18 June to Sobrado

I loved Sobrado the first time I came here. I walked around the complex imagining beautiful music being created here, even as water dripped from the walls that shone luminous with moss.

When I didn’t know if I would manage all the hills on the Camino Francés I picked this out as a place to spend some days if I needed to fill in time. When I was planning The Original Route From Almería, I had tacked on a week to the time I thought I needed to both serve as wiggle room in case something went wrong and hopefully for a few days to relax at the Sobrado Monastery at the end of the walk. How grateful I am to be here, having managed to walk all the way to Santiago and faster than expected. I am especially grateful that I am not here having had to “give up”/“downgrade plans”/accept even less than what I had hoped for. So grateful.

I love the hustle and bustle of Santiago, of pilgrims arriving, of people meeting up, of tourists, of interesting places to eat…and indeed today as I wandered around I kept bumping into people I had spent some time with – a young guy who compared his three month walk from his home in Switzerland to his time doing compulsory military service, an empty nester van dweller from Texas, a bubbly expressive engaging young Italian girl….these ones stopped to chat for a while – a few others just exchanged smiles of recognition. And the DutchKiwi couple sent me their ETA so I was waiting with video in hand to capture them walking into Plaza Cervantes…

…where they were going to become part of our family tradition and celebrate at Casa Manolo.

However, after waiting in the queue for over an hour and a half and with time running out before I needed to get to the bus station, we decided to relinquish our place and go elsewhere.

I made it to the bus just in time, which in turn delivered me to Sobrado just in time to attend vespers…

…and by the time I’d had a shower, done a great pile of washing and eaten dinner just before 9pm, I managed to just catch Compline.

Then I was in for a real treat. I felt I’d been rushing through the afternoon and here I was at the monastery, but was going to have to wait until tomorrow to go into the magnificent church…except that the iron gate to the cloister that leads to the church was still open despite a sign saying it would be locked at 9pm. So I went for a wee visit. No one else was there. I felt very small in the enormous space. A little song left my lips and echoed around and grew in volume, bouncing off the walls which are no longer green – it was such a special few minutes.

While I enjoy Santiago, for now, I am very content to be out in the countryside, soaking up the ambience of a place created for worship through service, and simply resting. How fortunate I am.