Through Our Looking Glass

Today we followed in the footsteps of Roman Emperor Augustus! The road we were on is the most perfect stretch of Roman road left in Spain. While Augustus would have travelled with a retinue of servants that aren’t available to us, we had to look after ourselves by making sure our water bottles were full and that we had some food with us before leaving Calzadilla de los Hermanillos. It was hard to find, but yesterday evening we eventually found…

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We were a noisy bunch of chatterboxes at breakfast this morning. The little woman serving us kindly asked us to be quiet in consideration of the nuns who were sleeping upstairs. We stayed at the Convent de Santa Cruz, part of which is an albergue maintained by voluntary hospitaleras. The money raised goes towards helping poor children in Peru fulfill their dreams of becoming teachers, doctors, ballerinas, etc. You don’t mind paying extra for blankets and a phone call when…

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According to our calculations, Dave and I have walked four hundred and forty-four kilometers in the last four weeks. (It seems longer when you spell 444 out!) On September 10th we were back in St. Jean Pied de Port getting ready to take our first step and now we are more than half way to Santiago de Compostella. Each day has been different and memorable. We think fondly about the people we’ve met along the way and wonder how they…

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Music transformed what was, to me, an intolerable morning into a good one.  Tania said there would come a time on the Camino that I would want to listen to tunes, so she lent me her iPod and put my favourite inspirational music on it along with her favourites. What I was most grateful for today was her upbeat music. It turned me into The Road Runner with Wile E. Coyote (Dave) in hot pursuit. What fun!

Staying here at the Hotel Real Monasterio San Zoilo for a second night is just what the doctor ordered. Last night Dave wasn’t feeling well enough to have dinner and was in bed by 8 o’clock. I went by myself to the casual, glassed-in restaurant on the hotel grounds for pizza and cerveza. I was happy to be warm and protected from the teaming rain and strong wind. The swirling yellow leaves from all the yellow deciduous trees in the…

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This was a good day for humming that old Johnny Ray song, “Just walking in the rain.” It was actually the first day that the sky has been completely overcast with no patches of blue anywhere. It was windy as well in the afternoon and the autumn leaves were flying! At least it was the shortest walking day so far, all of it being alongside the main road between Villalcazar and Carrion. The reason we walked only 6.6 km is…

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Today we had a choice to make and it was a “no brainer!” We could either take the “pilgrim autopistas” alongside the main road all the way from Fromista to Villalcazar de Sirga or take the scenic way that follows a tree-lined riverside path. Between Fromista and Poblacion de Campos before the two routes divide, we did get a taste of the “pilgrim autopistas.”

Sometimes what you think is a bad thing turns out to be good after all. Getting up at 6 o’clock in the morning to walk 25.2 km doesn’t sound like something most people would want to do. When you stay in an albergue and share a dormitory with thirty people, that’s exactly what you do. The first person wakes up early and the zipping and unzipping of their backpack is your “alarm clock.” Today we were glad of the early…

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We were the last to leave our albergue this morning. Avoiding the Camino rush hour was one of the reasons for our later departure and, also, we only intended to walk as far as Hontanas, a distance of 10.8 km. No albergue is ready to accept a new influx of peregrinos until at least noon, so there is no point in arriving earlier.

Again, what a difference a day makes! Today we exchanged the busy city streets of Burgos and the highways leading to it for the one-street village of Hornillos del Camino. On the way, the Camino is interrupted by construction areas where two new overpasses are being added to an interchange. Even the new construction hasn’t escaped the workings of graffitti artists.