This was our last day, from Pescene to Tui, just across the border in Spain. Another four or fove days and we’d be in Compostella, but we’d booked our return flights too soon to do the whole thing, so reluctantly we’re no longer pelegrinos, even in name.
In this tiny chapel
Nossa Senhora de Fatima’s
church-factory wanness
belies the peasant bluntness
of her messages, and
Nossa Senhora das Neves
gives us a glimpse of
her maternal implacability.
I started on another take on the John Bunyan hymn, but ran out of time, what with eating dinner at Spanish hours (no other diners had arrived at the restaurant when we left at close to ten o’clock, but it was clear the staff were expecting an influx) and the watching Die Hard on Spanish TV until well past midnight. SO that’s it from me as pilgrim poet. Thanks for the likes and encouraging comments.
Me fail? I fly! 
It’s been a privilege to log in each day and say something or other to add to your poetic musings – as a fellow “henro” (peregrino/pilgrim) – of the Buddhist 88-temple path albeit – but all to the exact same effect and brushing up against the myths/legends/religiosity!
Six days (or my own 32 days) – or however long – the doing is the reward – the memories last the rest of one’s lifetime. It is an achievement – whether for the effort, the spiritual dimension – merely being on a path, breathing in the Spring …Bravo! Brava!
Jim >
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Your comments have been one of the joys of the Caminho, Jim, an online supplement to the regular moments of fellowship IRL. I am completely in awe of your 32 days
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A further comment Jonathan – with reference to April 14 and Nos Ossos – I meant to reply at the time to the exchange between you and Lisa Hill – now because of the way WordPress seems to be refusing me proper access – here – it is:
Jonathan – as you might recall – I was raised a fundamentalist Protestant. Our pastors would return from travels – we’d sit through longer or shorter evenings of slide presentations. One I recall – I was about 15 – so over a half-century ago – showed us the Capuchin Church/Chapel near the bottom of the Via Veneto in Rome – every part of the church crypt – and its various chapel divisions – was decorated with the holy bones of past priests and friars. Arrangements of bones forming chandeliers, walls stacked with skulls and so forth. I remember the collective shudder at this hideousness – but eight years on and several years escaped from the tut-tutting of my upbringing I was in Rome for my first visit (late 1972) – I sought out the church – at the foot of the Via Veneto (not pronounced Veneeto – rather the stress on the first syllable and as in “fetch”) and with more objective reference found it quite moving.(Google it!) Why should those bones not be sanctified by the lives their “owners” had led – of service to God! When in Rome last year in September I poked my head in the church – but felt no urge to pay money to see the crypt again. >
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LOL In three weeks we failed to adjust to Spanish eating hours. We gave up and took to two meals a day, breakfast and a good lunch as late in the afternoon as we could wangle it.
Anyway, congratulations on your walk, I’ve enjoyed these posts!
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Yes, we couldn’t adjust to Spanish eating hours either… after a full day of sight-seeing we didn’t have the energy… but fortunately we usually found places that served food earlier.
Thanks for your posts.
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Thanks for commenting, Sue. I didn’t mention that the restaurant where we ate turned out to have a bar out the back – with another entrance. It was doing a roaring trade, where I assume people were eating tapas to tide them over until the real meal. Last time we were in Spain we were invited to dinner by some locals in Grenada. After dinner, well after 10 o’clock, they took us on a walk around the Arab quarter, and then dropped in on our hostess’s mother, AT ONE O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING. The elderly woman didn’t seem to find it odd at all.
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Haha, Jonathan, love that story.
But actually, you’ve reminded me of what we did, we’d have tapas for dinner. That suited us fine given we’d break up our sightseeing with lunch and morning and afternoon coffee/snack breaks, so didn’t need full-on meals in the evening.
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