Crossing a bridge

I made today another day without an albergue reservation. I left later starting off on my own again, around 7:30 am, leaving after about half the group and before the rest.

A 15 mile walk is starting to feel normal. I’m getting into a rhythm. I’ll walk for myself for a while, and then have a conversation with a fellow pilgrim, either someone I know (now that it’s been more than a few days, we’re starting to recognize each other) or someone new if we collectively seem open to chat. You can usually tell.

It was a pensive day. On the one hand, it was another gorgeous day.

On the other hand, the time walking alone brings many thoughts to the forefront.

It was a nice balance of reflection and conversation, but honestly coming off the high from last night was rough today. I missed being around everyone, even though I still had some meaningful conversations along the way.

I stopped in a church. They had left some pre-printed prayers for pilgrims. I’ll leave somethings unwritten here but will just say it felt like the words on that piece of paper were speaking directly to me.

I continued the walk to today’s summit, at about the halfway point, in conversation with Erzebet, who was walking the same tempo as me. As we approached the high point, we could start to see the Monumento al Peregrino art installation. The series of sillouettes represent the same walk pilgrims have made to Santiago for many centuries.

It was essentially downhill from there down to Puente de Reina.

I made it to town around 1:30 and easily found a bed. This was two hours later than yesterday and it still proved to be unnecessarily early.

I took the time to have a nice lunch snd write in my journal. Afterwards, I was feeling lonely. Not knowing what to do with the time, I made my way to the Puente Romántico. This bridge was built in the mid-1000s specifically to help pilgrims cross the River Arga.

I was there not five minutes and I ran into Odetta, a pilgrim from Italy who was at last night’s special dinner. What serendipity! We chatted for a few and I continued walking across the bridge. Then I saw Leslie from Sacramento and Sophie? (I can’t recall her name) from Paris - both also at last night’s dinner. Then the three of us ran into Scott, one more from the same dinner, all at the bridge around the same time. It’s exactly what I needed.

I ended up spending the next couple hours with Leslie and Sophie, the latter of whom speaks no English or Spanish, so it was a great opportunity to put my very limited French to use.

Not long after, I saw a message in a pilgrims WhatsApp group about dinner plans that evening. I was all in.

I’m back now, getting ready for bed, heart full once again and ready to take on tomorrow.

Tomorrow’s route takes me back across the Puente Romántico and, knowing the Camino magic it can bring, I’ll plan to walk it slowly.