As the end of the extended vacation was coming to an end, we started to realize that there were too many things left on our "to do" list to actually do. It took some paring of the list, some abreviated visits to must-dos, and some very long days to finish up and consequently, blog time was one of the things pared off the list!
When we got close to London, we finally lit in a hotel room for more than one night! This alone was reason to celebrate. We decided to base all the rest of our travel out of a little town near Heathrow which would allow us to stop schlepping bags in and out of hotel rooms. Thank goodness for priceline, as we got a great room for a good price in an area that is known for its exorbinant hotel rooms. While we really liked the idea of staying in a little pub/inn, at this point in the trip a few nights at the Crown Plaza sounded just perfect!
After nixing the southern part of Wales from our trip, we still had Stonehenge, Brighton Beach and Castle, Winsor Castle, Hampton Court and all of London proper left. That was quite a bit to fit into three days, but we decided to give it a go.
Stonehenge was something Cait really wanted to see. I'm awfully glad she did. It is one of the mysteries of the history of man that will probably never be solved. I'd seen Stonehenge in photos and on tv, but until you actually stand near the giant stones (that actually come from more than 400 kilometers away) and realize that they were somehow not only moved there over 1500 years ago, but also stood erect.....well, its just mind boggling. The big stones weigh over 50 tons and yet somehow a civilization that the ability to dig them up, transport them and set them on end in exact pattern. Some of the stones have worn away from the elements, some where chipped away at by souvenir takers, but still, as you walk around them, you can't help but wonder how they got there....and possibly more importantly, why.
One of the funniest things we found at Stonehenge was a man from Alabama. He was hard to miss with his Bama hat and drawl, and after he heard us talk, he considered us kindred spirits! He followed Cait and I around Stonehenge chatting up a storm, telling us about his travels with his wife and her two sisters. Every year they go on a big vacation, and because he is the only husband around....it is him and these three ladies going all over the world. He talked about his sons, food, the "sisters", Scotland, Australia, the weather, the bus they were riding on, the hotel they were staying at, his recent trip to San Antonio, the newspaper in Tampa one of his sons works for, and OF COURSE, football! As a matter of fact, he talked so much, Cait and I couldn't get a word in edgewise.....which is quite a feat! Mom, on the other hand, had fallen back and she and the "Bama" wife were talking as if they were old friends...go figure! After so many days of people who spoke different languages or the same language with strange accents, it was nice to hear a y'all and a ma'am for a change. Last we saw him, he was off to find a couple who's baby had on a UT hat that we told him about.....I think he was going to probably try to convert the baby and teach him to "Roll Tide"!
After Stonehenge, we headed down to Brighton Beach. We had gotten up pretty early and were putting in a lot of mileage, even by our standards, and for the first time on the road trip....I was worried about driving. I got really tired in the afternoon sun and the drive seemed much longer than the 2 hours it actually took us to get there. After a quick look at Brighton Castle (which, incidentally looked like the Taj Mahal instead of a proper British castle), we drove to the beach where I dropped Cait and Mom off for a stroll on the beach and to collect some stones for Alexa and I took myself a little power nap. Thank goodness for the ability to power nap! The weather was cold and damp and not really beach weather anyway, so all I missed were the gorgeous stones that form the beach there. Because Alexa is such a rock collector, Mom and Cait filled their pockets will all sorts of stones from the beach to bring home to her and by the time they got back to the car I was revived enough to finish the day.
Cait's favorite time in British History is the Tudor period and the reign of Henry VIII. We new that a lot of the next few days were going to be filled with trips to the Castles where Henry and/or his wives lived, and luckily near Brighton Beach was the home of Ann of Cleves (one of Henry's wives who actually survived the marraige to him and got out of it with her head still in tact. We drove over to see it and there was a hand written sign on the entrance...."closed due to staff sickness". While that was a little odd, I guess we were glad that we weren't subjected to the germs and we spent a half hour peeking in the windows of a house built in the 1500s.
After a great dinner and good nights sleep, we were up early to head out to Hampton Court and Windsor Castle. This was one of the days that Cait had most been looking forward to in the UK.
Hampton Court was the main home of Henry VIII. It is remarkably well preserved, with original tapestries on the walls and many of the floors original as well. They happened to be filming a movie there at the time, which while making it sort of a pain to get around, did liven the place up, as there were people in costume and props around that made the castle look like an actual working castle. While I learned a lot from Cait about Henry and his wives, and the information that they give you at the castle is very informative.....maybe the most interesting part was a tour of the "privy". I'm not sure how civilization survived such terrible hygeine conditions....thank goodness for modern plumbing! The passages were dark and damp, and as they talked about the smells from the sewage and the rotting meat after the King had been there for several weeks, you really imagine how unbearable it could become. No wonder they migrated from castle to castle so often, giving each one a break and chance to air out. We spent all morning and into the afternoon at Hampton and it was actually more than we, well at least I, had anticipated it being.
Windsor Castle was next...and since it was a working castle where the current Queen spends most of her time, we weren't sure how much of it was going to be open and we expected a sort of modern Castle. Wrong again. Windsor was built in the early 1000s....and while obviously has been updated, it still has the look of an old castle. If I were Queen, I would spend all of my time there as well, because you couldn't help but feel "royal" living there. The Queen was there the day we were there and they were setting up for a big banquet, which made our visit more interesting. All of the tables in the banquet hall were being set, with a ruler being used to measure the exact placement of all of the table settings. That's not exactly how I do it at home....but I just might have to get myself a table ruler!
The Chapel on the castle grounds was maybe the most intesting part, with generations of royals entombed in the chapel. Some had regular crypt like tombs, but some were buried in vaults that were topped with carvings of their bodies lying in state. Really weird and creepy. Henry VIII, historically one of the most egocentric rulers of that time, is buried under the floor in a pretty non-desript grave, despite his pre-death instructions for a big monument that included a marble horse......guess his kids didn't get the memo!
We spent as much time as possible in the castle and were some of the last few people to leave. Considering the security at museums, government buildings, and houses of government officials here in the states, it was surprising how accessible this castle, as well as all of the other's we had seen, are to the general public. The one thing we noticed at both of the stops on this day were the large number of school aged children who were touring the sights. They seemed to be really interested in the history and pretty well behaved..........that would change the next day!!!
Our last day in the UK was going to prove to be the most exhausting there. We had decided that rather than fight the London traffic, I would drive us to the train station and we would take the "tube" into the city, where we planned on seeing London Tower, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Piccadilly Circus, the Houses of Parliament, and a show in the Theatre district. Unbelieveably, we managed to see all of that, threw in a great pub dinner and pre-show desert, and it made for a highly successful, though at times trying, day.
We started with the Tower of London, because Mom told us that they lines to see the Crowned Jewels become ridiculous late in the day. Aside from the jewels, Cait was interested in the history of the imprisonment and execution of two of Henry's wifes and many high ranking royals during the Tudor period. This might have been our first and only real disappointment of the trip. The information at the Tower was sparce, we couldn't get in to see the tombs of Ann Bolynn and Catherine Howard (Henry's wives who were beheaded), many of the Crown Jewels were not out for display and there were school kids everywhere. Unlike the day before, many of these kids were not so well behaved. As a matter of fact, one particurally bad class seemed to keep showing up where we were, and by the time we were in the "Bloody Tower" learning about the murder of two young princes by their uncle, I was on my last nerve. There were stations throughout the tower where you could cast your opinion on a topic by pressing a series of buttons. They are designed to be easy to use and to keep crowds moving. Well, while trying to read about this uncle to had his nephews smothered there was a loud, repetitive click click click click click click in the room. It was one of the students from the class. His teacher was just standing and watching him...click click click click click. Everyone else in the room, being polite Brits, were, while muttering to each other, not confronting the child as well. I looked his direction and sort of shook my head. He ignored me....click click click click click. I sort of waved my hand in a gesture for him to stop. He still ignored me....click click click click click....over and over, banging on the voting button. Finally, I had had it, stared right at the little bugger and loudly (okay, maybe screamingly) said "STOP THAT NOW"!!!! He froze, eyes got big, and he rushed out of the room to find his teacher who had slithered away. I thought I might be in a bit of a jam with the polite Britsh crowd, but when I turned back at them, they were actually smiling in approval!
The little brat child did come back in, armed with his friends, but not a teacher. He sort of smirked at me, while his friends began banging on the buttons. Funny how positioning myself between them and the buttons and staring them down discouraged any further bad behavior and pretty soon the whole gang of little hoodlums ran off to bug someone else. Not only could I not believe how badly this class behaved, I couldn't believe how oblivious their teacher was to their disruptive behavior. Thank goodness for most of the teachers I know here, who not only care more about their students than that, but also care more about people in general.
While we were disapointed in many of the things at the tower, there were still parts that we loved. You could actually go into the areas where the prisoners were held, walking through the small passages, read the carvings in the walls that the prisoners had made. After all the stories that Cait had told us about this period of time, about the people who were persecuted and held prisoner there, it all really came to life and you could imagine what it might be like being a 17 year old girl who fell from grace and went from being Queen to being executed in days time.
After the tower, we got back on the tube and then walked our way around the center of the city, seeing all the sights we wanted to see, getting great half priced seats to see Billy Elliott and hopping on a double decker bus to spend the extra hour or so we had before the show, just checking out the city. Definitely the highlight of the night was the show. The kids who starred in it were adorable and amazingly talented, the theatre was old and gorgeous and our seats were perfect. It was the perfect ending to a great trip. Even the sort of creepy Italian man on the tube on the way home, hitting on Cait and trying to charm mom couldn't spoil that ending!
After finally getting to bed at 2:30 in the morning, we woke up early to get Cait on her flight home and then Mom and I went to return the car. Incidentally....the car was returned no worse for the wear from this US driver, even though the learner permits that Cait has stuck in the back windows created a bit of a stir, as apparently you aren't supposed to have them unless you really don't have a license. Oh well, no harm no foul....and perhaps the fair warning made people be a little more cautious around me.
It will be interesting to see how my thoughts about this trip evolve over the next week or so, as I get home and rested and back into a more normal routine. But I feel pretty safe in saying that this was an experience that will never be forgotten......and I feel like one of the luckiest people in the world to have gotten to share it with Mom and Cait
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
We Three See........ROUND-ABOUTS
I will catch up on on further adventures tomorrow....as I'm sure our castle viewing treks are becoming tiresome to hear about. Besides, today there is something more important to talk about. My conquering of the British round-about.
You see, Brits don't really have intersections, at least not intersections like we have. No redlights, waiting your turn and the such. Every time roads intersect, whether it be 3, 4 or 7....they put what is called a roundabout.
In the US we call these traffic circles and they are often confusing because they are so rare. Here, they are confusing, because they are EVERYWHERE!
So, we approach the roundabouts from a street...and the first strange thing for me to remember is that I have to enter it going left. The entering traffic has to give-way (yield) to the cars already in the circle.
I know this seems like a simple thing....enter the circle, yielding to traffic as you enter, and drive round until your exit. Well......not so much.
Picture this......me, evidentally with legs much longer than the normal European driver since the Fauxhall (European car) that we've rented forces me to sit much closer up under the wheel than I would like. So me...legs all up in the steering wheel....trying to remember to enter and go LEFT! And in the background, Cait and Mom are both reminding me of the same, while sometimes adding little tidbits like "Mom, your drifting!" or "Bev, don't forget to yield". So basically, every interesection there is chattering and coaching going on like crazy.
Add to that, the sound of the horns when I fail to remember, to hear, or to execute either the yielding, the entering and going left or both! So now you have chattering and coaching, honking, and usually some bad pop music from the radio. Wait....seems like I'm forgetting something. Oh yeah, "Sean", the voice of our navigator who speaks in such a heavy Irish accent that he is sometimes difficult to understand.
So......a little tiny car, legs all up under the wheel, left handed shifting, trying to remember not only to keep driving on the lefthand side, but to rotate left in the roundabout, Cait reminding me at 100 words a minute about yielding and where to exit, Mom coaching from the back in her "mom voice", Sean telling me to "veer left" and go about to the 3rd exit, angry red-face Brit shaking one hand at me while honking with the other, two "learning driver" signs in the back window of the car, radio playing Frankie goes to Hollywood.......throw in someone trying to photograph a sign or a sight, snacking on something odd and yummy, or us laughing about something we have just seen or heard......and you have just imagined the scene we go through 50 or 60 times a day.
This morning, we went through the process.....with all those things above.....except this particular time no one honked.
"Bev, I think you really have the hang of these round-abouts."
Thanks Mom!
You see, Brits don't really have intersections, at least not intersections like we have. No redlights, waiting your turn and the such. Every time roads intersect, whether it be 3, 4 or 7....they put what is called a roundabout.
In the US we call these traffic circles and they are often confusing because they are so rare. Here, they are confusing, because they are EVERYWHERE!
So, we approach the roundabouts from a street...and the first strange thing for me to remember is that I have to enter it going left. The entering traffic has to give-way (yield) to the cars already in the circle.
I know this seems like a simple thing....enter the circle, yielding to traffic as you enter, and drive round until your exit. Well......not so much.
Picture this......me, evidentally with legs much longer than the normal European driver since the Fauxhall (European car) that we've rented forces me to sit much closer up under the wheel than I would like. So me...legs all up in the steering wheel....trying to remember to enter and go LEFT! And in the background, Cait and Mom are both reminding me of the same, while sometimes adding little tidbits like "Mom, your drifting!" or "Bev, don't forget to yield". So basically, every interesection there is chattering and coaching going on like crazy.
Add to that, the sound of the horns when I fail to remember, to hear, or to execute either the yielding, the entering and going left or both! So now you have chattering and coaching, honking, and usually some bad pop music from the radio. Wait....seems like I'm forgetting something. Oh yeah, "Sean", the voice of our navigator who speaks in such a heavy Irish accent that he is sometimes difficult to understand.
