roads, but we had a couple of 2+ km stretches along pavement.  Although the roads were relatively traffic free, as the temperature climbed into the upper 80s, that was hard going.

After passing through the small village of Ola, we climbed steadily to the top of a high ridge from which we could see Huesca in the distance.  The descent was along steep mountain bike trails, and then our path turned left to avoid the industrial outskirts of town before we started in toward the city.

As we entered the city area, we stopped at the Ermita de Santa Maria de Salas, which was an overnight spot for pilgrims on the way to Santiago in the 12th century.  Here there was a road junction, with yellow arrows pointing both ways.  By this point it was late afternoon, we were quite hot and tired, and we were puzzling over which way to go.  A woman there saw our conversation, and told us which was the correct road.  Then she took Ellen's hand to take us in to see the inside of the Ermita.  Just as we were about to head off for the final couple of kilometers, a man we met inside said he was headed that way, and offered us a ride to the albergue.  Saint James to the rescue once again.

He dropped us off, and we called the number on the door for the hospitalero (albergue attendant).  Five minutes later Alvaro showed up, opened the albergue for us, and showed us around.  We were dead tired, but after a shower we dragged ourselves a few blocks to dinner.

We'd planned a rest day in Huesca, so today (Sunday, May 13) after a long conversation with Alvaro we moved from the albergue to an inexpensive hotel (wifi!) in the old center of the city.  Had some fun walking around and exploring, ate a couple of great meals, and spent some time catching up on this blog and email.