Anne Maddock, who is a regular poster on this blog, is heading off next week to Spain. She’s going alone, on her first Camino.
And so as with Arlene, I asked her to do a guest blog too, to let us know what she’s feeling right now, with less than a week before she leaves.
If I can speak for the people here on this blog, Anne we wish you a safe journey, and our love and best wishes for a transcendent Camino!
In the meantime, here is her guest post –
An ordinary woman going for a walk
I am an ordinary woman – a daughter, wife, mother, grandmother, teacher, student, friend. I live my life the way I believe I have been called to live. I am a Christian – a practising Catholic. I work in education. I love my family. I make mistakes. So .. all very ordinary, your “Mrs. Joe Average”!
On Saturday, however, I can add pilgrim to the list of what defines me. I will leave my home, surrounded by familiarity and love and journey to a foreign land, alone, with no Spanish language, nothing which I could call familiar, except my backpack, my few clothes and my iPad Mini – my lifeline to the rest of my known world.
So, what is this all about? Why am I doing this?
Some call me crazy. Some call me brave. Some just shake their head or shrug their shoulders. They don’t really understand, but … neither do I. For many years I have had the desire to walk this ancient path, to be a pilgrim, to be in Santiago de Compostela and at Finisterre.
After walking I’m still not sure that I will know why. A bit like Steve Langham [of PGS Blog fame] reminds me, I’ll just do what I have to do – take one step at a time. If there are revelations of great significance, I’ll embrace them. If the Camino teaches me, I’ll learn. If the Spirit of the Camino speaks, I’ll listen. If I fall down, I’ll get up.
So, what are the questions?
Can I do it? Am I ready? Will my body carry me to the end? Will I have somewhere to sleep each night? Do I have enough clothes? Do I have too many clothes? Will I learn to follow my PGS? Will I meet any new friends? Will I be lonely? Will there be Camino Angels when I need them? What if I can’t do it? What are the expectations of myself? Of others? Why didn’t I train harder? Listen more intently? Read more? Ask more questions?
How do I feel? Right now, I am not so sure as the reality hits. During the past week, waves of nervousness, apprehension, doubt, excitement, anticipation, longing and guilt have washed around and over me. It’s been a roller coaster week.
Too late, I am on my way!! This is My Camino. Whatever happens will happen. I will manage the best way I can. There is no right or wrong.
In Bill Bennett’s PGS words I will try to Stop! Listen! Trust! Follow!
Blessings to all
Anne
PGS - The Way 
Anne –
I think you have the PERFECT attitude! There will be wonders.
Buen camino!
Brendan
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Thankyou Brendan. I look forward to the wonders which await me. I hope they help me to overcome faults and failings. I also look forward to your continuing contributions to the PGS Blog. I enjoy reading what you post.
Blessings
Anne
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Anne,
Look forward to following your Camino! Buen Camino!
Debbie
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Debbie, so pleased you will be checking in on my progress. I will try and write as often as I can, but that will be dependent on wifi availability. I am really looking forward to boarding that plane on Saturday and putting the everyday rat race behind me. It will be a wonderful opportunity to change focus and take time out.
Blessings
Anne
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Anne, I could have written your entry myself. We are kindred spirits and I wish you well. I’m starting out next September, so will read every post with great interest.
Buen Camino,
Jill
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Hi Jill. The next 12 months will pass by very quickly for you, if my last 12 are any indication. I cannot believe that I am just 4 days away from takeoff. The preparation time, both physically and spiritually, has been important for me, but I think the physical is still very much a work in progress!!
I will be delighted to have you follow my blog.
Blessings
Anne
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Hi Anne – it’s so wonderful that your long-held dream is now coming true.
Your post is beautifully written – you are heading to the Camino with such spirit – it will be a golden time for you.
Sending you every best wish for joy in every step –
Buen Camino!
Jenny xo
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Thankyou Jenny. When Bill asked me to do a guest blog, I wasn’t sure what to write or how to express my feelings, so I hope I have captured some of my thoughts. It is wonderful to read your posts and I look back on the December 2012 lunch with fond memories. It was so inspiring to speak with you, Sandra, Britta and others. I hope you are able to check in with my blog and send me pearls of wisdom and inspiration.
Blessings
Anne
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Absolutely Anne! I’ll follow your blog with much interest and I’m hoping for the very best of Caminos for you – for every step you take, for every person you meet, whether they be a pilgrim, hospitalero, for those in bars, cafes, restaurants – for every person who is involved in the Camino in any way, for it’s those who choose to be on the Camino in any capacity who are part of it’s spirit.
