Camino de Santiago 2023

Mileage: 13 miles
Altitude gain: 1,014 feet
Altitude loss: 167 feet
Weather: another beautiful day. A little warm in the afternoon, but definitely bearable!
Total mileage: 344.5 miles

Last night’s albergue was a superior one in spite of the surfeit of stairs. It’s owned by a Brazilian woman, who cooked Brazilian food for dinner. Delicious, and so nice to eat more beans and veggies. No bunk beds, either!

The Camino showed me today that it still has the capacity to surprise me. Today didn’t go at all like I expected it to!

I was getting back on to the trail near the cathedral when another pilgrim approached and asked which way to go. I pointed out the arrow and we started walking together. She introduced herself and then started chatting away. It became clear that she planned to walk with me, which I didn’t expect. (Most people walk faster than I do.) I admit that I thought, “Oh, I don’t know about this. She’s going to talk for 13 miles!” I decided, though, that I would wait and see how it went. Maybe I needed to meet her today? Anyway, Monica turned out to be really charming and kind. She’s Spanish and an entertainer (resorts, cruise ships, etc.) with a background in musical theatre. She knows no strangers and talked to everyone we met, which isn’t generally my style. She kept me entertained, and I enjoyed exchanging idioms with her. (She now knows about the Southern “Bless her heart!”) She also helped me practice my Spanish.

Since Angela had to go home, I’ve become accustomed to solitude and was expecting more of that today. I actually enjoy it, for the most part, and I’ll do so again tomorrow, since Monica walked further than I did today and is now spreading joy further along the Camino. I’m so glad I stayed open to getting to know her today!

I arrived in Rabanal midafternoon and enjoyed a veggie burger and a beer with Monica and an Austrian named Erik. (The veggie burgers here are special; each one I’ve had had obviously been housemade with different veggies each time. Today’s had eggplant.) David, a Brit I’ve run into a number of times, told me that the pilgrim’s mass at the church tonight would include Gregorian chant, so obviously I planned to go to that.

Another surprise was in store for me, it turns out. I did my washing and then took a little nap. I was walking back up across the road where my laundry was hanging, planning to to check the dryness, when the massage therapist with a little room in that same lot saw me walk. Well. She almost insisted that I come for a massage, so I did that instead of the church service. I am so glad I did! I feel better tonight than I have in a while.

One of the lessons here? Go with the flow, or as Monica would just say, “flow,” and see where your day takes you!

1. The Iglesia de San Pedro de Rectivia in Astorga
2. The first part of the day was flat
3. The Iglesia parroquial de Santa María in Santa Catalina de Somoza
4. This courtyard was at a cafe we stopped out for my second breakfast and a pit stop in Santa Catalina. So beautiful!
5. The door game in Spain is strong, as Angela would say. I liked the blue, which hadn’t been common, combined with the flowers.
6. So many walls and buildings along the way today that had obviously been standing there for decades or maybe even centuries.
7.-10. Different kinds of forest along the uphill final miles of the day.Read more