My new best-friends are trying to kill me! We got up this morning and were out of the gates... We walked along the Roman roads and put in my longest day thus far. V is so funny I call him Squirrel in that he is hopping from brick to brick, bridge to bridge and nothing stops him. I know G just turned sixty three a few days ago so I suspect they are the same age. Today we passed the famous wine fountain, that as of 0900 everyday is to have free wine. We coincidentally arrived at a little after, I used my wine glass bought for the occasion and I think I got about two drops. It was great photo ops and there is actually a web cam there for people at home to see you. I'm not sure Steve wanted an 0300 wake up call to see it but the thought did enter my mind. We walked with A from Norway... A super cute guy who sounds like he is traveling around the world, I heard thru others he worked on a ship there making like fifty euros an hour and that has funded a few years of traveling for him. I told him I have a nurse girl-friend for him... LP... If some prince charming doesn't knock her off her feet before hand :). The day was hot at one point I was dying for food but V and G wanted to go on... I didn't want to lose their company but I also realized I was in my final few hours of it . I could not keep up their pace and their trip was way shorter than mine so the paces were going to be very different. I walked for a bit with an American dancer who I think is in his early twenties... Nice guy walking with his mother I had yet to meet her on this day. The last two hours I walked with a recent college grad E from the States, her feet were killing her and we sat on the side of the road getting her squared away. My feet are good, almost everyone is having foot problems... It is not common to eat and someone poking and bandaging their feet, total strangers are helping each other with their feet. You can't relate I don't think unless here...but all conversations involve the feet. It makes the images of Jesus and the feet washing come to life. Many have started the foot washing tradition on the Thursday of Holy Week and I think after this experience I am going to incorporate that into our holy Week traditions. The auberges in Los Arcos are filling up quickly, this is unusual the amount of pilgrims on the road, many think it is due to " the movie " with Martin Sheen and his son called THE WAY. I have heard we might have more pilgrims out now than August saw. I also heard that in Saint Jean they keep record of how many pilgrims leave a day and that they had three hundred the day after I left, combine that with the almost forty that stayed with me in Orisson you are looking at three hundred and forty off us coming down over that mountain on Monday morning, hence the overflow was opened. Anyway I checked into a hotel tonight...a much needed warm bath awaited me. I was thrilled to find L and J from Amsterdam staying there , I didn't really know these guys but we had struck up a conversation in Zubri and they seemed like peers, my age, married with children so I felt since
connection to them. I strolled down to the center square which was filled with energy and ran into many familiar faces there. I had dinner with A from Norway and a gal about my age with children at home who has been walking from Le Puy France...her Camino was half way done at my starting point. She said she told her hubby she needed two months and when she marketed it as pilgrimage he agreed. He finds her hotels daily so we just walks to the next hotel. What a wonderful evening....it felt good though to sleep in a room by myself.
No comments:
Post a Comment