June 13 2010

Another day down; 30 kilometers more exhausted!
We started off at Palas del Rei and began walking. Along the trail, about ten kilometers into our longest walk to date, we had our Eucharist outside a reluctant old spanish lady's house. Our tour guide, Debbie, then led us to a small town called Melide where we got to enjoy, according to Debbie “the most amazing pizza in Spain!” It was the first time we had eaten lunch before 4:00 p.m. on the trail. To be completely honest it didn't really compare to Mellow Mushroom.

As we reached our halfway point in Melide, Debbie informed us that we had a decision to make. We could either skip the last six kilometers and ride the bus, or we could complete the whole 30 km of the day. After a pump-up speech from John, the majority of the group continued on. This was a great example of all of us really digging deep, pushing our comfort zone, and stretching our limits, which all have been discussed a lot on our journey; we were becoming true pilgrims. It seems that as the days progress, the path gets increasingly hilly and it is definitely taking a toll on our feet. Also the humor seems to become increasingly worse as we all become too tired to think straight.

In the last 15 kilometers after our stop at the pizza place, we tackled an amazingly cool stretch of land that was awesome to traverse. During this stretch, meeting Germans was a reoccurring theme amongst our group. We all got a chance to really get to know some of the other pilgrims, and it made it easier to hand out the gifts we brought.

As we reached the summit of the last hill of the day, the sight of the Auruza city sign brought a smile to everyone's face. Soon after we boarded the bus to go to our hotel, we got our room keys, and the only sight to see was a bunch of napping pilgrims.

To be honest, I think a lot of people were not especially looking forward to walking all day long and the bus probably seemed like a better way to travel, but now I don't think that there is one person, who will regret this trip. Everyone of us has seen God somehow in some way through our environment and fellow pilgrims. It is a trip to remember!
-George and Ned