I hope that you’ll be able to attend some of the future pilgrim group meetings here in Sydney in the not too distant future … we’ll have to invent an excuse for you to visit Sydney!
Buen Camino Anne!
Jenny xo
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Jenny, your words are greatly appreciated. Thankyou. It is the people we encounter that are more important than the places, buildings, etc. I can only begin to imagine a place where like – minded people sharing the Spirit of the Camino meet, converse, share, laugh, cry, pray, eat. The bonds which unite them seem to be so very strong. I am looking forward to this experience and hope that I can contribute in some small way, to the Spirit of the Camino.
Yes, I’ll find an excuse to come to Sydney. In fact, I haven’t been there since the weekend I met you last year!
Blessings
Anne
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Hi Anne –
I’m sure you’ll contribute much on your Camino – you’re going with such spirit – we look forward to hearing about your connections with people and places on The Way.
I’m hoping for everything wonderful for you Anne –
Jenny xo
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Buen Camino Anne, this will be wonderful for you. As a practicing Catholic, go about 1/2 prior to evening mass, and join in the rosary. It is a wonderful, soothing, spiritual practice in Spain.
Light and Love Ingrid
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Hello Ingrid. Your insights and wisdom shared in this blog are greatly appreciated. I am so looking forward to my Camino. I have looked up some of the places where an evening pilgrim mass is offered, so that will be on my priority list. Did you have any favourite places? [ I am starting in Leon] Your description of the rosary as a soothing practice is so apt. I may even recite it as I walk. I have a rosary given to me by a very dear friend, so that is in my pack.
Thankyou again for your inspiration, light and the all important Love.
Blessings
Anne
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Dearest Anne, how wonderful for you to start in Leon, a city very dear to my heart. I spend 4 days resting and each day, I visited a different church. The cathedral is a wonder, the stain glass windows rival some of the famous churches in Europe.
However, the one that is dearest to my heart is the the Basilica of San Isidoro, an ancient Roman temple site. Its Christian roots is traced back to the early 10th century. A monastery for Saint John the Baptist was erected there and a bit later the basilica was rededicated to the St. Isidore of Seville, who’s relics are said to be buried there.
Anne, In my experience, Pilgrims blessings are offered in each church offering evening mass, which happens in any church along the way, as long as they have a priest to say mass. The blessings are different in each place, some are as simple as an additional blessing at end of mass, others are more memorable. Just ask at the albergue, or bar in each town when and where. in Spain, especially the women go to mass every evening.
I am not a practicing Catholic, to be honest, I don’t know what I am now. As a child I love the months of May, because I could go to church every evening for the Rosary. Once in Canada, I did not feel at home in any of the churches, so I stopped going. In Spain, I went to church every day, went to mass in the evening whenever possible… once back at home…. nada, nothing that touches my heart inside the church. I feel a deeper connection to our creator, outside in my garden or a walk in the woods.
Back to Leon and the Basilica of San Isidoro. They offer a Noon Pilgrims blessings as well. So I decided to go for the noon mass and blessings. The church was full, and as it had become my habit, I sat myself down fairly close to the altar (now I knew by then, that I probably had taken some ones seat, but I also knew by then, that the women loved having a peregrina amongst them, close by and did not mind me mingling with them AND by that time, I too was reciting the rosary in Spanish).
When it came to the end of mass, the priest asked for all the pilgrims to come up to the altar (not something that happens all the time), so I shuffle up and all I could hear is the click clap of my trusted pilgrims staff and no other sound. I turned around to see if there were any other pilgrims coming up… no there wasn’t. I hesitated, and the priest beckoned me forward… I was the only pilgrim there!
He has a few words with me trying to gage my knowledge of Spanish and asked me who I was, my name etc and then he turned to the congregation and explained to them, that here they have a peregrina canadiense, injured, walking to Santiago and that I needed all their prayers to do so. He told me he was going to pray in Spanish, slowly, so I could understand, and so he did, waiting for my head to nod as a sign of understanding. He proceeded to bless me and I thought it was over, but no, the congregation then sang a beautiful pilgrims song, and as I slowly walked back towards the exit, some of the women came out, touched me and wished me Buen Camino. By that time I was crying so hard, and just sat down for a while.
There are other pilgrims blessings that stuck in my mind for other reasons, the pilgrims surrounding me, or the dramatics of the younger priest in Santa Domingo, the nuns in Carrion, etc., but nothing compared to San Isidoro.
