El Camino de Santiago de Compostela Day 10:

There’s a certain joy in the simple routine and discipline of having to wake up every morning, regardless of how you slept or feel… and walk.

It’s more than just successfully getting out of bed. It’s learning to put one foot in front of another and keep on going in that one direction to that one destination you’re headed for, regardless of your circumstances.

That’s the heart of pilgrimage: you learn to follow Christ through His Word + Spirit, one step-day at a time, trusting Him, practically applying faith and love in action.

And eventually the beautiful truth of His harmony and simplicity dawns on you!

That’s why early mornings are so significant and often the most enlightening time of the day.

I’ve become quite a night owl since Erica’s no longer here with me. I get reading or watching something, time passes and suddenly it’s well past midnight before I’m finally ready to sleep. But the Camino challenged this habit;

we were usually so tired we went to bed early and woke up early because we had another day’s walking ahead of us.

This morning I especially appreciated the sunrise. A cold mist again blanketed the landscape when we started out. Everything seemed cloaked in a mystery awaiting revelation. A silent, cold darkness permeated, but a backdrop of light anticipated the revolution of the sunrise and when it came, it was glorious: just like Christ’s Resurrection must have been to the world’s spiritual darkness!  What an Awakening!

Our dorm was cold when we awoke, so we had a lot of incentive to get going, get the blood flowing, and get warm!

We planned to walk 23km today: the longest stretch on our last push all the way to Santiago and my verse:

Phil 4:19 ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me’ was in my spirit and I truly felt: ‘I can do this!’

It’s not ‘God only gives us as much as we can handle’, but He gives us as much as He can handle through us.

I’ve been definitely learning how to draw on His strength more to carry me through.

I really don’t have time to listen to all the objections of my flesh. I need to focus on drawing from the Holy Spirit to finish what we started and I am confident He will be my strength to the end… and that gives me more hope and joy! And eventually we walked through a carpeted countryside of farms, fields and forests in brilliant sunshine!

We stopped for breakfast and another coffee at Palas de Reis and then walked steady throughout the afternoon.

We passed a restaurant called Zwei Deutschen = 2 Germans; we looked for our 2 friends,  but they didn’t come?  

But we did find Quatro Espagnols = 4 young Spaniards out for a good time together, walking from one bar to the next to drink, play their guitar and sing. And they were really good singers, out enjoying a good time together!

Finally, over one more bridge and into the suburbs of Melide, our day’s destination.  It seemed like a long walk through the city, a very different town from the previous empty villages; lots of people filled the streets and shops. Maybe everyone was getting ready for the holiday tomorrow?  

We found our posada, decided to splurge and got a place with a heater!

When I got my giant blister on our 2^nd day walking, an Irish peregrino had very kindly given me something called a compede = a heavy-duty bandaid that adheres right to the skin -- and this finally came off today.

It took the skin right off too, but it had done its job and thankfully kept my foot clear from infection!

For supper we ate paella = the Spanish national dish of rice and whatever seafood is available; but we were quite disappointed: the little they served was expensive and not that tasty.

But it was a different story for dessert. We found a churreria packed with customers, (always a good sign) dispensing what soon became our favourite Camino treat: churros = deep-fried and stretched-out donut dough dipped in thick hot chocolate! Not the best for a gluten-free diet, but The BEST hot chocolate ever! 
And then I found my own car... here in Spain, but I didn't have my keys so.... I had to keep walking!

El Camino de Santiago de Compostela Day 9.

It was hard to crawl out of a warm sleeping bag into the cold, but ‘early to bed, early to rise’ and we had to start early to get through our planned 22km today. I left my bag again for the transport service and we started walking, without even a coffee! Through a lot of  farmyards: dairy operations: Holstein, Charlebois cattle and the farm smell was strong in the air. I remembered Matthias’ warning: ‘Don’t drink the water when you get to Galicia!’ and now I knew why: the groundwater and many open fountains along the way must have a lot of fecal contamination.

After a couple hours, we crossed our biggest bridge and river yet to Portomarin. We could see the town from a long distance, especially its 12^thCentury Romanesque square block church in its centre. It had originally been down in the valley, but was moved and reassembled up the hill stone by stone after a dam built below flooded the area.

We tried to shop for breakfast, but we knocked on a sign-said abierto = open, but really-closed store, only to have the owner come running after we’d moved on.  So we got some fruit, yogurt and cheese, sat down outdoors to eat and suddenly: our 2 Deutschers = German friends appeared! One was not well, so they’d stopped for the night and didn’t look like they were going to go too far today either. Sickness will do that – even to a peregrino!

