Sept 30 Santiago to Finisterre

Nothing surprises me now. Jette and I are walking to the bus station to get the bus to Finisterre when we are approached by a man who offers to drive us there in his van along with 5 other pilgrims that he picked up. This means a 1 hour trip instead of 3 and so we jump on into the van, trusting in his good intentions. It is a good ride to Finisterre and he is a man who just tries to make some extra money this way. We are impressed with the scenery and his good humour along the way and meet some new and interesting people in the process.
We arrive in Finisterre which is wonderful and the day is perfect.
We spend some time at the beach and with the tide all the way out, there are many shells to pick from and such a wonderful afternoon to spend lying in the sun. There are a lot of people here, some having walked all the way from Santiago which would take 3 to 4 days and others coming by bus like us. We have a lazy day and then meet to do the final ritual which is to walk up to the light house near sunset to burn our socks and watch the sun go down over the sea.
There are so many pilgrims there, burning clothes and hanging others from the tower on the rock. It is kind of weird actually, and you would have to be a pilgrim to understand the ritual. Lots of people spread all over the rocks with the sun setting over the sea and it is such a place of beauty and peace and a wonderful way to complete such a journey. It is a long walk up to this place, nearly 3 kms and so we are walking down again in the dusk and with others who are going our way.
It strikes me that many people - more than we can imagine have come this way, done these rituals and then gone home again to change their life in some small way. Surely there must be a change in the world as a result.
A post at the top of the hill near the light house says "may there be peace on earth" and perhaps this is what somme are looking for, first of all in their hearts and then in their community.
It is not surprising to me to wake to rain the following morning as it is a signal that I should get mmoving along with the rest of my journey and so we are on our way once again.
Maggee

Sept 29 Santiago

And so we find each other! I am looking for Jette and Sonja all through the wonderful Pilrgims Mass in the morning at the church and when I go out to walk along with the rest of the people leaving the church, there sits Sonja on the stone wall, as if she were waiting for me. It is a warm and wonderful welcome and reunion of friends. The mass was just as important as the first time that I sat in the church after the Camino Frances was completed in 2008. This time I chose a seat in the cross of the church and so had a much better view of the mass itself and when they prepared to swing the botefumeiro, it was a spectacle worth waiting for. It goes so high up and then comes barrelling down such that you actually duck, thinking that it will surely hit you on the head. It doesn´t, but what a feeling being there in that space once again.
Sonja and I go for lunch and have a wonderful talk and a walk and then agree to meet later for a drink and hopefully find the rest of our friends. This is accomplished with Chris, the American fellow we have met many times, the Korean couple and then along comes Jette. We have a wonderful time with a drink and then a dinner together with a lot of other people that we know from our travels. So much laughter!
I am feeling ready to leave here, but will stay for one more day to tour around and see what I have missed on other occasions.
Jette and I spend a wonderful day touring around the museums which I had not noticed before. There is a lot to see in the underground of the church with the architecture and then some access to the cloister up above the main church. We are impressed with the things we get to observe and then make a reservation to tour the roof of the cathedral later in the day. This turns out to be the most impressive of all of our explorations. We are taken through the palace which dates back to the 13th century and then high up to the balcony that runs around the sanctuary of the church. This is a place where the pilgrims of the past were allowed to sleep once they arrived in Santiago.
The stairs that led to the roof are old and worn and we are soon on the very top of the cathedral roof. We are able to walk all over the area as the roof is made of cement plates that form slanted steps on the roof top. We walk around the various bell towers and over the main sanctuary and then over the dome that covers the tomb of St James. We are able to look over balcony railings to the streets below and then to listen to the bells as they chime the hour and the call to mass. We are told many stories of the past and see the Cross of Rags which is beside a cement basin in which the pilgrims uses to burn their clothes. This was moved to the roof of the catherdral many centuries ago.
After this wonderful tour, we go down to the square for a great dinner and then we remember on our way home that the church across from the cathedral holds a vespers service in the evening and we are in luck. As we enter, the nuns have just begun to sing their mass for the evening prayers and so we sit and listen to the music and the atmosphere is very special.
It is a great way to complete our visit to Santiago with all of the things that we have seen and learned about this place.
Maggee

Sept 28 Santiago

It is actually very exciting to be here in Santiago and amidst the great vibe of people arriving from all over the world to this spot. It is a special feeling of happiness and accomplishment and excitement to be near the cathedral which is a place that people have been heading to through many challenges and difficulties over the past many days of walking.
I have met so many people today, that we walked with along the way, including Sonja who I found outside the church after the mass this morning. Have yet to locate Jette, but she has been spotted and we have everyone on the lookout to help us find her.
We are going to meet with several of the people that we walked with for dinner this evening which will be lovely. Quite a few are heading to Finisterre tomorrow to complete this journey. I will do that also on Thursday, either walking or by bus depending on how I feel. I will sit tight tomorrow as no one is sure about how this country wide strike will affect things locally.
Last night I spent the evening having dinner with the group that Linda and Jim have been walking with for the past 10 days, a wonderful collection of individuals who have done the camino in their own way. One thing that struck me was the vibe of good feelings in the group who did not know each other before and the other was the intention that each had to get to know the other during this trip as they seemed to have some solid friendships between them.
I thought that Kirsten and Alvina and I had a pretty complicated system for sharing costs and settling accounts at the end of the day, but this group which included 3 bankers topped the pile. All that was missing was one of those adding machines with a roll of paper trailing out the back! IN the end, the individuals bills were accurate and complete and the waiter only needed minor resuscitation before we left.
It also struck me how language has played a big part in this journey for me. In the beginning of the journey, French was the most common language and so for most of it I could understand but not really participate in the conversation. This marginalizes you in the experience of being together and I once again regret my single languge capability when some others seem to speak so many.
For the next part, Spannish predominated outside our little group, but we spoke English with the people we walked with and then struggled with Spannish when we had to interact with the local people. Always there is an awareness that communication is a challenge even to do simple things, like buy food or find your way.
Last night it was an English blast, fast talk, good humour and all Canadian which I had not experienced for some time. I realize how much we take for granted in being a generic common language group in our daily life and how little we have to think about getting our message across or understanding what is being said to us, as has been the case for the past 5 weeks on this trip. It was good for me to have a good Canadian feast of communication with others from my own country and even some who are neighbours in my new community back home.
Today, a wonderful day with the sun shining and people happy all around. My room is an attic room at the top of a little hotel, just beside the cathedral and across from the pilgrims office so lots of action all day long. At night, the dark sky is lit by the lights from the cathedral and the silence late at night broken by people happy in the streets and then the sound of the church bells ringing in the hours. It is a joyful place, overflowing with ancient history and rituals that have endured for centuries as people arrived here from walking the Camino from all over the world.

"It is not important to know where we are going, nor to find a place to go. The world is open to our appetite. It opens. It spreads perspective, widens the stems of a piece of herb until it reaches the forest, and the window entirely. We travel only when we let go" Frantz Bartlett

Maggee

September 27 Santiago

What a difference arriving here by bus instead of on foot. It was beautiful ride through the mountains to Lugo and then to LaCoruna and then to Santiago. It took about 4 hours, a journey on foot of about 2 weeks. I enjoyed the new experience of travel and then of being in this city once again.
It is crowded and accomodation is tight, so tight that I am in an expensive hotel which I do not mind at all. In fact it is treat to be close to the cathedral for a few days and in a place which will be wonderful for resting and collecting my thoughts AND feeling better.
I had such a surprise!!! I did not expect to meet anyone once I got here as the city is big and full of people, tourists and pilgrims alike. But the karma of life aligned and there on a corner of the street was my friend Linda and her husband Jim, who had just completed the Camino Frances yesterday. Linda was the one who had to leave the CF in 2008 with knee injury and so to meet her here like this was just to miraculous and wonderful.
(Note to Michael - can you please sms to Kirsten and Alvina that I found Linda as I have no way to do this myself and I do not think they will have e mail for a few days)
Linda and I spent the afternoon together walking around the church and the landmark sites that we visited as an original group 2 years ago. It was such a wonderful completion for us and so good for me to find someone like this in this way. It just felt like all the gods have been aligning around me to make this trip work out in a way that is a surprise to me, yet with unexpected bonuses at every turn.
So I am here for a few days. It is crowded and accomodation is tight as there are many people as well as conferences going on in the city. I am lucky to have a room tonight
The cathedral is cordoned off so that you cannot enter by the main entrance way and must use the back entrance. Still Linda and I went to lie down and look at the spires upside down as was recommended to us 2 years ago. The only way to get to the apostle and the tomb is to line up with the tourists to go through the holy door which will not be opened again until 2021 or so. So it is all together different.
Weather continues to be great, but everyone is a bit nervous about the pending general strike across Spain on Wed. Not sure how this will affect services and travel so will sit tight and wait and see
Maggee

