Day 25 - Breaking bread

"I see a group of strangers, brought together by chance or circumstance, finding common ground as they break bread together, their differences fading away as they discover the shared humanity that binds them together," —-Julia Delaney

Today I walked from O Porriño to Saxamonde. I purposely planned this last part of the trip to allow me to take shorter daily walks (6-10 miles) which will put me into Santiago around noon on May 8th. Hard to believe that a week from tomorrow my journey will be ending. But they say the real Camino de Santiago experience begins when you finish it.

I am staying at a small auberge tonight ; the place is full and it has been raining most of the afternoon snd evening. Many pilgrims seeking shelter were, unfortunately, turned away. Tonight a group of us had dinner at the bar/restaurant that our host owns. It was a collection of people from Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, a Scott who identified as someone from UK, because he has lived there longer than he lived in Scotland. and me, the lone American. We talked for hours over wine and the pilgrim dinner. Topics were varied and included: sharing travel stories, AI, solar energy and the latest power outage, the political landscape globally, how travel is a great educator, and what can people do to show each other that we are more alike than not. It is no surprise that the Europeans are very concerned about Russia and China; and now have growing reservations about America. Each person recounted how less than half of their respective population actually voted and what can be done to change that. Some of you may characterize the group as liberals, socialists or commies, but that was not the case. They were a group of well traveled individuals who spent time exploring, learning, and talking to people from different cultures.

The talk wasn’t all serious. We exchanged humorous stories too. For instance yesterday I sat on a thorn branch. No big deal. But today when walking I reached back to make sure my sandals were still hanging on my backpack and discovered I had a hole in my pants right on my bum about the size of an orange. I asked a polite German lady if she could confirm thinking maybe my pants were double layer and just the first layer tore, but no, she said. Your purple undies are showing through. I guess the thorn branch tore a small hole yesterday and the washing machine last night made it larger. Oh well. If you can’t laugh at yourself. Who can you laugh at.

Tomorrow another adventure.Read more