Leaving today...The story and history of the camino

A little bit about the history of the camino--

The history of the camino begins with the town of Finisterre, which is on the western coast of Spain. Finisterre was thought of as the end of the earth, back before the times of the explorers. 
 The world was considered to be flat and Finisterre was the last bit of it.-- at least in Spain...

 In the time of Christ, St. James, the apostle, preached in Spain, and after he was martyred in Jerusalem, legend has it that his remains were brought back to Spain. His remains are supposedly buried in Santiago, where a cathedral was built and named for him. The Cathedral of James  was started around the year 1022, and finished 200 hundred years later.

Pilgrimages  to Santiago began during the middle ages, and the route is now very highly traveled. About 170,000 people walk some part of the camino each year. In the middle ages,  The Moors inhabited Spain, and the crusaders were in this area, routing them out, and I understand that there are many relics of the blood shed along the camino The Knights Templar were there, as well as Napoleon. 

The route lies under the Milky Way, and pilgrims in the past, used the Milky way as a guide to get to the city of Santiago. 

Hundreds of thousands of people have walked this route from about the year 800, and the route to Santiago extends not only from St Jean Pied du Port in France, where I am starting from, but from all over Europe. My portion is really the last leg of the journey. 

The symbol of the camino is the scallop shell, and all along the way there are yellow arrows, or scallop shells pointing the direction to go. There is also a legend about that, that I will share with you in another posting. A lot of pilgrims wear scallop shells on their packs. We have brought two from home, with holes drilled and cords to put on ours. 

I have a camino credential, a kind of passport that you get stamped at each place you stay. If you walk the last 100 km of the camino, and present your credential to the cathedral, you recieve a compostella. A compostella is a certificate of accomplishment given to pilgrims and it also gives an indulgence or forgiveness of sins as  related to the Catholic church. 

It is all quite interesting, and I first became interested in walking  the camino, after seeing the movie "The  Way" with Martin Sheen and directed by his son Emilio Estevez  two years ago. it is an impressive spiritual movie, and when I walked out of seeing it, I said to myself, I would really like to do that! (And it is an instant play on Netflix for any of you wanting to see it)

Our flight leaves tonight from Tampa to Miami and we leave Miami for Madrid at 11 tonight. We fly from Madrid to Pamplona tomorrow and will stay in Pamplona tomorrow night. On Saturday, we leave Pamplona by bus to St. Jean, over the Pyrenees to stay the night and start our walk on Sunday. 
My biggest concern as of this moment-not to take anything I really don't need to carry, and sleep on the plane tonight. All will work out! Ufltreia!! (onward!)

Leaving in 2 days

We leave in 2 days. I am nervous, excited and have butterflies that this trip, originally planned almost 2 years ago is coming to fruition. Am I ready? I don't know. People ask me why I am doing this, instead of taking a vacation, or just relaxing, and my answer is-- I don't know all of the reasons. I do know that I have always wanted to go on a pilgrimage, dedicated to the Lord, and opening my mind to all of the wonderful experiences I have lived and want to live in the future. I want to spend a good portion of my day in meditation and prayer, thanking God for all of the wonderment I have had throughout my life. I also want to make it a journey for myself, and not an easy one. I want to push myself physically, in order to open my mind up more spiritually. I know that Jesus will be walking with me every step of the way, and hopefully, he will help me be strong mentally, as well as physically and emotionally to accomplish this goal-dedicated to him.

I have been so blessed in my lifetime. I had wonderful parents, who nurtured me and encouraged me throughout my life. I have siblings, who I know that if I needed them, would be there for me. My children have been the heart of my life and if not for them, I would consider my life empty. They have brought me untold amounts of joy since they were born. I love them completely, and unconditionally, and without their love, I would never be in the mental place I am today. I have been wonderfully blessed with their spouses- who also have been so loving to me, and who I have come to love as my own.

I have 5 grandchildren. A true blessing at my age of 57. I am so glad that I am young enough to enjoy playing with them and spending time with them. I anticipate many, many fun times with them in the future.

And then there is John. We met only 4 years ago, and some days it seems like yesterday, and some days, it feels like forever that we have been together. He is loving, kind, and supportive of all of the things I want to do with my life- like going to Spain and leaving home for 7 weeks. He has never, ever implied that I shouldn't go and do this. I am so fortunate, and blessed that he is coming with me for the first 10 days, to help me find the beginning of this walk and encourage and pull me up that mountain on that first day.

Which brings me back to "Why am I doing this?" I'm going to for myself, to look at this wonderful world we live in and come home thinking about what I want or need to do with the rest of this blessed life I've had. Maybe changed, or maybe not changed at all. Don't know. I think the key is to have little expectations, and be open to everything that will happen. I'm just gonna walk, and walk, and walk til I can't anymore.

Leaving in 6 days

We leave in less than a week, and I am getting both excited and nervous. I have all of my planned items laid out, and I keep checking and rechecking everything in an attempt to keep the weight down. I don't want my pack to be no more than 14 lbs. my pack empty weighs 4lbs. I know that it's so important to think about each item cause I will be carrying it for 480 miles. Each item of clothing is being scrutinized and I have to think about the little shammy towel I'm taking, and what do I do with my long wet hair? Decisions...
 On a lighter note, I received 2 wonderful gifts from my children yesterday. Eric stopped by and gave me his childhood rosary. It is made of wood beads, and has the prayer of Saint Francis on it. I then received in the mail from Andrea a rosary with birthstone crystals dedicated to our family. I love the intentions of my kids and love them both and will carry them both. Some things are just so important.

Stages of each Day with elevations

these are the stages of each day of the camino- it shows the elevations for each day, and as you can see, the first couple of days over the mountains are a pretty steep climb. My Florida training will
probably not suffice, so I am hoping that the adrenaline will kick in. There are stages for 34
days, although, I am planning on being gone for 49 days. I figure 2-3 days on each end for travel and rest. this leaves me about 43 days to do 480 miles.. so about 10 to 12 miles a day, with perhaps a couple of longer days and a couple of rest days in the middle. To be determined.

This is the route in Spain that I will follow. John is coming with me for the first 10 days, and then I will be on my own, which is very common practice when doing a pilgrimage like this. I am very, very glad that John is coming with me to help me find the "beginning" of my journey. We will fly on the evening of May 2nd from Tampa to Miami, then to Madrid, and catch a connecting flight to Pamplona, Spain. We will stay in Pamplona for the night and then work our way to our starting point, in France, just over the border in the French Pyrenees- in a town named St. Jean Pied du Port. We have to take either a bus or a taxi to get there. We will spend Saturday night in a comfy bed, and then on Sunday, May 5th, we will start walking, up the mountain to Orisson hostel. it will be a difficult first day, since it's walking up a mountain, and our Florida training has not been great for that.

3 weeks to go!

here we are at our favorite hang out, the beach!

Joni on the Camino: 3 weeks until we leave

Joni on the Camino: 3 weeks until we leave: John and I are getting really excited about our trip. We leave on May 2nd, which is just over 3 weeks away!