my name is mama joel

our time in the villages has been very special. i had hoped to go to the villages to watch the health groups being conducted but had thought i would stand at the back and be anonymous.

lesson no. 1 you cannot be anonymous in an african village. did i think they might not notice john and i? it's not just the colour of our skin. our mannerisms, probably the way we smell the way we sit and eat are so strange that have proved to be better than television. John and i have had to get used to having a row of children sit in front of us and stare at us or, more distressingly, have a child scream in terror at the sight of us so that we have had to step back while the child is comforted by the parent

lesson no. 2 it's hard to get even the simplest of things right. did you know john and i are hilarious? we have been practising the simplest response to the basic greeting and have rarely got it right. our pronunciation, the order of the words and our inappropriate sequencing (we often answer that we are well before we are asked) are cause for hilarity. i think the word gets out that there is great entertainment going on at the teaching and the more bumbling our efforts at courtesy the more people turn up to experience us saying good morning

lesson no. 3 despite our differences there is more that binds us together than keeps us apart. everywhere we have gone mothers have wanted to care for their children the best way they can. they are hungry for information that will ensure a healthy future for them. the easiest way to establish something in common with people is to share something about our family. people are very interested in the fact that we have 4 sons and 1 granddaughter with another one on the way. parents take their name from their firstborn child so in the groups i have been introduced as mama joel and john as baba joel. being introduced that way certainly drew a different response than being introduced as kristine and john. it seemed that if we could identify ourselves as parents they could make more sense of us as people.

the naming can become a little confusing because after the child's initiation (which we will explain to you in more detail when we get home joel) the child takes a new name and the parents are then known by that new name. hmmm. what shall we call joel. i've always favoured felicity

it has been great to watch the way the mothers care for their children. they have their babies and toddlers at their sides continually. they are breastfeeding for long periods and the kids look healthy. we've taken some great photos of babies at the breast. one of my favourite moments was when mama dave slung her baby onto my back and tied him on with the cloth. he rested with me for quite a while and it felt perfect.

how to spend 20,000

kwacha in one day. we are now in malawi and are being looked after by our friend robyn. first job in any new place is to get some local currency. john is now carrying around wads of money because even minor items cost hundreds of kwacha and our favourite question "do you take visa?" is usually met with blank looks. 140 kwacha will buy 1 australian dollar so it is very easy to spend thousands of kwacha at one time.

we have visited some great markets and bought some lovely carved goods. not enough to turn the economy around but enough so that we have had to buy a new suitcase to bring our treasure trove home in.

we arrived in blantyre on saturday afternoon and spent overnight there. sunday morning found us at the markets and the supermarket to get some supplies for our week in mangochi. we took the scenic route there and had afternoon tea at the resort above the town of zomba.

first impressions of malawi are of a green country, with great outcrops of mountains which add drama to the landscape. as we are here at the end of the wet season the lakes and rivers are full. the burning season is not in full swing yet so the air is very clear and we are enjoying the views as we drive around.

we've walked to some villages. the grasses are still very tall so we walk in single file often with a group of children following. one time they accompanied us singing as they went. they had just learnt a new song stressing the importance of washing your hands and face and not peeing in the river.

in contrast to the villages we had a little taste of luxury on wednesday when we had a ginger ale by the pool at the makokola resort on lake malawi.

tomorrow we are off to a game park for a river cruise where we will see postcard africa.

many times on this holiday i have said to myself "in all my life i never thought i would see this or do that". tomorrow i think i'm going to have another one of those moments

friends along the way

before i leave the camino permanently in this blog i want to mention and describe some of the people we met along the way. we became a kind of fellowship of pain at times. we were also a group of outsiders who were all equally lost and often needing help from each other to find the way. for a group of relative strangers the joy we experienced when we found each other in the next village or at the next albergue was out of all proportion to the length of time we had known each other. similarly, the sadness when we said goodbye was with us for a while. i don't want to forget these people and i want you to know them a little too.

anya a german girl we met on our first night who wisely reminded us to take food with us over the pyrenees (who would have thought there were no shops anywhere along the way)

henning and his son thomas we met them on our first night. they were from denmark. thomas was walking with his father for the first week only then returning to denmark but henning was planning to walk all the way. we met up with henning all along the way and he became a companion whom we always enjoyed seeing. we last saw him in galicia. apart from the walk we had an extra connection with henning because his wife is australian, actually visiting her mother in frenchs forrest while he was on the walk. his favourite meal was his wife's roast lamb

our german friend who we shared breakfast with in pamplona and bid farewell to in carrion de los condes. he was such a cheerful energetic friendly person. i almost cried to say goodbye to him there.

after roncesvalles we walked in tandem with two spanish couples who were very friendly to us. the first was a couple who we seemed to bump into regularly for the first week. they were very proud of their heritage and told us all sorts of things about whatever town we were in, most memorably los arcos. the other couple was older. the wife was canadian and the husband spanish. the wife was particularly interested to talk with us because their daughter is studying in sydney later this year. she wanted to know things about Sydney like "is it safe?" and "what about the spiders?". they were having a roaring good time on the walk and we realised they were doing a few things differently to us. they drank beer on their stops or wine from their wine skins (it seems to dull the pain), smoked during their breaks and they had their packs taxied every day. both these couples also slept in good hotels every night rather than the pilgrim hostels. in time we adopted a few, but not all, of their strategies.

