Hello from Lisbon. I would say hello in Portuguese but I have no idea how to say anything in Portuguese. As a matter of fact none of us do. We can occasionally make out words or phrases because the words sometimes resemble Spanish. No, I no have plans on learning Portugues because I have enough trouble with Spanish. Ramsey you should come here. You would like it.
Lisbon is built on hills, lots and lots and lots of hills. It is a challenge to walk and a tremendous challenge to drive in. The roads are not logical and were not planned nor wide enough for modern travel on anything but a goat or came. Our GPS loses it electronic mind all the time. Our "hotel" is not a hotel but an apartment that is located on a street that ONLY specialized vehicles can drive on of which cabs are one. The nearest parking space is 200 yards DOWNHILL from the apartment. So we put the bags into a cab to take them to the apartment. Our apartment is on the 4th or 5th floor with the steepest stairs I have ever been on. The stairs resemble a ladder. Holy moly.
We visited Fatima today which is one of the 3 miracles sites for Catholics. It seems 3 kids around 1916-17 were visited every month from May to October on the 13th day by the Mother Mary. Now pilgrims come here every month on the 13th but the largest group occurs on October 13th which is in a few days. I am told it will be around 100,000 people with a 1.25 million being there on the Pope's last visit. The area where they congregate is several hundred meters wide and long and barren. The crowd must be something to see. I wondered where 100,000 + people all stay and eat for 3 days because the town can't support that many people. i guess it is a Catholic Woodstock of sorts.
Yesterday we visisted Coimbra, Portugal where thee University of Coimbra is. UC started in 1290 and is one of the oldest continuous universities in the world. I must admit it was cool to see.
It is bedtime. See Yall tomorrow.
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Monday, October 7, 2013
Porto, Portugal
Alright, this is nasty. Yes I am going to talk about toilets again just like I did in Japan and China. I went to the little pilgrims' room (toilet) in Spain and in Portugal. Yes even I go to the bathroom, I try not to but try as I may sometimes it gets the better of me. So I went to the bathroom in the bus station in Spain and the train station in Porto, Portugal and I noticed they don't put toilet seats on the throne. Dude, they have toilets but no seats. What in the world? Deb confirmed the women's toilets were seatless too. Hmmm. I thought maybe the Iberian Peninsula folks had arrived at the age old problem of why men don't put the toilet seat down. So I cranked up my powerful mind and deduced the toilet seat problem would not bother other men so my logic was severely flawed thinking it solved the toilet seat being left up by men. So I am at a loss. I started to give you pictures of topless crappers but that would be gauche which hasn't stopped me in the past. Hmmm.
So we went and had lunch at the "best restaurant in Porto". Dern lunch cost $60 for two people. Holy guacamole batman. Dude, we had relatively normal dishes and it was $60. This restaurant was visible from all of Porto by a huge sign on the roof that said "Taylors" but Deb and I had a huge problem navigating on foot to this place. The roads would end in a building and we would have to backtrack, or the road would loop around and climb up Mt. Everest then go back down then climb up again. Geez Louise. We finally found it and Taylor's found our wallet. Whatever. Taylor's makes port wine but as Yall know this Big Ole Dumb Southern Boy doesn't drink. Of course that doesn't stop the Queen of My Doublewide who has a hollow leg.
We went into this church here that had wooden boards all over the floor. Now you must be saying what is so special about that? These boards are the same size as a coffin lid for a good reason. Up until the 18th century the people buried their dead under these wooden doors then they took out the bones later and put them in crypts in another part of the church. I have a photo of a glass cover of a huge, mass style crypt that they threw in the bones if the family couldn't afford a private crypt. Deb sort of summed it up in that the stench inside that church of rotting humans must have been mighty powerful. After I heard that they put their dead under those doors I didn't much care about the missing toilet seats. The rotting dead thing really and truthfully trumped the missing toilet seat thing as being nasty. Mega, mega nasty. Vomitorium nasty. Nasty, nasty, nasty. It seems they didn't bury their dead outside the church at all until the 17th or 18th century when somebody passed a law saying it was nasty and they couldn't do that anymore. Now I know that rockets hadn't been invented yet so rocket scientists wouldn't be a part of that algorithm, but don't you think somebody would have noticed grandma didn't smell very good a month after they put her "downstairs"? Nasty, nasty, nasty.
