Out of Lisbon
Ai, ai, ai! My feet! ~17 miles today has gotten us up the Tejo estuary a way. An interesting day, but rather too long. We walked out of the historic district through the Alfama district with its twisted little streets.
Eventually finding the river again after much tromping and traffic avoidance.
There was a very pleasant waterside section at the Parque das Nações, built for the 1998 Expo and soon to host the Catholic Youth gathering in August. The park boasts an aquarium, sky tram, the Basco de Gama tower, and many recreational areas.
Unfortunately the new bridge for the Camino shortcut up the coast is still being completed so we had to take the inland route which adds a lot of miles. We walked for several hours directly under the landing path for the Lisbon airport, along a small river.
Finally, after a stretch of 7 km with no towns it was time for lunch!
Rich ended up with stuffed squid and I got some sort of bony grilled beef. It was good. Bread, olives, and espresso included. 10 euros for the menu do dia.
We’ve met two other pilgrim couples today. One set was from Italy, but we had no language in common with them. At lunch we met an Australian couple from near Melbourne so Rich was able to talk to them about his stay in Melbourne and we had passed through their town when we toured the Great Ocean Road back in 2018.
We got some well wishes from strangers on the way. I got to have one nice little conversation with a gentleman who stopped us on the boardwalk to wish us well. Folks were very helpful. We needed to take a train back toward Lisbon for one station to get to our lodging for tonight. A sweet young woman helped us out, unfortunately to the wrong platform. After asking 2 more people I got us on the correct train. Whew! My Portuguese is coming in handy.
We made it Lisboa without incident and after stashing our backpacks at our hostel we headed over to the Lisbon Cathedral (Sé) to get our pilgrim passports.
Rich picked out a pizza restaurant with nice shady seats under some orange trees for us to relax, have lunch and fill out the pilgrim passport. It’s a beautiful, HOT, day here so we wandered down to the waterfront to enjoy the breeze.
We were just here in the Praça do Comércio with the “kids” in December, spinning around under the giant Christmas tree and eating roasted chestnuts.
Well after having to pass time until 3:30 to check in we are ensconced in our private room at the hostel. Showering and laundry done. Now the task of staying awake until local bedtime! Tomorrow we hit the trail.
We’re off to Portugal on Wednesday for our next pilgrimage adventure. Rich and I are walking the Lisbon to Porto section of the Portuguese Central route to Santiago as a “30th anniversary Camino” or caminho, as it is spelled in Portuguese.
My left foot snuck into my photo (in the uncropped version) as if to remind me of the trauma it suffered in 2017.
At any rate, I have been anticipating this trip for several years and I am super excited to be off soon.
Sad news, though, on the home front. Our beloved black lab mix Bella who has been our family member for over 13.5 years is not doing well. We have decided we need to say our goodbyes and let her go to her peace. My son Tristan is flying home Tuesday night so that we can surround Bella with the love of the whole family. So hard to lose all of our beloved family pets that the kids grew up.
So it will be with a sad heart that we set off on Wednesday but we will know that Bella is not suffering.
One week ago I celebrated my 55th birthday and 30 years ago last Monday, on a chilly 50 degree day, Rich and I got married. We were still graduate students and just wanted to be married and start our life together. It was rather a shoestring affair. I only had a budget of $3,000, including my dress, but it came off almost exactly like we wanted. Years later, though, I still feel kind of sorry for the trouble many of our guests had trying to get home after our little wedding. The cold front that came in turned out to be the 1993 Superstorm or “Storm of the Century”, a cyclonic storm that stretched from Canada to Honduras! Rich and I had flown off to Jamaica for our honeymoon, rather unaware of the chaos happening on the east coast, but also finding out that even Jamaica was not terribly enjoyable when cold and wet.
So here we are 30 years later. I am so happy we have made it this far as successful partners in family and life. We have been very fortunate. From the early days with no money, Baby Vivi, the surprise baby Tristan, my career change, Rich becoming a professor, kids through school and college, and now the mid-life years – we have been blessed. Of course we have lost some loved ones too soon, particularly my Brazilian best friend Mônica Pombo and Rich’s mother Miriam (it would be her birthday today).
And, I wouldn’t be me if I weren’t planning another trip/adventure for us, so in recognition of 30 years together Rich and I will be walking another pilgrimage. During Rich’s sabbatical in 2017 we walked the entire Camino Frances route of the Camino de Santiago. This May we’ll be walking from Lisbon to Porto, half of the Camino Português…a mere 230 miles, as compared to 500. This is a more challenging route because the pilgrim infrastructure is not well developed and a number of the distances between towns are over 30kms. It may also be more solitary (fewer pilgrims) and have less undeveloped areas.
I have to admit that there are several reasons for Portugual this trip. We already explored Lisbon with the kids and Molly, Tristan’s girlfriend, during a trip over New Year’s, but now Rich and I will explore the interior.
