Lisa has dreamed of walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostella since she was a univerity exchange student in Oviedo, Spain. It is the third most frequented pilgrimage in the world, behind Jerusalem and Rome. For more than 1000 years, pilgrims have walked from various corners of Europe to Santiago de Compostella, in Northwest Spain. People attempt this pilgrimage for a variety of reasons.
We are currently attempting to walk the 500 mile portion through northern Spain. We started on the French-Spain border, in the Pyrenees. We are (obviously) not doing it for religious reasons, but it is very spiritual and testing us physically, mentally, and emotionally. It is one of the most physically demanding things either of us has ever done.
We are walking alongside people from all over the world. While everyone that is doing it is having a private, independent journey, it is the people we have met who have continually inspired us. Here is a sampling of some of them...
1) Frank is from France and is blind. He will do 250 miles this year and the other half next year. He is assisted by his wonderful wife.
2) Dale is Canadian and had a heart transplant 6 years ago.
3) Jaime is a 71 year old Spaniard making his second pilgrimage.
4) Stefan and Patricia are Swiss. They are walking from Switzerland to Santiago (2200 km)
There are so many more. When we have better internet access, we will include photos of these amazing people...
Monday, September 17, 2007
Sunday, September 16, 2007
No Parlez-vous Français!
Ari has a good command of the Spanish language. Unfortunately, this did not always help as we traveled throughout other parts of Europe. We arrived in France to the Lot Valley, an area of France where little English is spoken. Trying to be polite and explain himself, Ari would state with a large, sweet smile, ¨No parlez-vous Francais¨ to the locals at markets, village streets, taxi drivers, etc.
This is not the correct way to say ¨I do not speak French,¨ but rather a loose translation of telling a French person ¨You do not speak French.¨ Usually the recipient of this statement would smile gently, and politely guide/assist us in what we needed. We slowly learned a few of the basics, and were able to finally handle the markets, post offices and buses...
This is not the correct way to say ¨I do not speak French,¨ but rather a loose translation of telling a French person ¨You do not speak French.¨ Usually the recipient of this statement would smile gently, and politely guide/assist us in what we needed. We slowly learned a few of the basics, and were able to finally handle the markets, post offices and buses...
Thursday, September 6, 2007
One Ferry and Eight Trains Later...
We've experienced some epic journeys this year (i.e. 38 hour train ride in China), but getting from the coast of Croatia to Southern France, seemed to put all previous overland journeys to shame.
The first leg of this epic journey was an overnight ferry ride from the coast of Croatia (Zadar) to the coast of Italy (Ancona), over the Adriatic Sea. Despite reading horror stories online about this exact journey (no space to sleep, partying Italians), we were able to snag two couches in which to sleep. Besides the couches being six inches too short for Ari, we surprisingly got some sleep. At that point we did not realize it would be the only sleep we would get for a very, very long time...
We left the ferry on our bikes at 7:00 a.m., apprehensive due to the fact that in researching how to get from Ancona to my parent's friend's home in Southern France, we may have to take up to 8 trains over a 30 hour period. Ari spent a half hour with a very helpful train employee who charted our route. Yes, indeed. What lay ahead of us was 8 different trains, across Italy and France, over a period of 36 or so hours. We must mention that had we not had bicycles, it would have been much more direct, much less time, and only a few different trains.
The train rides with bicycles were an adventure to say the least. On multiple occasions, we had to carry our fully loaded bikes up and down multiple staircases to change platforms due to a lack of elevators, and we were forced to stay up all night in Cannes during a train layover, from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. We had planned on sleeping in the waiting area of the train station, but upon arrival we were quickly informed that the station would close in 2 minutes. When we pleaded with the station employee, he simply replied, ¨Sorry, I cannot help you.¨ We passed the time with another stranded traveler from Mexico, Enrique, with whom we spoke Spanish all night to keep us awake... At one point Ari was close to tears due to exhaustion. We arrived to our destination in France, Cahors, 36 hours later, only to find the campground full.
We entered the reception office at the campground to explain ourselves, and as soon as they discovered we were on bikes, they immediately escorted us to a quiet section reserved for bicycles. The campground also offered local cheeses, wines, and pastries. A pleasant introduction to the culture of France. We couldn´t wait to experience more...
The first leg of this epic journey was an overnight ferry ride from the coast of Croatia (Zadar) to the coast of Italy (Ancona), over the Adriatic Sea. Despite reading horror stories online about this exact journey (no space to sleep, partying Italians), we were able to snag two couches in which to sleep. Besides the couches being six inches too short for Ari, we surprisingly got some sleep. At that point we did not realize it would be the only sleep we would get for a very, very long time...
We left the ferry on our bikes at 7:00 a.m., apprehensive due to the fact that in researching how to get from Ancona to my parent's friend's home in Southern France, we may have to take up to 8 trains over a 30 hour period. Ari spent a half hour with a very helpful train employee who charted our route. Yes, indeed. What lay ahead of us was 8 different trains, across Italy and France, over a period of 36 or so hours. We must mention that had we not had bicycles, it would have been much more direct, much less time, and only a few different trains.
The train rides with bicycles were an adventure to say the least. On multiple occasions, we had to carry our fully loaded bikes up and down multiple staircases to change platforms due to a lack of elevators, and we were forced to stay up all night in Cannes during a train layover, from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. We had planned on sleeping in the waiting area of the train station, but upon arrival we were quickly informed that the station would close in 2 minutes. When we pleaded with the station employee, he simply replied, ¨Sorry, I cannot help you.¨ We passed the time with another stranded traveler from Mexico, Enrique, with whom we spoke Spanish all night to keep us awake... At one point Ari was close to tears due to exhaustion. We arrived to our destination in France, Cahors, 36 hours later, only to find the campground full.
We entered the reception office at the campground to explain ourselves, and as soon as they discovered we were on bikes, they immediately escorted us to a quiet section reserved for bicycles. The campground also offered local cheeses, wines, and pastries. A pleasant introduction to the culture of France. We couldn´t wait to experience more...
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