Sept 26 Ribadeo - still

Well here we are still in Ribadeo. Kirsten has been quite sick for the past few days with a flu and not able to continue to walk, so we have had some quiet time and a lot of rest which is good for all of us.
The tempo of the Spannish way of life is addictive and we are sleeping later and enjoying the afternoon siesta when everything shuts down anyway, so there is no where to go.
We are on the town square right across from an ancient church that was commissioned by St Francis when he walked the camino so there is much history here. We have seen one funeral and two wedding while watching through the window or from the balcony that Kirsten and Alivina have in their room. The funeral was a procession with the family walking behind the hearse to the church and the weddings were smimilarly unique with the bride walking along the street with her father anf followed by her family in one of the weddings. Lot of excitement through the wedding service with people coming and going to the bar and at one point a whole band playing in the bar while people waited for the bride and groom to leave the church.
Tomorrow,I will take a bus to Santiago as I am not feeling well enough with this cough to continue the walk for the next 150 kms. Alvina and Kirsten will walk on their own through the mountains and perhaps we will meet up in Santiago later.
Life presents many unexpected options and so I am going to stop walking to rest and fell better and get rid of this cough before I do anything else.
All is as it should be and I will learn from this as well. It is just my camino going a differnt way than I thought
Maggee

Sept 25 Ribadeo

Well, we are still here spending a third night in the hostel that I found a few days ago. We are tired and both Kirsten and I have been unwell, so we have stopped for a rest and it is doing us a lot of good to just spend some quiet time to ourselves and to re arrange our thoughts about how we are handling things as a group. The past few weeks have been challenging in many ways with the adventure of the walk and the interests of many people to include in how we make decisions, so we are planning to simplify things and to continue to walk tomorrow on our way to Santiago.
We have a commitment to arrive together and it seems to be such a short way to the goal that we set out so long ago.
Resting like this is something that I never allowed myself to do on the Camino Frances 2 years ago and I think it is a good thing for re establishing my balance and re directing my energy.
Ribadeo is a pretty place on the sea and the town is very typical of Spannish places with the local square being the meeting place for families and old people in the evening. Because it is not too big, the prices are very reasonable and so the food and the lodging are nice, comfortable and cheap for us.
Alvina gave me this yesterday when I was feeling a little down about the whole thing and it has helped me to just figure out what to do next.
"Any path is only a path, and there is no affront to oneself or the others in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you" Carlos Castaneda
Not sure what the next step will be and will just see how I feel and how it goes over the day and the night.
Every trip like this brings surprises and it is not what happens rather how we respond to it that matters in the end.
AND I figured out how to get into my e mail, so it is like I found myself once again too!
Maggee

Sept 24 Tapia to Ribadeo (14kms)

Quite an adventure changing tactics. I was feeling so unwell last night that I just knew it would be a very bad idea to walk today so decided to take the bus to this next stop. Getting confused about directions and finding my way to the right side of the road for the bus was something. However, the bus arrived and I got on. There is quite a bit of political turmoil in Spain at the moment with the economic down turn and the unrest among the workers here. There is talk of a national strike on Sept 29 which will shut down everything for the day. We are told that the bus may be late because the miners are blocking the traffic in places and so this may hold things up.
We are now in Galicia which you can see by the hills and the change in the camino shell signs. they point in the opposite direction from what we have been following up to now.
the alberque in Ribadeo is again dissappointing, not very clean and very sparse. There have been no hospitaleros for the past 4 or 5 albeques and this makes such a difference to the places. they sit open and people come and go and you are not sure who cleans and takes care of the places. It is so different from the Camino Frances where there was always a choice between the private and the municiple alberques and the quality was much better.
I have found a nice little hostel with a small room and bathroom included for 20E and this is worth the price! When I meet up with the others, they have already given up on the alberque, having suffered through a noisy and stuffy night previously and we all end up at the hostel that I have found. We are all tired now and Sonja and Jette are preparing to depart on the bus the following day to get closer to the Camino Frances and to shorten up their journey.
I discover that someone has hijacked my e mail account along the way and I cannot access it. I have learned from this trip that there are very few and isolated places that provide internet access. WiFi or wiffy as they call it here is available everywhere for free and this seems to be the mode of choice for most people. I also think there is a greater risk of personal security begin violated by using all of these public computers so will not do this in future. Hopefully I can figure out how to get into my e mail account, but it seems that someone has changed the password and I cannot remember the secret code that I set it up with 2 years ago and in addition, the alternate e mail is not longer functional. Makes you realize that you need to be very sure about your technology before you leave on such a trip as this.
From the past few days, I have realized that I have not been paying attention to the balance of energy between my body mind and spirit as I walk. I have learned that my physicial ability is enough for the challenge of the mountains here, but I have not been able to rind te time and the space to get balanced in other ways, contemplation and quiet time to absorb the impact of what occurs each day. Hard work and walking each day are taking it toll and so I think this is why I am not feeling well again.
So I think a lot during the day and the night about why I am doing this trip and what I want to get from it. It is an adventure certainly and the beauty and the experience of walking in the north is really something. I do want to go home feeling like I have accomplished something for myself in all dimensions, and not just the physical work of doing the walk, but more the experience of being whole while doing this.
I have walked a very long way through many hardships and moments of joy and triumph. there have been times when I have never felt happier and times when I have felt discouraged and so tired. the experience of walking brings all of life´s moments together in one place and so I take this as a metaphor for how I want to continue and what I will take home with me. it has tested my limits for sure and at this point I am comtemplating what I want to get from the rest of the trip and how I want to go forward.
We are about 150 kms or so from Santiago. Ahead lie 8 days through the mountains and then 2 days on the Camino Frances. Weather still looks good though and that is something for this part of the world.
More later
Maggee

Sept 22 Navia to Tapia de Casariego (20kms)

We had a wonderful picnic supper at the hostel last night and slept well in our nice rooms and were up early for a good breakfast provided by the host. this was a good start to the day. I am feeling sick again which really annoys me and I am not happy that this will slow me down. I know that it is from the long trek of 3okms from a few days ago as I find the long days of hill climbing to be quite a challenge. Still we walk through lovely countryside again and meet such friendly people who are so helpful to us at every turn. You know they will even go way out of the own way to lead us to exaclty where they are trying to direct us because we do not have the language to make sure we are clear about what they are saying. This happens time after time in each town.
the weather is great once again and we have some very special breaks in wonderful spots along the way. It is not such a long walk, but with the hot sun and the ashphalt roads that are part of the way today, it seems long. When we arrive at the alberque for Tapia, we find it along the clilff side of the ocean in a beautiful spot, but again it is crowded and not so clean. I take one look at this and know that there is no way I can sleep there feeling as ill as I do. So the others choose their beds and I head off into town to look for an alternative.
This is a new experience for me, searching my way through an unkown place and wondering what to do as I know that I need to slow down the pace and the rythm that I have been walking. Eventually I stop feeling sorry for myself and realze that this is an adventure and an opportunity to learn something about myself and my life. So as I turn a few corners, I find a nice little hotel with a cheap and clean room and am quickly settled into a place to sleep and rest.
This turns out to be the best decision for me as I can sleep much better and then catch a bus for the 13kmo Ribadeo which is the next planned stop for the group. Eventually I connect with them again and we make a plan to meet the following day and then decide what to do. I need to stop for a few nights and slow down to feel better. Sonja wants to head on a bus to the French route and Jette will also do the same. So we find ourselves at a cross roads as a group and will make a decision about how we will disburse from here
This is how it goes I think. You travel together as it works our and we have been a group of 3 for 4 weeks and a group of 4 for 3 weeks and a group of 5 for 2 weeks. this is pretty extraordinary as we spend so much time together and have so many decisions to make each day regarding simple things like directions, food, accomodation, timing etc. Well, another learning experience along the Camino is in the works I expect for me and the others. We need to be prepared for the unexpected always when you travel like this and then take the challenges as opportunities to learn something about yourself and your life. In the end, I must decide how to do this based on what will work for me and how to accomplish what I set out to do, which was to reach Santiago, with joy and satisfaction and accomplishment as well as hope for the future.
I have walked 560kms now and have about 175 or so to get to the church in Santiago. This I really want to do.
Maggee

Sept 21 Luarca to Navia 19kms

Up from the harbour in Luarca it is another steep climb from our starting place. this seems to be the normal way to start the day in this route. It is awkward because it is cool and then when you start to climb, you immediately begin to sweat and are cold in the wind which blows off the sea. So it is a matter of keeping moving or being ready to grab the fleece that you have just put away. It is still sunny so it becomes hot as the morning passes. We are following provisional signs most of the way again because of the construction around us, so the guide book is way off base again. we just have to trust that the yellow arrows will take us to the same destination that we have in mind. Sometimes the yellow arrows provide a diversion around the towns and the coffee breaks we are anticipating!
In spite of all of this we are feeling strong and good and enjoying the beautiful views and the wonderful scenes that we pass through every hour. We arrive in Navia by 3 pm which is a treat and sit down at a bar for a drink to cool down and figure our where we will head to find accomnodation. this is solved quickly as we head for a great little hostel which provides us with rooms at a very reasonable cost. We are finding that the alberques in this end of the camino are not very clean or as adequate as they were at the beginning of our trek and so they are not the choice for sleeping. We are also spoiled with the wonderful clean pensions that we find for around 15E per person, sharing a room together.
I am getting tired again and find that the push to walk every day is requiring a lot of energy. We have walked more than 500kms now and are getting to the last third of the journey and the hills ahead are going to be bigger as we head towards Santiago. We do not rest much in this little group as we are here to walk and not laze around, but I can tell that the stress on me is more than I want to experience. I am lucky that my feet are great and I do not have any complaints of sore muscles or tendons as I have seen with others. It is just a matter of finding my rythm and getting the balance of the effort required each day with my energy levels.
Maggee

