Technical hitch

I have lost my draft and am trying to find it!!!!!!!!

We´re On The Road Again, We´re On The Road Again

Jane:  Well we,re back.  back walking, back blogging.  Actually we have been back walking for six days now but haven´t been able to access a computer -- I know, it´s Spain!  It has been absolutely brilliant to be walking again and everyday Charlotte´s shin gets stronger and stronger.  It is not quite right yet, so we are having Charlotte´s backpack (with loads of my stuff in as well) portered by a firm called Jacotranss (brilliant business to be in).  Charlotte keeps thinking she has left a baby somewhere and we are having to accept we have become "tourigrinos".

Last time we blogged we were a pair of culture-vultures resting in Astorga.  Since then we have done a bit of walking.

We left Astorga bright and early thanks, not to Charlotte´s usual phone alarm, but to the extremely useful "character clock" immediately outside our window.  This clock very usefully struck every quarter of the hour and of course on the hour, the appropriate number of bongs) and just in case you hadn´t heard it the first time, it repeated itself just after the hour. We woke up on time.

First he hit it then she did.  (I took this photo from our Velux window.)

During our rest period we had seen pilgrims coming into town wearing every garment they possessed and with gagoules zipped up to their noses.  We had read and heard about the terrible weather we would be likely to meet in the Montes de Leon that we had to climb over.  The guide book (our bible) talked of the almost perpetual shroud of mist.  Anyway, as you can see from the photos below, we had a little more luck than that. 

 Blue sky, sunshine and no pack was the order of the day. We went cautiously but the day went brilliantly.

 Poor old us, forced to look at this view.  There snow capped mountains in all drrections. This is an indicator of the temperature.  This day and for everday since we have been accompanied by the sound of cuckoos and skylarks and the scent of broom (which is white here) and heather (which is head-high and shades of deep pink) -- a heady mix.


The next two pictures are for all you "doubting Thomases" who didn´t believe I had seen a huge green lizard as big as a small kitten.  If you look carefully you will see, first the head end of one of two such lizards that crossed our path.  You will then see the other end (they are very hard to photograph as they very well camoflagued and don´t stand still).

This is the Pilgrims Oak Tree.  We were very tired but nearly at our destination and very pleased with our progress.

We have arrived and it was getting cold and windy.

The following day the sun shone again and once more it was pretty cold.  We were heading for the highest point of the whole Camino Way -- yes higher than the Pyrenees!

An indication of how clean the air was, was this group of furry" trees. This lichen was incredibly long and soft, a little like seaweed.

As you can see it´s cold but beautiful with lavender and heather and mountains and blue sky -- OK we´ll stop rubbing it in -- some of you are still working.

This is La Cruz de Ferro - an important stage of the Camino Way where people are encouraged to let go of troubles/sorrows they may have. There is a small mountain (see second photo) of tokens and momentos that have been left by the thousands of pilgrims that pass by.  Here you see Charlotte is leaving her own token and, if she felt light before without her backpack she virtually floated the rest of the way down this mountain!

As Henry said, this is the nearest I would get to heaven (what does he know?)

 As you can see above the sky is gloriously clear. However, we later met a German woman, Claudia, who had gone up and over just the day before and it snowed while she was crossing -- she saw nothing - nada.

On the other hand this is what we saw!

This day we climbed down out of the mountains and met the Spanish heat for almost the first time.  It was also a very long day´s walk.  We got lost in Ponferrada and felt very hot and frazzled.  However, we met a lovely American girl, Meg, from New Jersey but studying in London and doing the Camino Way as part of her practical research into the interface of tourism and religion.  She suggested the interesing picture we took outside a little church wasd in fact the four houses of Hogwarts.

Here is Meg on the left and Vicky, from Zimbabwe.  Both girls were suffering with leg injuries. Meg is flying home on the same flight as us so we will hopefully meet her again.

The next was another gorgeous day and started with a steep gorge -- Jane in gorge.

After going down, of course we then had to go up a very, very big hill.  We could have stayed on the road, but this was a much more beautiful option.  Apart from Victor from Brazil in front of us it seemed as if we were the only pilgrims taking the high road.  we walked down through mature sweet chestnut groves -- no pictures as by this time we were exhausted and somewhat dehydrated -- not used to walking in such heat.  Arrived eventually at a lovely "gastropub" run by a Dutch woman and her Spanish partner who knew Sheffield and wanted to know where Tarzen  was (me Jane).

 An example of the very varied countryside we travelled and the some of the many vineyards we walked past.