So......a little tiny car, legs all up under the wheel, left handed shifting, trying to remember not only to keep driving on the lefthand side, but to rotate left in the roundabout, Cait reminding me at 100 words a minute about yielding and where to exit, Mom coaching from the back in her "mom voice", Sean telling me to "veer left" and go about to the 3rd exit, angry red-face Brit shaking one hand at me while honking with the other, two "learning driver" signs in the back window of the car, radio playing Frankie goes to Hollywood.......throw in someone trying to photograph a sign or a sight, snacking on something odd and yummy, or us laughing about something we have just seen or heard......and you have just imagined the scene we go through 50 or 60 times a day.
This morning, we went through the process.....with all those things above.....except this particular time no one honked.
"Bev, I think you really have the hang of these round-abouts."
Thanks Mom!
Saturday, April 2, 2011
We Three See......A castle guard, a buried Bard and Pub food to die for
What a great night's sleep....and a late morning for us. Actually a much needed perfect start to the day, since we all felt especially rested.
We had decided to head south and try to curb our castle hunting a bit. We were on a mission to get to Stratford-upon-Avon early enough to see Romeo and Juliet by the Royal Shakespeare Company. We ya know what they say about best laid plans......
Leaving Glascow we immediately were driving through some of the prettiest country yet. While talking about the rolling hills and the strange plants and trees we were seeing, someone noticed a "castle sign". Well, maybe just one more. So, quick as that, we were off the motorway and cruising through lamb country again on tiny little country roads...finally running across some unfenced land with sheep and lambs on the roads....strangely enough, just what we had been wanting to see! We drove through the grazing fields and hills, then through a forest...and finally over a beautiful little river we saw the directions to the castle we were in search of, and as we drove onto the property and up towards the gardens, we were so glad we had ventured off path.
This was one of the prettiest castles we had seen, and the best part, there was a Duke still living there. When we got to the guard house, the guard asked us what we were there for....hmmm....since I didn't think they would believe we were there for tea, we said we had just wandered off course and needed to turn around. We took long enough to snap some great photos as we were turning around in the castle driveway (if they call it a drive way) and then headed back to find our way back onto the motorway. Though it was a two hour diversion, it was one of the best little side trips we took.
Just before we got back to the main road, we went through a little town and decided this might be a great time to try some pub food. GOOD CHOICE. We got a steak and ale pie and of course, a fish and chips and a cheeseburger. For desert we shared the most decadent "sticky toffee pudding with custard sauce", which we had no idea what it was going to be, but will now never forget how good it was. The food was incredible, the pub was right out of a book on "the real Scotland" and the bartender gave us two big cups of ice to go!!! (Ice is such a treat for us even here, that it might have even outshined the great food).
Even with our detour, we still got to Stratford in plenty of time to see the show.....but unfortunately they were sold out. Still, the little city is picturesque and quaint....and we got to grave yard search a bit while heading to the church where William Shakespeare is buried. There is just something incredibly interesting about a cemetary with grave stones from the 1600s! I know, I know...still not a normal vacation....but we will get to London soon, and then I'm sure do some more normal things!
For the most part, we met the nicest, most interesting people on this adventure. It just seems like people go out of their way to help us or talk to us. Its so nice to run into that over and over. Well, tonight ended with an encounter at the hotel that was just the opposite of what we've been experiencing. The guy at the front desk.....well, to say he tested my nerves is an understatement. I even, at one point, asked him if there was a camera someplace because it was like a character actor was playing a bad British hotel clerk and I was being punked. I looked at Cait and Mom at one point, both looked like they were waiting for a bomb to drop. Later, Mom said she couldn't believe how calm I was being and was afraid at any minute I might go right across the counter and grab him by his collar. I was trying really hard not to be the "ugly American"....and I think I somewhat succeeded......but the whole situation was just proof that no matter where you are, there are just some people who should not be doing the job they are doing. Well, that and proof that some people are just flat dumber than a post.
I know I've said this over and over again.....but I can't stress enough.....as I listen to the sounds of Cait and Mom sleeping and reflect on all the things we are seeing, learning, laughing about....I know just how blessed I am. Tomorrow....we actually go INSIDE castles. Castles that we are supposed to be at! We don't even have to pretend to be lost!
We had decided to head south and try to curb our castle hunting a bit. We were on a mission to get to Stratford-upon-Avon early enough to see Romeo and Juliet by the Royal Shakespeare Company. We ya know what they say about best laid plans......
Leaving Glascow we immediately were driving through some of the prettiest country yet. While talking about the rolling hills and the strange plants and trees we were seeing, someone noticed a "castle sign". Well, maybe just one more. So, quick as that, we were off the motorway and cruising through lamb country again on tiny little country roads...finally running across some unfenced land with sheep and lambs on the roads....strangely enough, just what we had been wanting to see! We drove through the grazing fields and hills, then through a forest...and finally over a beautiful little river we saw the directions to the castle we were in search of, and as we drove onto the property and up towards the gardens, we were so glad we had ventured off path.
This was one of the prettiest castles we had seen, and the best part, there was a Duke still living there. When we got to the guard house, the guard asked us what we were there for....hmmm....since I didn't think they would believe we were there for tea, we said we had just wandered off course and needed to turn around. We took long enough to snap some great photos as we were turning around in the castle driveway (if they call it a drive way) and then headed back to find our way back onto the motorway. Though it was a two hour diversion, it was one of the best little side trips we took.
Just before we got back to the main road, we went through a little town and decided this might be a great time to try some pub food. GOOD CHOICE. We got a steak and ale pie and of course, a fish and chips and a cheeseburger. For desert we shared the most decadent "sticky toffee pudding with custard sauce", which we had no idea what it was going to be, but will now never forget how good it was. The food was incredible, the pub was right out of a book on "the real Scotland" and the bartender gave us two big cups of ice to go!!! (Ice is such a treat for us even here, that it might have even outshined the great food).
Even with our detour, we still got to Stratford in plenty of time to see the show.....but unfortunately they were sold out. Still, the little city is picturesque and quaint....and we got to grave yard search a bit while heading to the church where William Shakespeare is buried. There is just something incredibly interesting about a cemetary with grave stones from the 1600s! I know, I know...still not a normal vacation....but we will get to London soon, and then I'm sure do some more normal things!
For the most part, we met the nicest, most interesting people on this adventure. It just seems like people go out of their way to help us or talk to us. Its so nice to run into that over and over. Well, tonight ended with an encounter at the hotel that was just the opposite of what we've been experiencing. The guy at the front desk.....well, to say he tested my nerves is an understatement. I even, at one point, asked him if there was a camera someplace because it was like a character actor was playing a bad British hotel clerk and I was being punked. I looked at Cait and Mom at one point, both looked like they were waiting for a bomb to drop. Later, Mom said she couldn't believe how calm I was being and was afraid at any minute I might go right across the counter and grab him by his collar. I was trying really hard not to be the "ugly American"....and I think I somewhat succeeded......but the whole situation was just proof that no matter where you are, there are just some people who should not be doing the job they are doing. Well, that and proof that some people are just flat dumber than a post.
I know I've said this over and over again.....but I can't stress enough.....as I listen to the sounds of Cait and Mom sleeping and reflect on all the things we are seeing, learning, laughing about....I know just how blessed I am. Tomorrow....we actually go INSIDE castles. Castles that we are supposed to be at! We don't even have to pretend to be lost!
Friday, April 1, 2011
We Three See.......Castles, Lambs, and Our Lives Flash Before Our Eyes!
I know I said we were going to have a more normal vacation once we got to the UK....but that wasn't exactly correct. While great sheets, real beds and good food have certainly been in our itinerary...the rest of the past couple days has been anything but ordinary.
We left north of London early Thursday morning....all snug and happy in our little "left handed" car. Actually the driving part was going pretty well. I even managed to figure out how to set the emergency brake! Of course, the first time we had to put gas in, it took us about 15 minutes and the assistance of two different guys who were getting gas at the same time, to figure out how to open the gas tank. We felt pretty stupid to be "baffled" by something so simple. Note to car rental agents....INCLUDE THE OWNER'S MANUALS!
Our goal was to head north about 3 hours on the "motorway".....getting off to see York Minster Cathedral, which was to be the start of a three day "castle hunting" expedition. Oh....and the second part of our goal was to figure out where exactly in the UK has the best fish and chips! We've put a big dent in both of those.
The motorway was a breeze. Its hard to even consider driving the wrong way on a divided highway and we made it to York in less time than we expected. There we went to see York Minster (a magnificient Gothic cathedral) and a castle just outside of the town. From there, we pretty much shot from the hip. Armed with a list of the best castles in the UK that we got from the internet and an atlas, we've wound our way up the northwestern coast of England, into Scotland, zig-zagging our way across the lower portion of Scotland, and now are headed back down into England tomorrow.
Our search for castles have taken us into small little medieval walled villages, down little dirt roads and even into a few "no private vehicles allowed" areas. We are still a bit early in the season and were finding many of the castles closed and some we found are not ever open to the public. The adventure of finding them has been as fun as any other part of the trip! I'm not sure why we are so interested in the castles.....perhaps we fancy ourselves princesses of sorts.....or maybe we are finding a future home for our real little princess Alexa.....or it could be we've seen too many romantic comedies and just like the idea of traipsing around small roads in the UK. Regardless of why, we have seen some spectacular castles, in all stages of repair and ruin, and still on the agenda for tomorrow are the Welsh castles.
Doing a tour like this with Cait is amazing. She is such a British history buff and great story teller than she can fill us in on who lived in almost every castle and weave wonderful tales about what each family's part in history was. We learned about everyone from the Roman leaders who built Hadrian's wall across northern England to keep the Barbarians out in the days of the Roman Empire, to William Wallace and Mary Queen of Scots, to the bits and pieces of history that have been salvaged from the dark ages as we looked at some of the castles that are little more than stacks of stone left standing on a cliff overlooking the North Sea.
In between our "castle spotting" we've sung countless songs, listened to stories, both old and new, and have seen literally thousands of sheep. Its lambing season in the UK and the fields are filled with flocks of sheep, all the ewes followed by their adorable little lamb babies. Funny thing about sheep in the UK, they don't bob their tales, so all of them, adult and newborns, have long tails! If Cait had her way we would spend a lot more time climbing fences and chasing after the baby lambs.
We are truly seeing some amazing country and some sights that are something that we never imagined seeing. When we stop someplace, we always seem to create a little bit of a stir, as the places we are going and the people we are running in to are not the sorts of places where American tourists normally go. One of the best treats was getting to meet Robert Watts....a precocious 5 year old, who wants to be a "proper bus driver" and completely charmed us as he practiced the songs that he is performing at a Mother's Day program at his school. (In the UK Mother's day is this Sunday) He chattered away at us, bright and cute and filled with personality.
We did have a bit of a "fright" today. While shifting left handed has gotten to be more and more natural, I got us into a bit of a predicament today. We were leaving one of the small little farm roads we had been on, turning back onto a larger rural road. I was going to have to make a right turn, meaning I was going to have to cross oncoming traffic. Sitting on a hill, I started out and was in 3rd instead of 1st....and the car died. Normally, even if I couldn't go ahead and start in 3rd by heavy clutching, I would simply start the car and go on. This time, as the car died, I saw a lorrie (18 wheeler) coming at us. When I looked in my rear view, another car had pulled up behind me, leaving me no room to back up. I was only out about 4 feet into the road, leaving the truck plenty of room to go around.....so I was hesistant to try to re-start and pull forward, thinking that if the truck veered to the other lane to go around me, my pulling forward could put us further in harm's way. Well, the truck didn't seem to want to leave his lane. He just kept coming right at us. I was sitting and watching.....begging him to change lanes.....Cait hid behind the atlas, as if could protect her from the impact with the 18 wheeler.....and Mom just sat and stared, not wanting to miss anything, not even us being hit by a big truck. Finally, at what seemed like the very last minute, the truck swerved, barely missing the front of our car, and we were able to pull out.
Honestly, I was pretty shaken by that.....and while we kept going, I was working hard at trying to keep my composure and calm. Even Mom and Cait were surprisingly quiet for a bit. Then, just as we started to get back to normal, we noticed a truck ahead of us driving very erratically. We dropped back a bit, as he kept veering into oncoming traffic and thought that if he got hit, we didn't want to be too close to him. After following him for about 5 minutes, watching him run several vehicles into the shoulder as he veered into their lane, he finally crossed over the opposite lane completely, hitting a road sign and fishtailing for about 200 yards before he came to a stop. I'm not sure if he was sleeping or drunk....and though Cait wanted to stick around and see what happened with him....we drove on, thankful that we had avoided two potentially vacation ruining incidents.
Fish and Chips.......we become quite the experts on them! 3 days in a row that is what we have eaten and really I anticipate eating it many more times while we are here. The fish is huge chunks of either cod or haddock, so mild and sweet each and every time we've had it. And the chips....big, and thick, but still perfectly done. We've even learned to really appreciate the vinegar on both the fish and the chips. Mom and I are both in heaven, as seafood is our favorite food, and Cait is being a great sport about our obsession with this dish. Can't wait to report on eactly where we find the best fish and chips while we are here, but so far, I think that the Wetherby Whaler just outside of York is leading the way! We've yet to try a street vendor, but I think tomorrow might be the day for that.
Tomorrow, after heading into Wales, we are going to Stratford upon Avon and hoping to see a show there. Then its off to Hampton court, Brighton Beach.....and finishing up in London.
