Popes in Santiago de Compostela

Pope John Paul II in Santiago de Compostela in 1989.

Santiago de Compostela has been a place of pilgrimage for many … including Pope John Paul II who traveled there in 1982 and 1989. Pope Benedict XVI will visit this coming November in honor of the Saint James Holy Year.

I doubt John Paul II worked in a side trip to go surfing at the nearby coast during his pilgrimage… but as I think about it, he probably would have if he could have. He was a great athelete in his younger years. He loved to ski and swim … I bet he would have loved to try surfing too.

Teach us, Saint James, friend of Our Lord,
the WAY which leads to Him.
Open us, preacher of the lands of Spain,
to the TRUTH you learned from the Master’s lips.
Give us, witness of the Gospel,
the strength always to love the LIFE.

-Prayer of Pope John Paul II before the tomb of St. James

3 Days Away!!!

It´s hard to beleive how far we have come. We plan on doing 20k tomorrow and Friday, and whatever is left on Saturday (11k I think). Then we party. :-) We are going to make a day trip to the beach. That should be fun. The place that we will be staying at has a barbeque pit...awesome. Then, the pilgrims mass is on Saturday. I am looking forward to that. It has been fun, but it is going to be nice to go home too.

-Noah

Getting Real Close!

To those of you who thought Sarria is 100 km away, it is actually 110. But we´re still doing well. We really trucked it today and yesterday. 28 km yesterday and 31ish today. So that puts us at 51ish left. What that means is we can sleep in the last couple days and take our sweet time walking while still making the progress we want and not having to worry about making it to a place on time. Today the lady had to roll out a little folding couch for all 3 of us to stay at the same place. And we had stopped by 2:30.

So now we are using the computer, charging our chargeable stuff and killing time. I don´t like it when we have to stop so early because it gets so boring sitting around. Fortunately yesterday I got a new book, its called Fumbling, by Kerry Egan. A very friendly guy named Michael, from Australia, passed it on to me. Its about a girl from the US who goes on the Camino. So it will be fun to read. At least something to do.

The game-plan is to milk out the next 3days to get to Santiago, spend a couple nights there. Then take a bus to Boaños which is about 65 km away ... and on the beach! The beach is called¨Playa de Traba and its supposed to have 8-10 foot surf around that time. The water right now is about 63 degrees which is pretty chilly. That's 10 degrees cooler than the Comal for all you tubing readers. But I´ll just have to suck it up. I don´t know when I´ll be able to return to Spain and surf, so I´m going to have to just trunk it. Hopefully I can find a place to rent a board.

And for those of you who aren´t reading fans, here´s some photos:


This is what I thought was the Cathedral of San Marcos in Leon, but it turns out it's a hotel. But still neat. All the little white things sticking up are little fountains ... we like to call them bum baths.

MY NEW SHOES!!!!!

It's nice to have Ian with us ...

We´re the three best friends that anyone has had!

106 KM to go! (that was from 2 mornings ago in Sarria) -kai-

What is this!?! A shower for ants!?!

Shell & Santiago de Compostela

An interesting tidbit … Marcus Samuel, the founder of Shell, adopted the Scallop Shell logo in 1904. It appears there are two reasons for this. 1) The origins of his business involved shipping trinkets, including seashells … which were very popular. 2) A close business associate had a special fidelity to Saint James due to some ancestors who had made the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. So, as the business grew and evolved, Marcus Samuel chose the Scallop Shell to be the company’s trademark.

* * * *

While the boys have had long desolate stretches in the past, they are now hitting one town after another. Probably more interesting … more things to see and more people to meet. But, of course, new challenges can come about too ... like finding a place to stay or having to get in line to use a computer, etc....

Celtic Spain

Earlier today, Seamus, Ian and Noah entered into the Spanish region of Galicia. Curiously, Galicia has Celtic roots. This region actually even looks and feels a bit like Ireland … lots of rain, a rolling terrain, green fields, etc. There are cultural similarities as well ... some traditional bagpipe music ... and potatoes are one of the main crops found on the small, often oxen-plowed farms. By many standards, Galicia is one of the most beautiful and unique areas of Spain. I think the boys will enjoy the new scenery for this leg of their journey.

The Celtic tiles of Saint James and his brother, Saint John, were relpicated from etchings on a stone sarcophagus at Jerpoint Abbey in Ireland.

Bus Day

Quite the bus day. I think we covered about 120 km. Once we got to Sarria we had to just use out man-stinct to get on the Camino (and a little direction-asking). We found a hostel, but it only had 2 beds. Since it was 2:45 and we had heard so many stories about places filling up real fast, I told Ian and Noah to take them and I´d look for another. The guy said I could use a floor spot on the patio if I couldn´t find anything. Then around the corner I found a place and the guy put me in a room with 5 other empty beds! haha. Oh well.

I figure we´re 5ish days out from Santiago. That is pretty exciting.

I´m trying to upload some pics, but this computer is pretty old, so I´m not sure if it will work.

