Monday, March 29, 2010

They're Still Going!

You'll all have to excuse my tardiness as of late.  This past week and weekend have been crazy busy around here.  A lot of mine and Ben's time have gone into his Heritage Fair Project.  We built and painted a scale model of the old Memorial Stadium.  More on this later.  First... Here's an email from the pilgrims;
Friday March 26 - What a Day! 
As I said earlier, last night was just like Christmas Eve with the Snow laden trees. We woke up this morning (in O Cebreiro) with everything completely covered in snow - an unexpected snow storm in Northern Spain that lasted Friday & Saturday. We were up, dressed and went to the restaurant next door for breakfast, took some lovely pictures and then hit the road. What a surprise we were in for - it kept snowing, the hills kept going up (we actually reached the highest peak on route to Santiago). The closest I could think of was walking up Boone Bay Hills - it was beautiful! Then the wind struck as well and we had to keep the head down, the hood sheltering the left side of our face and forge ahead. There were actually times when we had to keep our weight pushed down to hold ourselves steady. I´ve never been on the wreckhouse in a storm but that´s the thought that come to mind. We ended up walking the 23kms to Triacastela (2 more than the anticipated 21 because there was so much snow down the pilgrims had to use the road instead of the trail. In spite of how that may sound, we thoroughly enjoyed the day (excepts for the wind with the hailstone part!)

Saturday March 27 - What a Day
This time we left Triacastela with the sun shining, no snow and surrounded in green fields, sheep & cows out in the garden and beautiful tree line trails - we actually walked through a stretch of Galatia Pines, very beautiful. We had lots of uphill again today but we took our time and plugged along - enjoying the scenery and warm weather. After walking 19kms and arrived in Sarria by 4:00pm, went to the visitor´s centre and checked into our Albergue (quite nice with 20 beds - 10 bunks) Went to the Pilgrims Mass, had supper and now heading off to bed - minus one hour´s sleep!! The clocks go ahead in Spain 2:00am this morning. Hoping we might get a Palm Sunday Worship tomorrow but it´s often hard to be in a community at the right time.
Tomorrow is Uncle Mervyl´s Birthday - Happy Birthday Mervyl, have a great day and year.
We hope to head out a little earlier tomorrow (darn clocks moving at this inopportune time). We are now 113kms from Santiago - Planning to get there Holy Thursday!

Just to keep you updated, Mom and Glenys took a bus last week for approximately 100 km.  They had lost time because of the infected foot (see last chapter - J), so they took the bus to ensure that they would reach Santiago by Easter.  After Easter, I believe that the plan is to double back and hike the part of the trail that they missed.

So, all is still going well in Spain.

As I mentioned earlier, Ben and I have been busy,  Here are some photos of the fruits of our labour and Ben labouring away.

Until next time,
Jason










4 comments:

  1. So there's another model-maker in the family...wonder where he got that from? :) Great job, Ben!

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  2. Wow, Ben! It looks just like the old Stadium. Love the details.

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  3. Ben

    I'm impressed! It looks just like the old stadium! Great job!

    Peggy

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  4. Sandra and Glenys

    You seem to be moving along at a good pace despite the weather challenges. Can't believe the weather you have been having. Keep wondering if you were able to purchase any winter items of clothing to keep warm??? You sound focused but enjoying it!

    Following your journey closely. ( Mervyl,,,hope you had a great birthday!)

    Peggy

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