Well, as I'm writing this blog Cait is perusing British TV. She is watching a show called "Embarrassing Body Problems" This is just unbelievable. Not only are the embarassing problems, really REALLY embarassing....but what they are showing on network tv is shocking. The first girl has a particularly hairy "backside"...and we were more than a bit taken aback that they showed it. Then......the next girl has thrush as a result of a yeast infection....AND THEY SHOWED THAT!!!!! Now, a man has an enlarged testicle.....a very old man....and finally Cait has changed the channel, but not before we were priviledged to see that testicle on our big screen tv!!!! And I thought American reality tv had gone too far. Please, please, don't let this trend move into the states.
Well, we're off early in the morning, so this is a short one. Keep your fingers crossed that we continue to have good luck with my driving and that we can charm our way out of any spots we get into by making our way into places where we aren't really supposed to be.
We left north of London early Thursday morning....all snug and happy in our little "left handed" car. Actually the driving part was going pretty well. I even managed to figure out how to set the emergency brake! Of course, the first time we had to put gas in, it took us about 15 minutes and the assistance of two different guys who were getting gas at the same time, to figure out how to open the gas tank. We felt pretty stupid to be "baffled" by something so simple. Note to car rental agents....INCLUDE THE OWNER'S MANUALS!
Our goal was to head north about 3 hours on the "motorway".....getting off to see York Minster Cathedral, which was to be the start of a three day "castle hunting" expedition. Oh....and the second part of our goal was to figure out where exactly in the UK has the best fish and chips! We've put a big dent in both of those.
The motorway was a breeze. Its hard to even consider driving the wrong way on a divided highway and we made it to York in less time than we expected. There we went to see York Minster (a magnificient Gothic cathedral) and a castle just outside of the town. From there, we pretty much shot from the hip. Armed with a list of the best castles in the UK that we got from the internet and an atlas, we've wound our way up the northwestern coast of England, into Scotland, zig-zagging our way across the lower portion of Scotland, and now are headed back down into England tomorrow.
Our search for castles have taken us into small little medieval walled villages, down little dirt roads and even into a few "no private vehicles allowed" areas. We are still a bit early in the season and were finding many of the castles closed and some we found are not ever open to the public. The adventure of finding them has been as fun as any other part of the trip! I'm not sure why we are so interested in the castles.....perhaps we fancy ourselves princesses of sorts.....or maybe we are finding a future home for our real little princess Alexa.....or it could be we've seen too many romantic comedies and just like the idea of traipsing around small roads in the UK. Regardless of why, we have seen some spectacular castles, in all stages of repair and ruin, and still on the agenda for tomorrow are the Welsh castles.
Doing a tour like this with Cait is amazing. She is such a British history buff and great story teller than she can fill us in on who lived in almost every castle and weave wonderful tales about what each family's part in history was. We learned about everyone from the Roman leaders who built Hadrian's wall across northern England to keep the Barbarians out in the days of the Roman Empire, to William Wallace and Mary Queen of Scots, to the bits and pieces of history that have been salvaged from the dark ages as we looked at some of the castles that are little more than stacks of stone left standing on a cliff overlooking the North Sea.
In between our "castle spotting" we've sung countless songs, listened to stories, both old and new, and have seen literally thousands of sheep. Its lambing season in the UK and the fields are filled with flocks of sheep, all the ewes followed by their adorable little lamb babies. Funny thing about sheep in the UK, they don't bob their tales, so all of them, adult and newborns, have long tails! If Cait had her way we would spend a lot more time climbing fences and chasing after the baby lambs.
We are truly seeing some amazing country and some sights that are something that we never imagined seeing. When we stop someplace, we always seem to create a little bit of a stir, as the places we are going and the people we are running in to are not the sorts of places where American tourists normally go. One of the best treats was getting to meet Robert Watts....a precocious 5 year old, who wants to be a "proper bus driver" and completely charmed us as he practiced the songs that he is performing at a Mother's Day program at his school. (In the UK Mother's day is this Sunday) He chattered away at us, bright and cute and filled with personality.
We did have a bit of a "fright" today. While shifting left handed has gotten to be more and more natural, I got us into a bit of a predicament today. We were leaving one of the small little farm roads we had been on, turning back onto a larger rural road. I was going to have to make a right turn, meaning I was going to have to cross oncoming traffic. Sitting on a hill, I started out and was in 3rd instead of 1st....and the car died. Normally, even if I couldn't go ahead and start in 3rd by heavy clutching, I would simply start the car and go on. This time, as the car died, I saw a lorrie (18 wheeler) coming at us. When I looked in my rear view, another car had pulled up behind me, leaving me no room to back up. I was only out about 4 feet into the road, leaving the truck plenty of room to go around.....so I was hesistant to try to re-start and pull forward, thinking that if the truck veered to the other lane to go around me, my pulling forward could put us further in harm's way. Well, the truck didn't seem to want to leave his lane. He just kept coming right at us. I was sitting and watching.....begging him to change lanes.....Cait hid behind the atlas, as if could protect her from the impact with the 18 wheeler.....and Mom just sat and stared, not wanting to miss anything, not even us being hit by a big truck. Finally, at what seemed like the very last minute, the truck swerved, barely missing the front of our car, and we were able to pull out.
Honestly, I was pretty shaken by that.....and while we kept going, I was working hard at trying to keep my composure and calm. Even Mom and Cait were surprisingly quiet for a bit. Then, just as we started to get back to normal, we noticed a truck ahead of us driving very erratically. We dropped back a bit, as he kept veering into oncoming traffic and thought that if he got hit, we didn't want to be too close to him. After following him for about 5 minutes, watching him run several vehicles into the shoulder as he veered into their lane, he finally crossed over the opposite lane completely, hitting a road sign and fishtailing for about 200 yards before he came to a stop. I'm not sure if he was sleeping or drunk....and though Cait wanted to stick around and see what happened with him....we drove on, thankful that we had avoided two potentially vacation ruining incidents.
Fish and Chips.......we become quite the experts on them! 3 days in a row that is what we have eaten and really I anticipate eating it many more times while we are here. The fish is huge chunks of either cod or haddock, so mild and sweet each and every time we've had it. And the chips....big, and thick, but still perfectly done. We've even learned to really appreciate the vinegar on both the fish and the chips. Mom and I are both in heaven, as seafood is our favorite food, and Cait is being a great sport about our obsession with this dish. Can't wait to report on eactly where we find the best fish and chips while we are here, but so far, I think that the Wetherby Whaler just outside of York is leading the way! We've yet to try a street vendor, but I think tomorrow might be the day for that.
Tomorrow, after heading into Wales, we are going to Stratford upon Avon and hoping to see a show there. Then its off to Hampton court, Brighton Beach.....and finishing up in London.
Well, as I'm writing this blog Cait is perusing British TV. She is watching a show called "Embarrassing Body Problems" This is just unbelievable. Not only are the embarassing problems, really REALLY embarassing....but what they are showing on network tv is shocking. The first girl has a particularly hairy "backside"...and we were more than a bit taken aback that they showed it. Then......the next girl has thrush as a result of a yeast infection....AND THEY SHOWED THAT!!!!! Now, a man has an enlarged testicle.....a very old man....and finally Cait has changed the channel, but not before we were priviledged to see that testicle on our big screen tv!!!! And I thought American reality tv had gone too far. Please, please, don't let this trend move into the states.
Well, we're off early in the morning, so this is a short one. Keep your fingers crossed that we continue to have good luck with my driving and that we can charm our way out of any spots we get into by making our way into places where we aren't really supposed to be.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
We Three See.......Life from the OTHER SIDE of a car!
A great night's sleep did us all well and we were up and headed to the airport out of Santiago by 7 this morning! Well, we thought we all were back on track after a good night's sleep, but once we got to the airport we found that one of us.....NANA....might not have been as sharp as usual.
In an attempt to consolidate bags and manipulate all of the stuff we've acquired onto our Ryan Air flight while incurring as few costs as possible, Mom was in charge of packing two small duffles we bought to use as multi purpose carryon bags. She was carrying one on....Cait the other. Well, it was quite obvious as we passed through the security point at the airport that something was not right with our bags. Cait, more than a little irritated at the stir her bag was creating, thought that we had packed something liquid in with her stuff. Not quite so simple as that.
We have bought an assortment of trinkets and interesting items for people we love from different spots. Mom put all those into Cait's bag. What she didn't consider was that one of the items that Cait bought was an 8 inch Moroccan dagger! Its amazing what a stir a hooked dagger causes in an international airport. As soon as I realized what was happening, I claimed the bag as mine. At the same time, Cait was plaintively explaining that her grandmother had made the mistake...after all how could someone be upset with a grandmother. When there were four armed policemen huddled discussing the bag, I thought for just a moment that my stay in Santiago might be longer than I expected! I handed Mom and Cait all of my other stuff, their passports, my check-on bag...and told them to go on. All we needed was all three of us in trouble!
Well, they decided that it was, after all, a simple mistake.....so while they weren't going to make it into a bigger deal than it was, they were not, of course, going to let me take it with me. Since it was a gift for someone from Cait, I knew it was important that it not get left behind. After some pleading, some really bad spanish (again) and finally a local policeman who spoke a little english coming to my aid, they decided that they would allow me to add it to my checked bag. Possibly the funniest thing of all was when the Ryan Air staff person wouldn't call to have my bag brought out front again, the security officers took me back to the baggage loading area, point out my bag and stick the dagger in it! International incident averted and we were on our way with minutes to spare!
However, international incidents may still be forthcoming. You see, we have decided our road trip in Spain went so well, we are going to do the same thing here in the UK. Its a lovely country, and after all, all the road signs are in english. One big problem.....well, three problems so far.......they drive on the wrong side of the road, I have to shift with my left hand, and it took me 10 minutes to find the emergency brake on the vehicle they gave me!
Actually, its not been as hard as I thought it would be. I sort of get in line and just remember to follow the car in front of me...that keeps me on the right side of the road. Shifting is becoming more natural. I've decided that parking brakes are overrated (because while a flashing light on the dashboard told me how to disengage the parking brake after I tried to drive with it engaged multiple time, there is no light to tell me how to re-engage it!) Problems solved. We hope that they are solved.....Cait, in anticipation of future difficulties found a sticker to attach to the car window that identifies me as a "Learning Driver". Maybe people will steer clear of me!
Today we finished recuperating from our walk, did our laundry, ate some incredible fish and chips and are tucked in ready to hit the road in the morning on a three day road trip up to Scotland. Wish us well, and if you have friends or family in the UK, you might consider warning them for a redhead who just might be driving on the wrong side of the road, or a black Fauxhall that just might be rolling down a hill because the parking brake wasn't engaged!
In an attempt to consolidate bags and manipulate all of the stuff we've acquired onto our Ryan Air flight while incurring as few costs as possible, Mom was in charge of packing two small duffles we bought to use as multi purpose carryon bags. She was carrying one on....Cait the other. Well, it was quite obvious as we passed through the security point at the airport that something was not right with our bags. Cait, more than a little irritated at the stir her bag was creating, thought that we had packed something liquid in with her stuff. Not quite so simple as that.
We have bought an assortment of trinkets and interesting items for people we love from different spots. Mom put all those into Cait's bag. What she didn't consider was that one of the items that Cait bought was an 8 inch Moroccan dagger! Its amazing what a stir a hooked dagger causes in an international airport. As soon as I realized what was happening, I claimed the bag as mine. At the same time, Cait was plaintively explaining that her grandmother had made the mistake...after all how could someone be upset with a grandmother. When there were four armed policemen huddled discussing the bag, I thought for just a moment that my stay in Santiago might be longer than I expected! I handed Mom and Cait all of my other stuff, their passports, my check-on bag...and told them to go on. All we needed was all three of us in trouble!
Well, they decided that it was, after all, a simple mistake.....so while they weren't going to make it into a bigger deal than it was, they were not, of course, going to let me take it with me. Since it was a gift for someone from Cait, I knew it was important that it not get left behind. After some pleading, some really bad spanish (again) and finally a local policeman who spoke a little english coming to my aid, they decided that they would allow me to add it to my checked bag. Possibly the funniest thing of all was when the Ryan Air staff person wouldn't call to have my bag brought out front again, the security officers took me back to the baggage loading area, point out my bag and stick the dagger in it! International incident averted and we were on our way with minutes to spare!
However, international incidents may still be forthcoming. You see, we have decided our road trip in Spain went so well, we are going to do the same thing here in the UK. Its a lovely country, and after all, all the road signs are in english. One big problem.....well, three problems so far.......they drive on the wrong side of the road, I have to shift with my left hand, and it took me 10 minutes to find the emergency brake on the vehicle they gave me!
Actually, its not been as hard as I thought it would be. I sort of get in line and just remember to follow the car in front of me...that keeps me on the right side of the road. Shifting is becoming more natural. I've decided that parking brakes are overrated (because while a flashing light on the dashboard told me how to disengage the parking brake after I tried to drive with it engaged multiple time, there is no light to tell me how to re-engage it!) Problems solved. We hope that they are solved.....Cait, in anticipation of future difficulties found a sticker to attach to the car window that identifies me as a "Learning Driver". Maybe people will steer clear of me!
Today we finished recuperating from our walk, did our laundry, ate some incredible fish and chips and are tucked in ready to hit the road in the morning on a three day road trip up to Scotland. Wish us well, and if you have friends or family in the UK, you might consider warning them for a redhead who just might be driving on the wrong side of the road, or a black Fauxhall that just might be rolling down a hill because the parking brake wasn't engaged!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
We Three See.......just how strong we are.......
Continuing from the previous blog....days 4-6 of our Camino De Santiago......
Day 4 - 24 kilometers
The first sound we heard when we woke was rain. UGH! But at least we were starting with dry, not poopy smelling, clothes.
Our great discovery of the day was BREAKFAST. Bacon and Eggs. Albeit bacon greatly undercooked by our standards.....the eggs were so amazingly terrific that they made up for it. Cait hadn't had breakfast for 2.5 months and Mom and I since we had gotten to Spain, so we were all happy to find out that even if eggs weren't on the menu, most little places (if you could find them open in the mornings) would be happy to make you huevos frito. We had a glorious start to the day.
