Down to the dam and then back up

Today's walk was on the very short side--around 20+- kms but it seemed much longer. Very little of the walk was on anything resembling flat ground. It was all up or down but very pretty.  So many wow moments. 

And here we are in the town of Grandas de Salime, whose 12 C church is very unusual. 

 

My knees, which had me a little worried all last year, performed more or less beautifully and I have no complaints. 

There are seven of us that have fallen into a comfortable group. We may or may not walk together but we always wind up at the same pre-arranged place and enjoy a good meal together. There's the Dutch-Spanish couple, a Venezuelan couple, a Basque father-son pair (for whom "joder, macho" is the currency of the realm, a wonderful twosome) and me. 

It's so funny how the camino throws together such different people, mixes us all up, and turns us into a congenial group who like each other very much. I am very lucky to have coincided with them and gelled with them, but I have to say that I'm not surprised.  This is just what happens on the camino. 

The other real joy of these walks is the chance to talk with the people who live here. Today we spent time with a couple of benches of the town's señoras, who ranged from about 45 to 95. The two on the right, friends since childhood and now both in wheel chairs, were the first to vote in today's national elections. 

One of them told me that the working class in Spain is just like some tree whose English name I don't know. The more you prune back the tree, the more it grows. The workers, she said, the more you abuse them, the harder they work and the more they produce. Her version had a few words not fit for polite company, so you can probably guess which side of the political spectrum she falls on. We heard a lot of local gossip and enjoyed ourselves immensely. 

Tomorrow we'll have a long stage, but nothing that these old feet of mine should have trouble with. Getting closer and closer every day!!