Day 16

Friday October 1, 2010

Day 16 on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela

Castrojeriz to Fromista

Dear Blog Readers,

Have to talk a little about the church in Castrojeriz.  Rick remarks it is the most peaceful church he’s ever been in to prayer.  I, of course, cannot pray instead my eyes and camera flick back on forth to the wonderful tapestries upon the walls. They are all works based on Ruben’s cartoons. 

This morning the hotel manager is not on hand to pay the bill, nothing starts moving before 8 a.m. so never leave until 8:15 a.m. without breakfast.  First town is more than 11 kms. away for a bite to eat and a cup of tea!

A morning mist covers the valley as Castrojeriz is left behind.  Walk pass a wonderful Roman road over the marshes, looks like it was once used as part of the Camino, but now they government is getting smart about the treasures they have been left by the invaders of old.  Straight ahead is a steady climb up a mountain to the plateau and meseta.  About 12 curves straight up to the top.  I feel like the lone pilgrim climbing to the top. The meseta is ahead for another 7 kms to the nearest town for breakfast.  Trek pass sunflower fields being harvested and for the first time fields of turnips waiting to be harvested.  After 11 kms. finally get a bite to eat and then it is off again on to another meseta - for some reason my trek turns from being easy to difficult.  The way over the flat areas becomes harder.  My mind begins to wander - Maybe my spirit would let my body go over to the plough hay field for an hour´s rest while my spirit continue without my weary body - ´crunch, crunch, left - right my feet keep moving.  My stick stops digging into the Camino to propel me forward, I now hold on to it like a weapon, pick pointed forward, watch out I may poke anyone ahead of me.  Crunch, crunch, left - right - no rest for the body, spirit wants to get to Santiago.  I ignore the lovely blue butterflies today, my head is down watching my feet - crunch, crunch, left - right-  A mating couple of dragonflies get my weary attention, only to wonder how they accomplish such a feat - crunch, crunch, left - right.

A nasty little pebble hitch a ride in my right boot, on his way to visit cousins up ahead.  I ignore him as there is nowhere to sit to get rid of him.  He complains by poking me on my heel, too bad, crunch, crunch, left - right.  Must wait get to the next town to take a 5 mins. break.  Finally a small hamlet comes into view but everything is shut up tight, nowhere to sit to remove my pesky hiker.  Find a wall and remove my boot only to have the pebble give me a hard time to bringing him too far, I give him the finger, my index, in warning about being a little more appreciative about my help.

Thank God for a Coke.  I think Coke can make one heck of an ad with the pilgrims, who all have a coke between 1 and 2 to get their caffeine -sugar fix to continue.  As I leave the hamlet, Coke kicks in and my spirit and body are once more happily together, so I enjoy the trek pass a birch lined track - with bullrushes filling the drains - up a rise and there is a canal for the next 4 kms to the town, where I can finally take my boots off and have a rest for the night.

A long day, arrive at 3:05 in Fromista - hotel is across the street from a beautiful church.  Trek 25 kms. today - will get a little break tomorrow, only 20.5 kms.  To date the trek has covered 356.1 kms, almost half way to Santiago.

Blessings from the Camino,

Yasmin

My personal thoughts for today - My mind takes an inward journey today and I feel really in tuned with my mind, body and soul.  Everyone should have such a journey to connect with their inner being.

Day 15

Thursday September 30, 2010

Day 15 on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela

Hornillos de Camino to Castrojeriz

Dear Blog Readers,

Today is an easy day to walk, because it is the second day on the ´mesetas´.  Leave Hornillos de Santiago, by 8 a.m. after the owners of the Casa Rural arrive and serve breakfast to us pilgrims.  Lots of pilgrims on the road today, all walking at a good clip.  Sun is long in breaking through the morning mist, but the wind is cool and the going is swift. Trek today takes us pass wheat fields, a Templar Cross pilgrims’ monument and lines of windmills.  Make a stop in a hamlet, Hontanas, for hot cocoa.  Track along a secondary roadway, tree lined, but hard on the feet for about 10 kms. Reach Convento de San Anton, an abandoned ruin once a convert.  Stop for lunch, ham sandwich and a coke.

