Judy's Way
Active Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- Autumn (2015) and Spring (2019)
I am finally here at the sweet, picture-perfect, village of St. Jean-Pied-de-Port, exhausted after the 43-hour journey but happy to be back. The whole Camino Françes is ahead of me and for that I am grateful. When Dave and I were approaching Santiago on our first Camino in the Autumn of 2015, I slowed my pace because I didn't want it to end. Now I am back at the beginning again. Hooray!
Of course St. Jean hasn't changed a bit since Dave and I fell in love with it on our first Camino, but why would it? The buildings lining the cobblestoned Main Street, Rue de la Citadelle, have been here for centuries as shown by the construction dates inscribed over the doorways. Even the hostel where I am staying they say was built at the end of the Middle Ages!
The village is bustling with fresh faced pilgrims excited at the prospect of beginning their journey to Santiago de Compostela. They are sporting clean boots, have no blisters and brand new guidebooks not yet dog-eared.
Actually, I haven't seen guidebooks in such perfect shape since the end of October, 2015, when Dave and I were in the "home stretch" within 100 km of our arrival in Santiago. The guidebooks belonging to pilgrims who walk just that final section of the Camino Frances don't have a chance to suffer much wear and tear.
To tell you the truth, even though my Camino Françes and Primitivo guidebooks are new, they don't look so great. I put my Exacto knife to work cutting out only the pages I need to get from St. Jean to Leon and from Oviedo to Santiago. All else is just extra weight! Authors John Brierley and Dave Whitson would be appalled!
Day 1 begins tomorrow for me, but the transformation could be beginning here at the start. The “traveller” who has been planning for weeks where to go, how to get there, and what to take, is transforming into a “pilgrim” to whom the journey IS the destination. I’m not sure how easy it will be to shrug off expectations and fears, to take it all as it comes, to stay present to the experience, and never stop moving forward, but that’s the plan.
Even though I will write a blog post every day, I know it isn't always possible to publish them every day because of slow or non-existent wi-fi. Just hang in there. One, two, or even several will eventually show up all at once.
For details of the ups and downs of just getting here to St. Jean, click here:
Of course St. Jean hasn't changed a bit since Dave and I fell in love with it on our first Camino, but why would it? The buildings lining the cobblestoned Main Street, Rue de la Citadelle, have been here for centuries as shown by the construction dates inscribed over the doorways. Even the hostel where I am staying they say was built at the end of the Middle Ages!
The village is bustling with fresh faced pilgrims excited at the prospect of beginning their journey to Santiago de Compostela. They are sporting clean boots, have no blisters and brand new guidebooks not yet dog-eared.
Actually, I haven't seen guidebooks in such perfect shape since the end of October, 2015, when Dave and I were in the "home stretch" within 100 km of our arrival in Santiago. The guidebooks belonging to pilgrims who walk just that final section of the Camino Frances don't have a chance to suffer much wear and tear.
To tell you the truth, even though my Camino Françes and Primitivo guidebooks are new, they don't look so great. I put my Exacto knife to work cutting out only the pages I need to get from St. Jean to Leon and from Oviedo to Santiago. All else is just extra weight! Authors John Brierley and Dave Whitson would be appalled!
Day 1 begins tomorrow for me, but the transformation could be beginning here at the start. The “traveller” who has been planning for weeks where to go, how to get there, and what to take, is transforming into a “pilgrim” to whom the journey IS the destination. I’m not sure how easy it will be to shrug off expectations and fears, to take it all as it comes, to stay present to the experience, and never stop moving forward, but that’s the plan.
Even though I will write a blog post every day, I know it isn't always possible to publish them every day because of slow or non-existent wi-fi. Just hang in there. One, two, or even several will eventually show up all at once.
For details of the ups and downs of just getting here to St. Jean, click here:
Getting There: Victoria to Bayonne and St. Jean Pied de Port – Through Our Looking Glass
throughourlookingglass.ca