Home

In some ways I think our trip home began when we boarded the train in Copenhagen on June 26.  We had intended to drive to Esbjerg, Denmark and take the overnight ferry to Harwich, England and then take the short train from the ferryport to London.  Unfortunately, the Esbjerg ferry crashed (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/sirena-seaways-ferry-left-nearly-500-passengers-stranded-for-three-hours-after-crash-at-major-british-port-in-essex-8669560.html) and was out of service!  On short notice air fares were exorbitant, so we ended up taking the overnight train from Copenhagen to Hoek van Holland and catching a different ferry back to Harwich.  The overnight train was an experience.  We had seats in a “coachette.”  This is a compartment with six seats.  At night, there are three tier bunks that fold down for sleeping.  We were seated with four American women computer geeks.  They were fun but our coachette was very crowded!  In the morning, as I sat on the train and watched the Dutch countryside speed by I felt a little emotional was struck by a sense of closure and of gratefulness for the time we have had.

Enjoying coffee at a Camdentown cafe
with Robin, Ruth and Lucy 

We arrived in London with one day to spend with Ruth and Robin and their kids.  We sold one of our folding bikes back to the bike shop and the second one to Ruth who is using it to ride around central London between hospitals!  Then we had a great time taking one last walk through a London market (this time near Chalk Farm) and enjoyed a great dinner at a Jamie Oliver restaurant.  Our guide for the market tour was Lucy, Robin & Ruth’s college-age daughter.  Jamie’s restaurant was a unanimous choice: Tom and I had become hooked on his 30-minute meal show on British TV and Elizabeth, Robin and Ruth’s youngest daughter, is a fan of his as they are both dyslexic.  Dinner was great, the company was better!

Sunday morning, June 30 (the last possible day we could stay in Europe with our tourist visas), we departed London for Cleveland.  If you read Tom’s Facebook posts you have an idea that boarding with all the extra stuff we had acquired was not easy.  Our bags were overweight, and had to be re-distributed on the spot.  And Tom got searched at almost every possible checkpoint!  Maybe it’s the beard?  I must look harmless with my white hair because I just sailed through security J. 

Back in Ohio we had people to visit and errands to complete before driving back to Idaho.  We bought a new (used) RAV4 and traded in our old one.  We wanted a more powerful engine to pull the new little camper (http://www.aliner.com/) we plan to get next summer.  The combination of towing capacity, AWD and good gas mileage is hard to come by in a reasonably priced vehicle, so we jumped at a used 2010 RAV4 V6 with 13,500 miles on it.  So we will be arriving back to Idaho in Red not Silver.

On the beach at Mentor Headlands
with my Mother-in-law Marilyn, my
sister-in-law Marilyn and her partner
Karen

In addition to the car, we visited and celebrated the 4^th with Cleveland family.  On Friday July 5, we took off to New York City to visit Christian and see his new apartment.  On the way we stopped in Philadelphia for an Ethiopian dinner with our niece Anna.  Saturday, we had a great day in the city with Christian and his boyfriend, Adam and his apartment passed the Mom test!  Sunday we swung down to DC to visit Carolyn and to re-claim my Honda Fit.  (Carolyn has been driving it for the past year).  We had another nice afternoon with Carolyn.  Yesterday we headed back to Cleveland.  We ended the day last evening with wine and pizza with my law school friends, Lynn Ondrey, Bill Gruber and Gretchen Corp.  Lynn just recently walked the Camino from Leon to Santiago so we had lots of experiences to compare.

We planned to begin our drive back to Idaho today, but we were too tired.  So we decided to take one last day wrapping things up and loading the cars.  We will leave first thing tomorrow morning. 

Our journey home has been something of a winding down process that has been very good for me, and I suspect for Tom also. We have had these past days to let go of our travels, reflect on our adventures, and slowly re-engage with things at home.

I feel relaxed and truly lucky and blessed to have had the chance to undertake this adventure.  I know that most people don’t get this opportunity.  When we left Idaho last summer I had no idea what this year would have in store for me.  I was stressed, impatient, and worried about both large and small things.  Over the course of the last year, I have been able to slowly allow all of those concerns to fall away from me.  The first six months in Ohio working at the law library at Case and living in Cleveland were a good start.  But our last six months of travels allowed me to completely leave my personal "real world" behind.  I think the biggest thing I learned was the art of “slow travel” – of staying in one place long enough to dig in and become a small part of it, of absorbing the world around me instead of just observing it. 

