ON THE ROAD AGAIN - September 2015

One more sleep and I will leave for Spain to walk a short section of the Camino Frances with a group of pilgrims, and serve as a hospitalera in a pilgrim shelter for two weeks.

amaWalkers Camino has 6 groups walking the Camino this year - 4 on the 'Best of Both' Camino Frances route from St Jean to Santiago, and 2 on the 'Complete Your Camino' from Logrono. 
Marion is leading the September 'Complete Your Camino' and I will walk with her and the group as far as Burgos where I will leave them to go to the ruined monastery of San Anton where I will serve in a small shelter for 12 pilgrims until 27th September.

Marion and me on the Camino Ingles - 2009

Marion is an experienced Camino trekker.  We met in 1997 at the start of a 50km walk from Inchanga to Durban.  We walked the route together and remained friends.  In 2000 we ran the Comrades marathon together.  In 2001 we walked the Coast to Coast in England, in 2006 the Via Francigena from Switzerland to Rome, in 2007 the Camino Frances from Roncesvalles to Santiago and in 2009 from Lourdes to Pamplona on the Aragones route and the Camino Ingles from Ferrol to Santiago.  Next year amaWalkers is leading 4 groups on the Via Francigena and Marion will be one of the group leaders. 

We meet in Logrono on Friday.  The rest of the group should all be there by Saturday and we have planned a visit to the castle of Clavijo on Sunday, about 18km south of Logrono, where Saint James was first seen as Santiago on a white horse, brandishing his sword at the battle between Christians and Moors, slaying thousands of the enemy. The legend was first written about 300 years after the supposed battle took place and is one of the many legends of Saint James and Santiago.

Santo Domingo de Silos - home of  Gregorian Chant

On Monday we will start walking westward towards Santiago stopping at Navarrete, Najera, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, Belorado, San Jaun de Ortega and Burgos.  I will leave the group in Burgos and they will have an overnight excursion to Santo Domingo de Silos where the monks made Gregorian chant famous in the 1990s.  They return to Burgos the next day and continue walking west for 15 more days, leaving out the sections they walked when doing the 'Best of Both' Camino and arriving in Santiago on 27th September. 

The atmospheric pilgrim shelter at San Anton was created in 2002 by Ovid Field who has a pension in Castrojeriz.  It sleeps 12 pilgrims in 6 double bunks and has beds for 3 hospitaleros in a container, tucked under the ruined walls.  Many shelters in the middle ages catered for 12 pilgrims which is symbolic of the number of apostles.  There is no electricity and no running water. 
This is the notice I received about the shelter: 

"THIS IS A VERY LAID-BACK PLACE. There is no strict schedule and no real “rules” except a ban on smoking indoors, littering, drug use, excessive noise, and the ever-present water shortage.

This is a DONATIVO albergue. No one is turned away for lack of funds, and we do not make any suggestions regarding how much a stay is worth. Show the pilgrims where the donativo box is, put it on the table at breakfast time, and leave it at that.   

Gates are open from 8 a.m to 10 p.m. Anyone can come or go during that time, you should give everyone a smile and a welcome.  Groups of people CANNOT line up to use the toilet, as we do not have water capacity for that.  Pilgrims can take rests at San Anton, but no one can use the shower who is not staying overnight. No camping is allowed. Animals are admitted according to your judgement; owner is to clean up after them.

You are expected to make a dinner each day for pilgrims, using the simple ingredients on hand. The stove is a four-burner, powered with Butane. Have someone show you how to change the butane bottle if you don’t know how – it isn’t hard, but there is a knack to it.  The kitchen is pretty well equipped to serve 12. Be sure to find out if you have vegetarian guests before you start cooking! Breakfast is served at 7 or 7:30 am., nothing elaborate.

We would like to make a special effort this year to maintain the niches in the arch across the road outside. The Antonine monks who lived at San Anton used to leave food out there for pilgrims who arrived after the gates were closed. They now are used by pilgrims as a place to leave little offerings, prayer requests, or notes of thanksgiving. Please keep them orderly; replace faded flowers, pull weeds, etc. If so inclined, offer prayers for the requests left there. "

Kevin Duke from Durban is serving there from the 1 - 15 September and I'm looking forward to spending a couple of days with him during the hand over.

I will arrive in Santiago on 27th September and will meet up with 6 peregrinas from Jon's 'Best of Both' group.  We are flying to Barcelona the next day and will spend a night there.  Viator tickets for a guided tour of the Sagrada Familia have been booked. 

