Not the Blair Journey

[Gardengirl]

Don't doubt that lots of us are always pleased to see posts from you Sweet! You have many fans wishing you well. Despite your tiredness, hope you enjoy your last few days!

Where are the smilies when I need them?!

[Kitty]

Google says that you have 11 hours 12 mins walking to do.  Amazing.

Every road through life is a long, long road, filled with joys and sorrows too,

As you journey on, how your heart will yearn for the things most dear to you...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgqhdpPB8Y4

[Panda]

 I cant beleive I missed this entire thread, I knew you were off on your wonderful trip but never connected the thread title to you and it!  It was only luck and boredom stuck in a hotel in Nottignham that made me search around for new material to read and there it all was.

I'm disapointed to have missed taking this in as it happened so I've sat here now and read from start to finsih and I'm full of admiration for you both.  How fantastic, I want to do something similar to 'find myself' (for want of a better phrase) and your story is inspriing.  

Well done alos to all you folks who wished them well and kept them going, it reads very much like you played a big part in keeping the spirits up.

Can't wait for the final installment now. 

I hope S17 you are  somewhere warm and comfortable tonight [kiss]

[Gardengirl]

Panda, after reading that you'd missed this thread entirely, and read it in one go, I re-read the whole thing too. Well, I have to do something to pass the nights!!  [:)] It needs a subtitle - 'The Perils Of Our Two Intrepid Travellers'; or maybe 'See The World With Bedbugs and Blisters, Sans Knickers'! What woes and very great highs and blessings! [:D]

They both really went through the winger, didn't they! Problems came along, giving way to new ones, so the earlier ones faded from my mind; such  a shock to read about them in one fell swoop, yet they lived through them all and carried on walking!

So Gem's safely tucked up at home, and Sweet's nearly there. It's now Thursday morning, so by the weekend all should be well - just that long trip back home. Easy to 'just', all cosy in my own home!  [:)]

Bon courage for the end to the tale, Sweet; I'll be thinking of your arrival at the Cathedral!  [:D]

[mint]

What great mates you all are!

To Cendrillon and Suej who have sent emails, please bear with me and I will reply when I get back to normal life, whatever that is.

On the camino, the most mundane things assume the most massive importance:  things like, will I get a chance to wash and dry my clothes, will there be hot water in the showers, is that cyclist with the smelly clothes going to be sleeping next to or on the bottom bunk from me?

Last night, I tossed and turned a bit (having run out of anti-inflammatories, not to mention having shared a huge platter of octopus, the Galician delicacy!) and wondered why I kept on smelling cigarettes.  Yes, I know lots of us here do not like cigarette smoke but I am asthmatic and cigarette smoke or even the smell of it can be chokingly suffocating.  It wasn´t till the middle of the night that I realised that the woman in the bunk below had slung her smoke-infused jacket on "my" bed post beside my head.  No wonder I coughed and spluttered and couldn´t get off to sleep!

Of course, in the abergues, it´s all a matter of luck whom you sleep next to, below or on top of.  Since the bedbug incidents, I have chosen top bunks on the assumption that they are used less often than bottom bunks.  This is because I have noticed that most people pick lower bunks and that top bunks only tend to be taken when the lower bunks are all gone.  Don´t know if my observation is accurate and, anyway, it doesn´t apply in the busier places when all the bunks are taken all the time.

Other thing with top bunks is that you get a chance to read (being near lights, however dim the bulbs) and you don´t render yourself senseless as you forget where you are, sit up suddenly and knock your head on the top bunk.  Also, there is a special camaraderie amongst us, "top bunkers", because we can actually see each other across large spaces and wave each other "good-night".  Yes, be a "top bunker" if you ever get the choice................there is certainly space at the top!

Not Santiago tomorrow but certainly Santiago on Saturday, if all goes to plan.

And for GG and others who worry about me, please don´t worry for tonight.  I am in a very special albergue in Azoar;  clean, bright, and with a little courtyard in which to put out boots to dry and to sit out in the sun.  I have heard people talk about the simple pleasures of life but it´s taken me hundreds of kilometres´ walking and 6 weeks to truly realise what they are talking about.

I don´t claim to be any wiser before I set out but I am certainly a more grateful person!

 

[Catalpa]

I have loved reading your musings (from both you and Gem) en route. I'll miss them when they stop. Though I suspect you won't mind the "stop". [;-)]

Best of luck for the final leg of The Journey. May your feet feel light and sweat free.

