Walking the Camino de Santiago
One year ago today, I buried the love of my life in the cold earth of a priest’s grave. It’s an impossible thing. My heart aches even to think about it. Since I have returned from the Camino, the largest presence in Pistachio House is Francine’s absence. Today is also the feast of Saint Benedict, and Francine and I are […]
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Adam and I spent the first full day in Santiago on the 22nd mostly meeting up with other pilgrims who came in throughout the day. Most of the folks I walked with came in that day. There was some necessary shopping and laundry, and I also got the tattoo. Francine had a tattoo on the inside of her right forearm […]
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This morning, I was out of the albergue before 6:30 in an effort to beat today’s expected heat. Katie gave me a hug and left just a little bit before me. The morning air was humid. For the second day in a row, I didn’t even bother putting my fleece on. At this time of the morning, breakfast was out […]
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Despite best efforts, I didn’t make it out of the albergue much before 7 AM. A chunk of Melide’s old city has its streets torn up for what appears to be water or sewage work. Finding the Camino actually proved to be quite challenging. The first church I passed on the way out of town was locked, and there was […]
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Breakfast at the albergue began at 7:30. We were all out the door before 7 AM, and somehow I was last of all. I contrived to lose the rubber tips on my hiking poles yesterday. I will have to replace those at first opportunity, since there’s a lot of road walking between now and Santiago. It was a cold, misty […]
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We had a community dinner and a community breakfast. I slept a little longer than I had hoped this morning, so I wasn’t out the door until 7 AM. Mist filled the valleys has the sun rose through the clouds. Today was supposed to be much cooler than yesterday. I was certainly hoping so, since today was going to be […]
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I left my little monastery hostel room this morning at about 6:30. Nothing in the immediate neighborhood was open for breakfast, so I took one final tour around the monastery building to get to the Camino. I was definitely slow in getting out of town – today is meant to be a short day in preparation of the big days […]
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Somehow I managed to leave the albergue right about 6:30. I was hoping there might be a place open in the village for breakfast. There was a place scheduled to open at 6 AM, but they were not. Perhaps they were hung over from Spain’s World Cup game last night. Well, I’ve done this before. I set off down the […]
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Last night I slept hard. I woke with a start at about 6:15. I was slow packing up and was the last person out of the albergue this morning. I still somehow managed to leave before 7 AM. This turned out for the best, because the café across the street opened at seven. I met and had a breakfast with […]
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This morning I was up and out by 7 AM. The year was relatively cool, and the skies were overcast. Again, they were predicting thunderstorms for the afternoon. Within minutes, I crossed the bridge over the Río Sil and was looking for breakfast. The Camino took me through a beautiful riverside park which, however, didn’t really have anything resembling a […]
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