We arrived in Lourdes on Tuesday after a long, uncomfortable plane ride to Paris and then a 5 hour layover to our flight to Pau which is about 50 Km from Lourdes. There were no taxis at the Pau airport. We waited at the taxi stand in the cool wind for 40 minutes to get a ride to the town where the train would take us to Lourdes. After checking into the hotel we walked to the Sanctuaire de Notre Dame to look around. We had little sleep over the prior 40 hours but wanted to see where Bernadette Soubirous had her many apparitions with Mary, the mother of Jesus. We spent a little time there and went back to the hotel for dinner and to bed at 8:30. We had a very good sleep.

On Wednesday we woke up at 8:00, almost 12 hours of restorative sleep. After breakfast and washing our clothes and hanging them up to dry we went out to visit the Sanctuaire which is celebrating the 160th anniversary of the first apparition. We walked with thousands of pilgrims. Among the pilgrims were hundreds of people in wheelchairs who were there to take the waters in hope of a miracle cure or a spiritual cleansing.

We went to the Grotto where Mary instructed Bernadette to go and drink from a spring and, while there had not been one there before, a spring of pure water appeared. Bernadette understood that the water was placed there to confirm to her that Mary HAD appeared and spoken to her. We prayed at the Grotto and meditated on her conversations with a simple peasant girl and the healings that occurred there, including 63 medically certified miraculous cures. We went to the Fuentes and filled a bottle with this spring’s water. We drank some of the holy water and said a prayer there.

After a late lunch we went back to the Sanctuaire for Mass. We were there when the 5:00 pm procession was starting. The procession wound over the river, through the Sanctuaire’s extensive grounds to large underground basilica. There were 100+ people in wheelchairs and 1000+ people in the procession, accompanied on the loudspeaker by a choir singing hymns in many languages. It was a humbling sight to see so many people with such strong faith asking Mary and her Son to help them in their distress. I will attach a video showing the procession when we get back to the US.

We were able to secure our Camino de Santiago de Compostela pilgrim passports at the Sanctuaire. Our Camino has officially started.

The pictures show the Grotto and the niche where Bernadette prayed with and spoke with Mary, Notre Dame.

Continue reading In transit, spring 2018 →

On April 30 we’ll be flying to Europe — provided Air France and the French transport workers and others cooperate! Our return last summer from the Caminho Portugues from Lisbon to Santiago de Campostela, accompanied by wonderful visits with friends in Vigo and Madrid Spain was followed by a stretch of medical challenges. Great weather and lots of golf and visitors in Florida over the winter was interrupted by ten days of bitter cold in DC and New England.

So now we are about to depart once again and don’t feel as though we’ve had enough time to prepare, emotionally at least.

In consideration of having a limited amount of spring pilgrimage weather before we need to return to the U.S., we have decided to combine a week’s walking from Lourdes, through southern France, to the foothills of the Pyrenees. Then we’ll hop (by transport this time, not by foot) to Irun on the Spain side for two weeks of walking along the Camino del Norte.

The Camino del Norte threads through Basque country along the Bay of Biscay, in view of the Atlantic ocean and is reputed to be the most beautiful of the dozens of camino routes to Santiago de Campostela. It is much less travelled than the “Camino Francese” which was our first path in 2015. The section starting in Lourdes will be the first time we’ve walked in France, and the first time we have used a local travel service to reserve our nightly accomodations and forward our backpacks ahead to the next stop.

We are looking forward to absorbing the quiet spirit of ancient places and to meeting holy people along this way.  And we’ll be carrying thoughts of our family and friends with us to lighten our steps.

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.