Sarria to Portomarin
22km/14miles
Sarah's leg was bothering her so she stayed behind. She was hoping to walk some, maybe 10km, and just take it slowly. We ended up walking the whole day with our new friends Gema, Tara, and Stephan, the two sisters from California and the wonderful Spanish woman.
I took a picture of this coke machine because coke is everywhere here and this vending machine in the middle if nowhere made me laugh.
This part of Spain makes me think of Ireland. It rains a lot and is very green. Today we passed a lot of farms and many stone wall fences.
"Ultreia" means "continue on" or "press on". You see it written as encouragement for the pilgrims to persevere.
I can't tell you how great it feels to be looking at kilometer signs in the double digits after starting at about 775km!
Here are the sights for today. Lots of farmland. It was quite pretty and quite peaceful.
This is the long and very tall bridge entering Portomarin. My legs were a little shaky walking across.
And then a nice steep set of stairs, not what you want to see at the end if the day, but a pretty cool entrance into the city.
We arrived at about 3 and sat down for lunch right away since we hadn't eaten lunch yet. We really getting on the Spanish schedule for meals! At the end of lunch Sarah walked into the restaurant! We were all so excited she made it so far and that she was recovering from her injury.
The church was a much simpler facade than we have been seeing. And a simple inside as well.
Since we had a late lunch we all split pizza and salad for dinner, which is considered a small meal around here. After dinner us six women talked for a couple if hours really getting to know each other. It was lovely.
Here's a cross in one of the stone fences. I just really liked the look of it. I'm sure I can come up with some symbolism about the cross being the center of your life or the 'rock', your stability, or how all the other pieces of your life fit around the cross... but for now I just feel like looking at it and calling it cool and that's it. This last week of the camino is just taking it all in, absorbing as much as I can. I think I'll reflect on it later, but for now it's just about enjoying it.
Today I'm thankful for the wonderful women I've met on the camino. They remind me of all the amazing women I have been blessed to have in my life. I'm also thankful for Mass, Jenny's itouch, blister-free feet, and that we have 4 days to Santiago!
I learned I have one of the best jobs in the world as a teacher. I knew it, but hearing others talk about their jobs reminded me of it. I also learned I'm going to have to buy Beth Gehring a new sleeping bag after this trip!