shin yu bin from korea. she was studying at university and took the walk to improve her spanish but also spoke english. shared some food with her early in the walk and overlapped with her throughout. last saw her early during our walk through galicia

aussies we met antoinette in los arcos and last saw her in a cafe at portos in galicia. it was nice to have a chat with her from time to time to exchange news about the family, the blisters and the aches and pains. we met another aussie, an older man from balmain, in a cafe in oncina del camino. we had a coffee with him, dinner together that night in villar de mazarife and morning tea with him the next morning in villavante. he was taking things slowly. different members of his family came to walk with him from time to time and he would take occasional weeks off to go to madrid and recover along the way. he was full of stories of people he had met along the way. who knows, we may bump into him again in sydney some time. we met a polish couple from canberra for just one day when we walked from barbadelo to hospital da cruz. we were saying goodbye to hinnley and when he had gone they leaned across from their table to tell us how good it was to hear an aussie accent. and we thought we had turned into europeans. they were doing well. they told us that st james had told them to taxi their packs every day, stay in hotels and not to walk more than 25 kms a day. when you have the saint whisper in your ear, what else are you supposed to do?

the french we first met this threesome in calzada del coto and waved goodbye to them on the path approaching molinaseca. only the wife spoke english but she was so warm and friendly that it was a pleasure to be with all three of them. they were older than us and suffered more than us but just got on with things.

we met another french couple in ventas de naron. she was very friendly and we enjoyed the last few days meeting up in the cafes and hostels along the way. we found ourselves in trouble together as we were chastised by one on the cafe owners for eating some of our own snacks with our coffee instead of buying her produce. that does sound like poor form but in our defence i should say she didn't actually have the things we asked for even though they were advertised. as things happened we walked into santiago with them, attended the mass together and kept seeing each other as we walked around the city that afternoon so it was nice to see some friendly and familiar faces that afternoon.

the break out

we walked into Santiago from sante irene, a 22 km walk. we were aiming to arrive by 12md for the pilgrim mass so planned to leave our albergue at 5.00 am. this is a little against the rules as most hostels specify that people don't start getting up before 6.00am so as to allow people to get a good sleep.

we planned our break out carefully. our bags were packed the night before and our clothes were arranged at the end of the bed in the order in which we put them on so as to make as little noise as possible. we picked up our packs and finished our packing and put our boots on in the toilets.

we couldn't get out the front way and snuck out the back then had to climb over the wire fence at the front and we were on the open road.

our difficulties then began because all was dark and we had no torch. the way to find your way on the camino is to follow randomly placed yellow arrows marked variously on tree trunks or buildings or fences. you have to keep your eyes open for them all the time. even in the day they are not easy to find.

we decided to eat breakfast and wait a bit so we ate our yoghurt, banana and bread under a street light. still no light and with our guide book telling us the way led into a forest path we found a yellow arrow and headed into the forest

it's not a good idea to walk around in a dark forest and i found it very scarry but we did it. it was with mixed feelings that we noticed someone following us. his torchlight was casting some light in front of us which was good but on the other hand... who was this person?

turned out of course he was a fellow walker who quickly passed us and left us in the dark again this time with our night vision diminished. thus we walked for about an hour and a half. sometimes in the forest sometimes on the road. sometimes alone. sometimes with a bit of light.

the light came and we got into normal walking making good progress for our entry into Santiago. our first glimpse of the cathedral spires was from mount gonzo (the mount of joy) but there is quite a long walk into the city ofter you get your first glimpse of it. Santiago is a beautiful, dramatic, hilly city with the usual modern outer ring and an older core. the cathedral square is huge and the age of the cathedral is emphasised by the ferny vegetation that is growing all over the front features of the cathedral. the growth softens the effect of all those gargoyles and monsters.

we arrived in time for the mass. the church was full and they swung the big incense censer (there is probably a clip of that on youtube). after that we had a good lunch and walked around the city,visited the cathedral museum and bought some souvenirs.

i felt so free. there was no more pressure. just for that afternoon i had nothing i had to do. i could have just sat on the steps of the cathedral watching people and i would have felt as complete as i could possibly be. i'd arrived. it's a pretty good feeling.

rewind one week

blogs are supposed to be current and not accounts of everything i did last week but i could not get an internet connection for the week leading up to santiago and i want to at least give you some account of our last week of walking.

for our last week we walked through the region of galicia. galicia is a rural area dotted with small hamlets. it is a very lush area with a celtic heritage. it takes pride in its difference to other regions in spain and cherishes its relative isolation.

in some ways we felt plunged back into our first week in spain as the hamlets we walked through were so small that they frequently didn't have any kind of shop. we had to plan our food (and toilet stops) very carefully for the day and although the villages were frequently close enough to see the next one from the one we were passing through we didn't see many people except for our fellow walkers.

during the last week we were a little kinder to ourselves than we had been up until that point in that we had a pack taxied twice and we took double rooms when we could. we also stayed in some very nice pilgrim hostels where, although we were still in rooms with other people they were designed more thoughtfully than others so we felt very rested.