 

When we visited last year the queue was so long that we couldn't get inside and I'm making sure that this time we will skip the queues and spend time inside the cathedral.

This is going to be a very different Camino experience for me as it will be the first time in 10 Caminos that I won't be walking into Santiago.  But, there are many layers to the Camino and each one has been different, each one offering a unique experience.

Roll on Friday!!

 

 

 

 

All good in Burgos

Hotel Entrearcos
The taxi collected me at 8am. It was the Caminofacil luggage transport and we stopped at many small places along the way picking up bags and packs.  It was a bit like travelling on the old milk train between Durban and Johannesburg in the 1950's.

The driver dropped me off at the emergency door of the hospital in Burgos.  

I saw a very nice young doctor from Peru who spoke fairly good English.  Had to have Xrays and then go back to him. He said I needed a full cast and I asked him not to make it too thick.

(I took this self ie in the bathroom!)
He told me that he would have to apply traction to the fingers and that he might hurt me but it wasnt too bad. I just thought of my son, Mark, and turned my head away!  He cut the old cast off and I was surprised at how purple and yellow the arm was almost to the elbow.

I had to lie on an examination bed and to apply traction,  he first rolled a 'sausage' bandage on the arm down to the elbow. Then he made three loops with thin bandages and looped them over my thumb, index and middle fingers. He tied the long ends of the bandages around his waist.

 He and a nurse tied my upper arm into a sling that was attached to the top of the bed. He then began to pull away and it felt like the fingers might detach from my hand! While it was tight he applied the plaster cast. It is quite flat underneath - not a big round cast.  When it was done I had to go for more Xrays to make sure that the bone was still in the same position.

I asked him if I could walk and he said only in 4 or 5 days,  when the cast had cured and was dry.  I told him I wouldnt walk until I meet my husband abd small group in Ferrol and he suggested I have another Xray there. I got a taxi to the hotel. 

Everyone has been very kind and helpful.
Kathy arrived later than expected after missing the turn to the alternate route alongside the river and walking the long, hard slog into the city. We decided to go on the Chuchu tourist train and spent 40 minutes seeing the sights that way.

 Then we walked back along the Camino route to the Renfe train ticket office where Kathy bought her ticket from Sarria to Madrid.
On the way back to the hotel we went to the bus station to get a timetable for my buses for the next few days.  Because it is the weekend,  there are no buses to Hornilos del Camino tomorrow or from there to Castrojeriz on Sunday.  I'll have to take taxis both days.Kathy went out to find dinner and I tried to negotiate the jacuzzi type shower without getting my new cast wet.
 It is cold in Burgos.  Night temperatures are down to 3 and 4o and daytime not higher than 14oC. 

Sent from Samsung tablet

CAMINO LINGO

In 2001 I took a 6 week Spanish course at our local University in preparation for my first Camino. 

We learned to count to 100, say the days of the week and months of the year, all the colours, name all the rooms in a house, the buildings in a town, to introduce ourselves to Senor Gonzalez and to make appointments, shop, cook and entertain in Spanish.  We learned to say, "My hamster is behind the sofa" and "the bird is on the window sill".

I typed out five pages of verbs and their conjugations - I, You (singular), He, she, You (formal), We, You (plural) and They.  We learned about common verbs, AR verbs that change, ER verbs, IR verbs, O-UE verbs, E-IE verbs, IR verbs E-I.  Accompanying these are pages and pages of present tense verbs, stem-changing verbs etc etc e

It makes my head spin just to look at all the pages on Grammatical structures, Interrogative sentences, rules on gender, diphthongs, cognates and so on. 

No wonder I didn't remember much Spanish when I finally got to Spain.  There I learned to ask for a coffee and the toilet and to say, "Beun Camino" to all passing pilgrims.

In 2006, in preparation for my walk on the Via Francigena in Italy, I did a 6 week Italian course at the University.  I wasn't very good at it and the strange thing was that although it wasn't a difficult course, all the long forgotten Spanish words kept popping out!  Instead of saying Grazie, I was saying Gracias! 

In between walks in Spain I've tried online lessons, bought Spanish Words and Phrases books as well as CDs which I listen to in the car.  Most of them are aimed at tourists and have lots of words and phrases that a Camino pilgrim will never need. 

