By Jim
Spain is a beautiful country, does it need so many hills? The extra sleep that I am getting (no more 2:00 am hockey games to stream) has heightened my awareness. Since the Valley of God, we have climbed an average of 69 flights of stairs each day. It looks like this trend will continue for some time and may even get worse. For more than 1,000 years pilgrims have been trudging this route with little improvement to the infrastructure. Santander, a city on the Camino del Norte, may offer a blueprint for what could be. Escalators and tunnels! The beautiful sea-side city has conveniently placed both of these engineering marvels throughout its landscape to aid and abet its citizens’ daily pilgrimages to the supermercato or stazione degli autobus. All that I am suggesting is that a well placed tunnel or escalator at Grado would be appreciated and may even help this camino thing catch on.
All kidding aside, it has now become apparent to both Laurel and I that the elevation maps for our daily stages are just as important, if not more consequential, than the distance maps. It is helpful to know where in the day the last @$&! big hill lies so that you have enough energy and spirit in reserve. We have become familiar to and with a disparate group of pilgrims who pass us daily in the camino bed race. I have translated my “we are snails” joke from the Via Francigena into Spanish, French, and even Afrikaans and it always gets a laugh (from the Spanish and French pilgrims at least, but two out of three ain’t bad).
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Another day of ups and downs.
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| Each “up” came with a view. |
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| A pit stop for pilgrims along the way. |
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| Monasterio de San Salvador at Cornellana, celebrating its 1,000th year in 2024. |
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| Laurel appreciated this ancient spring. |
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Church of Santa Maria la Mayor and gate in Salas, our destination for today.
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