Now I find I am looking forward to school, to teaching, to writing, to getting re-engaged at my church, to getting active again with ACLU, to working with Tom on the list of projects we have come up with, and of course, to more slow travel in the future.

I am ready to go home. 

Liz

Family

The main reason for our traveling to Denmark was for family.  My father’s parents were both born in Denmark and all of his uncles, aunts and their children stayed in Denmark.

In 1981, I visited many of my Danish relatives at the end of my summer bike trip in Europe.  If you read our blog post about my friend Tom in Scotland, you already know that I’m not the most reliable correspondent.  As you might expect, over the last 32 years, most of those relatives have changed addresses, had children or grandchildren and some are no longer with us.  The end result is that I had lost track of everyone in the Danish branch of my family.  What to do?  Why, Facebook, of course!

Last fall, I was telling my mother that I was interested in finding some of the Danish relatives.  Mom went to her file and produced an email from 2001.  (Mom saves everything!)  The email was from Stine and Rasmus Hilker, grandchildren of my father’s cousin Leif Hilker.  At the time, they were 16 (twins) and were doing research on their family history and wanted to know something about their American relatives.  The email mentioned that Rasmus enjoyed playing computer games.  That was my lead!  If he liked the computer then, he probably likes it now.  A quick search on Facebook and there he was, along with his sister and his mother and a bunch of other relatives I had never heard of!

Through Stine and Rasmus’ mother Helle, I was able to reconnect to the Danes last fall.  Helle offered to put Liz and me up at her house while we were in Haderslev visiting.  Now, we just had the long wait for mid-June for our reunion.

Then, things got more complicated.  In the interim, my brother Chris, my sisters Marilyn, Celinda and Mazie and my mother Marilyn decided to visit Denmark while Liz and I were going to be in Ireland.  Of course, they also wanted to visit the relatives so they contacted Helle and made their own arrangements for the week before Liz and I were to arrive.  Then, our children Carolyn and Christian surprised us by telling us that they were going to take time off from work, come to Denmark and meet us.  Of course, they also wanted to meet the Danish relatives.  So, what started out as a visit by two of us turned into an American invasion of Helle’s house, first by four of my Cleveland family and then the four Idaho Brandts a week later.  Poor, Helle!

While we haven’t been able to talk to my family that visited first, all reports were that their visit was very nice.  Via emails and Facebook, we saw some great pictures and comments.  Helle sent to me: “I sit down here with Stine with a tired head and tired ears. Your wonderful family left our house 2 hours ago. We were so glad to have them here in our home. You have a wonderful family. … We had a very good time.”

Now, it was our turn.  Liz and I arrived at the ferry port in Esbjerg, Denmark.  As we walked out of the terminal, we were greeted by Christian and Carolyn sitting on the curb waiting for us.  They had been in Copenhagen for a couple of days and had taken the train over to Esbjerg that morning.  What a wonderful reunion!  Shortly, we were off in our rental car to Helle’s house in Haderslev, about an hour away.

We found the red carpet rolled out for us with a huge crowd when we arrived!  Helle, Stine and Rasmus and Helle’s husband Poul, Helle’s parents Leif (my dad’s first cousin) and his wife Birthe, and Helle’s brother Ole with two of his daughters Terne and Freja.  (Ole’s daughter Lærke would join us the next day.)  Everyone had taken off work or school just to greet us.  What a surprise!  We had a wonderful time and talked late into the night.  All of the Danes speak excellent English (which is good for us!) but Christian was able to really use his Danish again.  (Christian is pretty fluent in Danish from when he was an exchange student in high school.)  The next pleasant surprise was that Birthe had arranged for us to stay in her neighbor’s house while we were there.  The neighbors were gone and we had the whole house to ourselves.

The next day, 11 of us went to an island off the west coast of Jutland called Rømø which is famous for its beaches.  Faithful readers (both of you!) will remember that it has been unusually cold, windy and wet this winter and spring in Europe and this day was no exception.  No swimming but the beach was still spectacular anyway – miles long and a half mile wide.  What surprised us all was that the Royal Danish Air Force had commandeered the beach to practice beach landings and take-offs for one (of their four) transport planes.  For someone like me who wants to be a pilot when I grow up, this was pretty cool.  Unlike in America, where no one would be allowed within a half mile of the proceedings, the Danes just put up a few traffic cones about 50 yards from the landing area.  This gave us front row seats, complete with M.P’s, emergency fire personnel and equipment and the Danish press.

