Now that we've gotten to Belgium, we're twiddling our thumbs a little bit. Okay, Kerrie is twiddling her thumbs. Dan is playing guitar, reading, posting our photos and enjoying his fill of news updates from the internet. Who would have thought that after a month of walking to a new town every single day, staying put would be so difficult? Actually, it feels pretty good to be in a place and enjoy the luxury of knowing where things are a bit more and having the energy to go out for a Belgian beer and game of Speed Scrabble at our new favorite bar Metafoor. The first time we were there we knew it was a great place and it was only confirmed when they played Bringing Sexy Back and Dan started dancing in his seat.
We've found our apartment here in Leuven about two days of calling Belgian phone numbers and mostly getting no answer and being too afraid to leave a message in English if no one had picked up. We're excited about our new place- on the top floor with a terrace that looks out over the city... and an oven- the only one we saw in all of the apartments we looked at. How do all these people bake their cookies and birthday cakes?
We'll (hopefully) move in Sept. 1. The place will be furnished, but not until sometime after Sept. 5. It's a new building, and the company they had ordered the furniture from went bankrupt, so they had to scramble for a plan B. Good thing we have our sleeping bags.
Apparently there's a beer fest in Brussels this weekend, so we're thinking of taking the train and having a day trip.
Here are our five favorite things about Leuven so far:
1. good beer
2. 18 monstrous tortillas in the little ethnic grocery store for a good price
3. waffles
4. Bicycles everywhere- look both ways before crossing the street and don't walk on the red part of the sidewalk; it's a bike lane and the bikers will ring their little bells to warn you to get out of their path if you're on it.
5. The lack of poverty. Just about everyone has a job, and if you try to pick up a second part-time job, even if it's just teaching a class at the gym, you get taxed pretty heavily (about 50%) to try to discourage it. It's like you're taking a job away from someone else by having 2. I suppose that's good for us when we try to find jobs!
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
We made it! ...kinda
For starters, let this be clear: Kerrie´s tough. She conquered the 30Km days without complaint, and put up with Dan to boot. She deserves a medal, maybe a cannonization, at least more of the delicious ice cream we enjoyed today.
We had thought that we wouldn´t arrive in Santiago until tomorrow, but here we are! From Melide, it was impossible not to keep going, especially when you arrive at where you planned to stop at 10:30am and just want to escape the hundreds of pilgrims that now surround you. We had thought that we would stop just four kilometers out at Monte de Gozo (Mountain of Joy), where for centuries pilgrims rejoiced at their first sight of the Cathedral´s towering spires. We learned along the way, though, that there just isn´t much up there worth waiting for, and our time in Santiago is quite limited (we´ve learned of a few traditions around heading out to the coast to watch the sun set at the end of the world - but more on that later).
So, late last night, Dan got it in his mind that rather than sleeping in a bit and strolling along at a relaxed pace, we should wake up early and push through the final 21km in time to make the noon pilgrims mass. The good news is, we made it.
The bad news is, the physical arrival is the easy part. We heard a story once about moving so fast that you need to stop and let your soul catch up. That´s how we felt when we arrived today. We rushed to the Cathedral as the mass bells were ringing and had to sneak in through a side door. Being both a weekend and a feast day, the church was packed and a bit touristy. As we left, we were quickly whisked away to a pension before Kerrie could do her running man on the official shell. From there, it just got more exhausting and, well, not very pilgrimage-y.
So, you can say that we arrived today, but we decided not to actually visit St. James´tomb until tomorrow. Once we´re in a bit better space, and after we´ve spent the morning watching pilgrims arrive, we plan to once again read all the prayers that so many of you sent along with us, then go visit our good friend Santiago, the goal and purpose of this whole journey.
Thank you for walking with us these past 26 days. You´re prayers have made all the difference for us, and please know that you are never far from our thoughts. We´ll have more to say soon, but for now, I think we´ll go try this ¨rest¨thing that everyone keeps talking about.
