Welcome To Scotland

We left Paris and arrived about 30 degrees cooler in Scotland. It was a very long day - packing (getting all the bags below the 15 kilo limit), cleaning and leaving the Paris apartment, hanging out at a cafe and park with the suitcases (there was only one guy we saw that looked like he was considering a snatch and run), lucking into an express train to the airport, arriving in Edinburgh, getting dinner, chatting with some fun folks at the pub, going to the Tattoo (totally cool, check out the Secret Swiss Drum Corp), and finally getting back to the apartment a bit before 2am.

We slept in late today, then went to walk the Royal Mile. It poured rain and became a game of chance with all of the morons carrying umbrellas.  Robb's rain coat failed, so we gave up on the walk and went shopping. There was a North Face store that had a great sale on, but before he could make up his mind they closed the store due to some electrical problem. We tried checking out, but were told it was unsafe for any of the staff to touch the electronics. We put the coats back and went downstairs only to see someone being checked out. Fortunately there was another outdoor store across the street with even better sales and all three of us found something!

We had a great dinner then back to the apartment to repack and play a game or two. Tomorrow we pick up a car and start the road trip.

This travel stuff can be exhausting.

Tourist Season, or Being Mowed Over At Versailles

We are moving into the tourist portion of our trip. A couple of Barb’s teammates planned to go to Versailles in Wednesday. Barb had a late night being out with her team after the competition, Rob had a late night waiting for Barb. This meant that they were still asleep when I decided to go meet the group going to Versailles. At least they were until I flushed the toilet on my way out.

I told the first group we would meet up with them at the palace while Barb and Rob rushed through their morning routines.  We hit Versailles, saw the lines for the palace and rapidly changed plans. Gardens first, then palace. Barb and Rob tried to get a museum pass at the Grand Trianon entrance, but they were only available at the main entrance, so they got timed tickets for the palace. When it came time to go through the palace we kind of sort of tagged along with a tour group through the initial security check. There was a quarter mile long line for general admission, but the timed tickets had no waiting. The guard told me to wait in the long line, but let Barb and Rib through, then took pity on me when he saw we were together.

The palace is really cool, but it is incredibly crowded. The tour groups move at their speed and woe be the person who gets in their way. They elbow, shove, push, and step wherever they want. The more popular rooms are wall to walk people. The gardens, however, are FABULOUS!  They are still crowded, but also huge!  The fountains are incredible, even if they are not running. Go see the gardens, skip the palace. Seriously.

Today was the Cluny, Pantheon, St Etienne’s, a failed attempt at watching some teammates compete in sparing, then.a sunset stroll along the Seine. Barb and I climbed the Pantheon tower. Highly recommended!

We have been doing 15-35k steps a day. There is no problem sleeping at night.

Competition Day

Rob and I spent ten and a half half hours sitting on wooden benches without any backs in 95+ degrees because the stupid games were too cheap to pay for AC.

Barb did an awesome open hand form, but finished 0.4 out of the medals. (I think she was robbed, but I might  be biased.) Weapons didn’t go as well.  The school as a whole did really well.

Tomorrow I think the sightseeing might finally begin. Versailles here we come!

Google still sucks. No luck on photos.

Paris Life

Now that I have a metro pass Paris is starting to feel more like home. Getting the pass was a bit of an issue - the first station wasn't able to sell the passes, the next one wasn't open, we burned time going to see a cool church, but it was closed on Monday, the info center was open, but wouldn't sell us the passes without photos to put on the passes and couldn't tell us where to get them. I remembered seeing one in the first station, so we walked back, took the photos and finally got the passes.

We headed out to Pere Lachaise and spent an hour or two seeing some really cool crypts and caves.  On the way back one of us was stepping on to a crowded metro car when someone stepped right in front of the one of us who had their pack over one shoulder while two others were jostling them from the sides as one started reaching for the pack. The person behind all this was able to grab the loose strap and pulled them off the train and started shouting.  The doors closed and the train pulled out. We didn't lose anything other than the two minutes to the next train and a sense of security.

Paris is still a beautiful city.

