We have many wonderful photos of Leon (stunning), but have very poor intent signal at our new home for the evening.  We will try to update tomorrow.

Let’s try this again. After checking into the Parador we did a bit of a stroll through the courtyard. Just your typical 13 th century monastic courtyard.

And your typical 13th century statuary in the typical courtyard.

Followed by a stroll through your typical 8th century walked city …

Oh, did I mention the typical 11th – 17 th century cathedral?

The hike to Villavante was a long one. Worth noting is that after 8 or 9 days of hay and wheat, the Meseta became a source of corn, and much more rolling hills.

Finally after 19 miles, we reached Villavante and our place for the night, El Molino Galoches.  Once again, the photographer does a poor job, but the B&B is a converted mill and is built straddling a stream. Very cool!

First, for some details: Today was the 24th day of walking. We have now covered about 340 miles, or the equivalent of walking from Danville to Ashland, Oregon.

The weather has continued to be overcast with occasional showers. One of the challenges of wet gravel trails is that the wet gravel sticks slightly to your shoes. I say “slightly” because once the gravel ladened shoe is up in the air and passing the other shoe, the gravel strategically drops off the upper shoe and into the lower shoe where it wreaks havoc on the foot! Hikers are aware of that problem and use “gaiters”to protect the feet. This morning, Diane decided to use such protection.

Bill asserted that the problem would go away in 5 minutes and forsook the gaiters. In short moments later, Bill had cuts on the back of his feet where the gravel dug into his heel. He’s does learn, though slowly sometimes.

Within 10 miles, we were on the plateau above Astorga looking down on the town and the mountains beyond.

In 2 days, we will be in those mountains.

Oh by the way: it seems that Astorga was an important gold mining town for the Romans a couple of millenia ago. Even Augustus Caesar made a visit here.

Tomorrow, we are off to Rabanal, the foot of the next mountain range.

We are finally back in the mountains, currently at about 3600′. Lots of trees, streams, etc.

So, 25 days into this walk, a bad day has to happen. Not bad as in “tripped”, or “sprained ankle”, but bad as in “attitude”.

There seemed to be many, many brand new Peregrinos on the trail today.  Astorga must be a popular starting point. And many new cycling Peregrinos. And, by my account, no one had good trail manners, etc.! I was really getting frustrated.

There’s a clue when you see everyone else being wrong and yourself as the only person with the “right” approach. There’s a good chance that you (me) are the one out of whack. I could see that but, darn, I still wanted to correct them all!

Diane, likewise was dealing with her own frustrations. Never good when both in a couple are frustrated at the same time.

We finally stopped in a small, ancient cathedral along the way and took a time out and prayed. No, everyone else didn’t change at that moment. But God did begin working on our hearts.

Frustration disappearing, we arrived in Rabanal to a beautiful casa rural and a scrumptious lunch.

No pictures today. Seems the photographer was dealing with a bad attitude!

Tomorrow we climb the Cruz de Ferro, one of the highlights of the Camino. More, later.

In the course of our lives, we will lose many who are precious to us. We have both lost all our parents, and many other dear friends and relatives. Two years ago, we lost Diane’s brother and our friend, Don Baker.

Don Baker loved exercising, conversation, controversy, cycle racing, meeting new people, eating new foods, etc. It seems every step we take along this Camino is another reminder of what Don enjoyed.

Don would faithfully watch the tour de france every day during July. Because of injuries, many of the biggest stars of cycling were unable to complete the tour this year. So, they showed up for Spain Vuelta de Espana.  This year, the Vuelta followed the Camino at pretty much the same time-frame that we were hiking. We saw, or met, several of the big boys of cycling. Don would have gone crazy with this.

The Vuelta is now over, and the world championships of cycling is taking place, you guessed it, right in our path over the next few days! We have met or seen many more cyclists and will see a whole bunch more in these next couple days. Again, Don would love this.

Every day we have conversations with people from many different countries. Don always excelled at starting conversations with new people, then finding entertaining controversies that all could join in.  Hey, he was a pirate after all!

The food: No end of exotic foods for Don to have sampled. And they never use “fat free” here!

And, you have to mention all the religious significance. Don would appreciate the sublime and also find an opportunity to find a controversy or two.

And the hiking through so much varied and beautiful countryside. If Don weren’t in heaven, he would be in heaven on this Camino.

We miss you, Don Baker. Be at peace.

Today was the 26 th day of our journey. We are now 368 miles into the walk. Because we had a mountain range to cross, 16 miles to walk, and wanted to spend time at the Cruz de Ferro (more on this in the next blog), we started our walk early, under a very clear sky and 36 degree temperature. It was chilly!

After a couple hours of climbing, we made it to the top and the Cruz de Ferro.

We spent just about an hour there before moving on down the other side. There, we dropped down roughly 3,000′ over the next 8 miles. What made it more challenging was the loose slate that constantly challenged your foothold. We have become convinced that hiking poles are a necessity.

We passed through several charming villages,

and:

before making it to Molinaseca. Here’s the view out our hostal window. Definitely worth the walk!

