Exiting the Kingdom of Navarra

Today, April 24, we´ve reached Veina. We are about 7 km east of Logronos, which is easier to find on a map I think. Logronos lies in a broad fertile valley, bordered by some unidentified but snow capped mountains to the southwest, and the foothills of the Pyrennes which we´ve hiked through for the last few days, currently, in wine country. Every day is so amazing and special. Yesterday, I thought I would get on the computer and upload a couple of shots from a recent time. But as I reviewed my photographs, I saw, to my amazement, that every day for the last 4 or 5 days, we had had some sort of incredibly beautiful experience worth sharing. Today, I have reached a computer at last, which can upload photos but already, yesterdays amazing sights are old history! What to do that can some how encapsulate some, even small, part of our journey? The job is daunting. I was going to show you some amazing pictures from the town of Estella, this beautiful steep town was full of mysterious alleys, oddly stacked barrios, and 7 or 8 monsterous and beautiful churches. The streets were so steep that they had installed elevators beside some of the sidewalks to help get up one or two blocks. For me, it was a real lesson in urban geography and the effect of cities on people and cultures.
Here´s another one....In a small town yesterday, Jola took a picture of a church, but was annoyed by the white van parked out in front, destroying the symmetry of the scene. I went up the hill to the church to discover a new occupation. Tower Bell Clock Repair Man. The van belonged to a repair man who´s picture I captured when I asked him to stick his head out the bell tower opening. His occupation was inscribed on the side of the van. Suddenly it was a new story.And so it goes with every day of our trip...in fact with almost every moment! Ultrea!

Hiking over the Pyrennes - PHOTOS

Here´s the smallest scrap of photos from a great day, which now seems SOOOO LOOONNNGGG AAGGOOO!

Picniking at 1300 metres at a small pass. After this, Cheryl and I tackled some big hills and the photo with the cornice snow shows you what we doing and what we were looking at! Finally, below, is a photo of Cheryl as we drop over the last pass of the day. Below, is a beautiful oak forest that hasn´t started to think about summer yet. and below that is the steeple and buildings of the Church and Hospice of Roncevalles, our first day in Spain!

Going to Church in the Mountains

April 24, and tonight we´re in Spain! What a ride! Our first day into the Mountains was thwarted by dense fog, and our arrival at a Hostel that had no room for us. They carted us back down the mountain, packed in a car and speeding down narrow winding roads, on steep edged mountains and on a road a little wider than a driveway. Needless to say, it was the most dangerous and exciting thing that has happened to us, but St. Iago was looking after us and kept us on the road, with the help of the young woman driving.
The next day, we had to do it all again in reverse, this time, playing skittles with the many pilgrims who were wandering up the mountain to arrive at the place that we had left off the night before! From this location, at Orrison, we restarted our hike to Spain. THe route was exhilarating, to say the least (I can´t upload pictures from my current location, but we took endless numbers of them.) Cheryl and I were totally pumped by the scenery and spent the entire day off the trail and hiking along all the summit ridges we could find. Beautiful views of the Interior of the Pyrennes and us looking down at the pilgrims proceeding on the road below us, and far below them, the fields and towns of the valleys. We were walking along broad backed ridges with long cornices stretched along them. We got to about 1600 metres, with the trail itself eventually topping out at 1440. That is all from St. John Pied which is only about 250 metres!
Eventually we crossed the Spanish border and the steeples of Roncevalles appeared below us, the Refugio especially dedicated to Pilgrims. If ever we visited a great church, there has been none greater than the one we hiked through today, with the sky as its vault and the mountains as the alter.
Steeply descending we arrived in the Refugio, a small town really, centered around providing lodging and food for Pilgrims and guarding the route over the pass as it has done for 1500 years, since long before the rediscovery of the bones of St. John. After lounging around in the heat of the afternoon, we were processed like cattle and then assigned bunks in an enormous stone refuge, which turned out to be one of our most comfortably warm locations on our whole trip!!
Cheryl and I missed it, but Joan and Jola attended the mass for Pilgrims which was held at 8 pm that night. A special cermony was held by four priests, the massive organ was played in the great hall of the church and a role call was made of all of the countries represented by the pilgrims in Roncevalles that night. It was a broad list from across the planet, and there were probably over 150 pilgrims resting in Roncevalles that day!
Now we are half way to Pamplona, hiked through rolling forest land, and adapting to the variation in travel that Spain offers. Everything from rooming to meals to language and food, has all changed slightly. Still only one kind of Beer though....and 250 kinds of wine! Now we are also travelling with many more pilgrims who have started the trip in the last day or so, from one side or the other of the Pyrennes.
Tomorrow....Pamplona, Joan has assured us that she would like to participate in the running of the bulls.....but Cheryl asked her in Spanish and she MAY not have understood....
Hopefully, we´ll soon be able to add some pictures to our journey, which is currently SPECTACULAR.

