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Ok the bin of empty wine bottles was pretty full at the end of the evening! Salsa dancing was taught! The noise level was tremendous and much food consumed. Just when I took my courage in both hands and gently suggested bed time ( like the good granny that I am) a “ priest” in full robes and a ratty dog-collar hurried in. He rushed across the street to pick up his huge backpack which had been delivered to the bar.

As I attempted to hustle the merrymakers off to bed he announced that he had to cook a dozen eggs. It’s Lent, after all, and he is fasting. No meat or fish! He was assigned a room all to himself so I asked that he rearrange his considerable luggage up there. The eggs were ready but no he must make a concoction of the water they were cooked in, lemon juice, fat from a jar and sugar. By this time it was almost 11 -an hour past lights out! Granny lost her cool and started to haul his bags and baggage upstairs – much to his annoyance. Just then a straggler pilgrim asked if I needed help with” this guy” why? “ oh, I saw him on action in another village on the Camino! “

By this time he had already informed me that China told Russia to invade Ukraine because there is a secret weapon of war there, that chem trails cause climate change and that he was a missionary in Ukraine!

The look of exhaustion on my partners face inspired my severe “ get upstairs immediately”

He gathered up his robes and with a haughty “. I thought you were a kind lady. What is your belief ? “ he scuttled upstairs.

Just as I was heaving a sigh of relief and turning off the lights..,, a timid tap on the kitchen window and a plaintive “ Isobel” . The door to the yard had been locked for an hour already! The only American pilgrim had scaled the wall to get in narrowly avoiding a steep flight of steps to the bicycle storage. “Off to bed with you!” A sheepish smile and a blown kiss was his reply.

The next day the priest had to be dragged out by the formidable Anna.

A cup of coffee and a swift mop of the floor and all is well with the world.