Canero to Luarca Sept 20 (11 kms)

Well we are pretty tired after the long haul from yesterday and decide to have a rather short walk today and stay in Luarca which is a lovely town for the night. We hd a wonderful dinner last night which restored our faith in the pilgrims menu and we had a deep sleep only waking at 0800 hours this morning which was great for our tired bodies.
After a wonderful breakfast in this lovely little hotel we start off with the usual hike up a massive hill and head off to our destination. The walk is lovely as usual and we are directed pretty well by following the yellow arrows which are not the same as the books that we have because of the construction that is evident all around us for the new highways which seem to be everywhere.
We eventually make our way into Luarca and find a nice pension mentioned in the guide book which we highly recommend. It is called the Pension Moderna and is on the camino way through the city, a very old flat with large rooms and a wonderful lady who seems to run the place. We have a lovely balcony to hang clothes to dry.
We spend the day resting and wandering around and meet the Norwegian boys and Chris the American once again, which is nice to see them.
We have a lovely lunch with a bottle of wine on the sea wall at the harbour and then go for a siesta as everyone else does here in Spain at 2 pm.
We have a great seafood dinner in the harbour area and then head for bed early in our lovely rooms.
We feel lucky to be in a good place with a nice bed and clean sheets and are getting used to the idea of spending a little more on a pension to get away from the crowded and not so clean alberques that we have passed lately.
Maggee

Sept 19 Soto de Luina to Canero 31kms

yes 31 long kms today and we are nearly dead at the end of it. we were up and out of the albegue as soon as the daylight was sufficient and it was a wonderful walk, although hard because for most of the day , it was along asphalt and hard pavem ent. We were advised to take the road as the camino was a very steep up and down route along the sea from Soto. We did this for about 15 km and then diverted to the newly marked route which was surely a very steep up and down way along the sea. We are getting better and better at the hills, although some of the down ward paths are tough to manage with the uneven surface and the rocks. At one point , we meet some poor guy who had tried to go up a difficult steep path with a motor scooter which of course had failed and he war trying to push it up, and then down to get himself out of this predicament. We or course struggle with our back packs on such hills and could not longer push a motor scooter than fly to the moon at this stage of the climb. So we wish him well and push on.
We arrive at our destination to find that the alberque is a very small place, black mould on the ceiling and 10 beds in a cramped quarter with capacity to expand to 5 more on the floor later. SO............... it does not take much discussion to press on for another 7 kms to find a hostel. Now when you take a decision like this, you are usually in much better shape than you are one hour later, being half way through the trek. So we are pretty drained as we approach the destination. Again we follow the guide and with its precision, we are waiting for the hostal to appear around the next corner. Imagine our panic when the village is 3 houses and no sign of any hostal and 3 kms to the next village and us in an exhausted condition.
Well, when we pressed on around the next corner of the road, there sat a wonderful little hotel all by itself in the middle of the country, including a Spannish woman we had met earlier to translate our need for 5 beds and dinner.
We wishes we could have stayed there for a week as it was so nice. We had wonderufl rooms for E15 each and a delicious dinner which we really enjoyed. We closed the shutters and slept until 8 am in the morning and felt like we had been reborn with the great rest.
we can push ourselve beyond what we think we can do, but realize that this has a price. I feel the effect of walking more than 30 kms and so the next day we decide to shorten up so that we can not stress ourselves.
We are doing fine our little group and with the great weather and the many laughs we have along the way, we are heading very strongly towards the mountains that lie between us and Santiago.
Life is lives in the moments and we realize that the way in which we choose to enjoy the wonder and to deal with the challenges is what makes our spirit strong.
Maggee

Sept 18 Muron to Soto De Luina 23kms

We are up early and ready to go with a very fond farewell to our host of the night before. We are clean and and our clothes are fresh and what could we ask from this. It is all up hill from here and we are getting stronger as there are few complaints from the group as we climb the first of many hills this day. Our guide book both saves us and takes us into disaster today. we ignore the danger warnings from the first section and inspite of the fears of an overgrown jungle, we are in a wonderful forest which takes us up and around to a little village. really if tarzan were to swing from the trees behind us we were ready for him!. At one point, Kirsten stops to call her husband Michael and she sings Happy BIrthdaty to him and we all cry listening to her. We are so far away from the people that we love and sometimes it strikes me that we are choosing an adventure which is enlightening and inspiring to us each as individuals, but that life carries on without us at home.
We decide to take a diversion from the route which turns out to be magical and we decsend into a gem of a village which is build up on the mountain side near the sea. Cudillera is not to be missed on this route as it is wonderful. It is quite a tourist haven, but we are there early enough to have coffee and breakfast before the buses arrive at the top of the town. It is a long way down and then a very long way up.
Here we get into trouble as the construction along the road interfers with the markers for the camino. we follow the old road as described and then try to find our way. Eventually we end up high above the new highway. in the midst of a mightyt overpass construction site, having to scramble through tough bushes and brambles hoping that the guide book is accurate. We come to a place which requires us to slide down into a gravel road way and eventually we find the way, an old tunnel under the highway and into a small village and down to the sea. Here we take off our boots and spread out our delicious lunch which has become a standard fare of bread, cheese and tuna out of a can and sometimes baby tomatoes. You cannot imagine the tase of this as the sea rolls in front of you and the sun shines in the clear blue sky and there is no sound except for the nature that is all around. You have no idea where you will go next, except to follow the markers. You have a kind of an idea of where the next bed will be, but no certainly if there will be an empty one for you and all you have is in your back pack which has become a part of your world as you move from day to day.
We have been walking now for 24 days or so and are nearing the 500 kms mark of walked kms. We have taken buses and trains for about 60kms and will not do that again in order to feel like we have really walked this route.
So we leave our lunch spot and then head up. We learn later that the orange arrows that we follow are for the tourists and not the pilgrims and so we are led on quite a fancy route for the next 5 hours. We walk through wonderful villages and forests once again, but are directed onto a road for the last 5 kms that is quite gruelling and completely finishes us off.
We get to our destination at Soto de Luina eventually and into a pretty mediocre albergue which is not the best after such a day. We are lucky though and realize that all the pilgrims got lost this day and some even arriving after 10 pm, from walking through the forests late a night. Some of the young people do not have the funds to stay in other than the alberques so they have to walk until they find it which is a problem, when the directions are not clear.
So for anyone reading this and planning to walk this way, the route from Cudillera to Sotto de Luina should probably be taken following the road all the way and not the arrows.
It worked out for us in the end, but we learned a lesson about the albegues in they process. WE DO NOT LIKE THEM VERY MUCH. This one was not that clean and had one bathroom for each of the men and women. ALL night long we were awake with the stuffiness of the room and a poor women who coughed consistently until she fell asleep exhausted and then the snorers kicked in. It is not a great experience sleeping with 22 other people in the same room and we decide to look for cheap pensionnes as we can find them along the rest of the way.
Maggee

Sept 17 Gijon to Muros de Nalon 15kms

we did not sleep well last night thanks to an erupting sink in our room and so we found ourselves laughin as Alvina stuffed a towel in the drain of the small offending sink around 2 am. We met up with everyone including our group of 5 and Sally and Thise and then Anita from Norway at 8 am and left to find our way to the bur-train station. we had decided to take a bus out of the city as there is a pretty long period of industry after Gijon and toward Aviles. Sally and Thise are heading for the Camino Frances as their time is short and they want to complet the journey to Santiago soon. So we are a trail of pilgrims in the early morning dark of the busy city and eventually figure out that we are all better off on the train. After a quick breakfast which we are beginning to enjoy very much (Cafe con lech, tostadas and zumo naharje), we say our good byes and head off.
We get lost on the train can you imagine. We get the right train and ride through some pretty bleak areas of big manufacturing places and then at the station for Salinas, we cannot open the door, so travel to the next station. It all works out with the help of our fellow travellers and we are soon deposited a few kms closer to our chosen destination. We do realize that we are cutting off our walking kms by douing this and determine that his is the last time for transportation of this kind.
From Piedros Blanco, we find food and head off to the camino once again. When you follow the arrows and the conchas (blue shells) generally the experience is wonderful and so it is today. We are walking through forest and villages and remote areas once again and quite enjoying the enviroment. It threatens to rain all day, but does not really amount to much so we are luck not to have to don our rain gear as it is so hot.
we are heading for a hostel in San Estoban. So we take our time, having lots of kms to do in lots of time, and eventually see our destination in the distance. As we round a corner off the roadway, there waits a woman with a small car. I think she has car trouble, but no, she is waiting to offer us a place in her home for a good price. Now we have been in private accomodation for 4 nights in a row, have seen no pilgrims in all that time and are anxious to be in the throngs of our fellow travellers. It is a tough decision as she offers to wash our clothes for us, imagine the luxury of a washer and dryer, it is like having your mother waiting around the corner for you. So we agree to follow her up the hill to her casa and take advantage of her offer. We are soon in a wonderful apartment of 3 bedrooms, kitchen and sitting room and she carts off our dirty clothes while we shower and go for food.
We have a wonderful time here, wine, good food and clean clothes, could life be more complete than this. We sleep like babies in the quiet of the country and the good after effects of the wine and of course so much laughter. I don´t even recall what we laugh about except for Sonja worrying about how to get into the very small shower in the bathroom and Jette telling her to just hop into the biday and then into the shower. this was only topped by Sonya yelling with the cold in the shower which had water that was very intermittently hot and cold. All the while, Jette is giving a foot massage to Alvina which she has never done before and we are amazind that Alvina trusts her to do this!
It is something to trust people we learn. We are so suspicious of the good intentions of people and with this women, as with others along the way, we are not sure if we should be going with the flow or questioning the choices that we are presented with. We decide from this experience to allow life to happen and to go with the opportunities as they occur and to trust the inherent good intentions of the people that seem to cross our path.
Maggee

