Cizor Menor to Puente la Reina - 8/13

(Distance: 19 kms  Time: 7 hours)
Before we post anything about our journey today, Betsy and I would like to wish Dad a very happy 93rd birthday. Our journey pales in comparison to yours.

The Day: Today we got our earliest start yet. I'm not sure how she did it but Betsy got me up and actually walking by 6:45. It rained hard last night but the skies were clearing by morning. It made for some slippery trails at times but at least the rain had moved on. So today with the early start and a shorter distance as our goal we took our time. We stopped for breakfast after a couple of hours and re-energized, then moved on. The main challenge for today was the "Hill of Forgiveness" or Alto del Perdon which is a bit more than a hill rising over 300 m over a distance of 4 kms. At the top there are a lot of wind mills and the wrought iron representation of medieval pilgrims with heads bent to the west wind (see picture below). The weather was in the low 70's with lots of wind. We made it to Puente la Reina by mid afternoon and then went through our routine of washing clothes and showering. Our feet hurt but no major injuries thus far... God is good!

the sun rise ... I actually saw it :-)

path as we head toward the "hill"

midieval pilgrims (see explanation below)

town of Obanos

church in Obanos

our room for the night

The People: We really did not meet any new friends today ... lots of people helping us order things in Spanish, etc and many familiar faces. Our albergue for the night has 2 rooms with10 bunk beds each, pairing 2 bunks in kind of cubicles. Our "room mates for the night is a young Spanish couple Jorge & Maite.

Zubiri to Cizur Menor - 8/12

(Distance: 26.4 km   Time: 7 hours)
The day: Lights on again at 6am, we packed up and went down for a quick breakfast of you guessed... toast and coffee. You get lots of carbs in Europe. Today was not as strenuous from a terrain point of view but our objective was to make up the 5.5 kms we lost yesterday so we worked hard at keeping a good pace. You see, no matter how hard we try to focus on the journey, the destination keeps getting in the way. We have a plan and we want to stick to it instead of just going with what is given to us for that day. None the less, hard walking for 7 hours makes time for hard praying. Today's terrain was a combination of wooded area, farm roads, little towns and paved walkways. The water however tasted horrible so we were drinking less and at lunch time we entered a town and went on the hunt for a grocery store. So for lunch we had fruit, fruit and more fruit with orange drink mixed in. It tasted wonderful and sustained us to our destination. We entered the old city of Pamplona (no bulls running at the time) stopped for a quick drink and moved on. Our feet were aching but we made our destination by 3pm ... back on plan ! (hard to get the project mgr out of me)

The People: we seemed to keep running into Roberta and her young kids and also with Christina. On the path somewhere we walked & talked with a young man from England. He had a bad accident 5 years ago and hurt his back ... the camino is his last bit of rehab before he is totally out from unnder doctor care. It seems that everyone we meet has a story as for how they got here and why they are walking the camino. While we walked through Pamplona, a man stopped us out of the blue with a hearty "Buen Camino!"  We stopped and talked for a minute ... he had lived in the US and was so excited about us doing the camino. After wishing us well, we parted ways. Most people are friendly, helpful and don't seem to mind when our Spanish is horrible.
 

our early morning path

making our way across the country side

bridge & waterfall in a little village along the way

gate pilgrims enter into Old Pamplona

streets of Pamplona

our beds for the night at the albergue in Cizor Menor

church in Cizor Menor where we attended Mass

Roncesvalle to Zubiri - 8/11

(Distance: 21.9 km  time: 7 hours)
The day: Lights came on at 6am (Betsy was delighted, I was not). We packed up our back packs and went to get some coffee and some bread & jelly, then off we went at about 7:30 stopping only for a minute to take a picture of the mileage to Santiago. It was very chilly and we began in long sleeves & pants. The terrain was mostly farm land and wooded areas connected by small villages and roads. Even though it wasn't as steep as the first day, it was challenging in that the path often looked like a dried up creek bed with lots of rocks and was very hard on your feet. We made it to Zubiri and decided to call it a day leaving us short of our goal by 5.5 kms. We found a very nice albergue, cleaned up,washed our clothes and went to dinner at the albergue. Lights out at 10 pm once again. So far we have no blisters or sunburn ... our feet hurt but nothing unexpected.

The people: We kept running into our friends from SJPP... particularly Tina from Holland and Christina from Canada however stopping early put us with a bunch of new people. At dinner we met Natala from England, Roberta and her three young children from Italy (they have a summer home in Nice), a new Christina and Patrick from England. Patrick is an older gentleman and could tell a good story with the best of them. Later on in the conversation I was surprised to learn that he retired from IBM in 1992. Given his ability to engage it did not surprise me to learn he was in sales & marketing. Natala is a school teacher so naturally she and Betsy hit it off. We keep seeing other familiar faces but have not had the opportunity to meet them yet other than to wish them buen camino.

albergue at Roncesvalles

leaving Roncesvalles

walking through the town of Burguete

a stop at a water fountain along the way

SJPP to Roncesvalles - 8/10

We got up at 6am Saturday and ate breakfast at the albergue as we watched our new friends eat and make there way out the door to start their camino. In our excitement we felt left behind, but we still had to find a box to ship our stuff to Santiago for the end of our journey. So at 7 in the morning we went to the stores in town to see what we could find. Betsy in her usual way of getting things done found a box in a book store so we hurried back to the albergue to pack it, still hoping that if we hadn't lost too much time we might start hiking a day early. At 8:45 we talked the owner of the albergue into taking our package to the post office so off we went starting our camino about 1 3/4 hours later than optimal. The first day takes us over the Pyrenees mountains and is one of the longest & hardest hikes and here we are starting at 8:45 ... we didn't care because we were too excited. For my friends in IBM and especially the PMs, starting a day ahead of plan had special appeal to the project mgr inside of me :-).