despite the fact that our walking was drawing near to an end and we might have hoped to be getting into our stride with the walking we still found ourselves almost always the last to leave the hostels, the last to arrive in the afternoon (sometimes early evening) and still frequenting the farmacias to keep up our supplies of anti-inflamatories and bandages. juan's shin and ankle flared up awfully in the last week

along with the weariness there was an additional sense of poignancy to the last week when we started to say goodbye to some people who we had come to know a little as we had walked together. it's strange to feel loss when you say goodbye to someone whose name you don't even know but that's how it felt.

so there you have it. the last week was a blur of weariness, injury, sadness and farewell accompanied by the mounting anticipation of completing one of the world's great journeys. some on the camino have talked about the addictiveness of the camino. they are already planning to return.

it's a once in a lifetime event for me. it's been a great adventure. a time when i've had to accept the dominance of the landscape. i've absorbed the impact of the human story on the landscape and on culture and i've been a stranger in a culture for the first time in my life.

i also learnt, yet again, that there are very few things i can do on my own or even want to do on my own. thank you john for all the help, for all the way-finding, for all the care, for all the encouragement, for all the lifting and tending that you gave me during our long walk together.

thank you also for all the ridiculous moments, for never giving up on your non-mastery of spanish, for always being confident that there would be just what we needed in the next village. in some of the really dire hostels we really were the only 2 laughing and that's a great thing after nearly 32 years. thank you

a little grouchy today

combine a poor night's sleep with a difficult walk today and there was a little tension in team morrison today.
opinions varied on the trail today about the walk. the older folks found the going very difficult. we were mostly walking a steep downward slope that was slippery shale, muddy with, at times, rivulets running right down the centre of the track. very difficult walking.
an older french lady who we have been crossing paths with for the last week said the downhill was tough on her hips and knees (both of which need replacing next year). another older lady fell in front of juan today so there was a bit of roadside care rendered there today. another older lady we spoke to considered that walk dangerous and she also fell today
i was very unhappy as the constant uneven surface was really aggravating my ankle which was almost better
we were talking about our day after we arrived atthe albergue and i wonderd if today could be yet considerd the perfect day because at least we got the weather right and we weren't peeling off layers or hastily covering up as on other days. no. the grouchiness spoiled our time in what was really spectacular scenery. we walked over the montes de leon. there was snow on the peaks, small villages nestled along narrow tracks winding through the valleys, the blossoms are starting to show and the sun was shining all day.
we asked a young italian walker what would make the perfect day for him and what did he think of the day. he said very thoughtfully that he thought today was perfect because, despite the difficulty of the walk, he was in beautiful surroundings. he also left a stone and a photo of his girlfriend at a cross along the way . he has been thinking about his future with her so he spent the day drifting along in romantic thoughts of the wonderful life he is looking forward to with her and he had a perfect day.
he did add, however, that had she been there the day would not have been so perfect because she is very lazy and would have been complaining all day. he said that in italy there is a saying that every man has his cross to bear and that cross is his wife so that does lend a rather practical application to romantic love.
goodnight

a perfect day

we've been talking about a perfect day. just over a week ago we were at dinner with some fellow walkers. someone (who had done the camino before) commented that you don't get the perfect day until the last day.
by that he meant the pack is just right, the weather is perfect, the company good, the terrain manageable and you are well adjusted to the demands of the walk.
juan responded that he had only written in his diary the night before that he was yet to 'have the perfect day'.
the following day sickness hit and our subsequent days were far from perfect
i hadn't really thought about the perfect day. i've had some pretty good days. the days i like the best are when the walking is broken fairly regularly by small villages to walk through. even the days where we walk for long stretches along the highway i feel pretty good to have made it at the end of the day so that constitutes a good day for me.
we've had a bit of rain the last few days and juan now thinks that a perfect day might be when we judge the weather perfectly and don't have to stop to either put on our wet weather gear or peel it off because we have prepared for the worst and the worst hasn't happened. walking in wet weather gear when it isn't raining leaves you feeling like you are working hard while wrapped up in plastic.
today, by juan's criteria we didn't have a perfect day but we did have a pretty good day. we started early and had cheeros and chocolate for breakfast. cheeros are like doughnuts but in long strips and more crunchy than doughnuts. they are sometimes served tossed in sugar but you can also eat them with a kind of hot chocolate that is a bit like chocolate custard. they're delicious and a very good start to the day.
i should say at this point that we have both lost quite a bit of weight. juan has had to bore another hole in his belt just to keep his trousers up. hugging him now takes me back to memories of the man i married. he really is very thin so a breakfast of doughnuts and chocolate custard is a good thing.
today's walk was daunting as we were walking up a gradual gradient all day but the last hour and a half was very steep . we are in foncebaddon tonight which is 1439 m above sea level. given that the highest point we came to when we crossed the pyrennes was 1430 m above sea level we went a long way down to have to come back up again. that aside we had a good day. the villages we went through were perfectly quaint (i think we are now in a more prosperous part of spain than we have been walking through in the last week). everything you might imagine about rural spain we saw today. donkeys, goats, beautiful stone walls, springs, quirky bars and great hospitality. the weather was however, a bit unpredictable so we did have to do the changeing gear thing a few times.
all that said we managed to make the walk close to the time suggested in the guide book which is a big advance for us. on one of our first long walks the guide book suggested the walk would take 7 hours and we took 11 1/2 hours.
i was a bit nervous about foncebaddon because it was described in our guide book as having a population of 5, derelict and abandonned but there has obviously been a bit of development since our book was written and we're staying in a pretty good place
maybe not a perfect day but still a pretty good day