That quickly changed. It rained.....and rained....and rained. Soon our feet were soaked, our clothes were soaked....we were wet and cold. Mostly it was a slow steady rain, but at times driving rain so hard we had to wear our sun glasses to keep the rain out of our faces. We had no choice but to go on.
Wet feet made the going tougher. Our feet began to slip in our shoes and that made our feet sore. Sometime after mid day, we got to a small town and bought Cait and I walking sticks. This helped a lot as the roads and trails had become so slippery that keeping upright was becoming more and more difficult of us.....especially me, for those of you who know me well!!! I only fell once on the trip....well, twice if you count the time I was trying to go to the bathroom on a steep hill...but that is a better story told in person!. The one fall I had was on a hill, and I managed to catch myself after only one roll. I consider that a complete success!
Besides the stop for eggs and bacon and the stop for the sticks....we trudged on. Our pace became pretty slow, but we did manage to pass the German shirt stealers when they took refuge in a bus stop during a particularly bad rain storm.
As the day started coming to an end we found an aubergue. However, we were a few kilometers short of our goal for the day, so Cait and Mom thought we should move on. I relunctantly agreed......
We walked.....and looked for a place to stay....and walked....and walked.... Soon we had not only met our goal, but gone past it! We were miserable. So tired and cold and wet. No place to stay in sight, we just kept on walking. Finally we saw a little village at the bottom of a really steep hill, about a kilometer away. We were hopeful that there would be someplace to stay there, because the only way out of the village was up an equally steep hill on the other side. Mom even commented that there better be someplace to stay there, because she could never make it up that other hill. She was wrong.
There was no place to stay....and she made it up the next hill....and the next. We went on for nearly 4 kilometers more than we planned, when we got to a highway. Nothing seemed near...and we were becoming pretty worried about what we were going to do....when we followed the highway around a corner and there was a Pension.....A REAL HOTEL!!!!!! With beds....and sheets...and a bathtub!!! We were like school girls. We ran into the room, jumped into the beds and giggled. We each took about a 30 minute bath and Cait and I watched MTV reruns until I fell asleep mumbling something about the sheets....I've never been so happy to sleep on such low thread count sheets!
This had been a really tough day...with a really happy ending. We just new this would be our hardest day yet.
Day five - 18 kilometers
When we went down to check out of the hotel (after sleeping in until 9!! we made our second great purchase of the walk. Real ponchos!!!!! I spied them in a case near the front and we each got one. Thank goodness! Today was going to be our rainiest day yet!
At breakfast, we saw a group of Asian people.....they were chattering happily, but didn't speak to us. We would also meet the first of whom we refer to as "a cheater". A British woman was at the hotel waiting for a cab to take her down the road a bit to start her walk. The cab was then going to take her luggage on to her next hotel. She was doing bits and pieces of the walk.
Later that day we would run into two Irish men doing something similar. They walked a bit every day, then called a cab to come find them and take them back to their rented car. They then would drive to the next easy walk and walk a bit more the next day. When we first found out what they were doing we were almost resentful, but after mulling it over the next few days, we decided we shouldn't be so judgemental. We weren't sure what their circumstances were, healthwise or otherwise, and they might not be as fortunate as we were to be able to make this great trip. Still.....it was tough to see them along the trip looking fresh and rested as we plodded along!
Every day, we just kept thinking that the road would get easier soon. We were wrong. Day five was proving to be one of the toughest. We stopped for a bite to eat at a little spot and had two great treats.
First, the asian group we had seen earlier in the morning was there finishing up their tea. We found they were from Japan and expressed our sorrow and prayers for their country. They were so happy to meet us and to practice their english. They were so cute....all between 50 and 70, except for their young guide. They took photos with us and laughed and even gave Cait a massage because she was carrying the big pack. They stayed much longer than they had planned, talking to us...hugging us....and when we gave them each one of the crosses that we had brought to share, they were thrilled. We could not have made them any happier and they could not have made our day any better!
After they left the man running the little cafe asked where we were from. When we told him Texas, he excitedly told us that the Bush girls had stopped there at his place when they did the Camino. He said they bought lots of chocolate and one security guard came in with them while the others stayed outside. We laughed at how miserable the secret service guys must have been going on this walk! Still it was an interesting side story for our day.
That night we were right back on course, thanks to our long day the day before....and stopped at what we thought was a very nice aubergue. It was.....sort of. It was nice...but filled with 50 fifteen year old Spanish kids!!!! They laughed and talked until the wee hours of the morning....though we were so tired it only bothered us occasionally. Mostly we just snoozed away.
We had decided to try to get an early start the next day and maybe we could finish enough to make the pilgrim's Mass in Santiago the next day at noon. We were......again.....wrong.
Day 6 - 18 Kilometers
We got up at 6....only to find it was completely dark. Even after a leisurely breakfast, the skies were so dark at 7:45 that we couldn't really see the path. But we decided to go on anyway. This particular part of the journey was through a forested area....so it was sort of creepy...but added another dimension to our trip.
We started out great. Excited it was our last day...and as always, I was sure this day was going to be mostly down hill. Once again...I was wrong.
The first 5 kilometers flew by. Then the rain started again. And the road became tough. We went by the airport....we knew we were close...but not sure how far out of town we still were. At 13.5 we saw a marker......the sort of marker that had be along the road regularly since the onset. Almost every half of a kilometer there had been one.
We walked...and climbed....and walked. The wind picked up and was blowing the rain at us as it had a couple of days earlier. We worried that we were off the path....we hadn't seen a marker for several hours. Then....on a fence....there were literally thousands of hand made crosses.....we knew we were going the right way.
Every day seemed hard, but for some reason today seemed hardest. Our feet hurt...our pace had slowed.....we hadn't seen the German "hares" since the evening before...as a matter of fact we weren't seeing anyone else. We just kept walking. Because we were nearing Santiago, the path was now pavement....hurting our feet even more. Again we went a hour or more with now sign. Cait decided there weren't markers at this point because you had to move forward on sheer faith. We think she might have been right.
Everytime we became discouraged we would see something to move us forward. Another handmade cross....a glimpse of the city on the horizon.....a woman continueing the walk in one walking shoe and one bloody sock where the blisters on her toes prohibited her from wearing both shoes.....all of these things kept us going.
Finally....after 6 days.....
I learned so much on this trip...about history, about Spain, about myself. I was reminded how strong my Mother is. While she amazed everyone we met, Cait and I never doubted her. I was shown something about Cait I never knew. She was kind and helpful and loving.....soaking up this very special time with her Grandmother. She took the burden of the heavy load and never once second guessed her decision or whined about it. The trip was almost perfect......although Alexa was with us often in our thoughts and conversations, we all wished she had been old enough to come with us. That would have been the icing on the cake. Still.....Cait has promised to bring her sometime...and share with her the legacy that her Grandmother has left.
Now.....as the bagpiper is again playing on the streets below...and the rain is still coming down....I'm in bed. Mom is sleeping beisde me, Cait reading across the room......and I know I am blessed.
Day 4 - 24 kilometers
The first sound we heard when we woke was rain. UGH! But at least we were starting with dry, not poopy smelling, clothes.
Our great discovery of the day was BREAKFAST. Bacon and Eggs. Albeit bacon greatly undercooked by our standards.....the eggs were so amazingly terrific that they made up for it. Cait hadn't had breakfast for 2.5 months and Mom and I since we had gotten to Spain, so we were all happy to find out that even if eggs weren't on the menu, most little places (if you could find them open in the mornings) would be happy to make you huevos frito. We had a glorious start to the day.
That quickly changed. It rained.....and rained....and rained. Soon our feet were soaked, our clothes were soaked....we were wet and cold. Mostly it was a slow steady rain, but at times driving rain so hard we had to wear our sun glasses to keep the rain out of our faces. We had no choice but to go on.
Wet feet made the going tougher. Our feet began to slip in our shoes and that made our feet sore. Sometime after mid day, we got to a small town and bought Cait and I walking sticks. This helped a lot as the roads and trails had become so slippery that keeping upright was becoming more and more difficult of us.....especially me, for those of you who know me well!!! I only fell once on the trip....well, twice if you count the time I was trying to go to the bathroom on a steep hill...but that is a better story told in person!. The one fall I had was on a hill, and I managed to catch myself after only one roll. I consider that a complete success!
Besides the stop for eggs and bacon and the stop for the sticks....we trudged on. Our pace became pretty slow, but we did manage to pass the German shirt stealers when they took refuge in a bus stop during a particularly bad rain storm.
As the day started coming to an end we found an aubergue. However, we were a few kilometers short of our goal for the day, so Cait and Mom thought we should move on. I relunctantly agreed......
We walked.....and looked for a place to stay....and walked....and walked.... Soon we had not only met our goal, but gone past it! We were miserable. So tired and cold and wet. No place to stay in sight, we just kept on walking. Finally we saw a little village at the bottom of a really steep hill, about a kilometer away. We were hopeful that there would be someplace to stay there, because the only way out of the village was up an equally steep hill on the other side. Mom even commented that there better be someplace to stay there, because she could never make it up that other hill. She was wrong.
There was no place to stay....and she made it up the next hill....and the next. We went on for nearly 4 kilometers more than we planned, when we got to a highway. Nothing seemed near...and we were becoming pretty worried about what we were going to do....when we followed the highway around a corner and there was a Pension.....A REAL HOTEL!!!!!! With beds....and sheets...and a bathtub!!! We were like school girls. We ran into the room, jumped into the beds and giggled. We each took about a 30 minute bath and Cait and I watched MTV reruns until I fell asleep mumbling something about the sheets....I've never been so happy to sleep on such low thread count sheets!
This had been a really tough day...with a really happy ending. We just new this would be our hardest day yet.
Day five - 18 kilometers
When we went down to check out of the hotel (after sleeping in until 9!! we made our second great purchase of the walk. Real ponchos!!!!! I spied them in a case near the front and we each got one. Thank goodness! Today was going to be our rainiest day yet!
At breakfast, we saw a group of Asian people.....they were chattering happily, but didn't speak to us. We would also meet the first of whom we refer to as "a cheater". A British woman was at the hotel waiting for a cab to take her down the road a bit to start her walk. The cab was then going to take her luggage on to her next hotel. She was doing bits and pieces of the walk.
Later that day we would run into two Irish men doing something similar. They walked a bit every day, then called a cab to come find them and take them back to their rented car. They then would drive to the next easy walk and walk a bit more the next day. When we first found out what they were doing we were almost resentful, but after mulling it over the next few days, we decided we shouldn't be so judgemental. We weren't sure what their circumstances were, healthwise or otherwise, and they might not be as fortunate as we were to be able to make this great trip. Still.....it was tough to see them along the trip looking fresh and rested as we plodded along!
Every day, we just kept thinking that the road would get easier soon. We were wrong. Day five was proving to be one of the toughest. We stopped for a bite to eat at a little spot and had two great treats.
First, the asian group we had seen earlier in the morning was there finishing up their tea. We found they were from Japan and expressed our sorrow and prayers for their country. They were so happy to meet us and to practice their english. They were so cute....all between 50 and 70, except for their young guide. They took photos with us and laughed and even gave Cait a massage because she was carrying the big pack. They stayed much longer than they had planned, talking to us...hugging us....and when we gave them each one of the crosses that we had brought to share, they were thrilled. We could not have made them any happier and they could not have made our day any better!
After they left the man running the little cafe asked where we were from. When we told him Texas, he excitedly told us that the Bush girls had stopped there at his place when they did the Camino. He said they bought lots of chocolate and one security guard came in with them while the others stayed outside. We laughed at how miserable the secret service guys must have been going on this walk! Still it was an interesting side story for our day.
That night we were right back on course, thanks to our long day the day before....and stopped at what we thought was a very nice aubergue. It was.....sort of. It was nice...but filled with 50 fifteen year old Spanish kids!!!! They laughed and talked until the wee hours of the morning....though we were so tired it only bothered us occasionally. Mostly we just snoozed away.
We had decided to try to get an early start the next day and maybe we could finish enough to make the pilgrim's Mass in Santiago the next day at noon. We were......again.....wrong.
Day 6 - 18 Kilometers
We got up at 6....only to find it was completely dark. Even after a leisurely breakfast, the skies were so dark at 7:45 that we couldn't really see the path. But we decided to go on anyway. This particular part of the journey was through a forested area....so it was sort of creepy...but added another dimension to our trip.
We started out great. Excited it was our last day...and as always, I was sure this day was going to be mostly down hill. Once again...I was wrong.
The first 5 kilometers flew by. Then the rain started again. And the road became tough. We went by the airport....we knew we were close...but not sure how far out of town we still were. At 13.5 we saw a marker......the sort of marker that had be along the road regularly since the onset. Almost every half of a kilometer there had been one.
We walked...and climbed....and walked. The wind picked up and was blowing the rain at us as it had a couple of days earlier. We worried that we were off the path....we hadn't seen a marker for several hours. Then....on a fence....there were literally thousands of hand made crosses.....we knew we were going the right way.
Every day seemed hard, but for some reason today seemed hardest. Our feet hurt...our pace had slowed.....we hadn't seen the German "hares" since the evening before...as a matter of fact we weren't seeing anyone else. We just kept walking. Because we were nearing Santiago, the path was now pavement....hurting our feet even more. Again we went a hour or more with now sign. Cait decided there weren't markers at this point because you had to move forward on sheer faith. We think she might have been right.
Everytime we became discouraged we would see something to move us forward. Another handmade cross....a glimpse of the city on the horizon.....a woman continueing the walk in one walking shoe and one bloody sock where the blisters on her toes prohibited her from wearing both shoes.....all of these things kept us going.
