Blogs from Navarre, Spain, Europe - page 11

A day of many colorful memories. It really started last night when, because of a festival today in Santillana, the entire town virtually shut down, including my bus back to Santander this morning. So I had the nice people at my family hotel call up a taxi and arrange a transport back. A leap of faith because I was going off 3 main words: "manana," "aqui," and "ocho." But it must've worked because as I was waiting outside this morning at 8 a taxi pulled up, and out came this older woman named Gloria. She didn't stop talking the entire 30 minutes to Santander, and I think I followed most of what she said, and seemed to respond with something she recognized. But, who knows, she could've been talking to herself for all I know. In ... read more

We woke up at 6am, after spending a freezing 3 hours trying to get some sleep in the car at a gas station, and questioned our sanity as we headed like zombies in to try to run with the bulls(I had decided I was too exhausted to attempt it, but Andrew was still game). Well, it was the first day, absolutely crazy, and there was no way we were getting in. We got there an hour early and they were already throwing people out. We couldn't even find a spot to watch, so we stood in the crowd and waited to hopefully see movement or hear something. All we really saw was the crowd of people that could see moving their cameras and that was it. The town was packed to the gills with drunk, vomiting ... read more

(First - thanks all for your messages and comments. Sadly I have been unable to responds to them. I should explain my mode of communication. I am operating thru wireless at the hostels using my smartphone and blue tooth keyboard. The phone limits my ability to open multiple windows and also makes downloading pictures very difficult.) These are just ramblings of this peligrino as she walks: 1 - Yesterday in Puenta la Reina I wonderded about the convenant attached to the albergue I was staying in. It seemed deserted, and I saw no nuns in the town. Now I know sometimes nuns stay sequestered. I just wonder how active these convenants and monestaries are? Although I have my issues with the church (rememember the church always refers to the Roman Catholic Church) I find myself saddened ... read more

So much has transpired. To try to share the past two days is overwhelming! I have only just begun, but I understand that each persons Camino is there own, and you have to live it yourslef. So perhaps I cannot tell you so much about the Camino, but I can share some of MYCAMINO and of course share pictures. Pictures are terrribly difficult to download and edit so you will get them scrampled, untitled, and unedited for now. I just have the time and in the evening food and sleep consumer much of my time. This evening I went to 7:30 mass at St. Agustine Cathedral - very near the BIG IMPORTANTE catherdral. It is pretty large and impressive itslef. There were maybe 20 people there - all but maybe one much older than I. I ... read more

Just two neurofen today so progress on the drug rehabilitation for Fiona. Although by the end of the 21km the pain level was getting pretty high so we were very pleased to see Los Arcos appear around the corner. The day started out windy and overcast with a forecast for a sunny afternoon. We left at 7 to try and get as much distance under our belts before the heat arrived. Still the same team of 5 together but around midday tomorrow we say goodbye to Yvette and Mike who have their own timetable they have to meet. Mike heads back to the States after tomorrow and Yvette is doing her best to get to Santiago by 21 July which means sticking to the plan. Tomorrow in the book is nearly 30km but there is the ... read more