finding refuge in jesus

followers of this blog will know that i am reading pilgrim's progress as i make my way through spain. i am reading very slowly because i fall asleep so quickly at night (usually by 9.30) that i don't get more than a few pages read at a time.
one of the things that isn't really very clear is how christian and his friend, hopeful, make some of their decisions. it is clear they should never leave the path.
however, what is not clear is when to take a rest and when to hurry through. their time spent in the delectable mountains is specifically for their refreshment. their time there, however, is short and they are meant to get back on the path in their journey to the celestial city.
another time they are crossing the enchanted ground that beckons them rest but christian somehow perceives that this is a place of danger and they must be especially alert that sleep not overtake them so that they can move through this area without harm
i have been thinking about this a bit in relation to our experiences with places to rest. some nights we only just survive the accomodation. other places are a complete surprise. the guide book sometimes doesn't help much and we guided moreby hunch than information
for example tonight we are in villar de mazarif. our albergue is called the refugio de jesus. what better name for a place to stay. the guide book provided a fairly bland description and we were only curious to see it because of its name. we were prepared to walk away from the refuge of jesus and go to a more commercial place if it looked too uncomfortable (we are staying in a very small village so our expectations were low)
what a place! it has just been renovated ready for this season's walkers but not used much yet so we are getting the benefit of new fittings etc. the great thing about the place is that in the past people have drawn all over the walls and there are beautiful drawings, funny pictures, interesting sayings in all languages all over the walls. these have been left so the place has retained its past but been transormed into a really funky comfortable place .
hardly any of the people we walked with today turned to the refuge of jesus to stay so we are in this place almost alone. we are really pleased to be here and think we made a good choice.
in fact, as sometimes happens on the camino, we had a choice in which way to walk today. sometimes there are alterntive routes along more 'scenic' ways. i am
reluctant to walk them because they are usually

1. muddy
2. poorly marked
3. hilly
4. longer

i keep in mind christian's insructions for his walk to stay on the path as i try to take the high moral ground in our discussion about which way to go. today, however, we made the better choice in taking the alternative. the main route followed the N120 all the way, whereas we had soft quiet rural tracks to follow.

i should just say that juan almost always wants to take the alternative, hence our decision to go over the pyrenees rather than around them. it appeals to him because it is always described as more scenic but i think he thinks there is more virtue in difficulty.

it's part of the camino way to accept what comes your way in these matters. sometimes you make a good call and other times your day is more difficult than it needed to be. that approach might be all right for the camino but i'm not sure that it is good enough in real life.

after all it has to be better to find refuge in jesus than anywhere else, doesn't it?

"this is what the LORD says 'stand at the crossroad and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it and you will find rest for your souls' Jer 6:16

i may have been a little harsh

my previous comments comprimised my determination to say only positive things on this blog. as thumper the rabbit said in bambi "if you haven't got anything nice to say then don't say anything at all". the truth is that there are plenty of country towns in australia that offer as little to their townsfolk as ledigos. that being said, these towns are someone's home. in addition ledigos offered us not only hospitality but care when i was sick so it was a good place to be when i needed it.
the other thing i should say is that it was unfair of me to single out bar xanadu in calzada del coto as a place to get lung cancer. in truth, you could get lung cancer from any bar in spain. the nanny state has yet to have an impact here. the best you can hope for in any bar is a non-smoking area in a smoke clouded room.

another "rest" day

our double room in ledigos turned into a 2 night stay becasue the same bug that invaded juan took up residence in my gut the following night. the details of that night are now hazy but a bottle of flat lemonade saw me right for that day.
after my recovery we walked from ledigos to calzado del coto which we made an easy day by taxying my bag with some things from juan's pack to the albergue in calzado del coto
a few words about both towns
we are now in what has been consistently referrred to in our guide book as flat, uninteresting terrain. words like unispiring, unspectacular are used a lot. one of our routes was described thus "carrion de los condes to calzadilla de la cueza goes for 12 km along the original route, the old roman road of via aquitana- dead straight with absolutely no shade. the slight hills afterwards look really exciting." or "you may feel totally alone and at a certain point you may even begin to doubt if you willl ever reach another village". or this mystifying remark "do not be put off by the endless wide open spaces which are some of the most powerful experiences along the way".
the book also tells us that the lack of stones in this area has meant that most of the homes in the area are made of mud. we can expect to see less and less stone work in the houses. juan has taken to photographing a lot of mud walls.
lodigos' mud walls were its prominent feature. my suggestion for the town of lodigos is that they hold a mud wall making competition annually. there could be a mud wall queen. mud cake competitions could be run. it could really turn the fortunes of that town around
as for calzada del coto why any guide book would have that place as a destination, walking as we did through sahagun which offered no less than 3 modern albergues and a host of benedictine history with bercianos del real camino on the other side which at least had 2 restaurants and a choice of albergues.
no, we stayed in calzada del coto which must qualify as one of spain's most frontier towns. our accomodation was in a cement hut. bitterly cold. when the guide book described it as having no comforts they were at least truthful.
we paid our donation at the bar xanadu. i am trying to remember the meaning for xanadu. i think it is something like fantasy. if your fantasy is of dying from lung cancer as a result of passive smoking then bar xanadu in calzada del coto is the place for you. they did have a good fire there so it was preferable to whiling away our time there than in the cement hut across the road. words fail to describe the forsakeness of this town.
by contrast we are in reliegos tonight and our albergue is everything you could want. clean, organised, working internet, good hot showers, restful beds and friendly. all for the princely sum of 5 euros
the camino continues to surprise

