Love story on the Way

[Botaivica]

On the Way we have a love, love that feels on the Way, love for nature, birds, tree...... And of course, love for other pilgrims. So I will give you three testimonies of love, three concrete examples.

Franko is from Pula, Croatia and when he first go to Way St. James felt impressed that he was thrilled for the second time. On this other pilgrimage, he met Andreu, she was from southern Spain and also pilgrimage to St. Jacob. During the Way acquaintance has grown into love and they decided to marry. For the third time they went together to pilgrimage seeking a place on the Way where they would live. They found him at Bercianos del Real Camino, opened a bar, got a daughter and satisfied, happy and in love, live their Way farther.

The second story leads us to Labor del Rey, a small place where along the Way is arranged a small garden with a camping house turned into a catering facility. Guided by Mary, she is from Sofia, Bulgaria, who started pilgrimage four years ago, met Rodriga, walked and finished pilgrimages together and stayed together on the Way as Franko and Andrea did.

The third story is from Ambasmestas. I chose this place to stay when I was planning my Way and it was a little strange that the proprietress called Irina. When I came to the alberge I meet Irina and her husband Sergia. He is a Spaniard and she is Russians from Saint Petersburg. They met on pilgrimage, married, rented a place, still arranging it, and as they said, "Live our dream, stay on the Way all the time."

Do you know some love story from the Way?

 

[Sailor]

"Do you know some love story from the Way?" No, I don't, but I like your stories and I look forward to reading more stories from forum members. Thank you, y que la luz de Dios alumbre su camino.

 

[nycwalking]

Winter 2014, I walked with a late-twenties early thirties young woman from Germany. She'd recently broken up with her boyfriend. A male friend of hers, also walking camino, invited her to walk the way. She told me she wanted children and marriage in addition to career. Enter Mr. Mississippi: Handsome, American, tallish, and around her age.

They met in Ponferrada at parochial albergue; by Santiago they were in love; by Fisterra they were living together as hospitaleros. In 2015 they wed. Hoping to hear news of a baby soon.

In 2002, on my second camino I met a hospitalera who'd already become a legend as such. Pilgrims who knew her story appreciated her care of them. A priest in Triacastela told me how hard she worked. That woman was known to have fallen in love with The Way. She now runs a house for pilgrims in Santiago.

In 2002, I was on second camino. I was certain, I'd become one of those "met my love" on camino couples I'd seen camino one, 2001.

Sometimes The Way illuminates God's humor at our expense. Read on.

About twelve years prior to 2002, I'd asked God to send me a man: 6' 2", 190 pounds, well-educated, single, never-been-married, no children, named Ken. Until I meet my prayed for male I'd nearly forgotten prayer.

On my second night in Roncesvalles, I met my oración at pilgrim's dinner: 6' 2", 190 pounds, single, never-been-married, no children, a Phd, and named Ken. Through the course of conversation we discovered we lived near each other. Wow! My answered prayer: Three dimensional in living color.

My oración. My Ken. As dinner flowed, I discovered my Ken lived only minutes walking distance from me. Yet, we met across the pond. Two pilgrims setting out on adventure, about to tip-toe through the tulips. Destiny divine!

As the good vibes bloomed, as the dinner courses came, and discourse continued my Ken turned out to be: A Jesuit priest!

By the time I arrived in Santiago, I met five more Catholic priests, and a Catholic Bishop from Germany!

I am Episcopalian. Prior to 2002, I'd never knowingly met a Catholic priest.

As the sixties song asks: Where is the love?

 

[WayWalker]

My husband and I walked the Camino Frances in the fall of 2013. Our son's best friend had been reading my blog and I was so surprised that he said he wanted to walk the way. My husband told him he would meet a special person. He's not a psychic. He took off for Madrid and on to SJPdP in the following spring. He did meet and fall in love with a young French Canadian woman and it's been on again off again trying to navigate the long distance from Montreal to Colorado. I think it's currently off. Aaaaahhhhh such is the camino.

