Feb 5, 2015: Lleida to Palau D'Anglesola 22.7 K

It had been freezing overnight but this morning the temperatures were starting to move towards the mid 30's, with the hope that mid 40's might grace us by early afternoon. We were still dreaming of our wonderful dinner yesterday as we went down to the buffet breakfast that awaited us. We had enough coffee and toast and everything else to carry us to Palau, our destination for today. We have booked a hotel room in the neighboring town of Mollerusa, but we're not quite sure how to get there if we wanted a ride. As we were checking out a kind lady, who spoke excellent English, helped us with a phone call to our host in Mollerusa. He agreed to pick us up in Palau whenever we called. Perfecto. Offering our thanks to the lady who graciously helped us, we then swung out the door and into a very cold Lleida avenue. We followed the river out off town eventually picking up the orange  arrows that point us towards Manresa. This should have been a nice easy walk, as we had plenty of good food, a great night's sleep, and even showed some restraint in sampling the local wines. We started off strong but as the day wore on we just felt tired. No reason for this, but there it is. Today's landscape was at first, and at last, a walk through agricultural fields (mostly fruit trees). The path was mostly gravel turning to mud as the snow melted and softened the ground. We clomped along hopping from tuft of grass to tuft of grass always looking for dry footing. This became quite draining and perhaps contributed to our feeling of being stuck in low gear. But, we pushed onward and by 12:30 we were in the village of Bell-Lloc. This left 9.7 K to go, and we felt like we had only 5 left. The following winds had now pushed away the morning cloud deck allowing the radiant heat of the sun to bring new warmth and life to our bodies. We shed our jackets, and shoved off for Palau. It was a long 2 hours but we made it. A quick phone call to our host in Mollerusa alerted him that we had arrived. He showed up 10 minutes later and took us directly to the hotel. Another perfect day done. Joan, our host, has agreed to do our laundry, and help us with another off stage hotel connection for tomorrow night. So with those pressing matters in hand, and with 20 minutes to spare before the restaurants closed for the afternoon, we beat it out the door and directly across the street to a wonderful Italian place, La Tagliatella. We had a splendid meal, followed by a couple of cortados and a very nice limoncello. We were at piece. Our feet were still sore, but everything else was just fine. Also, we are now two for two for dinners. This is a record on this pilgrimage. No complaints...just saying. 

Below some pictures from the cathedral in Lleida, some Lleida street scenes, and some scenes from today's walk.