going soft on the camino

whilst my most recent post provided suggestions about how to succeed at the camino there is another way. until sunday we had walked everyday. 16 days in a row. however, after a very enjoyable dinner on saturday night juan's gut was invaded by some alien force and he spent a fair bit of not-so-quality time in the cabaliros from about 4 in the morning.
never one to give in, he remained insistent that he still had what it took to make the walk that day. all he needed was another half an hour in bed. yes, he felt much better now after that last vomit. all he needed was a bit more rest and maybe one more visit to the cabilleros.
after this went on for a couple of hours i found another hostel in town where we had just 2 beds in the room and our own bathroom and we stayed put for the rest of the day. apart from the fact that it was sickness and desperation that led us to this place what joy it was to be in our own room and only have to listen to our own snoring. we could leave our clothes and bags sprawled all over the room. we had fresh towels with a handtowel and a bath mat. we weren't balancing on one leg to dress ourselves whilst trying not to turn the water on if we leaned too closely to the tap. oh joy
all juan wanted was tea to drink. i went to the bar accross the street from the hotel and in the end i had a very nice understanding with the lady there. i conveyed the fact that i wanted a cup of tea and a coffee. that confused her because she couldn't see anyone else with me until i explained that my meridore was enfirmo. she understood what a sick husband was.
however, then i couldn't explain takeaway. she proceeded to make me the tea and coffee in the crockery then gave me a little tray so after that every time juan needed something to drink i went down the street with my tray and asked for more tea. i even extended to asking for a pot of agua caliente(hot water) to go with it. a triumph of survival skill.
today's walk has been the start to a new approach to the camino

1. we actually walked a shorter distance than the book suggested today
2. we took a double room again tonight
3. we have written down the telephone number of someone who will taxi packs from one destination to another

juan continues to reject my suggestions of taking a bus but it is only a matter of time

how to walk 30 kilometres in one day

1. it's a mental thing no matter what you do, no matter how you prepare for the day some part of your body is going to hurt at some point. as the days progress you may get used to the backpack but then the feet fall apart. after that the legs seems to cramp up every time you stop. you need to stop to rest your feet but then you have to endure the pain in the legs when you start to walk again. even your hat can hurt your head. if you don't get your hat on right it can rub the top of your ear lobes and then they get sore. ditto with the sunglasses. you just have to get your head into the task of making your body keep going
2. cut corners as we were entering navaro (a particularly grueling day) i decided to take on the camino. i drew on some inner strength i didn't know i possessed and decided i would win. my plan was to walk on the inside curve of every corner i went around thereby cutting who knows how many metres off the walk. it does give me something to do as i look ahead a few curves and plan my way through. this obsession may be a form of camino madness and i have to admit the camino has had its way with me more than i with it as that day revealed my first blister. i still think i am on to something though
3. inspiring phrases a 66 year old austrian strode past us the other day and called out "no pain no glory". we spent a little bit of time discussing that comment. mainly along the lines that whilst that may well be true the experience of pain does not guarantee glory. signposts along the way like "476 kilometres to santiago" also have an impact
4. start early walking in the morning is better than walking in the afternoon. we are walking west so if we leave early we get the bulk of our walking done with the sun behind us and that helps. we also have the advantage that we started the walk when europe changed to daylight saving so we are getting an extra hour of morning conditions even when we do leave a little later than planned
5. plan your breaks this can be tricky. the books tell you to take food and water. what they don´t make clear is that all the serviocos (toilets) are in the businesses along the way. it is best to buy food along the way so that you can use the services but this often necessitates buying drinks so you are therefore commited to the purchase of more drinks at the next place in order to use the services. in terms of timing breaks we have started to walk without eating breakfast if the first village is fairly close . we then walk 10 ks , have a break, another 10 ks have another break and then the final leg of the walk is only 5 ks. this is all dependant on the villages being conveniently arranged at about those distances
6. watch the horizon because of the weight of the pack you can tend to walk looking down all the time. it does help, however, to keep your eye on the far horizon. you can occupy yourself by aiming for the next row of trees. when a village is coming into view you first see the church tower (usually) then you might see more detail of the church. you then start to see smaller buildings in front of the church and then the village

