Transistion

Yesterday was a bittersweet day for us.  Yesterday was our last day in Greenwich.  We have packed everything up, moved our stuff to our friends Robin and Ruth’s house in Wembley and turned in our keys.  For three months, we have come and gone from our flat and we were starting to feel like it was “home”.  Countless trips in and out of the Greenwich train station traveling off to various far-flung corners of London and beyond.  But now it is over.  As we were leaving, we each had a little tear in our eye.  It felt like we were moving homes; and, I suppose we were.

But London isn’t giving us up without a fight!  As we pack our backpacks and repack our other stuff for temporary storage, London isn’t making it easy for us to leave.  Along with Easter, Friday and Monday are bank holidays and it is the end of term for most schools.  Lots of things are closed and the Metro has decided that this weekend would be a good time to work on the two lines that service Wembley.  That means no trains to Robin and Ruth’s house.  The one line (Jubilee) gets within 5 stations of Wembley but the rest of the way, we have to transfer to busses.  Yesterday, we needed to make two trips to Wembley and it took us 5-1/2 hours!

It’s also been quite cold in London (still!) and, apparently, quite cold and wet at the beginning point of our Camino.  Hmmm…  Oh well, too late to back out now!  This has been the coldest March in London for the past 60 years.  This morning, it was -5^oC (23^oF).  I guess London wanted to toughen us up!

We also weren’t quite done with London, today.  We had the pleasure of celebrating Easter in Westminster Abbey.  What a glorious experience, even if we didn’t get there in time to sit in the quire.  We were also able to scope out an alternate route to the train station for tomorrow.  We’ll have to walk a little farther but we can get to a tube line that is actually running.  Even at that, we will be walking out of the house at 7:30 a.m.  It ought to be “crisp”.

And so, today we close one wonderful chapter of our adventure and open another tomorrow.  We are excited and a little anxious but we think that we are ready!  It will be a little more challenging to post updates but we will whenever we can.  See you later!

Mom & Dad Barker in London

As I have mentioned, my parents stayed with us for two weeks earlier this month.  We had a wonderful time seeing London and travelling north together.

Many of you have never met my folks.  They live I Florida these days so they don’t make it to Idaho often.  They are both 78, very active and travel frequently.  But when they travel these days it’s by car, hotel, and small guided elder hostel tours.  Despite being a Girl Scout and leader, my Mom is not into camping and roughing it.  My dad is game for most things, but hates the cold and wind.  Even so, they have gone yurt camping with us on the beach in Oregon in December, and tent camping in the Bitterroots on the Lewis & Clark trail in the heat of summer.  So it did not seem like a stretch for the four of us to bunk in our two room flat for a couple of weeks.  In my mind it was the lap of luxury.  Our landlords loaned us a great double air mattress and we gave our bed to Mom & Dad.  My sisters both told my parents they were crazy and probably were taking bets on how many days the four of us would last together before mom and dad bailed to a hotel – well we showed them!

The two weeks they visited were the worst sustained bad weather we have had since arriving in London in January.  I don’t think the temperature rose above 40 degrees the entire time.  It rained almost every day.  And the wind was brutal.  (And as I mentioned my poor dad just hates the cold and wind!)  Still the four of us tromped all over the City with my Mom and I charging ahead and Dad and Tom trying to keep up.  We visited all the museums and maritime sights in Greenwich, went to the Portobello and Greenwich Markets, visited Parliament and watched the House of Commons and the House of Lords in session, and walked around Kew Gardens in the pouring rain.  Mom and Dad spent a day at Westminster Abbey and had a tour by one of the vergers (although they did not get our wonderful gymnastic verger).  I though Kew would be the highlight of the trip for my Mom.  Not.  It was so hard to enjoy in 35 degree, rainy and windy weather.

For me the two highlights of the trip were driving north to visit friends in Whitley Bay and visiting Hampton Court Palace.

