Albergue Deluxe — Albergue A Pocina de Muniz in Vilar de Cas, May 14, 2024

(By Laurel, with apologies to William Shakespeare — “MacBeth”)

Is this an Albergue which I see before me,

The door handle toward my hand?  Come, let me clutch thee.

I have thee not, and yet I see thy scallop shell still.

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible

To feeling as to sight? or art thou but

A bunk bed of the mind, a false creation,

Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?

I see thee yet, in form as palpable

As this which now I wish to enter.

Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going toward Santiago;

And such a place of rest I was to use.

Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,

Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,

And in thy communal supper and bunk bed 

Which was not so before. There's no such thing:

It is my weary feet which inform

Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one Camino stage

Nature makes me dead-tired, and dreams abuse

The curtain'd sleep; 

Hear my steps, which way they walk, for hope

Thy very yellow arrows prate of my whereabout,

And take the present heavy backpack from the time,

Which now suits with it. While I reach out on WhatsApp, he answers:

Words to the heat of shower; cold drink, too.

                                    [a bell rings]

I go, and it is done; the hospitalero invites me.

Hear it, Pilgrim; for it is a knell

That summons thee to top or bottom bunk.

Arriving to the Albergue on the left.

Our bunk beds with a couch to relax on.

Looking up from our bunk area to another bunk section adjoining.

Another common area to relax in.

Entrance area to the shared bathrooms and showers.

The kitchen where pilgrims may cook their own meals.  Communal meals could also be catered by the Albergue.

A bar/cafe on site.

A garden area for pilgrims’ use.