One of the first things I did when I moved to Figueres was
to go to the tourist office and study maps to see where I could walk, on a path
or trail outside the city, somewhere close by where I wouldn’t have to take the
car in order to get to the trail.
The only path I found is called locally the Via Lactia
(Milky Way) which is a short segment of the longer Cami de Sant Jaume – the
route through Catalunya that pilgrims of old took to get to Santiago de
Compostela – in other words, the Camino.
Google maps tells me my walk is 3.2 kilometers long and
takes 38 minutes, one way. It actually
takes me closer to an hour one way, but never mind. I do this walk several times a week,
sometimes with company and sometimes just me and little Cupcake.
Someone here asked me once if it doesn’t get boring always
doing the same walk. No, it doesn’t. For one thing the scenery is always changing:
sometimes it’s sunny, sometimes cloudy or foggy; sometimes the fields are
green, then the corn grows and it’s golden, then it starts to turn a light
brown. And then, once a year, you find
that between yesterday morning and today, someone has come by and harvested all
the corn leaving stubby bare stalks. Sometimes there's a field full of alyssum that almost looks like snow. Sometimes there is snow in the nearby mountains and sometimes there are
egrets or a grey heron looking for their breakfast.
Today was a grey and dismal day. But grey days can also be beautiful, and I
seem to enjoy the fields no matter what the weather. Once at the village there is the warmth of a cafรจ amb llet and Cupcake’s sweet face.