After about three landings and take-offs, we decided to “sneak” around the area to get all the way out to the sea.  It turned out that the Danish M.P.’s weren’t too happy with us.  Since we had to cross the flight path of the airplane, they shooed us quickly through so that we didn’t loiter too long in harm’s way.  It also turned out that the Danish nightly news filmed the whole thing and “featured” us on that night’s broadcast for a few seconds during their story about the practicing.  We’re famous and we didn’t even get arrested or deported!

From Rømø, we continued on to Ribe, Denmark’s oldest continuing town, established around 700 A.D.  The town is filled with numerous examples of old, Danish homes, buildings and a domkirke or Cathedral which has had a bishop in residence since at least 948 A.D.  After a climb to the top of the cathedral’s tower, we had a leisurely stroll through the old town.

After our day’s outing, we returned to Haderslev for another fine dinner.  This time, we were also joined by Dorthe and Pernille, wife and daughter of Niels (Helle’s other brother) and Lærke.  The next day, Leif showed us around Haderslev before we headed north.  Breakfasts with Leif and Birthe, dinners at Helle and Poul’s, sightseeing excursions hosted by everyone and wonderful conversation with our newly found relatives, this was a great start to our trek through Denmark!

After a brief stop in Silkeborg where my grandfather was born, we continued up north to Sæby, my grandmother’s home town.  Sæby, now, is home to Leif’s sister Else and her husband Villy.  Leif had arranged for us to visit them, too.  Joining us in Sæby was Leif and Else’s sister Kirsten and her husband Preben.  These four plus Leif, Birthe and Ole were the only seven living relatives that I had visited in 1981.  We spent the afternoon eating, talking and wandering around the neighborhood.  Once again, Christian’s facility with Danish really came in handy.  While the Danes’ English was much better than our Danish (except for Christian, of course), we would have had a lot of quiet time up in Sæby without him.

Our last family adventure ended our Danish trip.  Christian spent the 2006-7 school year as an exchange student in Copenhagen, staying with his host family, the Høi’s, Peter, Kirsten and their sons Poul and Søren.  While not blood relatives, we certainly consider them family.  Kirsten and Peter welcomed us with open arms!  After some sightseeing around Copenhagen and celebrating Søren's graduation from school, they took us up to their cabin in Sweden for a couple of days.  On the drive up to Sweden, Peter mentioned that he had heard something about a ferry crashing into the dock the other day.  This was the first hint that our ferry from Esbjerg back to Harwich might have had a problem.  It turned out that the ferry came in a bit fast and crashed into the quay at Harwich and was out of service!  Hmmm… this WAS a problem.  We had to be back in London and out of the UK by June 30 before our visas ran out, only five days from then.  Kirsten and Peter were invaluable in helping us navigate the various options (no pun intended) and make alternative travel plans.  We ended up having to take a train from Copenhagen to Hoek van Holland, Netherlands and catch a different ferry from there to Harwich.  We are on that ferry as I write.  As we left Peter and Kirsten, it was clear why Christian had had such a marvelous and enriching time in Denmark.  He couldn't have asked for a better family!

Our trip to Denmark reconfirmed to Liz and me that our family, both close and extended, are incredibly important to us!  To be able to spend that week with Christian and Carolyn, to meet and reconnect with my extended family in Denmark and to meet and get to know Christian’s A.F.S. family was a tremendous gift for us.  “Thank you” to all of you who welcomed us into your homes and lives and made us feel special.  We truly are blessed!

Here is a link to all of our pictures from Denmark: https://plus.google.com/photos/106613978480302914809/albums?banner=pwa&gpsrc=pwrd1#photos/106613978480302914809/albums/5890904858751947569

Irish Rest

From Scotland, we headed by car ferry to Ireland.  It turns out that travelling by rental car on a car ferry from Scotland to the Republic of Ireland (as opposed to Northern Ireland which is part of the United Kingdom) is not a common thing to do!  We rented our car through Enterprise because they advertised that cars could be taken to the Republic of Ireland.  However they didn't advertise that special paper work only available from the Enterprise central office during regular business hours was needed.  This was a problem because we picked our car up on a Bank Holiday and everything was closed.  In addition, Enterprise did not advertise in advance that they charged a 125 GBP fee (that's about $195)  for travel out of the UK! After much haggling we were able to get the fee waived.  We made a tenttaive plan to pick the paperwork up in Scotland before we left for Ireland.  However, when I called from our friend's home in Scotland to make arrangements to pick up the paperwork, I was informed that it could take hours to get it!  AARGH!  Again, after several phone calls and much haggling, Enterprise agreed that they could email the paperwork to us!  Lesson learned:  flying is easier!

