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...