Sept 16, 2010 Villavicoisa to Gijon 23 kms

Today was a great day. When you are faced with a mountain to climb in the morning, it kind of takes the wind out of you before you even begin. I am worried about this even before I get up this morning. So we are 7 today as Sally and Thise are walking with us on their last day on the El Norte. We walk for quite a long way and as I have one of the two books that is our guide, I must pay close attention to the directions. I must say that I have finally figured out the way to work with the Confraternity of St James guide book for this route. First you have to tear out the pages that you want and place them in a handy pocket. Then you must cross out the routes you do not want to follow, then you must be vigilant in following the directions of the chosen route. Once you do that, the guide book is detailed and for the most part quite helpful. We have been following the yellow arrows mostly which work out quite well most of the time. There are a few times when the route is not well marked, but if you choose the upwards direction when there is a choice, you seldom go wrong.
So we walk....... We arrive pretty quickly at the demarcation between the route to the south along the Primitivo and then the Routa de la Costa which we prefer. After this, for the first time, we meet pilgrims going in the opposite direction to Santiago and it is a bit different to see this. They are mostly Spannish people at this point.
The climb is serious when we reach this point. Up for 400 m and most of it up a very steep rocky path on the mountain which is covered in mist when we arrive at the top. I am worried about keeping the group together and so warn everyone that we must keep in contact as we climb this way. It is quite an effort, but we all make it, even with Yette shouting for taxis and telling us not to talk as it is too hard to breath as well.
The way down is along a road and it is a 4 km stretch of downward walking that is enough to kill the soles of your feet and give you blisters in places that you have not experienced before. I still have no blisters and should not even mention this as it may destroy the foot karma that I have now.
We are laughing a lot and having a wonderful time, splitting into little groups to chat and just to walk slowly down towards the town we are heading for. It is a long haul into the city of Gijon, and quite a long walk along the pavement even with a good break in the afternoon.
We are all quite worn down with the walk and discouraged with the size of this large city as we walk and walk and walk into the centre of it.
Well the Camino Angels continue to appear out of no where and when we are just about to start a desperate scramble into an expensive hotel, a man approaches us and asks if we are looking for a pensionne. Then he leads us like a group of lost sheep. We are at the same time not sure of his intentions, but in the end we are taken to a pensionne where we all get a bed and the cost is E10 to each of us. So here we are, first aperatif in place and waiting for a good hot dinner together.
Sally and Thise will take a bus to the French route tomorrow and will walk for another week together there. We hear that people ar running for beds there and actually sleeping during the day and walking at night to make sure they get some sleep as the beds are scarce. Sally will SMS us to tell us how it really is.
The 5 of us will now take a bus to Aviles to avoid the cement and the industry out of Gijon that is not pleasant or necessary to walk through. We will likely take another bus out of Aviles as it is also a big city and then walk to the next alberque which is about 15 kms furthe along.
We miss the alberques as there are not a lot and so when we stay in the pensionnes, we do not see the pilgrims.
I am finding this route to be so different from the French route. We walk longer days and usually arrive after 4 pm now, Often there are no alberques and if there is a hostel, it is full when we get there. Regardless, it is now cheaper for us as a group fo 5 to stay in a small hotel or a pensionne as it is cheaper or the same price as the hostel or alberque and certainly much more pleasant.
Will go for dinner and hope we can find something hot and good now as the group is waiting for me to provide the communiçation to all who are waiting to hear from us. We did not get much to eat today as the stores were closed for the fiesta when we arrived last night and so we had to scrounge for food today along the way.
Last night Alvina wrote this for me on the paper table cloth during dinner, which is most relevant for my journey.

"My true home is where I become who I want to be" Yeng Chin
Maggee

Sept 15 La Vega to Villavicoisa (35kms)

We intended only to walk about 25 kms today but because the albegue in Sebroya was so awful, (dirty beds and pillows and an overflowing toilet) we headed on the extra 6 kms to Villaviciosa. The day tomorrow is supposed to be over the mountain to Gijon which is 23 kms and 400 m and then 200 m to climb so we have prepared to make this manageable by staying here tonight.
Today was beautiful and we enjoyed such a wonderful walk along the beach to La Isla and then a great coffee. All day we have loved the walk through the hills with the sounds and the vantage points and the feeling of the earth and the energy of the ocean and the moutains which surround us at every turn. You need to stop and just listen to the ocean from time to time to feel the energy that is coming towards your very soul and to absorb the majesty of the possibilty of strength that is available if you stop to take it all in.
I am feeling better at last and hope that this flu is OVER as it is not pleasant to be sick along the camino.
We arrived in Villavicoisa around 6 pm having walked for about 35 kms or so to get here and so of course ended up in a small hotel. This is fine because of the fresh sheets on the bed and the private bathroom and the towels. Such luxury for a tired and sweaty pilgrim.
We have found Sally and Thise from Denmark from a few days ago and so we had a big reunion tonight and they will walk over the mountain with us tomnorrow and then divert to the Camino Frances to shorten up their trip as they have only a week to go before their flight home.
It is peaceful and quiet to walk with this group, except for the laughter which erupts often from the back quarters and the funny comments from our friend Yette. On the hardest hills she can be heard to yell for a taxi and she also shoutys out very ouldy CAR when one approaches so that we can junmp safely out of the way. this becomes a bot ridivulous when we are in the busier places and she is calling out the cars as they pass by. She is so free and funny with her observations, Nothing passes by her without comment, sp we are sure to observe far more with her around.
We are all tired and have had no time to write or absorb the impact of the day we have had on this wonderful journey. Today for example, we walked with Sonja, Yette and I and were munching in walnuts that she picked from the trees overhead. Then she surprised us with pulling a fruity off a large cactus tres and peeling it with my knife to give us a wonderful taste of cactus fruit.
I am tired and going to bed in clean sheets with the windows closed to shut out the noise of the fiesta that is raging here tonight. they seem to have these very large parties during the weeek and we wonder when anyone gets any work done as they are all coming home drunk and singing when we are getting up at 0630 am.
Maggee

Ribadesella to La Vega Sept 14, 2010 10 kms

what was supposed to be a short hopover the mountain carrying our wine and dinner and breakfast food, turned out to be a bit longer when we followed the arrows instead of the book. By the time we realized that we had taken a wrong turn, we were 3 kms DOWN the mountain from our planned destination and had arrived at a beautiful beach village called La Vega. So we took time for a drink, summed up our options and quickly took a room in the nearest bar which overlooked the most magnificent beach so far.
Our first aperatif was on the beach with the sun shining and the waves crashing and such a wonderul environment that we realized this was where we were supposed to end up on this day.
We had a wonderful night in an empty place with no one even wanting to drink and party in the bar below.
So we wer up early and on the way to La Isla for coffee along a beach track that was worth the diversion the day before.
Such is the camino. It takes you to where you need to be
Maggee

Sept 14, 2010 Pria to San Esteban (13km)

We are up early and it is wonderful again. Morning sun on the mountains and a good walk into Ribadesella where we have coffee and a break. We are leaving later in the morning now as the day does not get light until after 0730 am. We have done only 10kms today, but wiull walk a little further for 5 kms and then rest at the albeque there. There are not so many places to sleep along this way now and so we are being a little carelfu with the plan for walking each day.
We have a plan to take it easy for the next two days as we are all tired and it would otherwise mean walking 25 - 30 kms to get to the next bed. We have no problem taking a pensionne if it is availabe as it is often not much more expensive and so much nicer.
I will write more on this day later, Not sure if we will have access to internet before Villavicosa which is 2 days away now.
Maggee

