Author: cpcrowley

I’ve started taking photos of confessionals when we go into churches. Up to now they were the “open” kind where the priest is inside the center box with a sliding window on each side. The confessee kneels on the side. This was the only kind I saw from Saint Jean to Burgos.

In a church in Burgos I finally found the kind I am used to where the confessees are also enclosed in a box.

But wait, let’s zoom out.

Hey Burgos, what with all the sinning?

I grew up Catholic and when into those boxes many times, always on a Saturday so I could take communion on Sunday. Or do you receive communion? I forget. But I did not forget what you said when the priest slid the slider open:

“Forgive me father for I have sinned. My last confession was (well, let’s see, hmm…) 63 years ago. My sins are: …”

I just checked with Claude and it says the second part is “It has been [length of time] since my last confession” and it used the word “penitent” where I have been using “confessee” which is probably not a real word.

Another confession: I never confessed all my sins. Somehow masturbation never made the list. Even at age 13 I was aware of the irony of lying to the priest at confession. On the other hand the “get out of jail free” aspect of the whole confession thing always appealed to me.

The bars are one of our favorite things about Spain. Each one is different and it is always an adventure to see what the next one will bring. And, of course, we love the cafe con leche’s.

I don’t think of the Catholic Church as a leader in marketing innovation but check this out. 50¢ for five candles, 1€ for 10, and 2€ for a whopping 20 candles. I dropped in a euro and behold, let there be 10 lights.

Kinda fun too. Try that with real candles! Well, I guess you could just light ten of them but somehow it seems kind of piggy with real candles.

In Belarado they have dozens of these in the sidewalks. Each one is for someone who was important in the history of the Camino. Martin Sheen was the only one we recognized.

From the web: The Paseo del Ánimo in Belorado, Spain, is a 2008 public art project on the Camino de Santiago featuring bronze tiles with handprints, footprints, and signatures of notable figures who supported the pilgrimage.

We just read there was one for Emilio Estevez as well, but we missed seeing that one. Of course Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez were there about then making the movie The Way.

We have about 30 pounds of stuff. We send about 25 of that in a pack that is transferred by a service, Jacotrans, to our next hotel. This makes the walk so much nicer. This is our second year to take advantage of this kind of service.

We put an AirTag in our bag so we can see where it is and can find our hotel by going to the AirTag.

When we went on our first camino in 2013 this was pretty unusual but it is very common now. Here are the bags that were waiting to be picked up this morning from our hotel.

This was actually an albergue where we had a private room so it is mostly packs. When we are in a proper hotel it is mostly suitcases (or “grips” as some people in Minnesota called them).

We’ve been transferring every day and so far, it’s worked flawlessly.

Our yard in Duluth Minnesota when I was growing up had lilac bushes and I have always loved lilacs. We have some in Albuquerque but they bloom when we are on our spring Camino, except for this year when they bloomed before we left.

We have seen lots of them along the way. A few times I have seen the rarer white lilacs which is always a thrill. Here we have the white and lilac colored together.

We were passing by some white lilacs this morning with a guy tending them. I pointed and said “blanco” and he said “white” and then said “15 days”. They do have a short season.

We saw these three stopping at a bar this morning and noticed the colorfully painted shells and the interesting walking pants. They were speaking French. It would be rude to take their picture in the bar but, from behind, after they pass us? Why not?

We were speculating what adjective would describe her pants. Bloomers didn’t seem quite right.