Camino de Santiago - the dos.

This design just made me happy. Smart parenting. Everyone plays together:

One of the people I’m walking with has a guide book. He is our guide (pronounced gweed-ay) He reads all the history and when we pass things of note he points them out and explains what he read. This bridge, he explained, was noteworthy because the tradition is that you have to take your shoes off whenever you cross it. He took his shoes off and explained to the other pilgrims who joined us crossing the bridge. About 10 of us crossed it together, shoes in hand. About half way across the bridge he starts giggling and announces the equivalent of, “It’s the tradition. Tradition of Gweeday!” He made the whole thing up. I’m still giggling.

Camino de Santiago - The Beginning

I was planning to sleep a bit and not worry about hurrying ahead. The day wasn’t suppose to be too hot, so I didn’t see the need to rush ahead ... well, it seems others had other ideas. The dorm was alive, awake, alert, and enthusiastic by 5:30am, so so was I! I headed out alone into the dark and followed the signs I could see through the dark streets and up the start of a hill, which turned into a climb, which turned into a mountain, and then a mountain range. All in all we - the travelers of the day, strangers mostly - climbed 1,400 meters with packs ranging from approximately 4 - 12kg ... mine weighing in somewhere around 10.5 (in hindsight, WAY too heavy).