Answer some of the questions posted from the blog - No, Janine - I seemed to have lost sight of the 4 Korean ladies, they must be two or three days ahead of me.  I have been walking for about 12 days, seeing three Japanese men - one lives and works in Norway, his two school chums have met up with him and all three are walking to Santiago.  One is the singer from last night’s dinner. 

I met up with young Stanley (American making the documentary) who let me use his Mac Book to send some photos. He was with Kathrine from England.  Lars was waiting for them in Burgos - but since then have not seen any of them.  Lost track of the two Canadian women, Lulu and Joan. From Canada meet Andrew, his wife Una and their friend Marsella in Burgos.  I have said ´goodbye´ to some of the friends made on the Camino - Dr. Bob and his wife, Teresa, who have returned home to Nova Scotia - Thanks for all the doctor advice Bob.  Teresa, you are a great walker. Hope you both return and go all the way to Santiago.  Arrive in Castrojeriz early, about 1:30 p.m.  Lovely ruined castle. Takes another hour to find the hotel. Adrew, Una and Marsella are here too.  Do the wash and find an internet cafe for the daily blog.  Trekked 20 kms. today - 330.6 kms. completed! Tomorrow will be a longer day - 25 kms.   Hope to get to Leon in 7 days for another rest day.  Take care, thanks again to all the RAR volunteers and those who donated and sponsored my trek.

Blessings from the Camino,

Yasmin

My personal thoughts for today - I am enjoying walking on the mesetas, it allows for introspective thinking and conversations about life.  I am asking the universe questions, hope to get some answers.

Day 14

Wednesday September 29, 2010  

Happy Raise a Reader Day  (in Canada)  Thank you, Volunteers!

Day 14 on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela

Burgos to Hornillos del Camino 

Dear Blog Readers,

Sorry this day’s blog one day late.  I stop for the night in a hamlet with only 20 inhabitants, stay at another Casa Rural - one Albergue, one restaurant with 5 tables to seat 20 and one small store - obviously no internet. But I do phone interviews with the two radio stations at home, hope volunteers for RAR hear my interviews.

I leave the wonderful, historical City of Burgos at around 8 a.m. after taking a RAR photo with the lone pilgrim statue, on a bench in front of the grand cathedral. Sunrise is behind me.  Have to trek 4 kms. before reaching the outskirts of the City - walk pass rolling hills and plough fields.  The path moves through two small hamlets before a steady climb up to the first ´meseta´ a flat plateau which goes for kms. at a time.  There are several days of walking the ´mesetas´- these are like living in Saskatchewan all over again, flat with the horizon going on forever!  Walk though sunshine and warmth for about another 4 kms before starting downhill.  The small hamlet, Hornillos, where I will spend the night is in sight, but still takes 4 kms. to get there.  As mentioned only 20 people live here, lots of older women.  The Casa Rural has only 7 rooms, the owners lives in Burgos and I will not see them until the morning when they come to serve breakfast of tea/coffee, toast and jam at 7:30 a.m. Collect the key from the small shop across the street.

The pilgrims sit out in the sunshine and chat.  At six we traipse to the lone restaurant where the first 20 sit down for the pilgrim´s meal.  We have the most incredible time ever, our resident Japanese opera singer burst into an aria and everyone joins in the melody.  That leads to an Irishman belting out Danny Boy with everyone joining in, then the French people got us going with Frere Jacques.  After, we comment that it is the best meal and company for the whole Camino to date!

Trekked 20 kms.   Thanks for all the volunteers and donors to RAR fundraising.

Blessings from Camino,

Yasmin

My personal thoughts for today - The three Japanese men have been on the Camino  with us for many days now.  Only one speaks English.  It is wonderful to be on the trail and hear an aria coming from up ahead or behind. The spontaneous singing at the cafe is what the Camino is all about.  Everyone becomes community, reaching for the same goal. 

Rest Day.