Love,
Kerrie and Dan
We had thought that we wouldn´t arrive in Santiago until tomorrow, but here we are! From Melide, it was impossible not to keep going, especially when you arrive at where you planned to stop at 10:30am and just want to escape the hundreds of pilgrims that now surround you. We had thought that we would stop just four kilometers out at Monte de Gozo (Mountain of Joy), where for centuries pilgrims rejoiced at their first sight of the Cathedral´s towering spires. We learned along the way, though, that there just isn´t much up there worth waiting for, and our time in Santiago is quite limited (we´ve learned of a few traditions around heading out to the coast to watch the sun set at the end of the world - but more on that later).
So, late last night, Dan got it in his mind that rather than sleeping in a bit and strolling along at a relaxed pace, we should wake up early and push through the final 21km in time to make the noon pilgrims mass. The good news is, we made it.
The bad news is, the physical arrival is the easy part. We heard a story once about moving so fast that you need to stop and let your soul catch up. That´s how we felt when we arrived today. We rushed to the Cathedral as the mass bells were ringing and had to sneak in through a side door. Being both a weekend and a feast day, the church was packed and a bit touristy. As we left, we were quickly whisked away to a pension before Kerrie could do her running man on the official shell. From there, it just got more exhausting and, well, not very pilgrimage-y.
So, you can say that we arrived today, but we decided not to actually visit St. James´tomb until tomorrow. Once we´re in a bit better space, and after we´ve spent the morning watching pilgrims arrive, we plan to once again read all the prayers that so many of you sent along with us, then go visit our good friend Santiago, the goal and purpose of this whole journey.
Thank you for walking with us these past 26 days. You´re prayers have made all the difference for us, and please know that you are never far from our thoughts. We´ll have more to say soon, but for now, I think we´ll go try this ¨rest¨thing that everyone keeps talking about.
Love,
Kerrie and Dan
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Three Days to Go!
This is how Dan woke up today: at 5:30 in the morning, Kerrie began slapping him on the head and telling him to get up, thinking it was about two hours later. Luckily, Dan is very good at falling back asleep these days.
Needless to say, the camino has worked it´s way into our dreams. In fact, it´s hard to think about anything but the camino these days. We´re just three days out, and many decide to cover the ground left (53 Km) in two. For us, we´ll hopefully enjoy the last days of walking, and savor the exhiliration of being so close.
Part of Kerrie´s panic was due to the fact that nearly everyone in our Albergue was out before 6:00am today. The Camino Primativo meets with the much busier Camino Frances today, and there was a panic about securing one of the 130 beds available (for reference, our Albergue the night before had only 12). It´s been a bit of a shock adjusting to the presence of so many more pilgrims with us, but we have yet to meet another that speaks English.
Speaking of shocks, Kerrie and I discovered Melide´s local delicacy known as pulpo today. Pulpo is Spanish for octopus. We were feeling quite brave as we approached the Pulperia, but then we watched the man in the window snipping octopus tentacles with a pair of scissors, which certainly gave us second thoughts. Heroically, we nearly cleaned the plate that we shared, and commented that we might be willing to try it again...if the skin and suction cups are not still attached next time.
Now, our 9:00 bedtime is quickly approaching, and we still need to find a place with a good Pilgrim´s menu del dia. The good news is that we´re only spending six euros per night on lodging, and have a bit more money to throw around on things like octopus.
Then, it´s off to bed, where we will likely dream of the camino more, but hopefully, all of you that we love will be on the road with us - just as you have journeyed these past 24 days in our hearts.
With love, Kerrie and Dan.
Needless to say, the camino has worked it´s way into our dreams. In fact, it´s hard to think about anything but the camino these days. We´re just three days out, and many decide to cover the ground left (53 Km) in two. For us, we´ll hopefully enjoy the last days of walking, and savor the exhiliration of being so close.
Part of Kerrie´s panic was due to the fact that nearly everyone in our Albergue was out before 6:00am today. The Camino Primativo meets with the much busier Camino Frances today, and there was a panic about securing one of the 130 beds available (for reference, our Albergue the night before had only 12). It´s been a bit of a shock adjusting to the presence of so many more pilgrims with us, but we have yet to meet another that speaks English.