Our ferry to Ireland was uneventful.  On arriving we headed down to Kerry to a "self catering" cottage we had rented.  In the UK "self catering" means that the cottage has a kitchen and that no meals are provided.  They are usually a great deal.  Our cottage was an old train signal box.  It was about 10 feet square on two floors with the kitchen in an above ground basement and the bedroom/sitting room upstairs.  It really looked cute online!  Unfortunately, it was only OK.  It had a lot of potential but was overstuffed with knick knacks and not thoroughly clean.  Even so, we enjoyed our Ireland stay.  Our cottage was in the quaint town of Glenbeigh and near a fabulous beach.

We really took the time to rest from our travels.  But we also drove the Ring of Kerry.  We especially enjoyed visiting a couple of ancient ring forts.  We visited the Dingle Peninsula which was really a highlight.  We tried to visit a museum about the Irish Potato Famine in Skibereen, but it was closed because of budget cuts.  We also road our bikes around Killarney National Park.  But mostly we enjoyed some time to sleep in and relax.

Here are our Ireland Pictures

Reunion in Scotland

Tom and I with Tom Miller and Kate

After our french cycling trip we once again invaded London and the home of our friends Robin & Ruth.  We rested a bit, did  laundry, repacked and headed off for our next adventure -- this time in a rented car.

We traveled to Banff Scotland to visit an old friend of Tom's from Cleveland Heights High School -- Tom Miller.  The two Toms had seen each other only once for about 10 minutes in the past 32 years!

Tom M attended Cleveland Institute of Music and ended up playing bassoon with a Swiss orchestra.  There he met a Scottish woman, Kate.  The last time Tom B and Tom M saw each other was on the streets of Inverness Scotland in 1982.  At the time, Tom B was cycling around Europe with a friend and Tom M was in Scotland in preparation for his wedding.  Tom M spied Tom B's Heights Hockey jacket across a street in Inverness and called out.  The two visited briefly but never touched base again.

Tom M and Kate initially lived in Switzerland, but about 20 years ago, they purchased an old farm in Banff and turned part of it into a guesthouse.  Tom continued to commute to Switzerland for his orchestra gig, while Kate and their two kids stayed in Scotland and Kate ran the guesthouse.  Tom is still playing bassoon with his orchestra, but Kate has retired from the guesthouse business.

About five years ago (probably procrastinating on grading papers) Tom B decided to google Tom M to see if he was still playing bassoon in Switzerland.  Lo and behold, he was, and Tom B was able to contact Tom M by email through the orchestra.  But Tom M was in Europe and Tom B was in the US preparing to send kids to college, and neither man is a prolific email writer. So, while an open channel of communication was established, it was not used much! Our sabbatical travels provided the perfect chance to re-establish contact.

With this history, it was with some trepidation (on the part of both Toms, it turns out) that we arrived in Banff.  We shouldn't have worried.  The four of us hit it off instantly and the two Toms were soon lost in memories of high school friends, teachers and escapades.  We were treated to Tom M and Kate's wonderful cooking and wine.  We enjoyed some great hill walking (to visit the only gannet colony on the mainland of Scotland), and sampled some very, very good Scottish whiskey!

Here are all of our Scotland Pictures

Fellow Pilgrims

The Camino experience was amazing in so many ways for Liz and me.  One of the most interesting and emotional parts for me was bonding and interacting with fellow pilgrims.

Walking for 800 km over a period of 5½ weeks, it is inevitable that some of your fellow travelers end up having a tremendous impact on you.  Not everyone walks at the same speed so some folks are with you briefly and some walk more or less with you for the whole trip.

One thing that we found is that the Camino has a tremendous leveling effect.  It doesn’t matter who you are, what you do or where you come from, everyone is in the same boat.  We all carry all of our stuff on our backs (at least most of us), we all need to find some place to eat and some place to sleep and we all have sore feet.  One thing that is different is that we all have a different story for why we are walking.  Most of you know that Liz and I walked the Camino as a celebration of Liz’s weight loss and our new, healthier life-style.  I’ll try to relate just a few of the other stories in this post.  (I’ll save my favorite ones for last!)

