..will be followed by many thousands of others, before we reach Santiago de Compostela. It’s 6am and Our Camino starts today and, even after months of planning and discussion, it still feels quite surreal. Our Pilgrim passports have arrived (Credencial del Peregrino) and our maps are ready. Ours is a self guided walk, so we’ll have to rely on ourselves to navigate from León to Santiago de Compostela. It’s a bit daunting, of course, since neither of us has done anything like this ever before, but we’re so excited too. Thousands of people of all ages and background have walked the Camino, so we’re prepared to give it a go as well. We each have our own private reasons for walking the Camino and shared ones as well. With a friendship of nearly 25 years under our belts, the good bits and the bad bits, we think we should be okay. I hope we are right.

Our luggage is being transported between each of our accomodations, thankfully, but we still have a backpack to carry and with water, jackets, first aid kits, travel documents, food etc, they are looking mighty impressive! 

Yesterday Kate and I had intended to visit a few of the many historic museums and churches here in León, but the universe had other plans for us. It seems that, on the eve of what is a big mental and physical challenge for us both, a day spent simply being ‘un flaneur’ was more important. Neither of us knew when we set out, that a walk along the bank of Rio Berenesga, sitting in a local park watching everything, but nothing in particular, and then finding the best coffee in León would be the best day ever.
We met a man in one of the shops here, who was just lovely and so friendly, we chatted for ages. He explained the religious connotations behind the magnificent processions we had seen and that would continue to occur every night until Easter Sunday. He gave us our scallop shells, the symbol of the Camino. And he was interested in us, where we had come from and why we were in León. Just one of those rare people that go out of their way. We didn’t buy anything from his shop, it wasn’t motivated by a sale, he was just a lovely man. I had a similar conversation with a young girl in the ‘farmacia’ when I bought some sunscreen today. It seems so simple, but having those connections when in a country where you do not speak the language, makes all the difference.

And we met two pilgrims from Poland, who had walked from Pamplona to León in 14 days, a distance of over 315klms.That’ s an average of 30-35 klms everyday. Thank god we’ re not facing that sort of mileage on any day, as I don’t think I could manage that all. In fact, I’m sure of it!  Between their poor English and our non existent Polish, we still had a great chat. Lots of smiling and arm gesturing helped too!

Our wonderful few days in León are finished and we’ve loved every minute here. I’d suggest anyone planning a holiday to Spain to include León in their plans, it’s just delightful. Oh, and stay at the Parador!

But today it’s boots and back packs, which will be our uniform of sorts for the next 3 weeks. We’re heading into the unknown a bit, but I’m looking forward, not back…

Á la prochaine,

Karen

I’ve added some photos below, from the Samana Santa processions we were so privileged to see.