Speaking of shocks, Kerrie and I discovered Melide´s local delicacy known as pulpo today. Pulpo is Spanish for octopus. We were feeling quite brave as we approached the Pulperia, but then we watched the man in the window snipping octopus tentacles with a pair of scissors, which certainly gave us second thoughts. Heroically, we nearly cleaned the plate that we shared, and commented that we might be willing to try it again...if the skin and suction cups are not still attached next time.
Now, our 9:00 bedtime is quickly approaching, and we still need to find a place with a good Pilgrim´s menu del dia. The good news is that we´re only spending six euros per night on lodging, and have a bit more money to throw around on things like octopus.
Then, it´s off to bed, where we will likely dream of the camino more, but hopefully, all of you that we love will be on the road with us - just as you have journeyed these past 24 days in our hearts.
With love, Kerrie and Dan.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Life in Lugo and the Roman baths
So, back in the 1st century, do you think they used soap or oils or something in the Roman baths? Either way, they still smell like sulfur.
Lugo is a great place to take a rest day. We walked into town yesterday and passed through the Puerta de San Pedro to go inside the fortress walls of Lugo. The wall was built in the 3rd and 4th centuries and completely encircles the center of the old city.... and there are stairs that lead up to the top of it, so you can take a walk on top of the entire circumference. Not a bad view. Dan thought we should have brought up water balloons to throw at the pilgrims coming in today. It was hot enough that they probably would have appreciated it.
Let´s see, since our last blog in Oviedo we´ve walked about 100 kilometers (about 65 miles) and over the tallest hills of our journey. We touched the ¨roof of the camino¨at 1200 meters (about 3600 feet) and then came down most of it, sometimes more steeply than others. We literally had our heads in the clouds for about three days in the rural mountainous region of Nothern Spain where the towns are few and far between and nearly all are sparsely populated. We´ve seen old ruins of churches and ¨hospitals¨(where pilgrims used to receive beds, water, salt, and care) back in the middle ages. Dan is wishing he had a gourd for his trekking pole instead of a camelback- he´s pretty sure he´d need fewer bathroom breaks and we´d get to Santiago faster.
At this point we´re over the big hills, have a couple of long days ahead of us, but it´s also the last week of our pilgrimmage, so there´s a sense of wanting to not rush through it as we come closer every day to where we´ll place our worn feet on the steps of the Cathedral in Santiago.
Here´s what we have to say for ourselves:
1. Sometimes, when you get up early and get going, you arrive in a place at just the right time-- that´s right, parade time! Like in Fonsongrada where we arrived in the town to find people lining the streets minutes before a parade of Folklorica dancers came through dancing and playing instruments. Later that night we enjoyed watching a few of the flamenco dancers on stage in the town.
2. Most of the time dogs on the camino are either harmless or tied up, but if there´s a dog that comes towards you and starts nipping at your trekking pole, probably it´s insisting you play fetch, but it helps if your husband is brave and tells it to skat.
3. Rocks in your shoes: if they´re bothering you, empty them. They usually don´t find their own way out.
4. Flies. Flies. Flies. Oh Spain has so many flies. And half of them seem to reside in the alburgue in Borres. Luckily, there was half of a fly swatter (pretty sure the other half of it had been worn out from use) and Dan is an excellent fly slayer. He went all around the dormitory room carefully executing each one until we finally had peace. We were a great team, him with the swatter and me with the broom and dustpan. All in a day´s work, good citizens!
5. We finally figured out what time people eat in Spain!!! It´s taken us a while, but we´re finally figuring out that you cannot expect to find an open grocery store if you are coming into a town between 2 and 4:30 because of siesta. They take it very seriously here, and even if you have not had anything to eat since desayuno (breakfast if you can call a couple slices of baguette breakfast), you can be out of luck. You might have to settle for a Menu del dia in a bar or cafe where the vegetarian option is eating the garbanzo beans out of a garbanzo bean and sausage soup and having a staredown with sardines. Actually, Dan´s been a little jealous of my plates lately-- I´m scoring big time with the fresh salmon in this region!
