Walking the Camino de Santiago
Distances on the Camino are often a matter of conjecture rather than fact. For example, according to the Michelin map today we walked 16.9 km. The guidebook pegs it at 16.5 km. My Fitbit, on the other hand, puts it closer to 21 km. In any case, we are in the tiny hamlet of Filloval. And when I say tiny, […]
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After three days of airplanes, buses, and one miraculous taxi, we have finally arrived at the start of our pilgrimage. It is late in the evening on the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi. We have obtained our pilgrim shells, and we attended Mass in the local church of Santa Maria a Real do Cebreiro. The church is named after […]
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It is the eleventh hour of our twenty-hour Atlanta layover. We spent much of it getting our Madrid boarding passes, getting to a hotel, and sleeping. Before that, however, and before our flight, our Camino began with one of those crazy bits of rhyme the Lord seems to love throwing our way. We took a Lyft to Sea-Tac airport. Pedro […]
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Give me my scallop shell of quiet, My staff of faith to walk upon, My scrip of joy, immortal diet, My bottle of salvation, My gown of glory, hope’s true gage, And thus I’ll take my pilgrimage. (from “The Passionate Man’s Pilgrimage”, attributed to Sir Walter Raleigh)
» Read moreWe thought we’d try something new. This is a (rather disjointed) attempt to put together a video about how we train for the Camino. I blather, Francine makes funny faces, and we walk. And eat second breakfast. Our Training plan for 2016.
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Just after the Noon Mass at our parish of Holy Rosary, Deacon Jim Fish bestowed the traditional Pilgrims’ Blessing on Francine and I – not to mention our “rucksacks”, “staves”, and shell and rosary. The blessing itself is ancient. In its current form it appears the Missal of Vich Cathedral, Barcelona, Spain, dated to AD 1078. We’re extremely grateful to […]
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With just a few days to go before we set off on our next Camino, this is our last “Camino Photo of the Day” for awhile. We won’t be able to finish out the photos of our 2016 Camino before setting out on the next! Watch this space for news from this year’s camino. We’ll pick up the series in […]
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This statue of Santiago was erected by the government of Galicia in 2001. It’s a pretty good example of the public art of the Camino that you frequently find in the towns – and sometimes villages – along the way. Here, Santiago seems to be thanking God for his arrival in Portomarín. Our experience today echoed that of the saint. […]
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We leave for Spain on Tuesday, and we’ve definitely entered into scramble mode. Equipment purchases, refinements, and testing has gone on for months, but it always seems like there’s something breaking or not working at the last minute. Our rigourous training schedule has gone by the boards this week due to increasingly frantic work pressures. And of course, there’s always […]
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As you can tell from the name of this church, Galician is similar to Spanish in the same way that French isn’t. Only with more X. This church, located in the center of Portomarín, was originally built by the knightly Order of Santiago in the twelfth century. It is crowned by battlements, as this area was in constant danger of […]
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