- Time of past OR future Camino
- Many, various, and continuing.
The Albergue Municipal de Najera filled up fast this afternoon, as it usually does in September. Forty-nine pilgrims squeezed in before Australian/Dutch hospitaleros Rob and Ines put out the "completo" sign. Pilgrims took showers, made meals, went out to shop or refresh.
And then the sky turned black and a massive storm hit. It was a monsoon-worthy downpour with high winds that shook the walls and thunder that rattled the dishes in the cupboard. The rain started pouring in from beneath the front door, and then down the wall alongside the registry desk -- where the electrical box is. In the dorm and the bathrooms water poured in around the closed windows. Pilgrims grabbed their bags up from the floor before they were soaked.
Then the lights went out.
Rob and Ines grabbed mops and buckets, then went back for the big floor squeegees when the water rolled in toward the dining area. When the wind finally died down and someone opened the front door, the water in the entry was two or three centimeters deep. The pilgrims abandoned their dinners and jumped up to help. They stripped off their shoes and socks, grabbed brooms and mops, and went to work, sweeping the water out the doors in the entryway, into the shower drains in the ladies' bath, and mopped into buckets in the dorm. Water kept coming in, but the hospis and a troupe of ten or fifteen pilgrims laughed and swept and sopped... and they got the water back outside, and down the drains.
The albergue waited in the dark for a while, then eventually went back to their dinners -- now with romantic candle light.
Pilgrims who'd been out in the town came back and said the entire old part of Najera is also mopping and sweeping water from their premises -- some were even shovelling. Some got mud instead of just water.
A couple of pilgrims helped a barman mop his flooded floors, so he gave them each a bottle of wine. They brought it back to the albergue to share.
The ayuntamiento opened the fronton so pilgrims could stay there instead, but no one chose to leave.
Ines and Rob will try the lights in the morning, when things have dried out a bit. No "lights out" announcements tonight!
Meantime, at 9:45 p.m., Ines writes "It's so gentle and peaceful here right now...people drifting around, cleaning their teeth...
It all feels a bit 'Spirit of Dunkirk,' really."
Great hospitaleros. Great pilgrims. And Albergue Municipal de Najera, at its apocalyptic best.
And then the sky turned black and a massive storm hit. It was a monsoon-worthy downpour with high winds that shook the walls and thunder that rattled the dishes in the cupboard. The rain started pouring in from beneath the front door, and then down the wall alongside the registry desk -- where the electrical box is. In the dorm and the bathrooms water poured in around the closed windows. Pilgrims grabbed their bags up from the floor before they were soaked.
Then the lights went out.
Rob and Ines grabbed mops and buckets, then went back for the big floor squeegees when the water rolled in toward the dining area. When the wind finally died down and someone opened the front door, the water in the entry was two or three centimeters deep. The pilgrims abandoned their dinners and jumped up to help. They stripped off their shoes and socks, grabbed brooms and mops, and went to work, sweeping the water out the doors in the entryway, into the shower drains in the ladies' bath, and mopped into buckets in the dorm. Water kept coming in, but the hospis and a troupe of ten or fifteen pilgrims laughed and swept and sopped... and they got the water back outside, and down the drains.
The albergue waited in the dark for a while, then eventually went back to their dinners -- now with romantic candle light.
Pilgrims who'd been out in the town came back and said the entire old part of Najera is also mopping and sweeping water from their premises -- some were even shovelling. Some got mud instead of just water.
A couple of pilgrims helped a barman mop his flooded floors, so he gave them each a bottle of wine. They brought it back to the albergue to share.
The ayuntamiento opened the fronton so pilgrims could stay there instead, but no one chose to leave.
Ines and Rob will try the lights in the morning, when things have dried out a bit. No "lights out" announcements tonight!
Meantime, at 9:45 p.m., Ines writes "It's so gentle and peaceful here right now...people drifting around, cleaning their teeth...
It all feels a bit 'Spirit of Dunkirk,' really."
Great hospitaleros. Great pilgrims. And Albergue Municipal de Najera, at its apocalyptic best.