Un Abrazo for Santiago de Compostella

(I wrote this two days after the accident, but somehow life got in the way of posting it.  But not in the way of thinking about the North of Spain and all my fellow pilgrims out there on the way right now. Give the Saint a hug for por favor!!)

In July, I believe, every pilgrim alive was back on the way or in the Praza do Obradoiro.  We are all sharing the pain and the sorrow of our fellow pilgrims. 

My train had just pulled in, I was going home.

How many of us have ridden that same train, on those very same tracks.   Sitting, quietly, gently rocking along.  Sleeping our way to what destinations?  Bumping along, knee to knee sometimes.

My knees.  My fellow travelers knees.  Having just woken up, on my way back to Madrid I discovered Matt (knees on the right!) had covered my legs during the night with his shirt because I was shivering.  I hadn't even woken up! Angels along the way come in all shapes, sizes and forms!

I'm sure many were probably doing the same on the Wednesday eve of the Feast of St. James. 

Or perhaps they were just waking up and getting ready to disembark.  Excited to be reaching beautiful Santiago de Compostella.  The Feast Day at hand, celebrations, fireworks, parties all ready to begin.  Mass and the legendary Botofumeria ready to swing to the heights.  Weary pilgrims in the Cathedral, perhaps looking for familiar faces, come to meet them and welcome them back to the "real" world.

And then that slow motion that accidents always seem to happen in, crumbling of everything. Those few seconds that go so slowly and in such vivid detail as you relive them. 

To this day, 28 years later, I still see the two cars in front of me.  The slow motion decision to steer ever so slightly right to avoid the car with the children.  The impact.  The shaking hand groping for glasses.  Silence and at the same time the sound of metal being cut open on the car and then the ceiling of the ambulance.  And thinking what a strange way to travel, strapped to a gurney, staring up and then closing my eyes in a desperate attempt to shut out the other worldliness.  Strange and unkown hands carry you out and into the hospital.  Multiply this by unkown numbers.  Oh Santiago and Spain I truly ache for you.  And pray for you.

For all who must now get on a train and put faith in others that they will  in fact arrive in one piece, peaceably, I pray for you too. Getting in a car afterwards was so difficult.  As I'm sure riding in a train will be for so many now. 

So, beloved of cities, you are cared for, prayed for by countless numbers.  Held in so many hearts.  As you begin the slow journey forward to healing you are wished the most heartfelt of Buen Camino's. And angels ever guard thee. Perhaps today it is St. James giving all of Santiago "Un Abrazo".

View from my room at La Hospedería San Martín Pinario.

Calling!!

It has been a long time since I've posted here.  A really long time.  Not that I don't think of the Camino nearly every day.  Several times a day.  But it has been nearly two years since my last walk. Two years to feel fully grounded and both feet on the earth here at home.

Then it begins, that small shift.  That moment when the tide reaches it's peak and for a moment everything is still.  Then it turns.  I've seen it on the river enough times, kayaking madly happily, up river with the tidal surge.  For just a moment the water is a beautiful mirror.  Completely still beneath you. Yet somewhere deep beneath my little plastic shell bobbing on the top as I lean into my paddle, something shifts and the pull down the river begins again.  That's me with the Camino.  I've been quietly paddling in one direction for a goodly time now, but the tide, she's a changin.

Just as I've felt that pull calling me back to the North of Spain, apparently others feel it too.  Feeling the urge to read and reread posts on various Camino blogs and what to my wondering eyes should appear, but news of others heading back out again!  Sagalouts aka Ian of the Road to Nowhere is heading out soon. Karen Hype and her hubby will be Hyping the Camino again this year, as is Emilene from SA on My Pilgrimage to Santiago.  Also out of South Africa, Sylvia Nilson of Amawalker, will be leading a group of slower walkers beginning in Sarria. Walking in the fall this year will be two more friends from 2011, including Homer of Homer's Travels.  It's going to be a great year for blog hopping my way on the road to Santiago.  Following all of these blogs will help me focus on my preparations over this next year plus of waiting.

It's not just the means, but also life that keeps me here for the moment.  And I do mean LIFE!! On my last Camino I was a newly minted grandmother or Oma of two weeks. Currently there are three beautiful girls who call me Omi and by the time my feet hit the trail again, there will be four little ones!  Waiting, difficult as it is, lets me continue as the main babysitter for two of the girls.  It also allows me to be present for each amazing arrival.  Each first birthday.  All major events that this Oma wants and needs to be present for.  Still the undertow tugs and pulls.

