August 27th, 2009
On a dusty road, Spain

Unknown

While crossing an exceptionally hot and exhausting part of the Camino de Santiago, my friend Jeanne and I noticed a large, red barn in the horizon. As we got closer, we also noticed a big table set up at the side of the road - and this man standing behind it, with a big smile on his face.

The table he had set up, was pure heaven for pilgrims; cool lemonade, hot tea and coffee, bread, homegrown apples, juicy watermelon, and the best tasting oranges of my life.

The best part? It was all free. The man had simply put a small donation box by the side of the table, where you could throw in however much you could spare. Next to it, as most hostels and cafés on the Camino have done, he had made a custom-shaped stamp, so people could stamp their pilgrimage-passports.

Unlike almost all other stamps on the route, however, his stamp didn't try to fit as many details into the space as possible.

All his stamp showed, was a single symbol: a big, red heart.