St. John @ the foot of the Pyrennes

April 21 and we`ll be here for our second night tonight before heading up the Mt. tommorow.
Who could have guessed how beautiful the Basque countryside would be! If I could recommend this trip again, I might say to spend a week hiking in these beautiful foothills, instead of the rest of France. The Basque culture is proud and independent, although most of the separatists are on the other side of the Pyrennes. Their farms are stuck on improbable hillsides, and their houses are always immaculate. Athough we have actively searched for a place that is run down or obvious signs of poverty, they are completely non-existent. Even the poorest place is neat, large, freshly painted, and invariably large. This is despite the fact that the countryside is obviously wet, harsh, and of poor soil. Sheep grazing is the major industry. If you turned the Cariboo countryside from Stanley to Isaac Lake into farmland with some forest and rock outcrops; you might begin to paint a picture.
It turns out that they have Grizzly Bears here, although probably not for long. An article from three years ago says that there are about 15 to 20 bears in the entire Pyrennes...but our host said that locally, where there HAD been 3, two have been killed since the article.
St. John Pied is an amazing fortress town, at least 1200 years old, and built with giant defensive walls, steep cobbled streets and narrow alleys. Last year 33,000 pilgrims travelled through here. That seems like a lot, but from my reading it is about the same number which passed through here per year in the mid 1600`s....at which time the use of the trail was in serious decline!!!! The Pilgrim trade is currently important to this small town, but I can`t imagine how important it must have been in the middle ages when it was probably at twice it`s current level.
Like pilgrims of the last 1200 years, we have been licking our wounds and celebrating our accomplishments before heading over the pass, perhaps to never see France again! Cheryl is busy grooming our Spanish. It is amazing how much french has been hidden in our subconcious and re-awoken during this portion of the trip. Thank god for cereal boxes, and all of the other labels in Canada that are in two languages, and thank good for the fractional bits of attention we paid to our French teachers in Grade 7. I hope we have as good a luck with our Spanish!
Tomorrow we climb 400 metres on a 9.5 km hike. The next day we pray for Sun as we head over the treeless summits another 1000 metres up to the 1440 metre pass and back down to about 900 metres over 16 km. That night we sleep in Spain at Roncevalles, in a monestary in a treeless landscape! I heard from some other pilgrims that there is still over a metre of snow in the courtyard of the monastery, where it is difficult for the sun to shine! Freezing level was at 1400 metres last night so we`re all a little nervous that we`ve brought enough clothes, and that our packs are light enough for the project!

The last picture is a close up of a stained glass window from the Brilliant Basque Church that is here! Church of the Candlelight!
ULTREA! This is the motto of the pilgrim....Forward Ho.

50 kilometres to Spain

April 14 and our biggest day yet....28 km The daily ritual is a bit of a grind as we expected. Walking 20 km is no big deal, but do it day after day and it starts to put a strain on all sorts of things, physically on the feet and legs, mentally on the ability to persevere and believe that it,s the right thing to do, and emotionally on all our relationships, as we uncover one anothers quirks under the strain of fatigue. Today was the 17th straight day of Walking!!!