6. If you are really hungry and don´t have much money left in your daily budget, the Menu del Dia at the Chinese restaurant is a good way to go. You get three courses plus desert and coffee. Dan even left food on the table- unheard of! And for under 12 Euros together, thrifty travellers!
7. When we crossed over into Galacia, they changed the signs on us. For starters, the shells point a different direction now, which can be very confusing. Also, many of the posting now give the remaining distance, right down to the meter. So, you´re walking along and suddenly come to a post that says P.K. 142,507. In general, it´s great to see the kilometers clic away, and it´s heartening to know that we´ve already walked far more than that, but then you think a bit more about the math... Assuming that each step covers one meter (which is a pretty generous assumption), you realize that we still have over 100,000 steps to take...yikes.
8. We miss you. You´re never far from our thoughts, especially when we have long walks each day to talk and think about you.
Lugo is a great place to take a rest day. We walked into town yesterday and passed through the Puerta de San Pedro to go inside the fortress walls of Lugo. The wall was built in the 3rd and 4th centuries and completely encircles the center of the old city.... and there are stairs that lead up to the top of it, so you can take a walk on top of the entire circumference. Not a bad view. Dan thought we should have brought up water balloons to throw at the pilgrims coming in today. It was hot enough that they probably would have appreciated it.
Let´s see, since our last blog in Oviedo we´ve walked about 100 kilometers (about 65 miles) and over the tallest hills of our journey. We touched the ¨roof of the camino¨at 1200 meters (about 3600 feet) and then came down most of it, sometimes more steeply than others. We literally had our heads in the clouds for about three days in the rural mountainous region of Nothern Spain where the towns are few and far between and nearly all are sparsely populated. We´ve seen old ruins of churches and ¨hospitals¨(where pilgrims used to receive beds, water, salt, and care) back in the middle ages. Dan is wishing he had a gourd for his trekking pole instead of a camelback- he´s pretty sure he´d need fewer bathroom breaks and we´d get to Santiago faster.
At this point we´re over the big hills, have a couple of long days ahead of us, but it´s also the last week of our pilgrimmage, so there´s a sense of wanting to not rush through it as we come closer every day to where we´ll place our worn feet on the steps of the Cathedral in Santiago.
Here´s what we have to say for ourselves:
1. Sometimes, when you get up early and get going, you arrive in a place at just the right time-- that´s right, parade time! Like in Fonsongrada where we arrived in the town to find people lining the streets minutes before a parade of Folklorica dancers came through dancing and playing instruments. Later that night we enjoyed watching a few of the flamenco dancers on stage in the town.
2. Most of the time dogs on the camino are either harmless or tied up, but if there´s a dog that comes towards you and starts nipping at your trekking pole, probably it´s insisting you play fetch, but it helps if your husband is brave and tells it to skat.
3. Rocks in your shoes: if they´re bothering you, empty them. They usually don´t find their own way out.
4. Flies. Flies. Flies. Oh Spain has so many flies. And half of them seem to reside in the alburgue in Borres. Luckily, there was half of a fly swatter (pretty sure the other half of it had been worn out from use) and Dan is an excellent fly slayer. He went all around the dormitory room carefully executing each one until we finally had peace. We were a great team, him with the swatter and me with the broom and dustpan. All in a day´s work, good citizens!
5. We finally figured out what time people eat in Spain!!! It´s taken us a while, but we´re finally figuring out that you cannot expect to find an open grocery store if you are coming into a town between 2 and 4:30 because of siesta. They take it very seriously here, and even if you have not had anything to eat since desayuno (breakfast if you can call a couple slices of baguette breakfast), you can be out of luck. You might have to settle for a Menu del dia in a bar or cafe where the vegetarian option is eating the garbanzo beans out of a garbanzo bean and sausage soup and having a staredown with sardines. Actually, Dan´s been a little jealous of my plates lately-- I´m scoring big time with the fresh salmon in this region!
6. If you are really hungry and don´t have much money left in your daily budget, the Menu del Dia at the Chinese restaurant is a good way to go. You get three courses plus desert and coffee. Dan even left food on the table- unheard of! And for under 12 Euros together, thrifty travellers!
