Best laid plans!! God is so laughing.

Wow. No other words for today (and yesterday's time in the Camino del Norte. 

To begin we were having too much fun visiting with friends in Barcelona. Way to much fun. An evening on the beach with fire works and delicious food. We got to bed late. Spanish early (Laura was heading to a party after dropping us off!) at 11:30.  

While someone fell asleep instantly )and I'm not pointing any fingers ) I took a while to nod off. A little more than an hour later someone (again no names) wakes me up. No more sleep and a taxi coming at 5:15! Lucky me. Although I'm pathetically proud of my first two phone calls in Spanish. All by my self. 

The taxi was prompt, courteous and quick. Wish I could say the same for Vuelings check in lines. But we got thru and had an hour and a half to spare so of course we hunted for Jamon! 

The flight to Asturias was one and a half hours. The bus into Aviles was quick and believe it or not came with wifi! On the bus. Alsa, you rock! (That's the main bus line in the area)

In Aviles we grab another bus to Novellana. It dropped us at a tiny round about or circle kinda in the middle of nowhere! And we were off! As any experienced pilgrim knows, y'all don't start walking nearly 20 km at noon!! But we did! Brilliant us! 

The route where we began was to be polite, rather sparsely marked. And unfortunately for us a fairly strenuous one. It was supposed to be our third day by my original plan. But mi spouse wanted to cut a day or so to allow for a rest day of needed, or more time in santiago de compostella. So what should have been for Camino tested legs was done on tired,virgin legs. 350+ meters of elevation gain! Ha! We were spent. 

As always though Camino angels turn up just as you start to panic. We turned down a dirt rap as the arrows indicated. It was rocky. It was steep. It went on for ever. It ends in a small beach. There doesn't seem to be any way out. Except one. The way we came. Please God no!  Then there appear two people. Also pilgrims taking pics on the rocky beach. They showed us the tiny marker about 50 meters back and almost hidden in the weeds. The way continued and we weren't all alone. Yeah!  

Well it continued. Up. And up. And more steeply up. At one point when we finly saw a small. Country train stop w a shelter we sat and spent some precious roaming data to check a map. That helped in making choices. Choices that saved our tired hides. One arrow pointed us directly back down the hill. Nope. Not gonna do it. I'll take the high road thank you very much. 

When we meet our Camino angels later they told us what a great choice we made. They were completely spent from that last round of ups and downs. 

So we ended up in Cadavedo at around 6:00pm. Late. Very late by Camino standards. At least how I'm accustomed to doing it. Usually it's in town and in an albuergue by 3 at the latest. So we followed them to the hotel they'd prebooked. Ha! We got the last room. For 42 euros to was heaven. So, should you ever be in Cadavedo, definitely check out Hotel Astur-Regal. Small , cute, friendly and most important of all clean! And very good food. Or is that my hunger? Nah it was very good. 

Today's route was much easier with only one nasty climb after Canero. And that was rough but we did it. From there o. It was really quite nice and only rarely along the actual road. 

The final leg ony to Luarca was great.  Sunny as all get out, fresh breeze off the sea and gardens to die for. One person even left a basket of apples for pilgrims to grab if they wanted. 

The descent into downtown was steep. But worth it. All of a sudden you come around the corner and wham there it is. The beautiful little harbor sitting in the sun. Brilliantly colored boats anchored all about. It looks like some thing from Thomas the Tank Engine or a storybook  

Do we continued down lured forward by the hope of a beer, a bed and some food. 

On the way there is a lovely arch over the street.  There is also a sweet looking young local boy. So in my very best Castilian I ask him to photograph us. Por favor. "Si, ?Los Ustados Unidos? Is what I get for it! So much for my pride today. 

Tomorrow, Pinera. Now - DINNER!

Beginning again

We began our training again.  I can say we, because this year the plans include walking with mi esposa (?) and one of my bestest buddies, Joe.  These are the two guys I walked with on the Portuguese in '08.  The fourth from our party then seems to have fallen off the map.

Ray is, as always, a bit of a nervous nelly and a tad reluctant about the walk.  Joe is a little anxious too.  Me...nope.  Not that I don't have immense respect for the route we are looking at, the Primitivo, but I have the Frances under my belt.  It seems to be making a real difference in how nervous, or not nervous, I feel.  I know it won't be easy, but I know that it is nothing more than one step after another repeated over and over.

Experience is a wonderful gift.  The gift of getting older. 

Let the planning and plotting begin!

We have begun! Plans are at last underway for a 2014 Camino.  Discussion is underway as to the exact route we'll take this time around.

Again it is a "we" trip.  There are currently 3 guys joining me including my ever reluctant spouse.  It'll be interesting to see how he fares on this journey.  God knows I'll be checking his backpack way WAY more carefully this time. No more discovering as the rain begins to pour down on us that he'd hadn't bothered to pack the poncho I'd gotten him.  Or his own toothpaste, shampoo, soap.  Nope, ain't gonna be a pack mule this time around!  I killed the pack mule on the Camino Portuguese!! However, I may opt for duct tape.  Great for so many repairs to feet and packs and whining!! Just kidding (just don't test me too much!)

We're looking at one of the northern routes.  Dates are still flexible, but if we go for more than 2 weeks (oh yes please!) I'm personally in for the Primitivo.  Or perhaps the Del Norte.  If the guys really want a truncated version of my solo trip, we could do some of the latter end of the Frances.  But with so much unexplored territory I'd much much rather opt for new terrain.

So now....off to begin getting the feet and the body ready!! That means calling the damn foot doctor!! Sigh.  Old feet, old injuries and old age are conspiring to make me work for what I want.  But work I will.

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"

Happy New Year!

It's difficult to believe that this year is actually coming to a close.  It's been quite spectacular and will rank as one of the most special in my life.  So far!  Two beautiful granddaughters.  One Camino Frances done and done!  So many wonderful new friends.  Just as many lovely old ones too.  I am filled to the brim with blessings this year, as it draws to a sweet close.  Truly the words, my cup runneth over, have never felt so true. 

Where the road will lead in this coming year I can't quite say.  If the past is anything to measure by, it could be truly amazing.  In fact I know it will be.  So to all who have stopped by here, blessings be upon you.  Blessings on all in your life.  Peace and joy be yours in the up coming New Year!

Now after a long days hiking in the Pine Barrens,  I'm off to slay some opponents at Scrabble!!

Buen Camino all!