Postscript: Peregrinos

One of the most wonderful aspects of the Camino is the people you meet and the friendships you make along the way.  The days spent walking, talking, eating and, yes, sleeping together in the same rooms with folks from all over the world create a warmth and closeness that normally one would develop only over a period of years.

So, here are some of our new friends and fellow pilgrims:

Brida and Terry, both from Ireland

Robert from Hamburg

Michelle from New Zealand

Andrew from York (UK), Tsang-Li from South Korea, and Karina and Paul from Chicago, collectively aka "The Snail Team"

Joe and Denise from Rhode Island and Penny from Australia

To all of these folks and to the hundreds of other pilgrims we met we offer a final, heartfelt, "Buen Camino!"

RP

Day 41 - Sunday October 30th: Finistere

Sunday day trip by bus to the end of the (medieval) world.

Day 39 - Friday, October 28th: Santiago de Compostela

We made it!

Thursday, October 27 - Day 38: Bad News, Good News

The bad news: the rain continues, sometimes torrentially, making for soggy feet, dampened spirits, and few pictures of the green Galician countryside and the eucalyptus trees that line our path.

The good news:  We´re sitting now looking out the window at airplanes carrying pilgrims home from the Santiago airport.  Yes, we´re that close.  Tomorrow should do it.

stand by
Rick

Tuesday, October 25th - Day 36 in the rain

We´re getting there.  We passed the 100 km marker yesterday mid-day, albeit in pouring rain. 

And somebody was very happy to be able to get hold of her kid on the phone again.

The Camino is suddenly a very busy place: one can get one´s compostella by completing the last 100 km, so lots of folks have turned out.  And because All Souls (November 1st) is an important religious occasion in Spain, Tuesday will be a holiday and many folks observe it by ... walking to Santiago!

anon
Rick

Sunday, October 23 - Miscellaneous pictures

Saturday, October 22 - Day 33

Well, finally, a working computer - albeit with no SD drive again, so no pictures.  We´ve been back in the mountains for days and mostly in small towns where both internet and telephone service are either non-existent or out-of-order.

But the great news is that the pilgimage is going very well.  We´re into Galicia now.  The countryside is beautiful - lots of up and down through green mountains. The weather continues to be great, with sunshine every day, but accompanied by a cool breeze.  Days are getting shorter but its still like early September in Ontario.  Trees are green and gold, and the sky is clear and blue.

Our new friend Penny from Australia has been walking with us for a couple of weeks, and other folks we´ve come to know along the way re-appear daily, so the companionship has been wonderful.

Our legs are strong and we´re quite easily covering the required twenty kilometers per day. Looks like we´re only six or so days from Santiago now and the end of our walk.  This gives rise to very mixed feelings - excitement about the thought of reaching our goal, sadness because our walk will soon be over, and looking forward to seeing everyone at home again.

But for now, its time to pack up and get into the sack, so we´re ready to go in the morning.

Rick

Sunday, Oct 16 - Day 27

No posting of pictures this time - no SD drive on this computer.

Set off this a.m. in pitch dark at 7:15 with empty stomachs because the only bar (cafe) in the town simply failed to open as scheduled for breakfast. 

So, six kilometres through the countryside and then, just as the sun was coming up, a roadside cantina:  A young man, living in an abandoned farmhouse with no electricity and just a well for water, had set up a roadside stand with hot coffee, juice, biscuits, and fruit, all available for whatever amount one wants to donate.  Apparently that´s his life twenty-four seven, 365 days a year, serving peregrinos.

And along come three German women pilgrims, one of whom happens to be humming a Taize tune. Next thing you know, Pauline and the three of them are standing in a circle singing Taize hymns together, with warm stomachs and warm hearts, in the countryside in the first light of Sunday morning.

Another minor camino miracle when it was most needed.

R

Day 24 - Thursday the 13th

Leon, and signs saying we´re now only 300km from Santiago. Safely across the dreaded expressway, thanks to a newly constructed footbridge for peregrinos.

Continuing sunny weather - still not a drop of rain. We´re doing some long days, some not so long - always trying to look ahead and judge how much time we´ll need to cover what are some pretty long marches in the guidebook. Shooting for Santiago on Oct 31st.

Walked most of yesterday on a Roman Road that was used by, among others, Ceasar Augustus, St. Augustine, St. Francis of Assisi and of course Saint James (Santiago).

I´m gaining a new perspective on the expression,¨Where the rubber meets the road¨.  We use it as a metaphor but after 24 days of walking it has a very literal and immediate meaning.  One learns that the quality of the rubber on your feet - and of every material between the rubber and your feet (insoles, layers of socks, bandages, moleskin, vaseline) - is critical.
And it really matters whether ¨the road¨ is in fact flat or up and down, straight or curving. And most of all, whether it is the pavement of a city or asphalt of a country lane (rarely), a path in the woods (also rare) or a dirt road.  And, if a dirt road, is it in fact earthen, gravel, or rocky like the Roman road? Is it flat or rutted, are there clear tracks to walk in or must one balance on the centre or a cambered shoulder? Are there patches of shade or is it in full sun? Is the wind blowing the dust from the fields in your direction or away?

For hundreds of years and thousands of pilgrims, these things have mattered.

Day 20 - Sunday

Still more meseta, but back to full sunshine, with more seasonal temperatures that lighten somewhat the last few hours of the daily trudge.

