Day 9: To Viana

I do want to comment before I continue that many of the photos I’m showing were actually taken by my sister Dorothy. Every evening we share our daily favorites and then I select a group to show. Although I’m writing this, she needs much of the credit for the visuals…
Today we woke to a light rain falling. The good news is, yesterday we found a great little bakery that would open before we started walking, so our first stop was back past the cathedral in the rain for pastries and coffee. Then we started our leisurely 14-mile day. (For a guy that pre-Camino would average about 8000 steps a day, to talk about a “leisurely” 33,000 step day sounds absurd. But it’s really just going for a walk through beautiful scenery for about 4.5 hours.)
Today we started off walking on a pathway past more fields of grain, olive trees and vineyards. Before long we were entering the beautiful old town of Sansol where we found a great little spot for a second breakfast. Along the way we met Mike the world traveler. He also is an avid photographer, so we enjoyed talking about photography and world travels. Later in the day he was of great assistance since he is multi-lingual, he became our official translator. Chatting with him made the miles pass quickly as we continued to pass more beautiful poppy fields and some great old vineyards. Before long we found ourselves in Viana about 3pm. After dropping off our packs we went out exploring to find a late lunch before a short nap. Then downstairs for a communal dinner and off to bed.Read more