5km Into Santiago

We woke up early in the morning to a hazy, rainy day. 

At least today we only had to walk 5 kilometers in the rain, not 30km. 

The group of us- me, Chris, Paco, Jose, Oscar, Fernando and Stefano- trekked through the puddles 

down the hill from Monte de Gozo, through the city of Santiago in search of the cathedral 

we've been waiting to see in person for the past 28 days.

Our shoes are still squishing from the endless days of rain, but today it doesn't matter. 

We're SO CLOSE!

Walking through the winding city streets, we had no idea when we were going to come upon the cathedral. After some twists and turns and heavy spurts of rain, we turned a corner and THERE IT WAS. The old stone is covered with moss and dark streaks, giving it a mysterious and haunting quality.

In front of the cathedral. 

There is also a live video stream in the square, so you can wave to people
from home as you stand there exhausted at the end of your journey.

After sharing hugs, kisses and tears with everyone in front of the cathedral, 

we walked over to the pilgrim's office to receive our final certificate of completion.
The poster in the background shows the route from St Jean-Peid-de-Port.

Then it was time to attend the pilgrim's mass, one of the most talked-about aspects of the 

trip and something we'd been looking forward to for a while.

And now, for the most famous part of the mass....

                                                       the swinging of the GIGANTIC incense burner.

Six strong men were used to heave the rope up and down in order to swing the incense. 

All cameras went up in the crowded cathedral and people squeezed in close to try and get a better view.

After mass, we all headed to a bar to indulge in the delicacies of Galicia- mainly Pulpo, or octopus.

There could have been no better meal to celebrate our arrival in Santiago.

This is a wonderfully creamy cheese that Paco and Jose insisted we try. 

Following, were many jokes of boobs and nipples... 

                                                 something we could all understand across language barriers.

 Thank you to all of our amazing friends who kept things interesting and engaging as 

we walked all the way across a new country in the sunshine, rain, warmth, wind, and fog.

And thank you Paco and Jose for treating us to this lovely meal. In the words of 

Paco and translated by Oscar, "I am happy to help you. When I was your age, I would have loved 

it if someone older had helped me. It is nothing for me to pay and everything for you to 

experience that I treat you to this meal."

Satisfied and overwhelmed.

Galicia And Beyond!

So far, we've been through Navarra, Rioja, Castilla y León, and now, we've finally
crossed the Picos de Europa mountains into Galicia-- home of heavy rain and lush greenery.
The climate of this area is very similar to northeastern United States.

Rainy, yes, but Oh So Beautiful, the rain almost didn't matter....almost.

Each morning began with a heavy fog, draped over the land giving
everything an even glow. The fog lifted steadily and by midday it was clear as could be. . .
well, unless it was raining, of course.

November 1st is All Saints Day! We happened to be in a town of about 15 people, surprise surprise, and we all got together for a celebration of chorizo on the grill and chestnuts over the fire. Mmmm Mmmmm. The night was full of eating, singing and laughing.

Roasting chestnuts is a ritual of All Saints Day, or Todos Santos. Earlier in the day, people went out collecting buckets full of chestnuts from the ground. They were roasted in the giant barrel for about an hour, with someone turning it every once in a while. They come out scorching, and you toss them around like hot potatoes until they are cool enough to peel off the shell.

Here you'll find more images of the journey JUST up to our arrival into Santiago.

The final night of our journey together, Chris, me, Stephano (the Sardinian chef) and a few Spanish folks had a last dinner of pasta coated in a delicious mushroom sauce, compliments of Stephano. Chris and I each received a very sharp knife from our dear Spanish friends who spoke no English whatsoever, but eh, great parting gifts and very thoughtful.

Cheers to making it this far still in good spirits.
This last refuge could house up to 400 people and is only 5 kilometers
outside the city of Santiago(we can actually see the cathedral)... so we really
don't have very far to go the next morning.

For the final drop from the hill into the city of Santiago de Compostela, stay tuned . . .

Keep On, Keepin' On

After leaving the beautiful, old city of Burgos, we continued west a few more days toward
our next big city- León. This year, Pope Benedict is planning to visit Santiago on October 6th.

From what we have heard, many people are planning to join the Camino for only the last 100 kilometers and then arrive, basically fresh and clean after only 10 days of walking, to grace the
pope with their presence. . . Not us.

After being in the countryside and often alone, walking into a crowded,
noisy city like Burgos is a shock to the system. We could not be more happy to
depart early the next morning and get back to the open air.
Hellooooooooo swaying grasses and puff clouds.

We arrived in Hontanas after a long day. According to our sheet of paper with the list of towns, the only guide we have, there would be a "grocery store" open . . . but the sign on the old,
wooden door told us it was closed until the spring. Shoulda known.

One chilly morning, the full moon was setting in front of us just as the sun was rising behind.

This abandoned convent was impressive, the cold,
empty stone looming over us as we passed on the road below.

The sun hasn't yet cleared away the morning mist,
but the road stretching long before us is just visible through the haze.

The next part of the journey was flat, flat, flat.
Many of our fellow hikers got bored, complaining that it was the same EVERY DAY, but we found the beauty in each step, watching the changing colors of the soil, the changing vegetation.

For once, it feels like a real Midwestern fall with yellow leaves tumbling
down from the trees and covering the ground. Later, we jumped in a leaf pile raked
together with a stray branch. Thank you Christopher!

Many of the houses in these small villages were built with sun-dried bricks made of mud, straw and horse hair. It is shocking to walk (in one day) from a huge city like Burgos, that is very industrial and busy, to a village like this of maybe one dozen mud houses.

