We left La Piedra = the Rock albergue in Villafranca and our next one
had basically the same name: A Pedra. Some people might say this put me ‘between a
rock and a hard place’, but today was mostly a planning, travel and rest day.
My verse was appropriately:
Matt 16:18 ‘On this
rock I will build my church’. Not any rock, but Peter’s and our confession of
Jesus as the Christ.
Sometimes you just got
to stand on the Rock to move you forward!
Our next stage on the
Camino climbed another summit and with just over a week left, we needed to refocus
so we could still make it to our destination in time. We planned to tackle less
distance: about 20 kms/day and carry less: hopefully, sending my pack on ahead
daily will lighten my load and let me walk more easily. So to position ourselves
better, we decided to take a bus over the summit and walk the last 120 km.
Actually reaching Santiago
now appeared more possible than it did just a few days ago!
Our bus didn’t leave
till noon, so after all the other peregrinos had left, Mike + I shopped and ate breakfast out in a
park in the sunshine - a wonderful change after yesterday’s rain! We also checked out the town’s well-fortified
castle and church, especially its Door of Forgiveness: the church’s concession and
absolution for pilgrims so sick they couldn’t make it all the way to Santiago.
I thought, it’s good the church was so gracious, but isn’t forgiveness more
than just making it through a physical door?
Driving over the summit,
we hit more snow again: I never knew Spain had so many mountains! Doesn’t the
song says, ‘the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain’?! We changed buses in
Lugo and in just over an hour, we had crossed into Galicia, Spain’s most north-western
province. Our Irish friends had proudly told us Ireland and Galicia share common
Celtic roots: their languages are quite similar and both play bagpipes!
From a Biblical
perspective, I remembered what I’d learned about how the Galatians in the New
Testament had common roots with Galicians who’d migrated from here 100s of years
before Christ. Now I could actually see it for myself.
In Sarria, a couple
young German students from Berlin joined us walking from the bus to our hostel.
We registered, confirmed my plan to send my pack ahead the next morning and
then spent the afternoon exploring: up a couple 100 stairs to a ruined castle,
abandoned tower and monastery!
This hostel expressed the
most personal sense of church-community sharing of any we stayed at along the
Camino.
Our other room-mates
were: a Finn, even from Turku, where Erica and I had taught a Father’s Heart
seminar, and a Spanish biker who was so tired from his day’s ride that he
disappeared under his blankets from the moment he arrived till we left the next
morning.
That evening, the
manager invited us all to a communal meal in the dining room. He had a real fire
blazing and their little dog was sleeping on a chair beside it; he looked just like
our family’s Chippers and it felt just like home!
The 2 Germans joined
us with the manager, his wife and a bunch of other Spaniards for an excellent meal
together: lentil soup served out of a big bowl: hot and filling! real salad:
lettuce, tomato, with lots of olives and cheeses! and platters of Spanish
omelettes! Plus good vino and a special shot of ‘grappa’, which one of the
Germans bravely
(or naively) downed in
a single gulp; we were all full and sleep came easily.
I was glad for that
because this was our last rest day: tomorrow we would begin our push towards
Santiago!
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