another favourite thing

If you sit long enough in one spot, maybe in the square or outside a bar, someone you know will eventually pass by, or maybe cow, a sheep, a horse, and sometimes a marching band and very often even a tractor - it was amazing how they managed to drive these up the middle of the road.

some of my favourite things

cuckoos cuckoos, everyday we hear a cuckoo;
the way the season has changed as we make our way across - from snow and bare trees to small green buds to now the blossons on the trees.
Storks - these guys make the most magnificant nests - always on top of the tallest building which is invariable the clock tower or the church tower.
A simple plan.... eat, walk, eat, rest..
Blair - has done a wonderful job as hunter and gatherer - he is in charge of lunch every day and paying for dinner every night - all I do is just walk...
the kindness of strangers - we get a gift each day either in the form of a smile or encouragement

People are people and so am I

yesterday I had the grumps - had a very bad night not just because of the snoring symphony but because of lots of people crammed in the alburgue - selfish noisy inconsiderate people so did not have a good rest at all - to top it off the nuns had a 9.30 curfew so we missed out on the best Tapas in spain - on a positive note who should come around the corner that afternoon but Jeremy and Dean on bicycles.... they were staying at a youth hostel just out of town who had free bikes - wow we had not seen Jeremy for 7 days - we had heard about him, a german man even showed me a photo of him on his camera.... it was good to see him - he is very brown now - finding our way out of Leon was very confusing - they obviously had a city bylaw not to have the yellow arrows instead had bronze scallop shells set in to the pathway, it also seemed to take forever so I was still grumping away to myself - we also left town as people and school children were coming the other way so it was a little frenetic we also passed lovely large shop windows a very rare thing with comfortable looking beds on display.... and also the Parador a 5 star hotel in an old hospital.... mrs grumpy really got the better of me this morning and up until about 10am when we came across a group of school children on a school excursion - acting out being pilgrims they were walking 6km and had these funny little hats and their backpacks - so cute they were all excited so finally my mood lifted. the road was very straight and a little boring after this distraction the temperature very hot and we did not arrive at in Hospital de Orbigo until the early evening. Torsten and Jeremy cooked tea which was yummy- must admit to finding the albergues a little bit clasutraphobic - too many people in one room - I would definitely not cope on a submarine....

Feet glorious feet

You really had to take care of your feet. At every opportunity we would be taking our shoes and socks off, if we could we would soak them in the lovely cool water that seemed to be so prolific in this part of spain. Torsten who we walked with for many days kept me in fits of laughter - it really helped get me through some very long days. Once I got into trouble in a bar for taking them off - in my defense it was a really wet day and I thought I was doing the right thin - just didn't notice the sign on the wall right above where I sat "Please do not remove your shoes" 'WOMEN' shouted the publican throwing up his arms in despair.

Make her praises heard afar - God defend NZ

yesterday was the 25th here in spain so we remembered Anzac day - we sang the national anthem to some of our camino friends - mostly people here think that we are americano or german but once we say neuve zealanda they go arhh clicking their tongues or wagging their hand back and forth, saying to us wow you have come so far and then they add you have a beautiful county we want to come visit one day - so truly the prasies of NZ are heard all around the world.... many of course have already been and talk fondly of the great time they had