Some people, like us, were walking for fun reasons; others, because they were trying to make decisions about their life.  Still others had no idea why they were walking.  Even though we walked with some people for only a short time, they still left a huge impression. 

We walked for 15 minutes with a Finnish woman who was walking slowly but steadily, carrying only some of her kit (she was having most of her stuff transported each day to her next destination).  Her family gave her the plane ticket to France for her 75^th birthday.  She was slowly walking the 800 km by herself at the age of 75!  That’s impressive.

Another older German couple were walking together.  He was walking the Camino for the sixth time.  His wife seemed to be carrying a little more equipment than he and he had an unusual, stooped and shuffling gate.  As we talked more with him, it became clear to us that he had Parkinson’s Disease.  My father died of PD in 2011 so this gentleman was pretty special to me.  We saw them on and off for about a week but we have no idea whether they were able to make it the whole way.  I hope so!

We met Ruby on the first day struggling up a steep grade with the rest of us.  Ruby is about our age and lives in Pennsylvania.  Ruby was having a hard time keeping up with the “normal” pace of the rest of us.  After the second day of walking, Ruby got to the same albergue as us, but 5 hours later.  After the 4^th day, Ruby had decided to try to continue her walk but only travel 10-15 km each day instead of the 20-30 km most of us were doing.  We left Ruby in Pamplona and never saw her again.  She had never told us exactly why she was walking but it seemed very important to her that she finish.  We hope that she did.

Another person from our first day was Glen from Vancouver, B.C.  Glen was very overweight with a poorly packed backpack and it seemed incongruous that he intended to walk 800 km with no help.  All he would say was that it was “something he had to do.”  Our first real concern was when Ruby (above) arrived in the albergue well after the rest of us and said that she had passed Glen hours ago staring blankly into the woods.  When Ruby asked him if he was OK, his reply was “I was just wondering if I died here, if anyone would find me.”  Needless to say, Ruby was pretty freaked out.  She tried to get Glen to walk with her but he wouldn’t.  We know that Glen eventually came in that night but we quickly walked beyond him.  Over the next couple of weeks, we heard sporadic reports from other pilgrims that he was still walking slowly.  We think that we saw him coming into town about 3 weeks into the trip.  If so, he must have taken a bus or some other type of transportation.  We don’t know what ever happened to Glen.

Marie, DeeDee & Josef with Liz in Sahagun enjoying cafe con leche!

Fortunately, most stories are happier.  For example, Josef, Dedee and Marie were three 50-something Dutch folks that we walked along with for over 500 km.  We never really walked together but we tended to stay in the same albergues and we frequented the same bars along the way for “café con leche”.  They didn’t speak much English and we don’t speak any Dutch but we always enjoyed crossing paths a few times every day.  When we took a half day off in Léon, we lost each other but met up again in Astorga.  Unfortunately after Astorga we lost each other  and never crossed paths again.  We had hoped to see them in Santiago but alas, it was not to be.

Liz with Michel (center) and Marie-Claude enjoying ... cafe con leche!

Michel was another person that we walked the whole way with.  A French woman about our age, she actually started in LePuy, France.  LePuy is 1750 km from Santiago and one of the more common starting points in France.  Michel started in February and finished the same day that we did.  We also lost Michel in Léon and had hoped to see her in Santiago.  When we did, it was a tearful reunion!

Frans was a Swiss man who we ended up walking the last few hundred kilometers with.  He had started in St. Jean-Pied-de-Port a few days after we did.  He was nice enough but didn’t seem remarkable in any appreciable way; just another typical pilgrim.  It wasn’t until the last day in Santiago that we found out that he had had a hip replacement just a year ago.  Prior to that, he could walk only about 100 meters before he was in too much pain to continue.  He was also walking to celebrate something that he could never have even considered just a short time ago.

Jorg enjoying pulpo (octopus) and a good laugh

Jorge Maas from Germany walked the last 2/3 of the walk along with us.  Jorge is a very genial guy, always ready with a good story.  Jorge is a free-lance, professional funeral speaker.  As he explained, many folks in Germany are unchurched these days and when they die, there is no minister to perform the funeral.  Jorge fulfills that role.  He meets with the family, learns about the deceased, prepares a eulogy and directs the service.  Apparently, he is so popular that he travels around the country and did more than 200 funerals last year, frequently 4 per day on the weekends!  Jorge needed a break!  He decided to take 100 days off and the Camino was the first part of that.  After 100 days, he thought that people would forget about him and that he wouldn’t be so busy when he started back up.  Besides, he would need the money after 100 days off.

