15 miles – the most beautiful 15 miles I’ve probably ever walked. Only thing similarly beautiful was the west coast of Ireland. Every vista. AND we got completely lucky because the rain lightened up so that we could do the Napoleonic route, a higher more scenic route that Napoleon took in order to surprise the Spanish who were used to people coming the other way – lower, easier.
The houses are all white washed with red roofs and shutters, it was green and misty. There were goats/cows/horses, all grouped and moving independently and with bells on a few to track the group. So bells ringing, roosters crowing, people chatting in all different languages, wonderfully musical.
You fall in and out with people depending on pace and interest. I had a few long periods with different people, so fun to hear their stories. My favorite people were Fiona and Murph from Ireland (different from the snippet couple). We had a couple of periods and happily the last few miles because Fiona was funny as she wanted to get there and get into bed, sending Murph out to find her some tea. Kept me distracted because I was getting tired too.
This town has 21 people, one of the biggest churches ever and two hotels and a huge aubergue – the pilgrim hostel. It used to be the major point from which people crossed into and out of France/Spain. Roland had a major fight and died in 778 here – Charlemagne’s man. The church was built in the 1200’s and when I walked in, they had a recording of monks singing. Then the priest walked in and started singing in a beautiful voice. I quietly left out the back after a while.
A lot of the Spanish (I think mostly) people do seem to go to the services and they time the evening service so that they can go between arrival and dinner. They were all singing the responses with him. Beautiful. And it’s been going on in this church since 1200’s – incredible.
Snippets from the day:
New Yorker: My cousin is from Texas. She was married 6 times, became Mormon and is now converting all of our ancestors. My family won’t talk with her.
Irish: I lived in Aspen for a while, helped build the extension to the airport. Went from Dublin when I was 21. Took me a month to get used to breathing it was so high. And it was expensive! There were heated footpaths. I went to the priest, who was Irish and asked if he had a parishioner who’d let me a room. He did and I moved in with a woman who was 41 and exercised on a trampoline. Wrote my mum and she was very nervous. After about 4 months, my brother wrote and told me to come to beautiful LA. So I took the desert train from Glenwood Springs. It was beautiful!
Reb's Walks! 
Just beautiful!!!
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