Rabanal de Camino (20km / 530.1km)

Today was a very different day for many reasons. A lot going on but ended peacefully and well.

For tomorrow we have decided to attend retreat at the Monasterio de San Salvador del Monte Irago, a Benedictine monastery. So tomorrow there will probably be no update!

We start the 3rd phase of the Camino. After the Body and Mind Phases we enter the “Soul” phase and what better way to start than a retreat day?

This created the opportunity if Jane didn’t walk today for 3 days of no walking to give her feet a chance to heal. Maybe that is the answer to everyone’s prayers? So, thanks to some convincing from others (you know who you are) Jane took the bus back to Leon to buy some new shoes, got another bus back and then a taxi to meet up with me in Rabanal del Camino. Not a simple thing to do by yourself in a foreign country but Jane managed the stress well as we all know she would! Let’s hope these new shoes do the trick!
So that meant I walked alone, without my walking buddy! It was weird and all my photos are therefore without a walker in front of me! I used the time to gather my thoughts and learnings from the Camino so far before our retreat. A sneak peak into my reflections is that I’ve been thrown more questions and challenges than answers!
The other change was that today was a shorts and TShirt day! A cool start that warmed up quickly.

We started with a lot of other pilgrims with vespers at 7pm (sung Gregorian chant) in a simple church that doesn’t have the perfection and grandeur of many others we have seen but was quiet and spiritual.

The retreat participants (5) had dinner with the monks (3) at 8:30 and then Compline (night prayers) and pilgrim blessing at 9:30 before bed. Fortunately we had been given the heads up from another pilgrim that dinners were silent. It was unusual / a bit awkward to eat a whole meal without saying a word. Thankfully there was music. And we were allowed to smile at each other! Then, as we left the dining area the monks chatted freely with us and invited us to sit in the garden for a chat and were very pleasant.

Until Wednesday…Read more