Waiting &Walking

I keep waiting for it to feel like I'm in Paris. Maybe it is because this is part work and part vacation. The first thing that had to be done on arrival was to get the athlete credentials for my sister. Which meant we walked to wait for her to get the name badge and gift bag.  The next day we waited for some team mates to show up for the opening ceremonies. Once they came it was standing in line for another hour, in the sun, with 200 close packed strangers.  We almost lost the fancy metal water bottles, but managed to get them through the final security check.  Unfortunately the water had to be dumped, the stadium had no water fountains we could use to refill, the bathrooms only had hot water and were a little gross, the concession stands opened late and wouldn't accept money or cards.  Then it was another wait to see her walk into the stadium. It was worth it   The team had matching black jackets, but that didn't make them stand out - the gold fan that my sister brought as her secondary weapon did.

The team is practicing in a small Roman coliseum until the competition facility opens. Yes, it its pretty cool. (Also, if you do come to Paris make sure you are here on a Sunday - the church bells are going off all over the place!). I left them to practice and wandered vaguely in the direction of the Rodin museum. On the way I ran into the Luxembourg Gardens (nice), got my first real glimpse of the Eiffel Tower, and had a fruit tart from a farmers market. I just have to say that The Thinker may be his most known work with the Kiss close behind, but if you haven't seen the Burghers of Calais you are truly missing out.

I had planned on walking back to the apartment straight after the museum, but I had bought a six day pass and decided to see if there was anything else in the neighborhood.  It's Paris! of course there was something, unless you consider Napoleon's tomb to be nothing. Then it was just a simple walk along the river back to the apartment.

Sorry, but I still can't get the photos from my phone to the blog. Thanks a lot Google!

Sleep

Thursday morning I wore a jacket and walked the dogs in an intermittent drizzle. Friday evening I went out for a crepe dinner in 95 heat. In between I slept for four, maybe five, hours. Welcome to Paris!

The sporting equipment made it fine, but when checking in for the games Barb asked about practicing with weapons in the parks and was told it would be a bad idea.  She will have access to an indoor practice facility so all's well and good on that front.

Here is the view for the next several nights:  (this image of the towers of Notre Dame obscured by trees and a clear view of the spire and south rose window is not available right now because :;)&-{#€^# Google decided to pull their app and I can't get the web page to pull it from my phone, oh well it is a problem for tomorrow).

The church bells have been ringing off and on for the last couple of hours. There are some night clubs in thebstreet below.  I have earplugs.

About Time

I have a strange relationship with time.  It may come from a background with geology, but a calendar month goes by and I think it is only a few days.  I have been back from the Caminho for five months and it seems like a few days.  I have been asked several times when this blog will be updated with the final thoughts on the Caminho and I say that I'll try to do it over the weekend.  It is just more time that slips by without a lot of notice on my part.

I paid very little attention to time when walking the Caminho.  I walked until I wanted a break, then I sat and watched my laundry dry.

 

I did pay attention to time when I got tired of getting lost.  I checked the map and set the timer on my phone, ten minutes per kilometer, for the estimated distance to the next turn.  I forget where I was that I had been walking and thinking and spent about 30 seconds appreciating that I was walking in perfect time to the tune I was hearing only to realize it was the phone timer going off.  I had made the turn and forgotten that the timer was set.

Another time I found a water fountain in a cul de sac.  It was a quiet Sunday afternoon and I was alone; I decided to stop for lunch.  I sat in the shade eating my bread and cheese when some other pilgrims came up the path and stopped.   They shared their fruit, I shared my food.   The Spanish men came by, stopped for water and walked on.  My Italian friends came by and I offered them some of my food.  By the time I left there were close to ten people sitting there.  I walked on with the Italians and it wasn't 20 minutes later that we walked into Caldas de Reis, our stop for the night.

Here I was, stopped for the day and it was barely 2pm.  I had my laundry done and the blog post started, Jasmine had come by and we went out for food, I took a dozen pictures of the bridge, thermal springs, and church dedicated to Thomas Becket before 4pm.  I took got talking with another pilgrim and missed the 5pm pilgrim's service at Becket's church.

 I have regrets regarding my walk.  Missing the pilgrim's blessing at the church of Thomas Becket in Caldas de Reis is one of them.

It took me a few days  to figure out how to deal with my amazing ability to get lost in every city I passed through.  I wasn't bothered by being lost, as long as I kept going north I would be going in roughly the right direction.  I had GPS on my phone so I could always figure out where I was.  The problem was connecting my location with the map I was following.

Early in the walk I had missed a turn.  I walked up a long hill and into a small grocery store.  I was aiming for a river crossing that was supposed to be near by, but Google Maps was telling me to walk a mile up to the highway.  I stopped and pulled out some food while I considered my options.  I man went by on a motorcycle, stopped, turned around and walked me down to the turn to the foot bridge over the river:

As a first time tourist in Europe I found I have an amazing ability to get lost in almost every city I walked through.  As a first time pilgrim I am amazed at the generosity of total strangers who stopped me and went out of their way to put me back on the path.