 

[Pruden]

On the Way we have a love, love that feels on the Way, love for nature, birds, tree...... And of course, love for other pilgrims. So I will give you three testimonies of love, three concrete examples.

Franko is from Pula, Croatia and when he first go to Way St. James felt impressed that he was thrilled for the second time. On this other pilgrimage, he met Andreu, she was from southern Spain and also pilgrimage to St. Jacob. During the Way acquaintance has grown into love and they decided to marry. For the third time they went together to pilgrimage seeking a place on the Way where they would live. They found him at Bercianos del Real Camino, opened a bar, got a daughter and satisfied, happy and in love, live their Way farther.

The second story leads us to Labor del Rey, a small place where along the Way is arranged a small garden with a camping house turned into a catering facility. Guided by Mary, she is from Sofia, Bulgaria, who started pilgrimage four years ago, met Rodriga, walked and finished pilgrimages together and stayed together on the Way as Franko and Andrea did.

The third story is from Ambasmestas. I chose this place to stay when I was planning my Way and it was a little strange that the proprietress called Irina. When I came to the alberge I meet Irina and her husband Sergia. He is a Spaniard and she is Russians from Saint Petersburg. They met on pilgrimage, married, rented a place, still arranging it, and as they said, "Live our dream, stay on the Way all the time."

Do you know some love story from the Way?

Wow it sounds fantastic !
Long live in love for them!
I suppose it's like any other lovers on earth, maybe they got their dreams together and I hope they keep on living and dreaming that way for the rest of their life!
Buen Camino forever!

 

[Former member 49149]

Last summer I met a young couple who were walking the CF as their honeymoon trip. They met on the Portuguese Camino...

 

[jsalt]

While walking from Leon to Santiago in Sep I met a couple who had met on a previous camino.

They got married in Italy, walked the Francés on their honeymoon, and finalised their vows at the cathedral in Santiago.



Jill

 

[SabsP]

Met a couple in Vilar de Mazarife this year who where holding their wedding reception in the albergue Tio Pepe. The wedding was held in the parish church.
Some years ago the two pilgrims met there. She was from Santiago de Compostela and he was from Italy.
Wonderful couple!

 

[Magnara]

On the Way we have a love, love that feels on the Way, love for nature, birds, tree...... And of course, love for other pilgrims. So I will give you three testimonies of love, three concrete examples.

Franko is from Pula, Croatia and when he first go to Way St. James felt impressed that he was thrilled for the second time. On this other pilgrimage, he met Andreu, she was from southern Spain and also pilgrimage to St. Jacob. During the Way acquaintance has grown into love and they decided to marry. For the third time they went together to pilgrimage seeking a place on the Way where they would live. They found him at Bercianos del Real Camino, opened a bar, got a daughter and satisfied, happy and in love, live their Way farther.

The second story leads us to Labor del Rey, a small place where along the Way is arranged a small garden with a camping house turned into a catering facility. Guided by Mary, she is from Sofia, Bulgaria, who started pilgrimage four years ago, met Rodriga, walked and finished pilgrimages together and stayed together on the Way as Franko and Andrea did.

The third story is from Ambasmestas. I chose this place to stay when I was planning my Way and it was a little strange that the proprietress called Irina. When I came to the alberge I meet Irina and her husband Sergia. He is a Spaniard and she is Russians from Saint Petersburg. They met on pilgrimage, married, rented a place, still arranging it, and as they said, "Live our dream, stay on the Way all the time."

Do you know some love story from the Way?

A young friend of one of my daughters fell in love on the Camino Frances with a nice young man from the other side of the world. A sweet romance. It lasted to Santiago and beyond, and probably forever. They now live in Australia, happily married with three children.

 

[Bert45]

On my first Camino, 2003, I met a Danish guy at Biarritz airport. We got to St Jean together and walked a few hours from there, but he walked faster than I did. I met him again several times on the camino, finally in Santiago. On the way he had met a young lady from Australia, and they had fallen in love. The only problem was that he was married to a Danish lady. As far as I know he stayed with the Australian.