We know that there are many people reading this blog and wondering about our journey. We send our love and thanks to all of you and especially to Ilana who is now home and resting in Bremen. So many people touch our hearts along the way and others who are following us in spirit and wondering what has happened to us, when you do not hear about our daily adventures through this blog. It is fun for me to be the scribe of the process and so we just want to tell you that we all appreciate that you are out there as our guardian angels.
From the
Camino Sisters

Sept 13, 2010 Llanes to Pria (20kms)

What a better day with the sun shining on us from the early morning. We leave early hoping for a good coffee break as we did not have time to buy food yesterday with our late arrival. It is not long before we get to a wonderufl little bar and are happy with the first Cafe con leche. The walk is wonderful, through little villages and then what a path along the coast, It is breathtaking and we are stopping every 10 feet to take pictures and to enjoy the feeling of the sun and the sea.. We are only walking a short distance today so we take our time with more breaks and talk with th epeople we meet as we come up to them.
One stop is at an abandoned monestary which is now occupied by 2 horses. Lots of people seem to come here to visit the place and it should really be restored as it is an ancient and special place. We continue walking and eventually come to the little village that we had anticipated finding a bed. The alberque in Pria is closed and there is nothing there except for a church!
Luckily for us and perhaps this is how it goes, there is a home with a women who adversites beds for peregrinos for E10, We stop in there with two other people we have met and can you believe it, she provides us 5 wtih an apartment, 2 bedrooms, a sitting room and kitchen as well as bathroom AND the use of the washing machine. It is like heaven for us. She then offers to take us back to town for food as we did not bring any with us for dinner.
So we have a wonderful evening,. clean clothes, good pasta dinner and a wonderfu sleep in a very quiet village with a kind lady taking care of us. Turns out that there are about12 people that end up staying in the accomodation that she has there and it is very nice, clean and new and wonderful. a blessing along this way.
I am walking with an ache in my knee today and wondering if it just the effect of all of the long days of the past weekend and the pavement. I am taking my time and getting good massage from Alvina who is a master at this. I feel like I am just walking walking walking now and while I enjoy the environment and the wonderful friendships, I am wondering about purpose and intention for myself.
This morning I realize that this is how life goes, you just carry on and deal with things as they occur. You can take the time to relish the moments or you can just pulg away waiting to arrive. I am learning from myself as I walk that there is much to alter in the way that I approach each situation and each moment ie as opportunity or as just one more thing to deal wtih.
We have increased our group to include Sonja and Yette now and they bring so much fun to us. Yette, especially is such a wonderful person. She is jolly and happy and we laugh a lot with her.

Sept 12, 2010 Unquera to Llanes (32kms!!)

Well, the rain all night did not bode well for us in the morning, It was dull and overcast and before we had walked 1 km, we had to put our rain gear on. It was rain and rain and rain all day long, sometimes light drizzle and sometimes more of a steady downpour. The environment was beautiful in spite of the weather and so we did enjoy more beauty and solitude. This morning we followed the bread man in his little truck, as he went his way up through the hills, honking and honking to bring the people out to buy their bread from him. The bread man delivery is a very importan part of the day here in Spain. Luckily we were able to find places both for coffee and for lunch this day and wer able to come in out of the rain to dry of a bit.
Walking in rain gear is for sure an experience,. You are wet from the sweat on the inside and wet from the rain on the outside. The only think that keeps you wark is the body heat that warms up the water proof interior of your garments which are totally soaked inside. This means that you cannot take anyting off as you are immediately chilled.
We follow a route that is not the Camino wanting to avoid the coast which we fear is slippery and hilly and so not want the danger that we had a few days ago. So we are on pavement all day - hard on the feet and joints and the day is very long. It is beautiful as we are walking the hills of Asturtia now and the mountains in the distance are wonderful.
Our big excitement comes near the end of the day when we realize a lot of activyt is setting up along the road side. Eventually comes a lot of vehicles and motorcade and sports vans and the helicopters which are following hte cyclists racint eht Tour de Spain. They are about 100 riders, all in a tight pacl and whiz past us very fast, but the entourage with them was very impressive.
We do not arrive in Llanes until 6 pm, totally drained and done in. We are wet and hungry and so exhausted. We reject the first alveque which is expensive and like a prison cell and in short order find ourselves a wonderful pensionne for 22E. We are unpakced, dried off and have the room hung like a laundry room with our wet gear all over the place in no time.
We get a few SMS messages from Ilana that she is heading to Bilbao now with Christanne to head for home in Germany.
At dinner that night, it is like a miracle, as we sit there finishing our food. All of a sudden comes Christianne with Franco and Robert who we also have met a few times. C has just returned on the bus from Bilbao after getting Ilana on the airplane to Germany and even has a picture for us to see. We have a wonderful time wiht her and it completes the worry that we had for both of them in the past two days.
Christianne is from Geneva and has been walking for months, intending to complete 4000 kms before she gets home, I don´t think we will see her again as she is walking very fast now and we are getting tired. it was intended that she find us that night just to complete the circle of care that we had around Ilana.
Maggee

Sept 11 Comillas to Unquera 31km!!!

What a day. It started out beautifully with the weather being so nice. We were awake early and me not feeling so great still, but it is better to carry on walking as I finkd it easier than sitting around. And the environment is inspiring and takes my mind off myself too. Ilana is in bad shape this morning and cannot walk well at all. It looks like she has an allergic reaction to the sun and the heat of her clothes and her boots. So out friend Christianne from Geneva has taken things in order and has decided to take her back to Santander on the bus to the hospital and will be the guide and the translator as she has command of 6 languages. She is something!!, but says that this IS the Camino and what she must do for Ilana. We say a very sad good bye to her as we leave the alberque that morning.
It is a hot day and we are climbing more steeply today than we have for some time so it is a bit of an effort. I am noticing that the hills do not bother me anymore. well not that I can climb Mt Everest yet, but is is surely easier than the first few days and I feel strong inspite of feeling ill and tired. I have decided that this camino is about the people and not so much the environment which with its beauty really inspires one to think of the simplicity of the moment and what can be created as we go along. Compassion and generosity are profound and normally abundant as we walk and it is quite a special community of people that we are walking with now.
By the time we arrived at our destination in Unquera, it was about 9 hours later and I was pretty washed out. Luckily, we found a wonderful little hotel and so I have a room to myself for only 16 E. It is called the Rio Deva and I highly recommend this placeas there is not alberque in Unquera. We have a great dinner and fall to sleep easliy, listening to the rain fall heaily all night long.
Thought for the day
"As you walk, with each footstep, in the silence of the hills and the music of the natural surroundings, you come closer to knowing yourself in the deep way and it must be this that brings you close to God"
Maggee

Sept 10, 2010 Santilla del Mar to Comillas (22kms)

What a day and what an evening! poor Ilana, my new German friend and I travelled mostly on the train yesterday to Santilla as I was sick with the flu and she was in bad pain from her feet. We arrived at the alberque around 11 am and spent the next 5 hours waiting for it to open. We were told that they did not expect to be full and so I thought it was OK to have a bed there as we waited for our friends to arrive. Well, the fuss that occurred as people began to arrive between 3 and 4 pm. So many had taken the train part way and then some of the late arrivals had walked all the way from Santander (44 kms). When the last 3 who were the overflow arrived, they were pretty mad about the situation, so as I looked around and thought about my own principles and values, I just decided to take action and left to go around the corner and get a bed in a pensionne for Ilana and me. When I came back, I said to the Hollander, (wouldn´t you know!) who was the most outspoken that he could have my bed as I was leaving for the pensionne. He so changed his demeanor and became almost apologetic. He wanted to buy us drinks, said he could go to the pensionne himself and then throughout the evening became our best friend!!.
It gave me a lot to think about as we spent the evening with the pilgrims, many who had taken the train to shorten the day from Santander and then some who had walked the entire way.
Rules on the camino are simple. You treat each other with kindness and fairness and try to do good and be a contribution as you go along, helping, advising and making a difference. It is such a metaphor for life.
So Ilana and I had a great night in a wonderful pensionne which cost us E15 each with a private bath and a room with a view. And it was the right thing to do for the other pilgrims, ie to make sure that the people who had really walked a long way had access to the cheaper beds.
After the horrible night in an overcrowded alberque in Santander, I did not mind at all being in a private room in a pensionne for not much more than the alberque.
So we were up early this morning, walking through wonderful conutryside again and now having expanded our little group to a total of 6. We are 2 Danes, 2 Germans and 2Canadians. It is lovely to have such good new friends and we all walk along at our own pace so it works out well. The others are all here travelling on their own and the youngest one, Ilana has a terrible problem, with her feet, boots too small, too much heat and not well prepared for the adventure. So we are helping her out, but I am not at all sure that she will be able to continue.
We are in a wonderful little town tonight which is again full of tourists and near a beautiful beach so it is quite busy. Very old buildings and of course old old streets full of coble stones (hard on the pilgrims feet) and lots to see.
We were the highlight of the group of Japanese tourists that we met this morning. They were overjoyed to meet real pilgrims and we had to pose for pictures for them on our way out of the little medieval town of Santilla del Mar.
We have travelled close to 300 kms now and today it occurred to me how wonderful it is to have a sense of belonging in my life. This has been missing in quite a few areas especially in the past 5 years and with this little group that has formed for very specific and practical reasons, I feel like I belong and have a contribution to make. In addition, there is a huge contribution to me that occurs along the way as well. Alvina hs saved the day by providng me with a packet of Fishemans Friend which has saved my coughin spells many times.
Such simple princples and premises for living we experience along this way. It is a tough walk, beautiful and rugged and but so energizing now that we are into the spirit of the thing. It had taken about 2 weeks of steady walking to come to this place of realizing that I can actually do it and that if I just keep up the pace and look after myself, I will proceed along this wonderful journey and arrive at a new destination in my life when I get to Santiago.
From Alvina I have this to share

