Leon at last!

Leon Cathedral : Santa Maria de la Regla

What must the pilgrims of old have made of such a cathedral as this?  After walking all those miles across the Pyrenees and through Pamplona to Logrono and Burgos - all three with magnificent cathedrals which must have transported them to heaven, they arrive here in Leon and enter a palace of light beyond all their imaginings.  Built between the C13 - C15, Santa Maria de la Regla  has 1,800 square meters of stained glass which take the breath away, no less for those pilgrims of yore than for us 21C visitors with our access to the internet and our comfortable footwear and easy-dry clothing.  We often think in awe of those who went before us with so many greater difficulties than we experience.

My walk is over!  Last night I stayed at the big municipal hostel near the cathedral,  in a room for 18, linked to similar dorms in the old Benedictine monastery inide the ancient city walls.  Having walked about 20 kms I slept soundly til 6.00, oblivious of snores or rustlings.  This evening I stay at another converted monastery but this one in great luxury, feeling the need for some privacy and space! A chance to spread out my things and get really clean! Check it out here : http://www.hotelrealcolegiata.es/ 

I will be sorry not to reconnect with the wonderful people met along the Way, but many edresses have been exchanged and the memories will remain.  It has been a very special time and will long be treasured.  Thank you all so much once again for the amazing response to the charity appeal.  You have all been remembered and prayed for during the days on the path, and at various masses.  Now I will bustle out into the warmth of another sunny day and visit some of the wonderful treasures of this city which was founded by the Romans in 29BC.  Tomorrow I catch an afternoon train to Bilbao and on Saturday fly home via Dublin.  I will publish a final picture post in a week or so when I get a chance to download my own photos.

Buen Camino to you all.  Hasta luego!

Peregrina sola

Pilgrim statue, Mansilla de las Mulas

Hello at last to all to all you faithful followers - I am online and active!

I didn´t expect to get a chance to update the blog until arriving in Leon, but here at Mansilla de las Mulas, where I began my Camino Frances in 2010,  there is a wonderful albergue with excellent facilities, and so the story so far can continue!  As I mentioned in my mail, it´s been lonely without Frank but I have never wanted for company and have enjoyed taking my time each day and having good rests whenever needed.  The first few days after he left were wet and windy, but since Thursday there has been nothing but clear skies and sunshine, with soothing breeze in the afternoons to temper the heat.  I have met up with lots of people from all over the world, and move from conversing in French to Spanish or English at will.  There is a wonderful almost-75-year-old from Paris whose roots are Vietnamese and we often have dinner together.  He began his Camino in Vezelay in northern France and is going all the way to Santiago - quite a feat.  He and I are often walking at the same pace, though he has got ahead in the past day or so.  There are two lovely college graduates from Utah who cheer me up when flagging, and many other young people who are solicitous for my well-being : it's all part of the wonderful camaraderie of the Camino.

My lodging has been a series of albergues or hostels, most of them run by the municipalities of the towns and villages along the way, and some by voluntary groups associated with the Camino.  Even though I usually don't arrive until after 6.00 pm there has always been a bed available, and after the less than perfect sleeps of the first few days,  now I am asleep almost as soon as my head touches the pillow, which is probably not surprising after walking averages of 20km per day with a 5k load.  Earplugs keep any extraneous noises at bay - especially the snoring which many complain of : I haven't heard any for days now.   Getting the washing done is a bit trickier.  Because I arrive so late and am usually hungry, there is little time to get the few possessions washed and dried, so my backpack becomes a traveling clothesline during the day!

For the past week the terrain has been very flat which helps a lot as there are no climbs.  Huge fields of ochre earth are being ploughed and planted with cereals at present, and while the little villages seem quite poor the quality of farm machinery is very high.  I have seen many storks' nests on the church towers, but only one resident, which is apparently quite late - he or she must have missed out on the migration.  Many of the older buildings in this area of Leon are made of adobe and use very little wood, though bricks are used today.

There is a great sense of celebration this evening as I feel I have truly completed the Camino Frances - in Spain at least!  Tomorrow I will be in Leon with its wonderful cathedral, and as I am a day earlier than I expected there will be plenty of time to explore the treasures of this city.  I will give a description of what I find while there.