i hope this is helpful

yes, there were chickens in the church

and a gilt wall with many statues on the northern side at the front in the church at santo domingo de la caldzada.
we attended this church for easter sunday mass in the evening. it was a sung mass and we were observers for the entirity as we could understand neither the language or the ritual
however, the priest who preached communicated as much by gesture and expression to say ¨all this doesn't matter.¨as he gestured to the gilded wall and then moved his hand to his heart and seemed to say ¨it's what's in here that counts¨
we felt entirely at home

feliz pascua

juan tells me that that is happy easter in spanish. he has been greeting all comers with this announcement and gets a response ranging from perplexity to joy along the way depending on his pronouciation of the famous spanish 'th'
easter in spain is an interesting time. on good friday we were in los gronos. i was very tired after dinner and juan convinced me to walk into town to see the cathedral but i put very firm limits on how far i was prepared towalk and how long i was going to spend there. we came upon the town's santo viernes (good friday) parade and had to tear ourselves away in the end.
the parade consisted of waves of drummers dressed in white gowns and tall pointy hoods that only had holes for the eyes. each group of drummers was escorting a differnt statue of the stations of the cross. each statue had its own group of drummers with their distinctive coloured pointyhoods. they were walking very slowly to this loud repetitive drum beat and paused at different points. there were some men carrying crosses and in one section women wearing the black mantillas. some other people who watched for longer said the parade lasted about 3 hours in all. it had an almost menacing feel although the local people didn't seem take on an overly serious attitude. one of our fellow walkers had the same feeling as us that it was all a bit sinister and scary
easter saturday we were in najera. again absolutely exhausted after a 30 k walk to find a seriously overcrowded hostel with no hot water left for showers (i was encouraged to take a cold shower by the hotelier as the cold water is 'very good for the skin').
juan's feet are slowly falling apart so we also had to do some serious consulation at the farmacia for some new foot care products (silicone inserts for the boots which seem to have helped today). given all that we were not really on the look out for any events but a chance look in the local church found us in the middle of a prayer time. one lady was calling the prayers and a small group of elderly people were echoing or responding to her words. we left as we thought that was the service only to find the crowds building and a group of men, along with the priest, trying to get some kind of fire in a bowl going that they were presumabely going to carry into the church. not sure what that was all about.
it was 9 o'clock and we had to get back as the hostels mostly close the doors at 10 o'clock.
we are in santo domingo de la calzada tonight and will go to the mass in the church but who knows what will happen. this town has their own take on the resurrection story. the town was established inthe 1100s by st domingo de la calzoda. he built an inn and a place to care for pilgrims and spent his life clearing paths and building bridges to improve the pilgrim walk. in the 1400s a german family was pilgrimming to santiago and the inn keeper's daughter in this town took a fancy to their son. he spurned her advances. she then planted a silver cup in his possesssion and accused him of robbery. he was tried for this and hanged. after the hanging his parents found that he was not trully dead. he had been kept alive by st domingo. they went to the local judge to tell him this. the judge replied that their son was as dead as the two chickens on his plate. with that the two chickens started crowing. to this day the cathedral has housed 2 chickens in a specially built part of the cathedral. at the hostel where we are staying there is a small chicken shed of white chickens. i presume on rotation duty in the cathedral.
i am in another world here

sayings along the way

i have been wanting to devote an entire blog to john's words of wisdom along the way

1. as we were crossing the pyrennes, being buffeted by icy gales and enduring sleet whilst tottering along narrow paths with sheer valleys below us `this really feels like we are crossing the pyrennes´
2. arriving in larrasoana late, in the rain and being told there was no accomodation 'i couldn´t really understand him, he was speaking broken spanish'
3. later that night when we were able to get some accomodation after a baffling telephone conversation and eating some food that john had been able to persuade a full restaurant to give him 'you go to bed. i'm staying up to learn spanish'. from then on i have referred to him as juan in order to help him with his spanish
4. leaving puenta la reina after our previous day in the mud. our washing hadn't dried and i had to wear my purple striped long johns with shorts over the top.'you look cute in that'
5. we are following a guide book which has the gradients laid out for the day's walk. invariabley as we set out on thelast bit which looks to be a conitinous downhill walk we find ourselves walkng uphill for sometime. i can't stand it and say 'i thought this was supposed to be downhill'. 'it's an average' is juan's reply.

finally the always reliable 'i think we'll see the town aound the next bend'