"It is not important to know where we are going, nor to find a place to go. The world is open to our appetite. It opens. It spreads perspective, widens the stems of a piece of herb until it reaches the forest and the window we travel, only when we let go".
from Franz Bartlett

Maggee

September 9, 2010. Santander to Santilla del Mar

How did I get this far you may wonder as the distance is 44kms. After much discussion, we decided to take a train to shorten up the journey between these two points as there is no accomodation available between the two. In addition, I have been feeling horrible for the past two days and during the night realized that I had better not overdo it today. So with our new friend Elana who has sore feet, I took a train and then walked only about 7kms very slowly which made a big difference.
The trains and the buses are wonderful here in Spain and it is easy to get around if you can understand the systen. It is also cheap and fast. The yellow arrows took us through a wonderful country road all the way from Barreda to Santillana del Mar.
This town is ancient and very full of tourists today with many buses in the parking lots. It is like a medieval town with old stone roadways and very old old buildings. The alberque is near the church and seems to be in what was formerly a stable. There are only 16 beds so it will be quieter than last night in Santander. The alberque there was so crowded it was nearly unbearable. People kep arriving and were placed on the floors around the bunks which were already squished together. Quite a fire hazard if you thought about it too much. As well, there was one bathroom for the women and one for the men, so imagine the problem. It made me raalize that I do not want to stay in the cities at all as the accomodation is just not that nice normally and this one seemed to be just a money making venture the way it was set up.
Oh well, everyone was getting up at 6 am to get out of the place today, so we had an early start.
Maggee

Sept 8, 2010 Guemes to Santander (15kms)

We took Father Ernesto´s advice this morning and left for the next village to search for the long way around to Somos by the sea to get to the ferry to Santander. It was an extra 4 kms, but well worth it. The walk was along the cliffs above the beach and the sea. Not much climbing today so not so hard, but a good long walk none the less. I am not feeling great still and think I will be better tomorrow. Today was a wonderful walk for most of the morning and then we hopped on board a ferry for a 30 minute ride across the bay to the city of Santander which is pretty large and one we are anxious to leave tomorrow.
It is always more expensive, even for a drink and the albergues are not always as nice as the ones in the country. For example, we are in a room with 38 people tonight. Clothes were washed in the kitchen sink and hung like the Spannish people do, on a clothes line out the window,(sure hope it does not blow away, as I will never see it again). I am here in a little dive of a place using the internet which is abundant in the city and not so much in the rural areas.
People seem to live on top of each other in this country and maybe that is a fact in Europe. We take for granted out space facilities that we have in our country, seeing how so many people live in small flats which are noisy and crowded and in the midst of city traffice and all that brings with it.
Tomorrow we are negotiating a strategy that will get us out of here on the train and will shorten up the day by about 20 kms as the next albergue is 44 kms away and it is just too far to walk that distance.
Again it looks like rain tonight and if we continue with our luck we will walk in beautiful sunshine once again. I am taking seriously the advice we got yesterday and will walk with more intention, when I am not trying to just cope with breathing my way up the hills that is!!. Getting more focused on my freedom and seeing what shows up in my thoughts around creativity is my intention for the next few days.
Because we are 3 women who seem to have experience with walking the camino, we are giving out advice and taking care of some of the others who do not have the simple knowledge of how to do a walk like this, so it is a great way to make new friends. Someone today called me ´magical Maggee´as I have been helping with foot problems and sharing my socks. I brought all of them (5 pairs) and some people really get into trouble with their feet right away.
Well must catch up with the group as it is time for our aperatif.
Maggee

Sept 2, 2010 Santona to Guemes (25kms)

What a relief to start the day with clearing skies. It poured with rain last night - all night - and we were thankful we had declined to stay in a tent at the youth hostel in Santona, as some of our fellow travellers did, we learned later. It was again a tough climb up and out of the city. For 4 kms we walked along a cement sidewalk and then the arrows pointed off to the right, so we followed them, which turned out to be my 3rd frigthening experience on this trek. With the rain, the clay and mud path was slippery and treacherous and daunting as we climbed higher above the beach and then the cliffs over the sea. Both Kirsten and I were not happy with this trail, but once we had started up, there was no going down. It would have been worse to do so, so we continued, hoping it would get better. Eventually we reached the crest, but I tell you it is something to make you way up a slippery slope with 10kgs on your back, trying to balance and find foot holds on clay and stones. We were pretty happy to be on the beach on the other side of the hill. thank goodness for my hiking poles. I could not climb like this without them.
As happens with all of these arrowed tracks, it leads you somewhere you cannot get to with the roads. So there we were, with about 4 kms of an expanse of beach ahead of us that was astounding. The weather was clearing and it was magical to walk this way on an isolated stretch of beach to the first coffee stop.Did I mention how great that first cup of cafe con leche is!!
The day was long as we seemed to take all of the long routes, through about 8 small villages, remarkable with their new housing developments on one side of the road and sheep grazing in pastures around falling down ancient buildings on the other side of the road. The weather, by afternoon, was glorious once again and we had a wonderful walk through the hills to an albergue that we had heard nothing but good reports about.
We arrived there around 3 pm, It is actually a very old homestead that turns out to be the home that was built originally 100 years ago by the grandfather of Pedro Ernesto, who is the local parish priest and an avid supporter of the camino. The whole place is set up to care for the pilgrims, from the moment you step into the door, you are cared for in a way like no other. We were offered fruit from a platter, fresh water and some small talk, before being shown to the showers and the dorms. The lower lever of the homestead was originally the place for the cattle and has been renovated into a charming sitting area complete with large stone fireplace. The dorms out the back are spacious and built like chalets so there is a lot of room and plenty of space for washing, showering and hanging up clothes.
The best part was the evening session with the Father who led a discussion about the trail we had passed and the one that lay ahead of us with some advice for being a pilgrim on the El Norte. This route is not a race for a bed like the Camino Frances has become. His advice was that this route is for the courageous who are there to develop their creativity, to give up the GPS style of living that we have at home and to use our intelligence to gain something through the living university that is available with the conversations between our fellow travellers along the way. It was inspiring to hear him speak.
This was followed by a communal meal that was prepared for us by a young couple who work for him. He has space for about 70 people, has taken care of 4000 this year alone and has about 50 people who volunteer in the place to make it all work. On top of that, there is a group that has formed an NGO and they provide support in Guatemala somehow, so a lot of good work is being done in this place and you get the feel of the energy of it quickly.
We were tired by the time we got to bed. The weather had shifted again at dinner time and we were treated to gale force winds and driving rain, such as I had heard about. This went on all night and then cleared in the morning so that we were greeted by a new sun rise once again. We are truly blessed with this weather along this stormy coast.
I am getting sick now and a few people have been affected by the gastro that is common along the camino. I know that my body is tired and the reaction that I have now is a sore throat and feeling of flu which will pass. The days are long and the walk is very tough so it takes a lot of energy just to keep it all going. I sometimes think that I will never make it to next week at this rate, but when I am up and walking, I am loving the feeling of freedom and the beauty of the environment. I can harldy believe that here I am walking across the north of Spain with friends that I have only known because I took the effort to create this experience this way.
We are walking with two German women now. there was such a great crowd in the albereu in Guemes, all of the people that we had met along the way, so it was quite like a large family of friends getting together with lots of laughs and fun.
Maggee

People I have met along the way

In a walk like this, you meet many different people, each walking for a different purpose or reason. Remarkably, there is always a language challenge which gets worked out through sign language or smatterings of a common language. Even the people serving in the restuarants, can display the difference between chicken, beef and pork with quite vivid arm and hand signals, so communication happens despite the language barrier.
Ian is a young man who walked the Camino Frances 5 times and is on the second El Norte, He is doing a PhD in philosophy in Paris and started his walk from his home, so passed the first 1000 kms the day we met him. He walks to find his spiritual core and to enrich his thinking about his dissertation which is focused on the gravity of rape.
Pierre is an older man who started walking in May in Denmark. He walked more than 50 kms the day we met him.
Femke is a ray of sunshine from Holland and we walked with her for about 3 days. She did the CF in April and her husband is walking the CF at the moment. They had left a van full of food in St Jean and when they meet up again this week, they plan to spend a month situated along the Camino Frances providing food for the pilgrims for a donation.Then they will each continue their own camino.
Sali and her son This are from Denmark and are walking their first Camino together just to spend time with each other. It is hard for them as there are no hills in Denmark to train on so they are suffering with sore legs at the moment and we may lose them if they slow down.
Sonja left her job in July and her husband and adult children have supported her do to this walk, her first Camino, in order to settle on where she wants to direct her life now.
Ian, is a Brit, teaching english in Holland, walking the camino, because "older bald guys" don´t get rides as hitchhikers so easily these days
Andre is the saddest. He carried two sellos, one for his girlfriend who killed herself a few months ago and one for him. He walks with pictures of them that he places in churches and alberques so that she has a presence in this walk with him
Sarah and Kean are a very young couple from Ireland who have the lightest packs and seem to walk with an energy that we all envy.
Stefi is from Germany and lived in Spain for awhile so her Spannish is great. She is young and petite and we have already lost her as she is miles ahead of us by now.
Christianne started in Switzerland and has walked for 2 months. She will walk all the way back home again from Santiago.