We reach Burgos

What an amazing few days we have had since last committing fingers to the keyboard!  The countryside has been glorious, getting sparser in vegetation as we moved out of the rolling vineyards of Rioja into the huge ploughed wheat fields of Castile with magnificent mountain chains stretching away in the distance.  Kites and eagles were frequent sights, together with the deep throated ravens which always link me to my dad.  We have met wonderful people along the route, young and old (up to 75 yrs), travelling alone or in groups, carrying their packs or having them transported by willing taxi.  We have stayed at big municipal albergues with almost all mod cons, and smaller village ones within ancient buildings - all with warm welcomes and help for the tired pilgrim.  We have even been locked out by forgetting our shut-down time, so good was the food and company (to say nothing of the wine!).  Frank had the inspiration to get the best shot of our little group of miscreants to toss coins at the upstairs dormitory window, and a kindly Spanish girl got out of her bunk to let us in!

We have visited ancient village churches plain and fancy - most of their interiors blindingly bright with golden retablos when a ray of sunshine comes through the high windows, or when under the full blare of lights at mass times.  Most of these churches along the Camino Frances were build as fortresses against the Moors - and many of them take their Romanesque design from the Benedictine monastery at Cluny.  The Camino itself became a defence wall and propaganda machine which enabled huge investment in the construction of hospitals (pilgrim refuges) and churches.  Whether the bones dug up under the Compostella (Field of Stars or Cemetery?) could possibly be those of St James or a fortuitous fabrication of the powers of the time remains conjecture!

At last I have experienced the Camino grief of blisters, but thankfully only one and it's getting much better.  Otherwise our health has been excellent, and despite the long days we are pretty fresh.  Tonight we have treated ourselves to yet another hotel (with pilgrim and pensioner discount applied!) as Frank leaves early in the morning by train for Valencia via Madrid, so we have to celebrate our 11 days on the road.  Plus I can dump some of my gear on him and lighten my load for the 10 days that remain my lot.   We are a few minutes walk from the magnificent Gothic cathedral of Burgos and will attend mass there this evening before sampling the culinary delights of this gastronomic and ecclesiastical capital of Castile.  Although as they say in Spanish : mas vale pan con amor, que pollo con dolor (bread with love is worth more  than chicken and sorrow).  I will miss my forerunner who strides ahead to ensure I have a bunk at the end of the road - but no doubt the Lord and Santiago will ensure I don't have to sleep in a field or hay barn when I limp in last to my destination.  Temperatures have become much better for walking and this helps a lot.

Thanks again for your continuing interest and wonderful support - it makes  the hard times to much easier!  Sorry there are no pictures to share as the computer I am using will only let me open one window at a time, and the required technology to get around this problem is beyond me!

Please keep in your hearts and prayers yet another young cancer sufferer who has need of our concern.  Hasta la proxima.

Getting into our stride

Each day´s walking becomes a little easier than the last as we pace ourselves and enjoy the amazing countryside around us here in Navarre.  Yesterday we had barely left Estella when we came upon the Bodega of Irache where the Benedictines had established a monastery in the ninth century and produced wines and provided hospitality to the pilgrims en route to Santiago. 

Benedictine monastery of Irache and the Bodega Irache in the foreground

Not slow to the potential marketing benefits of this tradition the winery still offers hospitality in the form of free wine issued from a fountain : naturally we fortified ourselves (very moderately!) for the day ahead and partook of same.  You can check out their webcam here  and see for yourself!
http://irache.com/fuente-del-vino.php

Our path veered into delightful woodland and it was so pleasant to walk on pine needles and soft ground as there has been a lot of harsh surface under our boots since we started.  Good too to take a break at lunchtime and lie in the grass observing the birds who are normally so shy.  Later in the afternoon we would come across the first animals we had seen since starting out - a herd of 300 sheep grazing on sparse weeds around the harvested wheat fields,  their shepherd keeping a watchful eye.  Today we met another shepherd who turned out to be from Morocco - there are many migrant workers in this area.  He told us he walks them up to 20kms a day in search of sufficient fodder.

We chatted with a vineyard owner who was overseeing the contract wine harvester - a huge contraption which clears the rows of vines and spews them into waiting trailers.  He told us that for him this was cheaper and less complicated than employing workers - so the machine has  replaced the pickers of yore.  My sister Sue spent some memorable weeks in France many years ago picking grapes - perhaps some similar work still exists through woofing?

Our albergue of yesterday was a busy and noisy one, and our sleep was not the best, so this evening I am writing from a very pleasant hotel in the hilltop town of Viana, where we are allowing ourselves the comfort of spreading out our things and soaking in a very welcome bath or two.  It means I don´t have to go to the local library to update this blog, and we can enjoy home comforts for another night!  We did intend to go to the pilgrim hostel, but it is closed and so we are here instead!