Still, none of this has anything to do with wrapping up a blog on the Caminho Portuguese.  I got up at 5:30am to take a shower and catch a cab to the airport for 8am flight..  The trip home was mostly uneventful.  I made the all the flights.  The last connection from Heathrow to Seattle was delayed.  I spent the extra time pacing, afraid that I would fall asleep if I sat down.  The flight itself included a child that cried and whined the entire flight.  She was two rows away. Not many people slept in that section of the plane.

The flight landed and I got through customs only to be stuck at another luggage carousel.  Five bags came out and all of them were claimed by the flight crew.  An announcement came on saying there was a problem with the carousel and to wait 15 minutes.  Half an hour later two more bags came out.  I kept pacing, I would have been asleep in seconds if I sat down.  I tried walking along the seams of the tiles and found I was so tired I couldn't walk a straight line.  Eventually someone said that the flight was "light", a lot of the luggage didn't make the flight from London.  There were a couple of airport officials who were passing a list back and forth.  It was the people whose bags were still in London.  A passenger asked what it was, then asked if he could see it.  They gave it to him and he started reading it out loud.  Another baggage official grabbed it out of his hands and said it was confidential information.

OK, I'm not really thinking straight after being awake for about 24 straight hours, but you have 150 people standing around for over an hour thinking it is just a problem with the luggage carousel and you expect them to come up to two anonymous people and ask to see a list of the luggage that hadn't made the flight?  Really?  Five minutes later the list is being read over the loud speaker.  I'm on the list.  I fill out a form and am told my bag will be delivered to my home tomorrow.  The security people stopped all passengers from using their cell phones.  Had I been able to check my phone I would have seen a message from the airline that arrived a few minutes after we got to the luggage claim stating my bag wasn't on the plane.

I get home.  I go to sleep.  I wake up at 2am.  I look at my photos for a few hours then I walk my dogs.  I'm back into my daily routine.

What do you want to know about walking the Caminho?  You need to trust.

The arrows directed me up the front steps of someone's house.  I wasn't very comfortable with that so I walked down to the left, but it was a dead end.  I came back and saw the second arrow at the top just left of the door.  I got to the top of the stairs and found a path that went around the side of the house that was obviously intended for people going to Santiago.  They had a plaque with St James and the cathedral right next to a fine path.

The Caminho is what it is.  Accept it.

Pontevedra is one place I thought I could wander around and explore, but there was some sort of a race though town this day.  Some of us got up to spend time at the church, but it was locked well after the posted open time.  The race course was marked with bright tape outlining a corridor down narrow streets.  There were some cops telling people to stay off the course. We pilgrims had to duck under tape, cross the street, and duck under some more tape.  Someone's pack got stuck on the tape and pulled it loose.  They paused, expecting a lecture from the cops. They got waived on with a "Buen Camino" instead.

This is the bridge you cross to leave Pontevedra, it is marked with the pilgrim scallop shells  It looks like a lovely, peaceful morning.  Perfect for thinking and self reflection except for the sports stadium just out of frame to the right where a bunch of Germans were preparing for the races by singing at the top of their lungs.

I was glad to get out of there.

You will be welcomed.

This school has greetings in two dozen languages.  The teacher leaned out the window and gave us a wave. 

 Less than five kilometers from Santiago I passed another school.  There were dozens of kids outside and two teachers.  I crossed the street so I wouldn't have to wade through the mass of first graders.  They also crossed the street in a single file line holding hands with the kids in front and behind.  I slowed down so I wouldn't have to break through their line.  The last kid in line looked up the street and saw me.  He started jumping up and down and waving at me, shouting "Peregrina" and "Buen Caminno, peregrina".  Pretty soon there were five or six kids doing the same thing.  It was really, really sweet.

Should you walk the Camino?  Anyone can learn from the Camino and just about anyone can walk the Camino, but I'm not sure everyone should walk the Camino.  If you want to know what it is like spend a day around the cathedral watching pilgrims arrive, sit at a restaurant outside the Pilgrim's Office and listen to the conversations.  If you want everything to be just so, the Camino probably isn't going to be for you.  If you are worried about walking distances then you may want to walk a week on the French Route or join an organized group.  Or see if there is a pilgrim group in your area that you can join for a walk.

Bom Caminho