Day 10 - October 7 - Aroma Del Dia

Wednesday October 7 - Day 10 - NO RAIN today!!!!! Glad to not have to put plastic bags on my feet again. As we venture out, it is cool and foggy. Today we have to travel about 25 km and everywhere there is signage depicting the KM to Santiago de Compestela. Excitement is mounting as we travel along. We see several tour buses drop off passengers and then pick them up again several km down the pathway, some just jump of the bus to get their passbook stamped and back on they go, no walking for them, had we only known it would that easy (although I believe that not one of us would agree to do the Camino this way, given what we have experienced, seen and shared). We are seeing several pilgrims from when we started the journey, but many have joined in, in the last 100 kms. Walkers need to walk 100 km and have two stamps (from different locations) in their passbooks each day to get the certificate at the end. The cyclists need to travel at least 200 kms and get the same kind of stamps in their passbooks. We have noticed that we are quite a speedy group despite our age - we are passing pilgrims much younger than us who obviously have not prepared the way we have for this pilgrimage. We are quite proud of this. It is refreshing to see what we have accomplished and that we have so little distance now to go to reach our destination. Despite some of our fatigue, there is a spring in our steps:)) The scenery for part of the journey, is not as picturesque as the past days. However, for parts of the journey today, I felt like we were in the Sherwood Forest, so lush, green, fresh and branches overhang on the pathway creating a tunnel effect. It was very cool to walk through that. We travelled through several farmyards and villages, with the fresh farm aromas and cow paddies to dodge. We travelled about 8km to our first village where we could have something to chow down. Although breakfast was included in our hotel costs, it was mostly carbs that we ate. As we continued, we decided to stop a little further along the way, and have lunch outdoors under the apple tree. It was quite pretty, however the barnyard aroma filtered downward to where we were eating. Another traveller came along and had her nose covered with her scarf, speaks to the strength of the aroma. However, us rural Canadians have experienced this and are not put off by this :)) The weather, although cool, was perfect for walking, we did eventually shed a few layers by the time we arrived in Palas de Rei. A hot shower or bath, depending on which luxury you had in your room that day, warmed you up and then out the door we went to venture around the town. It is only a population of 3500, kinda country, as we saw chicken coups in town, saw a lady selling freshluy steamed octopus with paprika and olive oil (and a little salt), amongst other things. Amanda and I ventured to a local pastry shop and sampled the most delicious layered dessert with whipped cream, custard and phyllo dough sprinked with icing sugar and a fresh cafe con leche (both were only 3.9 euros), absolutely delicious. We have been sampling more seafood as this is now more available on the menu del dia and are all enjoying this. Again, the best homemade rice pudding in town, delicious. As Canadians, we are not a demanding group, we eat our food the way it is served and do not ask for much and our compliments flow graciously to our servers. We have just realized, 10 days into our journey, that we can ask for butter for our bread, all these days, we have been served plain bread, when we could have just asked for butter to go with this. How were we to know?? As well, salt and pepper are not readily available on the tables, we have learned that you have to ask for this as well. We have had several meals where we were served homemade thick-cut french fries, I wonder if we could have asked for ketchup (we have not seen any served anywhere, but have not thought to ask for this), we may ask for this the next time we are served these, who knows what we will get. There is a beautiful church in the centre of town, the pilgrims mass is at 8 pm. All the windows are stained glass and I cannot wait to get inside. One of our colleagues is trying to arrange some activities when we arrive in Santiago, she is trying to arrange for us to go to confession there, we can book a time on Saturday...so far, she has not had any takers. Some of us have finally had our first blisters and others are all healed. Others are still nursing sore joints. But for the most part, all of us are doing well and still enjoying the journey, the company of each other, as well as meeting many pilgrims along the way. It is an incredible experience. We have met several couples that have started this journey more than one month ago in France - they are excited to be nearing the destination as well. Their stories have been very interesting, as have ours. Salud, Sandy Our next 2 days are long ones (about 28-30 km each day), but our final day on Saturday is only 10 km. It will be an early start and are happy to view the forecast - NO rain, yeah!