The walk today started under overcast skies. The road—steep at times—went up into the clouds. It led up to open pastures with herds of cattle and horses wandering on the road:
The night before, the albergue had a group dinner. There were about 60 people at three long tables, all ages and nationalities. Across the table from me is Massimo—more about Massimo later:
At the end of dinner, as was the tradition, people stood in turn, introduced themselves, and explained why they were walking the Camino. It was striking that none of the 60 people there mentioned faith as a reason for walking the Camino. Some made oblique references to faith—they were walking the Camino for a friend or relative. But no one directly mentioned faith.
Not that faith is gone from the Camino. First, there are the shells, an ancient symbol of the Camino because of their use in an early baptism important in the Camino’s history. (See the “History of St. James” page on this website.) Not everyone has a shell; but many do. And yesterday, while Anne and I were walking through the fog at the top of the Pyrenees, we caught up with a young woman, wearing black tights, hiking boots, and a black lycra jacket. Out of step with her modern dress, in her right hand, she held a brown wooden rosary. As she walked along, she recited the rosary. The Church has many portals to faith, most importantly the sacraments. But none are nearly as powerful as being in the presence of one who strongly believes.
After a long climb to the top of the mountain, the trail dropped sharply away from the road:
At the bottom of the trail was the monastery at Roncesvalles. Anne painted a picture of the monastery:
There is an albergue in the monastery, but like almost all albergues, people sleep in bunkbeds together in large rooms. Anne and I have decided to stay in hotels and pensiones, so we walked three kilometers down the road to Burguete, where we stayed in a hotel with a bar that Ernest Hemingway had frequented for some of his drinking:
It has turned cold and rainy. We are hoping that tomorrow brings better weather.
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