Ingrid
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Dear Anne,
I meant to get this to you yesterday but was swamped. I know that your Camino will be wonderful as you are so open and willing to allow the experience to be what it will be. I just now realized that you are starting in Leon, which is essentially where Steve got the message that he was to continue and I was to go! So, I trust that there is some strong spiritual energy there for you as well.
Be safe and well, stretch your Achilles heel to avoid “plantar fasciitis”, and know that we are all rooting for you and wish you the best keep us posted as you find wifi, which can sometimes be challenging. And enjoy this long deserved adventure.
Much love,
Jill
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Dear Ingrid.
Your description of your experiences in Leon were so beautiful. How special to have your very own blessing and the good wishes and prayers of those surrounding you, though they were strangers. Thankyou also for the background to San Isodoro, the noon mass and the blessings along the way.
I arrive on Sunday evening after a very long journey and plan to start walking on Wednesday morning, so I will have 2 full days to explore the city. Wow!
Anne
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Anne, so you have some time. The museum attached to the Cathedral of Leon is worthwhile exploring. Whilst you are allowed to take pictures in the cathedral and the abbey walks, you are not inside the museum. I also went to the Parador, but did not go inside, there was a sign posted, only for guests… what a shame, I would have loved to walk around. The church next door is nice as well.
Are you a foodie? (I am and I will eat anything once!). Leon is famous for it’s morcilla (bloodpudding , there is a festival the last weekend in September, 3 days I believe. All the farmers and cooks from around the area and beyond attend, just like a local fair in anytownaroundtheworld. You go from stand to stand and taste the varieties of said wonderful culinary delight. In Burgos, you get the sausage, in Leon the pudding spread. You spread it on a piece of bread and follow with a swig of wonderful cerveca or your choice of beverage.
Another different kind of speciality is cecina de caballo. Cured meat from Horse. (ok PGS family no bullets please). Cecina is cured meat, other than from the pig. It can be from cow, goat or horse. There are specialty stores that have them hanging in various degree of pricing. Cecina as well as the regular cured hams, usually that have won prizes, are of course proudly displayed in shops as well as bars and retaurants.
Next, are the cheeses. Any cheese product is delicious, my favorite was queso de cabra – goat cheese. It does not need to be refrigerated, so I always had a piece of queso, bread, can of tuna, olives, cecina, can of “aquarius” (Spanish energy drink), or can of cerveca in my backpack for munching along the way.
Now I know much is being said about vino tinto, which flows like water. Personally, I didn’t like the wine until I was in Galicia and then it was Rebeiro whites.
Anne, if anything ails you, stomach wise, take the Spanish home remedy of a shot of Orujo, any colour, the clear one is powerful, the slightly amber one more like brandy and the yellowish one has herbs in it. You can also get it as liquor with coffee, figs, etc.
Do I make you hungry? I am, alas I can’t get any of that here in Canada… another reason to return to the Camino.
If you like tea, bring your own stash, the Spanish are not tea drinkers, the odd place will offer tea, rarely “true tea”, mostly herbals and tissanes.
¡Buen provecho! y ¡Salud!
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Ingrid,
You make me want to go back and EAT!
Bill
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Dear Bill, that’s the IDEA! 😉
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Ingrid, wow. Such fabulous information. Thanks. Keen on the cheeses but will have to carefully consider some of the other options suggested. I am gluten intolerant so my choices may be more restricted.
Had some tea bags in my pack and took them out. Might just put them back before Saturday.
Yes, am hungry for the tastes of Spain. You have whet my appetite just a little more.
Anne 🐌
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Anne – it seems like the roller coaster of emotions you’re going through is similar to what I went through, and I suspect a lot of others too.
I notice you put in “guilt” amongst those things you’re feeling. I felt that too – leaving my wife behind, and my work commitments too.
But once you set foot on The Way, all that will be left behind. That’s the wonderful thing about the Camino, it pares everything back to the essential –
Once you get there, once you start, all those little niggles will be gone.
I hope you keep in touch here. And I’m sure lots of us will be following your progress on your blog. Have fun these last few days before you leave!
Bill
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Hi Bill. Just home after a particularly challenging day. Yet another obstacle to the final preparations I am sure. Roll on Friday afternoon!!
