Camino Update

Well, I guess, in theory this is supposed to be about the walking portion of my trip. I have about a week before I start so to try to keep with the theme, I will give some updates from last year. Christian reports that the lovely French man that we met last year who walked with his seeing eye dog and two friends, is, in fact, a count. A count with a capital "C" like...I guess... Count Chocula. I don't know if he manufactures cereal or not but I guess probably not. Oh, and last year, I thought the oddest job that I encountered was the French woman who has a donkey farm and has specially made donkey carts for family holidays. I thought this was a riot. But no, this isn't unusual in France. Evidently it is quite routine for French families to go on donkey cart holidays in the countryside and there are tons of people employed in the donkey cart tourism market. Who knew?

I had a most excellent stay in France. Christian and Joelle were excellent hosts and it could not have been more enjoyable. I was sorry to go but this morning I arrived in my beloved Portugal. I flew into Porto and took a commuter train up to the incredibly beautiful town of Guimares. It is a very old town with winding cobbled streets and I'm glad that I've decided to stay two days here as today has pretty much been spent milling around and getting lost. I love it. I'll try to post some pictures soon. I think I will go now to a cafe and have big fat toast which is my favorite snack in Portugal.

Oh, a sidenote to LAM--during the 10 hours of eating at Christian's fete, we took a one or two hour walk in the countryside--it reminded me of the time after Easter dinner at Isa's when we took that walk with her relatives. I think, somehow I communicated better than Pepe for at no time during said walk did I or any of the French people waddle like ducks or cluck or anything of that nature. I do think that I might have pointed out though that "les vaches blanches dans la champ verde" and possible "un simka sur la place".

A Boggled Mind

The quantity and quality of food that I hqve eaten here over the last three days boggles the mind. I cannot even begin to describe it. Saturday morning Christian took me to the center of Lyon where our first stop was to visit, Monique, a friend of Christian's. She has a really lovely apartment right in the center of the city. She prepared a wonderful lunch for us --all specialties of Lyon and the region. I felt very special. Then Monique and Christian served as my guides to the city. Although it rained, we managed to see lots of great things. We walked to the old part of the city and then took the funicular up the hill for an incredible view of the entire city. We went into the Basilica of Notre Dame de Fourvière: The best part, for me, was the huge mosaic of the Camino de Santiago. It is a modern mosaic but it is pretty cool as it shows different stages of the walk and Christian and I could recognize several of the bulidngs represented in the work. We also visited the Roman theatre, the main square, and some other places. It was another great day.
Yesterday, Christian had organized a picinc but the weather was a bit cool so it was actually a big all day eating fest held at Joelle's place. It was a great opportunity to meet a lot of Christian's friends and family(probably about 20 people): I do not exaggerate when I say we arrived at about noon and left at about midnight--except for a one to two hour walk at around 5 p.m. it was pretty much 10 hours of eating extremely good food. Fortunately for me a few friends spoke some English so I didn't have to flounder too much.
Today is sort of a relaxing type day which is good. Tomorrow, I'm off to Portugal.

I've got to hand it to the French

These people have the life... Christian picked me up at the airport and we went to his friend, Joelle's place as it is close to the airport. She prepared an amazing dinner--lots of appetizers, a gratin of vegetables, some type of small bird cooked with mushrooms and figs. Then my very favorite thing about france-- thet cheese tray. Years ago while visiting my friend, Isabelle? at her parents houseu in France, people started noticing that I wasn't eating so much at dinner. It was merely a strategic ploy to save room for the forthcoming cheese tray. I had forgotten about it until Joelle produced the wonderful array of cheeses. Then I still manage to put away some flan. I had a lovely room with beautiful antique furniture belonging to joelle's mother. After chatting 'til nearly & a.m. I had a good night's sleep. Yesterday was amazing. Apart from cheese there is little that I love more than beautiful, charming villages--C. and I went to an incredibly beautiful medieval villlage--Perouges . Amazing! Then driving around the country side to a charming non-medieval village--vonnas-- "le village gourmand". We went to an old and famous restaurant for a really great meal. More countryside and then hiking in the nearby mountains for about an hour and a half. For dinner, C; prepqred duck in so,e sort of reqlly good cream sauce. It is quite possible that I will have to pay extra fare on the airplane tuesday morning for an extra seat as at this rate, I won't fit in mine. On top o fall of this, the weather was gorgeous. Althoug France is great, the French keyboard is not and writing this has been very tedious in a hunting and pecking sort of way. I'm not sure why anyone would ever leave this place. Hope all is well.

jamon y sol

Well, I´ve nothing exciting to report but my flight was great. I snagged a center row of 4 seats so was able to stretch out for the entirety of the flight and probably got more sleep than I¨ve ever gotten on an airplane (probably still less than normal people). I have a few hours before my flight to Lyon, France so I´m spending a few hours in Madrid. It´s a gorgeous, sunny day--probably about 75 degrees. Catherine, as you predicted, I made a beeline for the Museo de Jamon and have had one sandwich and bought one to take back to the airport. I had dreaded this day of transit figuring I¨d feel exhausted but actually I feel pretty great. Well, I don´t want to squander my day at the dank, basement internet center so I will say Hasta Luego.

Camino Portugues 2009

Last year while walking the long route to Santiago, some of us started talking about walking another route the following year. We figured that due to various circumstances we would not all have the luxury of a month this year...nor would we all be able to work out the same vacation days. We toyed with the the idea of walking in Portugal. And so it has come to pass (or sort of ) I have managed to coordinate with the above four individuals (pictured left to right: Christian, Catherine, Carlos, Ina) to meet up this spring. As the centuries old pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela had people walking from all parts of Europe, there are several routes. Last year's, the so called, French Way, is the most popular and, I think, features the strongest infrastructure of accomodations,etc. Due to a shorter amount of time, we will walk the latter part of the Portuguese route--starting in Oporto and ending, once again in Santiago. It is only about 150 mile walk and should take just over a week. I leave tonight to fly to Madrid and will arrive tomorrow morning and will spend the day there. That evening I will get another flight to Lyon, France where I will visit Christian for a few days. Sadly, won't be able to join us so I will visit him for a few days first. He and his friend, Joelle, have planned a number of activities for me while I am there. Then I fly to Porto, Portugal where I will spend a couple of days on my own. When I lived in Spain, I lived very close to the Portuguese border and made frequent visits there. I love Portugal and am so happy to be returning as I haven't been for years. I think the first couple of days I will travel a bit outside of Porto to the reportedly charming town of Guimaraes. Then back to Porto where Catherine will meet up with me. Inspite of having to put up with me on last year's trip, put up with me at work, and be in the midst of planning her wedding, she has decided to join us for about 10 days. I couldn't be happier. Our plan as of now is to go to Lisbon for a couple of days to visit Carlos and his family who live there. Carlos is an engineer and works a lot. He won't be able to get the days off to walk with us but might try to meet us to walk one weekend. We really look forward to seeing him. Then, Catherine and I will go back to Porto and meet up with young Ina who will be arriving from Germany. The following day we will set out on the walk to Santiago. Catherine will stay with us and walk a couple of days and then fly home and Ina and I will continue onwards to Santiago. It should be fun to meet up with the old crowd and I suspect we'll meet others as well. I'm all packed...if I could just shake the stuffy head, allergies, headache, etc. I'd be set.