As many of you know, my mother’s parents and my dad’s father were all born in England.  My maternal grandparents were from the Newcastle-upon-Tyne area and immigrated to the US in 1925.  On their own they would likely have stayed in Newcastle, but my two great uncles and my great grandparents had decided to emigrate to the US.  So my grandparents followed the family.  For both of my grandparents, England was always a special place where life was happy, the world was green, the hills were yellow with gorse, the buildings were ancient and beautiful, the sea was lovely, and the food was luscious!  And I have to add that anyone who thinks British food is bland or boring has not eaten true British food.  My grandmother was a fabulous cook and spent her days serving up the most wonderful food to her family – along with much love and a good dose of English lore.  She was one of the most important figures in my life and I think of her most when I am making pastry, gravy and Yorkshire pudding.  Every time I make these traditional English foods I do so in her honor!

My grandmother’s best friend and the maid of honor at her wedding was Gerald.  Even after moving to the US, grandma maintained a frequent sustained correspondence with Gerald.  My mother was named Geraldine after her.  On a trip with my grandmother in the 1970’s my mom met Gerald’s daughter Marjorie and her husband Bill.  Of course my mom knew all about the details of Marjorie’s life through Gerald letters to my grandmother – which were always described, discussed and repeated for the entire family.  Even I remember hearing about letters from Gerald as a young girl.  After the visit mom and Marjorie began to correspond, Marjorie and Bill visited my parents in the US and over the years a good friendship arose.  Marjorie and Bill are now 86 and the main purpose of our trip north to Whitley Bay (an old beachside resort on the North Sea just east of Newcastle) was to visit them.  It was wonderful to see them both.  We had tea and biscuits, Marjorie fixed us a wonderful salmon diner with a Trifle for desert on  the first night we were there, and they treated us to a very posh dinner out the second night.  Dad got a chance to sit and talk with Bill while Tom rested (he did all the driving which was hair raising) while Mom, Marjorie and I went shopping.  We walked on the waterfront and just enjoyed the place which also had figured large in my grandmother’s memories and stories of her girlhood.

On the way back to London mom and I conned Dad and Tom into detouring to Stoke-on-Trent where we could shop for discount china. For various reasons this part of the trip was ill fated.  The detour made the drive home very long.  Although my mom got what she was looking for (can’t mention it here as it’s a surprise for another family member), we did not have good directions and visited only one shop.  The traffic was intense through the midlands and to cap off the long day it poured for the whole second half of the trip back to London.  Still the trip north was fun and visiting Marjorie and Bill was lovely.

The last day of my parents visit was coincidentally the best weather.  We went to Hampton Court.  My mom had visited once in the 70’s with my grandmother but did not remember much.  The rest of us had not been there.  Henry VIII’s pleasure palace did not disappoint.  It was extravagant and loaded with interesting history that appealed to each of us.  The visit was a great conclusion to a wonderful time with my parents.

I’ve posted lots of pictures of my parent’s visit here: Mom & Dad in London

We only have six more days in London and will be busy getting re-packed and organized to take off on our Camino.  I hope the next post I make is from the walk. 

Liz

Ready to be on the Way!

My Credential

It has been a busy and very cold month of May in London!  My parents visited us March 6 - 20.  We had a wonderful time with them and I’ll write about their visit in a separate blog.  It is hard to believe that we have less than a week before we travel to France to begin our pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago.

We’ve been busily preparing for the journey.  I knew that we would not have much time between my parents’ visit and leaving for the Camino so I made a check list of things to do and to pack before they came.  One of the items on my list was to stop in at the Confraternity of St. James in London to obtain the “Credential” that will certify our status as pilgrims and will allow us to stay in the albergues (pilgrim hostels).  We will get it stamped at each alberugue and at many other stops along the Way.  The Confraternity is pretty much a volunteer group and their office is only open for three hours on Thursdays. So the day my parents visited Westminster Abbey, Tom and I thought we would check “get credential” off our list. 

The Confraternity of St. James is dedicated to supporting the Camino de Santiago and supporting pilgrims from the UK in their journeys.  We joined the organization last year because I knew we would be in London during the months prior to leaving for the walk.  We stopped by their office earlier this winter and got some good advice and general information about travelling to St. Jean Pied de Port where we will start walking.  But this visit was different -- getting, the Credential with our names made the journey seem much more imminent and portentous. 

