Day 9 - The end of the day

This is Ian standing in front of the place where we got our books stamped to show that we had been there. I think we spent more time in the temple than just about any other. It was not so much that it was more interesting, it was that we arrived early in the afternoon and did not have any further to walk. It was truly nice not to have that pressure on us, and I found that I envied the few people who were sleeping outdoors. Of course, the whole trip was much rougher for them, and in that sense I did not envy them at all, but they did have more time to spend in temples or other interesting places.
As we came down from the highest point in the temple, I realized that we could see our hotel. It is the building with the curved roof on the center-left.
After we left the temple, we stopped at the souvenir shops, but did not find anything to buy. We knew that we had to buy food for the next day's trip; it was going to be long, 26 kilometers. Also supper time was nearing. The map showed a convenience store a kilometer or so further away from our hotel, so we walked there and bought supplies. I got a lot daifuku (beans and sugur mushed together and surrounded by a dough made from rice) for quick energy, hard boiled eggs, a bar of chocolate, some sweet bread, and sports drinks. There was a restaurant marked on the map that looked interesting. But when we found it, it was out of business and a new non-restaurant have taken up residence.

We headed back to the hotel, stopping in the station building to buy some candy and to look at their souvenir shop. Again, bought nothing. Outside the station, we met a man that we had seen a few times before. He was pulling a fairly large cart that had two wheels that looked like they had been taken from a bicycle. I thought about taking his picture but he was not very friendly, very much folded in on himself, and it just did not seem right.

Even with the candy, we were definitely ready for supper and decided to go back the coffee shop when had been in earlier. When we arrived, she told us that she did not serve food in the evening. After another cup of coffee, she recommended two restaurants. One was just across the street, so we went over, but it was closed - did open for about 90 minutes. That clinched it and we walked the kilometer to the other restaurant, where we had an excellent meal before heading back to our hotel and an early night.
As we returned from supper, we could see the castle silhouetted against the clear blue ski. Again we almost walked up to it, but decided it would be too much. We went straight to our room, where I wrote in my diary, sent the daily blog, showered, and went to bed early - tomorrow was going to be a long day.

The picture below shows a page from my diary with a sketch of the room. The beds were different from any I have ever slept in, except in a cabin in the woods. As you can see, the beds were mattresses that were placed on a knee-high, bare wood, platform. The bath was on the right and the wall across from the platform had a narrow shelf the length of it. This served as both a desk and a place to put things. There was no closet but high on the wall there were many hangers.
Although it was a short distance between sleeping places, we did a lot of extra walking and I was ready for bed. In fact I showered first, and was sound asleep before Ian finished his shower. I slept well and we got up early for a long day on the road. For the next few days, it would be all walking. The next temple was almost 100 kilometers away.