[gps-talkusers] The May family and friends walk a Northern section of the Santiago de Compostela pilgrim trail
- From: Kim Casey <kim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:20:10 -0700
Hello everyone,
Mike asked me to send his blog journal entries directly to the list. If
you would like to view the journal blog directly, along with photos, visit
http://www.senderogroup.com/blog.htm.
August 2, 2009
Ten years ago, I took a trip alone to Europe and wrote a story called, The
People Make the Places. This is equally true in a slightly different way on
this trip to Spain in 2009 with my family and 6 close friends. I met Anne
my second year at Davis when she responded to an ad for a reader. I am now
God Father to Anne and Tom's daughters Laura 16 and Colleen 13. Our
families have shared a vacation together every year before and after kids
for a good 25 years. Anne's roommate at Davis, Nadeen is God Mother to the
girls. Not sure if that makes her my God wife, wishful thinking perhaps.
Her husband of one year Bob has been adopted by this mini network of old
friends, 37 years plus. Jennifer, Carson and Wyndham are right in the thick
of this experience as well.
Our trip consists of two weeks including the flight days. Our primary mode
of transportation is our feet plus busses to expedite our tour of the
northern part of the Camino de Santiago. We first met up in Bilbao for a
few days and then moved on to Pamplona where we connected with Nadeen's
Basque family. They figuratively and literally embraced our entire group of
ten, showing us around towns, loaning us 2 cars, taking us on a hike and to
their home. We stayed in a charming 300 year-old 6-bedroom house they
located for us in the village of Aldatz.
Most exciting for our kids, their teen-agers took ours to a festival in a
nearby village, Etxarri-Aranatz. This was a major challenge for us parents
because it was unlike anything we would condone back home. Tom, Bob and
Nadeen delivered our kids to their house at 10:30 PM Saturday night where
the kids took a very crowded bus to the festival village. Dancing started
around midnight, mind you, we were not taggin along. The teen-age girls,
Mar and Ane had texted all their friends who numbered over 30 and they took
our kids into their midst after the traditional 2-kiss greeting.
The kids moved as a giant pod around the festival with live music complete
with their version of a mosh pit. Half the dances consisted of holding
hands and dancing as a group. Wyndham said it was like a wedding where
dances are official and not the tyhpical pop American random dancing.
We were a bit uncertain about the details of this festival ahead of time.
Bob said he pictured that it would be a long tent, with tables. There were
in fact several hundred people from small children on up in age and they
all flowed in and out of the packed bars. It sounded to me like Bourbon
Street in New Orleans but a safer version.
Since we had a bus to catch to another town the following day, our kids
were picked up around 2 AM, long before the locals would call it a day.
They said they were disappointed to leave so early but thrilled to have had
such a unique experience.
The entire Santiago de Compostela trail is over 700 kilometers in length.
This was hard to imagine after we walked a mere 20 kilometers from San
Sebastian to Zarautz. Some of the trail is along the ocean with beautiful
vistas. In other parts, I found myself stumbling along a narrow trail with
what I call coboulders, monster cobble stones. We went through pastures,
saw cows, horses and goats and a fair number of homosapians also walking or
biking the trail.
Occasionally we would welcome a village in our path replete with several
churches, bars and restaurants, quite charming and hospitable. I clue
myself into the Basque word for thank you, ezkerri asko, by thinking,
"Scary Cosco." The names of all these villages and streets are quite
interesting.
I have been recording GPS points of interest as well as GPS Replay/trace
files of our official walking segments. Although the Roundabouts reek havoc
with the route calculation, it has been very helpful to know where our
various destinations are. Now that I have these Replay files, it might be
fun for some blind folks to lead a trip in the future along this historic
trail in the spirit of Lieutenant James Holman, the blind adventurer from
the early 19th century.
We have 6 more days and will walk at least 100 kilometers before returning
to our starting point, Bilbao and the long flight and sitting trip hone.
Perhaps it will feel so good to be off our feet by that time that we won't
mind. By then too, I will have to learn the Basque words for goodbye to go
along with thank you. Sure is a lot easier to stick to the double kiss.
By the way, we were christened Los Vivadores, by an old man we passed on
the trail and it means those who live life to its fullest. I feel pretty
darn blessed to have shared this living of life with such a wonderful group
of like-minded walkers, eaters and adventurers.
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