The next day was a big day for us.  We had to climb O´Cebreiro, as tall as Ben Nevis.  We set off at 6.40 and fairly galloped the first six miles. We then fairly crawled the remainder of the way. (See diagram below.) It was another stunning day so it was good to set off early and get the climb over before the heat of the day.  we were so ahead of ourselves we arrived at 12.50 before the pack had arrived and in plenty of time to become "Ladies who Lunch" -- and we did.  We also became tourists and bought pins for our hats and Galician music CDs (I bet you can´t wait!)

Up, up and away she goes (yeh -- where´s the pack!!)

Ah there´s the pack -- no wonder Jane is stopping for (yet another) breather.

This was a momentus moment for us.  We have to travel through four provinces in Spain: Navarre, Rioja, Castille y Leon and finally Galicia.  Here we are on the homeward stretch

This is the stunning mountain view of Galicia as we arrived and headed to the village.

Chillaxing

This is the view from our window. We felt as if we were on top of the world, both physically and metaphorically.

This is the same view but at 6.00 am this morning showing the mist in the valleys and the mountain tops floating on seas of cloud.

As you can see, we are alive and well and enjoying our journey.  Charlotte is looking well pleased as she has just had a near miss with a bowl of tripe -- that will teach her not to learn Spanish before coming to Spain.  (Tripe is callos incase you´re ever in that predicament yourselves.)

We continue walking for another six days.

More tomorrow (we hope).  Lots of love to everyone J & C xx

Howdee Gaudi

Jane: well, sorry to be teaching grandmother to suck eggs as obviously you all know that Antoni Gaudi from Catalan was the father of Catalan modernism and responsible for many architectural masterpieces in Spain, promoting artisanal crafts and skills including ceramics, carpentary, stonemasonary and ironwork to produce his unique style of architecture.  Here´s a bit of it.

 This was Gaudi´s Casa de Botines in Leon.

 This is Gaudi´s bishops´palace in Astorga.  You can see he liked a turret. In fact you could be forgiven for thinking we had leaped to Disney Land, Paris. It was fascinating inside, however.

These were the amazing vaults inside.  Every tile on the edges was hand crafted.

This is St James (who we are trailing to Santiago to see) in his "Moor-slayer" persona.

I don´t know about you and flying ducks across your living room wall, but clearly in 13th centuary the penchant was for flying bishops.

This is a 13th centuary figure of St James in a more benign mode (and as fresh as if this had been crafted yesterday).

There were an amazing number of very ancient, but very exquisite figures of the Virgin Mary.  She was often missing her crown and the fruit (??) she was holding in her right hand.  She would always be dressed in the rich raimant of the period and decorated in gold leaf.  The figure below is a particularly nice example from the medieval period.

We also visited the cathedral and its museum and we were amazed at the work that went into embroidering the church vestments -- gold and metallic threads cannot have been easy to manipulate and the curly fleeces on the Lamb of God must have taken weeks to complete and nobody would have seen this detail.

Below is me hanging onto a pilgrim´s staff to avoid being blown into the Leon Hills (which we have to face tomorrow).

Astorga is both a popular pilgrim town, with many pilgrims passing through all day, but also other tourists are here - we guess they are visiting the chocolate museum and purchasing bars of chocolate the size of gold ingots on display in the numerous sweet shops on every street.

Charlotte. This is me at the entrance to a very peaceful park that has wonderful views of the mountains in the distance, we head off tomorrow towards them. I am very hopeful my leg will be OK, we have rested, I am taking massive anti-inflamatory tablets, icing my shin, rubbing in embrocation and strapping it. ( we watched very helpful you tube films to instruct on appropriate strapping) We have also been walking around Astorga and going up and down many steps. My leg is sore but 90% better so as long as we rest frequently and take each day as it comes we will get to Santiago in about 12 days!!!!

We are getting my backpack portered to each albergue for the next few days, so we have had to buy a larger pack for Jane to carry as I need a small pharmacy to see to my needs!!!

Wish us luck, hasta luega. Love to all of you from C & J.

Parador - Paradise

Jane: well we leave here tomorrow and we shall go by bus to a place called Astorga.  From there we shall start walking again on Thursday morning.  This will have given Charlotte´s shin five days free of serious walking and hopefully she will be be able to cope with the mountains of Galicia (aaaghh!).

We have really enjoyed our brief stay here-- well, who wouldn´t?! We have of course attempted to retain a serious and contemplatative demeanour, but it´s hard when you have a glass of wine in your hand and have to nibble at another bowl of olives.

On a practical level we have got our washing done, caught up on BBC world news (anybody want to know the weather in Taiwan?), caught up on sleep, bathed until we look like prunes and re-stocked our wash bags with tiny upmarket shampoos etc. -- just what a pilgrim needs.  We are not the only pilgrims doing this.  We have met several others either just resting or injured and having an enforced rest -- I know they could have chosen the municipal albergue -- we blame Martin Sheen and the natural hedonism of human kind.

