Category: Posts

Here´s an update on the last week or so. Sorry that it is so long
between emails. Our days are busy, what with getting up with the sun,
preparing for the day, walking, walking, walking, arriving at our
destination for the day, recovering, and taking care of business –
like laundry, food, blisters, etc. Then it´s bed time so that we can
be ready to do it all again the next day!

Day 3
We walked from Roncesvalles to Zubiri. The end of the hike was a VERY
steep downhill grade on loose rock scree. It was awful at the end of
a long day. We arrived tired and aching. Malcolm said his feet hurt
more than they ever have in his life! Zubiri was a bleak town. Few
places to eat. A temperamental ATM. We ate at the snack bar at the
sports complex, which was actually quite good. We also had breakfast
there. Again, very good, and the only game in town. The hostel was
large and busy. Bathrooms, showers, and laundry in a separate
building. 28 people sleeping in each room, on bunk beds, which are
standard fare every night. We were too tired to care much about the
comforts of the accommodations and slept well only to get up early and
do it all again.

Day 4
We walked from Zubiri to Pamplona. It was a fantastic hike. Gorgeous
woods along a river, gentle rolling hills, a path along a river,
through charming towns, and some dirt roads through the waving fields
of wheat. Jeff and I walked most of the day with Gino, a very nice
young man from Manchester, GB. He just closed a catering business and
decided to walk the Camino to give him time to figure out what to do
next. We hear this a lot from people. They are walking the Camino at
a time of transition, and are trying to figure out what to do next.
In Pamplona, we stayed at the pension that we had stayed at the week
before. Malcolm wanted a room with a TV so that we could be sure to
watch the final game of the Euro Cup Soccer tournament -Spain against
Italy. We ended up watching the game in the main square on a large
screen in the middle of Pamplona. I think every teen ager in town was
there! And, as you may know, Spain won! It was quite a celebration.
We ate dinner at the Hemingway Pizza Kabob Restaurant, which turned
out to serve neither pizza or kabobs, but wonderful pita wraps. Quite
delicious!

Day 5
We were up and out on the late side. We had a variety of things to
get done in Pamplona, and we headed out separately – Mark and Malcolm
together, Sue, and Kim and Jeff together. While Jeff and I were
looking for a phone store (a long story) we were off the Camino trail.
Four different people stopped us and gave us directions back to the
right path. Very helpful. It was a beautiful walk up to El Perdon,
where the statue-sculpture of the pilgrims shares the hillside with a
ridge of windmills. (This sculpture is featured in the movie ¨The
Way.¨) There are many windmills lining the hills and mountains of
Spain. And we find them quite beautiful. It was windy at the top of
the hill. And there was a small homemade shrine to the Virgin of
Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico. That is the first sign we
have seen of her here in Spain. Getting to the top of the hill means,
of course, an ensuing descent. So, it was down, down, down.
This is the first day that we noticed many people biking the Camino.
I don´t see how they do it on the rocky, dirt and gravel paths, and
given the extreme inclines and descents, yet bike it, they do.
Jeff and I brought up the rear today arriving at the lovely albergue
in Uterga as Sue, Mark, and Malcolm were in the middle of dinner. We
knew where they were because Malcolm had made an arrow with our zebra
striped duct tape on the sidewalk in front of the albergue. Our sign!

Day 6
We walked from Uterga to Lorca. It was hard walking. Very long, and
there was a very steep, long uphill grade at the end, when you are
exhausted. It didn´t help that the temperature was 102! The bright
spot was a huge map of the world made out of used tires on a hill side
that was done by a school in honor of world environment day. We were
really spent when we arrived at the albergue. We were somewhat
revived when we headed to dinner in the albergue. Four other guests
came to dinner, too. We were at a table for 6, so another pilgrim
joined us. Turns out she lives in St. Pete on 4th Street. Crazy. We
have seen her several other times since. After dinner, Malcolm, who
said this was his worst day, revived himself by skyping and
facebooking with his friends on the free computer. The rest of us
played UNO on the patio.

