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

Santiago! Unbelievable, Indescribable High

We arrived in Santiago de Compostela yesterday at about 2:00 pm.  I don´t know if I can capture how we feel but I will try!

The last two days of walking were the hardest for me.  I got the stomach flu that is moving through the group of pilgrims we have been walking with.  I remembered our pediatrician´s advice when the kids were sick -- the BRAT diet -- bananas, rice, applesauce, toast.  So the next day I managed to get a banana and some toast down for breakfast.  Needless to say, I felt pretty wiped out and our ¨short¨ 20 k might as well have been 40k.  Even yesterday when we started our last day´s walk I was still shaky, but feeling better.

The walk into Santiago was incredibly emotional.  I don´t know if I ever let myself think about finishing the Camino because it seemed so daunting.  Tom and I were both pretty quiet for most of the morning and we both cried a good bit as we got closer to the city.  (Yes ... Tom was crying too -- it wasn´t just me!)  Entering the Gate of Santiago was incredible.  At first we didn´t realize that we were actually at the Cathederal!  I think we both felt an incredible sense of awe as we walked into the Cathedral and just sat in one of the pews -- I don´t think either of us knew what we were feeling at that moment.  After a few minutes we began to wander around the cathedral with the other pilgrims and tourists, both sobbing.  After a while, we went to the Pilgrim´s office to get our official ¨compostela¨ certifying that we had completed the pilgrimage.  There I could hardly speak and Tom was not in much better shape.  When the official asked if we had walked the whole way, we both just nodded through our tears.  Was he kidding??  One woman next to us actually stuck her booted foot up on the counter in answer to that question!  One absolute highlight was that we got to see the botafumeiro at the evening mass we attended!  Tom has a video of the whole thing.

We have had such joyful moments yesterdy and today as we have celebrated with our fellow pilgrims and as we have been reunited with pilgrims we had become separated from and thought we would not see again.

For me, one story captures many of our feelings.  In Astorga we shared a room in the albergue with an older man from New Jersey -- Guy.  He was there before us and we first met him when he shuffled into the room in a complete frazzle, briefly acknowledged our introduction and told us he was Guy and then left in a rush saying he had lost something.  Needless to say, Tom and I though he was a pretty odd duck.  Later when he returned he explained that he had lost his gloves and had to find new ones.  The thing is, shortly after he returned with the new gloves, he found his ¨lost¨ gloves.

We got to talking and learned that Guy is 74 and began walking on March 19 in St. Jean.  He taught English in Japan for many years until his retirement.  He told us he had wanted to walk the Camino for fifteen years and had planned to do so when he retired.  Unfortunately his mother was ill at that time and he could not leave.  So, at 74, he finally had the time to walk.

We met Guy off and on for the next several days as he stayed at the same albergues with us, We rarely walked with him because he would sleep in his clothes for the next day and get up at 6 and start.  He told us that he never took breaks because he was afraid he would not keep going once he stopped.

Over these days we became good friends.  Guy quickly got to know the other walkers travelling along with us and got absorbed into our group.  Guy´s forgetfulness became legendary.  In O Cebreiro, he lost the stylus for his smart phone (and this time her really lost it) and left his wallet in the bar twice when he was trying to look for the stylus!  He got the wallet back as by that time, everyone was looking out for him.

But a few days ago, his forgetfulness took a bad turn.  He lost the charger and headphones for his phone -- and they were good and lost.  None of us could find them.  It turns out Guy texts and skypes with his wife in New Jersey several times every day.  The phone is like a lifeline for him and he needs the headphones to hear his wife.  It´s not unusual for him to text her about menu items to ask her to find out what is in them before he orders.  He was incredibly upset about the loss.  But he was also upset with himself for losing yet another item.  Nothing we could say helped, and he left the albergue the next morning almost in tears.  That was the last time we saw Guy until today.

We knew he was okay and that he got a new charger and headphones, because others saw him along the way.  But the whole transaction put him about a half day behind us.

Today as we waited for our group to gather to go to the pilgrim mass, Jacob spotted Guy across the square in front of the Cathedral.  Tom, Jacob and I took off running to greet him.  Below I have attached the picture Tom took.  Guy, Jacob and I are laughing and crying.  It was an incredible moment.  The victory of making the walk, the support and friendship of fabulous people, the weight of a thousand years of history, the faith that moved through many of us,  all these were present when we could celebrate the Camino with Guy!  All of us almost broke down then and there.

