2022 Holy Year!

 

Last week I received from Spain 16 brand new Credentials for the 2022 Holy Year!

This makes it real.  We're going! And I just can't wait.  This last couple of years have been trying for everyone, including me.  So many roadblocks, but we've busted through them all and there's light at the end of the tunnel!

The new Credentials look like they were designed for people walking from Sarria to Santiago. Only one side of the accordian-style booklets have spaces for stamps. So if you are walking an entire route, you will most likely need a second Credential, especially since you will need TWO stamps every day from Sarria.

I finally, after much agonizing, research, and anxiety, got my first COVID vaccination. I chose the Pfizer. The only issues I had with the first round was a sore arm and some pretty impressive exhaustion on Day 2. Not looking forward to the second shot, but AM looking forward to it being over and being able to fly!

Joe and I each have a full group for 2022, and they seem like a great bunch of pilgrims! I have nearly all my reservations made, though not in the larger cities, which appear to be cautiously holding off until later in 2021 to book their 2022  rooms. In fact, Gite Makila, where I HAD booked rooms for 2022, asked me to cancel my reservations until later in the year. So I've been exploring the option of staying only one night in SJPP and staying in a Gite near Orisson on night 2.This means for the first 3 nights, we will stay in "regular" pilgrim lodgings instead of private rooms in SJPP, Orisson, and then Roncesvalles. Honestly, it sounds like fun and I think it would be a great way to begin our Camino. It would mean not having to rush on Day 1 - having a leisurely breakfast before walking. It would mean having the family style dinner with pilgrims from all over the world on Day 2. Then, again, a shorter walk on Day 3.  Then, from Zubiri forward, we would switch to private and double rooms. We'll see how it goes. Several gites have been hurt by the COVID mess and lodgings at the bottleneck from SJPP are not as bountiful as they were before this all began. So we'll just make the best of it - like true Pilgrims - and "let the Camino provide!"

That's all the news for now. I'm in Dallas, Oregon, about 1.5 hours south of Portland and we're going to have two days of record-breaking 100-111 degree weather this weekend. CRAZY! So I'm hunkering down indoors and doing some more planning for 2022. It's making me want to walk sooner so don't be surprised if I don't take off for a few weeks this Autumn... the Camino calls...



 

To Córdoba then ???

I tried updating this post from 2016, and it popped it up here into June 2021.  What the heck!?  Anyway, I don't want to lose the information about Tony and I'm afraid to try to update my Malaga posts, so here it will stay.
*******
What a day!

My new Camino Angel showed up last afternoon in the form of a Peregrino named Tony, an Australian from Antequera (now). Tony is walking to raise money to buy wheelchairs for sick children in Antequera. He s a survivor of a usually fatal leukemia who was one of the few saved by bone marrow transplant. I learned his story over a bottle of wine he shared with me and also learned he too had been snubbed by the French guy!

In the late afternoon, Tony took a short nap and the others were horrified to hear his very healthy SNORING!!! They then, apparently, told him he would have to sleep on a mattress on the floor in the kitchen! When they told me this, I just said, "Gee guys, that's nice of you. He survives death to sleep on the floor!"

But I don't think Tony minded. I know I must sound evil but it gave me great pleasure to hear Tony's LOUD SNORING not only echoing, but amplified up the stairs all night. It literally shook the roof, like a big friendly bear!! I had good earplugs but the French guy woke me up several times tossing and turning. I know it's mean, but it just felt like Karma.

This morning, Tony and I were in great spirits and he had coffee while I waited across the street in the dark for my bus.  I've decided to jump up to the Madrid route to finish the sections I missed last year.

The minute the bus picked me up, I saw Tony leaving and I felt he had been keeping an eye out for me. Bless you, Pilgrim, wherever the Camino takes you!

My bus took me back to Antequera, my only option to get out of town, as it was a fiesta day. I had made a Hostal reservation at Lucena, thinking I might continue walking from there. However the ticket counter was closed today and I was forced to use a cranky machine. I bought a ticket to Lucena, then tried to get a ticket to Córdoba for tomorrow. The ticket machine told me that if I went to Lucena, there was absolutely no option to get to Córdoba from there!!! None. Zip.

I tried a dozen combinations and it said no bus to Córdoba from Lucena. I would have to backtrack to Antequera AGAIN and go to Córdoba from there. At this point it was like the Universe was telling me to just move on. And so I bought ANOTHER ticket to Córdoba, where I knew I could get to Madrid, then Vallodolid.

Imagine my frustration when the damned bus took a 15 minute stop at Lucena!!!! My Canadian friends and I just laughed. This Camino is kicking my butt this year.

So I lost €€€ on the room in Lucena plus I was out for the cost of the one ticket. I complained to the bus driver but he just shrugged and at this point I felt laughing was the best option.

Sooooo... I have already seen Córdoba and am really wanting to walk, (after a day of rest, now) so I got a train ticket to Vallidolid. It was spendy, €82, but so much faster than the bus would have been. It was already turning into a 12 hour trip! Met another angel on the train who helped me make the jump from Atocha to Chamartin in just enough time to catch our train! She was going to Vitoria.

Arrived here starving, stinky, and weary. Found a hotel for €40. Didn't have the energy to look further. I'd like to get onto the Madrid route tomorrow if possible but I don't know. I'm going to shower then check bus schedules. I have not seen Vallodolid but at this rate I am going to run out of funds and I will still need to find a place to hunker down for two weeks from June 1-15 until time to pick up my group.

Ok. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

One thing is for certain, life is an adventure! Isn't it great?!

Annie

 

My first hamburguesa!