We Wake and Smell Coffee, Walk and Smell Roses, Step Without Looking and Smell Sheep Doo

John MacKay, here flanked by Sandy
(note the hairdo) and Jeanne. John joined
us beginning at Puente la Reina.

Villamayor de Monjardin is one of those precious places on the Camino that is so full of character -- the character of our Dutch Evangelical hosts, the character of the rambling albergue, and the character of this castle town itself. Up behind the modern town, at the top of the conical peak are ruins of the Castillo de San Esteban. Next Camino, we vowed, we'll scramble up the peak and walk through the ruins looking for arrowheads and pottery shards and imagining the battles and romances seen by this castle over the centuries.


The group's spirits were livened after hearing that Castillo de Monjardin wine is available in Seattle. We agreed to stop by the Champion Wine Store just down from the church to make certain to get a sentimental bottle of our own.

Shepherd friend and his flock leave tailpipe emissions
but win our hearts with their nagging happiness.

After taking the access road down from Villamayor we walked along very pleasant, uninhabited countryside filled with vineyards. It was before Los Arcos that we had to step off the path for a shepherd and his 4-500 sheep (plus a few goats). The Camino doubles as a sheep highway sometimes, since it's off the roadways and inhabited only by pilgrims who, like us, are delighted by the distraction. No sheep seems to be able to walk very far without a conversation of happy nagging. With hundreds of sheep in this flock it sounded like a high school cafeteria on pizza day. Once the sheep passed, though, we realized that they left a trail of STE (Sheep Tailpipe Emissions) nearly impossible to step around. 

Knights Templar Church at Torres del Rio, our stop for
the night. Greta sang in the beautiful acoustic before dinner.

The sunshine which had blessed us most of our Camino was, as predicted, replaced by rain. By the time we got to Los Arcos we'd been drenched by a series of strong showers. These were not Seattle-style showers, but tropical in their intensity. Each of us grabbed our nearest Gore-Tex everything (jackets, pack covers, ponchos) and the puddles mixed with STE meant a certain fragrance to our boots. At Los Arcos we stood under the arches of the Iglesia de Santa Maria de los Arcos to let a squall pass and, to our good luck, a priest with a key passed by. We wouldn't be in town for the daily pilgrim mass at 7:00, so it was a treat to see the inside of this ornate and exquisite church building.


We caught lunch at the cafe/bar just across from the church, then turned right and left the city by its medieval city gate, crossing the Rio Odron toward Torres del Rio, this night's goal. As we left Los Arcos we looked left to the portico above the cemetery entrance which when translated reads, "You are what I once was and will be what I am now." With that cheery thought we ticked off the 7 kms to Torres del Rio at a lively pace.

Elissa and Jackie at a park in Torres del Rio.

This little, medieval town is a perfect pilgrim stopover. With its quaint, stone houses and 12th century Knights Templar church -- the Iglesia de Santo Sepulcro -- we felt we'd stepped back into time. After the church opened in the evening we returned and asked Greta to sing some hymns for us in the beautiful acoustic. She sang Amazing Grace, which carried our thoughts to God's forgiveness and goodness. We thought of our faith, based on images and ideas that here seem a million miles away. But we realized that, through Jesus, we share a common bond with the Knights Templar who built this church 800 years ago. With those thoughts in mind it was off to another albergue bunk to rest for the road ahead.
(Our stop at Torres del Rio completes the total distance equivalent our Cyber Pilgrims walked in Week 1. We'll stay in Torres until our group posts more mileage on Monday. Remember to send your totals for Week Two to Greta by then. Thanks, pilgrims!)

Day 5 - Cyber Pilgrims Meet to Evaluate their Camino and Plan Ahead

Beautiful Villamayor de Monjardin, the village and winery
located at the base of a castle-topped peak.

Tonight's dinner at Villamayor was an unusual treat. Team John invited Team Charles to dinner at its albergue, a rustic and rambling building set above the village square, owned by a group of Dutch evangelicals. Before the meal a hospitalera (a volunteer at the albergue) offered an extended prayer of thanksgiving in English. She assigned a discussion question to the diners and then invited everyone to return to the dining hall for a chapel service just before bedtime. We discussed the question, "How have we heard the voice of God on the Camino?" and also caught up on each others' stories from the previous two days. After dinner our whole Seattle group went down to the cafe/bar to think ahead about our timing, our pace, our togetherness, and the Camino itself.