Day 7
We walked from Lorca to Villamejor de Monjardin. It was long and
slow. (What else is new?) But the walk was lovely. More wheat
fields and vineyards. We stayed at a Dutch albergue. They said grace
at dinner, and after dinner we went to a lovely Jesus Meditation.
Very relaxing and peaceful. Today, Malcolm let us know that his
bellybutton was getting much worse. It was infected, a condition he
has had before, but it had progressed and become quite painful. So it
was time to deal with that problem.

Day 8
We took the bus to the nearest town of some size, Los Arcos, where
there is a medical clinic. We got off the bus and asked two older men
standing near by where the clinic was. One told us, and the other
walked us there, just 2 blocks, but a bit confusing. Very kind of
him. The people in the clinic were very kind and helpful. After
giving the introductory information, we were sent around the corner to
the bank to pay 88 Euros. Then we went back to the clinic, and
Malcolm was seen by the doctor, who spoke NO English. He examined
Malcolm. Took his temperature and blood pressure. Normal. Then they
shaved his bellybutton area and put on cream and a large bandage.
They gave us more bandaging and tape, and 2 creams. We were sent to
the Farmacia for an oral antibiotic and ibuprofen for the pain.
Since we had yet to walk that day, we decided to just take the bus to
the next town and proceed from there the next day. So we spent the
night in Logrono.

Day 9
Today, we walked from Logrono to Ventosa. We walked means that Mark,
Jeff and Sue walked. Malcolm was not up to walking, so he and I took
the bus to Ventosa. The walkers left the albergue at 6:30 am.
Malcolm slept in until 8. Then we walked to the bus station in
Logrono and got tickets to Ventosa for 10:00. The clerk selling the
tickets made sure to explain to us that the bus did not go all the way
to Ventosa. It stopped about 1 km away from town and we would have to
walk into the town. 1 km – No sweat! The bus left at 10:04 and we
were at a cafe in Ventosa at 10:30. The bus ride was less than 25
minutes. My brother, our fastest walker, did not arrive until almost
12 noon. So it took just short of 6 hours to walk what the bus
covered in less that 25 minutes! That gives you some perspective!
Mark arrived and we sat at the cafe until Sue and Jeff arrived in the
early afternoon. The albergue, the only one in town, did not open
until 2, so we hung out until then. The albergue was very nice. We
went to dinner at the only restaurant in town. On the way back to the
albergue, we passed the town square where the people were celebrating
the Festival of the White Virgin. There was a stage and a dj, and
there were several dances performed by groups of children, shades of
the many dance recitals we attended when Angela took dance lessons!
It seemed as if everyone in town was there. There were all ages.
There was free wine served, and the townspeople made sure to include
us. They were very welcoming. At a certain time, the music stopped
and all the people headed to the church. It was packed. They sang
and the women came forward and brought flowers up to place near a doll
of the Virgin Mary. When that was done, everyone headed back to the
square and partied until 4:00 a.m. Our albergue was locked at 10:00
p.m. (a common practice) so we were in by 10. This evening, the woman
who runs the albergue gave Mark some kindly advice about how he was
walking the Camino so that he would learn that he does not need to
control everything, to learn to trust, to not worry about what he can´t
control, and to know that things will still be ok. Malcolm and I
witnessed this encounter and we had to keep ourselves from laughing
out loud and shouting Amen! It was great! Very funny. Mark took it
all very well, controlled, as usual!

Day 10
This was our longest walking day. We walked just over 30 km. It was
mostly gently sloping terrain through the wheat fields and vineyards
and a few towns. Jeff said he felt like we were walking across Iowa!
We stopped in Santo Domingo de Calzada. Got to the albergue,
showered, did laundry, found a food store for some provisions for
tomorrow. Then we headed to dinner. Malcolm walked today and seemed
fine, but by dinner, he said he felt sick. He has a fever and his
bellybutton still hurts. He said he feels like he has the flu. It´s
awful to be sick away from home. And here he is sick in a hostel,
sleeping in a room with almost 30 other people, in bunk beds. So,
tomorrow, I will take the bus with Malcolm again, and we will stay in
more of a hotel, we think. It will be a larger town, so we can get
medical care again, if needed. We all feel very sorry for Malcolm.
This isn´t his dream trip under the best of conditions, and sick, he
just wants to come home. I don´t blame him. We will miss being at
church tomorrow and hearing Angela preach. I will try to send another
update in a few days.

