Unbelievable

Today is Tuesday and I arrived in Triascatela between 2 and 2:30. The albegue I had hoped to stay in was full, and so was my second choice. I found one that was not on any of my list and it turned out to be quite nice. It has a lodge feel to it and has a dining dining area as well as a separate room with several computers for internet. It may be the best albergue I have stayed in thus far. But what truly amazes me is taht yesterday when I was reviewing the stages I have left, I realized that I will be in Santiago on Sunday! Time has gone by so quickly, I thought I had a couple of weeks before I reached arrived. Unbelievable! If I leave a little ealrier thatn usual on Sunday, I should be able to arrive in Santiago in time to catch a morning worship service. I still can´t beleive that I am almost there. Once there, I will have the rest of Sunday to explore and will take Monday as a rest day to explore and manke travel arrangements for the return home. On Tuesday, I will head out for Finesterra (the End of the World), it should take me 3 day to get there. Once there, I will decide whether I will walk another day to Muxia, or take the bus. Today´s walk was begin with a steep uphill climb into O´Cebeiros, and as we were entering the province of Galicia, we were greeted by the famous Galician rains. To say the least, it was not an easy climb in the cold and the rain, and being so high up gusty winds. But it was worth it because having entered Galicia, we have entered the last province of the Camino, of which Santiago is the capital. The language here willbe differenct: in addition to Spanish, the people speak the Galician dialect which has some resemblance to Portuguese. It is also an area where many of the ancient non-Christian religious tradtions ahve survived. Subsequently, one see not only Christian artifacts beingsold, but a variety of others, of which I am not familiar. There is a strong sense ofhte mystical here in the region and culture aspects that have a strong Celtic flavor. I´m looking forward to my rest day in Santiago to explore the culture and food a bit more. I want to send up another prayer request. This one is for Martina who is from Holland. She is a heavy-et woman and has asthma and so the climbing presetns her with some difficulties. She would really like to make it to Santiago, so please keep her in prayer as she tries to manage her asthma whild negotiating the difficult climbs, high altitude, and probably more hot weather. Over the past several weeks, I have seen some incredible churches and cathedrals that are just magnificent to behold. It makes one wonder about the faith and dedication of the people of ancient times to have built such incredible structures, structures that are trully meant to glorify teh majesty of God. But despite all their beauty, there was another structure that impressed me even more. (Rob, if you´re reading this, I think you´ll understand.) The structure that imporessed me more than the churches was teh Castle of hte Templars. I must confess, I was totally blown away by the structure, not because it was in any way beautiful, only because it brought to mind every fantasy and adventure book I´ve ever read or film I´ve ever seen. I was reliving portions of Robin Hood, LOTR, Man in the Iron Mask; you name it, and as I went thorugh the castle, scenes from all of these went through my head! Waht can I say?!?