Swan song …..

I have been thinking for some time about what should constitute the last message on this blog site.

Having said that, there may well be other things to say once we get home and sort through the pictures and diary notes etc. But for now, I’m going to finish with people.

I said early on in our trip that this whole journey has been a pilgrimage, and that the focus has been people. In the first phases of the pilrimage, it has focussed on family and as we started the third part, it was to focus on friends we were yet to meet. I would like to refer to some of our new friends byway of introducing them to friends of longer standing. I cannot mention everyone we met on the camino as I must restrict myself. And I apologise in advance for any new friends whose names I spell incorrectly.

Firstly I would mention Tom and Joyce from Canada. Both were very helpful when Gay was not well in Castlerejiz. We lost touch with them when we had a rest day, but did see some signs along the way. Pat and Jean from Florida talked to us about the Appalacian Trail and we introduced them to greenstone and cerveza con limon. Noah is a doctor from Indiana with whom we had many a discussion and who tried to find the hats we left behind. Kay and Garth, Carol and Howard, Rita and Max from different parts of Australia were always fun. Trish from Ireland was with us only briefly before having to get back to work in the Emerald Isles. Kathy and Halley, a mother/daughter combination from Canada shared rooms and stories with us on several occasions. Enza and Kareen we met on the first night and then we would meet again unexpectedly. Enza finished the camino a good week in front of us having put in  some long days. Kareen was another we introduced to greenstone. Martin, an Englishman living in France posed a question one night that I am still thinking about. He asked us to tell him what things we had bought on the camino that we would leave behind if we walked a second time. Sounds a simple question, but its not. And there is Gordon and Carrie from the Caribbean and Carlotte from Perth, with whom we had an entertaining night teaching 500; Carl from Texas who was keen to hear our story, Miguel from the Czech Republic who was using his camino to learn English and Ali whose awful experience one night warned us to be careful.

There are a number of others too. While I have mentioned different reasons for remembering these people, they, and all the ones I haven’t mentioned, have one thing in common. They all touched our lives and in that brief contact, made us better people. I can only hope they enjoyed the contact as much as we did. Someone said that the camino is like a family, but each day the family members change. One thing I do know is that in the whole 43 days, I only heard one voice raised in anger directed at a fellow pilgrim. That makes it a pretty special family.

Tonight we are in Barcelona, and tomorrow we fly home. We travel with 4 still unblistered feet, 5 and a half books of diary notes, 6 luggage bags, nearly 4000 photos and heaps of memories – but minus the beard!

Alan,

Barcelona, Spain.

A different ending …

One of the traditions on the camino is that the walk actually finishes at Finisterre (or Fisterra if you are Galician!). As you may well know, Finisterre gains its name from being literally the end of the known land up to the times of Columbus. One can imagine standing here and gazing westward and in medieval times really believing that beyond the horizon “there be dragons and monsters”.

These days we know that Finisterre is not really the most western part of Europe, and, thanks to Columbus, we know that there are no monsters and dragons beyond that particular horizon.

But in the  early years of the camino, that was the belief. It was also the belief that the  pilgrim, having ended his journey also symbolically ended his old way of life by burning his clothes. These days for environmental reasons if nothing else, that practice is frowned upon. There is, however, plenty of evidence exists to show that pilgrims still burn something – perhaps a shoe or a pair of socks or something. As I have noted before, we contented ourselves with each throwing a small piece of greenstone into the sea.

Now having been finished the camino a week, we can reflect more on what te camino has meant to us. We have had some practice today in trying to explain to others what the experience has been for us and it is plain that it is not easy to convey the full impact of this walk. We will have to choose our words carefully when we get home! One of the physical things is that we have both lost weight and we are not keen to regain that. Keeping up a regime of walking and eating less will be important. The mental challenge has left us stronger and we look forward to seeing effect that will have. One possibility is to consider hiking at least part of the Appalacian Trail in eastern USA. Another is to put together a written record of the trip, made up of the diary notes,  photos and the blogs. I am not that naive to  believe that anyone else would actually want to read it, but it would be primarily for my own use.

The spiritual challenge has also left us stronger and I am really looking to see how that will impact on my work as I return to the team ministry I left some 4 months ago.

I apologise for an element of repetition with this message and the last. I  hope that doesn’t annoy you too much.

Best wishes and God bless,

Alan

Marin, Spain.

The ending and a beginning ….

Our camino has ended, and here we are outside the cathedral in Santiago. But one of the philosophies about the camino is that once the walking bit is over, the true camino starts. We both need to reflect on just what that means for us both, but one of the key thingsis that this experience is changing for all of us.

We have spent the last three days just blobbing out, being tourists for a while and catching up with friends as we see them here in the city. We have been to Finisterre, which is a sort of ritual most pilgrims undertake. The custom used to be tat you burnt your clothing out there, at what was at one stage thought to be the end of the world. These days that practice is discouraged, though there is plenty of evidence to say it still happens. These Kiwi pilgrims contented themselves with each throwing into the sea a piece of greenstone that had travelled from home and had been with us throughout the walk.

