Old Boots/New Boots

Old boot with 500 miles on it with identical new boot.

Five weeks of walking through rain, snow, rocks, dust, and lots of mud, took a toll on the boots that were new when I started the walk.  I wonder what the new pair will look like after the next 500 miles?

August: Planning my return to Spain

In one month I'll be back in Spain, so I'm starting to prepare for the second half of my camino.  I ordered new rain pants, since my old ones were worn out, and an incredibly lightweight Mont-Bell down thermal sheet sleeping bag that just arrived today -- 13.8 oz.  Sadly, my pilgrim credential has gone missing, with all those wonderful stamps and the record of my journey so far.  I've ordered a new credential, but I still hope the old one will show up.  My friend Elsa Ross, a pilgrim herself,  held a tea in celebration of the completion of the first part of my camino on Sunday, July 25 -- St. James' Day!  I showed my first iMovie!

Pictures of the tea may be seen here:

Camino Tea

Home: Still Dreaming the Camino

I have now been home for almost 4 days.  The patio is a welcoming riot of roses and oregano, the sun shines, and I am still dreaming of the camino at night and waking very early each the morning, often wondering where I am.  Shopping in gigantic Costco yesterday was a shocking contrast to the tiny shops and open air markets in the small towns where I walked.  The huge quantities and enormous size of the store reinforced my perception of American excess.  In France I would buy one carrot, the smallest slice of cheese, half a loaf of bread, one small container of yogurt if I could find just one, and perhaps one apple, orange, or banana, and a bar of chocolate, because whatever I bought I would be carrying for the rest of that day and perhaps the next one, too.  One day I bought a head of lettuce that bounced in a plastic bag attached to the outside of the pack until that evening.   Yesterday it took three trips to the car to haul into the house what I had bought.

I've added a few pictures to to blog, if anyone wants to go back to take a look.  I'll be putting more up on Flickr soon, where anyone can see them.

San Sebastian May 19 Now Just a Tourist

A peregrino no longer, I am now just a tourist.  Moving up in the world, I am at a very nice pension that is twice the price of the one I had last night, but also twice as nice and with free internet.  The bus ride here was beautiful through wooded mountains drifting with fog and clouds.  The weather is brisk, but clearing, with surfers in one of the bays.  San Sebastian is beautiful, but very touristy.  The waiters, hotel people, and even the man at the ticket window in the train station all spoke at least some English.  I splurged on lunch today, finding a Michelin 1* restaurant, and thinking there would be a line at the door or reservations needed, but I was only the second party to arrive.  It was all very  lovely and delicious with artistic presentation of the food on white plates.  I took a picture of every one of 5 or 6 courses, having a hard time remembering to do so before I ate them.

Although afterwards, after two glasses of white wine, I wanted to go back to the hotel for a siesta, I walked around one of the sea walks instead.  I am back now, and like a good pilgrim have washed my socks before logging into the internet.  Barcelona by train tomorrow, and then home on Saturday.

The author of the book that inspired me to walk from Le Puy (his name is not in my mental file) said that the pilgrim is part of the landscape while the tourist views the landscape.  I have thought of that many times in the past weeks, and now am not sure I ever want to be a tourist again, as I feel I am here.  I watched pilgrims cross the road in front of the bus this morning as we left Pamplona, and wished I were walking with them, not watching from a huge bus that separated me from the earth below.

Pamplona. Tuesday May 18! It is finished!

I finished walking early yesterday afternoon, 20 km or so from Zubiri where I spent a restless night in a dormitory room with 40 or so other pilgrims and all their movements and noises.  And rather dirty and crowded toilets and showers across a courtyard, and kitchen where I could find no more than two coffee cups.  It was raining again in the morning, but a gentle rain and now and then sun broke through.  I did not put on my rain paints, which I discovered when I washed the mud off them on Sunday night have frayed apart on the leg seams.

After Zubiri I walked past a huge manganese factory for nearly half an hour.  Very ugly.  But very pretty villages once beyond that.  There are many more pilgrims on the trail here than in France, and people from many different countries.  I met a couple from Vancouver, a man from Australia, a woman from Sweden with two companions for Norway, and many people from Spain and France as well.  I met up with Anja from the Netherlands again on the trail yesterday morning and again yesterday evening.

I spent last night in the Maria y Jesus Albergue in a huge old church, up on the second level under domes and arches with a big IHS above my bed.  It was quite nice for such a huge place, but people were up and down and walking past my bed all night it seemed, well, at least whenever I awoke.

The most exciting event yesterday was meeting up with Steven and Lisa again!  Lisa had walked 40 km yesterday from Roncesvalles, leaving the Abbey there about 5:30 a.m. in the dark, running through the woods.
Steven had stopped along the way in between, having his own room in comfort while I was sharing the room with 39 others in Zubiri, thinking Lisa and Steven would be proud of me for living like a real pilgrim -- I was always the one hoping for a more comfortable place and willing to spend a bit more to have it.

When I got back from a frustrating, but ultimately successful day of running around here in Pamplona, often lost, there was first an encounter with Mark from Vancouver that Steven had arrived at Jesus y Maria, and then I found a note on my bed from Lisa.  I rushed to the Castillo Plaza where they were meeting, but I was already more than half an hour late, and could find no one to try to text or call them for me.  I wandered around the plaza several times, then walked the nearby streets, peeking into doorways and windows.  At last, I spied Steven´s feet and recognized his sandals and blisters!  So, I joined them and two other walkers in this little tapas place, where we ate well and went through two bottles of red wine.  Lisa was very tired, as was to be expected, but it was so good to see them both again.  We met again for breakfast this morning, as they were going to have an easy day today of only a little over 20 km, so we said good-bye again, and I have returned to life as a tourist now, and pilgrim no more.