Your knickers, too. [:D]

[mint]

Catalpa, how kind you are!

Anyway, it´s now sorted, I mean my journey home.  After looking at all permutations, flying to Madrid, Barcelona, London, Paris, etc then train, bus, another flight da da da, I´m going on the bus in Santiago and finishing in Bordeaux.

Leave Santiago Tues 11.45, arrive Bordeaux Wed 03.15......yes, I know, a marathon bus journey to match my marathon journey au pied!

Bliss plus, plus, plus!

[Théière]

Don't forget Clair's advice on changing your watch on Sunday or you'll miss the bus [;-)]

Really really well done Sweets, total admiration and you Gemonimo.

[pachapapa]

Go on sweet! Give it stick! The weather getting perky, early snow on the Occidental Pyrenees this weekend.

Suerte!

[woolybanana]

Admire you very much for your effort Sweets, now keep it up. The Golden Calf is before your eyes![6]

[Catalpa]

[quote user="Théière"]Don't forget Clair's advice on changing your watch on Sunday or you'll miss the bus [;-)]

[/quote]

Is that a joke and will S-17 "get it"? The clocks don't change for another 2 weeks. [8-)]

[mint]

Don´t mind that Teapot, Catalpa!  He´s never forgiven me since I reminded him of the children´s song...I´m a little teapot, short and stout!

Hi Pacha, weather deffo a little nippy even in the middle of the day now.

Wools, I´ve eaten enough fatted calves (though not golden ones) to last me a lifetime.

I don´t know what the pelegrino diet has done to my cholesterol or indeed whether it has done lasting damage to my health.  Can you imagine....soup (if you don´t want yet another ensalada mixta), meat (of some sort) with, of course, chips then postre of creme caramel or yoghurt or Tarta Santiago..........for 6 plus weeks!

Frankly, though it doesn´t sound grateful, I am happy to join my OH in NOT eating meat forever and ever..........

As for greasy, soggy chips, is this some further penance for my sins?  Have I really been so mad, bad and dangerous to know?

[Rose]

Sweets and Gem - I, like so many others, have been captivated by your

reports on this amazing journey.  So many times I wanted to post and say

something but for some reason I was feeling a tad shy [:$] 

Anyway...

I've overcome this tonight as I admire you both so much for what you have

achieved and I just needed to say, before you start your long trip home, that I

think you're both incredible and inspiring and awesome... with and without pants

[:D]

[Gardengirl]

Sweet, wishing you all the very best at the end of your Camino, and for that l o n g ride home!  [:)]

[minnie]

Sweet and Gem

Congratulations - the whole thing is awesome!

At least on the journey home, Sweet, you can look forward to home comforts.

[Gardengirl]

I've just sat down to read the paper, and what should fall out of it? Christmas brochure? clothes leaflet? wine adverts? Maybe they are still to come! No, it was a brochure entitled 'Leon'!![:D]

It tells of the attractions of Leon's atmospheric Old Quarter, two historic hotels, menus to please all palates, modern art gallery, fly fishing (now you two didn't have to fish for flies, bugs etc did you - they were just naturally attracted!)  [:)]

There's also a page on Gaudi's earliest work, the cathedral and basilica, both inspired by medieval pilgrimage, and wonderful wines.

There, I've had a mini tour of one of the towns you stopped at! Sweet, it seems particularly right today, when you talked about finishing at Compostella today. What timing! And to think I'd never heard of it a couple of weeks ago!  [:D] 

[Kitty]

I'm confused.  I've been away since Thursday and have periodically thought of you, Sweets, wondering whether you finally got to Santiago? When did you arrive, SW17?

[cooperlola]

[quote user="Cathy"]I'm confused.  I've been away since Thursday and have periodically thought of you, Sweets, wondering whether you finally got to Santiago? When did you arrive, SW17?


[/quote]Me too.  Any news, anybody?  Where is Sweet 17 or did I miss a new thread or something?

[woolybanana]

Perhaps she got carried away by a swarthy gentleman who wanted to know whart 'going commando' meant!

Seriously, where is she?

[Patf]

Get in touch SW17 - we're worried about you [:(]

[Catalpa]

[quote user="woolybanana"]

Seriously, where is she?

[/quote]

Busy replenishing her knicker drawer? [:D]

I'd like to hear that she's back home too, safe and with feet intact.