It is with mixed feelings that we sit here in this lovely city. The daily routine of the pilgrim is slowly leaving us,though with others around us still imbued with getting up early, it is difficult to have a sleep in! But it is a great pleasure for us to meet with many of our new friends as they finish and as they leave this city to head home or to new adventures.

To Amigo Alan -thanks for your reply. We will go back to the Post Office on Friday before we leave and see if they can find anything.

We will be going to Pontevedra on Friday to meet with Anna. Our plan is then to be back in Bilbao by Tuesday evening and then on to Barcelona and then home.

Alan,

Santiago, Spain.

Alan and Gay outside the cathedral at Santiago.

Special message for Amigo Alan

Alan,

You sent us a message about a letter you sent to us. Unfortunately, I did not keep the details of that and am wondering if you can resend the details of how it was addressed and when it was sent please, either as a reply to this post or as an email. Both are being monitored.

We have been to the post office but they cannot find anything for us.

We will be in Santiago until Friday morning and so have time yet.

We went out to Finisterre yesterday and enjoyed a thoroughly good trip. Today we are sightseeing in the city.

Alan

Santiago, Spain.

Dateline Santiago.

This is a brief post to say that we made it! We arrved in Santiago about 1pm today and have already met several friends from the journey. We have received our Compestela and have that secure. It says 775km!

But the look on the faces in the photo say it all.

Will write more later, but right now we are on a high.

Alan

Santiago, 775km from St Jean Pied du Port.

Ultreia

In an earlier blog I wrote about the greetings that are used on the camino. Most frequently pilgrims passing each other or leaving a gathering point will say, “Buen camino” to each other and will respond with the same greeting. That means literally “Good walk”.

Last night we learned about a new greeting, that is fact very old. Apparently in medieval times, a pilgrim would say,”Ultreia”. And the response would be, “Et suseio”.  “Ultreia” means “onward” and “et suseio” means “and upward.”

All this came together for us yesterday. Several days ago a charming Canadian lady called Fran, quite out of the blue, gave us two fabric patches with “Ultreia” embroided on them, and then yesterday as we walked into Azrua, tired and hot, we stopped at the first albergue we found, and it was called “Ultreia”. They had spaces for us and so we booked in. It is a new place, open only a few years but very comfortable and well set up. We had a very comfortable night there. All these factors prompted us to do some research and we learnt some new stuff. We then tied it in with some comments made by some nuns about a fortnight ago!

Gay and I then used that new/old greeting today and had the chance to explain it to some others!

As with the common modern greeting used today, the ancient greeting carries a deeper meaning than the mere literal translation. It embodies the best wishes to the fellow pilgrim of a safe physical journey as well as successful, safe and enduing spiritual journey. It therefore carries with it the strong implication that the pilgrimage is a way of focussing on spiritual things, in whatever way each individual conceives that to be. It  is sort of appropriate that we think of that greeting in this latter stage of the journey, when it is said that pilgrims have got past the physical and mental challenges and take on the spiritual.

On a completely different note, I want to include a picture that relates to yesterday’s message. Gay and I ordered grilled octopus tonight – a different dish from yesterday, but just as appetising!

Alan,

O Pedrous

Served at dinner in O Pedrousa.

a, Spain.

18km from Santiago.

When in Spain ….

We had been told that when we get to Galicia we would have to try the local seafood delicacies. And the capital for sea food was Melide!

We arrived in Melide just after 10 this morning, and although it was a little early for lunch, we did stop at the cafe we had been told was the mecca for pilgrims and locals alike. They were just opening up for the day, and as we walked in we came past the cooking area and there in a large pot boiling over a gas flame was an octopus. That was it – the local delicacy!

Being a tad cautious, we ordered one serving, thinking that if it was too terrible, we wouldn’t waste too much. We watched as our meal was prepared. It seemed quite easy. Just grab a tenticle and cut it into bite sized chunks using a pair of large scissors! Serve on a wooden platter, sprinkle with olive oil and paprika, put in some toothpicks and bring it to the table!

Of course, nothing is served without the basket of bread and the bottle of wine. To our delight, the octopus tasted lovely and the plate was soon empty! We left the cafe some 40 minutes later having eaten octopus and consumed (between us) nearly a full bottle of wine -and all before 11:15 in the morning! I have to say we thoroughly enjoyed it and continued our walk in a very happy frame of mind!

But there is nothing like a walk with a pack to bring you back to earth!

At dinner last night we also had local delicacies. That was at Casa Domingo (thanks to Amigo Alan!) where we were treated to seven different dishes, including Galician vegetable soup, Galician cremed squash soup, grilled capsicum, pork pieces and Santigo cake. We have been treated really well in thefooddepartment all through thetrip, buttodaywas a bit special.

I don’t have a photo on the tablet of the octopus. That will have to wait  until we get home. But I do have a photo of the squid we  had for tea tonight. Not octopus, but almost the same!

Alan,

Arzua, Spain.

38km from Santiago. Thursday 23rd October.

An off the track visit.

Old frescoes which are being uncovered.

Today we did an extra 5 km to take in a recommended sight, and at this end of the day, we have to say that it was well worth the time and extra distance.