Dear Blog Readers,

September 28, 2010

Rest Day in Burgos - wow I´ve taken so many photos of the Cathedral I´ve stunned myself!

Anyway, want to take the time to write you a retrospective of the Camino to date -

Brief History - After Jesus died, the Apostel James went to spread the word, like St. Peter to Rome, St. Paul to Corinth, St. James tried Spain - travelling through France to enter Spain over the Pyrenees.  This is why the trail starts in France, from St. Jean Pied de Port, translates ´St. James on foot at the door´into Spain.

The Camino - For the most part the trail is well marked with yellow arrows pointing the way to Santiago or a blue tile with a shell - in some hamlets it is through the whole town, but in large cities, you can easily get lost so have to keep a sharp eye out on the sidewalks or up overhead on signs for the yellow arrow or shell symbol. The way is sometimes through wide fields, or narrow sheep tracks, washed out riverbeds, over dirt, stones, pebbles, hard sand, large rocks, and even cement and rock paths placed by well meaning city governments ( some of these are very hard to walk on for 8 - 10 kms at a time - legs and feet feel heavy and tired).

The French and Spaniard - Did not spend a long time in France, long enough to enjoy a croissant and tea and purchase my Camino walking stick (thank God I did, I´ve patted thanks to that stick many a days), so really don´t have a huge opinion of the French, those I met were friendly and wished me well.  The Spanish are for the most part welcoming. We, the pilgrim, have literally taken over their country and they have allowed us in.  The pilgrims are vital to the economy in many hamlets, villages and towns - not as much in the cities.

Culture - The little I was exposed to, showed the French culture as quaint, with  lovely little villages filled with flowers.  The Spanish culture is culture shock to most pilgrims.  Each day we leave before the sun is up, so not much is open.  Pilgrims must purchase water and food the night before to stock up on food for the first thing in the morning. If we are lucky, there is a hamlet, village or town up ahead with a smart bar owner open to let us in to purchase coffee, tea, hot chocolate and sweet cakes . they have croissants filled with melted chocolate - yum!
However, after walking for 5 - 7 hours and getting to the next town to spend the night, there is nothing open to save your life - it is of course siesta.  Doors are closed, windows shuttered, dogs put away and quietened.  Only the odd stray cat can be seen dashing from one abandoned building to the next.  So everything is closed until 5 p.m. lots of pilgrims take a nap as there is only ´tapas´on at the restaurants or bars, these a nibbles to peck at, nothing to fill the stomach.  Dinner is at 8 p.m. those pilgrims staying at Albergues (inexpensive hostels with up to 100 in a room) must get back before the doors close at the Albergue - sometimes by 9 or 10 p.m.  This set up of eating late makes for an uneasy night´s sleep, as the pilgrims are usually on the road by 7 a.m.

Accommodations - I made the decision to stay at small to medium hotels as I´d heard stories about the horrors in the Albergues - mainly loudly snoring pilgrims, or having to share a room and bathroom with 100 other people.  After the first day meeting a young German man who could not finish his beer due to his ´bed bug bites´and meeting a Montreal woman on the third day who counted 85 bed bug bites - I am now happy with my decision of spending the money to stay in hotels - the pilgrims do pay to stay in the Albergue - 5 - 10 Euros.

Walking the Camino - My wish to walk the Camino was not an easy one.  I wanted to do something for myself.  I know there were a few who did not think I, who had never done anything too challenging, could actually make this trek.  I´m born under Taurus, the bull, which means I´m ´bullish´and of course my nature is to be determined.  If I decide to do something I do it to the best of my ability - no matter what that is.  So as not to fail, I also added the challenge of raising money for Raise a Reader, a program I organize in the South Okanagan.  That first day, what got me going after I hurt myself, was the thought of disappointing all those who did believe in me and sponsored me - I want to say a huge thank you for having faith in my ability to accomplish such a task.  I wish to tell you this is not an easy trek I have undertaken, but it will make me stronger in body and mind.  I have never doubted I could finish what I started, now I continue to pray for good health, strong feet and legs and a steady mind to take me to Santiago.

