Home again..

Back home to our beautiful granddaughters Giana and Leila - they were so excited to see us again - here they are trying out their bird whistles from spain

Pilgrims progress

we can hardly be called pilgrims anymore - we are now in Whistler, Canada, staying in a lovely lodge by a lake looking up to the mountians which are still covered in snow - it was the last weekend of the snow season, a holiday weekend at that - Queen Victoria day to be exact - so the place was buzzing - we went up the mountain yesterday and did the peak to peak - a gondola between Whistler and Blacomb - an awesome engineering feat - we got to see a young bear cub foraging and some chipmunks who are the noisiest of creatures - the best part is that we are really appreciating a few days in the same place, but we are definitely looking forward to coming home and our own bed... will attach some photos then

sew what!

sewing machine anyone? Wow I had really been missing having some craft to work on when we saw this in Portobello Rd - this was only one of about 3 walls covered in sewing machines -couldn't walk past without taking a photo and thinking of all my 'crafty' friends back home - now I wonder if they all work?

Pilgrims - part 2

wherever we went we seemed to be reminded of our time in spain as on the camino de santiago - yellow arrows and even this sign - a reminder that life will always be a journey and that we can still remain pilgrims even when not intending to be on a specific path - may we continue to put the lessons we learnt on the camino into practise in our everyday life

London - Family, Friends and Fun

The weather is sunny and we are enjoying catching up with people, we had a lovely evening with Fiona who used to work with me in Napier - we enjoyed the show Mama Mia and today are going to surprise Kylie at work and then Robyn & David for dinner. Managing the tube well and think the grey hair works wonders - have had young men give up their seats for me 3 times!!! Last time we were in London we bumped into my Mum and Dad on the tower Bridge so I am full of expectation that we will see someone else we know - early flight in the morning to Vancouver Canada...

Well dressing - Tissington

Every year since nobody can remember the village of Tissington decorate the seven wells - one theory is that it dates back to to the time of the plague when everyone around was being ravaged no one in Tissington died - they attributed this to their water supply so decorated the wells in grateful thanks - then laterly in 1615 when there was a severe drought the town was once again spared - it has been down every year since then - everyone is involved from digging the clay, picking the flowers and assembling them, each petal separately like tiles - it is open to the public for one week and we happened to be passing through on the last day - the wells were amazing but more so because everyone had worked together on it - the estate consists of 10 farms and 40 cottages - we actually just enjoyed wandering around this delightful village

Derbyshire

We are currently in the Derbyshire district, today in the town of Bakewell where Blair's Aunty Dorothy lives - we have just had morning tea with her and his cousin Sally which was lovely - the weather is great and it is such a beautiful part of the country - we were kindly loaned a car (BMW) from Blairs cousin June so made the journey much easier so all in all feel very blessed

Paris

two days in the same bed - a first for over a month - we have had a good day checking out the sights of paris - the Eiffel tower of course,hop on hop off Bus trip, a boat trip on the River Seine,yummy food but oh so many people - took us a day and a half to get here by train - first all the way across spain - 12 hours which took us 28 days to walk. then a short taxi ride to France to take another train to Paris - it is very cold here and sounds like it is even colder in London where we head tomorrow - maybe we will be at least be able to speak the same language!

Alice in wonderland?

There have been so many surprises and curious events along the way that sometimes I have wondered if I am in some sort of bizarre movie - can´t remember if I have already mentioned it but one day way back now we were about 6km from Astorga - we were climbing a hill in the middle of nowhere and found at the top a large barn and in front of the barn was a large table spread with the most delicious fruit, nuts, dates, fruit juice, herbal teas, biscuits etc then a most beautiful spanish man came out of the barn Hola welcome to my Casa - stay a while and help yourselves to the food - it was so nice - wanting a donation only. On entering Astorga I noticed lots of people in wheelchairs so I'm wondering if there was a hospital or therapy centre or something - saw the most beautiful sight - a man in a wheelchair pushing his friend who was in a bed alongside us as we walked - I would have loved to take a photo but thought it would have been a bit rude. They were heading to the town square to hang out. Astorga was quite a beautiful town and we stayed a few hours in the square watching and waiting for the clock to strike.... two large figures a man and woman dressed in Maragato fashion came out on the hour striking the time out on a bell.