[mint]

Sorry, sorry, sorry!  Been home nearly 2 days but catching up with OH, Dog, friends, etc and NOT wanting to go on the internet so as to prolong the sense of NOT being in the real world.

Also, the 3 days spent at Santiago were hectic and the internet in the albergue was en panne!

Anyway, here is what happened....

Walked to Santiago on Saturday morning but, guess what, all of Spain had broken up for some grandes vaccances and were out in force, doing the same thing.

I was with a Canadian girl and an American girl, both "picked up" during the last 5 days in Galicia.  Although, I loved walking alone, Galicia was a different kettle of fish altogether.

For a start, there were hordes of people out to walk the last 100 kilometres to get the Compostelle so it was more a festive atmosphere than anything else.  Then, they were carrying little or no "luggage" and were taking coaches, taxis, riding in cars, etc.

We, the original pilgrims, were a little swamped, to say the least..

No more calls of "buen carmino", "buenos dias" or anything else.  Just jollification, eating, drinking, laughing, loud talking.  Any sort of reflection or meditation was impossible.

I was more than glad of my companions as even I, the Great Loner, would have felt lonely in a situation where people were all in groups of various sizes, speaking a language of which I had but the rudiments.

Saturday morning was superb weatherwise.  We walked in in high spirits and it took in excess of an hour from the access road on account of the crowds.

Once into the city, we made straight for the Pilgrim Office where there was a queue of over an hour to get our certificates.  When I got mine, I pointed out to the chap that he'd spelt my name wrongly..........but, no, it was the Latin version of my name!  Well, I'd be blowed.........didn't know proper nouns could be translated into Latin!

Then, off to the albergue which was a converted monastery in order to secure our beds and back into town to eat and then to queue to go through the Holy Gate!  Lunch was plentiful and superb and I must tell you about the Galician speciality wine.  It is called Ribeiro and is like a Reisling.

The queue for the Holy Gate was something else......over 2 hours!!!  There was a group of elderly Portuguese with us and they kept wanting us to go ahead of them as we were "pelegrinas" and they'd come on a coach.  We, of course, refused and stuck to our places behind them.

But, just in front of the gate, they ushered us ahead and insisted that we were more "worthy"!!!  We were so touched by this gesture that the tears were prickling our eyelids before we'd got much further.

The Holy Gate, traditionally, is open for this year and the next time it opens, it will be in 11 years' time, that is, the next Holy Year.

Cynic I may be, hard-nosed without a doubt and yet and yet................

To go through a gate used by hundreds of thousands through hundreds of years and to stand in line to hug a statue......errr...........what's all this STUFF?

But, you know what, it all felt absolutely right and proper and anyway, what else could you do without upsetting the sensibilities of good, kind, honest folk?

The 3 days in Santiago remains in my mind full of images and, if anyone expresses any interest, I will attempt to get my head around posting a few of the highlights.

One that comes to mind immediately is the second morning when I went to the crypt at 7.00 am to be alone to think.  The crypt had just opened and, apart from a very few people, all was quiet.  The most profound and incredible sense of peace pervaded me.  Now, don't misunderstand, I actually don't like Baroque churches and can't stand gilt and flourishes but none of that seemed to matter and I couldn't help wondering whether the presence of the thousands who had come here through the ages had indeed imbued this place with a very special ambiance.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, too early yet to think much of this stuff through so can't say that I am expressing myself with any sort of clarity.  Just recovering en ce moment, paid our taxes at the trésor, washed all the pilgrimage stuff that looked decidedly dingy and glugging back some good old whisky to help the asthma and cough etc.

I wish to thank you all for your interest and I WILL be replying individually to all those who have emailed or made contact via PMs etc.

It's good to be home and, towards the end, I was just longing for "ordinariness".  It wasn't actually so great to have slept in something like 41 beds in as many days and certainly a very BAD thing that my coach broke down and it was approaching 5.00 am on Wednesday when I got off the replacement coach to see OH, with excellent timing, pull into the parking space next to it in front of St Jean railway station in Bordeaux.

[cooperlola]

In the short term, just glad to see you are back and safe - I was beginning to worry and curse the fact  that I hadn't hopped in the car!

Well done you!  Three Cheers!  For She's a Jolly Good Fellow! and all that.[:D][B]

[Théière]

[Kitty]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnjEPMYr6Pw