The future - I have nothing, no treks for the future, once I finish this Camino.  This was my 60th birthday wish for myself - now I´ve been thinking when I turn 70 I will like to buy an open ticket on Via Rail, and travel across Canada, stopping in places I´ve like to visit - Who knows, maybe I´ll ask the grandchildren to go with me!

Thanks again to everyone for the super support - I´m hanging in and accomplishing more than I imagined.  Keep the wishes coming, they are appreciated.

And, thanks for the advice on my lost photos, here in Burgos I went into a camera shop and the kind man found all my ´lost´photos, they are now stored on a CD set to travel home with me.

Much Blessings from the Camino -
Yasmin

Day 13

Monday September 27, 2010

Day 13 on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela

San Juan de Ortega to Burgos

Dear Blog Readers

Last night share a drink with the lovely couple, Elsa and Alfredo, who own the Casa Rural. This morning have a quick breakfast, leaving Belorado by 7:45 a.m.  by taxi back to San Juan de Ortega, where I left off yesterday.  Again share the taxi like the day before with a Swiss ex-military man and his younger companion, who has done the Camino before and is acting as his guide.  Forget to take their photo.

Morning is chilled, driving to San Juan the gauge reads -1 degrees, yikes, get the gloves out.  Set off at this temp and it does not warm up for most of the day even when the sun comes out.  Walk pass fields and rolling hills again. Up through the pine and oak forests with my breath misting in the chilly air.  It is a day of colours, first the lovely lonely bunches of poppies waving along the path. Next are some purple flowers growing right out of the dirt or small stones along the path - no stem, no leaves, just a lovely blossom emerging from the ground.  Try my best not to step on them as the push to feel the warmth of the sun.  Today when the sun finally shines on the flowers along the stone and dirt paths, I see periwinkle blue butterflies again.  Pass more wilting sunflower fields, ´poor pilgrims´!

Some trek uphills and several downhills on tough ground filled with large stones and rocks - making the Camino through this leg a hard walk.  Travel through several small hamlets, stop for a hot chocolate to warm my chilled bones.

Finally see Burgos from the top of a plateau.  This is one City I’ve been dreaming about because of the history, can´t wait.  Burgos is home of the great El Cid.  As a treat, staying near the Cathedral in a 5-star hotel called Mason del Cid.   However, even though I can see the City of 170,000 inhabitants, it takes about 3 hours to get to the edge.  Too tired to go another km. take a bus to the center, but must walk for another 30 mins. to the hotel.

Trek 26 plus kms. Today brings the total to 290.1 kms.  Will take a well deserved rest day tomorrow and tour the City and historical locations.  Also get caught up on the washing!  Will write a retrospective tomorrow on the trek to date.

Blessings from the Camino,

Yasmin

My personal thoughts for today -  Even on a tough, rough day’s trek, flowers and butterflies bless the Camino - I am humbled!

Day 12

Sunday September 26, 2010

Day 12 on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela

Belorado to San Juan de Ortega

Dear Blog Readers,

For the first time on the trek we stay the night at a Casa Rural - this is a house in a hamlet, village or town, privately owned and converted into a rooming house.  There are about 5 double rooms. The family live in the town not in the Casa Rural.  They check us in and leave for the night.

After breakfast I leave the hotel earlier, as it is a long hard day, with some steep climbs.  Trail is rocky.  Walk pass fields of dying sunflowers, who remind me of a pilgrim, with head bowed, arms hanging from carrying a heavy backpack - the sunflowers reflect the tired, weary pilgrim, with bowed face and hanging leaves.  Trek pass an ancient church built into the hillside (hundreds of years old) - someone says it is actually an Albergue, however I see no one as I stop to take photos. Bells are still hanging from the church´s towers, an odd site on the trail.

All day rain threatens. The clouds are dark and heavy - the wind is chilly, so scarf, gloves and jacket are the order of the day.  Pass several small villages on the way to Villa Franca, where I buy bread for my lunch, along with some salami and cheese purchased yesterday at the supermarket.

