We’ve been home for a few weeks now and glad to enjoy its familiar comforts. Not all is comfortable:  our favorite Vietnamese restaurant/home away from home, Nam-Viet, closed its Cleveland Park location while we were away. And Ed has visited multiple doctors and will undergo outpatient surgery to remove benign lipomas from his back.  We are relieved, at least, to have a likely resolution of the pain and discomfort that shadowed the entire caminho for him.

So in this final blog post, we salute all you faithful reader- friends and share a few more favorite photos as we continue to turn over in our hearts and minds all that we experienced, learned, shared and enjoyed — new friends and old, deepening and maturing relationships, centuries of human activity (beautiful and reprehensible) crystalized in stone and glass, vegetables cultivated by women bent over short-handled hoes, fruits of the sea pulled out of the brine only hours ago, and so much more…

Coming to Ireland is like coming to our second home. Our Northern Ireland cousins, Tony and Mary, met us in Dublin for the Vermeer show at the National Gallery and an excellent two-woman show titled “Post-Script” at the Abbey’s Peacock Theatre ( all arrangements credited to Mary). Then we spent two delicious days of cossetting by them in Derry. Tonight we are in Ballymote, County Sligo, Republic of Ireland, renewing our friendship with cousins Mary Therese and John Kerins and assorted bovine friends (see photo). In a few days, God willing, we’ll be home. Stay tuned for at least one more post.

Record-breaking temperatures of 104-105 degrees Fahrenheit made our week in Madrid unforgettable. Even more unforgettable was the amazing hospitality of our friends, Julio and Luz, whom we met on the Camino in 2015. They opened their home, a sixth floor apartment in the Four Towers section of Madrid, to us, along with their delightful family and their sense of culture, history and gastronomy. 

We visited the Prado and other Madrid highlights, and made day trips to El  Escorial, Avila and Toledo. Another highlight of a different sort was a stop at the Official Real Madrid shop.

It was a special privilege to join the 36th birthday celebration of Julio and Luz’s twin sons.

After an interlude with family in Ireland, we’ll be returning to DC.

A day and a half in Barcelona gives us a glimpse of the beautiful visions of Antonin Gaudi and his Catalan compatriots.

One evening we enjoyed Catalan flamenco music and dance cradled in a Palace of music and beauty. 

We thought this Camino was ending in Santiago but should have known better — the journey and the experience goes on. The Camino experience teaches us to be more open and alert to our fellow travellers on the road of life.

The photo below shows Anne enjoying three joys in Santiago: clean clothes washed in a machine rather than by hand, wearing a dress, and just having made a new friend. The friend is a Galician Spaniard who speaks English like a Brit and who started the Lavanderia (laundry) as a way to interact with Camino pilgrims. He even featured us on his Facebook page sceighteen@fatoldsun.com

We walked into Santiago de Campostela on June 8, a lovely and sunny day. It felt different from our first entrance to the legendary city, in 2015. Coming as we did this year from Portugal, the Way was much less crowded than the route “Frances” from St. Jean Pied du Port across northern Spain. And the mix of pilgrims on our route contained fewer young people and more retirees, many of whom seemed to be inclined toward tourism rather than prayer. In ourselves, too, the inner process was different. There was still a sense of swelling anticipation, but with a sort of quiet pleasure. We even slowed our pace as we drew closer, in order to savor our last kilometers of countryside (and favor Anne’s newest blister). Local people tell us that the weather in Galicia has become less rainy, foggy and chilly in the last couple of years. (Draw your own conclusions about global warming.)

So, Santiago: one wouldn’t expect a city founded by the Romans, that has been welcoming pilgrims for 1,200 years, to change much in two years. And, indeed, the Parador next to the Catedral is still beautifully comfortable, the bagpipes still play under the arch, and Ex’s barber is still in the same location to give him a great Spanish haircut. On the other hand, we were hoping that after two years they might have completed renovations on the Portico of Glory, an important part of the Catedral, and opened even some part of it to view. But no, and no completion date is even contemplated.

So, that will be something to look for on a future camino…

We have been spending a magical three resting days with our friends, Rafael and Marta, at their finca (family compound) in the village called Cangas. The finca is on a beautiful and quiet hillside across the ria (fjord) from Vigo. Thanks to our friends, we have learned that there are four rias, and the vistas from viewing points sometimes show two rias at one time, with gorgeous deep, surging waters and protective islands. Clouds and sun alternately sweep across the finca’s flowery hill that is home to palm trees they have brought over from Naples, Florida, where we met.

The light is amazing until close to 11 pm, so the sun was shining when we went to Pentecost vigil mass at a small church, Santa Maria de Hio. In front of the church is a remarkable stone cross with the descent from the cross at the top and Old Testament scenes below.

Rafael and Marta have welcomed us into their lovely family of children, their spouses and grandchildren with hospitality, great food and drink, conversation and comforts. Our friends are for us the face of Love on the Camino.

In 2015, our 43 days along the Camino Frances across northern Spain included only one day of rain. So far, of 23 days in Portugal, we’ve had five rainy days, of which three have been walking days and two resting days in Lisbon.

Rain implies MUD, and mud suggests slippery footing. Even though the Portuguese Way has rarely followed its ancient course (unlike the Camino Frances), there have been many stretches of Roman road, marked by uneven stones and cobbles. There have also been (as in Italy) plenty of places where you walk ON the watercourse, picking your way up or down rocks tumbled together by streams of water.

So, we arrived in Baiona, Espana to meet our friends Rafael and Marta needing to take a break from walking to get some rest and to let some injuries heal before we walk the last 4 days into Santiago. 

Thanks to the recommendation of friends, we are staying at the Pousada (historically significant inn) within the Fortalezza of Valenca, Portugal looking across the Rio Minho at Spain.

We have been so fortunate on our Camino. The lady who threw open her second floor window to tell us we were going the wrong way… Saturday in Braga when the Tourist Office told us there was no 4 pm vigil mass anywhere and we happened to peek into yet another church in that ancient capital city known as “Little Rome” just as a 4 pm mass was beginning!… Yesterday, when we walked into Valenca to learn that our reservation has been mistakenly made for the previous day, but the manager honored it anyway…

And also yesterday we were fortunate when we sought a medical consultation for Ed’s increasingly painful back. It started after an exercise session back in DC. At first, it seemed to get better, but in recent days the lump on one side of his back got more and more painful. So, we had our first encounter with Portuguese medicine, involving walking in to a clinic with no appointment, a 2 hour wait, a consultation with a doctor and an English translator, two prescriptions and an assurance that the lipoma is not a serious condition. And today, at the same clinic, Ed had his first-ever chiropractic adjustment. It turns out that the clinic houses the only chiropractor in northern Portugal! 

Ed should be feeling better in a few days, and he already reports some relief. But in future photos, you won’t be seeing him carrying a back pack…

We give thanks for our many blessings, and for all of you. Praise be to God.

Yesterday we walked into Olivera de Azemeis when the town just happened to hold their annual Mercado Antiga (Ancient Market). The place was bursting with people, almost all locals, enjoying hundreds of booths and musicians dressed in ancient garb. The music, wind, drums, accordian, voice and more, sounded a bit Irish and definitely Celtic. It was lovely to see how many ancient arts and crafts, including basketry, wood carving, embroidery, baking, etc, are still enthusiastically practised.

While there was food, drink and handicrafts for sale, there was little commercial feeling. Rather, as has been our consistent experience, people are friendly, kind and patient. (Patient with our attempts to speak Portuguese… a very difficult language…)