9. Etappe Teil 1 nach Itero de la Vega

I woke up briefly at 6 a.m. but went back to sleep. And then at 7:20 someone turned on the lights. I actually wanted to leave at 7, but generally I don't set an alarm if there are other people in the room so as to disturb them and I usually wake up early on my own. But today I actually slept a little longer. The weather predicted rain in the morning, which is probably why I subconsciously slept longer. Anyway, I packed my things and saw that almost everyone in the room was already gone. I'm usually one of the first to set off. I started walking and after five minutes the rain started. “Great start,” I thought to myself and pulled my scarf up further. Today is the first day where I've been cold all day and left my jacket on all day. I usually take off my jacket after an hour of walking and walk around in just a tank top and rain cape, but today was different. I hadn't had breakfast and was already hungry. The rain was constant, but fortunately not that heavy. And I wanted to have a hearty breakfast in the next town, but nothing came of it. In Castrojeriz everything was closed. It's a shame if you're traveling in winter that many hostels and bars are closed, but locals also live in the towns and they have to buy something or want to have a coffee. That's why I left the town quickly and had to hope that I could satisfy my hunger in the next town eleven kilometers away. Luckily the rain had stopped. But my hands were cold, as always. This is also the biggest problem so far. I was usually warm under the rain cape, but my hands were always cold. I've been struggling with this for a long time. Before, when I was a bit fuller, my hands were always warm, but now they are mostly like blocks of ice. Even gloves of any kind don't help. And the problem is that my hands were sometimes so cold that I couldn't use the cell phone properly and I could only tie my shoes with difficulty. After Castrojeriz we went up a mountain. And this one had it all. The view was of course impressive again, but I arrived at the top soaked in sweat. On the way I met 2 bicycle pilgrims who had to push up the path. For me, a hike on a bike would be out of the question. I enjoy cycling short distances, but I don't enjoy anything longer than half an hour. Otherwise I met 3 people from China today. As soon as you reached the top of the mountain, it went steeply down again. And then further through the landscape. I was happy to finally reach the next town and saw the sign “supermercado” from afar, which means supermarket, and was lucky that it wasn’t closed yet. In Spain it is usually the case that the shops close at lunchtime or in the afternoon, but I ate a baguette and a chocolate ear and also got myself something to drink. In addition, the sun came out a little now. So I continued on my way strengthened.