An intimate view

Our original plans called for us to rest on Lord's day each week.  Well, frankly, the original plans were as unrealistic as say things like "The end of history" or "Instruments that take the risk out of investment".  We have stayed at more pension or posado than originally planned.  We have walked different stages than originally planned.  So in keeping with dropping 'original plans', we decide on a short day and a long afternoon of rest at a monastery that we've heard has an albergue for peregrinos.  It is only 10-12K away.
The walk is euphoric.  Pete and I chew on theology, sex, politics, family, church, and 60's TV.  We sing.  We laugh.  We pray aloud thankful to be alive and walking through the Spanish countyside.
A walking tour is an intimate view of a place.  You come slowly upon a village, seeing it across the valley.  It goes out of view at a turn of the road against the side of a hill.  It comes back into view again as you cross the bridge on the valley floor.  As you walk through the village the houses are close to the narrow lanes.  Laughter, television, arguments,and the sounds of life pour out in 5 second bursts as you pass.  The tavern owners greet their customers by name (or not--grumps live in Spain too).  The bread truck delivers baguettes in the morning like the milkman of my youth.  Some houses, no most houses are adorned with well tended roses and other flowers.  Apartment balconies drip with potted plants.  In houses with yards we see lemon, fig, and apricot trees.  The figs and apricots aren't rip yet, but lemons are hanging in their hundreds, huge and yellow.  In a backyard next to the Camino a fellow with a large scythe is cutting his grass.  He wishes us 'Buen Camino' and we stop for a chat.  He has a trellesed vine we've never seen.  Our pigdin Spanish meets his pigdin English, and we think he is growing kiwi.  We conversed about his lemon trees and how he used the abundance of fruit.  We chatted about life and the Camino and took our parting: intimacy available to all, you just have to leave the car.