Daily routine and day off

The daily routine is up at 6am make coffee, hot water for tea and Bridget & I have upped the traditional breakfast of bread, chorizo, cheese to include yogurt, oatmeal with blueberries, cream cheese along with artisan bread and orange juice that we purchased at the local store. The “donativo” or donations for breakfast have soared and surprised the 4 priests. Night before they took in 100€ vs typical of 30€. We clean from 8:30 to 10am and have a 1 hour to get out before welcoming pilgrims at noon and show them to their rooms. At 5, there is optional sharing or reasons for doing the Camino and experience in which some heartfelt feelings come out and Father Daniel talks about the Camino experience. At 6:30 is Mass in the cathedral next store with Pilgrims blessing followed by dinner at 8pm in which Bridget and I again have added our stamp to with peach cobbler, caprise salad, sautéed mushrooms as well as smoked salmon appetizers. We close the doors at 10pm and hopefully everything settles for the night. Pilgrims start heading out around 6 am the next morning, but we find some have a hard time leaving before the 8:30am required our time. We had one guy who we let stay until 11am the other day. Some are physically hurting but an equal number are just emotionally drained. Many give thanks for the experience and many want hugs as they leave. Talking with the pilgrims at sharing and the communal dinners are the best. Many countries are represented with a fair number of Spanish, Americans, Koreans, Germans, Italians and a handful of others such as Perú, New Zealand.

We got our “day off” yesterday which means we left after breakfast and took the train to Leòn about 45min away. There was some kind of  Big Holiday yesterday with people dressed in groups wearing colored t shirts and moving from bar to bar. Very festive and loud. We toured the amazing cathedral there, in my mind better than Notre Damme.

Things progress with 8 more days. Sometimes seems like it too much, but we seem to be falling into the experience and enjoy the appreciation of the Pilgrims.