smile and wave, smile and wave - the pilgram zoo

we have made it to Leon - yesterday was a big day walking about 37km from El Burgo Ranero - we again left with drunken youths seeing us off... ´smile and wave´ we walked all of the day with Torsten our young friend from Germany. Yesterday was Sunday so lots more people about,we stopped at Mansilla de las Mulas for lunch in town square just as the local people were coming out of church.... I can only imagine what they were thinking with the pilgrims sitting there with socks and shoes off.... ´smile and wave´I got a few laughs as I heaved my back pack on.... adios 'smile & wave..... we had to walk alongside the N120 for quite a bit so everyone out for a sunday drive - we waved at Noel and Rae in their campervan, we waved at Mark and Hazel in their rental car... and we even waved at the young men who it seemed were trying to run us down... Torsten reckons they get extra points for running down the pilgrims.... it was a big day but such a wonderful thing to arrive at the albergue to find our friends Olivia and Michael - they heard our voices and ran out to give us a hug... sadly the speedy brazilian girls were already a day ahead but it was fun to catch up with some of the old crew for our evening meal- Johan, Luke, & Erika.... plus some new friends - we went to the evening blessing by the benedictian nuns.... and off to bed - first night without a pillow but it was ok.... I noticed a very handsome and very well dressed man who was being followed by a tv crew.... one of our new friends Sven from Denmark was able to tell they were from Denmark and doing a documentary so once again it was smile and wave.... we have decided to have a rest day in Leon and will walk on tomorrow maybe Jeremy will catch us up - the camino telegraph says he is not far behind.... as we were sitting having a cafe con leche a group of japanese tourists wanted to take a photograph of the pilgrims.... so once again `smile and wave´ The cathedral in Leon was beautiful - lots of stain glassed windows that reminded me of a kalaidescope - with such a rainbow of colours

one of the things I like about spain

one of the best things I am liking about spain is the sensor lighting - you only have to walk in to a room and it lights up.... especially the servicos (restrooms) - sorry poppi but I am in the habit of finding the best pub in town - just to use the loos of course....the lighting up thing really helps as it is always so dark in the buildings.... the only problem is if you sit for too long the lights go off and then it is very very dark.... the opposite problem happened to a friend of ours Brian - he was fed up iwth the snoring so took himself off to the lounge area - only troube was every time he turned over the lights went on..... so he had to keep very very still to get a good nights sleep.... just imagine how it was for us in the Hotel - the old converted monastary with a very long corrider - as I walked through it each set of lights went on - just like a magic show..... we must be getting really desperate for entertainment - seriously there is nothing here in ingles (english) and none of the spanish speak ingles either so it makes for interesting conversations..... I am loving it of course - Jillian

the camino telegraph

tonight we are at el burgo ranero - started out a real foggy cold day (as usual) but came out lovely and sunny - I was right about the snorers.... but tonight we are at a hostal in a doble room¡¡¡....(costs 40euros) as the albergue was completo.... a double bed this means... to Blair maybe but to me it means a good nights sleep.... we have just had tea with a canadaian grandmother and her grandaughter - only thing is they only just met 4 yrs ago as the grandaughter was adopted 34 yrs ago - such a precious discussion was had as to how you veiw life - the grandmother is 75 - there are so many of these stories - last night 2 kiwis, 2 south koreans and 2 germans sat down to dinner - no one was talking because we thought that we could not understand each other... until we discovered that the south koreans lived in germany - so what a special time we had.... today however the rumour is that there is the norwalk virus on the camino - every second person we have met today has been sick... some people say its the water, some people say its the food. Our friend Torsten has had it (the young german man who Blair thinks looks like Frodo but I think looks like Clark Kent) who we met again today outside the best cake shop in Sahugun.... he had a night with the Brazilians the night before last - so it seems we are only a half day behind them.... anyway all is good so far no tummy bugs for us.... and still no word of Jeremy.....

I want my family...

the two little pilgrims have lost their family and don´t know where to find them
i want my family Jillian cried..
Blair said leave them alone and they will come carrying their backpacks behind them
so the pilgrims decided to book themselves into a Hotel for the night.... it was wonderful to sleep in clean fresh sheets to have a lovely hot showere and toilet paper in the lavotary.... we must have looked quite a site arriving in our walking clothes to this lovely old monastary that is now a hotel was called San Zoilo just out of Carrion de los Condes..today 17km of the walk was on a coutnry roadway - I found it very boring as we are
really missing our brazilian friends Juliana and Christina and Mike and Olivia - but glad they are doing well ´- such speedy gonzalaz - have not had any famililar faces for days - walked with Torsten again yesterday but have lost him today.... such is the camino now - lots of new faces and very few english speaking people - have met up a couple of times with an australian couple from Perth so maybe they will have to become the new family... anyway we are now at Terradillos de Templarios Blair and I are in a room with two older men who I can already tell will be snorers.... love to you all - catch you next time - Jillian

the sun came out and dried up all the rain...

