Mark

After a great breakfast and a special blessing by our host (an individual prayer for each of us), we said goodbye to this special pilgrim house…

…and walked out onto the asphalt sidewalk.

Our first stop was the grocery store to stock up with two days of supplies  because tomorrow is Sunday. This is pretty boring but here is our grocery trip inside one of the larger grocery chains here.

After we left the grocery we walked on the asphalt paved pathway which was occasionally interrupted by crossing an asphalt paved street. In each town we exchanged the asphalt for asphalt of a different shade of grey before returning to small stretches of more asphalt. Finally after 6km of straight asphalt we emerged from an asphalt paved village to yet another 9.5km of asphalt. It was a glorious morning.

The monotony however allowed me to contemplate deep subjects such as:

“Who decided to pave this whole path with asphalt?”;

“Oh, this asphalt is bumpier than that other asphalt.”;

“Man am I tired of asphalt.”;

and

“Well, at least it’s flat and there is nothing special to see.”

Like I said, “It was a glorious morning.”

Exactly at km 15.5 the path turned to gravel. This was such a change that Mark felt moved to kiss the ground.

Exactly at km 16.2 it returned to asphalt. I was ecstatic.

After a glorious 900ft of grass we were back on the asphalt until km 19 where the path turned to gravel for 3km. The day ended with another stint on asphalt, but our lodging village was in site at that point so it was ok.

Seriously though, the most significant thing that happened is that we crossed the Donau (Danube). Here is where the Roman boundary moved during the last centuries of the Empire. We are now South of the Danube.

At least the sky was much more interesting and dramatic than our walking path today. The sun and clouds were just beautiful.

We also saw this fun Bride-To-Be wagon.

Nadine here…

Well, until Mark mentioned the asphalt along the way, I was enjoying the ease of the path with Camino signs easy to spot and the route basically “paved” out for pilgrims!  (My brothers are going to be all over the place with that!)

We did come to a very steep hill that I had to stop on twice while Mark and Allison conquered the hill with ease. When I got to the top, Mark’s response was, “That was almost like the Alps”.  Oh My Word and Lord have Mercy.

I’m treasuring today because today has enough trouble (and blessing) of its own.  I’m thanking God for His presence when the day is long, hard, beautiful and even routine.  And I’m remembering my niece Jen’s mantra, “It’ll be fine”!

Allison here

We saw some fun sights along the way too. One place had a tiny bird barn of exotic birds next to the sidewalk. Of course we stopped and took pictures.

Our lunch today was interesting and probably resembled something a toddler would eat. We ate nutella on white bread with a side of salty corn chips and some cookies. So sugar and carbohydrates are all taken care of for a few hours, at least until dinner tonight when we intend to have Ramen.

Nadine here

I just want to add that we started out day with a breakfast of bread slathered in butter, honey and jam, yogurt with muesli, and fruit.  A few hours later a bakery stop with savory bread and pretzel (as that was the town’s speciality) and tonight we are having Ramen noodles with chocolate for dessert. 

So we were encouraged to try the food at the hotel at which we are staying.  So we ordered two meals to share and may or may not have our Ramen noodles tonight.