Day 3 interesting encounters

We started out walking through the beautiful city of Gent. It was supposed to be a fairly easy day of 19 kms from Gent to Gavere. Only it ended up being nearly 25 kms. Not sure but ach wel!!!

We had four amazing encounters today and that’s what I want to share. But first I want to say that our first two days brought curiosity. On each day one person asked us where we were going? It’s fun watching the expressions of people when they find out what we are doing.

So first encounter was in a cafe filled with locals where we got a coffee to warm us. As we were getting ready to leave putting on our coats and backpacks the questions started. And the remarks and facial expressions were priceless. Some jealousy, some you guys are crazy which is what we usually get.

The next encounter was a man in a truck delivering trees. He stopped and asked where we were headed. Noël always says our next stop first and then adds Santiago de Compostela ultimately. Again the reactions are priceless. But this time the man said he walked to Santiago two years ago. And he is in charge of marking the path here in this part of Belgium. Then he warned about the localized flooding and reluctantly asked if we wanted a ride for 500 meters. Nope. Thank you. And he said I understand I would be the same. Then wished us a buen camino.

The next two were in a church yard. As we entered a man asked where we were going. Standard answer from Noël. The man said he walked the northern route. And his brother walked from Seville to Santiago. We had a nice chat about camino experiences.

Then we went into the church but it has been turned into a gallery with much of the church in tact. Beautiful. Afterwards we went outside to sit for a minute in a park bench where a local came up and chatted with us about our adventure. Literally so much fun.