Linda's shin was feeling better this morning, so we decided to hike from Rabanal del Camino to Molinaseca, about 26.5 km. It was drizzling when we left, but the sun was also out, and we saw a very vivid rainbow in front of us, so we took that as a good sign and continued on our way. One of the things we really wanted to do today was add our stones to the base of the Iron Cross. This is a cross that sits atop a wooden pole that is probably at least 30 feet tall. It marks the highest point for the entire part of the French Camino at 4,934 feet above sea level. Our book doesn't say how long this tradition of adding a stone has been going on, but you can see from the pile of rocks in the first picture that it's been quite a while. The picture is of the 2 of us adding the stones we each brought from our garden back home. Some people also left messages or little banners, or even pictures of loved ones.
The second picture is of the clouds that were up in the mountains (with the ever present wind turbines also along the ridge line on the right). It drizzled on us off and on, but nothing that required us to get our heavy duty ponchos out. The only thing was when the sun came out, then we would get too hot and have to take off some layers. When we left this morning, it was in the upper 50's, and I would guess that by the time we finished hiking around 5pm, it was around 80. And depending on the sun, wind and rain, it would vacillate anywhere between 10 to 15 degrees. But it was great to see everything green again. It hasn't been this green since our first few days on the Camino. And we also got to hear the sound again of cows, sheep and goats walking around with their bells on. It's really a great sound to hear. Very soothing. Some of the goats were so close to us that Linda video taped them. But due to network issues, I don't think I can post something that takes that much memory. You can ask Linda to see it when we get back :-)
The last picture is of the town of Molinaseca. Linda took this as we were entering the village. It seemed so picturesque we felt we needed to capture it. The bridge dates back to medieval times and is for foot traffic only, and the church in the background is from the 17th century. The whole town seems to be like stepping back in time a little bit (although I can attest that all of the facilities in our bathroom are up to date, including a fully enclosed shower area to minimize any water getting out). We're looking forward to having dinner outside next to the little river that runs through the town.
Two other little tidbits. First, today's hike started at 1,150 meters (to get an estimate on what that is in feet, multiply by 3). We then climbed to 1,505 meters, and by the end of the day we had descended to 610 meters. So today was a lot of up and down, with more downhill than up hill, and both Linda and I think downhill is harder. So we should sleep well tonight. Second, we had an interesting experience last night. We attended a Benedictine Mass, and 90% of the service was in Gregorian chants. And to make things even more interesting, about half of those chants involved congregation participation. And to top it all off, all of the chants were in Latin!! It was written down for us (with an English translation as well), but it was still very challenging. Linda has had some practice with Latin from being in choir, but I'm sure I butchered over 90% of the words. Still, it was interesting take part in a service like this with the chanting, and even more interesting to participate.
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