The lovely Santa Maria cathedral de León Cathedral.
It is nicknamed the "House of Light" for the 125 stained glass windows
that line the sides of the cathedral, bringing in light of all colors.

Tune in for part #3 of the Camino de Santiago . . .

500+ Miles Across Spain

For our last month in Europe, we decided to do something crazy.
What does crazy mean to us?
Something to do with getting up in the morning, walking all day long 'till your
feet feel numb, eating tons of pasta for dinner because you're starving,
going to bed exhausted, and waking up and doing it all again . . . for 32 days straight.

What is it? The Camino de Santiago de Compostela, a pilgrimage starting at the
French/Spanish border and stretching all the way across northern Spain,
through little villages, big cities, and finally to the sea.

On day 1, we crossed from France into Spain over the Pyrenees mountains.
The day was so foggy that we really felt like we were up there in the clouds.
The fog added a sense of mystery to a journey that was already completely unknown to us.

The sign pointing toward the next town, "Roncesvalles", was barely legible through the haze.
We could hear people talking nearby without actually being able to see who was there.

Finally, after climbing upward all day long, we started the decent into town.
What would we find? How many people were walking today? Where ARE we?

The end of the first day brought hot showers, various introductions, and a nice top bunk bed.
The refuge at Roncesvalles held over 100 people in this huge hall lined with beds.

We arrived early, about 1:45PM. Since we brought no books, had sworn off the internet, and it was raining out, there was nothing to do but relax, too bad. Eventually, we got used to the feeling of having nothing at all to do, and it ended up being completely wonderful.

The following images cover our journey for roughly the first 1/2, from the days after
Roncesvalles, through the foothills of the Pyrenees, past the major city of Pamplona, through endless vinyards and changes in the color of the earth, and up to Burgos, another big city.

Stay tuned for the Camino de Santiago Part II . . . .

Heading North to Berlin

We arrived in Berlin on a chilly Tuesday afternoon.
The first thing to do in a new city is grab the nearest train map and study it veeeeery
closely. Getting lost is fun, but only every once in a while. . .

Each station is comprised of different colored and extra shiny bricks,
a good reminder of which stop it is.

The front door to our pension was covered in graffiti, like much of the rest of Berlin.
We rang and waited curiously to be buzzed into the strange, dark hallway.
In the end, it was perfect- our own apartment with a full kitchen.

There is a section of the Berlin Wall that is still intact.
The wall was divided up and artists from all over the world have been commissioned to
come give a personal touch and message for the world to see.

Some people stood and studied the wall for minutes at a time,
others walked by like it was just another day, just another barrier.

Under the dreariness of the clouds and sporadic showers, the colors of the wall
jumped out as if they really were alive and speaking. Here you can see both walls with the
"death strip" in between, which was once guarded against escapees from the East into the West.

The Reichstag is the original home to the German Parliament. Destruction from a fire in the 1930's left the building forgotten until it was renovated in the 60's. In the 1990's
a glass dome was added to the top that looks down over the main hall of the parliament.

Inside the dome, a spiral walkway starts at the bottom and goes round and round
all the way up to the open-sky top. It seemed to take forever to finally reach the top.

The whole structure was fascinating, from the middle mirror section that copied
our images from top to bottom, to the smooth metal handrails guiding the eye upward.

"Before" and "After" of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.
What little is left of the church contains a memorial with photographs from
before the war and a restored main hall with beautifully colored tiling.

The Holocaust Memorial was designed and constructed in 2004 by Peter Eisenman.
There are 2,711 concrete boxes of different heights, one for each page of the Talmud.

More of the street art that is so common in the city.

Unter den Linden is one of the city's main drags. Any guesses as to what that might mean?
YES! Under the Lindens!
The boulevard is lined with lindens, many museums and important buildings like Humboldt University, where 20,000 books were burned shortly after Hitler took over in 1933.

One museum on the boulevard houses a statue named "mother and her dead son",
a memorial for the "victims of war and tyranny". The striking figures are placed in a windowless room with only the light from a round hole in the ceiling falling across them.

The artist of the Global Stone Project, polishing his fabulous stones in a section
of the Tiergarten park. Located in West Berlin, it was once the hunting grounds for the
city's elite. It has many trails, lovely ponds and open fields.

Trains, trains, trains looking out toward the skyscrapers of the city center.

Another memorial was IN the "death strip", and showed the true faces of some victims.

We happened to be in Berlin over the weekend of the 20th year anniversary
of the reunification of Germany. The tables were donned with yellow, red and black coverings and we sat down to wait for the crowd to arrive . . . .

Turns out that no one really attended and the vendor-lined street was pretty much empty.
It was freezing cold, so we drank a beer, ate some bratwurst and ran back to our warm pension.
Ah, well.

Happy Celebrating!

Prost!

Thanks to Salzburg's patron saint, St. Rupert, the city hosts a festival each
year in his honor. And it just so happens that this year, we were in town to enjoy it.

Rupert stands tall and proud in his square of perfectly manicured shrub-trees
and green, green grass. Happy as a clam.

Rides and food-stands galore, and everyone in the town is out.

Also, there are many people dressed in the traditional Bavarian getup- dirndls
for the women and lederhosen for the men(and some of the women).

Stiegl has its own tent devoted entirely to eating and drinking...well...Stiegl of course.
What'll it be? Bratwurst? 1/2 a chicken? Fries?

The pretzels are out of this world and can be found on most any city block.

At the top of the ferris wheel looking over one big party down below.

Prost!
And the band plays on.
Goodbye Salzburg.