Step by step...

I usually start walking around 7.00 in the morning. From 5.00 people start waking up and everyone is bustling with their backpacks. Everyone packs up their things, maybe have a small breakfast in the nearest bar or take a piece of fruit in hand. Sometimes I mix chia seeds in juice or water and eat a piece of fruit. I rarely have the breakfast that is sometimes offered at the hostels. It's mostly just white bread and apricot jam. It's one of my favorites, but not every day and maybe with a lot less sugar. Then I start hiking. It's wonderful to just start hiking early in the morning into a landscape that is peaceful. Sometimes you pass through small villages. Then you take a break in a bar and have a juice or omelette and chat with the other pilgrims you meet all the time. Very nice. You just sit at the table with the others. And then people drop off whenever they want. Nowadays, you walk your pilgrimage alone and talk when you rest. Everyone has such different hiking pace. I have been going rather slowly and will probably send my luggage ahead to not stress my hip. Then the hiking becomes very pleasant.

Sometimes you pass a small chapel or church and you go in to look or cool down. Some are rather poor and unspectacular, others are well maintained, beautiful, and cared for. The bells in the bell tower are probably mostly quite old. They sound like you're hitting metal. Super high-pitched and not particularly beautiful. Then you get a little surprised when some bells in some of the villages suddenly sound much nicer. Well, until you realize that the bell chimes are recorded. The real bell no longer rings. Hmmm... maybe the metal version is still nicer.

I have attached some pictures of different churches. I can hardly remember where I saw them.

I have already been to a pilgrimage service twice. After the first one, I found out that non-Catholics were not welcome. Yesterday I attended a service that had a completely different style. Inclusive. Need seems inclusive. The priest was alone in his church. He had no one else by his side. Ordinarily, there should be at least three different priests contributing to the Catholic service. Readings, sermons, prayers, etc. Here, dear priest was all alone. He controlled the church music from the altar using a remote control, he led the song and the whole service, and when it was time to read all those texts like sermons, readings from the Bible, etc., he asked the pilgrims to do it in their languages. When the time came, they stepped forward from the audience, read their respective text in Dutch, Portuguese, English... and then he took over again. It didn't matter whether you were Catholic or not. Quite interesting to experience.