we have had two really sunny clear windless days so have decided to keep on walking these last two days last night we stayed at a place called Hontanas - in a brand new alburgue... funny story because for some reason I had wandered away from Blair as we entered the village.... this little man was beckoning to me - come senora - acting out take off your boots sit down and stay here.... I was a little bit wary as the entrance led into another entrance way... I politely told him my husband was coming and he would decide - anyway it was the most beautiful alburgue - brand new with most amazing showers.... we even had the room all to ourselves which was nice for a change.... the sad thing is now the camino family is all scattered - we presume the brazillians along with Olivia and Michael are ahead -the young ones are all behind - we left them in Burgos..... most of them wanting a rest day .. or a city day maybe - Jeremy was a bit torn I think - stick with the parents or stick with the young ones ..... anyway I´m sure we will meet up with him again soon.... but it reminded me a bit of the story of the hare and the tortoise..... the tortoise is now ahead..... the hares are all behind us. We had a lovely evening with Torsten and Eric from Switzerland who we had met earlier in the day

Burgos

Today (I think it is the Monday the 19th) we arrived in Burgos - this is where we were initially going to start.... only 20 ks today but a lot of it was through the city - the industrial part to start with and then the newer apartments - was quite tough to be amongst ´civilization´again and a bit demoralising however as usual the yellow arrows take us to the historical heart of the city - we are staying very near the cathedral which we decided to visit - WOW is all I can say.... Jeremy and Blair could not work out if it was beautifully grotesque or grotesquely beautiful amazing, it was very cold inside but for me lots of inspirations for quilts!!!!!! Last night I dreamt that we went to the Hopkinsons for a dinner party....

Atapuerca

another wet day trudging through mud - we walked today with Olivia and Michael and were seriously trying to catch the Brazilian girls - the sun came out so frantically tried to dry our washing..... must remember that wet clothes weigh far more than dry.... Jeremy went for a walk and came back with our lovely friends Christina, Juliana and Gilles (the most beautiful expressive frenchman) they were staying in another alburgue down the road.... so decided to have tea together that night.....Gilles only speaks french so he mimed on the spot his last few days apart from us all.... it truly was beautiful to see.... as usual the pilgrim meal is simple but 3 courses and we polish it all off with the bread and wine - this night had to be the best dessert ever . white chocolate and yoghurt mousse..... even with my bestest smile I could not get the recipe from our host....

The rain in spain....

we have had two days of rain so that combined with the dirt pathways means walking in mud glorius mud..... actually Nick with our ponchos on all in a row we look like little hobbits..... so yes very Lord of the rings indeed just little hunchbacked ones - wish I could figure out how to add photos while on a hostel computer. The rain had been steady all day but came down in a huge downpour just as we came to a village of Belarado - unfortunately this scattered the pilgrims each to the first alburgues they could find anyway - imagine our amazement again when we met up with Jeremy, D.J, Dean and another Korean lad called Park - we had a wonderful pilgrim meal that night - unfortunately i think we were on the local pub circuit so we heard the revellers most of the night - not too mention the snoring ( there is always the snoring) the drunkards were still outside our door when we left yesterday morning ...... a small group of local lads they started following us and chanting.. pilgrim pilgrim take the bus..... these words echoed in my head the rest of the day¨, the bus sounds like a very good idea.... let me tell you about the alburgue rules - we pilgrims have to be home and in bed by 10pm each night and gone by 7am..... the younger ones are finding this a bit hard but last night I was thankful that all my boys were tucked up in bed.

nature story

one day on the path we noticed strings of caterpillers all in a row like locomotives.... Dean from NZ said he had seen on a nature show once that they were blind so just all hooked on to each other - occasionally they were all in a big pile.... maybe the one in front got confused so no one could find their way... sometimes they had to start new trains as a biker came through and squashed some of them..... I wonder if they are really blind....