In all of this mix of people, we also meet wonderful local residents who are kind and generous and provide us with direction or assistance at many many occasions and always with a smile and slow slow speaking of their language and lots of hand signals for us to comprehend.

"If you would do a good deed, then do it today. Do it gratis nor linger around for your pay. Let the deed be a gem that you cast overboard, not a hook that is baited to fish for reward" (courtesy of Neil)

Maggee

Liendo to Santona (13kms) Sept 6 2010

I wish I had brought the connector to load pictures onto this blog as I have some wonderful shots of the scenery along the way. It was one thing that came out f my pack in order to save on weight.
Today was delicious. I did not even get up until 0730 as we promised ourselves a short day today and a slow morning. We stopped at the local bar fr breakfast which was tortilla and cafe con leche so we were much better prepared for the morning climb. Again a wonderful walk, following the yellow arrows. We find consistently that the yellow arrows take us on sometimes longer and more hilly, but definitely a stunning look at the small villages and the rural scenes around here. You can only see the country like this by walking. While it was another few tough climbs, it was fine and we were in the next town in no time.
Laredo is another tourist town with a very long beach which attracts the locals and those from far away to come and sit on the beach and bake all day. So there they are from early morning, carrying beach chairs and umbrellas and reading materials to the beach. It is hot again, although there are predictions of rain for tomorrow. We will see as we have been so lucky with the weather so far.
In Laredo, we had to walk about 4 kms along the beach wall to get to the boat across to Santona. We laughed out loud when we arrived at this place. After a very long walk, the boat which is a pretty fair size motor boat (probably seats 30 or so), comes right up onto the beach with pop music blaring, so we danced our way up the gang plank and sat down for the 5 minute ride across the harbour.
We had quite a time finding a bed here, thinking that we could get into the youth hostel, which turned out to be full. So we found a pensionne, again with the help of a gentleman who happened to come along and phoned the proprietor to come over and find us a bed. It is like a flat in a large building withg about 7 rooms and with the bathrooms acrss the hall. Two rooms with two beds for E38 each so while expensive, there is no other choice and it balances the cheaper nights we have had in the last week or so. The town is full of people, celebrating something. Hopefully it will not be too noisy tonight as sometimes happens.
Good to have a short walk today and time to rest and enjoy the environment.
Maggee

Castro-Urdiales to Liendo (29kms) Sept 5 2010

We had an interesting experience last evening while we were eating a picnic dinner outside the 16 bed albergue in C-U. The police arrived and asked us if we paid 5E for the bed and we said yes. Then there was lot of fuss with the hospitalero, poor guy who is a volunteer and following directions from someone else. Turns out the beds are supposed to be gratis so we all got our money back and then spent the rest of the evening talking with the hospitaleros who are wonderful young men volunteering because they love to meet people from around the world. At this alberque, there were 4 tents set up at the back which were full by the time we went to bed. There was a revenue of E100 per night coming into the alberque supposedly to provide upgrades to the place:
The next morning we left early which is always good thing to do. The path led us up and away from the town and then over to the sea again. It was wonderful to have a rest break at a bench which was positioned over the cliffs. The weather has continued to be wonderful, warm and calm and so lovely with the colors of the blue green sea and the lush of the green landscape. This place we did not want to leave. Then, even though it was Sunday morning, we came across a wonderful little cafe which served delicious cafe con leche so the morning was complete. We are a little rolling family of people now and have made some good friends who we continue to pick up at the break times and evening meals.
The day was very hot and a good climb waited for us after La Magdelena. Once we started this climb, it was hard not to just breath in the goodness of the eucalyptus forest and the solitude of the steep gravel road that we travelled. We have a different pace, each of us, Kirsten races ahead up the hills like a deer, Alvina plods along slow but sure and I am somewhere in the middle. It means that we eventually spread out and are walking alone, until we need to use a whistle to signal Kirsten to stop for a rest. Sometimes we come around a corner and there she is waiting like a Danish princess for her followers to catch up. She is slower on the down parts because of her ankle and Alvina goes down hills like a mountain goat so we change places sometimes, always looking out for each other, yet with plenty of time for solitude.
The climb up from La Magdelena was glorious, fragrant and beautiful and only surpassed by the vistas that awaited us when we got to the top and began our descent. By this time it was very hot and so we took our time going down into the litle town of Liendo/Hazas. It was somewhat worrisome that the place seemed deserted when we got there, nothing of what we expected in the town square and I was alarmed at the thought of having to walk another 10kms. However, we decided to proceed and in a few kms more, we came into the next village, small but quaint where the key to the alberque was at the local bar and the alberque with only 10 beds was beautiful and empty. It was not long before the rest of our crew came along behind us and we filled up the place quickly. Some of these small places are incredible as to how they support the pilgrims. This was a new building specifically designed for the pilgrim and the cost was only E4 for each of us. We ate at the local bar and probably gave some good business to the owner that evening.
Being in the country is so preferred to the cities as it is deadly quiet and so beautiful to hear only the sounds of the animals at night and in the early morning. The roosters have quite a variety of sounds and seem to have been trained differently for their typical early morning sound.
During the day, I was thinking about how different this camino is from 2008 on the Camino Frances. I am stronger, my feet are good and I am comfortable with the way it goes each day. There is nothing to get used to as I have done it all before, so I can concentrate on what I am experienceing and feeling along the way.
The thought that I had yesterday was a feeling of complete freedom, freedom to experience the moment without worrying about the past or the future and freedom just to be still and breath in the environment and take in the wonderful sights and sounds all around me. This is new for me, as I usually don´t let myself calm down or slow down enough to be in the present, so I am cherishing the experience of this in order to make it a larger part of my life.
I also think about my cousin Neil who died in Feb. He was such a giver and a lover of travel or adventure, but not one to take the time to do this himself. When I told him I was doing this walk for him way back in December, he just said - good, do it well and enjoy it - so this is what I am doing and thinking about as I walk each day.
Maggee

Probena to Castro-Urdiales (2okms) September 4, 2010

We are back at the sea after a few days of walking through the mountains and the pine forests. We start the day with a long climb up a few hundred steps and then a very long walk around the headland and above the sea. There are a few sail boats in the distance so it is very peaceful.
Below are the sufers already out to catch the morning waves and the sun is rising over the mountains in the distance, so the sky is a bright pink. This is a beautiful walk as we have about 5 kms along the flat walkway that follows the shore all the way around the headland. You can look out to the distance and see forever and the wind is calm so the air is fresh and the weather warm and the sounds from the waves crashing below is heavenly. It is a pretty easy walk today, shorter than normal and not so hilly. However, there are some tough hills still and even though we take a shorter route along the coastal road, we still climb.
At one point, we are advised by two old women to take a route to the left. When we get to the junction, we see the arrows going right and so being addicted to the yellow arrows, we ignore their advice and go right - bad move. We end up at a position of having to climb many many stairs to the top of the cliff and then scramble up a steep incline with our heavy packs on. At the top, we decide to always listen to the old women!
We are again in a wonderful small alberque in such a beautiful beach town. So many beautiful resort type towns along this coast. Because the weather is so warm still, the beaches are loaded with people. I cannot get over the way in which they all seem to love to lie in the sun and will crowd onto small stretches of beach, or stones or sand just to lie there and read or sunbathe. And the children do not wear hats as we are addicted to in our country!
The people are dressed beautifully and the children especially are dressed in adorabel clothing. It is a really impressive family oriented culture here.
Feet are still great and I am realy loving the way we are walking now. The hills don´t bother me at all and I experience such a strong feeling of wellness to be able to walk like this.
I have been thinking that I would like to top 1000 kms this trip. We are at 170kms now and the days are passing quickly. I have calculated that I spend on average E20 per day and this includes even the expensive days when we had to stay in pensionnes. I figure that it is cheaper to travel like this than it is to live my regular life and can see why the young people choose to do this for months at a time. Don´t worry Mom, I will come home as planned!
Anyway, so far so good and I will see how it goes from here.

Walk slowly, don´t rush. Each step brings you to the best moment of your life, the present moment.

