Misty Watercolored Memories

[Date above will be one day off- couldn't get weefee (wifi) last night]

I mentioned briefly, before I passed out from exhaustion, that yesterday was the first day the we trod ground which we had covered before in 2011.

Previously we had started in Ponferrada (named for its Iron Bridge) but at the bus station on the Santiago side of the city. The city itself with its impressive castle and beautiful basilica is a mix of both ancient and modern. Here, we ran into again, a young man from France who had rescued both a dog and a cat along the way and was pulling them in a bicycle pull-behind that he had converted into a pedi-cab contraption. He then sang a sweet song in the basilica as he played his tiny guitar. These are the strange and lovely oddities of the Camino.

On the far side of the city, we picked up our former path. I remembered one unusual tunnel through a school but not much else. At lunch time we arrived a Cacabelos, our first night's stay in 2011 and were blown away by our incorrect memory of the town. We thought is was a very small town without much there, but as we walked in we realized it was sizeable with quite a bit going on. Perhaps it was the weather (it was raining and dreary in 2011) but other than the place we stayed, most of our memories were blank or highly questionable.

Later in the day did not yield much better results. The only memory I had of the road into our destination of Villafranca was finding a hiking stick in a field - we took a slightly different route this time so no repeat adventures there - plus I found a hiking stick by the road about 3 weeks ago. Villafranca itself yielded a few more accurate memories, including the location near the edge of the city where I had to knock on the door and beg for an emergency bathroom for my wife - it's now a hostal.

near O Cebreiro - do not remember the market

Today was the big climb up to O Cebreiro, definitely Janine's favorite town on the Camino. It's perched at 1300 meters with stunning vistas on two sides. The tiny church is special and is associated with at least one miracle. We remembered a few things along the way today and actually remembered our destination quite well, but as the title of this suggests, I'm just amazed at how fickle and pliable one's memory can be - the fact that Janine had the same experience was helpful in validating the phenomena.

All of this reminds me of my return to Hungary a few years back. I lived in the town of Jaszbereny for almost a year. There was a church in the center of town that I probably passed three times a week. But upon my return, I only vaguely remembered the church and certainly did not remember it's prominence or orientation in the square. The tenuous nature of memory is a lesson in humility.

postscript: restaurant on next stage remembered but not in correct location or with correct surroundings. Contained the giant dog below begging for scratches.