goodnight

maundy thursday in los arcos

i had a few different titles in mind for this blog. the first was going to be there is a fountain filled with wine. our first stop this morning was the monasterio de santa maria la real de marche. this is an old convent that is now empty but is famous for having a fountain (we would call it a tap) where passers by can pour themselves a drink of wine. if they like the wine they can then buy some wine or equally refresh themselves with the water coming from the adjacent fountain. there is a webcam on the site and you can see people drinking wine there as they go by. we did ring joel and adam hoping they might get on the internet to see us but we couldn't co-ordinate it
my second title for this blog was then going to be a long and winding road. we had our first long stretch of level walking today from ermita don monjardin to los arcos. the sign said 5.7 k but when you see the road stretched out in front of you and you think it is easy walking and not an especially long way somehow the road seems longer.
we arrived in los arcos and asked about a service tonight and went out to explore the town. the town church, the iglesia de santa maria is in the town square. it looks to be a fairly plain building. the guide book described it as romanesque/gothic/baroque and we expected some of those decortative features.
what we saw defies description. it was huge. with every kind of religious statue placed in every place possible. massive screens and backgrounds covered in gold. it smelt old. there was a huge pipe organ. the choir stalls at the back had a square display stand for the chants where the choir sat around the stand to read the music. in the cloisters there were huge movable statues of representations of the different parts of the easter story-disciples falling asleep, palm sunday, the walk to the cross. inside there was a glass case of a statue of christ that is placed on the cross on good friday and then taken down in the afternoon and paraded through the town.
we spent so long there it was then time for the service re-enacting the washing of the disciples feet so of course we stayed for that. suffice to say this is a church yet to fell the impact of hillsong.
it was quite an experience. a bit much for this little protestant. i thought as a christian i could feel one with all traditions who worship jesus but i did feel alien there amongst all that. the lack of understanding through language was one thing but it has left me feeling disturbed

mud,sweat and ...

no tears
yesterday we came across the famed mud of the camino.
as we set out from pamplona it was raining. it rained for most of the day. the mud started after we left cizor menor and continued to uterga. it was an almost continual climb over very muddy trails. we don´t mean to be the slowest in the pack but it seemed hundreds of people were skipping and running past us whilst we were travailing in the mud. the trail is surprisingly busy and i think there was a school group on it yesterday.
being so behind the group slowed us down because we were walking through their churned up mud so it was quite an experience. we had to keep stopping to clean our boots as they were getting so heavy with the mud.
however we did have a glorious day. the slopes we were climbing offered great panoramas once we arrived at the top. there are a lot of wind farms in spain and we were standing under them looking out across the plain. for the last two days we have had wind farms in continuous sight.
last night we had a late dinner with a group of young men who had ridden their bikes over the mud. they were very lighthearted about what must have been gruelling day. they were drinking and smoking and obviously planned to be up a lot later than us and then be ready to do it all over again today. we were in a restaruant that had big kegs of cider in the middle with a grill in the floor all aorund it . they showed john how to hold the glass out from the spout and catch it in the glass. what was missed went down the grill. not quite the same as the apple cider we are used to.
we are in estella tonight and preparing for bed early. the tiredness really hits you in the evening. john is writing his diary and i will read a little more of pilgrim's progress and then this little pilgrim will go to bed

hope for the best , prepare for the worst

fans of the bourne ultimatum will recognise this quote from the movie. as the CIA operatives were debating whether bourne was hostile or friendly to the agency the chief dropped this line and the decision was made to eliminate him
as i prepared for our first challenging walk of our pilgrimage, crossing the pyrennes, i might have hoped that a more devout or pious sentiment would occur to me. unfortuntely it was this dour comment that came to mind.
we did have to prepare for the worst because just as we set out it started to rain, then the wind blew. at one point we discussed whether what we were experiencing was hail or sleet or snow. the jury is still out on that one. i seriously thought i might get frost bite at one stage. half of my mouth seemed to go numb and i was imagining my life with half a mouth on my face. my hands also went beyond stinging freezing
i should point out that we were advised not to go this route because of the likely bad weather even though it is more scenic. the advice was right about both. the vistas were magnificent and despite the conditions we have lived to tell the tale.
hospitality had been fantastic. we stayed at a farmhouse our first night and had a long and delicious french farmhouse meal there. tonight we are at roncevalle and staying at a pilgrim hostel which is comfortable and warm with plenty of facilities
goodnight all

ce n´est pas difficile ambulater dans la citie de paris

le metro, l´autobus, le boat et le pied
we had, i guess, about 24 hours to do paris and we gave it our best shot. we arrived via the eurostar at 1100 am, used the metro to get to our hotel freshend up and then went out
i guess the best thing abut paris is the river. it helped us to find ourselves all the time. when we got lost (an alternative title to this blog was being lost in paris) we just found ourselves again by getting to the river. being lost in paris doesn't really matter anyway becuse it it all great. definitely on the list of places to come back to.
we visited the louvre. the things that made an impact were the reliefs of darius I- the colours, the size, pristine condition, the size. we searched all over for michalangelo´s dying slave. when we had finaly given up and went looking for the mona lisa we found the slave (probably a lesson in life there). also humarabi's code. didn´t expect to find that there. it is mind blowing (for me anyway ) to see something that i spent so much time staring at photos in text books at school. well now i've really seen hamurabi's code
another good thing about visiting the louvre was that it was excellent training for our pilgrim walk. the louvre is 700metres long and by the time you've been lost in it as many times as we were you have covered a lot more than 700 metres.
the following day we took an open bus tour and saw all the iconic spots. we hung around the eiffel tower for a while and took a lot of photos then went for a river cruise.
paris does not disappoint. it was beautiful when we expected beauty. relaxing and fun when we were just walking around. i think it would definitely be fun to work on my french and try to talk to people a little bit. i thought i might have been a bit ho hum about the eiffel twer but really seeing it is stunning.
we will be back. or have i already said that?
sorrry no photos. no place to put in the card

