Tag: Mary

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Day Two: Mission San Jose – On the Way

Queen of the Missions

“The largest of the missions was almost fully restored to its original design in the 1930s by the WPA (Works Projects Administration). Spanish missions were not churches, but communities with the church the focus. Mission San José captures a transitional moment in history, frozen in time.” https://www.nps.gov/saan/planyourvisit/sanjose.htm

Again, it was a good little walk from the hotel to the mission. We didn’t mind! The path along the San Antonio river, critters, and flowers. And River Keepers!

Antonio the River Keeper. He retired from the United States Marine Corps. He’s 71 and has been married to the same woman for 45 years. He takes care of the river for vacation money – and to stay out of his wife’s hair!

This fellow strutted around and showed off his red eyeglasses.

Look closely. This fellow is just about finished with his lunch.

Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of tiny butterflies. Like walking through a Disney animation.

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Day One: Mission Espada – Exploring

Mission Espada

We easily walked another mile just exploring the mission.

The facade reminds me of many of the small churches along the Camino Frances. Maybe the Spanish floor plan was passed on to Texas.
Priests visiting from Croatia. No. I don’t know what they were doing in San Antonio. The fellow in front was the only one who spoke English – and he spoke with a decidedly Irish accent. I’m looking a tad bedraggled. We’d walked in heavy mist and light rain all morning.
Marie reading the historical info plaque while exploring the mission grounds.
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Tres Peregrinas

El Camino de San Antonio Missions

Mendy Smith (L) Me and Marie Scott Marks

Marie and I spent our childhoods together. I was ten and she was eight when I moved to the neighborhood. Mendy’s dad & his family lived two doors down from Marie. I am 76.

The walk is through “four eighteenth century Spanish Missions and the oldest functioning Cathedral in Texas. San Antonio is the only place outside Europe that you can officially begin walking the El Camino de Santiago.” El Camino de San Antonio Missions

The Path

Pay attention to the path options. Google likes to take you along high-traffic roadways and not-so-scenic byways. We paused frequently and assessed our options. Opting for neighborhoods and the Riverwalk path added a few miles, but was absolutely worth it.

Lodging

There ain’t none.
If you want to walk from the hotel to the path (and back to a hotel), count on adding another 8-10 miles to the day. Our first day was about 12 miles and the second day, about 15 miles because we walked back/forth to hotels.

Breaks and food

Benches are along the riverwalk. There are no cafes or places to eat, so bring your snacks/lunch/water with you. One detour we took through a neighborhood brought us by a service station and convenience store, but that was a chance happening.

Day One. Start and finish at the hotel. The dark blue is a random auto trip. Light blue is our path.
Day Two. Finished at our hotel on the Riverwalk.
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Humpty Dumpty

Just when I was having an internal dialogue with you about having no blisters, no shin splints, no sprains, no tendinitis, and NO FALLS – I fell. About 3km from my hotel.
Luckily, I fell on my rear. 😉

Here’s what I said to John:

Had my first fall. A very steep descent with tiny, loose gravel, so walked on the granite siding bricks. Worked fine until I hit a slightly muddy slick spot. Fell on my rear. My pack has a folded pullover fleece, folded rain jacket and poncho, so it protected my back and kept the back of my head from hitting full force. I’m fine. I was about 10 feet from the bottom of the hill.

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A surprise welcoming

Lars ( Germany) This fellow was hanging out in front of the Santiago cathedral awaiting my arrival. We took a picture on his phone, but I don’t have it yet. This photo was taken in Leon.
He gifted me a pretty tube for my Compostela, took me to the location and explained the Compostela-getting process. Then he was off to hail a cab and head home. What a special surprise!

Lars in Leon
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Pilgrims Chris and Josephine

You may recall the video of Chris’ performance in the big hoop (if you are on my Facebook group- I haven’t been able to upload videos to this blog via my phone).

I met him and his Camino family sometime around mid-September. They are the ones who threw me the impromptu birthday party.
I happily ran into Chris (London) and Josephine (Denmark) last evening. Today, Chris returns to London and Josephine walks on to Finisterre.



On a break during a long, hard day.
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Stage Thirty-one: Vega de Valcarce to O Cebreiro

The last big climb. Entering the final Spanish region on the Camino Frances.

O’Cebreiro (pronounced oh–thay–bray–air–oh) Marks a final major threshold over the Cantabrian mountains. 3rd highest peak on the Camino.

Galicia – The mountains of Galicia are the first object in 5,000 km that the westerly winds across the Atlantic hit so you can expect an immediate change in weather with frequent rain showers and thunderstorms. (Brierley)

Hi, All.
I walked up that mountain- very slowly. The views were breathtaking, the weather perfect.

Twenty steps off the trail in all my gasping glory.
Mountain View along the way
The trail
Mountains
Crossing into Galicia
Thomas said to keep going, so I sat down.
Didn’t realize I’d arrived until I saw the green lady.
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Pilgrim Chris

Pilgrim Chris from the UK. I’ve enjoyed the company of this young man and his friends many times along my journey. He was also part of the group that gave me the impromptu birthday party in El Acebo. I learned yesterday that his day job is a circus performer. I invite you to watch this video all the way through- his performance gets increasingly difficult and impressive as time goes by in the video. What a graceful body and gracious spirit.

Chris and friends
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October 4 &. 5: Paths and Places

We are walking along the mountains and through the woodlands again.
Photo of me on the ancient Roman bridge into Molinaseca & a photo of the Templar castle in Ponferrada. And of course, paths and mooing wildlife.

Entering Molinaseca
Templar Castle in Ponferrada
Path up the mountain to Cruz de Ferro
Mountains!
They weren’t impressed by us.