A love story.... Part One

For a few weeks each summer I park my motorhome at a remore place on the Camino de Santiago in north Spain.... and I become one of many volunteers who help pilgrims. Some of them need First Aid..... or water because their water bottles are empty.


It was late in the afternoon at a very remote spot on the Camino de Santiago in north Spain, when a woman came striding along with a backpack on her shoulders and a jolly smile on her face. Seeing me sitting inside my parked motorhome, she waved at me, then came to my open side door, peeped in, and said .....'Hello, I can see the Union Jack flag in your window..... so you must be British'

I concured, and invited her to come inside out of the burning hot sun and have a drink of cold fruit juice from my fridge ... and a chat. She readily accepted, and when she had offloaded her heavy backpack on the ground outside, and we had shaken hands, and she was sitting comfortably on the settee just across from my seat by the table, as she sipped her cold drink, we exchanged some typical pilgrim talk.
"Hello, my name is Bettina, I am Danish from Copenhagen.
Where do you come from....?
What is an Englishman in this motorhome doing parked here ....?
There-is-pain-in-my-legs-and-blisters-on-my-feet-and-oh-what-a-hot-day-it-is-today...!"
Then I asked her how many days she had been walking, where did she start from, was she enjoying the Camino, and if she was walking with anyone else...?
She went a bit quiet then, and a sad look came over her face. Her head fell forward, and she looked down at her boots. I softly asked if there was anything the matter. She slowly looked up, took a deep breath, and quietly revealed that she had a VERY BIG problem, and she didnt know what to do. Her cheeks flushed a bit, and her eyes started to go misty, as she told me that about two weeks ago she had met 'the man of her life' on the Camino. He was a fellow pilgrim, his name is Rolf, from near Dusseldorf in Germany. They had been instantly attracted to each other, and had walked and talked for many hours together every day for more than a week on the Camino...... and fallen deeply in love with each other...!

After telling me that, she told me the rest of her long sad story in a typical emotional spasmodic and broken way. But when I joined it all up together afterwards, it came out like this.
They ate all their meals together, and each night these two love-stricken pilgrims had slept in albergues (pilgrim hostels) in single bunk beds, each in their own sleeping bag, a metre apart in typical crowded pilgrim dormitories, and after 'lights out' they silently reached out in the dark and squeezed each other's hands across the gap between them as they dropped off to sleep. And by day they were inseparable ..... walking about 25 kms from morning till evening ..... holding hands all the way. Until the fatefull day arrived when they had walked out of the beautiful peaceful countryside and entered the grimy industrial suburbs of the big city of Burgos.

They came to a bus stop. Rolf declared that they should take the bus into the centre of the city, because (as his Pilgrim Guide Book warned) there are eight horrible kilometres of industrial buildings and factories, sprawling crowded commercial suburbs, with lots of noisy heavy traffic to endure along the only road into the centre, which completely shatters the peace of mind and tranquility of soul that most pilgrims seek. He wanted to see the Cathedral before it closed, and the bus would quickly take them there. Many pilgrims take a bus at that place, and there were some already there waiting at the bus stop. But Bettina thought that this was wrong. She said that in her view pilgrims should never take a bus. She told him that she would walk on...... and catch up with Rolf at the Cathedral later. They discussed where to meet, and then she marched off.


But after that.....she never saw him again.....!

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART TWO