Maundy Thursday

We spent most of the day at home organizing our things for our upcoming walk on the Camino. This year because of our extra time in Santiago we elected to bring a small suitcase with things we thought we would use in Santiago. Ironically, most of the things we didnt use or need (an extra pair of shoes, umbrellas, etc). Today (Friday) we are taking the suitcase to be mailed to us when we reach the albergue where we will volunteer in May. @Ivar has a service that collects and holds luggage for pilgrims. Many people find they have packed too much so send it ahead to Santiago and Ivar keeps it until they arrive at the end of their pilgrimage This year he will hold our extra things and mail the suitcase to us while we are serving in Spain before we go home. That way we don't need to bother with the extra luggage while walking the Camino for 3 weeks before our service time. Among other things the suitcase holds all our study materials from language school.

Thursday night we walked into town and saw the 7:30 pm procession commemorating the last supper. We arrived early and found a great place two steps up on one of the main plazas where I could see above the crowd better. Unfortunately everyone else who came at the last minute also thought it was a great place and we soon had the usual pushing and shoving as people jockeyed for the best view. Phil let several really short older ladies up onto the step with me and did his best to shield us all from the crush.

Then we went for supper (Phil, pizza and me, salad) at a church near the beginning of the final late procession of the evening. I figured the crowd pushing baby strollers and noisy loud folks smoking their cigarettes would have headed home by 11:30, but there were still plenty of those folks around. We chose what I thought would be on a quiet corner, but it also turned out to be a popular choice. Seems I am great at picking the choice locations on a map. We were literally inches from the Nazarenos or members of the Confraternity walking the streets, often barefoot, and carrying crosses. This parade was the Procession of the Flagelado with a float or paso of Jesus chained to a post and waiting to be flogged. It was a very solumn procession.

Afterwards we walked the 2 miles home up the hill to our apartment and went to sleep about 1:30 am. As a side note, the walking we've done while in Santiago has improved our overall stamina and we were able to march right up the hill that a month ago left us breathless.Weiterlesen