Blair into Santiago

Hi everyone I realise now why I was not in to best frame of mind coming into the final destination after spending a very difficult night breathing I thought that at one stage I was going too choke to death and jillian thought that she would have to do tracheotomy with her pen.This sounds dranatic but you had to be there.who would have thought that my desire to learn to slow down and to have more patience would be in the form of a spanish hospital from 10.00 am to 4.30pm the next day after arriving.Because of language difficulty we missed our call and also we were in the wrong room for awhile till a kind man told us we were waiting in the childrens waiting room! Once this was established we were in to see the Dr who was very thorough and would not let me leave until she was happy, so now officially I am a druggy for a week.
The blessing in all this was that i never got real bad till we were near a hospital in the bigger city.We are now sleeping in pension accomadation as my snoring and breathing would keep the whole Alburgue awake and half of spain by the sounds of things - Jeremy and Jillian were hitting me in the night and the rest of the room were a little cold in the morning toward me.

Now we have taken the bus to Finsterre at the end of the world or so the pilgrims thought. On the way to the bus we meet our friend from France Gille so jillian got more hugs and kisses from her name sake a very special man we thought we would not see again. I was lying in bed thinking that coming the end of a great adventure and that the richness has been in the family we now have from the Camino I miss them all already so for the special Ju and Chris we love you and will email soon Blair

Santiago

Well we made it and were in for a lovely surprise to meet ´the beautiful brazilian girls one more time´ we went to the 12 oclock mass and then had a lovely lunch and dinner with most of the ´camino family´Today however has been rather bleak - Blair has had a rather sore throat which seemed to get much worse over night with him unable to breath at times - so we made a visit to the Santiago hospital and were there all day - he is fine but had to have an IV drip of antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medicines - it was rather a long day as the Dr wanted to keep him for several hours to make sure it was working - so we are now armed with a backpack full of medicine - and did not make it to the bus to Finisterre - however tomorrow is another day and we hope the sun shines

cool change but only 65km to walk

the weather has been frio - actually very cold that none of us could warm up so we walked and walked another 35 km we are 1km from Palas de Rei in a large alburgue with about 100 people or more..... it seems there are more and more people along the way now - we are hoping to get to Santiago by Friday. We have walked today with Jeremy and most of the day Dean (also a kiwi) stopping whenever we could for cafe con leche.... anyway will post again when we can ´a little tired and not always that easy to get to a computer ....

when I survey the wondrous cross - words

When I survey the wondrous cross

On which the Prince of glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss,

And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,

Save in the death of Christ my God

All the vain things that charm me most,

I sacrifice them to His blood.

See from His head, His hands, His feet,

Sorrow and love flow mingled down!

Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,

Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine,

That were a present far too small;

Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my soul, my life, my all.

When I survey the wondrous cross

Blair sings this hymn evey day on the camino... there are just so many crosses on the camino that you cannot help but think about it - and how it must have been for Jesus - some of the churches have also very graphic depictions of Jesus on the cross that you really can feel the pain.... our guide book (John Brierly) states that now in modern day spain less than 20% are practising catholics.... and yet the search continues for truth - we have met a young Brazilian man Eduardo who has a PHD sociology working at a University in England is walking the camino for about the 5th time since 2004 - he was very interesting to talk to and is researching te decline in traditional church attendance and yet the increase in people coming on pilgramages such as the camino - especially this year which is a Holy year... some of the crosses on the way are actually for pilgrams who died along the way - it doesn´t say how - but we read somewhere that some died by being hit by cars... and we thought we were safe walking......

The best laid plans

just to you know we are in Triacstela after a very clold misty daty - we are now officially in Galicia....have not been able to get internet access for several days and since last posting a blog have done some very big days one day over 38km...there is a bit of a glitch in the camino track.... not sure where we were when I last blogged but the first signs that things are getting busier was as we walked into the village we had planned to stop at to find all the alburgues were full - it turned out that a bunch of german school children were dropped of - they are only doing about 15km a day so conseqently managed to get all the beds - this then shunted the rest of the travellers to the next village another 4 km away so off we walked - only to find the 'completo' signs come out as we walked by - this meant no room at the inn so to speak.... by this stage it was late and I was getting quite tired not wanting to walk on in case the next village was just as full - so we looked about for alternate accomadation - which we found in the form of a pension - an older woman with her even older mother in their own home so for us that was settled - Jeremy and Torsten were still behind - Blair went down to the track and waited for Jeremy but had missed Torsten by a few minutes - we found out the next day he had slept in the forest.... the next day our plans went to custard was after walking already 30 km to Cacabelos we found the alburgue was closed due to rennovations... next alburgue was 8 kms away - the town seemed to be setting up for a wine and food festival so every other bed in town was full - so there was nothing to do but walk another 8km to Villafranca - yay we had a bed - and the best thing about this little bottle neck was we managed to meet up with about 9 of our original `family´members.... This alburgue in Villafranca (pictured) reminded me a bit of a treehouse with all its twists and turns - seved us the yummiest of vegetable soups.