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peregrina2000 wrote:Hi, everyone, the albergue vs. Lindamar saga continues. I was there three days ago for a long break and this is my take on the whole thing.
What used to be the Lindamar was sold in January to a British guy who plans to keep the place open year round under the new name of Hotel Lakeview. He is a very nice guy, but seemed a bit overwhelmed by the very negative campaign that the Albergue has waged against him.
As you are walking on the Vdlp, after Casar de Casares, you suddenly leave the beautiful off-road stretch and hit the asphalt of the N-630. You have 5 km on asphalt, from km marker 525 to km marker 520. When you arrive at the Lindamar/Lakeview, you are ready for a break. The LakeView is not directly on the water, but is shady and welcoming. The albergue turistico (in the same "chain" as Fuente de Cantos, Zafra, Torremegia, Almanzara) is another 600 m down a dirt road and it is directly on the water.
So, here you are in the middle of nowhere on the Embalse de Alcántara with two possible places to stay. I can't imagine that both can survive, and the Albergue Turístico seems to have resorted to some not-so-nice tactics to kill the Lake View.
Both places are clean and comfortable. The Albergue does not serve meals (just frozen pizza, I was told), so many people who stay there on the water's edge go up to the LakeView for dinner. The problem is that the Albergue does its best to make sure that the LakeView doesn't know about the peregrinos coming up for dinner. One pilgrim from Austria who stayed in the albergue told me that the hospitalero said he didn't have the LakeView phone number and so he couldn't call up and make a reservation for him. The guy at LakeView tells me that he has given the albergue his phone number many times, but frequently people just show up from the albergue for dinner and he doesn't have food enough to feed them.
Based on what the Austrian said, it seems that the LakeView is winning the war for pilgrim beds, because it's right there on the camino itself and when you're tired, why walk another 600 m? On the other hand, the Austrian said, there is no doubt that the view is much better from the Albergue and he said the service was top notch. But the night the Austrian was there, there were two sleeping in the albergue and 15 or so in the LakeView
So, what I see happening here is a fight for survival, with one of the competitors resorting to nasty and underhanded tactics (like pulling down the LakeView signs). I don't think that both of them can make it at the same spot, unfortunately. Laurie

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