Sam carrying the guitar

Leo, Sam and Krisz were all in transition.  Leo had done a 4 year apprenticeship in Germany learning to build organs.  She hadn’t been able to find a job in that field and was working as an accountant.  She decided to find a new job when she returned.  Sam (20) never went to university in the UK but went straight to work.  He had thought about joining the Royal Navy when he left school but had recently been thinking about joining the Coast Guard instead.  His challenge was that he was a little out of shape after working at a desk job for two years.  On the Camino, he met another Brit, Tim, who agreed to help him become a teacher of English as a second language.  That’s now Sam’s plan.

Leo playing guitar in O Cebreiro with Sam (sitting at the table)

Krisz is originally from Hungary however, he has traveled the world, going from one job/adventure to another for many years.  Anyway, Krisz kind of fell into the same general group of travelers as us about half-way through the trip.  He was quite an interesting character.  Most recently, he had been in London and before that, he had been in Africa as an AIDS counselor.  I never got the feeling that Krisz had many family connections or a group of friends other than who he was with at the moment.  In O Cebreiro, our group got together in one of the local bars and started singing songs.  (You need to know that 6 members of the group had gotten together and bought a guitar a few days earlier.  A full-sized guitar!  They were taking turns carrying it each day, strapped to their backpacks.)  We were having a great time and the other folks in the bar were having a good time listening and, sometimes, joining in.  Krisz announced that the next day was his 38^th birthday and he was inviting us to his “party”.  The next day Jacob and Michaeli decided that the group would cook a birthday dinner for Krisz in the next town.  We all stayed in the albergue in Triacastela that night, made various sorties out to find dinner supplies and then pitched in to make a grand dinner.  When the birthday cake (a Santiago Cake), complete with candles, came out, I thought that Krisz was about to cry.  I suspect that this was the first, heart-felt birthday party that he had had in some time.  It was a wonderful night!  As I write, Krisz is back in Kampala, Uganda working as an AIDS counselor.

Paul Mullen, and Krisz (with Liz) returning Liz's camera

None of the three above, Leo, Sam and Krisz, decided to change everything in their lives when the finished the Camino but they each, in their own way, found something along The Way that helped them figure out what they wanted to do when they returned to “the real world”.

Guy Butterworth is one of my favorites.  Liz has written a little about Guy in an earlier blog so I hope that I don’t repeat too much.  We first met Guy in Astorga.  He was staying in the same with us and one other man.  At first appearances, Guy seems like an absent-minded professor or Barney Fife from Mayberry, R.F.D.  He tends to shuffle around quickly and misplace things.  When we met him, he had lost his winter gloves (yes, it was that cold!) and he had to go out and find some others to buy.  Later that evening, we heard that he had purchased new gloves and then subsequently, found his old gloves.  He was happy, because his new gloves weren’t as good as his originals.

Over the weeks, this story replayed itself in variations over and over.  In the bar in O Cebreiro where we were having our aforementioned songfest, Guy came in and asked us if we had seen his stylus for his iPhone.  In the process of looking for his stylus, he lost his wallet, twice!  He found the wallet but not the stylus so it was off the shops once again.  A week later during Krisz’s birthday party, Guy was distraught.  He had lost the charger and headset for his iPhone.  You’ll have to read Liz’s earlier post to find out what happened in the end.

Guy, joining the party in O Cebreiro

The other side of Guy is why he was walking.  Fifteen years ago, Guy had read a book about the Camino and decided that he wanted to walk it when he retired.  He joined the U.K.’s Confraternity of St. James, of which we are also members.  He was working as a teacher of English in Japan at the time.  Unfortunately, when he retired, his mother was in ill-health and he couldn’t walk at that point.  Now, 15 years later, at age 74, Guy was getting his chance.  He started in St. Jean-Pied-de-Port a couple of weeks before us and was carrying all of his own gear.  He would have his backpack packed the night before and he would sleep in his clothes.  That way, he could be out early without disturbing others.  He wouldn’t really stop at all during the day because, as he would say, “I’m afraid that if I stop, I couldn’t get started again!”  Even though we were all looking out for him, he was traveling alone.  Except, that is, for his wife.  Guy would contact his wife at least a couple of times a day, by text and by Skype (hence the distress about losing parts of his iPhone kit).

