Doing great today. So happy to have a day off and the albergue I´m in lets you stay all day. We all decided to stay here another night then we all go our separate ways tomorrow.
I think I´m meeting a Czech friend for lunch today and then I´m going back to St James´ grave to pray for everyone. nteresting thing to note: St James is represented 3 ways in Spain — as the apostle, as a pilgrim, and as the moorslayer who aided catholics in reclaiming Spain from the Muslims in the 1100s. The latter incarnation usually shows him horseback with a whip or sword, trampling screaming Arabs. Nice, huh?

Well, one of the statues in the church has placed a LARGE floral arrangement at the base of a statue representing this very scene, so the muslims aren´t visible. The guys were impressed that I knew that — and you could see them behind the greenery if you looked hard. Whitewashing history doesn´t change it.

I´m mostly rested and getting myself psyched up to leave for Finisterra tomorrow. So many of my peeps are going to see it by bus today, I feel a little left out. That said, I´m really looking forward to the solitude and quiet of walking solo. The last 5 days of walking were like a moving party with so many pilgrims (locals especially) joining at Sarria, that I long for stretches of nothing and no one. There are fewer albergues along this stretch, but as long as I get an early start, I should have a bed.