Over the last five days we've covered about 75 miles. The territory has been lovely and lush with greenery. The camaraderie has been close and the pace has been a challenge. We came to the agreement that, rather than a race between teams we would have a gentle walk, staying in touch with each other, sharing our evolving stories, and relaxing into a sustainable pace. 

Our journey to date. View Cyber Pilgrimage in a larger map

We also had a long talk about practical matters like how to care for blisters (more on that tomorrow), how to stay hydrated, whether we should trust the abundant fuentes (fountains) along the way, and our feelings about unisex bathrooms, common in Europe but a novelty for Americans. As we talked, we realized how much we enjoyed our togetherness.

After our conversation we headed back to Team John's albergue for chapel and enjoyed a few moments in prayer and contemplation on the meaning of the Camino. We Seattleites prayed for people back home, and one in particular -- a member of our church who was convicted today of a serious crime. News photos show he was sent away in handcuffs to jail and looks ahead to 31-41 years of prison. We prayed for him, his family, the victims of his crime, and for his many friends at our church who love him, are sad for him, and will miss him.

Off to bed in our two albergues for some blog-writing and then a morning walk to Torres del Rio, together as a group. The only bad news in the whole day is the weather report for tomorrow: "Rain."

70's Hit "Reunited" Becomes Official Ringtone of Cyber Pilgrimage

Refurbished medieval bridge over Rio Saldo near Lorca.

The man serving coffee at our morning rest stop in Cirauqui looked oddly at us, then asked a question in Basque-accented Castilian, "¿Son ustedes los Americanos de Seattle?" "Sí," we replied, and after digging around at the cash register he produced a handwritten note from Team John that read, "If only you'd trained better you'd be with us tonight at Villamayor de Monjardin!"


Our compañeros had thrown down the gauntlet -- if we wanted to keep up we'd need to pull a 30 km day and make it to the hill town of Villamayor, that lovely village that sits on a castle-topped peak overlooking the green vineyards of the lush valley below. 


Fortunately that morning we'd left early from Puente La Reina. After walking back down the hill towards town as though we would recross the six-arched Romanesque bridge, we turned right just before the bridge and found a yellow arrow to guide us back onto the Camino. Puente La Reina was an example of what many of us had come to Spain to see --  a Spanish town that still bears the marks of the Camino, in which a person can squint their eyes shut and easily imagine themselves 800 years in the past. 


We said our goodbyes to the medieval town and walked the sidewalk to the outskirts of the village, then headed on a gravel path past the ruins of Monasterio Bogota to the village of Mañeru. There we entered what clearly is Spanish wine country, or more correctly, wine-olive country. The rolling hills of this region hold vineyard after vineyard, punctuated by ancient olive groves. The vista ahead, of the well-preserved medieval hill town of Cirauqui, offered a romantic moment as we realized we'd left West Coast USA far behind.

Dana and Greta exercising temperance
at Bodegas Irache near Estella

After our morning coffee and note-reading from Hasty Team John we settled into our walking pace for the day. Though it was tempting to take the N-111 road out of Cirauqui, a much more direct route to Lorca, we opted to follow the Camino as marked and were delighted to cross the Rio Salda over a medieval stone bridge. The villages of Lorca (where we stopped to do our pilgrim shopping at La Bodega del Camino) and Villatuerta passed by before noon. We set our sights for Estella, wondering if we'd stop there or if we'd have enough energy to meet the challenge of Villamayor.


I regret to say that we rushed our way through the treasures of Estella. The Palacio de los Reyes de Navarra (now an impressive museum) and the Church of San Pedro de la Rua were hours-long visits that we crunched into only a few minutes each. We lunched at an outdoor cafe at the Plaza de los Fueros, tanked up our water bottles, and picked up the Camino across the bridge from the Plaza. By now we'd walked 22 kms and realized an additional eight kms on tired feet would be required if we were to meet Team John at Villamayor.

"...and it feels so good."

Just out of town we shared in another pilgrim delight. For years the Bodega Irache winery has offered free wine to passing pilgrims. Fortunately, Dana had a cup with him and we passed it among us as we marveled at the winery's hospitality. After a few sips our group was noticeably more cheery than before, and after Ayegui the last few kilometers to Villamayor slipped easily by. We climbed the steep sidewalk into Villamayor and found our albergue, only to discover -- no Team John. But when Erin Elaine headed to the little alimentación (store), we could hear a squeal of delight all the way back at the albergue. Erin had spotted Jackie and Alison! Team John was in town, at the other albergue, and was stunned and impressed to see the resurgent Team Charles pull even again. Our cyber pilgrim group was Reunited!