We finished coffee and then began a steady 8 km climb uphill. Now we met 2 groups of Chinese students and 3 older Barcelonans, must have been in their 70s, who literally charged up the hill ahead of us and kept right on going!

The wind grew steadily stronger and colder as we climbed and when we reached Ligonde, we were tired and our albergue was truly a welcome sight! The door was open but nobody home, so we put our stuff in the dorm.

Someone drove by and told us: ‘Isabella will come!’ So we waited and waited until …inadvertently the door closed behind us and suddenly our stuff was locked in and we were locked out – in the cold!

And that’s where my verse came in: ‘Let us run-walk with patience the race = Camino set before us’ (Heb 12:1). Impatience comes naturally, patience comes through trials and tribulations and just when you think you’ve got it, you find you need more.

I became unreasonably impatient. My pack was nowhere to be seen; Isabella, whoever she was? was nowhere to be found; and now the door was closed and locked tight and we were outside!

And that’s when I learned again to put the 2^nd part of the verse into practice: ‘looking unto Jesus.’

We prayed.

Then Michael went to check on another albergue up the road. After 20 minutes, he returned – with my packsack! 

Things were looking up! Finally, after I guess I’d learned enough patience for this day, Isabella showed up too.

She opened the door and our problems were solved. Amazing what power a key has! The water was caliente = so HOT we even washed our clothes, hung them on the line outside and the wind was so strong, they dried quickly! She phoned ahead to arrange for tomorrow’s pack pick-up and when we returned after supper at a nearby bar-restaurant, she also left us in charge of  her whole albergue because we were the only ones staying that night!

‘Just close the door behind you,’ she said. After our afternoon experience, we knew that this door closed and locked!

It was even colder than the previous night, so we crawled into our warm sleeping bags early.

The moon shone so bright through window, I thought it was already daylight at 2am!

Suffice it to say: it was a long night.

El Camino de Santiago de Compostela Day 8:

Beyond a doubt, this was our most beautiful day yet on the Camino!

The morning opened with a cold mist permeating everything, but the fog gradually gave way to brilliant sunshine and it felt like spring again! New hope and vitality filled my heart!

We planned to go from Sarria to Mercadoiro today, only 18 kms, very close to Matthias’ recommendation, and

totally manageable compared with how far we’d walked other days. I left my pack in the albergue foyer for the transport service to pick up and, free from its burden, we started walking through the city, up100s of stairs!

One thing became quickly apparent: many more peregrinos were joining us this morning!

They were everywhere: it was like ‘rush hour’ on the Camino! Sarria was 120 kms from Santiago, about a week’s journey by foot, and this being Semana Santa = Holy Week, many Spaniards were starting here to complete a mini-pilgrimage.     

We walked through a mix of farms and forests. Streams overflowed all around us: spilled over the walls and onto our pathway. Sometimes we crossed the waters by centuries-old bridges, stepping-stones or simply waded through. The trees, giant oaks and chestnuts, exuded character and seemed to speak out of the mist. Susan from Paraguay called them ‘talking trees’. I likened them to Tolkien’s ents in The Lord of the Rings and fully expected them to pull up roots and start walking with us.

The mist burned off, the sun shone clearer, and as we walked, I felt how much Erica would have enjoyed this natural beauty and suddenly really missed her company, her presence with us. At times, the Camino’s natural beauty verged on perfection, but this only seemed to make her absence all the more prevalent in my mind. Like how can there be such perfection when she is no longer here?!

Again tears flowed as memories quickened and past and present came alive together.

‘But,’ I heard the wind in the trees say, ‘This is for healing: the leaves of the trees are for healing the nations…

and for you and your family!’  

And that’s how and when Revelation 22:2 became my verse for the day!

As we walked through this morning, I felt Erica walking with us as I’d not known before, somehow still here, among the talking and walking trees of life, together with me on this pilgrimage to heal.

And that’s when the Spaniard, who’d still been sleeping when we left early, biked past; and the 2 German guys too.

In fact, I awakened to the fact a lot of other peregrinos were passing me. Was I slowing down again? The only guy I’d passed was a very white-haired 75-year old grandpa, probably the only guy older than me on the whole Camino!

So… time to move a little faster?!  

No… time to inhale a deeper breath, take it all to heart and enjoy these God-moments of life!

As it turned out, we had more than enough time! We even stopped for lunch and arrived at our next albergue early. My pack arrived safely. We settled into our room – had it all to ourselves! No caliente = hot water for showers, and  when the sun went down, it got cold and our stone albergue room grew even colder, but Michael found a space heater  and warmed ours up. After supper in the dining room, we even scrounged some cardboard and wood, built a much-needed fire and Michael and I played a game of chess, something we hadn’t done in a long time. 