Out of Villa Franca the trek goes straight uphill, very steeply for about 3 kms.  Yikes, going is slow and many pilgrims are actually moaning, including me.  Finally make it up to the top, I can actually say I´ve walked on top of a mountain in Spain.  The plateau goes on for about 8 kms.  The path is lined with Heather, pass their bloom, so no smell. But then there is a large Pine forest for kms. and that brings back memories of British Columbia.  The path is wide so I think the pine has been planted for harvesting, as the area can accommodate large machines and trucks.

Come upon a monument for those murdered and buried in mass graves during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s under Franco rule.  A truly sad place, so stop to have lunch and chat with a young woman (Pia) from Austria, who is on the Camino looking for answers as to where she should go next in her life.  She is an interesting person to chat with, like so many others on the Camino.

As lunch ends, the wind picks up and the temp. drops about 10 degrees, sky darkens and a storm seems about to drop out of the sky.  I hurry on. I think the trek uphill is over, but there is another hard climb before it levels off again.  No rain, but the wind and chill persist.  Finally, San Juan de Ortega comes into view, but there is about 4 kms downhill before the church comes into view.  It is about 2 p.m. a long day indeed.  Take a taxi back to the same Casa Rural as the previous night.  There are no hotels now until Burgos. Will sleep then taxi back to San Juan de Ortega in the early morning to walk the next leg into Burgos and a long awaited rest day!

Wednesday is Raise a Reader fundraising day, thanks to all of you who have contributed to literacy through my trek - I cannot do this without help from all of you!

Blessings from the Camino.

Yasmin

My thoughts for today - Some guide books actually take into account the ups and downs when giving the kms. Trek today 24.3 for a total to date of 263.1 kms - with the added kms for ups and downs it is more like 27 kms today.

Day 11

Saturday September 25, 2010

Day 11 on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela

Santo Domingo de Calzada to Belorado

Dear Blog Readers,

Go to bed at 9 p.m. and wake up this morning at 7:50 a.m. Guess the body needs the rest.  Trust the nuns, pilgrims dine on bread and jam with a cup of tea for breakfast - not a piece of ham in sight!

Leave Santo Domingo in light rain, which remains for most of the walk.  Long day today as the villages and towns with available hotel rooms are getting fewer.  Sunday tomorrow but Cannot take it off.  There is no place to stay except at an Albergue with hundreds of other pilgrims and bed bugs!.  So will walk, turing around to spend a second night in Belorado.  Trek travels through every hamlets, uphill and downhill in and out.  One place is so small, nowhere to buy a coke.  The Camino takes us into the village where the locals are sitting outside, guess on Saturdays one thing to do is pilgrim watch.  Well, I think all the pilgrims on the road this morning have had enough of the in and out of places, adding kms. to their walk.  As I leave this one town, down the hill I see pilgrims cutting across a farmer´s plough field, taking some of the kms. off their trek. Rain continues.

Walk pass more potato fields being harvested.  At the entrance of one small hamlet, it seems like Saturday is the day to prepare for winter. A man labours over an oil can cut like a bbq, with wood chips at the bottom, and a grill at the top, he is roasting large red peppers.  I stop and ask to take his photo but he would not let me, just a photo of the peppers roasting. In the background sit three other people washing the peppers.  He says they store the roasted peppers in ceramic containers with water and then use them all winter for up to five years.  They put them in meat dishes or soups etc.  Wonderful to see this happening, one man is in the family´s garden picking the peppers, the rest of the family washes while the shy man roasts.  Pass several others doing the same thing.  It is roasting peppers day!  Rain persist, with that nasty cold wind again - pilgrims are exhausted by the end of the day. Finally get to Belorado for the night.  Trek today - 23.9 kms. no steps.  Off to St. Juan de Ortego tomorrow, another long day with some steep climbs. Then back by car to this town.  Thanks for your comments and prayers!

Blessings from the Camino,

Yasmin

My personal thoughts today - As before, I continue to feel the Camino can break your spirits if you let it.  I have picked up my walking stick, only using it on occasions if I have to cross a wet or slippery track.  At times it is like the pilgrims attack the Camino, poking their walking sticks into her trail.