I Hate it when the Bus Fills Up with Smokers...

... you can smell them ALL!

We took a bus from Astorga to Ponferrada, and now we are going to take one to Lugo, and then take one to Sarria. That will put us 100 KM out from Santiago.

In the past hour we covered in a bus what would have taken us 12-16 hours of walking over the course of 2 days. Buses are pretty rewarding.

Don´t have much time to write more. But all is well.

Iron Cross and Last 100 km.

The boys seem anxious to arrive at the 100 km mark. The rule is that if you walk the last 100 km (or, 62 miles) of the Camino, you are entitled to an official Pilgrim Certificate. 100 km out of Santiago is in the town of Sarria. Lots of pilgrims start their journey at this point ... especially if they have time constraints. So, the Camino can start getting pretty crowded at Sarria! Actually, I'm not too concerned about whether or not the boys get the Pilgrim Certificate ... mostly, I want them to just have a bit of time together before they really grow up and move on. And ... I hope they grow in faith just a bit. Hopefully they will be able to stop at "Cruz de Fierro" (a.k.a. Cruz de Hierro) ... a spot on the Camino with an iron cross where pilgrims toss a rock to the base of the cross. We have a TON of rocks in the Texas Hill Country, and I sent them each with one rock for Cruz de Fierro. I guess if they miss the cross, they can place their rocks somewhere else along the way ... maybe at the base of another cross.

A photo from about 11 years ago, when we lived in San Diego. Diego is another Spanish variant of James, but this particular San Diego/Saint James is not Saint James the Greater. This San Diego/Saint James was born in the province of Seville, Spain near 1400 and his parents had great devotion to Saint James the Greater, so named their son after him. He became a very holy and good person and was canonized a saint after he died. So, not long after the Spaniards had arrived at what we now call southern California and had their first mass on the feast day of this saint, they decided to name the new settlement after him. So, San Diego, CA is named after San Diego of Spain who was named after Saint James the Greater.

• Ian ~ Thanks for going to (how many?) stores to find a pair of shoes that would fit Seamus! I appreciate that!
• Seamus ~ Sorry the shoes are black ... but am glad that your feet are happy and blister-free!
• Noah ~ I've got Lexi covered for her Hartz treatment and pill on July 1.

xoxo

Math in Spain ...

New shoes = ugly but very nice to finally have

and

World Cup Refs = LAME

Ian got in a little later than I was thinking, but we connected just fine. He got me the right shoes but the only ones in Oklahoma City were the black ones rather than silver ... I think they look really silly, but they feel great. And no blisters so far.

Ian really wanted to walk, so we walked yesterday to San Martin. Then after talking to Mom I determined we had 270 KM to go and only 11ish days to do it ... not gonna happen. So we decided we would take a bus this morning. But the bus stop was by a bar and some guys told us the bus wouldn´t come on Sunday. I found a schedule that said it would at 10:55, but we decided to walk today too, rather than risk waiting 3 hours for nothing. These guys may or may not have been drunk still. They were pretty funny. They told this guy in front of us to take a wrong turn for Santiago, when he turned, they called him back and told him the right way. He got pretty flustered and came and asked us if we had seen any signs since he didn´t understand exactly what they were saying. So I told him he was going the right way and they were just messing with him.

The German guy actually looked a lot like my friend, Tim Gillespie, but in about 10 years. I talked to him later, he was really cool too. I bet Tim would have enjoyed meeting him.

We made it to Astorga (didn´t smell any garlic, sorry). Nice big hostel. We also found the bus station where we met a girl from Austin. She seemed pretty flustered about missing her bus. I felt bad for her, but I couldn´t bring the bus back or anything.

We´re going to watch the Mexico game tonight. We were pretty bummed about the USA game, I think the refs ignored A LOT of fouls. But oh well, we did pretty well. We watched it with some girl from Orange County who is doing Grad School in London.

Old computers here, so no way to load pictures. Sorry.

Astorga

Well...here we are in Astorga. We are probably going to catch a bus to the 100 km. mark tomorrow, so we have some time in Santiago. I am really hoping to catch a Sunday mass there, then we plan on splurging our last 2 nights. The computer is running out of time so I´ll go ahead and sign off

-Noah

P.S. Thanks for the pics, mom.

San Martin del Camino ... About 150 Miles To Go

A statue of Saint James the Pilgrim

from the Sanctuary at Our Lady of the Atonement in San Antonio.

The boys made it to a town called San Martin del Camino this afternoon in Spanish time/this morning in Texas time. It’s a small farming community … with no computers available … but there was a phone, so Seamus called while Ian was snatching a bit of sleep. I’m sure he’ll need some time to get his body adjusted to Spain’s time zone. After an afternoon of resting, washing clothes, shopping and cooking, the boys will watch the next game in the World Cup Soccer series.

