La Virgen del Camino Basilica
It was a very especial weekend in León, Spain. Gelo, Marjorie, and little Luis joined me. Gelo and Marjorie were married at St. Joseph 4 years ago. They have little Luis, who I baptized in Madrid. It was a true family reunion. We met at the Cathedral plaza, an little Luis recognized me as the day I baptized him. We walked around the city, and When Luis saw the tourist train, he wanted a ride of course! We ate in a local rest across the Cathedral and enjoyed a great conversation about married life, which is 180 degrees similar to priestly life, but 100% similar about negotiations in life. Any way, we laughed, and enjoyed our time together. At night we went for tapas. It was fun, difficult to find a place in any restaurant. The whole city came out to eat. After eating tapas, they went to their hotel, and I returned to my hostal in a different way. You know me, I wanted to see the other side! By that way, there was a great restaurant full of seniors. And I asserted, they have the best menu. I ordered callos and a drink. Three seniors next to me started a conversation with me about how good they were there, they ended ordering callos too.
I rushed to my hostal to see the video presentation that is showed on the walls of St. Isidoro Basilica, across from my hostal every Saturday at 11:30pm. There were around 500 people there. It was a colorful show of León history.
Today we met at Plaza Mayor. Gelo and little Luis were waiting for me. Marjorie stayed at hotel. Gelo brought me a little present. A little bottle of Woodford to taste on my bday the next month. We had a great time talking and drinking coffee. Luisito is an amazing smart kid. We walked from Plaza Mayor to their hotel. Then Marjorie walked with me back to have lunch with Luisito as Gelo moved their car closer to city center. We had a great lunch that went for three hours. It was almost 4pm when I started el Camino again. It was hard for me to say goodbye to them. They had to drive back 4 hours to Madrid. I just love them as part of family.
I was not sure if staying in León one more night. It was real late to start walking, but I went for 6 more km. The Sun was in front of me, and a big hill was ready to embrace me. Crossing the river, I passed three suburbs of León: the green, the blue, and the white. At the top of the hill was the village of La Virgen the Camino, where I found the first visible shelter. There I went to the Basilica and concelebrate mass at 8:30pm with a wonderful Dominican Order priest.
Returning to the albergue for peregrinos, I found a Brazilian man struggling with his feet. I offered to heal his blisters, and anoint his feet with balm. He accepted my offer, and we chat about his Brazilian City, close to Uruguay. He asked me at the end, how much was my service. I told him to go to church and give a donation in his return to Brazil. Now it is time to go to bed…