Category Archives for The Way of St. James

St. Jean Pied de Port, Camino Frances; travel photos

Rue de la Citadelle, St. Jean Pied de Port, France. Camino Frances

Rue de la Citadelle, St. Jean Pied de Port, France. Camino Frances 

St. Jean Pied de Port, France. The beginning of the Camino France for many pilgrims walking to Santiago de Compostella Spain. One of the many images, representing one of the many moments along our journey that is still very important to me. As it is the beginning of the camino for so many pilgrims it is a little town that many remember fondly.

Recently a fellow Calgarian sent an email, interested in learning more about the camino, and our experience, it is wonderful to visit those memories again, and to think that someday Bill and I will go back.

On a complete different note, this is one of the images listed with Alamy, an online stock agency, that has licensed recently.  While I haven’t been notified of the name of the publication, but I have learned from the sales contract that the image will be published as a 2 pages spread, for a travel guide with a print run of up to 100,000.  While this isn’t my first sale through the stock agency, it still feels awesome to have someone buy and use one of my images!

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Camino to Santiago de Compostela, a journey not just a destination

Rock Bridge, Galicia Spain

Rock Bridge, Galicia Spain

“Focus on the journey not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it”        Greg Anderson

One of the things we found while walking the Camino to Santiago de Compostela, is the same thing we have found and experienced in many other areas of our life. People are goal oriented and want to reach the next destination. On the walk people were getting up well before dawn and walking in the dark, little headlights on their forehead, trying to find the next arrow or marker.  This is fine if you have spent some time the day before surveying the route out-of-town. But why walk in the dark.  Yes it is a quiet time of the day, and you can be out-of-town before the traffic gets bad, but in the small town on the country road that we were walking traffic was never a problem.

I do understand that the summer heat of Spain can make walking in mid afternoon difficult, so that might be a consideration during the summer months for some people. But walking in the dark means that you really can’t see and enjoy the town, or the countryside, the signs, the shrines or farms that you are walking by.

It isn’t reaching our goal or destination that shapes our journey, it is each mile or milestone along the way that shapes our soul.  It it the sights, sounds, people and experiences we have along the way that is what we, what I wanted to remember.  I would say to anyone planning this journey to take your time, enjoy the sights, the sounds, get to know the people along the way, live each moment of the journey.

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The Camino to Santiago de Compostela and Thich Nhat Hahn…..

Horse stands on the windy ridge of the Pryenees Mountains

Horse stands on the windy ridge of the Pryenees Mountains 

“The mind can go in a thousand directions. But on this beautiful path, I walk in peace.  With each step a cool wind blows. With each step a flower blooms.”  Thich Nhat Hanh 

I have been reading poetry by Thich Nhat Hanh and it often reminds me of the quiet days of walking the Camino to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. My mind could wander in a thousand directions, but it wasn’t until I focused my thoughts on the path before me, on the beauty around me that I truly began to enjoy the walk.  But if I wasn’t in the present moment I could walk and not see a thing, not remember the road I walked.

While on the Camino I learned that I had to stay conscous, I need to be thinking of what is in front of me, how it was shaped by the light, I and to think the story I wanted to tell, if I didn’t I was just getting snap shots or passing events. But it wasn’t work, I somehow managed to make it sound like work, but it wasn’t, it make the Camino, our journey, more enjoyable, more memorable.

This is a bigger problem for me at home, driving to work, thinking about all the things I have to do that day, and before I know it I am at the office, and I don’t remember the trip, what did I miss?  Did I miss waving to a friend, or the beauty of the sunrise.  Or while at work, getting caught up in the job, the chaos, going through the motions, and not really being engaged.

How about you, are you on a beautiful path, is your life blooming before you, are you finding small nugets of joy in your day/chaos?

 

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Vanishing moments – and the Camino to Santiago

 

”We photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing, and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth can make them come back again. We cannot develop and print a memory.”     Henri Cartier-Bresson

travelling the Camino to Santiago, walking the many miles, brought the point of Vanishing moments back to me every so clearly…….

Camino way marker, yellow arrow

Camino way marker, yellow arrow  

scallop shell marker

scallop shell street marker  

PilgrimYield Sign

Pilgrim Yield Sign

Pilgrim at the Cross

Pilgrim at the Cross

 

once we passed a sign, I wasn’t in a hurry to walk back again to take a picture; if I thought too long about what caught my attention I would miss the moment that spoke to me. These are just a couple of the sites and signs we saw and photographed while on the Camino to Santiago.  The were route markers everywhere that was needed, not so often they cluttered the view, but often enough we knew which road to take.  In Pamplona we saw the steel scallop shells every 100 feet, other cities were equally well-marked; we saw the yield signs when we had to cross a major road or highway where we might encounter vehicle traffic;  and we saw the long rock arrows on the Meseta, the flat plains of Spain.

 

 

 

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The Church of Portal of San Juan Bautista_Obanos Spain, along the Camino to Santiago de Compostella

Church Portal, San Juan Bautista_Obanos Spain

Obanos is about 20 kilometers from Pamplona, along the Camino to Santiago de Compostela, the French Route. I learned recently that the French Route of the Camino to Santiago has the UNESCO World Heritage Designation. Every year thousands of people from all over the world travel the camino.

It was mid afternoon when we arrived in the little town, the streets were quiet and I am sure the local people were all having their siesta. The beautiful old Gothic Church sits in the main square, in front of the Nuestra Señora de Arnotegui Shrine. The sculpted portal depict stories from the Bible to the pilgrims who walked the Camino a thousand years ago, now worn by time and weather speaks to the heritage of the church in these communities.