7. When we crossed over into Galacia, they changed the signs on us. For starters, the shells point a different direction now, which can be very confusing. Also, many of the posting now give the remaining distance, right down to the meter. So, you´re walking along and suddenly come to a post that says P.K. 142,507. In general, it´s great to see the kilometers clic away, and it´s heartening to know that we´ve already walked far more than that, but then you think a bit more about the math... Assuming that each step covers one meter (which is a pretty generous assumption), you realize that we still have over 100,000 steps to take...yikes.
8. We miss you. You´re never far from our thoughts, especially when we have long walks each day to talk and think about you.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
¡Tramposos!
Okay, so we hopped a train.
Now, before you go all passing judgment on us and such, consider the circumstances:
1. We only actually had 26 days to complete our 30 day journey - a difference of at least 100km.
2. Before taking the train we walked 31Km (over 19 miles) that day
3. We knew we wanted a rest day in Oviedo and haven´t spent two nights in the same city (let alone bed) for over two weeks.
4. It´s our honeymoon. Even if we could cover the distance in town, we need a little energy at the end of the day to be married...
Yesterday, we walked from Llanes to Ribadesella, then took the afternoon train in to Oviedo. Aside from enjoying a day of not carrying our packs, we´ve found a lot to love about this city. The history is some of the best in Spain, and if you´re into Christian goodies (relics) this is the place. Among many things, they have what is said to be the towel that Veronica used to wipe Jesus´face as he carried his cross.
Oviedo was actually once a pilgrimage destination of its own, and John Paul II apparently did his camino backwards, starting in Santiago and ending here. They have an ancient statue of Jesus called El Salvador, which people journey from all over to pray before. As the saying goes:
Quien va a Santiago
Y no va al Salvador
Visita al criado
Y deja al Señor
Whoever goes to Santiago
And doesn´t go to El Salvador
Visits the Servant
And neglects the Lord
Ker and I spent a little time in prayer, then headed out to find a Cidra (Local cider they pour from over their head) and tapas. The Albergue is looking a little full here, so we may have to spend one more night in a local pension before setting out on the Camino Primativo tomorrow.
For those history buffs out there, the Camino Primativo is the oldest of the routes to Santiago. The first pilgrimage was that of king Alfonso II in the year 820. We´ll follow his route from Oviedo, through Lugo, and to Santiago. We´ve budgeted a bit of extra time, but we need to be there two weeks from Sunday. Your prayers are much appreciated.
Before we take off, here´s a few more things we´ve learned on the camino so far:
1. As opposed to marathons, the ones ringing cowbells for you on the camino are actual cows.
2. We have yet to encounter a meal at a restaurant that rivals the pure joy of a sandwich made from random purchases at a grocery store (especially last night´s pesto sauce)...the paella may be an exception.
3. Kerrie´s vegetarianism is being pushed to the extremes, and she´s responded gallantly. I´ve seen her tear apart a lobster head to toe and stare down a plate of fried sardines (heads to tails) without a word of complaint. It takes a lot for a vegetarian to eat something that still has eyes to look back at you.
4. Spain´s not big on beer, I´m read to get back to Belgium.
5. If you want to do the pilgrimage in a large group, please, don´t stay at the Albergue. It doesn´t seem very fair when a group of 16 move in on a place with 18 beds.
6. The prayers that you sent along with us can make all the difference on a difficult day (and there has already been several). It is much easier to forget our own pain and struggels when we remember the burdens that others are carrying every day.
7. We love you all, and no matter how good this adventure ever gets, we never forget where our homes and hearts rest.
Now, before you go all passing judgment on us and such, consider the circumstances:
1. We only actually had 26 days to complete our 30 day journey - a difference of at least 100km.
2. Before taking the train we walked 31Km (over 19 miles) that day
3. We knew we wanted a rest day in Oviedo and haven´t spent two nights in the same city (let alone bed) for over two weeks.
4. It´s our honeymoon. Even if we could cover the distance in town, we need a little energy at the end of the day to be married...