 

[Sailor]

On my first Camino, 2003 . . .

Bert, welcome aboard, your first post [and a good one]. Thank you, y que la luz de Dios alumbre su camino.

p.s. To everyone, thanks for your inputs, keep them coming!

 

[RobertS26]

I had stopped to take a selfie. I was fiddling with my cell phone when I heard a sweet voice ask, "Do you need any help?" Since I was finished I replied, "No, but thank you anyway." I then put down my phone to see the most beautiful woman in the world. I introduced myself and we began walking. And that turned into lunch together. Which led to dinner that night. And more walking the next day. And the day after.

By the time we got to Santiago, we were in love. And my plans to travel around Portugal before I flew home were out the door. Instead I was on a plane to Frankfurt, Germany to meet her family and friends.

And that's how I met my wife.

 

[angeliki louk]

In June 2015 I went to walk for the second time the north way, I am from Greece ... the third day I met Rui from Portugal and felt strongly connected to him, like I already knew him..... by the time we reached Santiago we were in love... after a month walking together and 5 days in beautiful Santiago we had to return...
We kept in touch by phone, Skype etc. In August I went and visit him in Portugal and decided that we had to be together in the same country. October he moved to Greece..January I was pregnant...got married and after a while Little Santiago came to our lives!!!!!
This summer we go back to the way the three of us to walk and see what the way will provide... we want to find a place to move and open a little albergue to share the happiness with other pilgrims and live on the way!!!let’s see!!!
Live every second of this beautiful life!!!buen Camino !!!

 

[jeffnd]

They had started out a day before me, from St. Jean. They were the only Americans starting out that day, so they decided to walk together. They ended up going the wrong way, up the Napoleon route. (This was in 2014, before they started the official closings of the route, but we were warned by the pilgrims office NOT to take the high route.) Rather than turn around, they kept going. This was early march, so in places the snow was waste deep. They made it to that little hut, but it was completely filled with snow. He was one of the pilgrims that packed a full load of camping gear, including a tent, so they set it up for the night, but the high winds completely destroyed it.

In the morning, they made it down the mountain and into Roncesvalles. I met them in Zubiri, where they told us their harrowing tale. We formed a little group, them, a man from Holland who I met in Valcaros, and we were later joined by a young French woman. We all walked together until Puente La Reina, when our little group split up.

She was an avid blogger, so I kept up with them through that. She was dealing with an injury to her leg, so their pace was very slow. By the time I got to Santiago, they were only Leon. (And I'm the slowest person to ever walk the Camino, so that should give you some idea how slow they were going.) Sadly, his timetable for getting home was similar to mine, so he traveled ahead by bus to see Santiago before flying home.

I was fortunate enough to meet up with him there. He announced that they were an "item." I congratulated him. In my head I was thinking, "Yeah, no kidding!"

It took her until May to reach Santiago. Once she arrived home, she packed up and moved to California with him. They were married. And now they are in Mexico, working at an orphanage.

Their love story is one of my favorite stories from the Camino.

 

[Botaivica]

I'm glad to see that the topic opened your memories of beautiful moments on the Way

Today I read in newspapers that two Croat are preparing to pilgrimage in Japan. In February they are going at Shikioku, 1200 km for 88 Temple.

Link, on Croatian language

http://www.sibenik.in/sibenik/maja-...-hodati-1-200-kilometara-po-japanu/86425.html

The newspapers says that they met 2010 at Camino and since then they have been together.

Coincidence?

 

[elleley]

These are wonderful stories, and I love reading them. Thanks for starting this thread. I do think, however, that there are many kinds of love besides romantic love, as you mention with nature. I fell in love over and over again along the Way. Not in the romantic sense, but in the real sense of true connection of souls, even if it lasted for a couple of hours. I also felt love coming from the earth below me and often felt my heart swell with goodness and light. This is what I call "peregrino love" and it's what draws me back to the mystical Way over and over again.
Ultreia!
elle

 

[joanjf]

How beautiful these stories are.
My Brother felt this Love to. The people he met the nature. The wind beneath his wings.
I wish he was here to tell his stories. His star shines up above.
His kindness felt and sense of humour missed.

