Month: June 2019

I thought I was touristed out but today has been amazing Sintra, a town outside of Lisbon which since the 18th century was a playground of the ultra rich, we wisited the palace of the scion of a Brazilian mining magnate who spent the family fortune on a palace and gardens filled with freemason symbolism. Downtown Lisbon was designed by freemasons which is why it reminds me of Washington DC. Here are some pictures.

The garden is 100 years old the perfect age for a garden.

This water feature is supposed to have mesonic meaning as this vertical tunnel.

In any case it is like being in a fairytale.

Then I had lunch at a great althoug expensive restaurant where the owner had a sense of humor.

Then I went up the hill to the summer palace of the king, in the late 19th century(The last king, Portugal is a republic).

The park around the palace was awesome. It is the largest garden I have ever seen, with miles of paths. Very soon. despite the thousands of tourists you are alone and all you hear are the sounds of birds. Gardens are good for the spirit, one of my future projects is to help Ellen with the church gardens.

This one I really liked. On the map it said “house for the ducks” actually they were out of english maps so I had a French one “Maison pour les canards”.

I think I am ready to come home. There is a point where one is tired of touring. When shopping and bought a pair of pants an shirt. I am so tired of wearing the same clothes for 6 weeks. The problem is the boots. The shoe store had only one pair in my size. I am so tired of wearing hiking boots. The shoes were nice but do I really need them when I get home. Am I buying them for two days of comfort. Then there is the problem of transporting the boots home. My back is very full.

Went up to a moorish fort on the hill and lucked into an english language tour.

There is not much to see in a fort, so the guide focused on how it was built to make it hard for invaders to conquer. It is full of false turns and traps that you would never see if they werent pointed out to you. As it was it was never successfully stormed but fell by a seige where the defenders were starved out.

Then went on a fado tour where are guide translated the songs. I think you need to speak Portogues to really appreciate Fado, poetic songs about loss of love, youth or both.

Now I am in a big city. Taking a subway to get to my hotel. Google maps makes life so much easier. However it is costing me 10$ a day because I turned on international cellular.

I rhen went on a walking tour. the guide was very entertaining, not very many facts about the architecture though, He was very straightforward about the wealth of his city, He said when he had Brazilians on his tour they asked “where is our gold”, he then said I will show you it.

As I suspected all that fabulous religeos art in spain an portugal came from the exploitation of the South american colonies

Lots of up and down walking in Lisbon. My big problem now is I have two days here and I am bit burned out on tourism.

Most of the Spanish cities I visited were

small, the historic sections were villages. You looked at the map and realized you could walk from place to place in minutes. I was not prepared for Porto, the map looked the same but the distances were large and the city was crowded with tourists. Also I had reached the limit of my tourist interest.

The one new thing is that I began to use public transport.

I have very little room in my pack. So my gift shopping is limited. I bought a jar of honey at the market in Santiago, because Ellen loves to taste different honeys. I had decided to buy a bottle of vintage port for heather and harvey to replace theirs that we lost( It is somewhere in our basement or someone saw it and drank it). I then began obsessing on the vintage. Do I buy a bottle that they can share with us or a bottle that will mature far in the future, when I might not be around. I bought a bottle of 2016, said to be the best vintage in decades, they can toast Cora’s graduation from college with it.

The Calem wine cellar. Ruby port aging in the barrel. I learned that tawny port once opened will keep for a year, vintage two days. Good to know.

View of Porto from Gai, (The city across the river where all the wine cellars are). Porto is beautiful, but ceowded.

View of Porto from tower(sorry no elevator)

Advertisement for afternoon tea. Ellen I wish you were here. 21 E with champaign, I think it was 75$ in Victoria BC

They go in big for decorative tile. Wish I could have found a guided tour to tell me what was being depicted.

I decided to take tour outside of Santiago as I was churched out. It was perfect, one has more of a feeling of spain as a tourist then a pilgrim. The trip consisted of a bus trip to some old towns then a boat tour which focused on aquaculture of mussels, oysters and scallops, learned why the former are cheap and the latter are expensive. You throw a rope in the sea and you have a mussel farm, oysters and scallops are much more work.

After the aquaculture talk everyone danced, club med style zumba. It was fueled by the usual- all the wine you could drink. The only casualty on the camino was a german who fell off an upper bunk drunk and dislocated his shoulder.

We then went to a seaside resort and I had anouther meal which I did not need and more great wine. I love visiting Europe. My guide suggested I do the camino again in 2021 which is a Jubali year when the special entrance to the cathedral is open, all I could think was ins-allah, god-willing. at my age you can’t assume good health. It is a blessing that can disappear in a minute.

1 a wall covered in scallop shells, they are all the same size because they are cultivated.

2 The party on the boat, this wouldnt happen at home, these aren’t kids.

3 A corn crib used to store grain and vegetables. According to our guide the spire on the left is a pagan symbol. I wonder how many decorative elements are actually pagan symbols.

I dont know when to stop blogging, my camino is over but the rest of life has begun. I guess I will stop when I lose interest. Since I dont know who is reading this I cant stop when you lose interest. I miss the daily routine and the easy familiarity. A few

pictures from santiago

This last is the mother of all eucalyptus trees. They are

weeds

in california, maybe not here.

Well I am here, didn’t do any sightseeing today but there is alot to see. Got the luggage I had sent ahead, took a cab to my hotel(I could have walked) got my certificate, suitable for framing, looked unsuccessfully for shoes(My feet are to big) so I guess I need to wear these boots for anouther week. I am finally really alone. I will miss the social nature of the camino, I will miss it all. Time for the Journey home

A parade of pilgrims come into town.

The main square the end of the camino

The final selfie

This is the last stop before Santiago, It is my last stop before I am transformed from a pilgrim to a tourist. In a way I am not looking forward to it. As a pilgrim, if you see some people seated at a table in a restaurant and there is a spare seat, you can say can I join you and you have new friends, As a tourist that isn’t acceptable. I

mau get lonely. I also have to begin eating and drinking less. The trail is very nice but very crowded and the towns are modern. It is scenic but it lacks the midieval towns. There are many more young people who started at Sarria or other towns.

I found Beth again, a very nice lady who I met 20 days ago but then lost when she left Leon the day before I did. The women with the dog ,benjy, has camped every night because they dont allow dogs in the Auberques.

It is also more commercial, this place advertises itself as a beer garden. Those are empty beer bottles

This is a very small town chosen by me so that I did not have to walk too far. Had an intesting discussion with a Columbian lived in spain who had some african ancestry. We talked about racism. I realized that I had never had a frank discussion about racism with anyone of color in the US, but I also didn’t ask him the question of how did it feel to be person of color, so it wasn’t really that frank. I talk too much to have enough time to listen.He indicated that spain was quite racist. He is gay and asked about the UU position on this. People talk about religion a lot because it is all about us. The couple from Texas I talked to are Baptist, from a megachurch that has a lot of African American members.

Not many pictures, this is a chuch graveyard, people are interred above ground.

An old bridge, air dropped to me by anouther.

Only three days more walking. As we get closer it becomes more and more of a moving party.

You know more and more people

from the trail I finish walking by one, shower, hand wash my underwear, maybe nap, then go out and look for people I know to have a drink a snack and dinner.

The towns here are more modern but the countryside is beautiful.