A pilgrim's progress:

As of today we´ve walked for more than three weeks and 560 kms. If all goes well we´ll arrive in Santiago eight days from now.

My feet are wrecks. I am, of course, no exception. An obsessive topic of conversation among fellow pilgrims is blisters, and what to do about them(the only solution: stop walking).

I´m in a town called Villafranca Del Bierzo; we´re still in Castilla and Leon, but about to cross into Galicia. Tomorrow we face the last big challenge of this walk: a climb straight up (it´s called The Ramp)into the hills, to a town called El Cebreiro. I look forward to this part of the walk being over.

Today we visited a church in this town dedicated to Santiago. In the middle ages, pilgrims too sick to travel on to Santiago, if they passed through the west doors of this church, would be absolved of their sins - or so the story goes. Today, the west doors of this church were shut and locked, so my hopes of limping through them on my blistered feet came to nothing. Now I´ll have to soldier on to Santiago.
- David Beaty