To Santiago de Compostela: 167 km
Walked today: 24.3 km
Total walked: 473.5 km
Started with our usual routine; breakfast of juice, fruit and bun in the hotel room and out on time to see the sunrise.
We passed though Vila Boa and we found floral arches across the road and people setting tents for the festival of the Santa Cruz - Holy Cross. One lady explained to us what they were going to do, unfortunately I did not understood much so we smiled at each other and said good bye.
We traveled through the country and as we were climbing a hill we started to hear a choir singing the Ave Maria. The music and the views combined gave us a very spiritual morning.
At 10 am we stopped at a restaurant to eat something. Up to this point we had seen only one Portuguese pilgrim. Here we met a young man from Poland, and just outside we met Natalia from Russia.
After that we saw the 3 Brazilians from yesterday, two Germans, Ferdinand and Gerthart and later at another cafe we met Tom from England, two ladies from Denmark; Liz and Gerda, Donna from Calgary, and our old friends from Virginia Lee Ray and Annemarie. The Caminho got busier after Porto.
I don't know why but the first 10 km of the day are easy but the last 5 are so hard. My blisters are a bit bigger but what hurts the most at the end of the day is the bottom of my feet.
A few kilometers before our objective we found ourselves alone in the middle of some woods. Beautiful spot. So we took advantage of the moment to pray our rosary. A moment of peace and spirituality.
We had called to make a reservation in Casa Fernanda, when I asked for a "matrimonial bed", Fernanda wanted to make sure I was with my wife. This place is famous in the pilgrim forums. The fee is a donation, that means you give what you want. They gave us the only room in the house which is very nice. The rest of the people are in dormitories. In total we had 15 people at the table.
We knew most of the people, our Virginian friends are here, they are really our favorites and he have known them the longest since met them back in Azambuja. Pur German friends from last night's Mass, Mara and Mel are here too.
They gave us wine, bolos de bacalau, .and then a plentiful dinner with more wine. Great dinner. It was quite an experience the time we shared with all these pilgrims. It seems that the whole purpose of Fernanda and her husband Joaquin is to take care of pilgrims.
Today I go back to Our Lady Mary and ask her to pray for us. Hail Mary full of grace.
No comments:
Post a Comment