After the Olvidado, and walking an interesting, solitary, often challenging and always surprising Camino in North West Spain –

So the twists and turns continue, but another sort of moving through. Organising where to sleep and eat is easier and there is no arrow chase ( following the path). Communication is easier. But now there are different discoveries.

Train and bus travel, for example, has its own set of learnings:

Book early

Get onto the right platform and into the correct carriage (or you may find yourself somewhere unplanned )

Move on and off very fast ( Spanish trains do not wait).

Carefully navigate the steep, wide gap between train and platform.

Yesterday in Ourense we sauntered to the train station to book the train to Salamanca for the following day. Surprise. Nothing for another 2 days. Off to bus station. Yes said the grumpy guy behind the one office open on a Saturday afternoon “ Diez y Cinco “

A la noche ? Just a sort of what else and a mutter back ( four and a half hours arriving at 3.am)

Anyway after more discussion with the much nicer train woman we managed to get the train this morning as far as Zamora and bussed from there. So here we are in another beautiful city just about to go and find one of the many plazas, and a wine, or beer. And watch,

In the meantime there is lots to keep me engaged:

The unexpected: last night in Ourense I opened the door of a small church just off the main plaza to hear sweet pure voices chanting and there in front of the altar was a mass of whiteness, the nuns in prayer. After a while one of them came forward, veil over her face, and unlocked the fence separating nuns from the rest of the church. She resumed her seat and in walked the priest. He moved to the altar and took out the gold monstrance (a vessel in which the concentrated host is displayed during certain ceremonies, in this case an Exposition of the Sacrament). A short ceremony while nuns chanted and sang. Then off the priest went and the gate was locked again. So young, such sweet voices.

We had drinks on the the small plaza next door, and they were still there later.

Thermal springs in Ourense. All along the Mino river are the Termas, most of them free. You can fling yourself into the cold water and then make your way back to one of the warm baths in the rocks.

Market on Sunday morning in the Plaza. The books are the same as in any second hand book stall: Grisham, Cornwell,Travel and Memoir, the Lucy Walker type Romances, the Twilight trilogy, Kama Sutra, Self help books and classics: Dickens, Austen, Hemingway. Just all in Spanish.Some interesting poetry, but one I fancied was an old book and €20. So I ended buying a €2 title. First paper book have had for 5 weeks

The Bike Rally we walked into the same morning , next to the Sunday Market.The Main Street was closed off and the area was packed with families on their bikes. There was a long build up to a family cycle circuit it seemed while toddlers walked their small bikes towards stairs and older children did wheelies, Much falling off and crying and laughing from adults. Finally everyone up took off led by guys in motor bikes,

It’s the daily life that is most interesting , and maybe that’s always the case: churches and rituals, markets, bike rally. And , of course, Food. Last night in Ourense I had grilled vegetables and pulpo

Most of all I love sitting with a coffee or glass of wine and watching and listening to this Spanish world go by. How lucky I am to be here, now.

Underneath all this, though, an underlying life is reassembling . We’re speaking to family at home more now as the phone connection is better, off the mountains, and I find myself looking at family photos. I try to hold the home stories at a bit of a distance, where they actually are, I cannot rush in physically. But I still nearly move in emotionally. The walking keeps all this at bay. But maybe it’s time to get back into that familiar world .

The After – Story: it’s a winding down from the main adventure. Gradually life at home sifts through the layer of doing and seeing and experiencing; the quietude becomes less steady.

There’s a different sort of holding on now. A consciousness of a goodbye and a letting go . I feel rather like Max in my favourite children’s story Where the Wild Things Are

After his magic journey, home called and he

“…. sailed back over a year

and in and out of week

and through a day

and into the night of his very.own room “

I will need my own room soon.

Spanish speak about ‘otra causas’, other things, vague. My vague other is slowly assuming shape and I think I’ll be wanting to return. Only not just yet.