Food

First course on the first meal.

Our very first night in Rocesvailles we walked into a very busy and full bar/restaurant and were immediately shown a table which happened to have an open bottle of wine on it.  This puzzled me but it was my first evening on the Camino and I was just not prepared to question anything.
 The wait staff came and offered us our choice from the first course, garlic soup,lentil soup, pasta, green salad or vegetable stew.  We then had our second course choices, beef and potatoes, lamb and potatoes, fish and potatoes, chicken or rabbit or goat or pork and potatoes! Our dessert choices were the best! Flan, yogurt,chocolate cake, rice pudding or cheese cake and sometimes ice cream.
We find out half way through this first Pilgrim's meal that the wine on the table was ours.

Once,  we stayed in Gañon at an Albergue that is donation only but the hospitadae fed us dinner and breakfast. We ate pasta and bread and then pastries on long tables with 35 other pilgrims, singing songs, telling stories and drinking wine. Some played music for us as well.

It is unusual that  the Albergue people also feed us. Some though have kitchens and several times we shopped and cooked our own Pilgrim ' meal.

 Because we are walking 12 to 27Km a day through hills and mountains and valleys and towns there are usually plenty of places to eat along the way.  When we see that there are no towns for that day of walking we buy bread and cheese or a couple of nights ago made rice balls in the kitchen of the albergue to take with us for the walking day.  Otherwise there are restaurants and coffee bars along the way.
Our Pilgrim's meal is always at 7P.M. and my first three days of walking I was too tired to stay awake for it and suffered for that.  You need to eat and eat well every day and the Camino businesses make it easy for you.

Coffee

 Yet,one time I had to wait 3 hours of walking until we came to a town with a coffee bar but it was worth it.  Every cup of coffee is freshly ground and brewed when you walk in the door.  I had been enjoying café con letche but now I have café americano  which is black but is prepared differently somehow. 

It is good food, fresh, local and homemade.
 The Pilgrims are honored on the Camino and folks think about what our bodies need and serve us well.  They  ask that we pray for them when we get to Santiago and charge us form 5 to 9 euros for our meal
It is at that evening Pilgrim's meal that the days healing begins with the shared stories and laughing .  We are getting full and letting go and ready to begin again.

Coffee

.

Burgos

Burgos

Jim and I have walked almost 290 KM now and have about 500 KM more to go. 

 We have walked every day for 2 weeks from 17 to 30 KM and today, we have our first and probably only rest day.  To keep our rather slow walking schedule and make it to the end in time to catch our return plane, we must walk a minimum of 19 KM a day for the next 4 weeks. 

It is a bright , relatively warm sunny Saturday in Burgos.  We will stay another night in our modest Albergue (5 Euros) that only holds 16 pilgrims . We were delighted to get to stay there another night, the 7 of us and just leave our STUFF.

We had our cafe and other treats and visited the Cathedral and now are hanging out at the library using their computers. 

Most pilgrims have their own technology and just make certain that the Albergues have wifi which they do not all have.

  All I want is a bed at the end of my walk, a bottom bunk is preferable but I imagine I could get someone to boost me up. I no long consider the humiliation of that possibility.

Amazing how things change.  I no longer am as interested in the quaint little towns and villages we pass except to see if they have a coffee bar or a clean bathroom.  My life has been reduced to these things.

The best food thus far.

I am still trying to figure out the very best foot care and body stretches along the way never mind yoga and tai chi.  How to sooth particular aching muscles is my goal.

Our Albergue in Burgos with out host serenading us.

Burgos is a great place to have a day off and many pilgrims take time here.  It is lovely with ancient ruins and museums and cathedrals and the best food thus far!!

Burgos is also the place of transitions.

The Belgian mother, Elise and daughter, Lisa have finished their 2 week walk and now take the 17 hour bus ride back home. Lisa is a teacher and must return. 

 The boys, Jack, James and Henry and moving on to the end today and I suspect we will not meet again so of course I found myself weeping a bit with their hugs.  

The 3 Spanish women have also finished their walk and say goodbye to the Camino.

Burgos

Jim playing the Uke 

And most sad, our group of 7 is breaking up.  Marie also from Winona who has been sick and tired most of these weeks and taking buses and staying in hotels but meeting up with us at the end of the day, will move on and off the Camino as well.
  Christian , also not walking much anymore but hanging out with us at night will finish his Camino. 

 I am not certain about Kyoung and her mother as they had to bus in yesterday because of a foot injury of Helena.  They are also determined to finish but will probably do a bus, walk thing. 

 We have been a wonderful group.  Everything you want, support, information, love and care, laughing and crying together(more laughing) and now it all will change.

And now I say goodbye:

Most of you helped me through a very rough period on my walk with my physical body stretched to its limit and my mind resisting with periods of crazy thinking and doubt.  

Having your presence and support and words of wisdom kept me going, as did the  incredible food and wine of Spain.

Thank you , George for telling me that we would get stronger.  You were correct.  Thank you Kyoungsin for always knowing the very best Albergue where we could find rest.  Sleep was medicine for me.  Thank you Christian for making me laugh and feel so lighthearted for I surely would have succumbed to my fear at those difficult moments.  Thank you Jim for finding the energy to play the Ukulele and get us to sing a long and be together in the mornings and evenings. 

After so much walking

Burgos

I know we were indeed very blessed with the support we gave each other.

 There is nothing I would change.  It was everything I needed. Stepping into the unknown and finding so much but especially finding you.

Buen Camino my friends.

 Of course that is the Camino.   Rain one day, sun the next.  Nothing to hold onto , every thing changes except sadly, my sore feet!!!