Yes, my guilt stems from the fact that my husband is going to be at home, I won’t be able to speak to him [ no phone in the pack] and I am having 4 weeks to myself. Last weekend a friend described it as my “Catholic” guilt but I think it is part of all of us. Maybe one of the things I will learn is to accept without guilt, let the little things wash over me and focus on what is really important.
I am so looking forward to putting those niggles away. Maybe when I return at the end of October, they will be well and truly gone. The freedom from pressure, expectations and deadlines is something I am really wanting to embrace.
I most certainly will check in with the PGS Blog. It has become such a part of my daily ritual. I reach for the iPad first thing in the morning. When you were walking, I joked about having breakfast with Bill. Guess what? I still do!! [ I try not to spill the coffee!!]
Blessings
Anne
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Hi Anne,
My wife’s tacit deal with me was that I had to come back “so that she didn’t have to apologise for me anymore.”
🙂
It assuaged my guilt somewhat knowing that Jennifer would be meeting up with me in Spain at the end of my walk – but even so, taking 4-5wks for your own personal spiritual journey is a big ask for a partner.
But hey, after day one, all that’s forgotten! You will have a fantastic time. Can’t wait to follow you, and have my coffee with you!
Bill
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Buen Camino, and sounds like you’re doing fine !!! 😉
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Hello Julian.
Thankyou for your wishes. I feel a bit like that little duck – Calm above the water and paddling like mad beneath the surface!!
I am sure that once I actually set off I will put everything behind me and focus on the moment.
Blessings
Anne
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Hello to the wonderful PGS Family.
Thankyou so much to those who have responded to my guest blog.
Thankyou very much Bill, for the invitation. To actually put my fears, aspirations and feelings out there for all to read was a really difficult thing for me to do. However, as I arrive home tonight after a very challenging day, to read your comments and words of support, I feel some of the burden has been lifted. So many times I remind the kids that “a burden shared is a burden halved.” That’s how I now feel, so thanks for sharing my burden.
Of course, the reality still awaits me.
I will remember you all in my prayers, especially at the Pilgrim Mass in the Cathedral.
Blessings
Anne
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Dear Anne,
Your quest post was so clear and honest and sincere.
No wonder it got such a heartfelt response!
I think Julian put it beautifully succinctly – you’ll be fine!
Bill
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Anne,
To repeat myself from earlier comments, let your Camino unfold before your eyes and your heart. Live each day and walk in amazement. Expect nothing but be excited and appreciate everything. There is no right or wrong. You can not do it wrongly. It will be YOUR unique experience.
All your preparatory questions make perfect sense. We all had the questions. Few had the answers but they will be revealed to you as necessary. They may also be replaced with new questions. Expect to be challenged. Embrace each day and be thankful. You are a winner just by showing up.
Wifi was available most evenings, but it did not dawn on me that I could write a daily blog each evening with or without wifi until I was halfway through my Camino. It simply meant I might not post it till the next day. Enjoy the mini, it will serve you well.
Buen Camino and vaya con Dios, Steve
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Steve, once again your words are like a tonic. You have an amazing way of just being able to say what is needed in such a succinct and meaningful way. Your common sense approach without the frills and glitz is fabulous. Thankyou.
I have been practising writing my blogs in Notes on the iPad as they are then easy to copy and paste. I will also be keeping a journal electronically so am keen to do updates.
I just love “live each day and walk in amazement”. Maybe that’s what we need to do every day, regardless of where we are and what we are doing.
Look forward to keeping in touch, Steve.
Hooroo!
Anne
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Beautifully expressed Steve.
Bill
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Jill, can’t seem to reply to your post, so here it is.
Lovely to have your comments and words of wisdom. I guess Leon may have mixed feelings for you. I felt drawn to begin my pilgrimage in Leon but not sure why. Knew very little about. When I first started planning, I had always said I would begin in Sahagun, but it just didn’t seem right and Leon did.
I will remember to do my Shibashi exercises each morning as well as my stretches. Thanks for the timely reminder.
Will be thinking of you at various points along the way. I know you didn’t get to Cruz Ferro, but it seems to be a place of remembering. This will no doubt be a very emotional time for me as I found a photo of my Nan, Edie and my pop, with my mum and dad on their wedding day. That is carefully sealed up and in my pack.
Hope you are doing well. Your Camino effort continues to amaze me, with the pain and rain you bore for so long. Amazing!
Blessings,
Anne
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Anne, you will love Leon! I spent 3 days there and that was where I decided to stop walking as my knees were too bad. I remember Leon as a very welcoming place and the churches are very special. Especially San Isidore, it had a very special feeling to it and I’m not Catholic.
