The girl was hiking in the small Spanish town of Portomarin with friends. She stopped to rest on a lichen-painted church wall, enjoying the rural scenery. Inside the fortress church, she noticed a lonely boy in a red windbreaker praying. Their eyes met and he smiled at her, no longer seeming lonely. Though she never saw him again, the boy's brief presence in the church left her feeling inexplicably tender and that he had found what he needed there.

1. Hello everyone

2. Submitted by:
Seezan Shrestha
Roll number: 10 (Ten)
Subject: English (411)
Presentation topic: “The Spanish Church”
BICTE 1st Semester
Adhikavi Bhanubhakta Campus
Submitted to:
Sagar Poudle

3. The Spanish Church
written by:
Catherine Watson and Pamela Michael
(Deliver from A Woman’s Passion for Travel)

4. About the story
This story is about a girl (writer of this story)
who loves to travel and had travelled many places.
And in this story she goes for a hike with her friends in
a small town of the Spain named portomarin.

5. The Spanish Church
 After walking down a very long
hill, she arrived happily in
portomarin where fortress
church lies.
 Her friends went on but she
stopped for a while on a lichen-
painted wall of gray stone
because she was footsore. Not
only because she was
footsore, she herself also
wanted to rest there for a while
and observe the beauty of that
place. It was one of the best
feeling for her.

6.  Suddenly a couple of hotshot Italian bikers passed
by her on very high speed while she was sitting on
the wall.
 she saw them again at the bottom of the hill, one
helping the other with a newly ruptured tire. She
thought they got what they deserved.

7.  Camino de Santiago is a sacred way. It’s a perfect hill
for biking and walking. Camino de Santiago is
naturally very beautiful place. Its very traditional type
of place.
pictures of the Camino de Santiago

8.  Although its naturally very beautiful, those Italian
bikers weren’t going at it reverently.
 she felt sorry for the time the two bikers were going
to have spend, prying off the tire. She thought it was
better to be on foot.
 That night she stayed with her friends in a modern,
white posada, sleeping well in clean sheets. They
were in the great shrine of Saint James in the city of
Santiago de Compostela, Which made all of them
pilgrims of some sort. But none of them were
religious. (The great shrine of Saint James is a
religious place where the body of disciple of Jesus
Christ named Saint James was kept who died for
Jesus Christ .)

9. pictures of the great shrine of Saint James

10.  Portomarin stands near the end of the Camino.
It’s a moved town, a reconstruction.
 Once the town was lie beneath of the water of
dammed up river. Before dam was finished the
village was drown, the government managed to
move now which it stood in the center of plaza of
the new village, lending authenticity.

11. Picture of the dam before and after
the construction
Before After

12.  In the morning while her comrades were having
breakfast in a tiny restaurant, she headed for the
shiny green doors of the church (Fortress church ).
Pictures of the Fortress church

13.  There she saw a boy in a red windbreaker.
She passed him just as he dismounted and
leaned his bike against the church wall. The
bike had saddlebags. So he was another long
distance traveler, another pilgrims.

14.  His presence in the church made her feel a little self-
conscious. His youth struck her. He might have been
twenty two. He had a plain, pleasant face, slightly
freckled, with a wide mouth and sandy hair.
 The chapel’s high wall of the church were plastered
smooth and white with paucity of windows so
marauders couldn’t get in. The windows were also
too high to shoot arrows.

15.  After a few minutes, she sat down near the front.
She closed her eyes and started to thank god for
the good day, for the repose of the current
moment. She felt her heart relax. When she stood
to leave that place, she saw the boy in red jacket
was also sitting down farther to the front on his
side of the aisle.
 She paused and watched him but he didn’t notice
her. He was staring upward at the window above
the altar, as if the answer to life lay in it. Maybe
for him, it did.
 She felt a rush of inexplicable tenderness for the
boy. It was as if she had known him all his life, as
if she had been his mother, sister, lover, friends,
and they were all same. She was lost in a

16.  The boy stood up moving his body into the aisle
before he pulled his gaze away from the high
window. As he turned, his eyes met her eyes and
his face broke into a smile, a wonderful, open,
whole-hearted smile. She saw he had been lonely
and now he wasn’t anymore. He had gotten what
he needed in that chapel. He would be alright
now.
 She watched him walk back along the aisle and
out the door. When she walked out, he was
already gone. She never saw him again.

17.  Her friends were still drinking coffee when she found
them. She ordered a cup too.
 “How was the church?” her friends asked.
“It was nice”, she replied, telling the truth. “very
nice”.
(The girl was actually saying that the boy in red jacket
was nice.)

18. Summary of the story
In the story the girl was hiking in the town
called Portomarin with her friends. She was enjoying
the beauty of that place. It was one of the best feeling
for her. That place was rural type of place. Portomarin
was best for hiking and walking. She had also got
some information about the newly constructed dam.
She had also visited the great shrine of Saint James
which contains a very interesting history and that
place is very religious and traditional. Then she
happened to notice a boy in a red jacket when she was
sitting outside the church. She was attracted by him.
She felt as if she had known him all his life. She could
feel that he was lonely. And after he smiled at her, she
felt that he wasn’t lonely anymore. His presence on the

19. Moral of the story
 If you are attracted by something then the presence of
that thing can make a whole environment beautiful and
attractive.

20. Reference
 EKATA Book, English for the New Millennium

21. Thanks for your attention and hope you
all have understood the story. Please
suggest me if there is any weakness in
my presentation. So that I can improve
it next time.