Dang I should have mentioned this before about restaurants in Portugal. It seems they have a habit of putting out food on your table when you arrive and charging you for it if you eat it. You know like bread and butter or whatever. It seems they also charge for tap water they give you. Last night they charged us for the guy playing the piano in the restaurant. Man these people are thieves. We haven't been charged for the air we breathe or the chair we sat in--yet.
Tomorrow we are taking the train for a day trip to someplace Deb and Sandra said they need to drag Waguih and me. Whatever. See Yall later.
So we went and had lunch at the "best restaurant in Porto". Dern lunch cost $60 for two people. Holy guacamole batman. Dude, we had relatively normal dishes and it was $60. This restaurant was visible from all of Porto by a huge sign on the roof that said "Taylors" but Deb and I had a huge problem navigating on foot to this place. The roads would end in a building and we would have to backtrack, or the road would loop around and climb up Mt. Everest then go back down then climb up again. Geez Louise. We finally found it and Taylor's found our wallet. Whatever. Taylor's makes port wine but as Yall know this Big Ole Dumb Southern Boy doesn't drink. Of course that doesn't stop the Queen of My Doublewide who has a hollow leg.
We went into this church here that had wooden boards all over the floor. Now you must be saying what is so special about that? These boards are the same size as a coffin lid for a good reason. Up until the 18th century the people buried their dead under these wooden doors then they took out the bones later and put them in crypts in another part of the church. I have a photo of a glass cover of a huge, mass style crypt that they threw in the bones if the family couldn't afford a private crypt. Deb sort of summed it up in that the stench inside that church of rotting humans must have been mighty powerful. After I heard that they put their dead under those doors I didn't much care about the missing toilet seats. The rotting dead thing really and truthfully trumped the missing toilet seat thing as being nasty. Mega, mega nasty. Vomitorium nasty. Nasty, nasty, nasty. It seems they didn't bury their dead outside the church at all until the 17th or 18th century when somebody passed a law saying it was nasty and they couldn't do that anymore. Now I know that rockets hadn't been invented yet so rocket scientists wouldn't be a part of that algorithm, but don't you think somebody would have noticed grandma didn't smell very good a month after they put her "downstairs"? Nasty, nasty, nasty.
Dang I should have mentioned this before about restaurants in Portugal. It seems they have a habit of putting out food on your table when you arrive and charging you for it if you eat it. You know like bread and butter or whatever. It seems they also charge for tap water they give you. Last night they charged us for the guy playing the piano in the restaurant. Man these people are thieves. We haven't been charged for the air we breathe or the chair we sat in--yet.
Tomorrow we are taking the train for a day trip to someplace Deb and Sandra said they need to drag Waguih and me. Whatever. See Yall later.
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Well we are done. We walked over 120km which is about 75 miles. We had a couple problems (Waguih's feet) and tweaking of my medication but that was all. The walk from Lavacolla was a wet one and quite foggy too. My feet were wet almost immediately because my boots were not quite dry. We made it to the church a little late for pilgrims mass but made it to the 7:30pm mass where the botafumera flew. The service was very nice. I took part in part of the pilgrim rituals but not all of them . I wont bore you with the details.
Santiago de Compostela has a tremendous work of architecture called the City of Culture. This is a modern marvel that is not finished and Spain has discontinued money to finish it because Spain is broke which you should already know if you follow the news. The library is open but has about 10% of the books it was designed to handle. The entire campus was deserted. I felt ashamed for Spain.
We are heading for Porto, Portugal via bus. Porto sounds like fun.