After visiting the Confraternity, we took our new documents to the church of St. James Garlickhythe.  St James is a medieval church (rebuilt after the great London fire by Christopher Wren) that is closely associated with the Camino.  It is located along the Thames River in an area of central London that was known in medieval times as Garlic Hill.  From this spot, ships bringing garlic and other spices from France and Spain departed.  English pilgrims would often worship at St. James and then begin their journey to Santiago by “hitching a ride” on these ships.  The historic association between the Camino and the church has never ceased and many British pilgrims still officially start their Camino journey by obtaining a stamp from St. James.  We joined their ranks!.  I have to say that receiving the first stamp in our newly minted Credentials at such a historic place was quite emotional. All of a sudden, our Camino undertaking seemed very real!

Tom and I have been planning to travel to the South Downs National Park the weekend after my parents left in order to make a test run of our equipment.  The South Downs are only an hour and a half south of London by train.  The park is one of Britain’s newest and its key feature is a 100+ mile path called the “South Downs Way” as well as many other designated walking paths.  We thought we would be able to walk marked paths (so we didn’t have to constantly be consulting a map) and see a new part of England.  We did both of those things.  We also thought the weather at the end of March would be pretty good (temps in the 50’s).  On this score we were sadly wrong!  The UK is powering through the coldest March on record.  It snowed in most of the country while we were in the downs.  And while we missed the snow, the temperatures were between 34 and 40, it rained on Friday and on Saturday morning and the wind was brutal.  Tom says the trip was boot camp for the Camino with Mother Nature as our drill sergeant!  Yet it was a great trip -- we stayed in a wonderful B&B, ate some fabulous food and saw some wonderful sights.

Our B & B was in Alfriston – a very small village in the middle of the downs.  The parish church dates back to the 12^th Century and a number of the buildings along the high (main) street were built in the 13^th century.  After we trained down from London, we had to walk 5 miles from the station into Alfriston on Friday morning.  No sooner had we checked into our B & B and eaten lunch than the sun had disappeared and the rain had started.  We decided to scrap a longer walk and content ourselves with exploring town for the remainder of the afternoon.  We found a great watercolor by a local artist.  Getting it home was something of a challenge as we had walked in and planned to walk out of the park.  In the end, Tom strapped the wrapped and boxed art to his backpack  for our walk on Sunday – it worked like a parasail!  I also found a good English soup cookbook. I wanted it because I have been on a tour of British soups (they are often the most healthy choice for lunch out and I love soup) and I have decided that the Brits make the best and most diverse soups on the face of the earth! 

After our little shopping spree, on Saturday we struck out in the misty drizzle, for the Downs.  Wow!  We walked past the Long Man of Wilmington.  This is a figure, carved in the chalk slope of a steep hill.  It is over 200 feet tall.  It is believed to have been first created during the Bronze Age.  The figure has been outlined in chalk bricks so it is very visible.  Other than that, it appears as it did over 2000 years ago.  We also explored a couple of ancient churches built during Saxon and Norman times!  We had a great time for most of the day.  Toward the end, we encountered a lot of viscous, sucking English mud and decided to cut off the rest of the walk (if we never walk in deep mud again, it will be too soon!)

But Sunday was the pièce de rèsistance!  We walked along chalk cliffs on the south coast of England from Crucksmere Haven to Eastbourne.  This area is west of the famous white cliffs of Dover but just as scenic.  The cliffs and scenery were spectacular even in the windy, misty weather.  We walked through incredible winds.  During the first half of the day the sustained winds were probably about 25-30 mph with gusts possibly up to 40 mpg.  Nonetheless, with the spectacular surroundings this was invigorating!  After lunch the winds got a bit colder and heavier – possibly with gusts up to 50 mph!  There were definitely times when we both felt we could not stand against the wind!  We passed invigorating into brutal a few times!  Luckily these winds were not until the later part of our walk.  But we were definitely glad to reach our destination and get on our train back to London. 

We both did well carrying our full packs. Our waterproof clothing was truly waterproof.  We think we are ready for the Way!

Liz

Here are our pictures: Camino Preparations