Albergues

Since Eduardo left the family we´ve stayed in some amazing albergues (both on detour routes)

On Monday night (5th May) we stayed in the peregrinos albergue located in Besciano del Real Camino on that night I experienced the essence of what I believe the Camino life is about.

The albergue runs off donations and the warm greeting was next to none. One of the hospitalerios (volunteer workers) was named none other than Jesus...Can you believe it? He definitely had a twinkle in his eyes that´s for sure. On that night I even dreamt he was God and the look he gave me in my dream was of love, support, faith and re-assurance it was a very strange but realistic kind of dream. I seem to be dreaming alot here, another night I dreamt a man and lady were doing Reiki on me and I could actually feel it in my dream...weird stuff...hehehehe...As many of you know this isn´t at all weird for me...hehehe

Anyways back to the albergue, it slept roughly 40 people, all the pilgrims helped with the dinner preparations and washing up. We then sang songs in our native languages, we watched the sun set followed by a candlelit meditation expressing the reason why each one of us are walking this road...It was an amazing evening with so many amazing people (approx 25 of us). This is what I feel the Camino life is about the spirit of sharing, friendship, reflection, giving thanks for the many many luxuries we have in our lives...This life is a very simple one it shows one you don´t need much... My Camino family have shown me this time and time again and for them I´m truly grateful..

Last night we stayed in Leon (Santa Maria convent) this is the 2nd time we´ve stayed in the convent (Eric wasn´t allowed to move his bed close to Gitta´s...hehehehe...Inside joke) we went to the 6pm Mass at Leon´s Cathedral which was lovely although Burgos Cathedral is sooo much nicer and alot more detailed than Leon (I was very disappointed with Leon) there wasn´t any substance to Leon´s Cathedral... All in all the outside of the Cathedral was lovely though... At the convent the nuns held a 9:30pm pilgrim Mass in their church which was very nice...

Tonight we´re staying in another awesome albergue (alternate route) called Jesus albergue (Jesus is everywhere...hehehe) and it´s donation based as well... You can write on the walls like naughty school kids...hehehe...I´ve written my saying and also one for Eduardo and taken photos...hehehehe... The albergue has a backyard and hammock (what luxury) you should have seen our faces when we scoped the joint we thought we were in heaven...hehehehe

Tomorrow we´re off to Astorga which is a 30km clicker...Wish us luck cause we´re sooo going to need it...hehehehe

Love, light and smiles to you all

Thank you for your support

Thought I´d write up a quick entry (seeing I´m overwhelmed with so many upflifting, loving and encouraging comments and emails). I just wanted to say a BIG thank you to you all!

Monique and Nancy you ladies would understand what it feels to recieve soooo much encouragement especially on those hard days it it means sooo much to me. I had another hard day yesterday and today. The 3 of us have come down with a cold and walking isn´t making it any easier. I´ve also obtained 2 new blisters (total of 5) and very slight pain in my heel (man I hope it´s not tendinitous)

It´s raining, thunderstorm, lighting and hailing tonight (3rd time it´s rained on the Camino) they are predicting the same kind of weather for the next few days with a maximum temperature 9 degrees, talk about the Universe throwing curve balls...hehehe...So the moral of this entry is thank you all for your kind words, thoughts, prayers and love you have no idea how much they have helped me along the road...Thank you my beautiful friends... Thinking of you all and placing little stones along the way with good wishes for you all..

xxx

Halfway (according to my guidebook)

Well we´ve made it to the halfway mark (according to John Brierley´s guidebook). The place is called Terradillos de los Templarios and last night we stayed in a new albergue which was absolute luxury.. Gitta, Eric and I stayed in a room just for the 3 of us and I was sooo stoked as it had an ensuite...hehehe... So far this is one of the best albergue´s we´ve stayed in.

Yesterday was a sad day as Eduardo finally left our group (and then there were 3)... Due to a knee injury and the little time he has to walk to Santiago Eduardo decided to catch a taxi from Ledigos to Sahagun and then train to Leon where he´ll continue his walk to Santiago.

Good luck my friend remember ´piano piano arriviamo´ thank you for everything you have been one of my Camino angels on this adventure, I´ll miss you heaps...Ciao and Buen Camino bello.

It´s funny cause Eduardo use to be our motivator, in the mornings he´d get us all up and out of bed and this morning was the first morning without him...Man we are sooo lazy this is the latest morning we´ve started our Camino (9:30am) usually we start around 6:30am... Eduardo where are you...hehehehe... I think I´ll have to be the time keeper in the mornings, I may just buy an alarm in Leon...hehehe

More later....

I´ll jump on later to write more, but now it´s time to walk walk walk...