Out of order

Making attempts at putting these in order. The times got mixed up when I originally published them.

Link to pictures from Portuguese Route, 2012

These are some of the pictures from the Portuguese route, September and October 2012.  They might be useful, although it's harder to see the comments in the new flickr format. -Buen Camino!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amgirl5/sets/72157627898664915/

Pictures begin in Madrid and end in Toledo.

If you're walking the Camino for the first time, I highly recommend the French route through Spain. It's better set up for peregrinos, there is more company, the paths are more often dedicated to walkers, and the distances are shorter between food, water and places to stay.  There's more comraderie. From Lisbon to Porto, I think it might still be mostly hostels, pensions for lodging, and from Porto to Redondela, Spain, you share the way with cars and trucks alot. Especially the first day out of Porto. If you do walk from Porto to Santiago, highly recommend the oceanside option for walking on the first day (I believe there is less traffic involved.) Otherwise, you are walking in traffic, on sealed, winding roads with fast-moving trucks for a fair chunk of the day. It was nerve-wracking for me. I wanted to quit, but I couldn't because I had to get somewhere first.  I sat in a bus stop and cried for an hour until I saw two other peregrinos and ran across the highway to join them. Safety in numbers. (And then I did walk, to Santiago and then on to Finisterre.)  I used John Brierley's guides for both routes. http://www.caminoguides.com/guide.html. 

I used a combination of Davies and Cole's Walking the Camino de Santiago and Lonely Planet's Walking In Spain, when I walked the Camino Frances. Both, I think, are out of date now. Lonely Planet's begins in Roncesvalles, but it was interesting in that they each offered different alternative routes, and then I managed to find others through the process of walking (the N-120 route from Santovenia into Burgos, which is flat once you walk the logging road down from San Juan de Ortega, but alongside the highway all day. There is an actual walking path, so not in traffic.) Here's a link to the Camino forum regarding guidebooks. http://www.caminodesantiago.me/board/el-camino-frances/topic12436.html  It's worth joining, if you haven't already.

And here's a link to the Confraternity of St. James in England. http://www.csj.org.uk/

Book recommendation

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Frye- by Rachel Joyce. It's about a man's walk from his home to visit a dying friend in the north of England. It's not about the pilgrimage in Spain, and yet, the revelations and the process are very familiar.

What they were about

I was thinking this morning about what I learned/gained from walking on the Camino-

2005-about my relationship with the Divine, with God. I'm already good enough.  I don't have to be perfect to be loved.  I think I've mentioned this before, it went from far away to inside.

2007- relationships with other people.  In both 2005 and 2007 I was in situations where I was flat-out told that "I hadn't earned the right be be treated well, " more or less.  So, in 2007, in Spain, I continually was welcomed in by strangers, accepted because I existed.  I was loved because I was, I didn't have to "prove" myself or "earn" it. (This actually has alluded me until this morning.)  And if anyone ever tries to tell you that you have to "earn" their love, please find the strength to walk away. It's bullshit.

2009- Trust. It goes back to both 2005 and 2007, just on a much deeper level.  This was tough, I'm pretty sure I lost a couple friends over this trip, one, I don't care, the other I'd like to make ammends with.  I actually asked for the hardship on this one, I had said that I had wanted to "walk in the wilderness with Christ" for the 40 days of Lent.  And I did.  It was a struggle. It was emotionally painful, and also really rewarding. I know I was/am loved. (Hard to know how things you put out into the world will be answered. I can see the humor in it now, because I lived through it, but at the time I was often in a state of panic.)

2011-Physical healing, I think. And just being in Herbon was beautiful. (and I let myself be a tourist, and that was actually enjoyable and I connected more with locals, especially in Lisbon and Porto.)-Portugal/Spain. Oh, and laughing.

2013- was in Finland, and oh my, the world is a magical place, so much more than expected.

I've posted this in another blog, but this sums up Finland for me. Last sunset before I came home.



Last night in Finland/L Herlevi 2012