Doesn,t sound like Much fun?....Well that is only the half of it, because it is so beautiful, the people we stay with are so nice, and those sunny afternoons sitting on the patio in some small french village, sipping a cafe au lait or a cool beer, make it all great again. We are all so excited too, because we are now less than 50 km from St: John Pied de Port...the gateway to the pyrennes and Spain....The end of of the first portion of our trip!!!

I am stopping at Every church we pass.....believe me when I say...that is a lot of churches!!! At each church there is some one thing that makes it unique and I,ve begun to label the, for the sake of the future. Sometimes there is a unique form to the stained glass, another time, strange statues, Sometimes someone has left something unusual or there is simply a mood. For instance I have photos from the Church of the Bar Fight painting, Church of the Children; Church of the Actual last supper, and church of the Motorcycle Saint. As this blog is not photo friendly...youùll have to wait till we come home and we release the movie!!!

That*s it for now....tres fatiguè
dave

Somme Where in France

A few days ago, tired, we took a chance and left the trail in hopes of finding a decent nights sleep. We had hiked 15 km that day, and were a little discouraged by how long everything was taking. Steeply descending a dirt road, I tried to put some distance between me and the group in the hopes that I could save them some elevation if this was a washout. I arrived at an empty stone farmhouse, on a hillside far from anything. Lower on the hill, strolling by a pond was an older man with a wicker basket filled with freshly picked dandylion leaves. Taking a chance I went down to meet him and so began one of the most magical days of our lives!!
The house was his, Cheryl, Joan and Jola arrived at it as we came up the hill again. His wife was called from the neighbours....his daughter came up to the house with his grandchildren, eager to practice english and we all settled into the evening. As dinner was prepared, we were left to our own devices with the Grandparents and engaged in a beautiful and humourous conversation as we four pilgrims found that between us, we could blend our knowledge of French into a perfect Consumme of French Language.
Every item we ate that night and the following morning were from her house, or one of her neighbours.
Apples, Giant Pork Chops, some of the best potatoes ever cooked, fresh vegetables, apperitif, dinner wine, yogurt for breakfast, Eggs, and the jams of course. Even a fresh made farmers sausage; Imagine this served in a large stone house that was actually a partially demolished Castle. The large kitchen with its grand wooden table, was dominated by a magnificent 10 foot wide stone hearth, big enough to boil witches cauldrons of soup in if need be but holding a perfect log fire for our warmth and enjoyment.
Like a dream it ended in the morning with the elderly farmer offering us a ride on the back of his tractor back to the top of the hill so we could rejoin our trail and continue to Santiago!
Now, on the evening of Day 8, we had what we are calling a 'short' day. Only 19 km instead of our now usual 22-24 km day. The french countryside is so cliche it is almost laughable except that it is so beautiful. Every day is filled with old manors from romance novels or horror movies, narrow walled towns from medieval novels, and action adventure chase scenes, Churches, trails, fields, and houses straight out of every preconception you've ever had! Today a working man walked around a corner with spattered blue cover alls, a beret, and a wooden bucket with plaster in it and i realized even the people are cliche!!
If you had a map, you could find Condom in southern France......tomorrow we will enjoy it's protection. Bon Noir!!!

Santiago or Bust

April 4, 2009; It is day four for us in Moissac. Rural France is much more rural than i imagined. It is harder to find a telephone, let alone a computer, than I imagined. Last night we stayed in a monastery run by the Carmelites. TheMonestary is only 150 Years old, but Moissac has been hosting pilgrims since the 7th Century. Today is Palm Sunday. Reason enough to have a big market in the town square, where Cheryl has found a nice wool sweater to replqce one lost on the plane. unfortunately::::my sickness is returning and i canùt write as much as i would like at the moment. Especially as it is very slow wrestling with the french keyboard layout...... Or en Francais:
Especiqlly qs it is very sloz zrestling zith the french keyboqrd lqyout:::::

For now, suffice to say that the people are gracious, the food.....and wine is delicious, and we are exceptionally happy with no wounds to speak of for our efforts.
Zith Love::::