More from The Camino

Our Patron Saint

 Spain is incredible! The Camino is incredible! I have this little group of people that I continually encounter along the way. We talk about the hostels, our feet, the bread and cheese we eat and how exhausted we all are. There are different levels of hostels starting with the most basic donativos (by donation) often run by the nearby parish. Up to posh, private hostels and then of coursae there are hotels and pensiones. The municipal hostels are the most popular. They cost 6 or 7 Euros can be crowded.  They wake us up at 6 and kick us out by 8. It´s not even daylight yet. .

I am in a private hostel tonight in Logroño. It´s 14 Euros and a little more upscale. I´m going to get a private room tomorrow for the quiet and rest day.

Spain is lively. Business opens somewhere around 8 and 10 in the AM closes promptley at noon and sometimes opens again after 4 or 5.

This hostel is right on the main square by the cathedral. I love the cathedrals! Although the Baroque period was gaudy for sure and there is alot of that here, the bells still ring about every 15 minutes.

The Spanish people are so kind and for the most part very gracious. Lovely people. They are loud and vivacious and there are children everywhere... I´ve spent a few nights camped in the hills and that´s the best. But camping is essentially illegal in Spain but not  enforced here on the Camino in the north...

There are churches, hermitages, cathedrals and generally places for worship, meditation or quite reflection about every few miles and they are all in various stages of repair or disrepair. I saw one today in Vania that had no roof. Those are the best for me. I got a thing for archeological ruins. The hilltops have a remnant of one kind or another visible for miles. 

La Hermita de San Miguel set on a hilltop amidst a grove of olives

Inside La Hermita de San Miguel
Those are hundres of prayers, petitions, notes, photos, stones and other memmorials
on the altars

There are grapes, olives, artichokes, sheep, goats. It is an amazing country. I love it!

This whole experience is so rich in so many ways, I cannot begin to describe it. It has challenegd me in ways I never dreamed of and it has provided gifts I never would have imagined. So many simple acts of kindness from locals, other pilgrims, me reaching out to someone else, whatever.

I posted some photos on my facebook page. I hope you´ll have a look.