Safe journey and Buen Camino you will have lots of people praying for you.
Emily
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Emily, shame you had to end in Leon. 😕
As I posted in another reply, I was originally beginning further back but Leon kept jumping out and telling me to begin there. I await what unfolds.
Really appreciate the prayers. I’ll need lots!!
Off to work now. Just 3 more days.
Anne 🐌
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Actually , I forgot to add that I only stopped walking in Leon. I then took the train to Santiago for 3 days and then to Finisterre for 3 days and then on to Muxia for 7 days. So I stopped walking but didn’t stop my Camino. I feel I walked the places the universe needed me to walk then went to the places that they needed me to go to. It was only in Leon that I realized I didn’t need to permanently hurt my knees by walking my Camino, I could still do it but by train and bus. Some of my most powerful experiences happened after I stopped walking….
Are you doing a blog?
Buen Camino
Emily
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Emily,
More people should give themselves that freedom. Bravo.
Steve
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Thank you Steve, I really appreciate that 🙂
Emily
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Emily,
That’s fantastic. “Some of the most powerful experiences happened after I stopped walking… ”
That should be enshrined on the “True Pilgrim” booklet!
Bill
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Yes it should Bill. I was fine about it while I was there, I knew I was on my path and I followed it. It was harder when I got back and was following different forums and blogs and all I kept hearing was if you don’t walk it all or you don’t carry your pack the whole way then you are a “cheater” and not a true pilgrim. That really rattled me and made me question myself. It wasn’t until I found your blog and Sister that I started to feel better and more at peace with myself and realize that with all I was feeling and wrestling with, that I was a true pilgrim! A true pilgrim, I think, is a pilgrim that follows their heart and goes where their path leads them anyway they need to. The universe or God does not care how they get there only that they do.
Love and Light,
Emily
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Those that criticize your Camino are probably not what would be called “true” pilgrims, if there is such a thing, so pay them no mind. It can become a ridiculous culture with unending judgments. Take what you want and leave the rest, and like Burger King, do it your way.
Always be true to yourself.
Steve
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Thanks Steve! That means a lot coming from you as I watched (read) you do it your way.
Emily xo
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Hi Emily –
I don’t understand this whole mind-set of what is the right way and what is the wrong walk to walk the Camino.
Who are these people who can dictate these things? This is why I now avoid these forums and blogs – because I find they are so restrictive in their thinking and anti-pilgrim, in a way.
I remember, one of my earlier experiences on Ivar’s forum – I had posted a story about how the Universe had validated my decision to walk the Camino by sending me a royalty cheque within 2 hours of my buying my airline tickets. I’m not sure if you read the post in my blog here, it was a very early post, but essentially I paid $4100 for my tickets, I think it was, and then out of the blue a couple of hours later, a royalty cheque for $4300 arrived in my account. Believe me, royalty cheques don’t arrive very frequently, sadly, so this was weird. it not only covered my airfares, (myself and Jennifer), but also my ground transportation costs.
Anyway, I posted this on Ivar’s forum, saying that I felt it was the Universe telling me that it was supporting my journey, and I got a series of nasty comments back, with one person trying to tell me what the Universe did and didn’t do. I thought it was ludicrous that this bloke should deign to know exactly how Spirit, the Universe, the Divine, operated. So I was very careful on Ivar’s forum after that, and have since hardly visited there at all.
And over there, everyone hides behind usernames, so they don’t stand up honestly and declare themselves – which is what we do here, and on my forum.
So, getting back to your comment – you are absolutely right in what you say about a pilgrim being in the heartfelt intent of the journey, irrespective of what happens on that journey, or how it’s done.
Good on you!!
Bil
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Wow Bill! i wish I had read your post on Ivar’s forum. I am totally with you about the universe supporting your journey. What else would you think. A similar thing happened to me after I got back from my Camino. I had a chance to go on a canoe trip to Lake Superior in northern Ontario. It is the biggest lake in the world and I have always wanted to see it. Gord Lightfoot made it famous in his song “The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald” and it holds a mystical feeling for me. Anyway I really couldn’t afford to go and I am not a canoeist or a camper but I trusted my instinct that I was supposed to go, that it was part of my Camino. Just after I paid for my plane ticket and the cost of the trip, a cheque came for me from the National Film Board, that pretty much covered my costs. I had participated in a documentary that they were doing on coyotes and the fear that arose in Nova Scotia after Taylor’s attack. They had filmed me for several days, months before and had been scheduled to come back but I had backed out because the film was concentrating too much on my story and I wasn’t comfortable with that. It was Taylor’s story not mine. I had been paid. I thought for everything I had done so far, but apparently there was still money in the contract and they chose just at the time of me taking my trip, to close the contract out and pay me what was left of it. I actually called the director and asked it it was okay to cash the cheque lol It was like money from “Heaven” and I believe it really was from Heaven lol and my confirmation that God or the universe wanted me to go on this trip. The trip was amazing and really helped to settle me after the Camino.