Tomorrow Tom and I are off to Finisterre -- known to medieval europeans as the end of the world.   Its  the westernmost point in Europe and the tradition has arisen for pilgrims to walk or bus there to burn their boots or some other item from their walk and to watch the sun set on the Atlantic ocean with friends.  We are staying the night and will return to Santiago on Saturday when we are rewarding ourselves with a night at the Parador Hotel.  It's not the one Martin Sheen and his crew stayed in for ¨The Way¨, (the movie Parador was in Leon) but just as good!  We decided that we needed to wait until we had finished for this splurge!  Sunday we are off for France.  We will keep you posted.

Liz

So Close to Santiago!

We are in Palas de Rei this evening and we will be in Santiago de Compostela on Wednesday afternoon.  It is hard to believe we are so close.

Our walk through Galicia has been incredibly beautiful.  The area is know for its rain, but the weather has been warm and sunny for us so far.  It is an area of hills, wildflowers and farms (we worry much more about cow pies than mud when we are walking).  Everywhere we turn, crosses have been erected along the way.  Some are very old (14th-16th century) and some are new (yesterday).

We have had some interesting food experiences here.  One of the local foods is octopus or, as it is known here, pulpo.  It is so good!  Rabbit is also common and while Tom likes rabbit, I have trouble eating Peter.  The other day I ordered an empanada for lunch.  This is a thin pie that is usually filled with cheese, meat and sauce.  I thought mine was filled with chicken.  Weirdly, the chicken had bones -- lots of small bones -- including a jaw bone with teeth (discovered by Tom)!  Yikes!  We had lots of very unappetizing speculation about what exactly the meat in the empanada was until Jacob (who speaks fluent Spanish), asked the bar owner and was told that it was ... rabbit.  So sad but better than some of our speculation!

I have mixed feelings about the end of our journey.  On the one hand I think we will feel an incredible sense of accomplishment and a huge sense of joy when we finally walk up to the Cathedral in Santiago.  I try to imagine the euphoria and I cannot!  We are so looking forward to arriving with all the people we have been walking with.  I know we will meet some people we have walked with who have gotten ahead of us and I am looking forward to seeing them again.  We will go to the mass for pilgrims with many of our fellow walkers on Thursday which is Asencion Day.  Since it is a holiday we are hopeful that the priests will swing the huge sensor during the service.  I get emotional anytime I think of our arrival.  I am not sure I believed I could walk 800 km.  I know that I did not let myself think about finishing the Camino until recently.  I have concentrated on experiencing each day.

On the other hand, finishing means that we will have to return to the real world of cares and responsibilities,  a world of inequities and inequalities.  While we have walked we have been freed from all of these concerns.  I wrote before about the incredible feeling of knowing that our only task each day is to walk.  In addition we will leave the wonderful people we have come to know so well as we have walked.  I know we will keep in touch with some of these folks.  But we will lose track others who touched our walk as soon as we leave Santiago.


Buen Camino,

Liz

Almost to Galicia!

At La Cruz de Ferro

We have just walked over the Montes de Leon and are about to enter the Spanish province of Galacia.  It is hard to believe that we have been walking for 29 days and that we have only 8 more days of walking until we arrive at Santiago!

The evening after our 30k walk to Astorga, we stayed in a small village called Rabanal del Camino.  It was a beautiful but chilly day.  When we got to Rabanal, we stopped for a late lunch in the sun and as we sat and ate, clouds gathered and snow began to fall!  The albergue in Rabanal is run by the British Confraternity of St. James, an organization we joined in preparation for the walk.  It was a great place -- they even served tea and biscuits (cookies) at 5 in the evening -- so civilized.  We added a bunch of new Peregrinos to our list of friends as we all sat around drinking tea and exchanging stories or our walks.  After supper we went to Compline at a very small monestery (3 monks) across the street from the albergue.  It was an emotional service, filled with pilgrims and ending with a pilgrim blessing.