 

[MichelleElynHogan]

For those who are not aware, the reason that Emilio Estevez created the movie, "The Way," was due to his Father's Grandson first walking ite Camino a few years before, found the Love of his Life and settled alon the Camino to become a Hosipatelaro.

It was this experience that germinated the story that was then told on the silver screen with himself in several cameo appearances and his Father, Martin Sheen as the main character.

For a more accurate story from those who wrote it, you will find it in this recent thread;

https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/the-way-the-story-behind-the-film.52342/

 

[Welly]

I had stopped to take a selfie. I was fiddling with my cell phone when I heard a sweet voice ask, "Do you need any help?" Since I was finished I replied, "No, but thank you anyway." I then put down my phone to see the most beautiful woman in the world. I introduced myself and we began walking. And that turned into lunch together. Which led to dinner that night. And more walking the next day. And the day after.

By the time we got to Santiago, we were in love. And my plans to travel around Portugal before I flew home were out the door. Instead I was on a plane to Frankfurt, Germany to meet her family and friends.

And that's how I met my wife.

Simply beautiful!

 

[Former member 2537]

Here's one of the best: (From the American Pilgrims on the Camino "Essays" page)

http://www.americanpilgrims.org/essays
http://www.americanpilgrims.org/assets/documents/essays/tale_of_two_pilgrims.pdf

And, not to thrown a wet blanket on all this, I know of more than one divorce that sprang from the Camino. The spouse goes off solo to walk the Camino, meets a soulmate and…

Then there's this story: My wife and I were in Oviedo touristing before reporting to Refugio Gaucelmo as hospitaleros. We were walking along a city street when we encountered a young German man, Marco. His rather obvious appearance as a peregrino caused us to strike up a chat with him. His story was that he was at that moment walking from the youth hostel in Oviedo to the pilgrim albergue where he might be reconnecting with Lena. The two had met in France and walked along together for some number of days. A couple of days before our encounter, Lena said that she wanted to call it off and walk separately. So Marco had dropped down to Oviedo with the suggestion that if she really wanted to separate, she could continue along the coast, putting her several days in front. Or if she reconsidered, Marco would be at the albergue in Oviedo. So, as I said, Marco was on his way to the albergue to encounter his fate. So to speak. We said that we'd love to know how this turned out and gave Marco our email address. He said that he wouldn't be doing email until Santiago so the resolution wouldn't be known for some weeks.

Toward the end of our tour in Rabanal we received an email from Marco. Lena had indeed shown up at the albergue. But with another man! Bummer. Marco seemed like such a pleasant guy and we've always felt like Lena lost the encounter.

 

[xin loi]

Walked the Camino Frances for second time August and September 2016. Felt very uneasy in Church in Santiago and felt I must leave for Finisterre as soon as possible. At daylight the next morning I was walking east to the end Of the world. I was walking along a dirt path and saw a "Shell" lying in the leaves on the left of the path. Picked it up and put it in a pocket.

about an hour later I came upon a German woman rearranging her pack and stopped to talk to her. We walked together for a while and I noticed she did NOT have a "shell" on her pack. Asked her why she did not have a shell and she replied. "I have a friend who is a mystic and she told me to not buy a shell as a man who would be important in my life would give me a shell.
Pulled the shell out of my pocket and gave it to her.

On Easter Sunday, 2017, We left Santiago to walk to the End of the Earth again--- where I proposed to her.

She arrived here in Pennsylvania with her two children on Christmas Eve, 2017.

Today we are going to the local court house to pick up our marriage license.

 

[joanjf]

Wow Divine Providence

 

[RENSHAW]

I started writing a book in 2008 - 'LOVE ON THE CAMINO' , about a washed up middle aged chap giving it one one chance to find love ........on the Camino and the holistic meaning of love and gifting on The Way. Two thirds of the way..... who knows when I will finish , when I started there were very few books about the Camino.

