First Day on my bike.

It is pouring cats and dogs. Even with my poncho i get pretty wet and i make a stop in Santilas de la Mar. Had some breakfast and this delicious Spanish Café con leche. The rain stops and the first 50 km are behind me.

Beautiful hilly road, steep climbs. I see an old church and decide to go inside and pray for a safe journey. I am greeted by a 20 yr. old girl who tells me this church is the Eglisa de San Martinus, the bishop who divided his coat to help a poor beggar. I tell her my name and we both agreed that this is a very good sign indeed. Happily i drive away, counting my blessings.

More cats and dogs🤧🤧🤧 I need some shoes instead of sandals.

Second Day

A little hangover this morning because the food yesterday evening was dry as the summer 2018 in Europe and the wine was so good, that I had to drink it all to balance it out.

The next morning the Sun greeted me with a big smile. The meadows were lush and green, the skies were sparkling Blue. Because i knew that some heavy climbs were coming my way i reloaded my batteries. Just enjoying Life.

Then i made a stop at a refugio for perigrenos. At the terras looking over a beautiful valley two man were sitting. They invited me over to their table. They were father and son doing the camino for the second time. We exchanged a lot of Insider camino stuff. They came from Aarhus, Denmark. At one point I told them about my happening at San Martin's Church on Day one. Because I had given them my name they told me theirs: The father was Peter and his son was named John. My birthday names are Martinus, Pierre, Jean.

After some glasses of cider at the table and on my next kilometers i started to whistle: Oh when the Saints, go marching in... till. . .

I fell from my bike on a steep downhill gravel road i did not really pay attention to. My knee was bleeding and my right hand hurts a lot.

Conclusion: never drink while driving even when the Saints are marching.

I arrived safely in Gijon, wondering how everything fits so well!

Day 7

Arrived in Santiago de Compostela 😀 first picture is from my balcony.

On Joost's advise i visited the Cidade de Cultura. It is located on a hill overlooking Santiago. Very futuristic and archaic at the same time. One of the architects name is Peter Eisenman.

The place looks a bit lonely, almost no people around here. As If built without connection to the the city. The couple I came in contact with, when asked who paid for this enormous buildings, said "corruption; that's why it is still not finished."

At night i strolled through the streets and saw and listened to this wonderfull Opera open-Air singer. I bought his CD and we sung "Nessun Dorma" together.

The camino is realizing that we go on a camino because our whole life is a camino but we forget this truth so we go on our camino to remember this. In day-today life we hurry from one appointment to another, forgetting to live. And love. Love Life is my key.

Day 9

Arrived at Fistera, the end of the world. To see this zero km post touches my heart and makes me sad on the same time. Goal achieved, no more "the road is the goal"

#camino #santiagodecompostela