For over a thousand years, pilgrims have walked the way of St. James. The highest point on this Camino is here at the Cruz de Ferro. Over these centuries, pilgrims would carry a stone, or burden, and lay it at the foot of the cross.

The result is a massive pile of stones from all over the world, all with unique significance to the bearer.  The pilgrim would then offer a prayer something like this:

Lord, may this stone, a symbol of my efforts on this pilgrimage that I lay at the foot of the cross of the Savior, one day weigh the balance in favor of my good deeds when the deeds of my life are judged. Let it be so.

It is beautiful and truly the wish of many of us, pilgrims or not.

While contemplating this, I couldn’t help but remember something that the Savior said, as recorded in Matthew 11:28 -30.  “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light”.

And what is this yoke and burden that the Savior has asked? To love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul, mind and strength. And the second, to love your neighbor as yourself.

There are stones that each of us choose to carry on our own pilgrimage. For Diane and I, we will choose the Savior’s yoke.

Whatever you choose as your burden and your pilgrimage, “Buen Camino, my friend”

There is rest and peace in Jesus. 

Okay, okay. Each time we get to a new Spanish city we say it is more beautiful than the last. So, we’ll not try to use comparisons versus others, but Ponferrada was way cool!

But first, the numbers. Today was a 20 miler bringing our 26 day total to 388 miles.  We’ve pretty much walked from Danville to Huntington Beach. Wow!

With a 20 miler in front of us, we wanted to start early, but not spend hours walking in the dark. We left at 8:00, which in these latitudes is still night.

Within 45 minutes, we were on the outskirts of Ponferrada.

Ponferrada has a Knights Templar castle that is fully restored.  Notice the parapets. They look almost Disney-esque.

For us cycling junkies, the world championship of cycling is taking place this week in Ponferrada. This morning, it was the women’s road racing championship. The photo below looks like they are casually riding, but in fact they were moving so fast that I wasn’t sure I captured them in the photo before they were gone!

On leaving Ponferrada, the climate and vegetation once again changed and it looked and felt like we were hiking through Calistoga in the wine county.

We are now literally at the foot of the Cordillera mountain range and will be climbing significantly tomorrow. In addition, the next convenient stop is almost 19 miles down the road. As we look at the guide book, everything after this is much easier, and we only have a week more of hiking before Santiago. Hard to imagine that you can be saddened by not having to hike 15 or so miles every day, but we have loved this journey and will miss it when it is over.

Now for laundry and shower …

We must be getting trail dementia. Yesterday was the 27th day (not the 26th day), so today is the 28th day of walking. We completed 18 miles (shorter than we thought) to bring our grand total to 406 miles. We are now in a beautiful mountain village in the province of Galicia, named O’Cebreiro.

Once again, the morning broke very clear and very cold. Just to add to the fun, there was an even colder wind coming down the narrow canyon that we were walking up.  A bit chilly is a good description.

We followed a stream, or river, for 14 miles of the walk.

In the last 5 miles or so, the elevation went from gradual climb to grinding climb! The views, however, we’re worth it.

Also, we crossed into the final province in Spain of our journey, Galicia.

Galicia is the verdant province, which means RAIN. Sure enough, our last day in Castilla y Leon was sunny and bright, and tomorrow (our first full day in Galicia) is forecast to rain. Yes, Bill will have his rain gear handy.

Hasta Manana.

When last we left our readers, we had just arrived in O’Cebreiro in the Galicia region of Spain. True to form, within 2 hours of being there, it poured down rain! But the lodge we were staying in was warm and dry, so life was good.

O’Cebreiro has the oldest functioning church on the Camino, dating back to the 9th century.

In fact, 800 years ago this year,  St. Francis of Asisi did the Camino and visited this church. Here’s a guy born of a very wealthy family who gives it all up to work with the poor.  Very cool.

We started this morning as soon as there was enough light and the fog had lifted. I took some shots of the fog, but they didn’t come out. However, once the fog lifted, it remained in the valleys and made a great picture.

Interestingly, those flowers that seem to grow out of pavement along the Meseta have a cousin in Galicia. Here’s a photo of the local version.

Tomorrow we will hike to Sarria.  Sarria is noteworthy because it is the last point that a pilgrim can start a Camino and still get credit for it. As a result, the numbers of Pilgrims will increase dramatically. We’ve already seen an increase since Leon.  That’s okay. We don’t own the Camino. It’s just something you have to get used to.

We now have 13 more miles in the bank, 418 down and about 85 to go.

Now for chores …

With another 11 miles in the bank today, we are within 65 miles of Santiago. Who’d have thought that we would think of the equivalent of walking from Danville to Lodi as “close”.

It rained most of last night, but that gave way to a light fog for most of our morning hike.

The fog filled the valley as we walked.

One thing that has amazed us as we’ve walked through Spain is the variety of flowers growing wild. I tried to capture several of them … we’ll see.

Thanks for indulging or stroll through the flowers of Spanish Galicia.

Chores now call …