I was getting quite weary in the latter parts of that afternoon, and had set my mind on trudging all the way to the larger town of Fromista, where I was sure I would be able to to find lodging for the night. And yet while that city was eventually entered, and while its larger […]
“None of us are born to just live until we die, and none of us are born to give up. No, we are all born to make ways and carve paths, to stand up against injustice and right wrongs, to reach out to the lonely and give to the poor. And we are all born […]
I flowed quite smoothly into Poblacion and found the Municipal Gite completely empty. I had been told to check in with Carmen (the same hospitalera who had told Gabriel back in Fromista that I would be welcome here) at the nearby hotel but she was not in, so I headed back up to the hostel […]
I knew it was over 10km (just over 6 miles) to the next donativo (where I wasn’t even sure I’d receive a bed) and it was already 7:30 pm when heading out, so it was looking more & more like I would be spending the night on a park bench or even somewhere alongside the […]
The way was straight and flat and smooth that night, which allowed me to easily cover the 10km in just under two hours, arriving in Villalcazar at 9:30pm, with just 30 minutes to spare before the local donativo hostel* closed. I couldn’t help but flash back to my 2008 Camino when the very same hostel […]
I whisper -chatted with a fellow pilgrim far into the night, and then – after everyone else had fallen fast asleep – I snuck my bedding out the hostels’ sleeping quarters and humbly hunkered down on the kitchen floor for the night; partly to keep my fellow pilgrims from suffering through my potential snoring, and […]
I only slept for a little over four hours that night on the hostel’s kitchen floor, and yet did so surprisingly well, and woke feeling refreshed, energized, and fully ready to head back out onto The Way. I added some jam to the pasta I had pre-cooked the night before and snarfed part of it […]
And then it was that I was once more back out on The Road – back out walking joyfully through the next peaceful pre-dawn morn; a walker journeying in Oneness; a pilgrim walking for Peace … “Travel is a wonderful experience in & of itself, and yet what makes it especially wondrous is the endless […]
The Sun had still not yet fully risen as I entered the city of Carion de los Condes and was greeted warmly by the cleanliness of its streets, the serenity of its architecture, and the gracefulness of its swallows … “This is but one city in one country, on one continent, on one planet, in […]
As I made my way through town, and was steadily joined by other pilgrims who were now also beginning their days, I became aware of the interesting fact that one needn’t always enter churches or sacred spaces to be blessed by the calm they contain … “There was evidence that he might have been privy […]
It wasn’t long after I exited town that I came across the Benedictine Monastery of San Zoilo, a tenth century construction that served for many centuries as the spiritual hub of Palencia (first for the Benedictines, then for the Clunians, then for the Jesuits, and finally as a Minor Seminary). It was declared a national […]
;