My father got a kick out of an e-mail he received from Noah on Father’s Day. Noah explained that they would be going to mass later that evening and then to the local bar to watch soccer. Americans are just not used to 13-year-olds casually mentioning plans to go to a bar!

Tomorrow the boys will probably smell some garlic. One town they are bound to pass, Villares de Órbigo, grows lots of garlic.

They might get as far as Astorga, which would be neat … Saint Francis stayed at a refugio there in 1214 on his way to Santiago de Compostela. It was actually while he was in the Cathedral in Santiago when God revealed to St. Francis that his order of friars would grow in great ways.

Madrid

So, I´m hanging out in Madrid at the moment. I noticed thatsomeone had paid for time on one of the computer in the airport and not used all of it so i snagged it. This keybord is ridiculously difficult to use.

The flight here wasn´t too bad. We were delayed by an hour leaving Dallas. We spent an hour sitting in the plane waiting for the rain to stop. We made it though.

I have invented a game that I have been playing around Madrid. It is called ¨Obviously American.¨It´s fun.

I´m tired of fighting with this keyboard. Bye

Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist ... in León

(John the Baptist is often portrayed using a Scallop Shell to baptize Christ.)

Gosh! I don't think St. John the Baptist would be impressed with lots of people in León celebrating his Nativity by getting drunk. Wouldn't a day of eating nothing but wild honey and locusts be more suitable? I think getting drunk like that would be more impressive to Herod Antipas than to John the Baptist.

Anyways, I hope things were calmer for the boys during their second night in León. They have to spend their extra nights in León in a hotel. The albergue/refugio/hostel owners allow Pilgrims to spend only one night in each city ... unfortunately, some have tried to take advantage of the unique and generous system of the Camino to get looooong free rides. You can spend a second or third night if you have a note from a doctor indicating that you are too ill to walk.

Dad and I just got back from Corpus Christi ... it was a real nice trip. Something refreshing about the Gulf air! We saw lots of pelicans brought in from the oil drenched regions.

Mr. Keane is doing better ... and is happy to be home. I'll keep you posted boys, but if you happen to think of him, please ask God and Saint James to bless him!

Ian called, Kelly got him to the airport safely ... Thanks so much, Kelly! I appreciate that! Ian was just about to board the plane to Madrid when he called. Kind of neat how he's flying out on a Saint John Day (one of the many!).

Mary - CONGRATULATIONS on your new position as a Math Specialist! Great job!

I Love How Thing Just Don't Quite Translate Sometimes

I love how things just don´t quite translate sometimes. Fortunately, we got the idea.

This is from a few days ago ... that's after about a week of hiking in them.

The police (?) band this morning.

This was after our 32 km day. You can´t see it that well in this pic because of the dust, but I´m developing quite the impressive flip flop tan.

This is Noah at about 8 AM with some people who were super friendly and super drunk. The guy on the right has a mullet, you just can´t see it that well. The girl is 20 and was amazed at Noah´s age/height. Her coke cup also does not have coke in it ... some sort of booze. They told us they were getting ready to go home and go to bed. They guy on the right spoke a little English, but mostly Spanish. He explained that it's not that nice of a walk to Astorga, but from there to Santiago it is the best part of the entire Camino, especially Galicia.

¡The Mornings are So Boring!

We are here in Leon for our second day. There is nothing to do in the morning but walk around ... the idea was to rest! haha. It's ok, we checked out the cathedrals (a solid 5 minutes each). There are also tons of drunk people running around, still drunk. But much friendlier. Leon is celebrating the feast of St. John the Baptist (or, his birthday or something like that). I get the impression the streets look like Mardi Gras in Galveston.

Before I forget, Ian: I don´t recommend all those books, but you do what you want.

Anyway, we have met about 9 drunk people this morning. Some have been very friendly. We took pictures with some of them, but I can´t upload them for some reason. One wanted to talk Spanish versus American politics. But he only wanted to talk, not listen. But that was fine with us.

We also saw a small parade of what looked like a police band. They were escorting some sort of beauty queens for some ceremony. I was assured I´d find tons of beautiful Spanish women here, but it's been pretty slim pickings compared to who´s in San Antonio waiting for me.

Yesterday some old French guy tried telling us it's a boring walk to Leon and that we should take a bus. I´ve loved this trip and its been great, but we´ve walked through nothing but wheat fields ... I´m not clear how it can get less exciting. I guess he´s really into wheat, because there were only little towns that we passed through.

Also, Ian: In my beard experience, I´ve never suffered a tan line. I´m growing a Camino Beard too, but I have to shave everything below my jaw line, otherwise it gets tooo itchy.

We can´t check in for another 2.5-ish hours. So we are just killing time. I´m also trying to charge my camera and MP3 player since they are both running low. Since I don´t have my converter any more I have to rely on computers and USP ports to charge them.

I really wish my pics would upload. I´m going to try again, I´ll just put them in a new post.

Mr. Keane, I hope you´re doing well.

And congrats to Mary who got hired as a Math Specialist!

Hasta La Vista

-Seamus