Yesterday, we walked from Llanes to Ribadesella, then took the afternoon train in to Oviedo. Aside from enjoying a day of not carrying our packs, we´ve found a lot to love about this city. The history is some of the best in Spain, and if you´re into Christian goodies (relics) this is the place. Among many things, they have what is said to be the towel that Veronica used to wipe Jesus´face as he carried his cross.
Oviedo was actually once a pilgrimage destination of its own, and John Paul II apparently did his camino backwards, starting in Santiago and ending here. They have an ancient statue of Jesus called El Salvador, which people journey from all over to pray before. As the saying goes:
Quien va a Santiago
Y no va al Salvador
Visita al criado
Y deja al Señor
Whoever goes to Santiago
And doesn´t go to El Salvador
Visits the Servant
And neglects the Lord
Ker and I spent a little time in prayer, then headed out to find a Cidra (Local cider they pour from over their head) and tapas. The Albergue is looking a little full here, so we may have to spend one more night in a local pension before setting out on the Camino Primativo tomorrow.
For those history buffs out there, the Camino Primativo is the oldest of the routes to Santiago. The first pilgrimage was that of king Alfonso II in the year 820. We´ll follow his route from Oviedo, through Lugo, and to Santiago. We´ve budgeted a bit of extra time, but we need to be there two weeks from Sunday. Your prayers are much appreciated.
Before we take off, here´s a few more things we´ve learned on the camino so far:
1. As opposed to marathons, the ones ringing cowbells for you on the camino are actual cows.
2. We have yet to encounter a meal at a restaurant that rivals the pure joy of a sandwich made from random purchases at a grocery store (especially last night´s pesto sauce)...the paella may be an exception.
3. Kerrie´s vegetarianism is being pushed to the extremes, and she´s responded gallantly. I´ve seen her tear apart a lobster head to toe and stare down a plate of fried sardines (heads to tails) without a word of complaint. It takes a lot for a vegetarian to eat something that still has eyes to look back at you.
4. Spain´s not big on beer, I´m read to get back to Belgium.
5. If you want to do the pilgrimage in a large group, please, don´t stay at the Albergue. It doesn´t seem very fair when a group of 16 move in on a place with 18 beds.
6. The prayers that you sent along with us can make all the difference on a difficult day (and there has already been several). It is much easier to forget our own pain and struggels when we remember the burdens that others are carrying every day.
7. We love you all, and no matter how good this adventure ever gets, we never forget where our homes and hearts rest.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Ocean Views, Paella, and a new nephew
So, maybe this is one of the happiest days of the journey... today I welcome Alexander James, my new nephew, into the world! Hooray! That´s even more special than the amazing bufano of the ocean, the paella we had for dinner two nights ago, and way, way, way better than the sardines I had for lunch yesterday! (ughh, I won´t be repeating that experience)
Tonight is a day hard to be far away and not be able to just call, even from a cell phone, and find out what´s going on. But I´m happy to be in a place where I can spend the entire day thinking about this special even that happened today and just feeling so much joy that Alexander James is here now! Congratulations, Andy and Jeannie!
The camino is getting a little better to walk. Our bodies are more used to the idea of just getting up and walking all day, we´ve got a bit of routine that includes a ice cream break around 4:00 (umm, galleta maria por favor- it´s the most delicious), and taking a siesta every day around 2:30 because that´s when it´s hottest and everyone else does it here, so why shouldn´t we?
Our feet are holding up, the beaches are beautiful, and last night we even got to experience Spanish camping-- right on a hill overlooking the beach. Not bad for a day´s walk. Dan still likes walking with me, too, which is good. Today we´re in Llanes on the coast, tomorrow... ¿? We hope to be in Oviedo by Sunday and then we´ll leave the coast behind to make our way south to Santiago. Oh, another treat of today.... blackberries growing right on the camino. Some days the walk is sweet! love you,
Ker and Dan
Tonight is a day hard to be far away and not be able to just call, even from a cell phone, and find out what´s going on. But I´m happy to be in a place where I can spend the entire day thinking about this special even that happened today and just feeling so much joy that Alexander James is here now! Congratulations, Andy and Jeannie!
