Belated Spain Post

Another 5 days of walking and a few dozen amazing churches later. My last entry captured a good sense of the daily rhythm of our journey. It was somewhat amazing how the days just slipped from one into another. Occasionally there was some boredom in the afternoons after we had arrived and found our place for the night. Similarly we'd sometimes be counting the minutes between kilometer markers. But for the most part it was a nice change of pace from our normal lives. Wow! A vacation.

We chose not to speed up our itinerary and do a more challenging walk all the way to the sea - it wasn't on our original agenda but when we heard about it and realized it was doable, we briefly considered it. Instead, we chopped one day into two and got to indulge at the end with a couple of days in the amazing city of Santiago de Compostela.

The low-down on this millennium old walk is that Saint James (supposedly the # 2 or 3 disciple depending on who you are talking to) is buried here. There are many legends and questionable histories but the pilgrimages began as a desire to see these holy relics and the magnificent church that was inspired by said bones. Even back in the day (11 th century), people walked for different reasons - even then some of it was just tourism - albeit much harder. The church that has been constructed over the centuries is magnificent (although I think I still prefer Leon - especially after seeing it one last time with its phenomenal stain glass glowing in the afternoon light) as is the city which hosts a plethora of palaces and churches all worth as much time as one can stand looking at ancient workmanship.

As a side-note, I've been fully Catholicized. Multiple masses were incurred over the last few days of our journey including two-in-one-day in Santiago - the second one was kind of a mistake - we went to hear the nuns sing at Vespers and it turned into a Mass that we were too embarrassed to leave (only 10 of us in the church!). I hope my Catholic friends (and the pope) will forgive me this indulgence - I've been informed that I'm not supposed to take communion unless I've first confessed and also a member of the Catholic church. We Protestants are such trouble makers.