Highlights

I can hardly believe that it has been ten days since my last post. I feel like so much has happened. Burgos was beautiful and since then I have come across many quaint towns with great meals and nice people. It seems everywhere we go we recognize someone. My Spanish has been a great help in finding little jems along the road. Just today I asked the store clerk if she had any dark leafy greens and was directed to Dora's house, the one up the street with the garden. After going up the street and finding a great garden but no Dora I asked a passer-by if Dora did live there. He said yes, and proceeded to shout to a woman up the street. We were then taken to the back of her house where she pulled a knife out of nowhere to cut us some fresh vegetables which I'm about to eat.

Other highlihts include...

A day alone. I took a different route than Alex and ended up walking about 20km out in the middle of nowhere and for the whole day saw a total of two people, three if you include a guy in a tractor far away. It was a great day and I watched the sunset over the land and the stars come up in the sky. When I wasn't quite sure if I was on the path I turned on my book light and found an arrow made of shoes and rocks.

Albergue Jesus. It was cold at night but the walls in this Albergue were covered in art and quotes from other pilgriams. My favorite quote was something like 'When you start it is the right time. When it's over it's over. Who you meet is exactly who you are ment to meet and whatever happens was the only thing that could have happened' My camera is being finicky so I have to paraphrase.

Bikes! At one Albergue we got to use bikes and it was really fun to ride around town if only for a little while. We stopped in a shop that 100 years ago used to be a sewing shop and still has all the original drawers and wood work.

Chocolate Museum in Astorga got us a chocolate taste test for 2€. One day we were ushered into a shop and given wine and cheese just because we were pilgriams. Today a shop keeper gave us shells that smell really pretty and very tastey tapas.

We walked on the bridge in Hospital de Orbigo that faces a feild where jousting tournaments took place and each alcove of the bridge is a different size. It was drizzling and an old woman crossing wished us luck by saying 'You picked a good day, there is only rain and snow and cold ahead... good luck'

We stop a lot for coffee and chats and have met a lot of great pilgriams. One woman is in her 80's doing 4-10km a day. She was a joy to meet! Lots of animals and of course I greet all of them, Alex is surprised I haven't got fleas yet. I finally got a teeny tiny blister so I feel like a real pilgriam now, one of my socks has a hole that i've been avoiding darning but the whole two pairs of socks has worked wonders for zero blisters.

I watched a Rugby game in Leon! The All Blacks vs France. I dare say I'll be supporting the Canada Rugby team now that I know they exist and what a fun sport rugby is. That was the day after my massive long alone day walk so a few of us jumped in a taxi the 13km to make it in time for the game. We had two rest days in a row and stayed at a nunnery in Leon. I stumbled into two very random art galleries. It was nice to walk around town and not have to carry a heavy pack. Also played Spainsh scrabble with Alex at a fun coffee shop where we just threw aside the crazy tiles of LL, RR, Ñ etc.