Walking in the Footsteps of the Saints: Cruz de Ferro and Molinaseca

my rock and mom's rock for Cruz de Ferro

What a day we had today! Yesterday, we were dragging into Rabanal in the rain. It was only a 12 mile walk but we were all beat after the long day before that. When we arrived in the little village of Rabanal, we had intended to stay at the albergue run by the British Confraternity. It didn't open until 1:30 and we arrived soaking wet and tired at 12:00 so it was a unanimous decision to check into a very old hostel in town which was in a renovated 17th century pilgrim's hospital. Every so often it is nice to have a private room in which to dump out your whole pack and sort through everything. I won't lie- the bathtub was pretty nice, too! We did stop by the British albergue later in the afternoon and were invited to stay for afternoon tea so that was fun.

Today dawned much clearer and we walked about the first 8k pre- dawn all uphill. We had a beautiful walk up into the mountains and made it to the Cruz de Ferro by about 11:00. That was an emotional and powerful experience. It's a place to leave behind the baggage in your life or remember good things or say a prayer or just be grateful you made it. It was intensely personal for everyone and our normally crazy group was very subdued for a little while. Then we all pulled on our sunglasses and started down the long descent into Molinaseca.

We walked 25 k today but about half of it was very steep and jagged, and we are pretty tired. We're staying at a great place and had a nice communal dinner. We met a lovely older French woman named Teresa who is walking because she lost a grandchild. We had to converse with her in Spanish because she spoke no English and we don't speak French. Our language deficiencies were aided by an Irishman who took French in school. Between all of us, we managed to have a very meaningful conversation.

We avoided the rain today but tomorrow is a 30 k stage in the rain. Look for a blog post in a day or two.