The city of chocolate
Because of the massive line behind me today, this post is going to be quite short. From here on out, Paul and I plan on taking the ¨quantity¨ as well as (hopefully) ¨quality¨ approach with our posts--we have approximately 12 days left in our journey and I just realized that I´ve posted less than 10 entries! By the way, thanks very much to everyone who´s been checking in on this blog. Your comments keep us going and the knowledge that your reading and thinking of us helps us get through what are becoming some very long days in northwestern Spain.
The major city of Leon has came and gone. We enjoyed our day there so much that we were thinking of staying a bit longer. We determined, however, that the last time we stopped for a day in Burgos it killed all of the momentum that we had been building up in the first third or so of the trip. Especially going into a mentally-arduous section of the country like the relatively-uninteresting ¨meseta¨ plateau, the time off was in actuality probably more detrimental mentally than it was helpful physically. So, we made haste through the second major city on the Camino, beginning the third and final leg of our journey. We´ve now gone approximately 500 kms, and have less than 300 now to go until we reach the cathedral of Santiago.
We´ve now heard of a couple of different interpretations of what the three legs of the journey signify. One pilgrim mentioned that the first leg (St. Jean-Burgos) represents a ¨physical¨ challenge, the second leg represents a ¨mental¨ one, and the third leg represents a final, ¨spiritual¨ journey. Others have labeled the legs in accordance with the Christian progression through ¨life, death, and rebirth.¨ I´m not sure yet whether or not I agree with these formulations. Both of us still have our fair share of physical ailments, I didn´t find the meseta particularly torturous mentally, and I feel that the entire experience has represented something of a spiritual examination or meditation. Either way, both Paul and I are looking forward to exploring the current city we´re staying in. Known primarily for its architecture and even more so for its chocolate, exploring Astorga with new friends should be exciting. The terrain has finally moved away from the highway and into green hills covered in wildflowers and sunlight, and it´s finally starting to feel like we´re in the Spain that we were dreaming about this past year. We´ve heard that the upcoming province--Galicia--is the most beautiful section of our journey, so when we eventually do get some pics up, we hope that they´ll be quite impressive.
The major city of Leon has came and gone. We enjoyed our day there so much that we were thinking of staying a bit longer. We determined, however, that the last time we stopped for a day in Burgos it killed all of the momentum that we had been building up in the first third or so of the trip. Especially going into a mentally-arduous section of the country like the relatively-uninteresting ¨meseta¨ plateau, the time off was in actuality probably more detrimental mentally than it was helpful physically. So, we made haste through the second major city on the Camino, beginning the third and final leg of our journey. We´ve now gone approximately 500 kms, and have less than 300 now to go until we reach the cathedral of Santiago.
We´ve now heard of a couple of different interpretations of what the three legs of the journey signify. One pilgrim mentioned that the first leg (St. Jean-Burgos) represents a ¨physical¨ challenge, the second leg represents a ¨mental¨ one, and the third leg represents a final, ¨spiritual¨ journey. Others have labeled the legs in accordance with the Christian progression through ¨life, death, and rebirth.¨ I´m not sure yet whether or not I agree with these formulations. Both of us still have our fair share of physical ailments, I didn´t find the meseta particularly torturous mentally, and I feel that the entire experience has represented something of a spiritual examination or meditation. Either way, both Paul and I are looking forward to exploring the current city we´re staying in. Known primarily for its architecture and even more so for its chocolate, exploring Astorga with new friends should be exciting. The terrain has finally moved away from the highway and into green hills covered in wildflowers and sunlight, and it´s finally starting to feel like we´re in the Spain that we were dreaming about this past year. We´ve heard that the upcoming province--Galicia--is the most beautiful section of our journey, so when we eventually do get some pics up, we hope that they´ll be quite impressive.
3 Comments:
kev/paul
you guys are really moving !! enjoy the final leg...take care of your bodies.....enjoy the chocolate...can i access paul's blog ?? loveya
I'm proud of you guys. You're doing a great job. You're more than half way home, so relish what remains. As you know, my lungs didn't carry me as far as you've made it, so, figuratively speaking, I'm counting on you to carry me the rest of the way to Santiago. Chris
Heads up! I just learned, to my pleasant amazement, that there is a group of Fordham students doing a study tour right now along one part of the camino--led by Professor Gyug (pronounced "Juke") they were, as of June 5, in Ponferrada---if you run across them, pls give them a Fordham-Jesuit heritage hello and tell the Professor I'm eager to meet and introduce myself to him when he's back.
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