15th, 16th. & 17th Days / St. Nicholas - Calzadillia de la Cueza

15th Day....Wow! the Camino is as Magical as ordinary life if one observes it as being...the morning of june 28th we had a little bit of a climb and soon the camino road was straight, flat and long; walking 31.4 km. we arrived st. nicholas at 5:15 pm, having about 2 1/2 hours of breaks along the way. it was suggested by my friend diane, to stay at st. nicholas a church which was one run by italian monks. upon arriving the church was not yet opened and so nicole and i set our packs on the ground and took off our hiking boots; although i love my hiking boots it was a relief to feel some air on my tender feet. soon, a woman and man in their late 60´s or early seventies arrived telling us we needed to leave our boots outside, then inviting us inside. at this point the woman who only spoke italian began assigning beds (8 beds), nicole and i were lucky to have a bed. as it turned out many others arrived not to be turned away and later in the evening after dinner were given mattresses to lay on the floor. we were instructed by alba to go take showers and wash our clothes and by that time it would be 3 pm where we could go inside once again. dinner was being prepared for us. it felt disrespectful to alba for anyone to lay on the beds so, we took sleeping bags or pads to lay on the green grass outside of the church. this was very comforting until a little old man came upon the women. when he came to me he leaned down so quickly i knew he was going to plant a kiss on my lips which i quickly turned my face so he could only kiss my cheek. this little old man took it upon himself to plant maybe 20 kisses on my cheek making smacking sounds and producing a giggle from me; okay i´ve had enough. what is it that in spain little old men think they can have their way with solo women? i told him no, and go away. another woman when he tried this with her she pushed him away telling him no and soon he disappeared. stay clear away from little old men on the camino. okay, back to my story of st. nicolas. soon it was 3 pm and we could go inside. nicole and i were asked to set the table with bowls, silverware and candles (there was no electricity in the church) which is what allured me. soon we were told to go near the alter all 20 of us sitting in leather chairs in a semi circle where we began a cermony in italian welcoming us with one foot being washed by alba´s husband (?) and then kissed by him after kissing your foot he would look you in the eye while alba read. it touched my soul. afterwards, we all shared in our own language where we were from but i think it got changed to why each was doing the camino. when the ceremony was finished dinner was served; pasta, white beans with boiled potatoes and tomatoe, bread and wine or water, desert was ice cream all by candlelight. dinner dishes whisked away and people gathered outside on the steps to sing along while someone from spain played the guitar. i´m so glad i did not miss this opportunity to stay at this special place. it was not long before i decided to go to bed and others followed and soon, there was only silence. i slept very well that night. in the morning as everyone was gathering their sleeping bags and getting ready to leave i took a beautiful picture of our boots lined up on a stone shelf a foot off the ground. alba served us cafe con leche and toast for breakfast. after breakfast she gathered us in a semi-circle outside on the church step where she began an italian blessing to each pilgrim then kissing (a friendly kiss, one not touching our faces), on each cheek, looked into our eyes and wished us buen camino and sent us on our way. what a magical place.

16th Day.....standing on the bridge just 100 feet away from the church i´m looking at a stand of trees that are perfectly aligned in any direction while seeing a darkened doorway at the end of a row of trees. i love doorways of any kind. most of the day felt like we could be in the palouse country near coeur d´alene, idaho. the wheat was swaying with the wind. after leaving st. nicolas and walking 13.8 km we made a slight detour so i could show nicole another magical place; boadilla del camino. this is home away from home. although it was too close to spend an enchanting night here it pleased my heart that we could stop and have a cola cao and some sweet bread. i tried my hand again at the computer and soon realized i was as slow on this computer this time as in 2002. i did not write any letters this time. i did check my blog for comments and noticed 6, thank you everyone-i am recieving you comments and loving them. edwardo (sp?) was there with his sweet smiling face and welcoming us. it took awhile but then he remembered me. he sat with nicole and i until we said good bye then he walked us outside and bid us buen camino, until next year. now we walk to our nights destination: villalcazar de sirga. since we arrived late we only had time to make a phone call each and visit the small village before having dinner and going to bed.
17th Day......i slept about 40 mins last night because my mattress was so bad. we only had 22 km to walk today so i did not think this a problem. the path today was very straight, mostly asphalt then dirt roads with lots of rocks and no shade. it turned out to be a long, long hot walk. but, as always magic appears...out of nowhere a jeep wrangler pulled slowly towards us, ah i think we´ll find out how far we are from our destination calzada del coto. the jeep is filled with 4 british guys and soon the maps came out to compare. it wasn´t long and soon a camera appeared and they said they were doing a documentary and could they please film us while walking. sure, we say sounds fun! it was!!!!! Samuel (camera man), Gan, chris and dario were so much fun. gan, would move the jeep far ahead and park; samuel would be guided backwards while filming by dario; while chris walked between nicole and i asking us questions as if we weren´t being interviewed. we had a great time as usual. afterwards, i said i´d really would like a short ride in the jeep and told them how i loved and missed my beautiful orange jeep. i think gan may go back and buy a jeep rubicon unlimited in orange. they drove us to the albergue, just a short distance where we had beers and nicole a coke. what a great time we had and they will e-mail us info when the documentary is finished on the camino. LIFE IS GOOD - now i will go shower. i love everyone and love hearing from all of you.







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