St Dom to Redecilla

Stunning blue skies and wheatfields stretching out before us. The camera honestly hasnt captured how beautiful it really us.

Every town is a mishmash of ancient crumbling stone buildings brashly coured and flaking skins , like giant snakes ready to shed. But how beautiful a picture does it make?

We alternate between having breakfast and lunch as picnics along the way, to grabbing pinchos at a bar.

Here is Lilly making her perfect boccadillo of salami and cheese.

There are stalks everwhere, but this is te first time I've seen them nesting.

We followed the sticky sweet smells of baking into a tiny unmarked doorway and up a hall to find this bakery. Mmmmm.  Gorgeous cookies and cakes too good to leave on the shelf.

Though we had planned to press on for another 5 km or so, by 2 p, the kids had completely flagged, so I made the decision to be happy with the 11.5 km we had done and stop here.

Twelfth century Baptismal  font in the Redecilla Church

I've had a shower and a short sleep and now ready for dinner to be ready..

We are mindful of keeping our daily target of 14.5 km done, so just need to make it up in the next few days.

Messages of love the whole way

Age and I had promised each other to return and send some sort of message to the other; whoever crossed the veil first.

Though I felt him strongly on the days just past his death, as soon as he had chosen the spot for his grave, I felt him leave and not felt his presence since.

Whether its that final stage of grieving, where normality returns, or that it is the acceptance that his spirit has moved on; and so must I; its been a hard few months to accept that lack and gap.

I've blogged earlier on to say how I feel that the Camino is that final chapter of farewell for me, to Age; so won't rehash anything here. 

I also know that the amount of love I have surrounding me, being held strong by those around me as pulled me through this journey. 

With this in my heart, I am seeing small messages of love along the way. There was and never has been a doubt how much we loved each other. Perhaps its a trick of the eye, or that I am now looking out for it.. But I see hearts everywhere. Leaves, branches, shapes in the clouds and stones.. All unmistakenly in the shapes of hearts.

I choose to believe these are messages from Age. I choose to accept them as his way of giving me his blessing on my new path and as his farewell to me.

Todays heart was a stone, which was beside my boot when I stopped for a rest.

I'm carrying it now. Beautiful.. No?

To Santo Domingo de la Calzada

I am starting to sound like a broken record I guess. Another long hot day on ricky tracks with very little shade. However, the fountains were more plentiful and we ensured we stopped for lunch for over an hour.

Getting into the swing of the best times to chat with Michael and this - early evening for hom, midday for us, seems to work as the bars we stop at for lunch always have wifi.

The vinyards are no gone, replaced by sweeping plains of waving wheat. With the gentle breeze moving the heads, it ripples and shivers like a live animal. 

Some shots ftom today.. Me a few kms into the morning.. So happy to see the numbers go down.

The kids walk so well with one another. This is them going past a huge stack of hat.

Acrest spot with concrete chassis lounges.

The sweet sweet view of our next town ahead.

Lilly as the Saint Domingo Garcia and the rooster..

There is a legend in this town of the miracle of the rooster who was dwad and got up and criwed to prove the innocence of a man condemned to die . Ever since, the cathedral has had roosters inside it.. No kidding.. We paid six euros to see a rooster in a chicken coop in a cathedral.