Finally....after 6 days.....
- 42 hours of walking
- 112 official kilometers
- 29 roadside potty stops (3 of which were mine and all the others belonging to an unnamed person)
- 6 German, 8 Japanese, 2 Mallorcan, 1 French, 2 Irish, 1 Brit, Countless Spanish and some unidentified other travellers
- 2 herds of cattle
- 1 sleepless night
- thousands of laughs
- a few tears
I learned so much on this trip...about history, about Spain, about myself. I was reminded how strong my Mother is. While she amazed everyone we met, Cait and I never doubted her. I was shown something about Cait I never knew. She was kind and helpful and loving.....soaking up this very special time with her Grandmother. She took the burden of the heavy load and never once second guessed her decision or whined about it. The trip was almost perfect......although Alexa was with us often in our thoughts and conversations, we all wished she had been old enough to come with us. That would have been the icing on the cake. Still.....Cait has promised to bring her sometime...and share with her the legacy that her Grandmother has left.
Now.....as the bagpiper is again playing on the streets below...and the rain is still coming down....I'm in bed. Mom is sleeping beisde me, Cait reading across the room......and I know I am blessed.
We Three See.....That P 90 X is for Wussies!
We are back in Santiago.....6 days and 120ish kilometers later. Looking back, I would say that this was one of the most difficult things I've ever done and appropriately one of the most rewarding. I know many people will look at how we just spent 6 days and think that is not at all their idea of a vacation. Believe me, its not really mine either! Believe me, no one loves a pina colada next to a nice pool more than me. However, that being said, I don't think I will ever have 6 days represent such a priceless experience as I just shared with Mom and Cait. Even though I speak for them often in this blog, this particular post is my voice, my experience, my feelings. What a great gift these 6 days have been.
Mom and I began "training" for this pilgrimage months ago. Mom would take her backpack with her to the gym and walk on the treadmill. We spent a lot of hours walking the roads around home...even having Dad take us and drop us off, so that we could make our way home.....all in preparation for this trip. It is a GRAND understatement to say that we were not prepared. Had we known what to expect we might not have attempted it....and yet knowing how we feel now, we certainly wouldn't have passed it up.
I know this is going to be a long post.....but keep in mind as you are growing tired reading it, just how tired we were living it!!!!
Day One - Train trip to Sarria and 14 Kilometer walk.
Our day got off to a rocky start, as we had given ourselves plenty of time and arrived at the train station 30 minutes early. However, since Spain's version of daylight saving's time had started, we were actually 30 minutes late and missed our train. The next train would not arrive early enough for us to get started on our walk and we thought we probably needed the half day in order to finish in the time we had allotted, so I went out, flagged down a cab, and in my very bad spanish, talked him into taking us to meet our train at the next connection. He, of course, turned off his meter and drove us about 40 minutes, where we just caught the connecting train that would take us to Sarria, where we would start our walk. We were back on course.
Sarria is a moderate sized little city, built on a series of small hills. Unfortunately, when you get off the train, there are no clear directions as to how to begin the pilgrimage. We floudered around for a bit, then finally found a woman who directed us to the convent at the top of the highest peak, where we needed to go to get our "pilgrim's credentials" and officially start our walk. This not only added a few kilometers to our walk, but added several hills, which though didn't seem like such a big deal at the time, would later prove to be very important.
The pilgrim's credentials were passports of sorts, that require stamps from places you stay, eat or visit along the route in order to prove to the record keepers at the end of the walk that you completed all of the legs of the journey. Our first stamp was from the convent in Sarria....and we were off!
We had filled Caitlin's good backpack with all of her and my things....but Mom was insisting on carrying her own weight, so she had a school style backpack that she was carrying. Cait and I planned on trading the big pack every hour or so and we had some snacks in a third small little pack.
Things started pretty much like we expected....a pretty little hike down alongside a river. Passing the markers that showed us the way, we, like the travelers before us, dropped off rocks at each marker. These rocks were representative of the worries that we were leaving along the way, so that we would arrive at our destination with a clean spirit.
Very quickly, we figured out that maybe the walk wasn't going to be exactly what we had thought it was going to be. The nice riverside path turned into a goat path......rocky and hilly....up and down. When we did see a village or a house, there seemed to be only people who lived completely self sufficiently....no markets or stores.
We had read that there were some hotels along the way, but because we were doing the walk before the "season" actually started, we thought they might be few and far between. However, we knew that there would also be pilgrim's refuges called aubergues, where we could get a bunk for the night. Since we were not carrying sleeping bags, we had decided to try to make it to the hotels! Well, after seeing what the route was going to be, it became obvious that the hotel thing was NOT going to happen the first night.
About an hour into our walk, Mom picked up a stick to help her make it over some of the rocky places and through some of the water crossings. Well, the stick she chose was a little short...and as we got to the end of the day I noticed she was listing badly to the right. Just as we started to get worried that we might not even find an open aubergue as soon as we needed, we rounded a corner and there was a tiny little building...actually centuries old...and it had some wonderful smells coming from it. We were getting cold, were very tired and really hungry...so we went in....and found that there was also an aubergue at this spot, so we would have a bed for the night.
We ate what was called "the pilgrim's menu" for the day......and it was the first of what would be many great meals. They all started with a hearty soup....Caldo Galicea...everyplace in the area serves their version of this soup and it is a delicous mix of greens, white beans, potatoes and sometimes some sort of meat. Next they bring you the main course, usually a grilled fish or meat dish, always served with yummy fried potatoes. And every meal ended with an almond tart that we came to look forward to almost as much as a bed!!!!
We were joined at dinner by a German woman who was a mother of a 6 and an 8 year old....on the pilgrimage all alone. She was only trying to do about 10 kilometers a day.....but she was a fairly big girl, so often was our inspiration when things got tough down the road.
After dinner, we went to the aubergue.......where we found out they have no "ropas de camas" or bed clothes....no sheets and more importantly, NO BLANKETS!!!! Also important, this particular auberque had no heat. We spent an almost completely sleepless night. I cuddled with Cait and Mom alternately, trying to warm us all up as much as possible. Mom was shivering so at one time, that a German man who was sleeping near her, got up to try to find something to cover her with. We slept in all the clothes we had and covered with our towels.
We felt unprepared and exhausted after our first day.....but somehow just knew things would get bettter.
Day two - 18 Kilometers.
Our first lesson of Day 2 was to stock up on food when you found it! The great little spot where we had dinner the evening before was closed, so we set out...tired and hungry. Since Mom had the "standing erect" issue the day before, we found her a new bigger stick (pine cones attached) and decided despite her objections, we would not let her carry anything other than the small cloth pack any longer. We tried to distribute things a little better between the two other packs, but Cait's pack was still substantially heavier, probably weighing 35 pounds or so. We started the day trading off every hour or so, but Cait was taking longer and longer stints with the pack. This would prove to be a lifesaver for me.
The path was not quite as treacherous as on day one...but it was a fairly steady uphill climb. This suprised me, as I kind of thought that since we were heading towards the coast, we would be going mostly downhill. This would not be the first time I was wrong on this journey.
Mid morning, we reached our first decent sized city.....unfortunately to get into the city we had to climb a huge series of steps. However, our reward at the top of the steps was a supermarket where we bought fruit and chocolate....and a brand new walking stick for mom. That purchase alone was worth the walk up the steps as it made her journey so much easier.
By the time we finished our shopping, we thought we might grab some lunch since we had skipped breakfast. This is when we learned our second important lesson of the day......in Spain, places to eat open at noon....but won't serve you food until at least 1.....and then they close at about 2 for siesta. So you better be fast and timely! We were so hungry, and a bit tired...so we sat and waited nearly an hour and a half to eat. Mom read while Cait and I played cards....but this really put a damper on our progress for the day, and we had some catching up to do!
This day's walk was hard, but the scenery we saw, the medieval villages we walked through and the people we met along the way made it all worth it. And....our reward at the end of the day was an open aubergue with ....BLANKETS!!!! Though we didn't make it to a hotel, we did have a great night's sleep and Cait washed out our clothes. We ate our fruit and leftover bread from lunch for our dinner as we sat in our little "shanty town" that Cait made of our hanging clothes.
This was also our first stop to meet....."the German girls". They were two very young pilgrims who would keep pace with us throughout the rest of the trip. We would leapfrog back and forth, passing them and getting passed, along the route on the next 5 days. While our daily pace was about the same, the girls walked much faster than us but stopped often, thus becoming the battle of the tortoises and the hares. I can't believe how competitive we became even on this journey! We shared the aubergue that night with them, two girls from Mollorca Islands, a girl from France and one young man, travelling alone and staying quietly to himself.
Even though there was no food available at the aubergue, we were too tired to care....we slept so much better with our blankets.
Day three - 20 Kilometers
We started the day knowing we had to keep a pretty good pace, since we had 82 kilometers to go and only 4 left to do it in. Unfortunately the skies clouded up pretty early and by mid day we were getting wet. Now, when planning for the trip, Cait had reminded us to bring ponchos, as the weather was expected to be iffy. Well, being thrifty as Mom and I are....we decided that it was a good idea to get the great little 2 packs of rain ponchos that they sell at the dollar store. We were wrong. So very wrong. Not only were these ponchos not big enough to cover us and our packs.....but they were flimsy and didn't cover our arms at all. Abject failure seems to sum up our poncho purchase.
We tortoises started earlier than the German hares....but several times during the day the lead would change hands.
Today, in addition to the poncho failure, I would manage to leave our water bottle at a stop and then, within fifteen minutes, set the backpack down in a pile of some sort of poop. Yes, real poop. Right on the mesh part that rested against your shoulders. And unfortunately I didn't notice it until just as I was swinging it up to put on the second shoulder strap...way too late to stop the motion. So....poop all over my jacket and the backpack. Bad combination.
In addition to getting wet, we were showing signs of wear and tear. Cait was carrying the big pack almost exclusively. While the small pack was lighter, the weight was badly distributed.......but even so MUCH easier to carry than the big one. Cait was using Mom's stick some, to try to help take some of the load off...but when the trail was treacherous, Mom needed it back, so Cait had to go it alone.
As the day drew to an end, we were very wet and very tired. We got to what we thought was an aubergue, but it was closed. Trudging on.....we found another.....closed as well. Then it started to rain hard. No sign of a town or a place to stay, we were short on food, out of water, exhausted and soaked. Finally we found another aubergue...this time...open!!! Just before we were getting to the door of the aubergue, the "hares" zipped by us and checked into the place just before us.
Not only was this aubergue open, but a Godsend. It had a dryer to dry our wet clothes....and while it had no blankets, the woman running it went and found us some, and then, when she found out that we had lost our water bottle, she sent her husband to get water for us. The showers were hot and the only other two people in the aubergue were our two German girl friends.
We were so happy to be dry and to have water, we didn't even mind much when one of the girls snagged Mom's long underwear top. Well, Cait and I didn't mind much....after all it wasn't our top!!! The girls were no longer "the German girls" and now became "the shirt stealers". We figured it was only an accident, but gave us something to giggle about the rest of the trip.
continued......
Mom and I began "training" for this pilgrimage months ago. Mom would take her backpack with her to the gym and walk on the treadmill. We spent a lot of hours walking the roads around home...even having Dad take us and drop us off, so that we could make our way home.....all in preparation for this trip. It is a GRAND understatement to say that we were not prepared. Had we known what to expect we might not have attempted it....and yet knowing how we feel now, we certainly wouldn't have passed it up.
I know this is going to be a long post.....but keep in mind as you are growing tired reading it, just how tired we were living it!!!!
Day One - Train trip to Sarria and 14 Kilometer walk.
Our day got off to a rocky start, as we had given ourselves plenty of time and arrived at the train station 30 minutes early. However, since Spain's version of daylight saving's time had started, we were actually 30 minutes late and missed our train. The next train would not arrive early enough for us to get started on our walk and we thought we probably needed the half day in order to finish in the time we had allotted, so I went out, flagged down a cab, and in my very bad spanish, talked him into taking us to meet our train at the next connection. He, of course, turned off his meter and drove us about 40 minutes, where we just caught the connecting train that would take us to Sarria, where we would start our walk. We were back on course.
Sarria is a moderate sized little city, built on a series of small hills. Unfortunately, when you get off the train, there are no clear directions as to how to begin the pilgrimage. We floudered around for a bit, then finally found a woman who directed us to the convent at the top of the highest peak, where we needed to go to get our "pilgrim's credentials" and officially start our walk. This not only added a few kilometers to our walk, but added several hills, which though didn't seem like such a big deal at the time, would later prove to be very important.
The pilgrim's credentials were passports of sorts, that require stamps from places you stay, eat or visit along the route in order to prove to the record keepers at the end of the walk that you completed all of the legs of the journey. Our first stamp was from the convent in Sarria....and we were off!
We had filled Caitlin's good backpack with all of her and my things....but Mom was insisting on carrying her own weight, so she had a school style backpack that she was carrying. Cait and I planned on trading the big pack every hour or so and we had some snacks in a third small little pack.
Things started pretty much like we expected....a pretty little hike down alongside a river. Passing the markers that showed us the way, we, like the travelers before us, dropped off rocks at each marker. These rocks were representative of the worries that we were leaving along the way, so that we would arrive at our destination with a clean spirit.
Very quickly, we figured out that maybe the walk wasn't going to be exactly what we had thought it was going to be. The nice riverside path turned into a goat path......rocky and hilly....up and down. When we did see a village or a house, there seemed to be only people who lived completely self sufficiently....no markets or stores.
We had read that there were some hotels along the way, but because we were doing the walk before the "season" actually started, we thought they might be few and far between. However, we knew that there would also be pilgrim's refuges called aubergues, where we could get a bunk for the night. Since we were not carrying sleeping bags, we had decided to try to make it to the hotels! Well, after seeing what the route was going to be, it became obvious that the hotel thing was NOT going to happen the first night.
