{"id":83905,"date":"2014-04-02T08:00:49","date_gmt":"2014-04-02T15:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/one-year-ago-walking-at-last\/"},"modified":"2014-04-12T17:43:09","modified_gmt":"2014-04-13T00:43:09","slug":"one-year-ago-walking-at-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/one-year-ago-walking-at-last\/","title":{"rendered":"One Year Ago: Walking at Last"},"content":{"rendered":"

(from my journal)<\/p>\n

Roncesvalles
\nE<\/span>aster Tuesday \/ 6:52AM<\/p>\n

“Wake Up, Little Susie” at 6:30, played on guitar and sung by a very enthusiastic minstrel. Oy.<\/p>\n

\"Leaving<\/a><\/p>\n

Looking back at Roncesvalles<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Setting<\/a><\/p>\n

Setting off at last! This is the photo that every pilgrim has taken.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Zubiri \/ Albuergue Zaldiko
\nEaster Tuesday \/ 3:45PM<\/p>\n

Set off with Linda from Germany. We had breakfast in Burguete, 2.5km on. The caf\u00e9 con leche was amazing. It was so good, in fact, that rather than face the suddenly pouring rain, Linda stayed there for another cup.<\/p>\n

\"Bar<\/a><\/p>\n

Bar Fronton, Burguete<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I pressed on, now clad in my bright red poncho, and soon met up with Eamon from New Zealand and Cliff from Massachusetts. We walked and talked together through the forests of Navarre, gradually accreting others as we went.<\/p>\n

\"Cliff<\/a><\/p>\n

Cliff (left) and Eamon (right) – lunch in Viscarret<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The villages we passed through transcended picturesque and touched beautiful. The meadows had horses and sheep, and the misty forested hills spread in all directions.<\/p>\n

The Camino, however, was made of mud.<\/p>\n

We lunched in Viscarret, where I discovered the amazing bocadillo de jam\u00f3n<\/em>, and of course more caf\u00e9 con leche.<\/p>\n

We slogged up hill and down through the mud, though the sun came out in the afternoon, and away went the poncho. <\/p>\n

Originally, I thought to push ahead to Larrasoa\u00f1a, but by the time we arrived in Zubiri, I was beat. (21.5km… plus 5% for mud!)<\/p>\n

\n

Cliff is a retired firefighter, who’s meeting his wife in Santiago. She’s a retired schoolteacher who had planned to take the Camino as well, but family issues forced a change in plans. He’s walking on some new, replacement hips. He joked that they were still under warranty.<\/p>\n

Eamon is younger. He worked for a tech retailer for ten years, moving from stock to management to administration. He eventually got fed up and is now travelling the world on his savings.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

The Hills of Navarra<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Don't<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Albuergue<\/a><\/p>\n

Albuergue Zaldiko<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

This afternoon we caught up to some folks that Eamon and Cliff had made the crossing from St. Jean with. The five of us went for dinner.<\/p>\n

\"Our<\/a><\/p>\n

Our Camino family. From left: Eamon, Ali, Cliff, Kristof, me.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Ali is from the UK – though she, her husband, and children (twins!) now live in the French Alps. They moved there about two years ago. She’s “spiritual but not religious”, but she thinks that more people should spend time in churches, “just sitting, so they can learn to listen to themselves”.<\/p>\n

And then there’s Kristof from Bruges – the self-described “fat Belgian”. He jokes and laughs frequently, and is larger than life in many ways. He pats his belly as he says, “people always ask me – your baby, when is it due?”<\/p>\n

He owns a meat packing plant with his brother, staffed by Polish immigrants. He has a Polish girlfriend along with a wife and children, which he says nobody seems to mind. He’s walking because he needs to simplify his life.<\/p>\n

Met up with Linda at dinner; she was already ensconced in a new “pilgrim family”. It’s funny how these form, break up, and form again as you go.<\/p>\n

\n

Leaving the others at the albuergue, Eamon, Kristof, and I had a walk around Zubiri during the evening. The town of 4,000 is bounded by the river and the highway to Roncesvalles.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a><\/p>\n

An evening stroll in Zubiri<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Photos: Day 1<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(from my journal) Roncesvalles Easter Tuesday \/ 6:52AM “Wake Up, Little Susie” at 6:30, played on guitar and sung by a very enthusiastic minstrel. Oy. Looking back at Roncesvalles Setting off at last! This is the photo that every pilgrim has taken. Zubiri \/ Albuergue Zaldiko Easter Tuesday \/ 3:45PM Set off with Linda from Germany. We had breakfast in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-camino"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1aGBK-lPj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":55999,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/roncesvalles\/","url_meta":{"origin":83905,"position":0},"title":"Roncesvalles","author":"Thom","date":"01 April 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"No photos yet, sorry. The albergue in Roncesvalles has a computer room but no wifi that I can find, so I can\u00b4t upload my photos from the camera. I arrived here about an hour ago, and have had my first stamp on my pilgrim\u00b4s passport and a long, long shower.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Camino"","block_context":{"text":"Camino","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/camino\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51798,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/snow-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":83905,"position":1},"title":"Snow!","author":"Thom","date":"15 March 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The photo here was taken by a pilgrim yesterday at Roncesvalles. The passes are choked with snow, and at this point people have to walk on the highway to get from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Roncesvalles. And it\u2019s taking them two days. I won\u2019t have that kind of time, and I\u2019m leaving\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Camino"","block_context":{"text":"Camino","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/camino\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"1082","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/1082-224x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":85473,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/getting-to-the-camino\/","url_meta":{"origin":83905,"position":2},"title":"Getting to the Camino","author":"Thom","date":"30 June 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Road to Roncesvalles The time has come where I\u2019m checking flight prices every Tuesday. Today, for the first time, I found a round-trip ticket to Madrid for our dates for less than a thousand dollars. My goal is $800 or less. That should happen sometime near the middle or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Camino"","block_context":{"text":"Camino","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/camino\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Road to Roncesvalles","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/8613789582_d9e7bfa368_z-300x224.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":87135,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/what-happened-to-my-rest-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":83905,"position":3},"title":"What Happened to my Rest Day?","author":"Thom","date":"02 April 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Today was meant to be a rest day in glorious Pamplona. We went to Lauds (chanted Latin) and Mass (first half Latin, second half Spanish) at the Cathedral. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Then, I took about 200 photos (see the link in the side bar \u2013 totally worth it). We visited\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Camino"","block_context":{"text":"Camino","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/camino\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":87151,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/sahagun\/","url_meta":{"origin":83905,"position":4},"title":"Sahag\u00fan","author":"Thom","date":"18 April 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"We are spending the night in Sahag\u00fan. For those of you who are fans of \u201cBabylon Five\u201d, this will sound uncomfortably close to \u201cZ\u2019ha\u2019dum\u201c. It was a beautiful day for walking \u2013 cool and sunny. A welcome change from the recent weeks. We had our second breakfast at the Albergue\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Camino"","block_context":{"text":"Camino","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/camino\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56249,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/the-forests-of-navarre\/","url_meta":{"origin":83905,"position":5},"title":"The Forests of Navarre","author":"Thom","date":"02 April 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"After my arrival in Roncesvalles, I quickly made friends with a young woman from Germany, who had the bunk above mine. She had walked through the snows from Saint Jean, and she helped me get oriented to albergue life. So Linda and I shared the pilgrim\u2019s menu: first course of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Camino"","block_context":{"text":"Camino","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/camino\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83906,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83905\/revisions\/83906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}