Month: June 2019

The walk here was magical, the trail lined with trees planted ages ago and going beside ancient walls.

I finally saw a donkey but it wasnt offering a ride to this pilgrim

in the afternoon I discussed philosophy and religion with a German university student and ate dinner with my friends who are Christian Brothers from the Philippines.

Sarria is dissappointing, according to the guideboooit would be hopping with new pilgrims just starting out and would be crowded. I was looking forward to new people. Instead it is a ghost town, where are they?

Here it is in the distance.

Todays 20k felt easy, the walk in the early morning was magical. Yesterday I walked all day with Edmondo, and although I really like him, I tend not to see things when I walk and talk.

The spiritual nature of this journey comes not from the pilgrims intentions but the intentions of the people along the way with a message. The spirituality takes three forms, catholic spirituality, religious spirituality that isn’t catholic and modern spirituality. Today I experienced that kind, after a hard climb I entered a tiny town. I hoped beyond hope for a place to rest and have some refreshment. At the top of the hill someone had built a pilgrims oasis

A young lady came up and asked me what kind of coffee I wanted. She gave me coffee and homemade cake. All around were messages from other pilgrams or from those who sposored this oasis.

I am in Sarria this is a starting point for pilgrims who only have a week. I expected a lot of people but the town is really sleepy.

I survived the night of no blankets by wearing everything I owned. I have decided to book ahead

for the rest of the trip as things are beginning to be full and the private aubergues are much nicer

than the first come first serve public ones which dont provide blankets. This one is gorgeous, The owner took an old run down 500+ year old house and made it into a work of art, that invites relaxation after walking 12 miles in the rain and hail.

Much nicer than the crowded institutional municipal aubergue

One wonderful aspect of this trip is how the scenery keeps changing, but slowely as you walk. Sometimes the scenery is the same for a day or

two but then it slowely changes. A walk is the right pace to see the world.

Today the scenery realy changed and I was climbing a mountain about 2000ft vertical great views.

I beat the rain today but tomorrow will be challenging, 38 degrees and raining. Also no blankets at this Aubergues. My plan is to wear everything I have with me to bed and in the morning.

This place is really different, no town, just a lawn and a trout pond, trout for dinner,

I just figured how to get some pictures. I needed to clean out the media library and change the resolution.

Here is the Gaudi Palace

Here is a good stork picture

Astorga on the distance, do you know how far a mile is until you can see something a mile away and then walk to it.

I still can’t upload pictures, I am not sure what is wrong it could be a wordpress problem. Yesterday I was wipe out going into Molenesca, but today felt good, However when I got to 20K I began to drag and in addition when it began to rain I looked for the nearest Aubergue, this is one I like the least, hard to describe, very functional and a long way outside from my bed to the bathroom, also outside of town so not near any source of food. I would move, but it is too much work.

I am afraid there will be no more pictures. Intru to upload them and they won’t possibly a problem with wordpress or the internet here. Today was hard, the last part was a drop of 3000 ft and hot. I thought I might go further, possibly by cab but I didnt want to go anywhere. At the top was the Iron Cross, you are supposed to bring a stone from home and leave it there in appreciation of someone in your life who helped you reach this point. An elderly women(actually younger than me)!Had made a long streamer with the names of 150 people who has helped her overcome her respiratory problems. I used the moment to think about who I appreciate.

There is alot of christian spirituality on this trip but it seems that a lot of christianity is about denying death, but replacing it with a rather scary alternative, I talked to two priests who were on the camino one quite felt these were medieval notions not to be taken two seriously, I did get a chance to ask the other because he was very curious about Unitarianism and kept me busy expaining it.

I did some computations and at this rate I will not be finished in time. I decided to go faster and make this my last sight seeing day until Santiago. if I can do 20k a day I wont have to change my flight home. Astorga has a population of 12,000, less than Sharon’s and a cathedral and museum with treasures that would make any museum of art envious. But this is true of much of the camino and to a certain extent is its point, send people on a journey that will show them treasures beyond measure. Today I walked only 13k but I was alone the whole day.

The also have a building by Goudi, much more recent but has a fairytale quality, it was designed as the Bishops Palace.

It would not upload. I will tru somewhere else,