12 May, Logrono to Leon, The Day of Disorientation

Is it true that you only really appreciate something when you lose it ? Today we left the Camino de Santiago for a few hours to take a bus from Logrono to Leon. This had always been the plan because we have only three weeks and at our pace it would take 6 or 7 weeks to complete the 796 km walk from St Jean Pied de Port. We had wanted to start in France at the traditional beginning of the ´Camino Frances´Pyrenees and to end in Galicia so that we could visit Felipe´s family there again. When I read the _Camino Footsteps_ by Kim and Malcolm Wells, I came across the idea of jumping across the meseta - the long, flat unsheltered section between Logrono and Leon.

Other people I talked to suggested that it might be better to start the walk closer to Santiago to do it in one go because in that way you end up moving in a loose caravan of people, such camaraderie being part of the experience. One woman with a lot of experience warned that everyone meets a special person on the Camino and that if you jump around you might literally mess up the timing of that opportunity.

After 9 days on the path and a lovely morning strolling along the arcades of Logrono - a bit like Rue de Rivoli in Paris - and a tortilla sandwich at the Cafe Moderne, we headed for the ALSA bus depot. As we waited in line I discussed our destination with the girls and realised that rather than going to Burgos, described as a ´´veritable architectural jewel´´as planned, it might be better to go all the way to Leon so that would have two nights in one place...
´Mum, we´ve already seen a lot of churches!´´
´But this one is extraordinary, the finest Gothic...
´´Mum,
´So look out the window as we go, don´t play on my iPhone so you see the countryside we are passing through¨.

Burgos was the one town I wanted to visit but we did pass the Cathedral when we drove through. I or we can come back another time to walk the middle section ofthe Camino Frances. Most Spaniards do it in stages over a number of years, often just a week at a time. And a German man we met in Orisson, Werner, had been doing 3 week stages from Germany for a couple of year. He told us that he would finish in Logrono this time and come back in the European Autumn to finally reach Santiago.

Even though I read my guide by John Brierley as we drove across 10-12 days of walking in 4 hours, I had a visceral sense that I was losing my way: losing the yellow shell markers and the notion of being in an amorphous flow of people heading over time and space to the same destination. This is the experience of pilgrimage and whether one is doing it for religious reasons or not, it is an intensely human experience: the goodwill encountered along the way, the connection with nature and learning that it is possible to cross large distances on foot by taking a section every day, step by step. My legs were remembering my childhood on the Northern beaches of Sydney where the public transport was minimal and we walked alot especially in the holidays: the 8-10 km from Newport to Palm Beach and back in a day was not unusual.
Luna and Rosa can´t quite believe when we look at the map of Europe that they have walked so far : from France through Pamplona to Logrono, the red line is about 4 cm long!

As Luna and I walked from Irache to Los Arcos the day before, Luna told me that she´d read in a book that Australians are known for just jumping in and doing things...she found that interesting. We are meeting people from all over the world every day and play geography games as we go. Rosa´s current favourite is the capital city game. She is becoming adept with European and Asian countries so we have to imagine African and South American boundaries. Conceptually a border is one thing but when you actually walk along the barbed wire fence and cross a cattle grid from France to Spain it takes on a material significance. In Spain, there are the autonomous regions (14 I think) and we have walked through Navarra and part of Rioja, will bus across most of Castilla y Leon and walk through Galicia. In the mornings we find a nice ambulatory rhythym as we go through the times tables: moving ahead for Rosa and timely revision for Luna.

In Leon, Luna and I are returning to the hotel we stayed in with Felipe in 2000 - they had a special offerta on the Internet and it was too good to resist - from the memories of two year old Luna playing in the fountain to the discovery that it was originally built as a hospital for pilgrims in the 12th century. We arrive 1,000 years later for 2 nights of rest and respite to prepare for the 2nd stage of our journey: the 11 day walk to Santiago from Astorga. In Leon, we ffind and follow the bronze shells embedded in the footpath through the city, past the extraordinary cathedral and Gaudi extravaganza - even Luna admits that the stained glass in the ´´high gothic´´ Cathedral is beyond anything she could have imagined. Again despite themselves, the girls are over-awed in the shaded silence of San Isidoro, the 11th century Basilica church.

All afternoon, Rosa has been complaining about a headache but we don´t take much notice. I thought it was probably just an allergy to cultural history but as we start looking for a Tapas bar for dinner, I put my hand on her forehead. She´s on fire.