Better than year allows me to plan a route.  I won't have quite as much time to walk, so the entire Camino Frances isn't possible, but there are so many other beautiful options.  For a while the Camino Ingles (the English Route) was top of the list.  Now the Camino Primitivo (First Camino) seems to be at the top.  It's somewhat less traveled and a bit more remote. It also appears to be, from all accounts, a bit more rugged.  So, for me, it sounds like more of a challenge.  Both a physical as well as a spiritual one.  Fewer people means fewer distractions from the internal road.

The Camino Frances was full of pilgrims.  It was wonderful to meet so many people from so many countries.  But there were moments when you had to really work at getting time alone to just be.  Not that it wasn't possible.  I found I had to be more aware of making that time.  For me that usually meant leaving very early in the morning to walk alone.  And as I wasn't well for most of the Camino, everyone else caught up with me pretty easily!  So a little care got me the best of both worlds.

This time I feel something different.  More of a need for solitude.  Not total and complete, just more.  From what I've read so far, I think the Primitivo might do the trick.  Time will tell.  Nice to be thinking concretely not just a vague and ephemeral someday!

Meanwhile, I'll just be peeking over many a pilgrim bloggers shoulder.  Watching postings with joy as they make their way towards St. James. 

Emilio Estevez y mi Mochilla!

I may have made a comment about hardly watching TV these days, but movies, well that's another story.  Or maybe it's just the same old story.  The Camino, or The Way of St. James.  On Youtube, I'm forever perusing other peoples videos. Or as I've often said to other pilgrims on their blogs, peaking over their shoulders.  It's a little like slipping yourself into their backpacks, for a mile or so and getting to view the road perhaps from a slightly different vantage point than you might otherwise have done.


In a few weeks, at long last, the granddaddy of Camino videos will be available on DVD!  By this I mean the movie, The Way, by Emilio Estevez, starring Martin Sheen.  Of course I have a preorder in place!  There are other Camino movies in the works, most especially The Camino Documentary by Lydia B. Smith.  More about that one in another post.

The Way.  Long awaited by many of us Caminoholics.  For a number of years, we knew this one was in the works.  We waited.  We chatted on the Camino Forum.  We blogged.  We waited.  The longest wait seemed to be for the release of the film here in the States.  I remember fellow pilgrims from England and Ireland, who'd gotten to see it before they came over and walked last summer.  So lucky.  Or so I thought at the time.  It wouldn't be available in any way shape or form for quite some time after I got home.

Home, yeah, coming home and trying to get settled.  Trying to feel at home again.  Missing the daily walk to, well, where ever fate and feet would take me.  Missing the openness of the days, never really knowing who you might meet.  It's quite an adjustment after nearly a month and a half of living that way.  Living simply.  Living out of my pack.  Living so small and yet larger than my life has probably ever been before.  Heartfelt sigh here!

So, back to the movie, The Way.  What a gift to have it released and previewed close to where I live.  Not one of the lucky ones who got a ticket for the preview, I went to the theater anyhow. A few friends stopped by too, a former co-worker and his wife.  We waited outside for while, knowing that Estevez and Sheen were supposed to be there for a Q & A afterwards.  While they choose to go home early, since it really didn't look like we could get in, I simply couldn't tear myself away.  Well, I'm too often saying to others that there is always more than one way to skin a cat.  And so there is!

Walking myself back to the theater my plan was to wait in the lobby.  I thought perhaps I'd simply get someone to take a picture of me, pack on my back, Camino shoes on my feet, next to a poster of the movie.  Then I'd buy tickets for when it actually opened at this theater at the end of the week.  That's all.  If I spotted either of the movie makers, great, but lets be realistic, the odds weren't good.  Sigh.  Such is life.

Inside I asked a woman next to me, looking at the flyers and promotional materials on the table, would she use my camera to take a picture, since I wasn't going to be able to get to see the movie on this particular evening.  She looked at me and said "Lets see if we can't get you in with my husband and me."  She promptly grabbed the young man in charge of the list of attendees, and asked him if there were any no shows.  He said yes, he still had quite a few tickets left and simply handed me one.  Wow.  Ask and ye shall receive!

Me, mi mochilla (backpack) and my incredibly dingy Camino shoes walked into the theatre almost in a daze.  There were seats in the front rows.  The first two rows, you know the ones we adults avoid, 'cause they give you a crick in the neck!  I happily sat myself down, propped my feet on the arm of the seat in front of me and got comfortable for the next hour and  a half.