Lunch yesterday on a bench beside this hermitage, no longer in use:

Along the way we occasionally see what we understand to be bodegas (wine cellars) dug into the hillsides by farmers to keep their homemande wine cool:

And today, for the first time, buildings made of mud, stone and straw:

And in the distance now - mountains!  Which means the end of the meseta in a few days. 

We´re at about the the half way point in days walking and distance, so I suppose there´s no turning back now ;-)

R

Day 18 - The Meseta continued ...

Third day on the plains, 25 kilometres covered and ... clouds!  No rain yet on the plain in Spain, but a break from the heat, which I grant we may miss soon enough.

Rick

Day 17: The Meseta

Walking from morning cool dark until mid-afternoon under full sun - relieved slightly by an occasional cool breeze.  Sore feet and legs, but oh what joy when we finally spot the destination in the distance ...

And then, after an hour or so of resting, showering and laundry, we set out to explore and we see, for example, in a city that was officially incorporated in 884 a.d., this church where, six hundred years later, they feted Columbus upon his return from discovering America!

cheers
Rick

Day 10 - Navarrete

A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim

Lights on at six, lots of shuffling and sniffling, folding of sleeping bags, collecting of (hopefully) dry laundry, taping of sore feet, and stuffing of packs, accompanied by mournful sidelong glances at last night´s worst snorers.

Out the door at 7:00 and quick into the first cafe for a cafe con leche  (cafe au lait) and a sticky bun.  Then off into the still-dark looking for the way markers. Quick away while its still cool.

The next 6 to 8 hours consist of trudging - thus far in bright sunshine every day - interrupted by a steady series of breaks  At these stops, some combination of: drinking water and refilling water bottles at fountains, taking off shoes and socks to air feet and, if necessary, add/adjust bandages, and drinking coffee, juice or water and eating lunch at bars (cafes).

Between 1:00 and 3:00 pm, arrive at the destination, proceed directly to the albergue (hostel), grab a (more or less comfortable) bunk, take a shower and put on the clean set of clothes, hand wash the dirty clothes and hang them out to dry before morning.

For the next 5 or 6 hours, hobble about the town, check out the cathedral and/or other notable sites, drink beer (me) or water (Pauline) in a cafe, eat a "Pilgrim menu" dinner in a restaurant. By 8:00 pm or so, back into the albergue to read up on the next day´s challenge, brush teeth and then lights out by 9:00 or shortly thereafter.

All of this in the company of a steady stream of other pilgrims doing exactly the same things.





Day Six - Sunday

A day off the road today - after five days of steady progress, time to rest up and let the muscles recover a bit. We´re in Estella - a beautiful medieval town with lots to see. 
So far the countryside has been very agricultural: the first few days in the mountains and foothills, lots of cows and sheep, and some horses. Then, approaching Pampalona, miles of very neatly plowed fields, but totally barren. We wonder if the crop, whatever it was, has already been harvested, but the cynic in me worries that the EU economic policy dictates that they not plant the fields.

Yesterday it was more crops: definitely almonds, olives and grapes, others that may have been figs and artichokes - hard to know.

And now, another apology:  just spent a hour trying to decipher Spanish instructions on how to upload pictures to this blog - apparently unsuccessfully.   Good night (sigh).

Day Four - Sept 24th

Pamplona yesterday, Puente la Reina today - see map link.  Four days of 20+ km, most of it up and down. (The only Camino joke in the world: "The Camino never saw a mountain range it didn´t want to cross!") The hot sunny weather is great in the morning and evening, a little less great at 3 pm after 6 of 7 hours of backpacking. Sore feet and legs all round. Seems like we´ve been out here weeks already.

Apparently my third language is Italian - whenever I try to say something in Spanish all it seems I can come up with is twenty year-old tourist Italian. The Spanish folks seem to find it confusing.

Walking with Spanish, French, Germans, a few Italians, English, Australians, Canadians, and lots of Irish, for some reason.  Perhaps because theirs is another strongly Catholic country?

Views are consistently amazing, but won´t be able to share anything until I find a computer with a free USB port, I´m afraid.

Cheers

Day One: St. Jean Pied de Port

Out the Port St. Jacques at 8 a.m. and up, up, and up across the Pyrenees for 6 hours - spectacular vistas and beautiful weather, and then down, down, down to Roncesvales - if anything more painful, but 28 kilometres after we set out, a beautiful renovated hostel, clothes cleaned, a great "Pilgrim supper" in a local cafe and then a very moving evening Pilgrim Mass in a twelth century church.

And then another discovery:  a Spanish keyboard and no USB drive means no possibility of posting of photos, at least this time. 

Now to test drive that new MEC sleeping bag!

Day Zero

St. Jean Pied de Port - arrived by train at about 5 pm. 
On the way from the train to the Peregrino Information Centre an elderly French woman standing at the end of her walk with her hands clasped at her chest whispered to us, "Bravo .... Bon Courage."

Day 1 minus 1

Buses, trains and planes.  Pauline pointed out that we crossed the ocean at 1000 miles per hour so that we could walk 800 kilometres across the earth in 40 days.
But with a couple of minor hitches, we made it.

Okay, now let's see if I can upload a picture directly from our camera ...

The two holy terrors we're leaving behind!

And one more ...

I'm going to try to add my map location to this post. 

Still Day One minus 8 ...

.... and I'm emboldened to try another challenge: posting a photo. This is our destination - the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela.

Day one minus 8

If this works I will have conquered the first challenge: posting a message on the blog. Ten points to the first person to acknowledge that she/he has seen this by commenting.