About an hour into our walk, Mom picked up a stick to help her make it over some of the rocky places and through some of the water crossings. Well, the stick she chose was a little short...and as we got to the end of the day I noticed she was listing badly to the right. Just as we started to get worried that we might not even find an open aubergue as soon as we needed, we rounded a corner and there was a tiny little building...actually centuries old...and it had some wonderful smells coming from it. We were getting cold, were very tired and really hungry...so we went in....and found that there was also an aubergue at this spot, so we would have a bed for the night.
We ate what was called "the pilgrim's menu" for the day......and it was the first of what would be many great meals. They all started with a hearty soup....Caldo Galicea...everyplace in the area serves their version of this soup and it is a delicous mix of greens, white beans, potatoes and sometimes some sort of meat. Next they bring you the main course, usually a grilled fish or meat dish, always served with yummy fried potatoes. And every meal ended with an almond tart that we came to look forward to almost as much as a bed!!!!
We were joined at dinner by a German woman who was a mother of a 6 and an 8 year old....on the pilgrimage all alone. She was only trying to do about 10 kilometers a day.....but she was a fairly big girl, so often was our inspiration when things got tough down the road.
After dinner, we went to the aubergue.......where we found out they have no "ropas de camas" or bed clothes....no sheets and more importantly, NO BLANKETS!!!! Also important, this particular auberque had no heat. We spent an almost completely sleepless night. I cuddled with Cait and Mom alternately, trying to warm us all up as much as possible. Mom was shivering so at one time, that a German man who was sleeping near her, got up to try to find something to cover her with. We slept in all the clothes we had and covered with our towels.
We felt unprepared and exhausted after our first day.....but somehow just knew things would get bettter.
Day two - 18 Kilometers.
Our first lesson of Day 2 was to stock up on food when you found it! The great little spot where we had dinner the evening before was closed, so we set out...tired and hungry. Since Mom had the "standing erect" issue the day before, we found her a new bigger stick (pine cones attached) and decided despite her objections, we would not let her carry anything other than the small cloth pack any longer. We tried to distribute things a little better between the two other packs, but Cait's pack was still substantially heavier, probably weighing 35 pounds or so. We started the day trading off every hour or so, but Cait was taking longer and longer stints with the pack. This would prove to be a lifesaver for me.
The path was not quite as treacherous as on day one...but it was a fairly steady uphill climb. This suprised me, as I kind of thought that since we were heading towards the coast, we would be going mostly downhill. This would not be the first time I was wrong on this journey.
Mid morning, we reached our first decent sized city.....unfortunately to get into the city we had to climb a huge series of steps. However, our reward at the top of the steps was a supermarket where we bought fruit and chocolate....and a brand new walking stick for mom. That purchase alone was worth the walk up the steps as it made her journey so much easier.
By the time we finished our shopping, we thought we might grab some lunch since we had skipped breakfast. This is when we learned our second important lesson of the day......in Spain, places to eat open at noon....but won't serve you food until at least 1.....and then they close at about 2 for siesta. So you better be fast and timely! We were so hungry, and a bit tired...so we sat and waited nearly an hour and a half to eat. Mom read while Cait and I played cards....but this really put a damper on our progress for the day, and we had some catching up to do!
This day's walk was hard, but the scenery we saw, the medieval villages we walked through and the people we met along the way made it all worth it. And....our reward at the end of the day was an open aubergue with ....BLANKETS!!!! Though we didn't make it to a hotel, we did have a great night's sleep and Cait washed out our clothes. We ate our fruit and leftover bread from lunch for our dinner as we sat in our little "shanty town" that Cait made of our hanging clothes.
This was also our first stop to meet....."the German girls". They were two very young pilgrims who would keep pace with us throughout the rest of the trip. We would leapfrog back and forth, passing them and getting passed, along the route on the next 5 days. While our daily pace was about the same, the girls walked much faster than us but stopped often, thus becoming the battle of the tortoises and the hares. I can't believe how competitive we became even on this journey! We shared the aubergue that night with them, two girls from Mollorca Islands, a girl from France and one young man, travelling alone and staying quietly to himself.
Even though there was no food available at the aubergue, we were too tired to care....we slept so much better with our blankets.
Day three - 20 Kilometers
We started the day knowing we had to keep a pretty good pace, since we had 82 kilometers to go and only 4 left to do it in. Unfortunately the skies clouded up pretty early and by mid day we were getting wet. Now, when planning for the trip, Cait had reminded us to bring ponchos, as the weather was expected to be iffy. Well, being thrifty as Mom and I are....we decided that it was a good idea to get the great little 2 packs of rain ponchos that they sell at the dollar store. We were wrong. So very wrong. Not only were these ponchos not big enough to cover us and our packs.....but they were flimsy and didn't cover our arms at all. Abject failure seems to sum up our poncho purchase.
We tortoises started earlier than the German hares....but several times during the day the lead would change hands.
Today, in addition to the poncho failure, I would manage to leave our water bottle at a stop and then, within fifteen minutes, set the backpack down in a pile of some sort of poop. Yes, real poop. Right on the mesh part that rested against your shoulders. And unfortunately I didn't notice it until just as I was swinging it up to put on the second shoulder strap...way too late to stop the motion. So....poop all over my jacket and the backpack. Bad combination.
In addition to getting wet, we were showing signs of wear and tear. Cait was carrying the big pack almost exclusively. While the small pack was lighter, the weight was badly distributed.......but even so MUCH easier to carry than the big one. Cait was using Mom's stick some, to try to help take some of the load off...but when the trail was treacherous, Mom needed it back, so Cait had to go it alone.
As the day drew to an end, we were very wet and very tired. We got to what we thought was an aubergue, but it was closed. Trudging on.....we found another.....closed as well. Then it started to rain hard. No sign of a town or a place to stay, we were short on food, out of water, exhausted and soaked. Finally we found another aubergue...this time...open!!! Just before we were getting to the door of the aubergue, the "hares" zipped by us and checked into the place just before us.
Not only was this aubergue open, but a Godsend. It had a dryer to dry our wet clothes....and while it had no blankets, the woman running it went and found us some, and then, when she found out that we had lost our water bottle, she sent her husband to get water for us. The showers were hot and the only other two people in the aubergue were our two German girl friends.
We were so happy to be dry and to have water, we didn't even mind much when one of the girls snagged Mom's long underwear top. Well, Cait and I didn't mind much....after all it wasn't our top!!! The girls were no longer "the German girls" and now became "the shirt stealers". We figured it was only an accident, but gave us something to giggle about the rest of the trip.
continued......
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
We Three See......The Catedral Santiago de Compostela out our Attic/Room window
What an incredible two days.....I feel like I'm using the words incredible and amazing a lot, but this has already been a trip of a lifetime, and there are only so many words that can be used to describe it.
I'm laying in bed, in our attic room of an old hotel, about 400 years old....where the window is in the roof, thinking about how to even begin this blog. This little hotel is about 50 meters from the most gorgeous gothic catedral, where we will end our pilgrimage 6 days from now....and our room is the only one that will sleep three....but it meant climbing three flights of stairs with all of our luggage, to find the "Charlie Chaplin" suite to be more than we could have hoped for. There is a bagpiper who is playing on the steps of the catedral and the early evening chatter from the streets is light and pleasant. The air is cool and the last bits of the afternoon sun are lighting the room.
Tomorrow we take a 7am train to Sarria....about 160 km away....where we will start our walk back to Santiago. The walk will take us through the ancient villages and into the old churches that pilgrims have visited for 500 years. For us to be able to do this, the three generations, sharing such an incredible experience....well, we just know how blessed we are. But....I am getting ahead of myself....back to how we got here!!!!
Yesterday we got up early and headed over to Gibraltar. Though "the rock" is actually a penisula attached to Spain, it is under British control. Because there is limited "flat land" on the rock, the airport and the road entering the city share the same land. Several planes fly out in the morning and so traffic was backed up quite a bit, waiting for the runway to clear so that we could drive out on the rock. We were interested in the tunnels and caves that have been used since the 1500 for various military purposes....but Cait was especially interested in the apes. She had heard me tell stories about them coming right up to you, and was anxious to see if those stories were true........she has no doubts anymore!!!
The road to the top of the rock is tiny, curvy and treacherous. When we got up to the entrance to the first cave, we noticed there were a few apes around. Cait was going to take the baquette we had brought with us and break off some to try to lure one to her. Well, as soon as she got out of the car, a medium sized ape, about 2.5 feet tall, came at her.....and grabbed the end of her bread bag. The tug of war that ensued was hilarious....with the ape winning only because he ripped open his end of the bag and swiped the entire baquette! He then perched on the wall beside us and leisurely ate his breakfast!!! We went in, hiked the cave.....and when we came back out, the funny guy was still eating the bread! Cait and Mom both ended up taking Moroccan bread over and feeding him some of that, just so they could get photos with him. He would put down the baquette only long enough to take the different bread from them.
As we drove around the top of the rock, looking at the tunnels and other sights, a couple of apes jumped on our car. One sat right on the passenger side rear view mirror and kept tapping on the glass trying to get the window open. Mom opened the window just a bit and went for her pocket, where she had some crackers........and we now know where the term ape **** crazy comes from! He was trying everything to get into the car with us....all the time while we are driving on a one lane road at the top of rock of Gibraltar!!!!! Calm heads prevailed....we put all the food out of sight....and the apes lost interest with us. But they certainly made our trip to Gib a lot more fun.
After leaving Gibraltar, we started making our way to Portugal. The towns and villages we went through, both in Spain and Portugal, all looked like they were off of postcards. Everywhere we stopped there was interesting food and people to meet and talk to. Lunch at a little "cafe" that was filled with laborers, where we just sat down and they brought us what they were serving that day....to snacks recommended by a girl at a little roadside store where we stopped....it just seemed like we ran into great things to eat at every turn. We will need this walk to work off some of the incredible food we have eaten.
Even today....when we wanted to eat at a time when everyone else was taking "siesta".....we found a little spot where the woman brought us an assortment of the leftovers from their lunch....and we shared a smorgasborg of yummy food.
We have found that our Spanish allows us to muddle through fairly well...better here in Santiago than in Barcelona and Valencia. There, their Spanish is Catalan, and not only are the words sometimes different, but they speak with a lisp...EVERYONE. For instance, instead of normal gracias.....they say grathiath.....which might not seem like a big deal, but when your ear is struggle to recognize words and phrases anyway, the "th" really throws you off! In Portugal, we pretty much just used smiles and sign language....as our pronunciations and word usage was so bad that no one really could understand us anymore than we could understand them.
We returned our Spanish rental car today....and while driving was sometimes just a bit stressful...it ended up being the perfect way for us to see Spain. We talked and laughed and pointed and giggled and ate our way from the north to the south....across the bottom....and back up north through Portugal. I know we still have some incredible times to come on this trip, but Spain will be a memory to last a lifetime.
The bagpipe music has given way to a flute...and the small talk of people making their way down the streets heading home from work has changed to groups eating at outdoor cafes or strolling toward a local bar. I just can't explain how perfect it is.
No blogs or communication for 6 days.....as we are walking and carrying everything we need on our backs....so a computer is one of the luxuries that is being left behind. I'm so excited to find out what we will learn about Spain, about the history of the pilgrimage, about each other...and mostly, about ourselves in the next few days.
I'm laying in bed, in our attic room of an old hotel, about 400 years old....where the window is in the roof, thinking about how to even begin this blog. This little hotel is about 50 meters from the most gorgeous gothic catedral, where we will end our pilgrimage 6 days from now....and our room is the only one that will sleep three....but it meant climbing three flights of stairs with all of our luggage, to find the "Charlie Chaplin" suite to be more than we could have hoped for. There is a bagpiper who is playing on the steps of the catedral and the early evening chatter from the streets is light and pleasant. The air is cool and the last bits of the afternoon sun are lighting the room.
Tomorrow we take a 7am train to Sarria....about 160 km away....where we will start our walk back to Santiago. The walk will take us through the ancient villages and into the old churches that pilgrims have visited for 500 years. For us to be able to do this, the three generations, sharing such an incredible experience....well, we just know how blessed we are. But....I am getting ahead of myself....back to how we got here!!!!
Yesterday we got up early and headed over to Gibraltar. Though "the rock" is actually a penisula attached to Spain, it is under British control. Because there is limited "flat land" on the rock, the airport and the road entering the city share the same land. Several planes fly out in the morning and so traffic was backed up quite a bit, waiting for the runway to clear so that we could drive out on the rock. We were interested in the tunnels and caves that have been used since the 1500 for various military purposes....but Cait was especially interested in the apes. She had heard me tell stories about them coming right up to you, and was anxious to see if those stories were true........she has no doubts anymore!!!
The road to the top of the rock is tiny, curvy and treacherous. When we got up to the entrance to the first cave, we noticed there were a few apes around. Cait was going to take the baquette we had brought with us and break off some to try to lure one to her. Well, as soon as she got out of the car, a medium sized ape, about 2.5 feet tall, came at her.....and grabbed the end of her bread bag. The tug of war that ensued was hilarious....with the ape winning only because he ripped open his end of the bag and swiped the entire baquette! He then perched on the wall beside us and leisurely ate his breakfast!!! We went in, hiked the cave.....and when we came back out, the funny guy was still eating the bread! Cait and Mom both ended up taking Moroccan bread over and feeding him some of that, just so they could get photos with him. He would put down the baquette only long enough to take the different bread from them.