Sitting so close actually turned out to be wonderfully overwhelming.  It made it feel as though I was in the film, back on the Camino.  The Pyrenees, the Meseta, the bars and oh yeah, the bunk beds!  I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, and roared with laughter, as did other former pilgrims in the audience, when the main characters were twirling their bourdons or hiking sticks.  Ahh the memories.  So seeing it post Camino was more of a blessing than it would have been seeing it pre-pilgrimage.

Immediately after, from the back of the theater came, Estevez, Sheen and a host of others who were responsible for this lovely film.  My only quibble, such as it is, was the film school that was present. They rather took over some of the question and answer period.  I never got to ask my burning question!  I still, to this day, don't know if any of the filming crew or cast got blisters on the Camino.

As the Q & A drew to a close, assistants began to herd the movie folk out a side exit.  Down in the front.  Right by those two front rows, that no adult wants to sit in.  Where I was.  So, happy that I'd listened to a friend who'd quipped, I should get one of them to sign my backpack, I whipped out a permanent marker and asked Emilio, "?Escribe en mi Mochilla, por favor?"  Ok, so that 'taint perfect Espanol, but he knew what I wanted!   So below, my now two Camino backpack has become a priceless heirloom!   Nah, still a tatty old back filled with the most wonderful memories and still with miles to go before I put it to sleep for good!

"Buen Camino, Emilio Estevez"

Watershed Moment?

Left or right?  Yes or No? High road or low road?  There come moments in all of our lives when there is a shift or a line that gets crossed.  A change.  A choice that gets made, and everything that comes after will be different.  Sometimes it's obvious and clear for anyone to see.  Sometimes the changes can be so subtle.  I think sometimes those quiet ones may have the most lasting effect.

I knew the Camino, this Camino, was important for me.  I knew I would have time to think, uninterrupted.  Time to just be, completely removed from all the "things" that make up my so called life. No distractions.  To the point I lost all track of the days of the week! The most obvious and funny one was sitting in Hontanas as the bells began to peal, looking at another pilgrim and wondering why.  It was it turns out, Sunday morning!

I find myself viewing  a lot of my life as before and after the Camino.   There were immediate and obvious changes, like the 16+ lbs left behind in the Pyrenees and the mountains of Galicia.  There are others, quiet ones that aren't as easy to define.  And I don't think El Camino is done with me yet!!  Seeing where this all leads is going to be interesting.  Probably almost as interesting as the Camino was.  Interesting for me at least...I do realize that for others, it might be as exciting as watching grass grow or paint dry

Strange, but I have been told by a few people that while they can't put a finger on it...they think I've changed.  I don't know that I thought any of this to be obvious to anyone outside my family.  A friend from the gym, had no idea where I'd gone or what I'd done, stopped me and asked what was up, why did I seem different.  I think maybe the changes are a little like what happened to my hiking shoes.  When I left home they were green and grey.  Each day that went by they grew a little more worn (and a little more cofortable too!).  When I got to Santiago, they were nearly unrecognizable.  I have similar pair of Keens here at home that have seen way fewer miles and still resemble their original color and shape.  And, while at times it felt like I'd worn my feet 'n legs down to mere nubs, here too is proof that the feet came thru in one piece too!

Just a few thoughts and samples of little things that have changed:

• Writting - constantly.  Which is funny, 'cause I didn't write a journal 'cept for this blog while actually on the Camino! Then I just wanted to in the moment.
• Trying poetry even!  Ok, so haven't exactly gone public with any, but I get immense satisfaction out of it.
• Watch very little TV, some times nothing for days on end.
• Really making space and time for all the good people in my life. Only the good...the others, I just don't sweat anymore.  I don't specifically push them away, I just don't make room for them. 
• Haven't set foot in a shopping mall since my return, and very few other retail establishments outside of the grocery store.  Now FYI, I live only a few miles from the first ever modern indoor shopping mall.  It all started here in NJ! Sheesh!
• Do more things completely independently.  So I want to go hike in Wharton State Forest.  No one to go with, no problem.  Tell the rangers and head out.  Simple as that. 
• Have not bought a single article of clothing since the scarf I bought in Santiago de Compostella. My last job was in a clothing store so this is pretty funny, and I like it!
• Finally got the courage to paint and I don't mean change the color of a room!  I drew a sketch for a particular space below the stairs in our house ten years ago.  Now I finally have the courage to put it on the wall!  Great art? No, but very satisfying!