The day proved to be long, hard and spectacular. We made it to Roncesvalles by 6:20 pm so it took us over 9 hours! To put that in perspective, one of our new friends we met in SJPP, Tina from Holland is a genuine walking machine. She started walking 3 months ago from her home and she made it from SJPP to Roncesvalles in 5.5 hours!  I can not describe the challenge of the vertical steepness of the climb and carrying 26 pounds on my back did not add to the pleasure. The temperature was about 80 but with a cool breeze and very little humidity, unlike NC. We made the first vertical climb in the expected 3 hours but it wore us out and then anticipated next 5 hours turned into 6.5 ... but the experience was worth it. Camera pictures can not capture the beauty of it all but I tried any way and posted a few below. The albergue in Roncesvalles was very nice with a lot of pilgrims staying. Our "room" had 39 single beds with 2 to a cubical.

marker for "the way"

the path & view leading to the top

nearing the top of the path across the mountains

sheep grazing just like in the movie

Betsy on the road

at the top of the Pyrenees mountains

more views as we climb

A special note to Mary, Mark, Janet and Jim ... our hike in the NC mountains trained us well in an unexpected way. There were cows, goats and horses all over the mountains and as we had to do in NC, we had to watch carefully for all of the droppings on the paths!

Today God showed us the true beauty he put in the world. People from multiple nationalities were all very nice (Italians seem to be the most popular), the weather was spectacular and the views breath taking. Day 1 was truly blessed.

our bunk room for the night

Arrival in St Jean Pied de Port - 8/9

Our plan must have been agreeably with God as it went without a hitch. The plane was on time, we found the bus to the train station, the train arrived in Pamplona the exact time it was scheduled and the taxi driver was waiting to pick us up and take us to SJPP. The albergue we had reservations with was easy enough to find and we were quickly settled. Since we had some time and we needed to find out how to mail our extra clothes to Santiago we set off to find the post office. We couldn't find a box big enough to handle our stuff so we put off finding something till the morning and instead went to the pilgrims office and got our camino credentials ... the pilgrim passport. By then it was dinner time so back to the albergue. We had dinner there and made our first friends of the camino (see dinner picture below). We shared a room of three beds with an Italian girl named Milana ... this sharing sleeping arrangements will be something we learn as part of the camino experience. So the first day was a long one leaving home at 8:30 am and staying up for over 24 hours.

the pilgrim's gate to the camino

bridge leading to the Way

coming through the pilgrim's gate

the street in SJPP that our albergue is on

our first pilgrim meal

On our way

The time is finally here and we are on our way! We travel from Raleigh to Charlotte to Madrid, landing in Madrid at 7am Friday the 9th. From there we take the bus to the train station, the train to Pamplona and then a taxi from Pamplona to St Jean Pied de Port. If all goes as planned it should put us in SJPP around 5pm local time ... but then that is the point, if it doesn't go "as planned" then that means God has something else in mind. Being a project manager at heart that is very hard for me to get used to but the next 7 weeks are His and our part is to enjoy the ride.

So the journey begins. Betsy's back pack weighs in at 17 pounds while mine is 22. That is without any water and more than we were trying to target. Maybe  one of the early lessons will be figuring out what stuff we really don't need.

Buen Camino

in Charlotte airport

at the airport

Last days of preparation

 "But the beauty is in the walking -- we are betrayed by destinations"
Gwyn Thomas

As we continue to train, we are trying to balance getting physically ready without wearing ourselves out before we even start. Two weeks ago we took some  time off to rest and heal with Betsy visiting her parents in Myrtle Beach and I went with one of our close friends, Mary Carey, to an icon painting workshop/retreat. (My icon painting is posted below). Then this week we have done a few moderate hikes to keep ourselves "tuned".

Also in preparing spiritually, our new Parish Priest, Fr. Rob, gave us a pilgrim's blessing. For those of you who gave us your special intentions for us to pray for, know that they are recorded in our journals and ready to go.

Bob, Fr Damian and Mary

my icon painting

walkway in our neighborhood

Bob, Fr Rob and Betsy after the blessing

Bob resting at lunch

Betsy cooling her feet in a stream

 We continue to train by increasing both the distance we are hiking and the weight we are carrying in our backpacks. Raleigh affords us lots of places to hike. So far we have hiked
        Umstead state park
        Durant nature park
        Capital area green way
        Falls lake trails which is part of the NC Mountain to Sea Trail (MST)
We have also joined a local group that hikes  various places during the work week which us new retirees can take advantage of.

For the past two weeks we have been consistently hiking between 10 and 14 miles with Betsy carrying 10 to 17 pounds and me carrying between 20 to 26 pounds

Umstead State Park

Falls Lake MTS Trail

Around town, our hiking often takes us on the Raleigh Green Way





         Our good friends Mary & Mark and Janet & Jim continue to train with us. Yesterday
        it was 7.5 miles with Betsy carrying 17 pounds and 21 in my backpack  

Janet, Mary and Betsy

Jim and Mark ... yes it is hot :-)

        

Once again the ladies far out pace the men

Our grand kids Kaden & Bryson helping us train for the journey :-)

Pop pop and Kaden

Nana and Bryson