2e bericht van Peter bij de Albergue in Ruitelan

I did catch up with Connie and after the usual Pilgrim chat “where are you stopping tonight and what chance of coffee on the way” etc, we decided to stop at Ruitelan. This is about 10 km short of O’Cebreiro, and we decided send our packs ahead as this is one of the big climbs on the Camino.  Eventually we arrived at Ruitelan where lo and behold we met Hedwig (from Holland) the lady from the cash-point in Pontferrada!  It turned out that Connie and Hedwig had met before. We checked in to the albergue and were given a stern warning by the hospitallero, Carlos, not to get up before 6.30am when we heard the music.  We speculated whether we would hear the music and what sort of music it might be and then forgot about it.  Connie, Hedwig and I had a very amusing afternoon and decided to join forces for the walk up the mountain, but none of us realised then that the partnership was going to endure for much longer than a couple of hours.  We had a lovely dinner prepared by Carlos and went off to bed with the warning about not getting out of bed still ringing in our ears!  At 6.30am we were woken by Ave Maria at 200 decibels booming round the albergue, followed by the Three Tenors and Nessun Dorme and various other classical pieces, we all laid back in bed and enjoyed the music until Carlos appeared in his apron to tell us breakfast was ready.  Absolute magic!