So on a note of absolute bravery...for me...here is that sketch made 10 years ago...soon to be

on the wall it was drawn for:

Last but in no way least, perhaps one of the greatest changes is the acceptance of things that are simply, unchangeable.  Myself or rather the body I inhabit.  For all that I lost weight walking the Camino Frances, I've learned that this is a sturdy strong body that I live in.  Size is not important.  Being healthy is.  Being comfortable and confident in my own skin is.  Accepting who I am at 55 is.  And that, as the ole Master Card commercials say, is priceless!

** Monastery Bells **

Well, sort of!  This poem was shared by a friend and I think of it every time I look at this picture, which is now my wallpaper on the computer.

The temple bell stopped

but the sound kept coming

from the flowers

- Matsuo Basho, 17th century Japanese Zen-Haiku poet  

Santiago!!

Ok ya´ll, I have a date with a young man from Florida in about 45 minutes...and the computer has only about 25 minutes left, at the moment...so...ya gets what ya gets!!

Where to begin...ok, maybe back in Santa Irene would be great idea? Made that tiny village late on Saturday, along with my beautiful friends from Sweden.  Ingmarie and Evelille (spelling?) started in Sarria, the last major outpost  for those "only" doing the last 100km.  As much as I tried or wanted to look down my weary and old pilgrim nose at this, their joy and delight at being on the road together was infectious! We enjoyed walking sorta together and then meeting up to find an alburgue or hostel.

In Santa Irene, we tried really hard to find the private alburgue, and failed.  Too tired, as we´d just completed a bit over 30km for the day.  So we stayed in the public one we´d stumbled too, and were rewarded with a room to ourselves.  Joy of Joys!  NO Supermercado or anything else, so back up the hill and into one of three restaurants there.  We´ll St. James was looking out for us as it was one of the best meals I´ve had.  The girls ate ensalad mixta, I had a lovely veg soup.  We all agreed to fish, so it came family style.  And oh what style! No Pomme Frites for us.... Real chunks of potatoes, with olive oil, and three kinds of grilled fish!  Salmon, Hake and Calimari! Evelile finally tried calimari and declared it good.  For Postres, we had fruit macerated in orange juice.  Peaches and plums etc.  Absolute perfection..all at the staggering price of 9€.

The girls had also given me another gift, for helping them along the way (that´s a laugh with my un poco Espanol!)  But it was one of the most precious gifts, especially to a woman living out of a bag for more than a month.  It was a tiny bottle of conditioner.  I can comb my hair properly using the small brush that Emmanuel from Stuttgart gave me (lightening his pack and making me feel like a girl again!)

So..anyhow...At five in the morning, with my miners lamp firmly on my head, I left, hell bent on making my way into Santiago in time for the noon pilgrims mass.  It was dark.  Really dark.  However the sky was clear, the moon was out and I simply had to take my time.  So, happily I can report I made it thru the forest without a faceplant and any other untoward  happenings.  Didn´t even scream in the one town where the motion detector sign that talks to you began to greet me in the dark!!  Very proud of myself for that one!

Now my family will find this hard to believe, but I walked nearly 12km before I had  a cuppa coffee (con Leche of course!) But I did it and have to pinch myself from the shock of it.  After this one lonely cup, I pushed on, and to all of Santiago, Mea Culpa!  That had to have been one grim faced perigrina that passed you all on a Sunday morning.

Make it in time for Mass?  You bet I did! Found me a padded seat on a confessional, huddled my now cramping legs and bawled (family, are you surprised?) It was a lovely mass, especially when I looked up and Pepy from Italy was standing over me smiling and telling me he and Enzo had spotted me!

So after Mass, they steered me to a place another friend from the Camino Forum had recommended (thank you Ian!).  I knew it existed but by this point was too tired to even figure out how to find it. Turns out they were all staying there!  So Enzo, my lovely heart transplant friend, literally took me by the pack and gently shoved me over there.  Pepy and he shortened and stashed my poles.  They made sure I got the Alburgue floor which is only 23€ including a fantastic breakfast buffet. So now I too can heartily and joyfully recommend the Semenario Menor (?).  Beautiful, clean, friendly, and.....a room all my own, with a bath of my VERY OWN!! I can stay neeked for more than thirty seconds!  I have white sheets...and a fluffy towel!!