Last year I started taking small groups of pilgrims on the Camino and decided that I should take Spanish classes again.  I contacted my friend and Spanish teacher Reinette Novoa and after a couple of weeks of useful verbs, adjectives and grammar rules I told her that all I really wanted was to learn words and phrases applicable to walking the Camino.  I didn't want to be able to ask where to launder my suit or where to take my car for a service!  She suggested I write out in English the words and phrases I needed and she would provide the Spanish and pronunciation.  It worked like a charm!  I learned more in two weeks than I'd learned in all those weeks of lessons and listening to CDs!.

I then had the idea that she and I use these lists and collaborate on writing an English-Spanish Words and Phrases book for pilgrims on the Camino.  We decided to call it CAMINO LINGO - which means that although it is not a perfect English-Spanish book, it is pefect for the Camino pilgrim!

 In the Introduction we started with the polite words one would need in Spain, like hello, thank you and please - hola, gracias, por favor etc.  Then a few not-so-polite words like 'bugger off', 'shut up' and 'F#@* off'!    The five chapters follow a pilgrim on the Camino from packing the backpack, flying to Spain, arriving and asking questions, using bus or train to get to the start, checking into a hotel or albergue, washing clothes, eating, shopping, walking the trail, sightseeing, making friends and arriving in Santiago.  There is a chapter on health and medical as well as cycling words, money, banks and  post office.  Five appendices offer basic pronunciation, a menu reader, and an extensive English-Spanish dictionary with over 650 words and phrases aimed at Camino pilgrims.

My friend Sandi Beukes, who did the drawings for YOUR CAMINO, offered to do the illustrations for CAMINO LINGO as well and her delightfully quirky drawings bring the chapters to life. 

In text boxes Reinette gives advice to the pilgrim.

 Reinette says:

If you don’t have sufficient words to ask for something - smile, make a questioning face and use hand signals. You can also show Spanish people the words and phrases in this book.

 

Blisters    las ampollas  ahm-poh-yas

(Point to your blisters!)

Pilgrimage Publications have agreed to publish the book in print and eBook form and I know that it is going to be a great help to English speaking pilgrims on the Camino.  CAMINO LINGO should be available before Christmas.

RELICS ON THE CAMINO

What is the deal with the veneration of relics?

Without them, there probably wouldn't have been any shrines, and without the shrines there wouldn't have been any pilgrims, and without a body in a reliquary casket in Santiago de Compostela, there wouldn't have been any pilgrims or a camino pilgrimage. Luckily for us, relics became popular from about the 5th C and by the time of Charlemagne (8thC) no church could be consecrated without a relic.

".... the demand for bones and body parts was so great that the practice of exhuming, dismembering, and distributing the bodies of saints became widely accepted. Amputated fingers, hands, feet, heads and, of course, bones circulated throughout Europe. With increase in demand, supply became a problem, and a profitable but dubious market in relics emerged. Pilgrims to the shrines did not seem to care whether the relics were genuine or not." Mark C Taylor, Sacred Bones:

What did the church say about the veneration of relics?

St. Jerome said: (ca. A.D. 340 - 420)
“... we honor the martyrs' relics, so that thereby we give honor to Him Whose [witness] they are: we honor the servants, that the honor shown to them may reflect on their Master... Consequently, by honoring the martyrs' relics we do not fall into the error of the Gentiles, who gave the worship of "latria" to dead men." 

In the Middle Ages the church taught that life in this world was merely a preparation for the next, be it heaven or hell. Christians were indoctrinated from an early age with the urgency to obtain divine forgiveness for their sins and the purification of their souls or face eternal damnation and an afterlife in purgatory.

 

Purgatory was depicted as a sort of half-way horror house, with terrifying demons waiting to suck the soul from your sinful body and send you to everlasting hell – it was a place so terrifying that people were prepared to make incredible sacrifices to ensure a shorter stay and their place in heaven.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the surest ways to obtain indulgences for the remission of time spent in purgatory was by contact with the saints who could intercede on your behalf. The Church encouraged the veneration of saints, and the relics of saints were believed to hold great power. If the saint was a martyr, so much the better and if he was a martyred Apostle, better still. And so people from all over the Christian world sought out the intercession of saintly relics in churches and cathedrals all over Europe.

A thorn from Jesus' Crown - Sevilla

 

Santiago's tomb in the cathedral

 

 

 

What can the modern pilgrims to Santiago see in the way of relics as they walk across Spain to the relics of St James that lie in his silver casket in the crypt of the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela?

Classes of relics:

1^st Class: part of the Saint (bone, hair, etc.) and the instruments of Christ's passion

2^nd Class: something owned by the Saint or instruments of torture used against a martyr

3^rd Class: something that has been touched to a 1st or 2nd Class Relic. You can make your own 3rd Class relics by touching an object to a 1st or 2nd Class Relic, including the tomb of a Saint.

