Mountains = calm + exhileration

The night before we left Leon, we were blessed by nuns. The verdict is still out on whether nuns are actually happier or more peaceful than your standard Bridge group or Bingo bunch. From what I´ve seen so far, I don´t think so. In the States, the Red Hat Ladies are much more joyful... the convent should take notes. The nun that gave us the blessing was super cute, though, and she made sure to emphasize (in Spanish, to a group of international pilgrims) that the camino is a spiritual journey and not a tourist experience. They separated the men and the women by a floor and locked the door at 10pm just to remind us.

On our way out of the city, we could finally see mountains in the distance. There´s something about being surrounded by mountains that alters my mental and even physical state. I feel more calm - like I´ve just crawled into bed and pulled my comforter around me after a tough day. There´s also a touch of exhileration in not knowing what´s on the other side. Maybe it was the nuns´ blessing or the plate of protein-filled tapas we´d eaten, but I think it´s most likely that the mountains caused my sudden spurt of energy as we left. I was actually excited to be walking again.

Looking through the blog, I realized that I haven´t written much about the landscape or our actual time walking. That´s partly because so many thoughts run through my head during the day that it´s hard to distill them at the end. I also like leaving that bit a mystery so you´ll think I´ve been having cathartic experiences and not just making up songs about Tio Pepe and Silver Fox. (Insert photo of Luke making a thumbs up in front of Silver Fox HERE). I do have to tell you about the wildflowers, though.

The red poppies are my favorite because they´re so resilient. They pop up out of concrete, between barley, and sometimes take over entire hillsides. There are also these yellow bushes that line the paths and almost emanate enough perfume to cover the smell of sweaty pilgrims. We´ve seen fields of daisies that look like snow... O.K., I´ll stop and just add pictures here because it´s too hard to avoid cliches.Maybe that´s why I haven´t written much about the landscape. Seriously, though, we´ve been walking through nature-calendar land.