Ok...time for my date with Hunter, touring the Cathedral roof and such!

Tomorrow...Finisterre per Autobus!!  Midsummer on the beach...looking at home and thinking of all of you, at home and all of you elswhere...I love you all very much!!

O´Cebreiro and the Asthmatic!

Well I have found humility !  It comes one tortise like step at a time!  Thank God for my current Camino Angels, Mike from S. Africa, Helena from the Checz R. and Robert from England...they check on me, walk with me and wait when I just cant go on!  I am truly blessed.  Will write more later...gotta coffee waiting and need to shove off again.  Love you all. Karin

** Whispers of O' Cebriero **

Sunset...El Acebo..shortly before my "resurrection"!

On the way to Molineseca....had to wonder how long it would take to walk to this town across the valley!

I believe one of these tents belongs to Robert, aka Wobert...from England...who will appear later....

I wanna move right in...just the little addition thank you.

Fighting the urge to start singing things from Fiddler on the Roof!

Ok...so here you can start singing...the Beatles...stuck in the middle, Hills to the left of me...

Brush to the right of me....stuck in the middle again....

One of a grove of beautiful trees, some of the biggest I've seen.  If not for people waiting on me, I coulda spent the day there...easily....

Monlineseca...at last!

A first...advertising on the arm of a cross!! Wow!

My beloved Jean-Louis and Genvieve, aka the Camino Express people!

This town had beautiful views...everywhere...and a Japanese film crew working the area with a comedian...hmm where have I heard that before!

So wanted to pick him up and take him with me!

A beautiful couple, pruning and harvesting from their cherry tree.  I had been a good girl and resisted any and all along the way that looked like they belonged to someone or were "cared" for.  These two blessed me with a large cluster, completely unasked for... 

All the sweeter because they were such an unexpected gift!!

Galicia....I swear if you stuck a twig in the ground here...it would grow!

Ponferrada

Chapel at the municipal Alburge...time for bed...

Time to get outta Dodge...and slowly make my way upwards...to see what life has in store...

Santa Domingo de la Calzada and Belarado

Ok...Still missing bits and bobs here and there, as the internet isn´t always as available as I´d like.

Yesterday was about a 21km day into St. Domingo ... an amazing city.  St. Domingo is a city sitting in a wide bowl like valley of fields. It´s claim to fame is having a cage with chickens in the cathedral. Why? Apparently to commemorate a miracle of a young man, falsely accused and hung, being resurrected.  The mayor refused to believe that he´d been brought back to life, and said it was as likely as the roast chicken on his plate getting up and living on.  So, needless to say...that is exactly what happened. So now there are always two chickens kept in the back in a rather large cage.  They are also supposedly changed out every two weeks, guess so they can walk the Camino.

While this seems to be the thing that everyone makes note of, the actual church/cathedral is one of the most interesting ones I´ve ever seen. Spencer and I were walking back from a beer, while Rosalie went in search of her bag, when I saw an arrow pointing towards the entrace of the cathedral.  Now after day in and day out following arrows, I guess rather like Pavlovs dogs, we went in.  We found another world.  I´ve never seen fortifications in a church.  Or amazing giant sized Ipad like touch screen displays that allow you to look at an altar piece that soars above your head nearly 40 feet!  Needless to say when I can finally put up pics, you´ll see what I mean.  We´d all intended to go take naps and then cook something for dinner (cheaper and more fun)but wound up spending nearly 2 to 2.5 hours wandering thru the church and also up the bell tower.

The bell tower is a completely separate building.   The wide stone staircase simply goes on forever, especially if you are a road weary pilgrim.  The top was worth every single calorie and minute it took me to climb up to it.  From there you can see miles and miles behind you, and the same in all directions.  We could see the rolling hills we´d be walking thru today.  It makes it easy to see what a great defensive spot this was.

Dinner at our Alburge in the Convent was fun, as Renee from Nebraska joined us, as well as Colum and Jane from Ireland.  At the end, Hugo, I think from France also joined us for dessert as it turned out we´d all bought desserts without telling the others.  I´d made a sort of Bolognese sauce with spirals.  Renee prepped a lovely fresh salad. Someone got a bottle of wine, we had bread with olive oil for dipping and some Dorito chips too.  For after Spencer had bought strawberries and ice cream. I´d grabbed Flan at the SuperMercado, and Renee got lovely chicken like pastries that are a local specialty, filled with apricot jam.