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Guest post: Walking the Camino de Santiago – by Janice Meyers Foreman

The HitchHikers’s Handbook has published a story and photos written about the Camino:  check out their site:

Guest post: Walking the Camino de Santiago – by Janice Meyers Foreman.

Besides my guest-post you will find plenty of helpful information for world wide travel.  Good information for the traveller.

Pilgrim’s Mass and the lighting of the Botafumeiro by the Tiroboleiros, Santiago Cathedral

Pilgrim's Mass and the lighting of the Botafumeiro_IMG_4840.tif

Pilgrim’s Mass and the lighting of the Botafumeiro_

We have been home from the Camino to Santiago Spain for quite some time, and it is taking quite a while to sift through all the photos from the trip. I like a lot of people busy with regular work and lifestyle tasks and distractions. Each day when I have a few minutes I work on my photos, and it is wonderful to re-live the memories.

The first things most pilgrims do, and we were no exception, is to visit the Cathedral.  We stopped by, but we were soaked to the bone as it had rained heavily that day.  We saved our visit to the inside for the following day, when we would be dressed in dry cloths, and have time to see, sit and enjoy all the sights. We arrived early enough to get a seat, by the time mass started the Cathedral was full, barely standing room available. They announce the number of pilgrims arriving in the previous 24 hours from each country.

The ceremony culminated in the swinging of the botafumeiro (smoke belcher) a massive silver incense burner.  It takes eight men, a team of clergy called tiraboleiros to get the incense burner swinging across the cathedral.  The botafumeiro, said to be the largest in the Catholic world and dates back to 1851, it is this part of the ceremony that the pilgrims have been waiting for, and it was so thrilling in a way that can’t be described. The energy in the Cathedral amazing. It was such a moving experience we actually attended Mass the next day to see it again.

for more of our camino images click here

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Our day at Santiago de Compostella, Spain

fire buring in Santiago

yesterday morning Bill and I headed out to streets of Santiago de Compostela early to see the quiet streets, and watch the city walk up.  I find it is a great time to visit a city.  Not far from our hotel we heard sirens, and before long a fire truck and emergency vehicles were squeezing between the buildings of the old city, coming towards us.  Ducking under the archway and out-of-the-way of the trucks we watched them go by. Not two blocks away the truck stopped, in fact everyone that was on the street stopped to watch.  There was smoke billowing from a basement grate, and the fireman were cutting open the door of the building. I was less that 20 feet away, taking pictures. I could not imagine getting that close a fire scene at home!  Before long the firemen were in the empty building, the fire was out, and there was only steam billowing from the building.

From there we headed over the see the Cathedral in the early morning light.  After registering at the camino office we went inside the Cathedral. Which was full of people wandering around, and getting seated for Mass.  We saw many people  that we had talked to and walked with over the last few weeks. It was great to see everyone had achieved their goal. There was an excitement in the air. During Mass the have a large incense burner, that they swing over the crowd. It was quite exciting to watch.

Santiago Mass

day 39 of our camino to Santiago de Compostela

pilgrim with a green rain poncho_camino Santiago de Compostella 

Today we travelled from Arzua to Amenal, about 25k. Today it rained heavily most of the day, and it was a colder today than we have had before, it only reached about 15 C.

When I had been doing my research on the Camino, one of the things I looked at is the weather. Trying to figure out what type of weather we might be subjected to while walking the Camino.  So I have to be honest, my research showed that October temperatures would be mid teens (Celsius).  Average days of rain in September and October were both 10 days.  It is great that we have warmer temperatures than expected for most of the trip and while there have been days of some rain, there have been very few where it has rained all day.

Hopefully the rain will stop for our walk into Santiago Compostela tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow is the last day on the Camino.  We will spend a couple of days before flying out.

 

 

 

Day 38 on our Camino to Santiago

Rock Bridge, Galicia Spain

We left Palas de Rei just after 8 am, it was still dark, but there was enough light to see where we were going. The sky was cloudy, so it stayed darker longer than we anticipated, and there was no beautiful sunrise.  We had a long day planned and wanted to get out the door early

We have see several of these stone bridges, a place for pilgrims to pass when the creeks fills with water, and I am sure it does during the raining season.

We arrived in Melide around noon, this is about ½ way for the day. Bill’s ankle seemed to beholding up quite well. Melide is famous for the pulpa (octopus) dish and one of the pilgrims we know pointed us in the direction of the most famous restaurant so we could give it a try. The restaurant was quiet when we went in, but given it was lunch time it didn’t take long to fill with pilgrims and locals like.  The pulpa was okay, tasty enough, a little chewy, and obviously very popular.

red flower along the camino

Back on the road again, the clouds had cleared and the sun was shining, about 18 C, it was great for walking. The path in residential areas are lined with flowers and in one place a rosemary shrub ran for about 50 feet, about 2 ½ feet high, it was starting to bloom.

One place I noticed an older farming couple unloading the wagon, beside it with huge wheel barrow of Kale.  We have seen it growing very large garden patches, the plants about 6 feet high, with all but the top few leaves picked. I don’t know anyone who would eat that much Kale, so I am wondering what else it is used for…….

farmers with a wheelbarrow of Kale, Galicia Spain

Today we covered about 32 k, 4 big hills to go up and down, all in the last 8 k, so by the time we arrived at the hotel we were exhausted, and after the shower, and daily laundry we had a nap until dinner, which was at 8 pm.

Two more days to reach Santiago, we plan to walk about 36k over the next two days, so we are hopeful that things will be easier, but as I type this it is raining hard, so I am not sure, well at least it isn’t a cold rain! See you tomorrow!