As we drove around the top of the rock, looking at the tunnels and other sights, a couple of apes jumped on our car. One sat right on the passenger side rear view mirror and kept tapping on the glass trying to get the window open. Mom opened the window just a bit and went for her pocket, where she had some crackers........and we now know where the term ape **** crazy comes from! He was trying everything to get into the car with us....all the time while we are driving on a one lane road at the top of rock of Gibraltar!!!!! Calm heads prevailed....we put all the food out of sight....and the apes lost interest with us. But they certainly made our trip to Gib a lot more fun.
After leaving Gibraltar, we started making our way to Portugal. The towns and villages we went through, both in Spain and Portugal, all looked like they were off of postcards. Everywhere we stopped there was interesting food and people to meet and talk to. Lunch at a little "cafe" that was filled with laborers, where we just sat down and they brought us what they were serving that day....to snacks recommended by a girl at a little roadside store where we stopped....it just seemed like we ran into great things to eat at every turn. We will need this walk to work off some of the incredible food we have eaten.
Even today....when we wanted to eat at a time when everyone else was taking "siesta".....we found a little spot where the woman brought us an assortment of the leftovers from their lunch....and we shared a smorgasborg of yummy food.
We have found that our Spanish allows us to muddle through fairly well...better here in Santiago than in Barcelona and Valencia. There, their Spanish is Catalan, and not only are the words sometimes different, but they speak with a lisp...EVERYONE. For instance, instead of normal gracias.....they say grathiath.....which might not seem like a big deal, but when your ear is struggle to recognize words and phrases anyway, the "th" really throws you off! In Portugal, we pretty much just used smiles and sign language....as our pronunciations and word usage was so bad that no one really could understand us anymore than we could understand them.
We returned our Spanish rental car today....and while driving was sometimes just a bit stressful...it ended up being the perfect way for us to see Spain. We talked and laughed and pointed and giggled and ate our way from the north to the south....across the bottom....and back up north through Portugal. I know we still have some incredible times to come on this trip, but Spain will be a memory to last a lifetime.
The bagpipe music has given way to a flute...and the small talk of people making their way down the streets heading home from work has changed to groups eating at outdoor cafes or strolling toward a local bar. I just can't explain how perfect it is.
No blogs or communication for 6 days.....as we are walking and carrying everything we need on our backs....so a computer is one of the luxuries that is being left behind. I'm so excited to find out what we will learn about Spain, about the history of the pilgrimage, about each other...and mostly, about ourselves in the next few days.
Monday, March 21, 2011
We Three See......Morocco
This morning started like any other vacation morning....a few moans and groans at the early hour, but still, excitement with what the day might hold. Even our excited anticipation couldn't match what an amazing day we were about to have.....definitely a once in a life time experience, filled with events that one would come to expect when WE are travelling!
We got to the port and boarded our boat uneventfully enough. The passage over was on a "slow boat" and took about an hour and thirty minutes. I napped while Cait and Mom played gin and chatted with a couple of people from the states. As we were docking, the steward asked if we had our passports stamped yet. What??????? We, along with everyone else in our cabin lounge (about 11 people) had assumed that we would get them stamped as we disembarked. We assumed wrong. Apparently we were supposed to have had them stamped during the passage....but because the music in our cabin was playing spanish covers of songs like "If I were a Boy" so loud, no one heard the announcements. We couldn't disembark because the customs "policia" had left the boat already, so we were all stuck there for about an hour. During the hour, the "customer service specialist", interestingly enough named Mohammed, came by to scold us for not getting our passports stamped. Pointing out that there were 11 of us, all from the same lounge cabin, 4 American, 5 Middle Eastern, and 2 of some European descent.....we tried to tell him that we hadn't heard the message. He condenscendingly asked if we were American. When we replied yes, he ...again condescendingly...said...."yes this happens all the time with Americans because you don't listen to the announcements". I guess if we are going to be stereotyped, it is better to be stereotyped as a society who doesn't "listen" than to be stereotyped as something like a suicide bomber..........erghhhhhhhh.......No telling what Mohammed would have thought had he seen Mom peeking into the Mosque in Doha to "just take a picture or two". We hoped this wasn't setting the tone for the visit to North Africa!
When we were finally allowed to leave the boat, they had boarded the return trip, so we had to go down to the bowels of the boat and disembark out of the cargo hull. Now, this is a BIG boat....with three cargo levels....and tied up to a big commercial dock.....Thus leaving us standing in the middle of a big empty dock, looking a bit silly I'm sure, and trying to figure out how to get from the dock to a bus or taxi to take us the 30 kilometers to Tangiers. Thankfully, we met the first of what would be a series of great Moroccan men who would help us.....and he directed us to the customs entrance and then to the bus.
As we approached the bus, a man tried to approach us. The same official who had helped us stopped the man and wouldn't let him talk to us. We continued to go where we had been directed, but the man kept alternately screaming to us and screaming at the official. Apparently he had wanted to offer to take us to town and the official was not letting him. The screaming escalated and continued long past when we had boarded our bus. As we drove off, another policia had joined the scene and now all three men were screaming at one another!!
The bus ride to town was perfect. We went through a rural area....on a brilliantly modern road.....where everything BUT the road looked like centures gone by. Few of the hillside homes had access to power, and the people were moving about the countryside by donkey and afoot. There were goats and cattle being herded along small trails and burros carrying huge loads of produce to the market. It was very much like a movie....and yet strangely very different than what we expected, because instead of just sand and desert, the hills looked fertile and there were crops and groves of fruit bearing trees everywhere.
On the bus ride, we met a couple of men from Tangiers who were going home from work at the port. They spoke some English and spent the ride telling us about the countryside, the history of things we saw and what to expect when we got to Tangiers. Not only was it like having a tour guide on the trip, we got very useful information about how the best way to see the city was. The best information was that when we got off the bus, we would be approached by many men offering to "show us the city". They said it was best to wave off the first group of these men, and continue to the exchange office....but later allow a man to help us during the day.
Well, they were not exaggerating! As soon as we got off, men of all sizes, ages, and dress were trying to get our attention...asking us where we wanted to go, what we wanted to do.....it was certainly overwhelming. They were not quite grabbing...but certainly reaching for us....and all chattering in strange languages and accents. But one man was quietly persistent. He didn't yell to us...He didn't jump in front of us. He was a cute little man in a robe and colorful hat, with one single tooth left in his mouth, that he proudly showed off when he smiled. He just followed us along, telling us he was a family man, with a wife and two daughters....and then told us he was just like Coca Cola...everyone loved him!!!! When he told us his name was Ahmed, it was just too perfect...and we asked him to be our guide for the day....which would prove to be a great decision on our part.
Ahmed....who for some reason I began to call Abdul, leading both Mom and Cait to call him Abdul as well (and he always answered to it).....led us through the streets of the oldest, strangest city we had ever been in. There were few tourists, since it was the off season....fewer women (all local, none tourists)....and no other women without head coverings. We stood out...but Cait....with her mane of red flying wild, was certainly the center of attention for the day. Children and men of all ages gawked at her, but never in a disrepectful way. The streets were narrow....but not like narrow by our standards. They were so narrow that we had to walk single file at times. The smells were amazing, and mostly good, especially in the spice market, where there were over 10,000 spices for sale! The sounds foreign, but pleasant. We climbed steps and visited markets and made our way to the apex of the city ......to the Casbah.....where once we climbed through the gates of the ruin and out onto the cliff, we were treated to a site that is almost undescribable. You can see the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, Spain, Gibralter, France and Morocco from that point. The shoreline was breathtaking and the sea as blue as you imagine when you read about it.
Heading back down into the city, we shopped and bought fresh breads. We saw rugs and beadwork and metalwork that were all esquisite. We also noticed that because there were so few tourists, we had aquired a bit of an entourage. Here we were, three women, all bare headed, being followed led by Ahmed, who answered to Abdul, and followed by 5 or six other men. One man was sort of tricky. The city was a bit of a maze, and he just kept "appearing" at different turns in the maze. He always acted surprised to see us, but we finally figured out that it wasn't such a suprise!
When we stopped for a late lunch, it was at a quiet little local spot where we ordered a sampling of the local cuisine. We did have one little bit of excitement before we got to lunch.......when we were being seated, Mom's chair broke, and she fell just a bit, cutting her arm. Of course, it wasn't Cait or I who broke the chair...it was tiny Mom....making it even funnier, once we found out she wasn't seriously hurt. Not only did the waiter panic, but Ahmed (also known as Abdul) came running in...someone got the owner of the hotel, who took over serving us, sending away the waiter, who we never saw again! Then, as we ate, the men who had been following us during the day kept coming in to ask Mom if she was okay. The brought bandaids and fussed over her.......with the owner finishing our lunch service and bringing us one of everything!
One of everything entailed some of the best tastes ever! We started with a fresh baked loaf of round bread and locally grown olives that were the best I've ever had. Then we had a soup that was so good we all finished it, even though the day wasn't cold and we knew there was much more food to come. Next...a salad made with all the local vegetables, eggs, rice and tuna. Caits favorite course was the Pastella....a chicken filled pastry that was strangely topped with a powdered sugar and cinnamon mixture that was so much better than we ever expected. The main courses were a chicken stew mixture made with potatoes, olives, cabbage and carrots and a chicken couscous dish that was really rich and yummy. Finally, though we were all three stuffed, they brought us baklava (different from the greek version because it was much more like a candy than a pastry) and fresh mint tea.
More walking through the town helped us work off some of the massive meal we had, and we decided we would head on back to Spain, so asked Ahmed to take us to the port. He led us there, stopping only to write his address so that we could send him copies of the pictures we took....and left us at the entrance to the port.
We were sailing back from the small port right in the city of Tangiers so we didn't have to go back on a bus...but as we approached the dock, a man came running to me. He was trying to rush me, saying this boat that was leaving was going to be the last of the day. We knew the schedule said that there should be 3 or 4 more, but still, we trusted him and started to rush. Another man came to tell us to hurry as well, and I decided I better run ahead....which I did. After going through the exit station, I went to the boat, but the gangplank was already pulled away. I saw the cargo hull was still open so i ran down the cargo plank to the hull. The official there waved me to hurry....and told me he would let me on there. I said I had to wait for my Mother and daughter. He said to move away then, he had to raise the plank. Well, I figured at that point we couldn't be stranded in Morocco all night....so I jumped up onto the cargo gangway. He looked at me strangely and said... "you cannot leave your mother". I smiled as sweetly as I could....not leaving the gangway...and said....YOU cannot leave my mother. They waited....and once again we made our way through the bowels of boat and up to the place where we were supposed to be!!!!
After finding a seat, we found out the reason it was the last boat was because the seas had become so rough....but since this was a jet boat, our trip home was only about 45 minutes...albeit the roughest 45 minutes I have ever had on the water. It only made the day more interesting and the memories more lasting.
As good of times as we've had and as much excitement as we anticpate having the rest of the trip.....today will be hard to beat.
 |
| Cait on board boat to Morocco, with Gibraltar in the background. |
We got to the port and boarded our boat uneventfully enough. The passage over was on a "slow boat" and took about an hour and thirty minutes. I napped while Cait and Mom played gin and chatted with a couple of people from the states. As we were docking, the steward asked if we had our passports stamped yet. What??????? We, along with everyone else in our cabin lounge (about 11 people) had assumed that we would get them stamped as we disembarked. We assumed wrong. Apparently we were supposed to have had them stamped during the passage....but because the music in our cabin was playing spanish covers of songs like "If I were a Boy" so loud, no one heard the announcements. We couldn't disembark because the customs "policia" had left the boat already, so we were all stuck there for about an hour. During the hour, the "customer service specialist", interestingly enough named Mohammed, came by to scold us for not getting our passports stamped. Pointing out that there were 11 of us, all from the same lounge cabin, 4 American, 5 Middle Eastern, and 2 of some European descent.....we tried to tell him that we hadn't heard the message. He condenscendingly asked if we were American. When we replied yes, he ...again condescendingly...said...."yes this happens all the time with Americans because you don't listen to the announcements". I guess if we are going to be stereotyped, it is better to be stereotyped as a society who doesn't "listen" than to be stereotyped as something like a suicide bomber..........erghhhhhhhh.......No telling what Mohammed would have thought had he seen Mom peeking into the Mosque in Doha to "just take a picture or two". We hoped this wasn't setting the tone for the visit to North Africa!
When we were finally allowed to leave the boat, they had boarded the return trip, so we had to go down to the bowels of the boat and disembark out of the cargo hull. Now, this is a BIG boat....with three cargo levels....and tied up to a big commercial dock.....Thus leaving us standing in the middle of a big empty dock, looking a bit silly I'm sure, and trying to figure out how to get from the dock to a bus or taxi to take us the 30 kilometers to Tangiers. Thankfully, we met the first of what would be a series of great Moroccan men who would help us.....and he directed us to the customs entrance and then to the bus.
As we approached the bus, a man tried to approach us. The same official who had helped us stopped the man and wouldn't let him talk to us. We continued to go where we had been directed, but the man kept alternately screaming to us and screaming at the official. Apparently he had wanted to offer to take us to town and the official was not letting him. The screaming escalated and continued long past when we had boarded our bus. As we drove off, another policia had joined the scene and now all three men were screaming at one another!!
The bus ride to town was perfect. We went through a rural area....on a brilliantly modern road.....where everything BUT the road looked like centures gone by. Few of the hillside homes had access to power, and the people were moving about the countryside by donkey and afoot. There were goats and cattle being herded along small trails and burros carrying huge loads of produce to the market. It was very much like a movie....and yet strangely very different than what we expected, because instead of just sand and desert, the hills looked fertile and there were crops and groves of fruit bearing trees everywhere.
On the bus ride, we met a couple of men from Tangiers who were going home from work at the port. They spoke some English and spent the ride telling us about the countryside, the history of things we saw and what to expect when we got to Tangiers. Not only was it like having a tour guide on the trip, we got very useful information about how the best way to see the city was. The best information was that when we got off the bus, we would be approached by many men offering to "show us the city". They said it was best to wave off the first group of these men, and continue to the exchange office....but later allow a man to help us during the day.