The camino is getting a little better to walk. Our bodies are more used to the idea of just getting up and walking all day, we´ve got a bit of routine that includes a ice cream break around 4:00 (umm, galleta maria por favor- it´s the most delicious), and taking a siesta every day around 2:30 because that´s when it´s hottest and everyone else does it here, so why shouldn´t we?
Our feet are holding up, the beaches are beautiful, and last night we even got to experience Spanish camping-- right on a hill overlooking the beach. Not bad for a day´s walk. Dan still likes walking with me, too, which is good. Today we´re in Llanes on the coast, tomorrow... ¿? We hope to be in Oviedo by Sunday and then we´ll leave the coast behind to make our way south to Santiago. Oh, another treat of today.... blackberries growing right on the camino. Some days the walk is sweet! love you,
Ker and Dan
Friday, July 24, 2009
¿Just.in Laredo?
What exactly is the conversion from kilometers to miles again? Well, either way, we´ve covered 79 kilometers in the past two and a half days...and then slept for eleven hours last night. We´re covering more ground than we exected, so we´re giving ourselves a bit of a break day today. We stayed last night in a nice little pension and devoured a pizza before bed (a great change from frozen pallea and sleeping on separate foam mattresses under a table). As you can tell, the honeymoon is providing all the romance Kerrie ever imagined.
Today, we´ll walk along the beach to Laredo to find the point where pilgrims take a boat across the bay to Sanantoña. That will be about it for today. Hopefully, we´ll be able to wake up a bit earlier tomorrow and cover another day´s worth of ground. Our trail legs are slowly coming along, and the packs are feeling a little lighter each day. We´re also learning not to take the more traditional and scenic route, because there´s a good chance you´ll end up accidentally walking an additional ten kilometers - including a 200m up-and-down. Here´s a few other things we´ve learned so far:
1. Parents in Spain are totally okay with letting their children jump off or rocks into the ocean. It totally looks like a ton of fun, but when it´s 2:30 and you still have 15 km to go, sometimes you have to settle for watching from the sidelines. Don´t worry though. The sidelines aren´t so bad. There´s an amazing view.
2. Blackberries grow in Spain just like they do in Oregon. Invasively. In fact, the northern coast of Spain is in many ways very similar. Tons of fruit trees (what doesn´t grow here?!), lots of rocky coast, foot hills (uggh, say my thighs), and beautiful coast. And the blackberries are just starting to ripen.
3. In some of these towns, people just love pilgrims. They go out of their way to encourage us and help us find the way, find the aubergue (where we sleep in separate beds, sometimes on kitchen floors), and even internet cafes. People have been very kind to us. Yesterday a man even gave us the last two ice cream bars from his freezer. God bless him!!!!! Of course on the other hand, no establishment seems to want to let us use their bathroom, even if we buy something from them. Everything is ¨no funciona¨ Hmmmm.... suspicious.
4. At the end of the day, horizontal feels amazing. My feet hurt so much it´s hard not to cry, but like Dan said, we´re getting more used to it and to the idea that this is our camino and we walk as much or as little as we need to. Santiago will be there when we get there.
5. The prayers everyone wrote and gave us at our wedding receptions are invaluable. They´ve certainly kept me going when I start to feel a little overwhelmed by the road and my emotions. It´s helpful to have something to put my mind on at those times. I´m thankful that you are with us in this way. One thing I have learned at this point is that as we walk the road, we do not walk it alone. You can´t. You´d never make it, not even 79 km. Not even 50 km. And there´s nearly 600 km more to walk. We pull out 5 prayers each day and save them for those times when we need a little something to keep walking towards. And then you walk with us, and that helps. A lot.
6. Eat early. Dinner in Spain consists of little Baguette sandwhiches which never fill Dan up. Grocery stores are a God-send to our health! GO to bed early, too. Pilgrims begin waking at 5 a.m. and it´s much easier to cover ground before 2:30 p.m.