I am very interested in what it is actually like to live in Portugal and the EU. I already speak the language (yay!) even if with a Brazilian accent. I didn’t have any issues in Lisbon and really look forward to speaking as much Portuguese as possible. The climate seems appealing, especially in the sunny Algarve region of the southern peninsula. I *think* that I would love to spend summers in the EU once I am no longer working. We shall see… In the mean time we will walk through incredible Roman, Moorish and Christian history as we head up the Tagus (Tejo) estuary and through Santarém, Tomar, Golegã (home of the Portuguese horse), Coimbra and on to Porto. The geologist in me is looking forward to a day trip to the Schist Villages near Coimbra.
In gratitude for the gifts of health, happiness and good fortune.
I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.
Diane Ackerman
Wow. I can’t believe I have not written any blog post in almost a year. I think it really speaks to the state of my mind and my life that I have not felt the capacity to think deeply, and that is really scary. The photo above is of one of my favorite places to think. Walking in the cemetery a few blocks from my house gives me a little break before work starts, to let my mind wander and to contemplate all of the lives memorialized on the headstones that I walk by. I find it beautiful and one of the few peaceful places that I get to spend time in these days. But is that seriously messed up?
When I think back to when I started this blog I was looking for a way to slow life down. I’m still struggling with that. Maybe that’s why I Iove pilgrimage experiences so much. Daily life gets reduced down to the bare necessities, which frees the mind and soul for the hard work of figuring out why we are here and what we are meant to be doing.
These days life is pretty different that it was. The kids are grown. Tristan has left the nest for Richmond, VA and is building a career in technical theater (lighting design). Genevieve is working hard towards her goal to be a floral designer. Even my role at work has changed drastically. Since February I have been a software engineering manager at The Home Depot, which means every day is not about me and my contributions, but about servant leadership, about enabling and growing other engineers. I love it, but my brain is 100% booked from 8 until 5. The days flow by like a river in flood.
The pandemic sent me home to work, now permanently. There will be no going back into the office, ever. This will also be my very last “job”. I am no longer interested in a career beyond where I am now. Life is running short and it is too precious. I have so much more I want to do and see than I can fit into 3 weeks of vacation a year!
My body is giving me messages too. The foot that always aches without healing; the broken thumb that is screaming at me months after x-rays showed the bone had knitted; the rarity of un-broken sleep.
And so, to live the width of life… I fill my head with spiritual study and language (becoming fluent in Portuguese once again), dreaming and adventures.
This summer Rich and I walked the Kerry Way in Ireland with friends, which had been a pandemic-delayed expedition. The next adventure will be a trip to Lisbon in late December with the family and Tristan’s girl friend Molly.
My spirit over the past few years has been drawn to both Benedictine monastic practices and Celtic Christianity. And the Camino still calls. Hopefully next Spring Rich and I will head back to Portugal to walk the Camino de Santiago from Lisbon to Porto to celebrate our 30th anniversary. And I will ecstatically unplug from Outlook, WebEx, Zoom, Teams and all of those other monsters that control my day!
We arrived in Santiago de Compostela yesterday and successfully received our Compostela certificate from the pilgrim office. We’re done with hostels now (woo-hoo!) and have very nice rooms a few steps from the cathedral.
We’ve crossed paths with pilgrim friends and already had a few goodbyes as everyone goes on their way — some going home, some on to Finisterre by foot or other destinations.
Today we went to the pilgrim mass, took care of the required Covid test for our return flight, and booked a day trip to Muxia, Finisterre and the Costa da Morte for tomorrow.
The walking poles have been packed up!! Souvenirs have been purchased. Somehow I think this is probably not my last time in Santiago…
We’ve arrived in O Pedrouzo. Tomorrow we’ll walk the final 19 km into Santiago. Today we self-medicated along the trail with ibuprofen and chocolate, making frequent stops to rest achy feet.
The walking days are long, but full of beauty. This pilgrim is too tired to post much.
Cows, everywhere. 
Galaxy Quest?? “Never give up. Never surrender” I wonder if they saw the stairs coming… 
Ugh! 30km day to Portomarin, only to have these stairs at the very end. The city was relocated from the river valley when reservoir was built. 
Tristan with overlook of river/reservoir at Portomarin. 
Moisture droplets glisten in a spiderweb. At dawn on our way to Ribadiso. 
Ah Galicia. Fog-shrouded land. 
At Castromaior archeological site. A settlement from IV BC, if I recall correctly. 
The cutest little kitty. We tried to feed it cake and Spanish tortilla (egg/potato). We spent way too long at the cafe. 
Poor octopus about to become “pulpo”. 
Soaking feet in the river Iso. Very, very cold! Good
Welcome to Galicia! Saw this on a store front. So true!! Very fragrant and lots of brown squishy stuff!
Monday morning Mary and I set off in the dark for the descent from O Cebreiro to Triacastela. Tristan needed to opt for a taxi again. Even Mary was wearing her sandals since her big toe was too swollen for her hiking shoes.
We did have a good day though. Here’s a few photos.
