#15 - A Catholic Pilgrimage to Spain and France

 We took a trip to Spain to hike on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela.  We walked the ancient path alongside numerous other pilgrims from all over the world.  Then we took the weekend in Zarautz, Spain to spend time with our good friends the Franks, and finished up with a trip to Lourdes, France to see the famous cave where sister Bernadette saw the Virgin Mary.  It was an impressive site, and all in all a great Catholic highlight trip.
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Itinerary:

Sunday March 31: We departed the USA for a flight to Phoenix, then Seattle, then Amsterdam, then Barcelona. 
Monday April 1: Travel/flight day.  We overnighted in Barcelona.  Tera's bag did not arrive in Barcelona with our bags.
Tuesday April 2: We flew to Santiago, and left our bags in storage at the airport.  Then we took a taxi out to Sarria and began our walk, finally getting on the trail about 2:00pm.  We donned ponchos the entire afternoon/evening because of the rain.  We overnighted in Portomarin.  22km (13.75mi) in 6 hours from 2:00 - 8:00pm
Wednesday April 3: We let our jet-lagged selves sleep in, and we got on the road about 11:30am.  We hiked 25.2 km (15.75mi) to Palais de Rei in about 7 hours.
Thursday April 4: We got on the road earlier today, around 9:45am, and hiked to Melide for lunch.  Jacob felt ill, so we took a taxi to our next overnight hostel in Lavacolla.  Tera and Megan continued their hike for afternoon to Arzua, then took a taxi to meet us in Lavacolla.  The girls hiked about 29 km.
Friday April 5: The girls got up and started hiking, and Jacob and Erik walked back to the airport to pick up the rental car and get the bags.  We then drove to Santiago, and parked and walked to the Cathedral.  We meet the girls at the mid-day mass.  Then we drove to Zarautz to meet the Franks at the airbnb. (6 hour drive)
Saturday April 6: We hiked along the beach and boardwalk around the cliffs to Getaria for a nice ice-cream afternoon, then returned home along the camino.  (about 6 miles).  We went out to eat for Todd's birthday, and then we did presentation and played games that night
Sunday April 7: We watched a session of general conference and then drove over to San Sebastián for a visit to the beach and the airport (to finally collect Tera's luggage that had been lost since the beginning of our trip) and have lunch.  The weather didn't really cooperate, and we went back to our airbnb in Zarautz.
Monday April 8: We started the morning with a surfing lesson, at a great shallow spot there in Zauratz.  Linda, Myself, Megan, Jacob, and Emily all geared up for surfing.  After surfing, Tera departed with the Franks to France, and Erik, Jacob and Megan drove to Lourdes to walk the holy healing grounds.  Then we drove to our airbnb up the valley.
Tuesday April 9:  We drove up in the morning to the Gavarnie trailhead and hiked up to the cirque and back (about 4 miles).  then we drove out of France and through the pyrenees back to Ainsa, Spain.  We walked up to the charming old city, and went into the bird museum and sanctuary and had dinner.
Wednesday April 10: We drove back to Barcelona to fly Barcelona to Amsterdam to Salt Lake City. Tera remains somewhere in Europe to this day.

Highlights:
Hiking on the Camino with other Pilgrims:  Hiking the camino was a great desire of Tera, Erik and Megan, and a rather mild aversion for Jacob.  But he was a good sport and was all-in once we decided.  We hoped to hike the last 100km from Sarria to Santiago in 4 days and 3 nights.  It was a little much to bite off and chew, so we had to take a taxi to skip some miles on our 3rd day.  But all in all, it was a wonderful experience hiking.  In the future I would pre-book our nightly stays, and leave more time to enjoy the trip in a more relaxing way.  I'd want to spend a full day in Santiago.  The trail was lovely and well-marked, our fellow pilgrims were all friendly, the cities we passed through were charming.  It was a trip well worth it.

Spending the weekend with the Franks: It's always fun to spend time with Todd, Linda and Emily. We hiked and played games, and went surfing, and went out to eat, and hung around.  It's very fun to me that Emily likes to spend time with us as well.

Seeing the amazing Lourdes worship complex: Lourdes was simply amazing.  I didn't know much about the story before going, but the complex they've built up there is large and expansive, and full of pilgrims from all over Europe, coming to gain the benefits of the healing waters of the sacred spring.  I didn't know that Bernadette had allegedly seen the Madonna in multiple visions over the course of a few weeks. And that people from all over France had heard about her visions and had basically come running to be with her.  The. number of invalids in wheelchairs who were there to worship was quite inspiring.

​Being back in Europe: Europe with it's tiny villages and medieval architecture and wonderful feeling is always great to be in.

Lowlights: 
Airbnb in France: The airbnb had no sheets or linens of any kind.  The host didn't tell me until after I had booked.  And he was a bit of a jerk about it when I complained.  I reported the guy to the Helpdesk, and hopefully he will make a change to not be so visitor unfriendly.