7. We love you all even more than we knew. And we miss you. We´ll keep walking with you here, though, and you keep thinking of us. Our prayers these days are mostly for rest, strength, and rest again. And of course for you. Jeannie and Andy, I hope you are doing well. THinking of you and baby a lot and just waiting for that new life to come.
Today, we´ll walk along the beach to Laredo to find the point where pilgrims take a boat across the bay to Sanantoña. That will be about it for today. Hopefully, we´ll be able to wake up a bit earlier tomorrow and cover another day´s worth of ground. Our trail legs are slowly coming along, and the packs are feeling a little lighter each day. We´re also learning not to take the more traditional and scenic route, because there´s a good chance you´ll end up accidentally walking an additional ten kilometers - including a 200m up-and-down. Here´s a few other things we´ve learned so far:
1. Parents in Spain are totally okay with letting their children jump off or rocks into the ocean. It totally looks like a ton of fun, but when it´s 2:30 and you still have 15 km to go, sometimes you have to settle for watching from the sidelines. Don´t worry though. The sidelines aren´t so bad. There´s an amazing view.
2. Blackberries grow in Spain just like they do in Oregon. Invasively. In fact, the northern coast of Spain is in many ways very similar. Tons of fruit trees (what doesn´t grow here?!), lots of rocky coast, foot hills (uggh, say my thighs), and beautiful coast. And the blackberries are just starting to ripen.
3. In some of these towns, people just love pilgrims. They go out of their way to encourage us and help us find the way, find the aubergue (where we sleep in separate beds, sometimes on kitchen floors), and even internet cafes. People have been very kind to us. Yesterday a man even gave us the last two ice cream bars from his freezer. God bless him!!!!! Of course on the other hand, no establishment seems to want to let us use their bathroom, even if we buy something from them. Everything is ¨no funciona¨ Hmmmm.... suspicious.
4. At the end of the day, horizontal feels amazing. My feet hurt so much it´s hard not to cry, but like Dan said, we´re getting more used to it and to the idea that this is our camino and we walk as much or as little as we need to. Santiago will be there when we get there.
5. The prayers everyone wrote and gave us at our wedding receptions are invaluable. They´ve certainly kept me going when I start to feel a little overwhelmed by the road and my emotions. It´s helpful to have something to put my mind on at those times. I´m thankful that you are with us in this way. One thing I have learned at this point is that as we walk the road, we do not walk it alone. You can´t. You´d never make it, not even 79 km. Not even 50 km. And there´s nearly 600 km more to walk. We pull out 5 prayers each day and save them for those times when we need a little something to keep walking towards. And then you walk with us, and that helps. A lot.
6. Eat early. Dinner in Spain consists of little Baguette sandwhiches which never fill Dan up. Grocery stores are a God-send to our health! GO to bed early, too. Pilgrims begin waking at 5 a.m. and it´s much easier to cover ground before 2:30 p.m.
7. We love you all even more than we knew. And we miss you. We´ll keep walking with you here, though, and you keep thinking of us. Our prayers these days are mostly for rest, strength, and rest again. And of course for you. Jeannie and Andy, I hope you are doing well. THinking of you and baby a lot and just waiting for that new life to come.
Friday, July 17, 2009
10 Hours to Go!
Ker and I are sitting around Elena's table taking care of the last few details before we take off, and it occurred to us that we should probably start our blog before we go...
This is where you'll be able to check in on our progress during pilgrimage and our year in Belgium. Neither of us have ever had a blog, so we're not too sure how it works. We thought it may be handy, though, to send out notes on Facebook whenever we add a new post, so no need to check in here too often.
Okay, back to packing. We promise these will be more interesting in the future, but for now, your prayers will be much appreciated.
Love,
Kerrie and Dan
This is where you'll be able to check in on our progress during pilgrimage and our year in Belgium. Neither of us have ever had a blog, so we're not too sure how it works. We thought it may be handy, though, to send out notes on Facebook whenever we add a new post, so no need to check in here too often.
Okay, back to packing. We promise these will be more interesting in the future, but for now, your prayers will be much appreciated.
Love,
Kerrie and Dan
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