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Day 4: Intention: Don't be a hero. Be kind to yourself.

Monestario de Zenarruza to Gernika (Candace)

Distance: 12.4 miles

Total Ascent: 440 meters

Difficulty Level: 4

Calories Burned: 3,066

We had such a good, long, tough day yesterday. And we so loved our family dinner with our awesome pilgrim family and making love in a monastery. But something changed a bit for us this morning.

Ermita Del Calvario to Monestario De Zenarruza 

We had such a good, long, tough day yesterday. And we so loved our family dinner with our awesome pilgrim family and making love in a monastery. But something changed a bit for us this morning.

 We decided to give ourselves a break.

We realized this morning that, by the time we get to any one of our stopping points, we are so exhausted that we can't really appreciate where we are.  We have been pushing ourselves to beat 15 miles each day, but then realized today that we are on a six-month honeymoon for a reason.  The only people we need to check in with about schedule is ourselves.

We also had a candid conversation yesterday about how, since we no longer have jobs and the typical ways of measuring ourselves against the world, we've fallen into judging ourselves as compared to the other pilgrims.  When we would see one pass us, we'd speed up.  Everyone has been telling us how young and fit and fast we are, and I think we've been playing into that personna.  But we've been doing so to the detriment of Andrew's knees, my feet, our sanity.

Today, we set our intention to play our day differently. We decided that we don't need to push ourselves today. That 12 miles would be enough. And that we needed a day to arrive at our stopping point early, take a nap, go see a Jai Alai game (Andrew's goal, at least), and spend some real time decompressing.

And as a result, we meandered a bit more.  And in taking our time, we found a storybook bridge that led us to the perfect lunch spot, surrounded by the coldest babbling brook to soak our feet in.  We made sandwiches of cheeses and chorizo, and we enjoyed ourselves.  Ahhhh.  

Andrew went off enjoying his Jai Alai match, I had a chance to sit, rest my feet, catch up on writing, and prepare for our long, 30-kilometer trek tomorrow, and then we went out for a relaxing dinner on the square.

We were so glad that we stayed in Gernika for the night, if for no other reason than the children.  There were children everywhere.  As we sat in the town square sipping our wine and eating tapas, we saw so many families.  So many children.  Running around and playing until after 10pm.  It was a sight to see.  And a great last vision before sleep.