Guy is just one of those genuinely, nice people.  He tends to be a little “buttoned up” and tries to keep to himself but his goodness comes through, anyway.  He was such an inspiration to all of us.  We lost touch with him about a week before Satiago but had heard from others that he was still plugging along.  He was the “lost” person that Liz and I most wanted to meet up with in Santiago.  At about 11:00 a.m. on our second day in Santiago, we spotted Guy, in full kit, across the square from the Cathedral.  What a burst of emotions as we ran across the square shouting his name!  We were all in tears hugging each other.  We have plans to meet Guy and his wife in New Jersey, “Exit 8A”, when we return to the States.

My last story is about Stella and Jacob.  Of all of the pilgrims, they were the ones that we walked with almost all the way across Spain.  They started a day after us, we met them on Day 5 and they entered Santiago the same day that we did.  Jacob and Stella were the nucleus of the group that we ended up associating with.

Jacob and Stella singing together in O'Cebreiro

Stella and Jacob had walked the Camino in 2009.  They met each other about half way across Spain and became friends.  After the 2009 Camino, they corresponded, Jacob from Indiana, Stella from Houston, Texas.  Romanced blossomed, Jacob moved to Houston and they were now engaged.  They got married May 18, two days after they returned to the U.S. and Stella graduated from medical school two days after that.  Like us, they were walking the Camino as a celebration – a celebration of their past Camino, their plans for the future and their love for each other.  It’s hard to top such a beautiful story as this!  They were and are loving and joyful people who simply embraced everyone they came across.

Thousands of folks walk the Camino every year.  Each one has a story.  Some walk because they need to.  They are hoping to solve some major problem.  We felt sorry for those folks.  Chances are, they will walk 800 km and still not find their solutions.  Others, like us, are walking as a celebration.  We felt incredibly lucky!  We had no prior expectations so everything that we gained or learned or decided was a bonus and a blessing.  A few pilgrims will “change everything” after their walk.  Some will be disappointed.  Most will rearrange their priorities and/or make a few, small but significant changes here and there.

None of us, however, will ever be the same again.

Cycling in the Loire Valley

Cycling through the Loire -- literally!

We stayed at the Parador Hotel in Santiago on our last night in Spain.  The next morning we caught the train to France and our next adventure – cycling in the Loire Valley.

We originally thought we might bring our bikes to Europe and make all our own arrangements for cycling in France.  The more we thought about this, the more difficult we decided it would be.  Getting our bikes to Europe was going to be expensive.  In addition, managing biking in France would be hard because neither of us speak French.  So, I started looking online for information on organizing a trip or for a tour (although generally Tom and I do not like being part of a tourist group and try to avoid tours as much as possible).  I discovered that many companies offer “self-guided” cycling tours in various parts of France.  These are individual tours where the company makes all the arrangements, and provides the bikes and the route.  Participants carry their gear and are responsible for getting themselves to the designated location each day.  This sounded ideal.  My internet searches led me to a local French company – Anjou Bike Center – that had an 11 day self-guided tour that looked like a great fit for our interests.

Let me just say that when I found Anjou Bike Center and its owners Claude and Jacqueline Blanchard, I found the gold standard.  Claude did all the communication and was great to work with.  From the start, he had a personal touch that we appreciated. 

Our tour lived up to all of our expectations.  We stayed at the most wonderful hotels and B&B’s and ate in the most fantastic restaurants.  Claude had personal relationships with all of the B&B’s, hotels and restaurants at which we stayed.  We would walk in, say our name, and the reception person would say “Oh, you are the guests of Claude!”  The red carpet would then be rolled out! 

We started our tour near Angers.  Claude picked us up at the train station and we headed for the Bike Center where Claude and Jacqueline have a B&B for their bike tour guests.  There Jacqueline cooked us a wonderful meal even though it was 9:00 p.m. by the time we got in!  For our first day we rode in the countryside near Saumur and returned to the Bike Center in the evening where we had a another wonderful home cooked meal by Jacqueline.  Did I add that both of these meals were accompanied by wonderful French wine!  This day gave us the chance to work out any kinks or issues with the bikes. 