El Cid - Burgos Cathedral

Here is a list of some of the relics still to be found in the churches of Spain. The list is far from complete. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of other relics – fragments of bone, wood, fabric, hair, thorns, nails, bread crumbs etc tucked away in Capillas, reliquaries and altars in the churches and cathedrals of Spain.

San Juan de la Pena:

Gilded silver urn contains the relics of San Indelcio,

Relics of St Felix and St Voto

Roncesvalles:

14^thC Gothic reliquary that contains bones from more than 30 Saints.

15^thC reliquary carved to look like a Saint’s arm

16^thC gold reliquary with 2 thorns from Jesus’ crown of thorns.

Pamplona:

14^thC reliquary with a fragment of the cross sent to Carlos 111 en Noble from Paris in 1401. In 1400 Emperor Manuel Palæologus gave to the Church of Pamplona a particle of the wood of the True Cross and another of the reputed blue vestment of Our Lord and the Holy Sepulchre; these relics are preserved in the cathedral.

Estella:

Iglesia de San Pedro de la Rua: Fragment of the true cross and a shoulder bone of San Andrés

Santo Domingo del Calzada:

Numerous reliquaries containing fragments of bone, cloth etc.

Logrono:

A chest bearing the relics of San Millán (11th century), decorated with ivory plaques,gold

and precious stones, and the chest of San Felices (11th century), with Romanesque bas

reliefs carved in ivory.

Burgos:

 

Capilla de las reliquias - Burgos

Capilla de la Relquias - bones from most of the apostles and many other saints.

The Black Christ by Nicodemus. "Santo Cristo de Burgos" an image of Christ crucified, from the fourteenth century

Five small relics of the Holy Cross of Christ, brought from Santo Toribio de Liébana in Cantabria.

A shrine of the Apostle Santiago, as well as many other relics of saints and Santas.

Leon:

San Isidoro’s 11^thC wood and silver plate reliquary

Urn reliquary with the remains of St Isidoro

Plateresque silver chest San Froilan’s relics

Enamelled reliquaries with fragment of the true cross

Astorga:
 

 

 

Santiago:

 

Cathedral: Tomb and relics of St James

Chapel of San Fernando: Reliquary containing the skull of James the Less

Capilla del Relicario. Two thorns from the crown of thorns

Camino del Norte y Primitivo

Oviedo:

 

Cathedral of Oviedo:

Five thorns (formerly eight) from the Crown of Thorns

A fragment of the True Cross

A cloth said to be Jesus' shroud or a grave cloth used to bind Our Lord's mouth duringHis entombment, which is now used to bless the people every Good Friday as well as each Feast of the Triumph of the Holy Cross (14 September)

A sandal worn by Pope St. Peter the Apostle

Camino Madrid:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Segovia:

Tiny silver frames with bone fragments.

S. Valerianni ; S. Crescenty.;

S. Severus; S. Clementis ;

Sta Felicissima: S. Celiani,

In principio erat verbum; Ubertus, victorius; Tiburio et Candida, mar:

S. Cosmas;

S. Cyrill;

S. Celia.

S. Modestiy

S. Celestiy

S. Vasil

S. Iago (yes, they also have a piece of our saint):

Santa Ana, Madre de la Virgen:
Santa Catalina;

Santa Ana Madalena: Apostle Bartholomew. Apostle Philip: Saint Nicholas of Myra:

Saint Frutos and his sister Engratia: The head of Saint Frutos:

Not on the camino, but a very important relic in Spain. In the Monastery of Santo Toribio of Liébana there is the relic of the Lignum Crucis, the largest surviving fragment of Christ’s Cross.

The Monastery was founded in Mount Viorna in the sixth century, although the current church is from the thirteenth century. Santo Toribio, along with Jerusalem, Rome and Santiago de Compostela, is one of the four Christian holy pilgrimage sites.

 

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Antonio Barrero Aviles helped in compiling the list of religious relics along the camino. He has over 10 000 records and photographs of relics in Spain. You can see some of his huge collection of photographs here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25727578@N04/

Adrian Fletcher of Paradox Place gave permission to use some of his photographs.

http://www.paradoxplace.com/index.htm

WINTER WALKING ON THE CAMINO

14th October 2009 - Due to a corruption of some of the script, this post has been moved to:

http://amawalker.blogspot.com/2009/10/walking-in-winter.html