some thoughts on the way - Jillian

-when you come to a hill - don´t look up because it just seems too far
- however sometimes it is good to look back - the view can be amazing and you can see how far you´ve been ....
- make sure you check where you are going to sit down - stinging nettle can really hurt - ouch
- say goodbye to your friends as if it is the last time you see them - because it just might be - today we had rain lots of it so after walking 23 km Blair and I made a decision to stay in Belorado, we had left early to get ahead of the 'group'- the 'family' we call them as generally I can be much slower but today we did not see any of them all day - so we will not be with our brazilian girls tonight the first since we started out.
Blair is getting more kisses from other women than me..... and me from other men....
The dogs here surely must get sore throats - they bark us in to each village and bark us out
best advice so far - take a tinto vino for each leg
every meal comes with pan (bread) and tinto vino (red wine)
that you can buy a syringe and needle over the farmacia counter (for the blister)- as well as get beer and wine out of a vending machine!! shopping is easier with someone who speaks spanish as most of the spanish people do not speak english - still pointing and miming works.....
some days I cannot even remember my english words let alone the spanish ones....
there is tagging and litter in spain..... it just seems worse when the bridge is hundreds of years old....
pleasant surprises - jeremy, DJ and Dean turned up at same alburgeue today - phew he is not lost in spain
the most tender moment so far was yesterday when D.J from Korea our adopted number 5 son held my hand as we walked up the hill singing a song in Korean it was so beautiful that it made Blair cry....
best saying so far - when I made an observation to Anna from Barcelona that the older woman all looked very similar -she said that we start off as full ripe round grapes but end up looking like sol-tarnas (sultanas) her accent was beautiful.....
we met a lovely entrepenauer (Ana from Madrid) today she has an ice cream stall in the middle of a small village - shame it was so cold - still she had soup in a can that when you shook it became warm.... she also ran a casa rural - a more upmarket place to stay for pilgrims....
the recession has hit spain hard - walked through a whole town of new houses - not one person lives there but there is a wonderful golf course....also saw our first robbery yesterday - some lads who looked like they should have been in school ran off with some stuff from the 1 Euro shop
that not all people like pilgrims - have been hissed at and grimaced at
there are no public toilets in spain it seems - you are right Rae I should have bought the shewee...
don´t follow other pilgrims - they might not be on the right path - always look for the yellow arrows.... also there is always someone in front of you and also someone behind you
that I miss my family -especially the grandchildren - the little girls here, when we do see them look like dear little Giana and Leila I just want to go up and hug and kiss them

same pathway different journey

the last km is always the longest - have been unable to post blogs for several days - I think we have been walking for 8 days now - today was very long almost 35 km I toddled along towards the end - got a huge blister several days ago so it is hindering my style - I´m still loving the social side of the camino - the pilgrim meal each night - we get to meet new people each day and hear a little of their story but we so enjoy catching up with those first ones from St Jean - we have become like family... we may have to part company with our brazilian friends as they have a tighter schedule than us and I don´t think I could keep up - today I cried because it was just so hard.... mostly my tears have been those of laughter.... we again had fine weather although overcast and cloudy - we did not arrive at our albergue until 5pm so nearly 10 hrs walking today - we are in Santa Domigo de Calzada in the biggest hostel so far - very clean and organised - they have all been different and so have been the pilgrim meals at the restuarantes - Jeremy takes turns cooking with the younger ones who are watching their budget more - last night we got the best welcome ever it had started to rain and once again i was coming up the rear - the owner of the hostel met me with a hug took my coat and carried my bag for me to my bunk - maybe 2 flights of stairs - there was a fire going so friendly - it has been harder than I thought finding things - yesterday we found our first public convenience - still there is always a bar in each village that we all make a stop at -