Like I said: it was the most beautiful day!

El Camino de Santiago de Compostela Day 7:

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!

El Camino de Santiago de Compostela Day 6:

This morning as we left The Way-Hostal to resume The Way-El Camino, Matthias briefed us on The Way-ahead,:

‘Don’t take trail,’ he advised, ‘it’ll be too wet! Take the road… and only 15 km today!

  And you’re going to Villafranca?  Then stay in de la Piedra – it’s the best albergue!’

People in general and Matthias in particular were so kind and helpful on the Camino. Right after we left him,

we stopped at a tienda  = cornerstore for some bananas and the owner gave us handfuls of free trail mix because we were peregrinos! Those who live along the Camino actually see themselves as a part of  it; many of the villages owe their very existence to it, and so they want to bless those who pass through.

We walked the next 7km through vineyards and lush vegetation. The Bierzo Valley’s mico-climate is more like the Mediterranean in stark contrast to the barren mountain summit only the day before.

Our walk into Ponferrada was all downhill – and I was walking quite well, even with my pack. It was one of the biggest cities on our journey and got its name = Iron Bridge from one of the world’s first iron-reinforced bridges; makes sense, eh? As we entered, we noticed people carrying laurel sprigs and palm branches, and I  finally remembered today was not only Sunday and people were going to church, but Palm Sunday. In Spain, that’s the beginning of Semana Santa = Holy Week, the time for religious rituals, festivities and processions: the holiest week of the year and here we were, without really planning it, heading for the holiest site in Spain in their holiest of weeks. Pretty good timing, eh?

We continued through the city centre, stopped at the Tourist Info office, found some decorated religious floats parked from an already finished morning procession and concluded we were too late. So we walked further towards the Castillo de los Templarios = Knights Templars Castle, a formidable-looking 12^th Century fortress.

But Matthias had warned us, ‘Don’t go inside; too expensive and nothing in there!’ so we just walked around it,

over the bridge… 

and that’s when the pain hit me again in my hips and legs and I could barely move forward?!  

But we turned a corner onto a palm tree-lined avenue, and suddenly we saw lots of well-dressed people and kids with balloons filling the street ahead, gathered in front of a church. We asked what was happening? Some motioned us to look back in the direction we’d just come from, and through the crowd, we saw banners and heard music coming toward us. Michael climbed up higher for a better view; I dropped my pack to move in closer.

Soon we could see a band and people dressed in colourful costumes and above them all, the focal point of the procession: a float with a figure of a very Spanish-looking Jesus, riding a donkey – carried on about 20 shoulders, slowly moving down the avenue towards the church.

And then my daily verse made sense: Galatians 4:4 ‘In the fullness of time, God sent His Son’ = at the right time, not too early and neither too late, but Jesus came at the right time! And He not only came for all mankind at the right time then, but He’d also brought us here now; not just pretty good, but perfect timing!

The procession made its way into the church, but I wasn’t doing very well: I was moving very slowly and increasing difficulty. Physical pain seized my entire being. Every step became an agonizing ordeal. But with this awareness of my own pain, I became all more conscious of the pain Jesus suffered for all and how much it cost Him! He wept over Jerusalem, they refused His love and yet He still gave His life for them and us!

And coupled with these, the emotional pain that Erica suffered with for so long again overwhelmed me.

Tears welled up from deep within and overflowed as I walked, barely able, but somehow continuing, putting one foot in front of the other. I was only following One who had gone before me, and it was all I could do, simply by grace in His footsteps: the pain gradually giving way to the healing… and  ultimately the glory.

We made it to the bus depot and I laid my packsack down. It must have been like Christian felt in Pilgrim’s Progress when he laid his burden down at the Cross.

The depot was open, even on this holiday; a bus left shortly, and it only took a half hour to reach Villafranca del Bierzo. It rained all the time we drove and poured even more when we got off. The next bus to our next city didn’t leave till the next day so we took Matthias’ advice and stayed overnight at Albergue de la Piedra = the Rock.

A really great place, literally hewn right out of a massive rock! Nice people too: on such a cold, wet day they poured us cups of hot tea right when we stepped in! And it proved to be a popular gathering place, as many peregrinos we’d already met along the Camino joined us throughout the afternoon. We may have only met 2 or 3 days ago, but the Camino had already made us old friends: the Toronto duo, S from Seattle, English Ben and a couple Berliners and a Portuguese mom and son. Together we shared our trials and victories, our pains and joys, our blisters and laughter; and somehow even that once dreaded Green Monster became a memory of overcoming.

A welcome place to dry off, warm up, and rest for a while on a Sunday afternoon…

but Monday morning was coming and, like life, that means another morning to get up and start walking again.