I guess I should be thankful we actually did have to walk 24km today to get to Belorado...just to burn off the calories!

Clocks ticking so quickly, todays walk was different, the hills were more rolling than steep. There were clouds hovering just above the hills off to the south.  The hills were softer and beautifully covered with the greenest wheat. There were also fields of light lavender poppies! Every so often we´d pass thru fields of potatoes, well on their way.  Ummmm makes me think of the wonderful tortillas here. 

Tortillas here in Spain aren´t the thin flat breads we think of in the US. They are the most delicous potatoe and onion filled omlettes. Sometimes they have jamon or chorizo too.  They are so soul satisfying to a tired and hungry pilgrim.  They are also ofen quite cheap.  Yesterday in the Super Mercado, we discovered jarred prepped potatoes, in olive oil! This means we may be able to make our own tortilla without the work!  Again, thank God for walking, or I ´d be buying a second plane ticket to come home.

On the topic of weight, I am definitely loosing weight and toning everything up!  The pants I left with are loose and have the waist buttons as tight as they will go.  The capris will need work soon or I´m in danger of becoming the naked or nearly naked pilgrim.

Love you all...miss you all and still would not miss this for the world!

SJPP to Orisson

SO...the next installment!

I´d made the decision quite some time back to break the climb thru the pass at a Alburge named Orisson.  It´s only 8km away...but those are truly some of the toughest 8km I´ve ever done.  Essentially, straight up.  It was a slightly cloudy cool morning.  The clouds kept blowing thru and exposing and revealing the path ahead.  Rather a tease they were.  They also kept us cool, which was also really a God send. 

On the way up I spent time with other pilgrims, including an American pair, Aunt and nephew, using Mt. Bikes to make their way to SDC.  It was her first real experience with both mountains and also bikes!! What a hell of a way to start.  Trish is probably now about halfway or even further if all is going well for them!  Buen Camio mi amiga!  We parted just shy of Orisson, right when I was beginning to think I´d never find the place.

Orisson sits in a corner of the road, serving sandwiches (bocadillo) beer wine coffee etc to pilgrims wandering (staggering!) by.  They also have rooms to let, dormitories and best of all (IMHO!) Tents!!

The tents sit on terraces behind the building on slabs up off the ground. They are very well teatherd, a good thing with the strong winds.  They also feature full sized mattresses...so this sure as heck wasn´t roughing it.  The bathrooms were also good.  We got a token for 5 minutes of hot water, which when you consider where you are is great.  You can get warm and wet, lather up and then rinse in five one minute intervals.    You can also opt for dinner and breakfast if you like...and I liked! 

Dinner was family style and again one of the best meals ever (amazing what a steep climb, fresh air and hot sun do for an appetite).  After dinner everyone had to stand and introduce our selves and we had at least five languages, going yet all seemed to be able to figure out what the others where saying as someone could always make the connection to those who didn´t speak the language of the moment.  Not surprisingly, there were more Germans than darn near anyone else, as it is in their back yard.  Including Peter, a German living in NYC today.

**Roncesvalles to Zubiri..or there abouts!**

Dawn or...it's worth getting up this early!

A quick glance back showed me this beautiful pic of Roncesvalles in the early morning.

Cafe con Leche a croissant, two friends and then this out the window.

Inspiration to keep walking, ya think?

Still heading...down!

Springtime here is so blooming full of flowers it becomes difficult to capture.

Wild Roses

Always look around you...there is something at every turn.

Closer

Rest.....

So...sometimes the surprises are inside!  This is in the private Alburque in Zubiri, the municipal one being full (and from what I've heard, forgettable too!)

Wishing for???

My road friend Silvie, in the plaid shirt.  Notice the amazing beam over the young mans head.  You see features like this thru out the north of Spain.  Essentially, the log is trimmed slightly and used as is, curves and all.  Beautiful!

Sunset from the window of our Alburque.

Leaving Zubiri

Add salad dressing and this is perfection! Directly next to the above bridge.

Looking back one more time.

Hmmm looks move in ready.

An offering for Pilgrims along the way.  The water bottle was sealed.  The wine not...and if it hadn't been THAT early...we would have enjoyed a taste.

Larsoanna (or the place none of us could find the bar!)

A house gate in Larasoanna

Larasoanna, or "I am beginning to think they don't want us"

Abandoned church along the way.

Fragrant honeysuckle, in colors I've only heard it came in.