The next day (Sunday) was one of the most emotional of our journey.  We walked up to La Cruz de Ferro, the highest point on the Camino at 1550 meters (about 5500 ft).  When we left the albergue at 7:00 am, it was a clear and very cold morning with temps at -4C (about 25F).  But we were invigorated.  The sun came up and it was just a beautiful day.  At La Cruz de Ferro, a cross has been erected and the tradition established that each pilgrim places a stone from her or his home at the base of the cross -- a small bit of each of us left at this desolate place in Spain.  I brought a small peice of polished basalt that Carolyn and Christian gave me when they were very young.  After I placed it and said my prayer, I thought, ``I am standing on a pile that contains a bit of Carolyn that she left when she stood in the same spot in 2009.´´  Tom placed five Idaho garnets at the cross -- one for each of his parents, for Carolyn and Christian, and for me.  It was an incredible moment for both of us!  

After La Cruz de Ferro, we began a long and very difficult descent of about 1100 meter (in about 7k) to a small town called Molinaseca.  The trail was very steep and rocky.  When we got to the bottom we were pretty wrecked!  We got through our chores and made plans to eat the pilgrim menu at the only restaurant in town open on Sunday.  We ended up at a fabulous meal with some of our very best camino friends including Jacob and Stella, the young couple we have been walking with, and friends from Germany, Hungary, the UK, Canada, Poland and Italy.  It was a funny and crazy meal as we all tried to communicate and somehow managed to get each other most of the time.

Yesterday was a hard day for both of us.  After the steep descent of the day before and our raucus dinner, we were both pretty tired.  Today was better as we began our walk up into the mountains toward Galicia.  It was beautiful.  We walked through the vinyards of El Bierzo, past meadows teaming with wildflowers and through chestnut orchards.  We are staying at an albergue filled with friends again tonight and have plans to watch some big soccer match on the TV at the ajacent bar.  I could care less about the soccer but I know the gathering will be fun!.

Tomorrow we will walk O´Cebriero.  We are both thinking of Carolyn as this place was one of her favorites.

Liz

(The picture is of Tom and me at La Cruz de Ferro on Sunday.)

The Longest Day -- 31km!

We are in Astorga tonight after walking our longest day of the Camino.  The official walk today was 31 km (about 18.5 miles).  After walking around town to see the sights today we have logged amost 35 km!  According to my pedometer we have done over 55,000 steps.  My WW friends will appreciate that according to the pedometer I have earned 22 activity points today (and the pedometer does not know that I have been walking up and down hills and that I was carrying at 15 lb. pack!)   In any case, we are doing very well but we are very tired.  I know we will both sleep well tonight -- we could have the worst snorer in the world next to us and I don´t think we would know it!

For the past two weeks (since Burgos) we have been walking through a high plateau area.  The first part of which is known as the meseta.  It was an agricultural area with (surprise) lots of mesas.  It was beautiful.  Then we entered an area known as the tierra del campos.  This too was beautiful but was a bit like walking across Nebraska.  Its actually hard to walk when there is no geographic diversity.  Plus the walking trails in this section tended to be packed gravel or paved.  Today we started back into the mountains and we are so glad to be back in the hills.

Two days ago we were in Leon.  It was an absolutely beautiful city and the Cathedral was luminous.  We really enjoyed it.  We treated ourselves to a hotel which happened to have a water spa, so we spent 90 minutes in the spa pool, jacuzzi, sauna and hot beds.  It was a great treat.

We have met many wonderful people on the Camino from an unbelievable number of countries.  So far we have met folks from Vietnam, Aruba, Panama, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Germany, Italy, France, the UK, Ireland, Austraila Hungary, the US, Canada and of course, Spain.   Yesterday we met another Idahoan -- a student at BSU who is thinking about law school (Gee can I get my camino expenses reimbursed if I do a little student recruiting while walking ?  Hmmm.....).

We met a guy from russia who has lost 75 kilos of weight (more than me) and the two of us really enjoyed talking about our weight loss experiences.  Two of our favorite pilgrims are two young americans with a great story.  They walked the camino in 2009 and met during their walk.  After returning to the states they corresponded (he was in Indiana and she was in Texas).  He decided to move to Texas so they could date two years ago.  They will be married on May 17, two days after they finish walking the Camino!

I will tell you some more great Camino stories when I am a bit less tired.  For now, I will sign off with

Buenos Noches,

Liz

Hard to Believe We Are Halfway to Santiago!