Last night we stayed in Viana - an alburgue beside an old ruined monastary - we have had great weather so far with only a few spots of rain - until yesterday no blisters until now so been doing well we have a great group of new friends that we may or may not see again at the end of each day but it is like a family when we do - kisses and hugs - we have 2 brazilian ladies, Juliana and Christina, a couple from England - but who are scottish and mexican, (Michael and Olivia) a frenchman named Jules who loves to give me kisses each day - an australian called Brian, and of course Jeremy and my now newly adopted number five son D J from Korea - we are having lots of laughs together....

water into wine

Day 5 of walking - from Cirauqui to Villamayor de Monjardin, about 21 km but seemed quite a long days walk -although it was very pretty mainly on natural pathways, passing through Irache where there was a fountain (Fuente) that gave wine instead of water. At Villa Monjardin we stayed in hostal run by a Dutch ecumenical group - who gave us a lovely dinner together and opportunity for those wishing to share in a devotional in the evening - unfortunately due to the other alburgue in the village being closed several pilgrims had to walk on - including Jeremy and DJ to Los Arcos another 12 km away

Cirauqui

Today we walked 27.8 km from Cizur Menor to Cirauqui passing this momument at Alto del Perdon or the Hill of Forgiveness. On the way down the hill we saw a German woman just in front of us fall off the track into the bushes - on helping her up we noticed that the bushes had been brutal scratching and cutting her mostly on her face. Cirauqui was such a beautiful village nestled on the hilltop - the toilets of our hostal actually had such beautiful veiws. This picture does not do this resturant justice to the beauty of it, I can only describe it like little grotto with lots of separate rooms - the resturante was run by family friends of our host and they were just lovely - we had a wonderful evening with the Brazilians, missing Michael & Olivia who we found out later stayed in Puente La Reina

Day 3 Larrasoana to Cizur Menor

Another beautiful day we have had - but still crisp when we set off this morning - we were able to cook our oats this morning before leaving Larrasoana - lovely gentle walk to start off alongside the rio Arga - we walked up to a church run by sisters of Sacred heart - a lovely tranquil place and sweet sister Maria showed us in and gave us a special devotional thought for the day - we then stopped for morning tea at Trinidad de Arra, as usual in the square and were surprised by a marching band and people all dressed up in colourful capes ? for what purpose we are not sure - it was a beautiful town, on to Pamplona for lunch - on the original citiy fortified walls - then on to Pamplona which was busy with people - families out for sunday walks so well dressed and beautiful people. Funny thing happened in Pamplona - Blair and I bought an ice cream and as it was such a nice day just wanted to sit down and eat it in the park but the locals noticing we were pilgrims kept pointing out 'The Way' to us, it did not seem worth the fuss so we kept on walking... tonight we are staying in Cizur Menor which was another 2.8 km walk out of Pamplona - very friendly host - she even took time out to treat peoples blisters. We are sharing a room with our new friends from Ireland - Des and Maeve, along with Jeremy and a Finnish couple.... do not feel so tired today although my feet do hurt... Jillian

Day 1 St Jean Pied de Port to Roncesvalles

A very tough day today - walked from 8am until after well after 5pm - phew it seemed like it was all up hill -we travelled through the pyrennes -it was quite cool with some snow still about - walked most of the way with Barbara a German lady (from near Studgart) now living in Nambibia - she gave me one of her walking poles to try - I enjoyed her company as Blair and Jeremy took a different route down (harder but shorter) - Barbara was quite fond of saying oh my shattered soul or four five, six when she really wanted to swear - we both took the call of nature behind the first tree only to be sprung by a fellow pilgrim passing by - should have got the shewee Rae... towards the end of the day I was really plodding just one foot in front of the othere - so was so pleased to get to the alburgue - when I came back from my shower that evening I found the pole on my bed a gift from Barbara - have walked with it ever since - that night we shared with 103 other pligrims - so strange hearing all the different languages and see poeple trying to understand each other -as we were getting ready for bed ,met a lovely young man Dean from Tauranga but living in London - Jeremy walked with him all the next day..... I'm sure they went a lot faster without Mum....