Maggee

Lezama to Probena (bus, metro 35kms! 3 hours)

We had decided a few days ago that we were not interested in walking through the big cities and the walk across Bilbao which is a major city would have taken 2 days to get to the other side. So when we arrived in Lezama, we waited at the bus stop for the next bus into the city. Here our adventure began in earnest.
We already knew that the Spannish people are warm and friendly, but along comes a very old man with a cane,also waiting for the bus. I will call him Camino Angel #1 (CA1) He chats away to us and we try to understand and ask some questions, but soon give up as he just talks so fast. He does not stop talking for the 20 minutes that it takes the bus to come. So we all get on together and ride the 13kms into the city, while he points out areas of interest to us along the way. It is quite a place, Bilbao. We came right into the centre of the city, past the magnificent Gugenheim Museum which is a splendid work of art in itself, situated on the river and visible for quite a distance all around it. At the city centre, we asked the bus driver for the directions for the bus to our next destination which was Portugaleta. A few people have a conversation and then our CA#1 steps in to tell everyone that he will take us to the Metro which is what we have to get to Portugaleta.
So we walk along for 5 minutes and meet a woman who turns out to be CA#1´s wife. Now we are a gang of 5 going to the metro. CA#1´s wife take us all the way into the metro station, shows us which train track to go on and set us up to purchase tickets, when another younger guy steps in to do this for us. So in no time we are in the metro station in the right place at the right time, in a way we never could have done on our own. Such kind people.
The metro took about 30 minutes or more to get to our stop. We had foolishly thought that we would emerge into a nice little village by the sea, but not so. We came up into another teeming city, which is actually an extension of Bilboa. So now we are trying to find our way to the Camino and the yellow arrows as we think there is an alberque here. We walk back and forth, asking people and getting a mix of directions and finally decide to take another bus to the next town, just to get out of the city again.
Well, no sooner do we have this all decided, (remember we are 3 strong personalities and have 3 different books we are using for directions), when along comes Camino Angel #2 (CA#2) BUT disguised as a very very loud, very short and wide man with a large head and a very loud voice. He has in two, a Danish woman and her son who are more lost than us and is yelling to us ámigas, amigas, peregrinos, pergrinos´and a LOT more Spannish than this. He is insisting that we follow him and being quite agressive about it and we are not so happy to be in this situation. Eventually, we all cross back to the other side of the street and with the Danish two, decide we are going to the next town on the bus, as it is the easiest way to get rid of this little man. CA#2 is not at all happy about this and is loudly talking to us and the other people on the street about something we do not understand. Eventually we realize that he is telling us the alberque in Muskiz is closed and we must go to Probena, which we agree. We feel we must get on any bus now just to get away from this little man.
The bus comes along and we all jump on and so does he!! Now we are alarmed at him. He talks to us all the way to the end of this bus line in Muskiz AND he talks to the driver and everyone else on the bus about us and we have no idea what he is saying. We get off the bus at a beach town and he is now herding us quite aggressively across the parking lot and towards the beach. We are in dissarray, not knowing what to do, but because the Danes are following, we decide we have nothing to lose to see where he takes us now.
So we all trot after him, down the sea wall and then onto the sand, through the sunbathers who are all partially dressed and lying in the sun - did I mention my observation that there seems to be no concern about skin cancer in this country as they all love to lie in the sun. Well, 5 pilgrims with heavy packs and a small man talking very loudly to us and everyone else was quite a spectacle. After 2 kms we arrive in Probena and he takes us right into a beautiful alberque, hands us over to the hospitalero and much to our chagrin, we discover that he is a member of the Alberque Assocation and does this all the time - leads the lost pilgrims to the alberque in Probena.He would take nothing from us for his effort and left shortly after he had made sure we were all settled into this wonderful little place.
We talked about this for a long time afterwards and felt that it was quite a learning in life to see how many people keep showing up to help us and even this little man, with his very different way of providing guidance, was a genuinely kind and helpful person who went way out of his way to make sure we got where we needed to be.
Many lessons to be learned along this way about the core value of goodness and kindness that can show up when it is needed and not look like what you would expect it to.
Maggee

Gernika to Lezama September 3, 2010 (22 kms)

What a day this was. It started with a pretty good climb up a steep hill - which is beginning to be the normal warm up to the day for this route. We had been guided out of the town by several people who stopped their car or left what they were doing to come and point out the way to us. These people are incredibly friendly and helpful and we hear this is typical of the Basque area.
We seemed to climb and climb and climb again this day. Early in the morning we soon found ourselves above the mist that was rising from the forests in the early morning sun rise. The colors were golden through the forest, You could look down and see the clouds below and the mountains in the distance and it was a feeling of being in another world. In the distance, we could hear the chain saws occassionally as the wood cutters felled trees in the lower areas. And in the upper pastures, again we came across cows and goats and sheep with their bells ringing in the distance. The silence at these times is profound and it is actually a truly meditative and spiritual experience to walk like this, espeically in the early morning.
The weather continues to be warm and sunny, pretty hot actually, so we are drinking lots of water and stopping to rest frequently. By afternoon it is about 28C. The ground is dry and so easy to walk across the difficult area. I cannot imagine this walk in the heavy rain.
We are quite a group of pilgrims now and as usually happens, we are making friends from so many different countries. The main language seems to be French, as that is the common denominator. So when I find an english speaking person, it is quite a heady experience. It makes me realize how limited I am in speaking one language with a smattering of French here and there.
We arrived in Lezamo in good time, by 1 pm actually, and then proceeded with our next phase for the day which I will write about in another post as it was such an adventure.
We have been walking for close to one week now and the kms are piling up. I have been thinking about the walk as I go and it seems much more challenging to be pensive as I am concentrating so hard on the difficulty of the pathways for most of the time. I do feel more relaxed as a result of the simple life though and am quite into the rythm of the pilgrim life, much earlier than on the 2008 camino.
Maggee

Gernika Accomodation

Just to follow up on the situation in Gernika. It is a very nice town and a wonderful place to visit. While we had a good place to stay, it was very expensive for the location. The other option we learned the following day from some Norwegian boys who did go off to the free accomodation in another part of town, was actually an open sports field with a partial roof over it. There were showers and toilets, but they spend the night on the artificial turf in the open air - no mats or anything provided. We leared the following day at another alberque that the associtation is trying to get a municipal albergue set up in Gernika, because some hostel business is making a killing from the poor pilgrims by charging 20E a night for not much more than what we pay 3 - 5 E for in the others which have volunteers supporting them.
M

Markina to Gernika (30kms) Sept 2, 2010

Well, we found all of the long routes today and without even trying. We walked the first 12kms up the asphalt road to save Kirsten some hill climbing. We were warned that the hills from Markina were very steep and not necessary if you walked up the highway for about 5 kms. This turned out to be 12 kms for us which was fine as the smaller road was lovely up through the pine forests and not much traffic. Today we walked so many hills, I lost count. It is quite spectacular to walk in the forests, often climbing up pathways that are beds of pine needles and so the scent is intoxicating. We were directed along a variety of pathways, sometimes they are tractor routes, other times narrow trails through the woods. For awhile this morning we walked along a small stream for quite a long ways. It felt like a meditation experience to be in the woods with the animals´ bells sounding in the distance and the stream nearby.
We were exhausted by the time we arrived in Gernika, having followed the yellow arrows which took us up and up and around the mountain before coming down into the town. We waited with other pilgrims for the albeque to open at 4 pm and were shocked and annoyed to find that is a place that charged pilgrims a bargain price of E20 for a bed. The bonus is that the bed has sheets, but we are still in a small room with 6 others and the shower/toilet ratio is 2 to every 18 pilgrims. It feels like a real rip off! There is a place somewhere in the town in a big building where there are mats on the floor and the lodging is free. Quite frankly we were all so tired by the time we got into this place, I just could not imagine walking another 3 kms to check out the free space - so here we are in clean white sheets and an expensive night.
We are meeting very interesting people and having great conversations. Some of these pilgrims are very serious hikers, one having walked from her home in Switzerland, another from Paris and the Swiss woman walking alone, is planning to walk back again to a total of about 4 months of travel. So many people become addicted to this kind of walking and just keep on coming back for the experience of the walk and the community of international friends that is generated.
Tomorrow we will have shorte day of about 22 kms. We have covered over 125kms as of today and are getting in the swing of it now. The hills are something!! and we are actually walking over the Pyrenees, up and down all day long. But the scenery and the environments are fantastic. You can only see these things by walking and you can only meet people like this on such a pilgrimage.
I am finding this to be a much more relaxing experience than the pilgrimage that I did 2 years ago, mostly because I am confident of how to do it every day and also that I am so free of the stress that I was dealing with at that time. It is a special experience to just walk and absorb the environment, watch for the views and notice the small things along the way that are there to observe.
We are planning to take a bus right through Bilboa the day after tomorrow, not wanting to mix the experience of being a pilgrim with being a tourist and the walk through the city is tough with the industrial areas to pass.
More tomorrow
Maggee