Camino Day 1

 In the morning we toured the San Isidro museum connected to the hotel. The first set of photos are from the way there and inside the museum. There were many pieces from the royal and religious treasure of León that could not be photographed but here are photos that give a sense of the grandeur of the place. Outside on top of a pillar was the nest of a stork whose strange call we heard yesterday evening. And we found the holy grail but it cannot be photographed! I uploaded a picture and description from the poster outside the museum. No photos are allowed of the reliquaries and other precious objects inside the museum. After lunch at a cafe near the hotel, we had a guided tour of the city and the cathedral of dedicated to Our Lady of the Way. We received our scallop shells and passports for the Camino and instructions for our walk to O Cebreiro and the Iron Cross tomorrow. Then we attended the Pilgrim’s Mass at the Basilica of San Isidro and enjoyed a three course meal with our fellow pilgrims. By the end of the day we had already collected three Camino stamps right in León! We walked 6.6 miles, climbed 26 flights and descended 21…gearing up for the longer walks soon to come. Day by day God speaks a word of truth to the faithful.

Pre Camino Day 0

On our first full day in León after breakfast my friends Mary and Bob Wiese and I walked around Roman walls of the plaza next to the Hotel Real Colegiata San Isidro where we are staying for three nights, then we attended Mass in the Basilica de San Isidro. We prayed before the relics of St Isidore that are behind the main altar at the church. We waited for my friend from the Bay Club, Chang-Chi Liu, to join us and visited the Parador de León, originally a hospital for pilgrims on the Camino associated with the the Order of Santiago. The cloister within the Hostel San Marcos had various religious occupants over the centuries, including the Franciscans, Jesuits and Dominicans. We enjoyed the beautiful cool garden lined by statues of saints including the San Isidro. The whole area is rich in ancient and religious history with significance beyond what I can convey in a blog post. The scallop shell of the Camino de Santiago led us to the statue of the footsore pilgrim where we stopped to take a photo. After lunch at the hostel we visited the Antonio Gaudi designed Casa Botines and its museum of art and architecture. The ornate building is a six story maze with cylindrical towers each topped by conical roof. In fact everywhere we went we turned us around and around past Roman walls through cobbled streets to see all the places that were open on Monday. At the end of the day we walked 17,000 steps and climbed 30 flights of stairs. Even though we haven’t started the Camino we walked five miles just in León.in the evening we had dinner and a live classical guitar concert in the patio.

Kinder (Gentler Camino)

Last fall I received permission from our Leadership Team to make a pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago part of my Jubilee Retreat from August 29 – September 14 this year.  Whatever path the pilgrim follows, there is an interior journey to traverse at the same time. I will be walking the last 112 kilometers (62 miles) from León to Santiago.  I trained for it and am as prepared as a 70-year-old woman with arthritis in her knees and hips can be, and I pray to God to avoid injury.  I am seeking clarity in discernment and am open to whatever the Spirit is calling me to in the next phase of life.    

 

The Kinder(Gentler) Camino I will be on has excellent reviews and the guides have been very easy to communicate with and helpful in the planning process. Two friends from my spiritual direction group and one from the health club where I have been training are going on the Camino with me.  Altogether our group consists of nine women and six men from California, Texas, California, Wisconsin, Georgia, Virginia, Oklahoma, and the UK.  

Our guides are two Spanish locals named Ana and Cesar.  A van will carry our luggage from point to point, so we don’t have to carry everything with us. We will get good sleep and good food at the end of the day at each stop along the way, but we will walk about 10 miles a day for 10 days on uncertain terrain in weather that might be very hot or rainy.  I count on your prayers for a Buen Camino, and I promise to pray for all of you at each holy site we visit.  Photos to follow.