Hi All,

We are writing tonight from Terradillos de los Templarios, which is the halfway point between St. Jean Pied de Port (where we started) and Santiago.  We are having the time of our lives!

I thought I would tell you about a typical day in the life of these two peregriños.  We usually wake up about 6:15 or so.  Sometimes we wake earlier (if there are rude people in our dorm room) -- but most of the pilgrims are really respectful so we usually get to sleep until 6:15.  We get up quietly in the dark, get dressed and take our stuff to the common room to pack so we don´t disturb the late sleepers.  If the albergue has a kitchen or a microwave (which most do) we like to heat some water, make tea and have some fruit before we leave about 7 or so.  If there is no kitchen we leave a little earlier and try to stop for breakfast at the first bar or cafe we come across.

During the time we have been walking we have met up with a number of pilgrims who are moving at the same pace as we move.  When we heat our tea at the albergue, we usually sit with Michelle and Marie-Claude, from France.  If we go to a cafe we almost always run into Josef, DeeDee and Marie from Holland.

We walk for a couple of hours and at about 10:30 or 11 we like to take a mid morning break.  We often stop at a cafe for tea and, my favorite, -- cafe con leche (basically a latte).  We are almost never alone at this break.  Like me, Josef, our Dutch friend, loves cafe con leche and we can usually count on seeing him and his two colleagues even if we did not see them at breakfast.  Lots of times we also stop and shop at this break.  We like to buy bread, cheese, bi-fruitas (more on these later), nuts, fruit, and dried fruit for our lunch supplies.

After the mid morning break we usually walk until sometime between 12:30 and 1:30 depending on where the most convenient stop is.  Tom and I tend to eat lunch on our own (although our various fellow travellers often greet us as they pass).  I mentioned our typical lunch supplies above.  The Bi-fruitas I mentioned are these great drinks we have found that are a combination of milk and fruit juice.  They come in a wax paper-foil container like a kids drink and although it seems like the milk would curdle, it doesn´t.  They are very refreshing and come in flavors like tropical and meditereaneo.

After lunch we usually walk to our desitnation albergue and arrive sometime between 2 and 3.  If we still have a long walk, we might also stop for coke or more cafe con leche before we get to our stop depending on how we feel.

At the albergue, we shower and get organized for the next day.  We usually wash our clothes by hand (in cold water) and hang them outside to dry.  About once a week, we try to stay at an albergue that has a laundry service where we can pay about 7 euros, hand the hospitaliero all our dírty clothes and get them back a few hours later clean and dry!

After laundry we most often walk around town, find the shops, a spot for dinner and to visit the local sights (usually the church).  We often will stop to sit at an outdoor cafe with others and relax.  Our favorite late afternoon companions are Jacob and Stella from the US.  I have to say there is almost nothing better than sitting in the Spanish sun about 4 in the afternoon drinking vino tinto (red wine) or cerveza (beer).  Life is good!  This is also the time we scope out our route for the next day, figure out whether we need any supplies, organize pictures.  I also use this time to write in my journal.

About 7 or 7:30 we like to go to a local bar or restaurant that serves a "pilgrim menu".  This is a great deal.  the typical menu consists of three courses (including dessert), wine and bread.  We pay anything from 7.50 to 12 euro each for the whole meal.  Usually the choices for each course are limited to two or three things.  Typically we might have ensalada (a green salad often with tuna fish) for a starter.  The main course will consist of pork, stewed beef, some kind of chicken and chips.  Our favorite dessert is flan which is ubiquitous here.  We usually sit with other pilgrims at dinner.  Sometimes the tables are big with 8 or 10 and other times they are small.  No matter what, the company is good.

When we finish dinner at 8:30 or 9 we head back to the albergue and are usually in bed deaming by 9 or 9:30.

I will write later about some of the people we have met.  To a person they are wonderful and we are loving their stories.  For example, today we ran into a Russian guy who has lost 75 kilos in weight (I lost about 67 to put his loss in perspective).  Needless to say we had a lot to talk about!  The group of fellow travellers is constantly changing yet stable.  Some people we have loved we have never seen again.  Others we don´t see for a couple of days and then out of the blue there they are again.  Still others seem to move along at our pace.

