The Galician 《 sakura 》 blooms in Rois

Probably the flowering is not spectacular because the cold temperatures. A park (Quinta de los Molinos) near my house in Madrid has a lot of almond trees that atrack a lot of people this month, but this year the flowering has been poor.

Yesterday I finished walking the Nakahechi Kumano Kodo at the Hongu shrine. The sakura is in full bloom just now - a stunning sight. Now and again I have walked through a flurry of falling petals. Just across the road from the shrine's main gate is a gift from Galicia to mark the twinning of the Camino and the Kumano Kodo routes: a Camino distance marker saying it is nearly 11,000km to Santiago. The mixture of something so familiar with the Japanese architecture and landscape is a little bewildering