CoodeIndigo

We started pretty strong today; we both felt good after a night at the Jakue Albergue. Days without injury: 2 The Jakue Albergue, by the way, was really nice and has possibly set the bar unrealistically high for other lodging. This place tonight is OK but no Jakue. So, back to today: It started off pretty well, and overall it was very very beautiful -- it is amazingly scenic here. Flowers and flowering trees and new wheat fields and vineyards and more. Horses and one burro. Several kitties, and a few dogs. It rained on and off, a few times quite hard, especially at the end, when the final stop, Estella, seemed to never arrive. The hills kept coming which was a big drag. You'd start up an incline and hope it would fade away, but no, you'd turn a corner and it would KEEP GOING UP. I don't remember anyone telling me there would be hills. Gina has a faster pace than me, so I have dropped behind her both days. I am wholeheartedly embracing Joyce Rupp's advice to ...

First day down! We survived. Days without injury: 1 Reader, I should have prepared more. Gina arrived around 11 pm last night after taking a train, bus and taxi to get out of France. We were awake by 6:30 this morning and on our way by 7. It took us an hour or so to get out of Pamplona proper, and then we were mostly in the countryside with a few very small towns in between. If you saw Gina's Facebook post today, you'll see we walked 17.7 miles, 39,000 steps. And my feet are telling me they resent every single step. We had a little sun, some rain, gray skies, blue skies, a late breakfast of cream croissants and apples. We walked up some dreadfully steep hills (hills? No one told me there would be hills) and gingerly made our way down rocky slopes. We chatted with people from the UK, Sweden, Germany, Japan, among others, plus Gina made friends from Ukraine, Malaysia and Ireland when she was stuck in Lourdes. Possibly my favorite moment was when we we...

Sunday, June 3 ... Slight set-back: Strikes by railworkers in France have delayed Gina a bit. It's rougher on her than on me since she's the one stuck with figuring out her options, which might be quite limited. In the meantime, I'm settled into my hotel, enjoying what might be the last super comfortable accommodations for a while. While I wait to get an update from la sobrina en France, I'll wander around Pamplona a while. The hotel gives pilgrimage accreditations, so I've received my first stamp in my passport: Yesterday I was reading Joyce Rupp's book, Walk in a Relaxed Manner ; she told about her first day on the Camino when an innkeeper said, "Your passport," and she handed him her U.S. passport. The guy had to tell her, no, he meant her pilgrim passport. Ha ha ha, so funny. So this morning I'm at the hotel, switching rooms (from my single last night to the double tonight -- in hopes that Gina will be here) and I've said to...

Saturday, June 2, waiting for my flight to Madrid and then the connection to Pamplona. Gina (who is in France right now) and I will meet tomorrow and figure out what the hell we're doing. I showed up in Brussels last night 12 hours after my original arrival time. Beth and Luis had pizza and wine waiting for me, and a comfy bed in what is usually Luis' man cave. Their Serbian rescue puppy Buki, who is slowly overcoming his PTSD from agonies we can't imagine, gets slightly less afraid of me every time I visit. But now I'm back at the airport, enjoying my Belgian beer and cramming on Camino wisdom.

The month on the Camino is not starting out smoothly. Gina's travels from France to Spain are complicated by ongoing French transit strikes. Here's crossing our fingers that all works out. My flight to Brussels last night/this morning via Dublin has morphed into an all-day stay in Dublin's airport. Terrible storms plus mechanical worries delayed the flight from Dulles last night four hours, so I missed my connection this morning to Brussels, so I'm treating myself to a day-pass in the Aer Lingus lounge and eating lots of scones and drinking fancy machine lattes. My new schedule puts me in Brussels at 9 pm tonight (which means I miss a day in the office and my share of Vittoria's birthday cake). I'll get to Beth and Luis' late tonight, and then I'll head to Pamplona tomorrow evening.

“Our apologies, good friends, for the fracture of good order, the burning of paper instead of children, the angering of the orderlies in the front parlor of the charnel house. We could not, so help us God, do otherwise.” -- Rev. Daniel Berrigan May 17, 2018 is the 50th anniversary of the Catonsville 9 , a nonviolent protest of the Vietnam War by Catholic priests and lay people. (I have spent almost two hours figuring out how to post a photo while using an iPad. Sigh.) [and now I have an external keyboard ... Praise God, it seems to work.]

“You start dying slowly if you do not travel, if you do not read, If you do not listen to the sounds of life, If you do not appreciate yourself. You start dying slowly When you kill your self-esteem; When you do not let others help you. You start dying slowly If you become a slave of your habits, Walking everyday on the same paths… If you do not change your routine, If you do not wear different colours Or you do not speak to those you don’t know. You start dying slowly If you avoid to feel passion And their turbulent emotions; Those which make your eyes glisten And your heart beat fast. You start dying slowly If you do not change your life when you are not satisfied with your job, or with your love, If you do not risk what is safe for the uncertain, If you do not go after a dream, If you do not allow yourself, At least once in your lifetime, To run away from sensible advice.” ― Martha Medeiros ( not Pablo Neruda to whom it is often mistakenly attributed ...