Walking the Camino de Santiago
Pilgrim reports from the Camino.
There were three of us in the gîte last night: myself, Bruno, and Anne. Anne runs a gîte in Moissac, but she’s taking some time off to walk. We never did actually see the gîte owner here, but she left pretty clear written instructions. Dinner options in the little town were limited, and we ended up going to a local […]
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After the high that was Rocamadour, today was bound to be a bit of a letdown. Thanks to some self-inflicted problems, it was a great deal worse than it should have been. Isn’t that always the way? Last night after walking the Way of the Cross, I returned to the sanctuary of the Black Virgin to find Vespers already underway. […]
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The alarm woke me up at 6:30 and I was out of bed in a shot. Becky was already up… since 4am. Date: 1 Septiembre 2023 Place: Logroño Sometimes we women just don’t sleep. I hope she gets to bed early. We need all of our energy every day. I said Buen Camino to the last pilgrims at 8:00am. Then […]
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From the sanctuary level at Rocamadour, it is possible to walk uphill even further. This is the Way of the Cross. Each station is at the corner of a switchback trail going up the side of the cliff. I walked the Way and prayed at each station. It was an incredibly moving experience, both from the stations themselves, but perhaps […]
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We sang vespers with the sisters last night in Gramat. I have prayed Vespers frequently in both English and Latin (and more usually, a combination of the two), but this is only the second time I’ve prayed them in French. This is the mother house of their order, and the sisters here were few in number and gray haired. This […]
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Morning brought adventures for these two tiny hospitaleras Date: 31 August 2023 Place: Madrid y Logroño The night proved a bit noisy and both Becky and I both had done sleep challenges. But we got up at 6:30am and packed up. We were out by 7:30 and to the bus station by 8:10 having our breakfast. The lovely inn keeper […]
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Today started off rough. I accidentally left my clothes on the line outside last night, and it rained. So that made packing my bag this morning a little awkward. Still, are you really a pilgrim if you haven’t walked with clothes clipped to the outside of your backpack as you walked? After breakfast with the other pilgrims, several of us […]
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Date: 30 August 2023 Place: Madrid Ever get woken up from a dead sleep to hear “…doctor, emt, on the plane please come to aisle…” and realize you need to get up out of your seat because the person next to you has also sprung to life and must answer the call? That was new. We got to Madrid! It […]
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Today began my diversion from the main route towards the great Marian shrine of Rocamadour, which I hope to reach on 01 September. Most of the day, I climbed up to the Causse de Gramat, a limestone plateau. Unless I indicate otherwise below, just assume that every step was part of a gentle, but inexorable, uphill walk. This morning was […]
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We had a delightful breakfast in the gîte, complete with a bit of a piano performance by Andrea, our host. I ended up not leaving until about 8 o’clock in the morning. The weather was clear and cool. The path out of town was clearly marked, and soon it was back to roadwalking by open fields. After passing through a […]
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