the start

What a long day - after catching the metro early in the morning to the bus station, we then took 2 buses from Madrid to Pamplona we caught another bus at 6pm to Ronseveilles, then up over the mountains by taxi into France, to a village called St Jean Pied de Port, - this was the first sign of how difficult our next day would be - St Jean even by night seemed like a beautiful village - after getting our passport credential from the passport office we stayed in luxury this first night at a Bed & breakfast with Bernard and Fafa who had only recently bought the place from NZers!! It was just Blair, Jeremy and I in one room - we had a huge bath and toilet to ourselves - so we all enjoyed this last bit of luxury - out for dinner with Barbara who we shared the taxi with - I wanted to just stay a while - as so quaint - and i didn't really feel ready to walk after all that travelling - perhaps another time....

well we are in Pamplona waiting for the bus to take us through to Ronseveilles and then on to St. Jean pied de port - Madrid was awesome the architecture and history of the place - the picture is of Jeremy and Blair outside our Hostal. The flight from LA was pretty good - we arrived quite early at the airport, too early for check in - so I got chatting to a man with lots of and very big luggage - turns out he was a kiwi and had been trying for the land speed kite record with Steve Guerney in the desert - his name is Peter Lynn, a very interesting man who travels over the world flying kites - he had been a good friend of James White. Once we were in the Koro loung we spotted Rick Hopkinson´s next neighbour Mr Callahan he was off to Heathrow - then in walked Victoria Beckham one of her boys and nanny in tow - all happens in the koro lounge eh - she was looking rather lovely we thought - anyway all for now - hope to post some more soon - Adios Jillian

on the way

Sitting at LAX in the koro lounge - it finally feels like we are off - poor Blair had a very bad night with a tummy bug or something nasty like that - so he is feeling quite poorly - hopefully he will be back to his usual chirpy self soon - we may have to stay a day or so in Madrid to regain some strength.....

Today we attended church at the Anaheim Angels stadium -it was an Easter celebration plus celebrating 30 yrs of Saddleback church - afterwards we went to Downtown Disneyland which was fun lots of shops to check out - home for a rest which meant we felt the 7.2 earthquake all the more - seems no real damage. Then out for tea at Heros a pub where you throw the peanut shells on the floor....so much food.... will be waddling across spain at this rate - Jeremy leaves tonight for Heathrow - we will meet him in Spain on Tuesday

Tonight we went to Mike & Sally's for tea - we got met the whole familywho had gathered together for Easter ! Sally made Tacos...it was a lot of fun - Mike works at Saddleback church so he showed us around earlier in the afternoon - all I can say is WOW truly amazing - tomorrow we go to a celebration at the Angel stadium (baseball) only a little walk today to the supermarket for strawberries - so cheap but i did wash my clothes by hand while I was in shower so that propably counts to preparations

California style

Decided to use the blog like a dairy otherwise will forget it all - First impressions of USA started at Auckland airport - Girls to the right, boys to the left - stood in queue waiting to be patted down - they seemed to get through the mens line so much quicker...flight over was not to bad - quite a bit of turbulance - arrived at LAX to be fingerprinted (every finger and thumbs) and photographed. Temuera Morrison also in queue - guess celebs also have to go through customs... Have done a fair bit of walking - checked out a mall, supermarket and 'quilt' shop. (literally across the road from Gayes...) can't get used to the upside down light switchs and the cars coming at you from the wrong side - very scary not to mention 6 laned highways... Yesterday Blair started talking to a man carrying a brass cross - I'm sure he would love to carry one across Spain. Just nearby are streets of cute movie style houses. reminded me of the Truman show... Today we went to Laguna beach with Gaye - we had a great time walking along the beach front lots of little crafty shops - I made a photographers day by saying WOW at his work, we are off to a 'family bar-b-cue tonight so I have made a kiwi pavlova first time in many years as that is normally Blair's mum forte... It turned out real well....