On a Sunny day on the Caminho
On a normal sunny day in Portugal we eat our dinner outside. It is an early dinner. Pilgrims love an early dinner, so they can sleep afterwards. Also we like to eat early, our daughter and we as well, can go to bed in time. The weather changes quickly when the sun sets, so most of the time, we go inside around 20:00 and even earlier when it gets cold.
Around dinner time nice conversations start and we hear some pretty special stories…
Caminho Couple
A woman sleeps at our place and she tells us her husband also walks the caminho. They call each other every day to exchange how it was and where they stay. Sometimes, they booked the same accommodation! At our place she slept alone in our casinha.
Coffee and Jam
This season a lot of American pilgrims stopped by. Some in the casinha but also just for a coffee. We always give the pilgrims coffee with some crackers and our home made jam. One day I had a friend over and two pilgrims wanted to drink some coffee. After a little chat I told them I had to go inside to my visitor. No problem. After their break they knocked on the door, and asked if I have jars of jam for sale… Hmm, yes, I showed him all jars on te table, and he like the small jar which could fit in his bag. The first jam sold to a pilgrim!
Father and Son
Very nice to walk with your family, a lot of quality time. Father and son were catching up, years of separation by a divorce made this caminho very special. They were both so relaxed. They didn’t book a bed or room. They slept outside when they were tired and then suddenly it was almost getting dark… At 20:00 they knocked on our door. Of course you can stay the night, but we already finished dinner. No worries, all was good. Instead of a talk during dinner, we talked at night.
Blind Pilgrim
A woman came to our house and asked if she could drink something. “Yes of course you can rest here”, I replied. She went away to the crossing of the Santiago road, to fetch her husband…
When she returned I saw that she was holding him, and they walked slowly to our patio. They walked more caminhos already. This one was the last one, the woman told us. Because her husband is blind now, and she helps him. But it was very heavy unlike all their other caminhos.