As in all these little towns the parish church is of huge proportions, dates from the 11C and is resplendent in gold and silver. The tourist picture will give you some idea of the richness : unfortunately we missed evening mass here but yesterday Frank received a pilgrim blessing at the evening mass in Los Arcos - another magnificent church with equally majestic interior.

And so, shriven, washed and well fed, we shall retire to our comodious quarters but promise we will be back on the strait and narrow tomorrow!  Frank cut two stout cherrywood staffs on our second day on the road, and with these we can manage the many steep ups and downs that are part and parcel of the Camino in these parts.  Our destination is another hilltop town of Navarette (some 21 kms from here), passing through the capital of the Rioja region, Logrono, which was the gastronimic capital of Spain in 2012 : anyone for lunch?



And with all that, I had better sign off.  Thanks for all your interest and support along the miles - you can presume we are not wasting away...

On the road!

Nuestra Senora de Eunate, Navarre

It hasn´t been easy to have access to decent internet for the past three days, but this evening we are in a moderately large town with friendly library, and so there is time to bring you all up to date on the actual walk itself.  We started out on Saturday morning while it was still relatively dark, and finally found a cafe open where we could get the necessary caffeine jolt to bring us up 340 metres though the surrounding hills and past ancient pueblos to the tiny town of Ortega where we thankfully arrived quite early and lodged for the evening in the one and only albergue - thankfully not too crowded so Frank and I at least had lower bunks which we didn´t have to share with others. We slept very soundly and were quite happy to have a lie in as Sunday´s walk was to be extra short.  We had discovered by chance that the nearby 11th C octagonal chapel of Nuestra Senora de Eunate was having its annual Fiesta with special mass followed by a concert,  and a short easy walk brought us there in good time.  A further 5kms and we reachd Puente la Reina our destination that night with big municipal Albergue run by the Redemptorist fathers where things were not quite so spacious, and we were 8 in 4 bunks in a pretty small room but luckily we elders had the pick of the berths once more.  I heard practically all of the church bells til 4.00 this morning, so tonight, happy with our first reasonable 24km hike, we have booked into a simple hotel and will have an extremely good sleep after discovering some more of Estella, an ancient pilgrim town with wonderful old buildings and
this lovely mediaeval bridge. 

The weather has been really good for walking with following breeze and relatively low temperatures.  Grapes and figs grow near the path, and little villages provide welcoming bars for coffee or something stronger.  Now we have come to terms with new boots and our loads, and will try to keep up the 22km daily average. We thank you all again for being with us and will try to keep the updates fairly frequent.

Iglesia San Sepulcro, Estella

We have begun!

After a long but very scenic train journey through mountains and plain, with groves of oranges and olives, we finally arrived at the noble city of Pamplona at 8.00 pm and walked to our spacious albergue where we were warmly received and given bunks in a secluded area where we could dump the backpacks before finding a wonderful turn-of-the-century restaurant for a very ample and deliciious Menu del Dia - the Pilgrim´s life is a hard one!  This is one of the few hostels where shut-down is not until 11.00 so we were able to enjoy the lively Friday-night ambiance in the old historic centre.

The night´s sleep was not the best one ever - this place accommodates more than 200 people and while it is beautifully laid out the sounds pretty well carry, and so the champion snorers were quite audible throughout the night,  and the early risers started with great eclat and loud banging at about 4.45!  Nothing for it but to get up early ourselves even though we are just planning a fairly short walk of about 15kms today - though the fact that it will be mostly uphill will make it seem longer!

Sorry not to have pictures to prove we are here but somehow my camera got left behind, so you will all just have to take it from the horse´s mouth and hopefully we will be able to paint a picture in words rather than images.  Thanks again one and all for your amazing support and we will get back soon with an account of the actual walking!

Overwhelming support

A huge go raibh maith agaibh to all you amazing supporters who have already pledged over €600 before either Frank or I set booted foot on the path!  It's a truly amazing response and we are sincerely grateful.  Our backpacks are full, Tango is about to be hauled out of the water for the winter, and we are making the final preparations to leave the marina on Friday morning and head for Pamplona by bus and train. We have had a lot of rain, thunder and lightning in the past week, and have had to resort to putting a big tarpaulin over the coach roof to keep dry below deck.  Hopefully we won't get such a soaking along the Way!    Support Cancer Research 

Cloisters at Santiago Cathedral (Wikipedia)