Santiago de Compostela has a tremendous work of architecture called the City of Culture. This is a modern marvel that is not finished and Spain has discontinued money to finish it because Spain is broke which you should already know if you follow the news. The library is open but has about 10% of the books it was designed to handle. The entire campus was deserted. I felt ashamed for Spain.
We are heading for Porto, Portugal via bus. Porto sounds like fun.
Salceda, Spain
Boy, today was really long. We covered 25km (15.5 miles). The terrain
was somewhat hilly with mostly flat ground. We are 25km from Santiago
de Compostela or in other words the end. The walking is much easier
since my medication gotten straightened out. I am so happy. I might be
happy, but I am tired after today's hike. The end of the camino will
bring sadness and happiness. Sadness that I again have to leave the
camino but happiness that I was able to walk a portion of it. I know I
will be back and walk the entire thing next time, but that wont be for a
year or two.
Today, we were passed by a large group of horses with Spaniard riders. Some had on American style cowboy hats and they thought they were cool. I have pictures that I plan to post but frankly can't find the time right now. Besides I don't know how to get photos off my phone. These cowspaniards' horse left pretty little piles of horse offerings over several miles of the camino that complimented the cow poop all over the camino. I guess the horses will get the certificate and not the riders. Whatever.
We also met a huge contingency of Irish people today. Good Lord there must have been 100 of them and all of which were from 5 different groups that didn't know anyone outside their group. It was pure luck they were in the same area at the same time. There was lots of English spoken on the camino today. What was funny was an Irish guy said that he loved my accent. I simply told him I don't have an accent because where I am from we all speak like me. Of course he mimicked what he called my accent and over emphasized how I pronounced certain words. I told him that he watched too much TV. I stared to tell him that he sounded just like that cartoon character on Lucky Charms serial commercials. He must have seen the commercial with all the TV he watches. We walked over 2 Roman bridges today--that is bridges from when the Romans occupied Iberia. I am sure that we walked over a couple portions of the original Roman Road however I can't be sure. Geez this place is slam full of history.
Deb and Sandra went to the beach and drove around and ate more octopus. Yuck. I'm glad they are having fund.
I may be in Santiago de Compostela tomorrow. Don't change that dial. Same bat place, same bat channel.
Al
Today, we were passed by a large group of horses with Spaniard riders. Some had on American style cowboy hats and they thought they were cool. I have pictures that I plan to post but frankly can't find the time right now. Besides I don't know how to get photos off my phone. These cowspaniards' horse left pretty little piles of horse offerings over several miles of the camino that complimented the cow poop all over the camino. I guess the horses will get the certificate and not the riders. Whatever.
We also met a huge contingency of Irish people today. Good Lord there must have been 100 of them and all of which were from 5 different groups that didn't know anyone outside their group. It was pure luck they were in the same area at the same time. There was lots of English spoken on the camino today. What was funny was an Irish guy said that he loved my accent. I simply told him I don't have an accent because where I am from we all speak like me. Of course he mimicked what he called my accent and over emphasized how I pronounced certain words. I told him that he watched too much TV. I stared to tell him that he sounded just like that cartoon character on Lucky Charms serial commercials. He must have seen the commercial with all the TV he watches. We walked over 2 Roman bridges today--that is bridges from when the Romans occupied Iberia. I am sure that we walked over a couple portions of the original Roman Road however I can't be sure. Geez this place is slam full of history.
Deb and Sandra went to the beach and drove around and ate more octopus. Yuck. I'm glad they are having fund.
I may be in Santiago de Compostela tomorrow. Don't change that dial. Same bat place, same bat channel.
Al
Lavacolla, Spain
When it rains it pours and it certainly did both today. It rained
really hard and the wind was very gusty today which made for a very long
day, and we stopped short of finishing for that reason. We stopped in
Lavacolla, Spain which is 10km (6.1miles) from Santiago de Compostela.
We have a few hours to go tomorrow.