I was tempted to cancel my hote reservation for tonight and go to the bus for San Sebastian, but I really have not seen much of Pamplona.  I have 1 hour of free internet at the biblioteca today, where I also spent some time yesterday.  So, as for the other activities yesterday.  I went to the biblioteca because by the time I was checked into the albergue it was 2 p.m. and everything closes in Spain from 2 until at least 4 or 5 p.m.  I tried booking a train from San Sebastian to Barcelona, but could not tell if I had done so or not or whether my Visa card was charged.

Next I went to the bus station to find out about buses to San Sebastian, but got lost and went long way around.  I did get bus schedules, and then stopped in El Corte Ingles (nice department store) which was open during siesta and bought some chocolate.  Then to the train office where they said the only way to find out if I had bought a ticket or not, and if I had I wasn´t sure if it was the right one was to take the bus to the train station, which was on the edge of the city.  I got wrong information twice about where to take the bus, and wrong information about the cost (1 euro and 10 cents each way), and got to the train station finally where the man at the counter spoke no English and had no idea what I was talking about.  A nice young many offered to help me, and I was able to put my Visa card in the machina and find out I had no reservation, which was good.  The young many went back to the man in the ticket window with me and helped me get information about the schedules of trains (most of which I had from the internet) from the man who really looked as though he just hoped I would disappear.  Then back by bus and to the tourist office where I got a list of rooms in 1 star hotels nearby.  I looked at one where they only had a suite for 60 € and then found another with bath and window on the street for 25€, which is where I will be tonight

My hour is nearly up, so I will finish.  Soon pilgrims will be trickling into town for the night.  I will go and watch them arrive, and maybe find someone to talk to.  I got to San Sebasatian tomorrow by bus, then to Barcelona on the 8 a.m. train on Thursday, where I have a room reserved since before I left home, and then I fly home on Saturday, via Atlanta, so I hope there will be no volcanic cloud to keep the plane from flying.

I cannot believe my adventure (this part) is really over.

Zubiri, May 16

It was a short walk from Roncesvalles to Zubiri today, but by the time I got here just before 3 p.m. I was ready to stop.  Rain all morning.  Continued cold, but sun out now.  I am in a 6 Euro per night albergue -- bare bones -- but I feel like a real pilgrim and it was satisfying to be able to pass many on the route today, through mud, rocks, and up and down hills.  I will look for a place I can spend a couple of nights in  Pamplona while I  make the rest of my travel arrangements.  I may go to San Sebastian to get to Barcelona, so I will need to check with travel people or tourist office in Pamplona tomorrow.  I don´t know if I´ll connect with Steven and Lisa again.  We did exchange text messages on Anja´s phone yesterday, but I don´t know where Anja is tonight.  I may look into getting a Spanish phone for when I come back.  There is snow on the mountains all around, but I walked through beautifiul beech trees that still had red tinges to them.

Roncesvalles May 15, 2010

Josef Oswald in the snow

I am in Roncesvalles, really on last 2 days of walking. We had disappointment today crossing the Pyrenees. I got 2 thirds of the way through and had to turn back in blizzard, trail totally invisible under the snow about about 1200 meter with about 8 km left to go to get here.

It was a long walk back to the gite where we spent last night. It continued raining at the elevation of the gite, but had turned to snow as we walked. An Austrian man and I were in the lead, and a Dutch couple caught up to us after 2 hours of walking as we neared the spot where the trail left the road.  There we could see no sign of the trail as it wandered across open ground, and it was freezing and snowing and blowing, and we were all totally cold and wet, boots soaked through. I thought someone might find a group of pilgrims huddled together and buried in snow like a flock of sheep.  We all agreed it was impossible to continue as we could not see where to walk.  It was a dispiriting walk back.  We looked like a string of refugees, and kept meeting more walkers climbing up who also turned back with us. I got colder and wetter as I walked, through all the rain pants and rain coat.  When I took off my pack briefly along the road, snow fell off in a pile. The gite where we spent the night, the only place for many miles around, was jammed with wet walkers, packs, people in all states of dress and undress. I had to make an instant decision to catch a taxi to Roncesvalles in 10 minutes, which I did, and found a warm hotel room shared with a Dutch woman, Anja, I met on the trail yesterday. Several others who were with us this morning also made their way here by various means, but none by walking.   It was only about a half an hour taxi ride, but we would have been here in less than 4 hours had we been able to keep walking. I will see what tomorrow brings. Tearful hasty goodbye to Steven and Lisa whom by now I think of as my children.

They will try to get here tomorrow, and I will decide whether to continue on in the morning, or stay here one more day, perhaps walking back up to meet them. But, it is still raining and cold. It was snow here in Roncesvalles when we arrived by taxi in early afternoon.  I went to pilgrim mass in the abbey here before dinner.  I did feel that I truly experienced the Pyrenees crossing even though I didn´t get all the way throug.

We had a lovely farewell dinner on Thursday night in Saint Jean Pied de Port with our Swiss friends.  So the group that has been walking together off and on for the past 3 and 4 weeks is splitting up.

Thankfully the Spanish keyboard is a bit more like the American version, making typing a bit easier and faster.  I will see what tomorrow brings.  And in any case will stop walking in the next 2 to 3 days and make my way to Barcelona. What a trip it has been!  Every day a surprise.

But, I am looking forward to the comforts of home and not living out of a pack and a series of plastic bags.