Unfortunately, I don’t think the photos do it justice.

We left the official track at about 9:30am and walked along a country road, hoping that we would be able to see in the church. There was no-one around in the village we had just passed to ask about opening times, so we went on trust.

For most of the way, we saw no-one. But as we came close, a Spanish lady walked passed us and we asked her. She told us there was a man there and the church was open.

We arrived and the gentleman gave us an extensive tour of the church, explaining its history. It has links to the Celts, especially the Irish and there were Celtic images in the stone work in some of the internal columns. Behind thealtar there is an extensive area of fresco work, which had covered over, but is being restored and it is lovely. There is a central image of Christ and other large images of St Peter, St Paul and St Patrick. There is also a large image of Mary, unusual in that she is shown as being pregnant.

In other parts of the church, there are effigies of knights, carved in stone. There are other carvings as well, and the main door way was a treasure trove of intricate design.

The church dates from the 13th century and the frescoes from the 14th century. The gentleman who showed us around only spoke Spanish, but we could pick out lots of what he was telling us. He told us he was a volunteer and was 87 and a half years old! He had been waiting there to talk to visitors and we turned up! We spent nearly 45 minutes there and as we left other pilgrim friends of ours arrived too.

The experience of being in the church was awesome and felt truly blessed by that visit.

Alan

Ponte Campaña, Spain

61km to Santiago.

Dateline Tuesday 21st.

There are many things I would like to write about, but key among them are the people we meet on this journey.

I think I have referred to this before, but the people we meet is one of the key things about this pilgrimage. Right now, there are more people than ever on the trail, and I will write about that in the next blog or two. But right now I want to say that this photo was taken today at a place called Vendas de Norán. There is almost nothing here –  two albergues, two cafes and a few farms. But once this was the site of a major battle between Moors and Christian Galicians. It is a fact that this NW corner of Spain was never subdued by the Moors, something that is attributed to the ferocity of the Galicians.

So different today!

We deliberately had a short day today and arrived here at midday after walking 13km. We then spent the afternoon in delightful tranquility, watching pilgrims go past, listening to the pastoral sounds of the country (and smelling the smells!), but also catching up with camino friends. All are special, and Pat and Jean happened to be there when we wanted a photo. Pat and Jean are from Florida, and we also saw Gloria (Seattle), Howard and Carol (Brisbane), Barbara (Zimbabwe), Martin and Jane (English, living in France), Kathy and Helley (Canada) and Tom (Denmark?) and Anje  (?).

In addition, the staff at the albergue and cafe are very friendly and helpful – not all fierce like their forebears!

Tomorrow we leave early for a longish walk, hoping to do a short side trip to see a recommended historic sight.

Alan,

Vendas de Norán, Spain.

Gay and Alan with Pat and Jean, camino friends from Florida.

Ancient history and modern times.

Tonight, after completing a difficult 22km walk from Sarria, Gay and I sat in a restaurant high above the River Mino. Earlier, in the middle of a hot afternoon, we had walked across a very high bridge into the town, spotting below us an older bridge.  From the restaurant, we had a glorious view right down this wide, slowly flowing river towards the setting sun. We looked at the information superimposed on a photo of the town and its impressive bridge and deciphered as much of the Spanish as we could. Later, a very obilging waitress filled in on more recent details.

It transpires that the Romans first bridged the river here and then later the Knights of the Order of St Juan (John) of Jerusalem established a hospital for pilgrims here and then the Codex Compestela de Santiago (sort of rules for the pilgrimage) decreed that there must be a bridge here to enable the pilgrims to get to Santiago. The town of Portomarin developed at this crossing point, as they did in those days, and developed at both ends of the bridge. One was called San Nicholas and the San Juan. The first town records go back to 922 apparently. The hospital developed in the tenth century and continued into the 12th century.

Fast forward to 1960. In the interests of modern commerce and industry, General Franco ordered that a dam be built to create a lake, the water from which would generate much needed electricity. Problem – the new lake would flood the old town! Solution? Move the town!

In the end, they moved all the important buildings – church included (of course!) and rebuilt them on the site of the present town, high above the river and lake. They did that by moving those buildings, brick by brick!

Apparently, in times of low water, you can still see the streets and remains of buildings of te old town. In the years immediately after the dam was finished, the people here used to visit the old town when they could. This was considered dangerous and in order to stop it happening, the authorities destroyed all the buildings that were not moved. But the remains can still be seen when the water is very low.

Today, all we could see were the remains of bridge abutements, a complete bridge below the present one and a number of channels created to enhance the catching of eels – local industry! We could also detect the high point of the lake level and the very green grass in the areas which will be flooded in winter times.

I regret I have no photos to enhance this post. They will have to wait until we get home. But this story reflects much of our experience here. We are constantly being confronted with the old, the very old and the ancient, all wrapped up in a covering of modernity. A simple example is the latest John Deer tractor parked in a shed made of mud and straw, with timber framing that shows through, and with a door that is hanging off very old hinges! It is wonderful!

Alan,

Portomarin, Spain. 90km from Santiago!