Today we walked a hair under 20 miles.  After our incredible restful stay in Leon for 3 nights we have a 2 night stay in Astorga, a much smaller but quaint little town in the foothills of what will be the biggest challenge on the trek.  In a day or two we start climbing and I believe we have 5 days in the mountains before we drop back down and head into Camino de Camposteles.  I think everybody is anxious to get past this part because we are under no illusions; it’s going to be hard.  But after weeks of walking the Guide says we are all a lot stronger than when we started and the 3 night stay in Leon back to back with this two night stay in Astoria will hopefully give us the rest we need to make the final leg of this crazy “what in the hell am I doing here” journey.  I’m going to post a few pics and videos but the real story will probably have to wait until I get home; there is simply so much that I’ve seen and experienced I simply don’t have the time here to put it on the Blog.  It’s 3:25 am and I woke up from a bad dream so I’m hoping a little story telling will help me go back to sleep.  Keep in mind that what you are about to see could very well be out of sequence and there are huge gaps in between.  There was a 3 or 4 day period when all the video I shot was bad because the winds were too strong and it drowned out my voice.  Frankly they are just annoying to try and watch unless you mute them and then they make no sense.  Hey, just a quick question; how many of you ordered the Poop Pouch for your dog?

Donkey
Going to hell
Stained Glass Cathedral
Reading with Gaudi
Gaudi House
The Girls

I am in awe of these two women.  One from Australia, the other from Canada, they only met on the Camino; both are 76 years old.  There are days when I honestly cannot keep up with them.  Seriously.  I’m getting my ass kicked by two 76 year old women!!!!  They are a crack-up

Just a couple of random videos from the many, many pieces that I have shot. A taste of what will come when I have time.   

For my family members we can all breathe a sigh of relief.  I have found the Mother of Donkey.  You see, 30+ years ago a broken plastic donkey showed up on our lawn.  My Mom refused to throw Donkey out and, instead, he became a fixture on her deck.  After Mom died it just seemed natural that he be given  proper burial so I tossed him into one of the dumpsters we used to clean out the house.  But, to honor Donkey and my Mother’s Donkey (stubborn) personality, all of the family members in or near Chula Vista have a wood donkey.  But now we know Donkey’s lineage.  A hardware store outside of Leon, Spain.  RIP Donkey.

 

 

Jumping ahead to Leon.  This is just a small part of the detail above the entrance to the Cathedral there.  (Left) This is the part depicting what Hell is like.  Note that there is some creature getting ready to eat or do something awful to the naked man he’s holding.  I think if you look closely you can see somebody else head just below the man that is probably about to lose his as well.  I’m sorry if this offends anyone but if religion needs this kind of graphic, awful, imagery to tell its story then maybe its a story that shouldn’t be told.  If I had more room I would show you a picture of the people in heaven.  They are smiling and listening to Harp music.  Really?  If I had my choice between an eternity of Harp music and having my head eaten, I might choose the latter.

Keep in mind that this is just a TINY little part of the archway over the doorway going into the cathedral.

Back when this was carved (over 1,000 years ago) most people didn’t read so stories were told with imagery and statues.  In Spain statues were the medium of choice.  I’m guessing the guy that did this had trouble sleeping afterwards.

There’s also the statue inside the Cathedral showing somebody shoving a sharp instrument into the rib cage of Jesus as he hung on the cross.  As if the guy wasn’t in enough pain.  Actually, I believe that, as the story goes, Jesus refused to die so they had to kill him.  Nice.  Just the kind of Dogma I would want my children to grow up with.

 

The Catholic Cathedral wasn’t all bad.   In fact, some of the work there was truly breathtaking.  This picture is just one of many large stained glass windows, some of them dating back to the the 12th, 13th, 14th Centuries.  There was a gap during a change in taste that happened for 200 years then the stained glass windows were finally finished in the 19th century.  There is approximately 20,000 square feet of stained glass and it is magnificent.  Personally, I think if they had left the story telling to this level of beautification then maybe so many people wouldn’t have been hung up and had their guts cut out while they were still alive.  It’s no wonder I get anxiety attacks when I go into these places.  While they are truly magnificent pieces of architecture and art, there is also a lot of what I can only call pure evil.  For every beautiful piece of stained glass there are tens of thousands  of dead children and women.  I single them out because the Crusades did not.  Anyone was fair game.  Ironically Leon is such an old city that one of their heroes is a roman soldier that was killed in the 2nd or 3rd century for being Christian.  Then, a hundred years or so later, it became cool to be Christian so he died for naught. various religions around the world have left us with some magnificent buildings and art but as far as I am concerned, there was never any justification for the heinous acts they have all been responsible for and it continues to this day.  Anybody want to go see the Roman ruins on the coast of North Africa?  Uh, I don’t think so unless you want to have your head cut off.  

 

 

This is Gaudi and I (Left) drawing some sketches of the house he built in Leon for two families.  A rich friend of the family’s knew Gaudi so he convinced him to come up and build them a home.  I think it’s one of Gaudi’s best works (less wild) but, at the time it was shunned for being too modern.  The most unbelievable thing about this house is that he built it in one year.  ONE YEAR!  Remember that the next time you remodel your kitchen.