Day 21

Day 21

Murias de Rechivaldo to Foncebadon

23km/14miles

When we left this morning it was below freezing again.  But since we were heading into the mountains we were both ready for the day.  Since it was a small albergue and didn't have heat, everyone was in bed and the lights were off by 9pm, which is very unusual.  It also meant that everyone was up early.  Emily and I were the last ones to leave at 7:45. 

Here's the sunrise as we walked.  

Emily takes a 'selfie' of us on her camera every morning.  This morning we took it on mine just to mix things up a bit.  

A creepy stuffed pilgrim wearing jeans.. I think I like the statues better.  

Yay!  We're almost back to the mountains!  

In one of the villages we saw the church was actually open.  Come to find out it's part of a Benectine monastery.  

Thanks, Benedictines! 

And a little ways up the road in the village we found another little Benedictine chapel open for us.  

We decided to have a nice leisurely lunch and rest in the middle of the day.  Since we were only going 23k we knew we'd get to the albergue early so instead of sitting around a cold albergue with nothing to do we thought a long lunch break would be better.  While we were eating Sarah showed up.  We met Sarah a couple of days before when we ran into Jane again and Sarah was with Jane.  Sarah is from Michigan and is a teacher.  We had an hour and a half lunch just talking and getting to know Sarah.  One very coincidental thing about Sarah is that I sat my her mother on the flight from Chicago to Paris!  I remember when she sat by me I thought, "She's wearing hiking pants and boots... Wonder if she's walking the camino". Then I laughed at myself realizing not many people on the flight from Chicago to Paris will be walking the camino.  But after taking to her I found out she had already walked the camino a few times and was intending to walk for about the first week of it with her daughter.  Her daughter (Sarah) was seated many rows ahead of us so I never met her.  Since they were going to travel in southern France for a week before starting the camino I didn't think we'd see each other again.  Then, at lunch, Sarah mentioned that her mother was walking with her in the beginning and it clicked!  What a crazy coincidence!  Here's Sarah and I at lunch:

After lunch we continued the remaining 6k to Foncebadon.  The weather was gorgeous and all the pilgrims were taking advantage of it.  

Ahhhh I love the sun!!! 

This is Foncebadon.  A very quiet little mountain village with goats in the streets.  

Now the other day I said I can't wait for my left pinky toe o be nasty and hard like my right one.  Here's my right one.  It looks awful but it is completely pain free when I'm walking!  

Our albergue had a fireplace.  We wet sold the minute we walked in the door!  Above the fireplace people left quotes and pictures and things.  Here's Emily and our friend Pim warming up by the fire. 

We ate the pilgrim meal for dinner.  It was paella, which is very similar to jambalaya, cooked and served there at the albergue.  The dinner conversation was great and we ended up stating up till 10pm chatting.  

Here's everyone at my table for dinner (minus Peter who only spoke Polish and didn't hang around for the after dinner conversation):  me, Alex from Australia, Pim from Holland, Michelle from Germany, Padrig from Ireland, and James from Australia.  

Today was all about being with people and enjoying each other's company and it was lovely!  

I'm learning the benefit if the pilgrim meals.

I'm thankful for all the new friends and the great conversations.  I'm thankful for the good weather!  

Quote

"It's soooo cold.  I'm just glad it's not raining!" -Betsy

"Well Betsy, it wouldn't be raining right now, it would be snowing!" -Emily

Day 22

Foncebadon to Molinaseca

20k/12.5miles

We were both pretty excited about today because we'd be walking through the mountains and also get to see the Cruz de Ferro.  The Cruz de Ferro is a big pole with a cross at the top.  Many people bring a stone from home to leave on the pile at the bottom of the cross.  Unfortunately, we didn't know this custom before we left home.  I planned to leave a shell I brought from Belize but realized it had fallen out of my backpack somewhere in the first 20 days of walking.  So, we picked up rocks as we walked up the mountain the day before.  

The Cruz de Ferro is almost the highest point on the camino (not including the Pyrenes) at an elevation of 1530 meters.  

Here's the rock I found in the shape if Mississippi!  

Here I am placing the rock at the bottom of the cross as a symbol of the petitions I bring with me on the camino.  

Pretty cool to see how many thousands of pilgrims were there before you.  

Here's Emily using the human sundial.  It was exactly accurate!  

Despite the below freezing weather, (see all the frozen puddles on the trail!) it was a gorgeous day!  

There comes a point in one's life when you are excited to see a pit toilet.  Sadly, I'm at that point.  

Amen!  Although.. there's no way I'm running!  

Here's a little stand with some fruit and a donation box :) Emily and I both got a pear and they were quite delicious!  Things like this can really make a pilgrim's day.  Some nice person collects apples and pears from their trees and sets them out with a few bottles of water  on the trail for the pilgrims, very cool.  

And then came the downhill... it was steep and really rocky.  Not as fun as you might initially think the downhill part would be.  

Our lunch stop is when Emily discovered that her chocolate was melted.  So of course she needed to finish it all right then; you can't waste chocolate!!

More rocks going down.  Actually this was like one big rock that we were going down.  

Just loving the sunshine and the mountains!

Entering Molinaseca.  

By the time we got there my feet and ankles hurt so bad from that downhill rocky trail for most of the day.  I'm so glad we planned a relatively short day!  Funny, I never thought I'd prefer uphill to downhill!  But I do.  It's all about the feet. I've heard people say, "if you're feet are happy the rest of you'd body will be, too" and I've always agreed, but this trip has given the saying whole new meaning.  It's more like, "only your feet matter, who cares about anything else!" Haha

We met up with Sarah at the end of the day again today.  Had a hamburger fur dinner, which was a goif change.  The man that owned the little restaurant/shop was really friendly and welcoming.  He gave us pins and a stamp for our book.  The stamp is a picture if his grandfather.  Also he asked if I was from Germany, which I thought was pretty cool!  

Today I learned that sometimes uphill is easier than downhill.  

I'm thankful for the beautiful weather!  What a gorgeous day of hiking we had and most importantly I'm thankful that this is day 22.  You know what that means?!  ONLY 10 DAYS LEFT!!!