 This is the Parador de San Marco, formerly a monestary, school, gaol, stable, military headquarters and nearly demolished in the 19th centuary -- thankfully now a lovely hotel and museum.

A view from the internal cloisters, where the stud once operated.

 Our recuperative base where Charlotte´s natural piety shines around her!

 Yes, we can turn even a Parador into laundry  (another piece of top gear is the steatchy, peg-free washing lines).

 We met up with Bethany from Hawaii again at breakfast this morning -- lovely to see her. She is charging ahead as she has a tight deadline.

 The bar -- a sort of home-from-home.  (Henry did say he was paying!!!!)

The view from our little balcony. (Very private fortunately as our smalls have spent some time drying out here.)

We are now gearing up to get back on The Way -- actually we really can´t wait to get going again.

More news when we have some.  Love C&J xxx

Culture Vultures

Charlotte: Here we are in Spain, a Catholic country so we have of course been surrounded at times by ruins, ancient and old ecclesiastical buildings. So we thought we would take the opportunity to visit some as we passed through pueblos, towns and cities. We have spent hours walking around and then around and even around again admiring the architecture, stature, grandure, stonework, carvings and gargoyles - all from the outside as they are always flipping closed!!!! We have managed in total to get into four churches, two Cathedrals which are public museums and two proper churches in small towns, one of which was only open as a wedding party were about to arrive. Once we did manage to get in we had to grope about in the pitch dark to find the offertory candles to light and then use the meager flame to find the box for the donation. We went to a pilgrim mass at Granon where the lights were lit as the service began to reveal Spain´s gold reserves. Blingtastic. We have been told that the churches are all locked because of said bling, but it does seem strange on a pilgrim route. What is evident is the riches the Camino Way has brought to the church over the centuries as even the smallest hamlet has an enormous church and we mean enormous.

 This was an ancient facade on the outside of what was an enormous church which was of course closed. Take note of what happens to sinful people!

Part of the Roccoco section in the enourmous Burgos cathedral, I spent so long looking up, that the next day I was dizzy from either a trapped nerve or a surfiet of piety!

This was a ruin of a convent where in the past bread was left in special alcoves for passing pilgrims.

 Yippee, an open door.

This beautiful church dedicated to the Virgin of the Bridge, it was in the middle of nowhere, beautifully restored but locked.

Leon cathedral is an enormous Gothic edifice, renowned for its beautiful stained glass windows. Jane looked round this as I rested my leg. It involved the largest restoration of a Medieval cathedral anywhere in the world as its light and airy construction made it vulnerable to collapse.

This was an extremely pretty little Church just on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees.  It looks from the picture as if we got inside. Don´t you believe it. Jane had to stick her camera through a hole in the door -


We have met a few Virgins along the way.  They are often enclosed in glass cases and quite hard to take a good picture of. This one was rather special one in Azofra and a small park had been constructed for pilgrims to rest awhile. Me and Jane  were actually having a bit of a laugh as the Christ child looked not unlike a ventriloquist´s dummy with enormous feet facing the wrong way. At this point an old chap approached speaking ten to the dozen in Spanish. He was very pleased we were taking such an interest and from what we could gather this Virgin is the patroness of La Rioja.Maybe that explains the sculptor´s idiosynchratic modelling!

What do you think?

On a less spititual note, we have been so impressed by the investment in every village, small town and, of course city, in state-of-the-art play equipment and exercise machines for children and youngsters. However, in the more than 250 miles we have travelled so far and at whatever time of day we pass by, we have yet to see a child in a park.  Actually we have yet to see a child outside of the city.  We suspect that the Pied Piper is not German but is in fact Spanish and alive well clacking his castenets -- maybe we´ll meet the kids in the Leon hills.

There are lots of children in the cities.  Coincidentally we tend to get to cities at weekends and every Saturday and Sunday little boys get dressed up in white military suits and little girls put on long white frocks and First Holy Communions take place. And is followed by the FHC party (bit like American Bar Mitzvah dos - or so it seems. The whole family is dressed up to the nines.

In terms of the Spanish language we are trying our best with our two phrase books.  There are certain phrases and words that one quickly masters, for example "dos cafe con leche por favor", "vino tinto para mi" (Charlotte), " un vaso di agua para me" (Jane).  However, there are two words/phrases we constantly are corrected on (must be a dialect thing).  Unfortunately they are extremely important words and need to be used everyday. We have yet to get them out of our mouths correctly.  They are: "cerveza" (Charlotte) and "zumo de naranja" (Jane).  We´ll keep practising.

 Charlotte arriving at Leon.

En route to Leon.

By for now.  xxxxx