Sahagún Day Off

Hola!  It is good to have some time off and some clean laundry

  

I had a rather thought provoking experience yesterday. I had a glass of wine with the Australian policemen, David and his wife, Diane. We were joined by a young Audrey Hepburn waif named Jennifer. Well, Jennifer was about twenty five to thirty years old. Don’t hold me to that I am worse than terrible at guessing ages. Jennifer had so much anger towards everything, that it made me stop and catch my breath. It was like being hit in the face with cold water. She lives in San Francisco with obviously enough money to travel the world. She has hiked three Caminos and had nothing good to say about any of them, particularly the Portuguesa. I had already been thinking a lot about gratitude ton this trip and perhaps God sent me a messenger... just not in the way I expected. Isn’t that just like God! Here is a girl, cute as a bug, hiking some incredible trails, a religious pilgrimage, who can’t see what a gift it is to be able to do this. She expects the worst at every turn and it appears that she gets it. I found myself (an old broad) wanting to give her a hug. Sad!

Diane is taking the bus today because she has bad tendinitis in her foot.  David is going to join her in Leon and he is jazzed about staying in a alburgue.  We think he will get over it after one night.

I wanted to eat earlier than seven last night so I found little bar that you could order tapas.  These are two different tapas...mushrooms and rice pilaf.  The summer after my freshman year in at Florida State,  I worked for Morrison's Cafeteria.  Anyone remember them?  My favorite thing to do was get the saffron rice and mushrooms for my meal.  They were better at Morrison's but maybe my mind remembers it better.

            

There is virtually nothing exciting to see or do in this town.  I went to the church and learned that Pilgrims who pass through Sahagún and visit the Santuario de la Virgen Peregrina get a credential stamp that certifies the arrival at the Geographical Center of the Camino de Santiago. I, as always, said some prayers and gave some thanks.  I am not sure this is the exact half-way point.  I was in another town on my first Camino Francais and got a stamp for the half way point.  I can't remember where it was.

The beautiful gates leading into the ruins of the Monasterio de San Fecundo.

I wandered around the ruins for all of about five minutes.  I liked the gates the best.

I could never figure out what these two statues represented other than celebration. 

As I was walking around Sahagún, I stopped for a diet coke and the bartender gave me a half a boiled egg with what I thought was paprika sprinkled on top...it was cayenne.  Quite tasty but my lips tingled for the next hour.  Seems to be a local specialty.  I swear they tasted better than they look.

I gave myself two treats today...these beautiful strawberries.  Yes, they were every bit as good as they look.  So sweet and wonderful.

My other treat was a massage.  I am never quite sure what the protocol is in another country.  Do you take off all your clothes and dive under the sheet.  I am probably not as uptight as I was at say twenty but I am still not ready to skateboard in the buff down the boulevard waving an American flag.  I had a big burly man and he stepped out of the room so I went for it.  The full monty but I quickly dove under the towel.  Hopefully that is the custom.  The whole massage was laying on my tummy and it was wonderful.