One of the things the Camino did for me was allow me to understand that each of us is on a pilgrimage, that our whole life is a pilgrimage and each of us is trying to do in it way that we have to do in order to be on our true path.. So we all have to try hard to not listen to all the people who try to tell us how to do our Camino. It reminds me of my favourite poem by the poet Mary Oliver called “The Journey” in which she talks about how when we wake up to our true purpose and try to live it, it upsets the people around us because it threatens their believe in their own lives.
Sorry I didn’t mean to be so long winded but I sat down to answer your comments and the words just flew out of me. Divine intervention maybe…. 🙂
Love and Light
Emily xo
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Hi Emily –
Thank you so much for your insightful comment and for sharing the name of your favourite poem, ‘The Journey’ by Mary Oliver. I know a little of the poems of Mary Oliver’s – her poem ‘The Summer Day’ inspired Australian author Ailsa Piper (‘Sinning Across Spain’) to take action and make her pilgrimage on the Camino. The poems are very powerful and confronting too, but in such a positive way. They make you sit up and take notice.
‘The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald’ is one of my all-time favourite songs … Gordon Lightfoot takes you to the heart of the tragedy with that song. Another gifted storyteller. Thank you for the reminder of it.
Best Regs – Jenny
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Thank you Jenny! And thank you for telling my about “The Summer Day” I will definitely check it out as well as the book by Ailsa Piper. Mary Oliver’s poem really resonate with people.
Take care,
Emily
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Emily –
that’s a wonderful story –
Also, I remember a line from Melville, Moby Dick, which I have always believed “The Path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, whereupon my Soul is grooved to run.”
Bill
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I like that line Bill 🙂
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Hi Emily –
I wrote that line in the front cover of my diary year after year.
Bill
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🙂
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Hello Anne,
From scanning the above I gather you must be starting your Camino in Leon. In 2011 I too started there. What a beautiful city it is. I’m not sure if you need accommodation in Leon before you set out but if so I can highly recommend Hostal San Martin in the old city centre. It is maybe 25 meters at most off the Camino. A beautiful old place run by a delightful family who are very very helpful. About 32 euro for a double room with a private bathroom.
A very good piece of advice that a Canadian suggested was, when leaving Leon, catch a local town bus to La Virgen del Camino which is on the outskirts of Leon. The bus saves an 8km walk through the industrial area walking on pavement breathing traffic fumes for a couple of hours. Not inspiring unless you are an avid student of 1960s industrial archtecture. The bus leaves from a major stop down towards the river. Very close to the cathedral is the Tourist Office and they would certainly show you where the stop is.
From La Virgen del Camino it is a very pleasant, about 17km walk to Villa de Mazariffe. For me that was a nice distance for my first day. By the time you wake up the next morning you’re an old hand and know just what to do.
Well that was a nice little bit of reminiscing. Have a wonderful time Anne. I look forward to hearing about your adventures.
Love Debbie
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Hi Debbie.
Yes, I am starting in Leon. I only have 30 days in total to be away. Travel from Australia is 2 days each way, so time is a bit restricted. I also want to get to Finisterre.
Thanks for the advice about the walk out of Leon. I had read about it and will certainly be taking the bus to La Virgen del Camino. As I have 2 full days in Leon before I head off I will check out the Tourist Office, bus routes, Cathedral and some of the sights.
Very reassuring to read that one day will equip me for the days which follow.
Blessings
Anne ☀
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Anne, ever since I first met you here, I have felt that you radiate that special, quiet love that is certainty in God.And I feel you are under a special Directive to take this Camino -that you will reach new insights, experience new and undoubtable affirmations, and change the lives of many of the people you’re going to meet. A time for special witness and connections-and a time of great blessings and miracles happening all around you.Your faith is a gift to everyone who knows you, and it will be my privelege to hold you up in my prayers every day! Blessings!!!
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