our day in london

people take pilgrimages for all sorts of reasons. i heard of one person who made a pilgrimage to a place that she knew about because she did a jigsaw puzzle of a particular scene. it so captivated her that she had wanted to visit the spot ever since she had seen this place in this puzzle
i think of London chiefly in terms of stories that i have read or movies that i have seen and i think i have been wanting to come here ever since i started to read about it.
travelling into London brought my first memory.
as we came into Waterloo station i thought of the movie Waterloo bridge. Waterloo bridge is an old tear jerker that i remember mum and i watching (google it if you want a plot outline) and crying over many years ago.
84 charing cross road was one the most charming books i have ever read. it is the account of correspondence between an American book collector and the owner of a rare book store in charing cross road, London and here was i within walking distance of charing cross road.
the skylines of chimney pots evoked Mary Poppins. Greenwich village had me looking out for Horatio Hornblower. when i saw the public housing blocks around London from the train i kept wondering if we were in Sun Hill, home of The Bill. everything i know about police work i learnt on The Bill
i should settle down though and tell you what i really saw. our goal for our first day in London was to do a walk around to acquaint ourselves with the layout and how best to get around. we found the iconic spots such as Buckingham Palace,
Trafalgar Square,

St Paul's Cathedral

and Piccadilly.



our friend Richard was with us for the day. he helped us with some of London's secrets. his daughter, rosemary, is a barrister and has her office in the temple area of London so we found ourselves in one of London's inner worlds. we ate at temple inn (the site of, amongst other things the first performance of Shakespeare's 12th night) and walked around temple church which featured in the da vinci code. because of its old London look it is frequently the scene for filming all kinds of historical dramas.

we've only scratche d the surface of this great city and we are off for another day tomorrow

a brilliant week

we have spent the last week in the south of England.we made it as far south west as torquay and spent a night in lyme regis so we have now had a taste of British seaside life. it was very pretty and we had to take this shot of the beach huts

a highlight for john and a new experience in cold for me was attending the football match between reading and ... can't remember their name but according to reading supporters they cheat a lot and can't really play soccer (so perhaps their name doesn't really matter). reading is our friend Richard's team. they wear blue and white, they have a mascot called Kingsley who was very entertaining throughout the game and, whilst they will not win the premiership in their league they now have a very good chance of not being relegated at the end of the season because they have been winning a lot lately the following day john was given the choice between more time spent in contemplation of Jane Austen or a castle that would tell the story of a different femme-fatale. he chose Ann Boleyn so off to hever castle for us. this was quite a homey (not as in home-boy more as in domestic) castle but the grounds were truly on a dramatic scale. even in the winter (not spring yet) the scope and the setting made it a fantastic place to be.
a view of hever castle

the lake at hever castle

Thursday saw us off to Canterbury cathedral. this was where Thomas Beckett was murdered. he was made a saint and, as the repository for his bones, the cathedral became a site for pilgrimage. this assured the prominence and prosperity of both the cathedral and the town. the spirit of pilgrimage still seems to be in the essence of the town.

we had a lovely talk to one of the the cathedral chaplains who bid us 'come as tourist but to leave as pilgrims'. we waylaid a cathedral guide who explained to we ignorant free-churchers the purpose of cloisters and a chapter house and the differing functions of a dean and a cannon.

did you know that the archbishop of Canterbury- the leader of the anglican world must ask the Dean of Canterbury Cathedral's permission to come to the cathedral because it is the Dean's church and not the Archbishop's?

this guide sought us out later, as we had identified ourselves as Baptist, and told us of the location of a Strict and Particular Baptist church just outside the walls of the cathedral. of course we went to find it so in one day visited a massive center of worship with an international profile and one of the smallest places of worship it is possible to imagine. we weren't able to go in but did take a photo.

must find out what Zoar means or perhaps one of my blog followers can tell me. there's a challenge.

one more church

in complete contrast to all the other churches we have visited/attended we went to the Riverside baptist church in Exeter last Sunday morning. our day started slowly and we had really given up on going to church that morning as we thought we only had time to do a quick circuit of the town before tackling a fair bit more driving for the rest of the day. the thought of trying to find a baptist church just seemed too much. after once more negotiating ring roads and yet another park and display car park we emerged from the car park to see a sign for the riverside baptist church adjacent to the car park, worship having started just a few minutes earlier. of course we went in
this was chapel worship . just a couple of families and some older couples. hymn singing with gusto, king James version of the bible, fervent spontaneous prayer and warm hospitality. it was mothering Sunday and the minister preached the most sympathetic sermon on the subject of the mother of James and john seeking preferential seating for her sons in the kingdom of God that i have ever heard. he also made an interesting connection with the preceding parable suggesting that the story of the landowner who gave the same payment to all his workers regardless of when they started may have prompted her request.
he also mentioned cromwell as a hero. only the night before i wrote on the previous blog that i was yet to hear a favourable word about cromwell. here it was.
on the wall of the church they had displayed their membership covenant. i've never seen anything like that before. it must have connections with earlier baptist Church membership coveneants. i know there were standard covenants that baptist churches have used in times past and it was very interesting to see one that was still given prominence in their church life. they were very happy for us to take a photo hence the photo at the top of the blog. turns out they are an independent baptist church
we felt very at home and thank the riverside baptist church at exeter for their welcome