On the second day we set off on our own.  For the next ten days we toured troglodyte caves, chateaus, gardens and spectacular countryside.  We stayed at B & B’s or small hotels and enjoyed fabulous French meals and wine each evening!  After the Camino we thought we had hit the big time – these accommodations and meals were definitely the lap of luxury.  And cycling 30k is fun but just not as rigorous as walking 25k.  So we were feeling lazy and pampered

The French countryside in the Loire is spectacular.  Spring and early summer flowers were out.  Strawberries were in season (Yum!) and the fields were green.  Our route took us through deserted back country roads or dedicated bike trails.  The Loire region has promoted bike tourism so everything is bike friendly, including the drivers.  On those occasions when we did have to ride on busier streets, we were amazed at how polite and respectful the French drivers were of the bikes.   

We visited chateaus at Breze, Chinon, Azay l’Rideau, Villandry, Chenenceaux, Cheverny, Chambord and Blois.  They were each incredible in their own unique ways!  One of the most interesting parts of the trip for me was seeing the troglodyte dwellings.  These are cave homes that developed during the 15^th -18^th centuries.  The rock in the Loire region is quite soft and it was often quarried in a way that created caves.  Then these cave were expanded creating massive underground networks.  Whole villages and towns thrived in the underground places. One of the chateaus – Breze – had more development underground than above ground – at one point 150 soldiers lived in the caves under the chateau!  Recently many of the caves have been re-developed and turned into modern homes!  I have to say that I can’t imagine living in a cave and found them chilly, dark and a little claustrophobic!  But they were also weirdly fascinating. 

Jacqueline & Claude Blanchard -- our fabulous tour directors!

We ended cycling at Blois and took the train back to the bike center for a final night at the B & B and a last home cooked meal by Jacqueline.  The next day Claude took us to the train station and we boarded the Eurostar for London.

I have posted Tom's pictures from France.  They are not yet captioned but ... here is the link: Cycling in France -- Tom's Pictures

Pilgrims to Tourists

Watching the sun set at the end of the world.

It has been some time since we have been able to update the blog.  We have been traveling and have had very little access to the internet.  So we have saved up a number of posts.  I hope we don’t overwhelm you!

We reached Santiago on the 8^th of May.  After celebrating with friends we made the last part of our pilgrimage by bus to Finistarre.  Cape Finistarre is the westernmost tip of Spain (and of mainland Europe).  Its name, Finistarre, translates to “world’s end,” and Medieval pilgrims often walked here truly believing it was the edge of the world.  It was an incredible place – a rocky headland that just out into the Atlantic Ocean. The only scenery is the curve of the horizon and an apparently endless seascape.  It is easy to see why early pilgrims thought they were at the edge of the world.

The day we were in Finistarre was warm, clear and brilliantly sunny.  Tom and I walked out to the cape and sat together for several hours watching the sun set and reflected on our experience of the past weeks. 

I wrote in my last post about the joy of finding pilgrim friends we thought we had  lost.  Well, the day we were celebrating in Santiago, our group walked into a pizza place for lunch after the pilgrim mass and Tom and I found one of the pilgrims we started walking with in St. Jean Pied de Port on 4/2 – Caroline, from Australia.  (Actually, she found us as we were walking to our table).  We had started the Camino walking with Caroline, her friend Mel, Dan, from Tennessee, and Dominic,  and a priest from the UK, until Pamplona.  In fact, the six of us crossed Ibaneta Pass together on the first day of the Camino.  They were among our first pilgrim friends. 

They walked on when we stayed to sightsee and Pamplona.  Tom and I often wondered how they were and whether we would see any of them in Santiago.  But we were certain that they would be gone by the time we got there – they were fast walkers and counting our sightseeing day in Pamplona, we had taken four extra days.  We assumed they would be far ahead of us.  So it was a wonderful surprise that Caroline spotted us.  She had finished the Camino a couple days before us and had been relaxing in Santiago.  Caroline caught us up on Mel, Dan and Dominic.  And we discovered that Caroline and another friend, Anne, who joined her for the last couple weeks of the walk, were heading to Finistarre the next day also. 

So, as we reflected on the rocks at Finistarre, we were joined by Caroline – one of our first pilgrim friends.  It seem like a very fitting conclusion to our journey. 

We stayed in Finistarre that evening and boarded the bus the next morning for Santiago. Tom and I were both struck with the sense that we were no longer pilgrims.  We were tourists.

Caroline, Tom and I at Cape  Finistarre