 

[nycwalking]

Walked the Camino Frances for second time August and September 2016. Felt very uneasy in Church in Santiago and felt I must leave for Finisterre as soon as possible. At daylight the next morning I was walking east to the end Of the world. I was walking along a dirt path and saw a "Shell" lying in the leaves on the left of the path. Picked it up and put it in a pocket.

about an hour later I came upon a German woman rearranging her pack and stopped to talk to her. We walked together for a while and I noticed she did NOT have a "shell" on her pack. Asked her why she did not have a shell and she replied. "I have a friend who is a mystic and she told me to not buy a shell as a man who would be important in my life would give me a shell.
Pulled the shell out of my pocket and gave it to her.

On Easter Sunday, 2017, We left Santiago to walk to the End of the Earth again--- where I proposed to her.

She arrived here in Pennsylvania with her two children on Christmas Eve, 2017.

Today we are going to the local court house to pick up our marriage license.

I love this love story.

Buen camino for the rest of your lives.

 

[Lily_B]

My fiance and I met on the Frances in July 2014, we met in the municiple hostel in Zubiri on the second day of walking. It had been a long hard day of rain and I felt pretty low as I ate a tragic meal of stale ciabatta and nutella, and then he walked over with a bottle of wine. We walked all the way to Finesterre together .

He's from Australia and I'm from the UK and we've managed to carry on a wonderful relationship over the last few years, due to marry in Australia in August of this year.
(Keen to hear from anyone who was walking over that time that might remember us x)

 

[Dr.J]

There must be so many stories like these. Have one in our family, a nephew (American). Met his future wife to be (German) on the Camino ~2.5 years ago. Decided to walk together the following year. Nine months later ... well you know the rest of the story. They are married and living in California with a beautiful one year old daughter.

 

[HaraldS]

I am a pianist. I got a call from a local priest if I could accompain a wedding ceremony in a small church. He's a friend of mine and a priest who walks different caminos each year and is the spiritual head of our local town's pilgrim's community.

During the wedding ceremoy, I heard the story how this Australian/German couple found each other: they where both walking the Camino Frances and met in Pamplona when waiting at the traffic lights at a crossroad. They continued their camino together.

So the couple, the priest, me and several other friends of them all had links to the camino which was a very inspiring background. I was very thankfull to have the opportunity to accompain their ceremony.

 

[Alg.grobbelaar]

These are wonderful stories, and I love reading them. Thanks for starting this thread. I do think, however, that there are many kinds of love besides romantic love, as you mention with nature. I fell in love over and over again along the Way. Not in the romantic sense, but in the real sense of true connection of souls, even if it lasted for a couple of hours. I also felt love coming from the earth below me and often felt my heart swell with goodness and light. This is what I call "peregrino love" and it's what draws me back to the mystical Way over and over again.
Ultreia!
elle

So well said. My heart is broken leaving my beloved friends behind.

 

[Peterexpatkiwi]

Both variants here resonate. The love for nature, for the people I met, for The Way itself. For life.
I’m a romantic, and a good love story is superb. Like these above !
As a long time traveler, I’ve even seen a couple of divorce’s- but what are they, but the realisation that you’ve grown apart, and the chance to fall in love again?( told you I’m a romantic!)
Last week I was undecided as to whether or not to do the Primitivo shortly. Read a ‘Signs’ thread here . As I later posted, I responded to it, went out to the car and the first thing I heard were the word’s …. ‘On Camino’ . BBC sports program, and they’re broadcasting a Camino love story! (Danish guy, American woman, now married with child…. Sound familiar?)
Yes, I’m going- tickets booked .
The Camino is the gift that keeps on giving.
Just like love

 

[Kirkie]

"Do you know some love story from the Way?" No, I don't, but I like your stories and I look forward to reading more stories from forum members. Thank you, y que la luz de Dios alumbre su camino.

I miss Sailor.