Just a quick note to say we are all well. Walked from Pamplona to Uterga today. Last night we watched the Euro cup match between Spain and Italy on a big screen TV in the square in Pamplona. Great fun! The day before we walked from Zubiri to Pamplona.

All beautiful! Fields, forests, great vistas, lovely wild flowers. How they coax wheat and sunflowers from the rock-ridden soil is miraculous!
Sore feet and tired legs, but all in great spirits!

We miss everyone and think of you all!
Much love!

We left Tampa on Monday, June 25, after months of planning, we took a car, a plane, another plane, a bus, a subway, a train, and then another bus over the course of 2 days to arrive at St. Jean Pied Du Port in southwestern France. While we felt the journey to St. Jean was slow and we longed to get going on the Camino, it´s amazing that we traversed 1000´s of miles, an ocean, and crossed a mountain range in just 2 days!

After flying to Barcelona, we took a train to Pamplona where we spent the night. Think Hemingway and the running of the bulls. Apparently, Spain was experiencing a severe heat wave, but with Florida as our reference point, we didn´t really notice. But the local population was really feeling the heat. At one point, we were walking down the sidewalk and abruptly stopped to discuss something. There were two women walking behind us who ran into us. Apologies were made. One woman from Pamplona commented, “It is hot. We are all stupid!” Could this be a commentary on Florida?

We took the bus from Pamplona to St. Jean over the Pyrenees. The road was up and down,, twisting and turning. Sue and Malcolm were attacked by carsickness and were beyond miserable. For Sue, this made walking back over the same terrain much more palatable, because she couldn´t face the idea of taking the bus!

St. Jean reminded us of a theme park! Quaint old buildings, narrow streets, ancient signs, surrounded by a wall and protected by a citadel.

Day One on the Camino. Finally, on Thursday, we were off and walking from St. Jean to Orisson, about 8 kilometers. One kilometer is about 1.6 miles. So, 8k is about 5 miles; not far, even carrying a 20 pound pack. But most of the way was uphill and not a gradual slope and it was blazing hot (remember the heat wave?). It was a vertical assent of 800 meters. It was the most strenuous 3 hours of physical exertion of my life (short of childbirth – perhaps!). But so satisfying. The gorgeous vistas over the mountains and valleys, the farms and fields, sheep and goats – all pure delight. It was like being in “The Sound of Music” without the snow-capped peaks. We had a relaxing afternoon at the hostel during which the weather changed abruptly. It got cold and foggy and damp. It was misty and almost raining. Quite a change after our sunny morning! We enjoyed a delicious dinner where everyone introduced themselves. After dinner we watched the Euro Cup soccer match between Italy and Germany.

We have adjusted well to our packs, boots, and gear. We are staying well hydrated. We have even adapted to the communal sleeping arrangements and shared bathrooms. At breakfast we are greeted with a cereal bowl which is promptly filled with coffee and milk to go with the bread, butter, and jam. We have met people from all over the world: New Zealand, Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Holland, Switzerland, Slovenia, Ireland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Korea, and a few people from the US.

Day Two on the Camino. We made our way across the rest of the Pyrenees, finishing the 1200 meter assent, followed by the 1200 meter descent! While we walked 8k yesterday, today we walked 18k – up and down. We began in the cloudy mist with our memories of the beautiful vistas yesterday to spur us on. Once we were above the clouds, the sun shone and 2 rainbows appeared. We saw the mountain tops once again, but the valleys were hidden below the clouds.

Our descent was through the largest remaining silver beech forest in Europe. It was very beautiful, dark, and quiet. We turned a corner and the village of Roncesvalles appeared with a huge church and monetary, and an ancient building converted into a beautiful modern hostel where they do your laundry, wash, dry, and fold, for 2.70 € per load. An extravagance, to be sure!

Out of the five of us, so far only 3 blisters! WooHoo! We will try to send more soon. Buen Camino!