STAGE TWELVE: Grannon to Tosantos

We woke this morning to a simple breakfast served by the Parrish we were staying in, all of us agreed we were so happy to have stayed here. I knew the next stage had a similar experience, a Parrish with mass, a community meal etc... I walked with a few of the younger kids on trail today, one from South Korea who grew up in Berlin (I think the wall was down before he was born,which blows my mind. I also walked with another guy probably about thirty from France. I walked a good part of the day by myself which is really enjoyable too. I got to the town before my destination and snuck into the church, if a church is open and on the path I do like to at least peek inside, amazing these old churches are open and you can be the only one in there with all of their gold ornate decor. As I walked out a nice gal K from Chicago was seconds behind me. I assumed she was a fast walker and was amazed how she came on me so quickly but she had found a small cafe to catch up on emails. I bought this iPad the day before I left and have loved having it, I am not use to it and it has word recognition on it that really changes what I think I am saying. K and I walked together at a really fast pace, I kept thinking how impressed with her, she was skittle older than I am and her pace was super quick. Then she turned to me and said," I can't keep up with your pace", I laughed for I thought I was the one keeping up with her pace. She has less time on trail so will be catching a bus into the big city Burgos from tonight's destination. She and I were the first to arrive in tiny Tosantos with its one bar (restaurants are called bars here). We slept on simple mats on the floor like at Grannon which does not bother me at all. We had a wonderful communal dinner of paella and salad and then went upstairs for a previous ceremony/tradition from here. We each read in our language wishes and prayers that had been written by other pilgrims about thirty days prior. We were then given the chance to write our prayers, thoughts and wishes down knowing that some pilgrims in a months time will be reading them. I slept really well and departed from Tosantos at about 8:30 which could be rather late by pilgrims standards. I was not certain where I was headed which is part of the Camino way, but the sun was out, it didn't appear rain was coming and I was off slightly after sun had already risen.