Not a lot of fun things occurred today other than meeting a couple fun pups to scratch their ears. We did spend a lot of time walking through water and dodging creeks flowing down some fairly steep hills. My boots are "waterproof" but that merely means from rain and not standing water. I did use something called a gaiter to to keep water out of the area top of the boot where your feet enter the boot. But the gaiter fought a good but losing battle in keeping my socks dry. Wet socks equate to blisters so we stopped short of finishing today.
Tomorrow we go to the church and will do all of the rituals. I'll tell you all about the rituals tomorrow. Stay dry.
Not a lot of fun things occurred today other than meeting a couple fun pups to scratch their ears. We did spend a lot of time walking through water and dodging creeks flowing down some fairly steep hills. My boots are "waterproof" but that merely means from rain and not standing water. I did use something called a gaiter to to keep water out of the area top of the boot where your feet enter the boot. But the gaiter fought a good but losing battle in keeping my socks dry. Wet socks equate to blisters so we stopped short of finishing today.
Tomorrow we go to the church and will do all of the rituals. I'll tell you all about the rituals tomorrow. Stay dry.
Melide, Spain
We had a productive day today. We walked a little over 20 kilometers
which is about 12.5 miles yet 52 kilometers remain. I really think we
have my health problems under control. Waguih (who is a doctor) saw
first hand what was happening to me and changed a medication I take and I
didn't recognize myself today. No more excessive sweating. I now know I
must eat a little of certain foods regularly (like every 1-2 hours max
due to another problem) and I have a tremendous amount of energy. Life
has changed for me but Waguih's feet are really blistering due to the
walking. Each day brings another blister for him. It hurts to just hear
about it. I guess I suffered during the first part last month, and he is
suffering now.
We were walking through Palas de Rei today, and we saw this really beautiful church that was open, so we decided to go inside. We collect stamps along the way on this thing called a credencial that is used to prove you actually walked the camino so you can get a certificate proving you walked it. The stamps are available at churches, places to sleep, places to eat, shops, etc. The certificate is a very, very big deal for pilgrims so getting these stamps is of paramount importance. Anyway, as we were going into the church in Palas de Rei, I saw a sign that said the church had a stamp. We we went inside and walked around this beautiful church and then walked into this backroom where this old guy was stamping pilgrim credencials. So I waited my turn and the guy stamped my credencial and as soon as he finished he pointed to the money jar sitting on the table meaning I was supposed to give a donation. I guess everything has its price.
Deb and Sandra are keeping themselves busy and having fun. I'm not sure what they are doing but I know they aren't riding around throwing water balloons on pilgrims because somebody would tell me. Like the saying goes, if it ain't broken don't fix it.
I'm sorry I don't write more. We don't seem to have a lot of free time. Talk to Yall tomorrow
We were walking through Palas de Rei today, and we saw this really beautiful church that was open, so we decided to go inside. We collect stamps along the way on this thing called a credencial that is used to prove you actually walked the camino so you can get a certificate proving you walked it. The stamps are available at churches, places to sleep, places to eat, shops, etc. The certificate is a very, very big deal for pilgrims so getting these stamps is of paramount importance. Anyway, as we were going into the church in Palas de Rei, I saw a sign that said the church had a stamp. We we went inside and walked around this beautiful church and then walked into this backroom where this old guy was stamping pilgrim credencials. So I waited my turn and the guy stamped my credencial and as soon as he finished he pointed to the money jar sitting on the table meaning I was supposed to give a donation. I guess everything has its price.
Deb and Sandra are keeping themselves busy and having fun. I'm not sure what they are doing but I know they aren't riding around throwing water balloons on pilgrims because somebody would tell me. Like the saying goes, if it ain't broken don't fix it.
I'm sorry I don't write more. We don't seem to have a lot of free time. Talk to Yall tomorrow
Saturday, October 5, 2013
Porto, Portugal
Just a quick note to let everybody know that we finished the camino and all went extremely well. I have been posting accidently to another blog and will move the entries to this blog soon. We left Spain today and are in a nice hotel in Porto, Portugal. I'll provide more when I can tomorrow.
It is very late now and I need to sleep.
It is very late now and I need to sleep.
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