Camino de Santiago Portuguese - Day 7

Daily Overview

• Summary of the Day: .Today we’re camped out in a small apartment on a narrow street in the old town part of Viana do Castelo. What a beautiful old world city. In so many ways, it feels lost in time. Today is a rest day for us, meaning we won’t be walking. It feels funny to be taking the day off and, at the same time, seeing dozens of other pilgrims continuing on. It feels like we should be going with them, not hanging out here, but we promised ourselves that we would make time for rest. The one downside to taking a day off is that we will lose contact with the ones that we have seen off and on as we were walking, because they will now be a day ahead of us. We are looking forward to our son Jonathan coming to join us in several days to walk with us the rest of the way ( I hope he can keep up). Yeah, that was a joke. We’ve been coordinating with him on any last-minute details. Last evening we went grocery shopping at what turned out to be a pretty decent grocery store, although it was much smaller than what we are used to at home (think much smaller than a Food Lion), but it had most of what we were looking for: items to cover breakfast and some food for later tomorrow on the trail. We also wanted to go to the bank to have change made from the 50 Euro bills we brought because no one wants to make the change from them. It was after lunch, and the bank cashier said no, we cannot make change after noon. I just don’t know what to say.

  
  

  From there, we navigated our way to the Funicular (a rail car that goes uphill) to the Monte of Santa Lúzia. That was the highlight of our day. Stunningly beautiful views of the city and the surrounding countryside. We also took time to sit in the church, and that was wonderful and got some little souvenirs from the little store up there. Tomorrow we’ll be heading out early because we need to make it to Moledo, fourteen miles further on. That will be a long day for us, but sometimes you’re limited in what distances you need to go to find a place to stay,y and it was either a shorter distance tomorrow and a longer distance the next day or vice versa.

• What we planned to do: Today was a rest day from walking, and even though we didn’t accomplish everything else we wanted to do today, we did get our clothes washed ( more about that) and dried on the balcony, and that will keep us going for a few more days. So far, we have walked fifty miles in the last five days, and if we make it to Moledo tomorrow, we will have one hundred and ten miles to go to Santiago.

The Day's Focus

• Topic: Being recreated by God

  God is not going to leave you and me alone. No, I don’t mean alone as in by myself, I mean he won’t leave me alone or ever stop messing with us. He knows the beauty he placed within each one of us, and he is intent on seeing it established and put on display for all to see.

• Word for the Day: Beauty

• Scripture: James 1:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

• Spiritual Practice:  Make a list of the top five things that are driving you crazy at this moment and ask God how they are being used by him to bring you into a better place of maturity and not lacking anything.

Moments and Images

• Images from the Way Today: 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  
  
  

• Beautiful Spot of the Day: 

  

  The incredible view of the city and coast from the lower balcony of Monte de Santa Lúzia - The Church of the Sacred Heart

• Spiritual Meditative Moment: Sitting quietly for a long time in the Church of the Sacred Heart

  
  

• What Church We Visited: 

  We rode the “elevador” up to the top of the mountain to see the jewel of Viana do Castelo, Santa Lúzia, the Church of the Sacred Heart

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

• People we experienced: 

  A street musician in the square who asked me where we were from, and when I told him Virginia, he immediately started singing “Country Roads.”

• Unexpected Surprises: Having our debit card declined at the ATM this morning (even though we notified the bank before we left,) apparently someone in another country is trying to get money out of our account

• Animal/Nature or local:

  This bird is nonchalantly sitting on a chair beside us at the cafe, like he doesn’t have an agenda

Come here often?

Camino Portugues Video of the Day

The panoramic view from Monte de Santa Lúzia

Reflections and Learnings

• Reflections from Today: When my ability to function and navigate in the world is more dependent on my own experience and knowledge and ability than on God, I have crossed over into unsustainable territory.

• "Well, that was hard." Last week, when I was washing my socks while I was taking a shower (it seemed like the easiest thing to do at the time), it never occurred to me that a fully functional washing machine could, in fact, make things worse. We were pleased to discover that the little apartment we are in for two days has a washing machine in the kitchen, and we planned to wash some of our clothes first thing this morning. It was only when we tried to use it that we discovered that we had no idea what to do to make it work. We used Google Translate to read the controls, but still couldn’t figure it out. I’m convinced this washing machine must have come from another planet. When the dust finally settled a few hours later, our clothes were clean, but the emotional toll was taken. Next time, I’d rather wash my socks in the shower.

• "What helped me today": So many texts and comments of encouragement from friends and family

• "Something I learned: Restaurants in Portugal stop serving food between the hours of 3 pm and 7 pm. Apparently, no one eats during that time.

• "Insight for the day": Washing clothes in a foreign country is a more complicated enterprise than I ever fully imagined

• "Mystical occurrences": (Sandy) In the Church of the Sacred Heart, I felt like I was being covered and that something was being imparted to me.

Daily Conclusion

• Gratitudes (1–3 things I'm thankful for):

  Going to the top of the mountain

  Finding a place that served us lunch after hours

  Some time to rest