We are three days walk from Leon where we plan to stay at a nice hotel and take an extra day of rest and to sight see.  I suspect that will be the next time we write.  We have decided that we cannot keep on uplading all our pictures as the internet connections we get are not fast enough and often the software is antiquated.  We will put up an edited slide show later this spring after we have time to get it together.  In the meantime, Tom took the picture with this post at dinner a week ago or so.

Buen Camino,

Liz

300 K Down, 500 to Go!

Hi Everyone,

Sorry it has been so long since we posted.  We have either not had access to the internet or the connection was too antiquated to access Blogger!

We are in Burgos tonight.  As with past posts, we will do our best to add photos but uploading takes a lot of time so we are posting this message first.

The last I wrote we were staying in Viana and Tom had pulled a muscle in his back trying to pull a wine cork with the cork screw on our Swiss Army knife.  We thought he was doing better, but he reinjured his back at our albergue in Viana.  It had three teir bunks and getting into the middle bunk turned out to be an acrobatic act.  To make matters worse, we purchased some ibuprofen at a Farmicia and got these huge 600 mg pills.  They helped with the back pain but really upset Tom´s stomach.  The long and short of it is that we slowed down a bit and today was the first day Tom has felt 100%.  I am really glad to have him back up to snuff! 

Despite Tom´s back and upset stomach, we have been having a great time.  After Viana we stayed at a wonderful albergue in Navarette -- clean comfy and quiet.  We also went to mass at the church there and had a real treat.  The preist did a pilgrim blessing at the end of the service.  Then he invited us all to the sacristy and showed us all of the treasure of the church ( which were many).  The church itself was incredible --  it had a huge gilt altarpeice -- larger than most we had seen and also had some beautiful art and treasures. 

The next day was the worst for Tom so we made it short and stopped in Najera.  There we stayed in a very nice hotel.  This allowed Tom to rest and soak his back in a nice bath tub.  The hotel was nice and the rest was also good for Tom.

From Najera we walked to Santo Domingo de Calzada.  This was another delightful small town and I had a fun experience here.  I needed to go to the Farmacia to get sun screen (yes, the weather has really warmed up!).  The hospitaliero (the albergue worker) asked his friend to show me the way.  They guy spoke no english but we managed to communicate and he walked me to the store.  I got my sun screen and lo and behold, the guy had waited for me.  He asked if I wanted to go get a cup of cafe con leche (yum) and although I was sùrprised, I couldn´t forgo the treat so off we walked.  After coffee at the local bar and hangout (at which I was introduced to all the patrons), he walked me around town explaining what a great place it was and how much better small towns were than big cities.  Eventually he walked me back to the albergue.  I think he was flirting a bit but it was really fun to get the personal tour!  Tom was jealous.  We also enjoyed a fabulous community meal with friends from Canada, France & Germany.

From Santo Domingo we headed to Belorado.  It was a spectacular, warm day and we had a great walk.  Tom was starting to return to himself also.  In Belorado, we stayed in a small private albergue run by a very friendly guy from Brazil, Fernando, who was almost certainly gay.  He was funny and warm.  We ate dinner at the restaurant at the albergue with folks from South Africa.  We also go the best night of sleep we have had. 

The next day also dawned sunny and warm.  We walked to San Juan de Ortega, where we stayed in an albergue that was part of a monestery.  The town had a population of about 20 and was out in the middle of nowhere.  It has had an albergue for hundreds of years.  Again we had a community meal, this time with friends from France and Germany.  We tried a new food too -- mocilla -- blood sausage.  Yum!  Who knew?

Today we walked to Burgos where we have visited the cathedral and are getting ready to go to dinner.

Tom commented this morning that he felt like he did when we were first married -- no worries, no responsibilities.  We just get up in the morning and walk.  We eat when we want, and stop when we are tired.  It is so relaxing and freeing.  We also have been so lucky that we have not suffered from blisters or other foot problems so we are not sore or overly tired.

Also there is something incredibly communal and levelling about the Camino.  All we have is on our back.  Everyone is in the same boat.  We don´t walk with any of the trappings of status or jobs.  And everyday we meet and talk to new people. 

We will write again when we can and we will add pictures to this post as soon as possible.

Buen Camino,

Liz