Well, they were not exaggerating! As soon as we got off, men of all sizes, ages, and dress were trying to get our attention...asking us where we wanted to go, what we wanted to do.....it was certainly overwhelming. They were not quite grabbing...but certainly reaching for us....and all chattering in strange languages and accents. But one man was quietly persistent. He didn't yell to us...He didn't jump in front of us. He was a cute little man in a robe and colorful hat, with one single tooth left in his mouth, that he proudly showed off when he smiled. He just followed us along, telling us he was a family man, with a wife and two daughters....and then told us he was just like Coca Cola...everyone loved him!!!! When he told us his name was Ahmed, it was just too perfect...and we asked him to be our guide for the day....which would prove to be a great decision on our part.
 |
| Mom and Ahmed |
Ahmed....who for some reason I began to call Abdul, leading both Mom and Cait to call him Abdul as well (and he always answered to it).....led us through the streets of the oldest, strangest city we had ever been in. There were few tourists, since it was the off season....fewer women (all local, none tourists)....and no other women without head coverings. We stood out...but Cait....with her mane of red flying wild, was certainly the center of attention for the day. Children and men of all ages gawked at her, but never in a disrepectful way. The streets were narrow....but not like narrow by our standards. They were so narrow that we had to walk single file at times. The smells were amazing, and mostly good, especially in the spice market, where there were over 10,000 spices for sale! The sounds foreign, but pleasant. We climbed steps and visited markets and made our way to the apex of the city ......to the Casbah.....where once we climbed through the gates of the ruin and out onto the cliff, we were treated to a site that is almost undescribable. You can see the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, Spain, Gibralter, France and Morocco from that point. The shoreline was breathtaking and the sea as blue as you imagine when you read about it.
Heading back down into the city, we shopped and bought fresh breads. We saw rugs and beadwork and metalwork that were all esquisite. We also noticed that because there were so few tourists, we had aquired a bit of an entourage. Here we were, three women, all bare headed, being followed led by Ahmed, who answered to Abdul, and followed by 5 or six other men. One man was sort of tricky. The city was a bit of a maze, and he just kept "appearing" at different turns in the maze. He always acted surprised to see us, but we finally figured out that it wasn't such a suprise!
When we stopped for a late lunch, it was at a quiet little local spot where we ordered a sampling of the local cuisine. We did have one little bit of excitement before we got to lunch.......when we were being seated, Mom's chair broke, and she fell just a bit, cutting her arm. Of course, it wasn't Cait or I who broke the chair...it was tiny Mom....making it even funnier, once we found out she wasn't seriously hurt. Not only did the waiter panic, but Ahmed (also known as Abdul) came running in...someone got the owner of the hotel, who took over serving us, sending away the waiter, who we never saw again! Then, as we ate, the men who had been following us during the day kept coming in to ask Mom if she was okay. The brought bandaids and fussed over her.......with the owner finishing our lunch service and bringing us one of everything!
One of everything entailed some of the best tastes ever! We started with a fresh baked loaf of round bread and locally grown olives that were the best I've ever had. Then we had a soup that was so good we all finished it, even though the day wasn't cold and we knew there was much more food to come. Next...a salad made with all the local vegetables, eggs, rice and tuna. Caits favorite course was the Pastella....a chicken filled pastry that was strangely topped with a powdered sugar and cinnamon mixture that was so much better than we ever expected. The main courses were a chicken stew mixture made with potatoes, olives, cabbage and carrots and a chicken couscous dish that was really rich and yummy. Finally, though we were all three stuffed, they brought us baklava (different from the greek version because it was much more like a candy than a pastry) and fresh mint tea.
More walking through the town helped us work off some of the massive meal we had, and we decided we would head on back to Spain, so asked Ahmed to take us to the port. He led us there, stopping only to write his address so that we could send him copies of the pictures we took....and left us at the entrance to the port.
We were sailing back from the small port right in the city of Tangiers so we didn't have to go back on a bus...but as we approached the dock, a man came running to me. He was trying to rush me, saying this boat that was leaving was going to be the last of the day. We knew the schedule said that there should be 3 or 4 more, but still, we trusted him and started to rush. Another man came to tell us to hurry as well, and I decided I better run ahead....which I did. After going through the exit station, I went to the boat, but the gangplank was already pulled away. I saw the cargo hull was still open so i ran down the cargo plank to the hull. The official there waved me to hurry....and told me he would let me on there. I said I had to wait for my Mother and daughter. He said to move away then, he had to raise the plank. Well, I figured at that point we couldn't be stranded in Morocco all night....so I jumped up onto the cargo gangway. He looked at me strangely and said... "you cannot leave your mother". I smiled as sweetly as I could....not leaving the gangway...and said....YOU cannot leave my mother. They waited....and once again we made our way through the bowels of boat and up to the place where we were supposed to be!!!!
After finding a seat, we found out the reason it was the last boat was because the seas had become so rough....but since this was a jet boat, our trip home was only about 45 minutes...albeit the roughest 45 minutes I have ever had on the water. It only made the day more interesting and the memories more lasting.
As good of times as we've had and as much excitement as we anticpate having the rest of the trip.....today will be hard to beat.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
We Three See......Fires, Festivals and FINALLY....Cait!
Leaving Barcelona was great only because Mom and I were both so excited to get on the road to Valencia to meet Cait. We were packed and in our little car.... we had directions to the hostel where we would find Cait and we were on the road.
The roads, incidentally....amazingly good. Big, wide modern highways...well marked and easy to maneuver. We were SO happy. We now know how they can afford such wonderful roads, however, as the tolls for the 400 kilometers we travelled were $40!
The drive from Barcelona to Valencia is gorgeous! The road constantly surrounded by vineyards, olive groves, orange groves or the Mediterranean. There were centuries old wineries in the middle of the vineyards and all of the little villages had gorgeous Cathedrals with spires and towers that rose way above the small houses in the villages. The drive flew by.....with Mom and I both excited by the sites and chattering away solving the problems of the world.
We arrived in Valencia and found it to be bigger than either of us expected....and it was obvious that there was something exciting going on as there were people all over. We became so engrossed in following the directions to Cait's hostel through the small crowded streets that when we had to wait to turn right neither of us really noticed what we were waiting on. After we made our right hand turn and started moving slowing down the little street, we both started laughing, as we were right behind a band marching along....and in the middle of a parade!!!! So what do two Texas women do when they find themselves suddenly in the middle of a parade in Valencia Spain???? Well....of course....smile and wave....and smile and wave...and smile and wave!!!!!
Though it delayed us getting to Cait quite as quickly as we wanted, we loved being right in the middle of things...even if we weren't invited! Then....it was all capped off with us finding the hostel....and seeing Cait for the first time in over 2 months. She looked and sounded great and was excited to show us all the happenings in Valencia. However, we decided to go check into our hotel first, as it was 30 kilometers or so away.
On the way to Segunda (the small town where we had to get a room, because Valencia was booked up) Cait told us story after story about her trip. So much so that we weren't really paying attention to where we were going and found ourselves a bit...hmmm....bewildered about where we were. This little village was having a Fallas Festival of their own and so there was tons of activity, fireworks, etc going on. After driving around for a while, trying to follow a GPS that was confusing, at best....I suggested that we ask a Policia to help us. Cait sort of dismissed the idea, as she didn't think they would be much help....BUT....because I was the boss that particular day, I waved over some policia anyway. I knew they would be busy because of the festival, but though they might take the time to help us if we seemed desperate enough. Not only did they try to direct us, but when I didn't seem to really grasp what they were telling me....they told us to follow them and led us from their town, almost 14 kilometers to the next town to show us our hotel!
We got to our hotel and knew we had made a good choice to stay out of town. It was a wonderful resort on the Mediterean and though it was "off season" was just perfect.
After checking in, we considered taking a small siesta....but NOOOOOOOOOOO.....I thought we should go on to the festival. Big mistake!!!! We got back to Valencia about 3 or so and couldn't find a parking space on the road....so in the fashion of a true Spaniard, I backed up onto a sidewalk, we locked up the car and took off to the festival. Cait had explained briefly that the each neighborhood in Valencia builds a falla that is judged and then at the end of the festival (which was this very night) they were lit on fire and burned! A falla is a monument built of wood, styrofoam and paper mache that represents some theme.....sometimes something funny, sometimes a protest of sorts....and these monuments are big....some as big as a 4 story building!!!!! Someone who found out we were from the states told us about a falla from a few years back that was a big giant, pantless Bill Clinton, being.....entertained by a kneeling Monica Lewinsky! Nice to see US influence in foreign festivals.
The roads, incidentally....amazingly good. Big, wide modern highways...well marked and easy to maneuver. We were SO happy. We now know how they can afford such wonderful roads, however, as the tolls for the 400 kilometers we travelled were $40!
The drive from Barcelona to Valencia is gorgeous! The road constantly surrounded by vineyards, olive groves, orange groves or the Mediterranean. There were centuries old wineries in the middle of the vineyards and all of the little villages had gorgeous Cathedrals with spires and towers that rose way above the small houses in the villages. The drive flew by.....with Mom and I both excited by the sites and chattering away solving the problems of the world.
 |
| The band in front of us through the windshield! |
Though it delayed us getting to Cait quite as quickly as we wanted, we loved being right in the middle of things...even if we weren't invited! Then....it was all capped off with us finding the hostel....and seeing Cait for the first time in over 2 months. She looked and sounded great and was excited to show us all the happenings in Valencia. However, we decided to go check into our hotel first, as it was 30 kilometers or so away.
On the way to Segunda (the small town where we had to get a room, because Valencia was booked up) Cait told us story after story about her trip. So much so that we weren't really paying attention to where we were going and found ourselves a bit...hmmm....bewildered about where we were. This little village was having a Fallas Festival of their own and so there was tons of activity, fireworks, etc going on. After driving around for a while, trying to follow a GPS that was confusing, at best....I suggested that we ask a Policia to help us. Cait sort of dismissed the idea, as she didn't think they would be much help....BUT....because I was the boss that particular day, I waved over some policia anyway. I knew they would be busy because of the festival, but though they might take the time to help us if we seemed desperate enough. Not only did they try to direct us, but when I didn't seem to really grasp what they were telling me....they told us to follow them and led us from their town, almost 14 kilometers to the next town to show us our hotel!
We got to our hotel and knew we had made a good choice to stay out of town. It was a wonderful resort on the Mediterean and though it was "off season" was just perfect.
After checking in, we considered taking a small siesta....but NOOOOOOOOOOO.....I thought we should go on to the festival. Big mistake!!!! We got back to Valencia about 3 or so and couldn't find a parking space on the road....so in the fashion of a true Spaniard, I backed up onto a sidewalk, we locked up the car and took off to the festival. Cait had explained briefly that the each neighborhood in Valencia builds a falla that is judged and then at the end of the festival (which was this very night) they were lit on fire and burned! A falla is a monument built of wood, styrofoam and paper mache that represents some theme.....sometimes something funny, sometimes a protest of sorts....and these monuments are big....some as big as a 4 story building!!!!! Someone who found out we were from the states told us about a falla from a few years back that was a big giant, pantless Bill Clinton, being.....entertained by a kneeling Monica Lewinsky! Nice to see US influence in foreign festivals.
The Spanish are obviously very artistic...and also seem to have a real interest in ....parts! Body parts! Some of the fallas were nude people, all of the women in the fallas were topless....and funny enough, most of the women were redheads. Which was a little disturbing since I knew they would all eventually be burned! We walked for hours....7 hours to be exact....looking at all of the fallas, the huge crowds, the statue of the Virgin Mary that was covered in literally millions of flowers. There were people of all ages packed in the streets......children lighting fireworks everywhere. It was common to be walking along and have bottle rockets and roman candles going off all around you. It was amazing to us that no one seems to get injured and that children run through the streets setting off fireworks without anyone caring.
It was really interesting...and actually great fun. Everyone gets a fallas scarf....which is actually a bandana. We thought they were just for decoration...and later found that they are to put over your face when the fires start so that you can breath and not get sick from the smoke!!!! Bands played impromptu concerts all over...we heard everything from ABBA to "Oh My Darlin' Clementine" to countless Spanish tunes we didn't recognize. We ate delicious Churros, served with hot chocolate so thick it is more like hot fudge than hot chocolate! We ate incredible street food called durum kebab...which was shaved meat, tomates, lettuce and a spicy sauce wrapped in a flat bread.
Finally we decided on which fallas we would watch burn....and we found ourselves a seat. They light a miniature fallas (called the children's fallas) at each site first....so at about 10 they lit ours. It was set up in a little square wedged in the middle of 5 buildings ...and surrounded by 1000s of people...they poured gas over it....strung fireworks all around it....and lit it!!!!! The band played and the fireworks went off and the fallas burned! It was pretty exciting...and was happening at each fallas site (probably more than 50) all over the city. We thought our big fallas was going to be lit at midnight...so we sat to wait. When it hadn't been lit by 1, we finally found someone to ask, and the one we had chosen had won a big award so wasn't going to be lit until 3!!!! We gave up and started back to the car....watching the fires and the fireworks all over the city. Never would something like this go on in the states....it was a once in a life time experience....and we were so lucky to have gotten to see it.
After a very short night, we drove to Algeciras.....A beautiful 7 hour drive along the Mediterranean. We did have a short stop in Alhambra to visit a 800 year old castle that Cait had been telling us about. It was just amazing.....built by the Moors and lived in by Sultans until Ferdinand and Isabell chased them out of Spain in the mid 1400s.
Tomorrow we set sail..(well, okay, we set "jet engine", since we are going by jet boat not by sail boat) for Morocco and Tangiers!!!!! Talk to you after the Casbah!!!!!
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