Author: Mark Dowty

It is with no lack of excitement that we woke this morning knowing that we were going home. Home for us is a beautiful place, and we’ve missed it.

We arrived at the Airport early and had a leisurely wait until boarding. I’d used Frequent Flyer miles to upgrade our return journey to Business Class so it was going to be a nice journey.

Two hours into the flight I noticed that we were flying near London. So there is was, in the short span of two hours our pilot had undone 94 days of hard work, sweat, and pain. Wow.

Our flight had been delayed by about 45min leaving Rome. But normally they can make the time up in flight and they nearly did this time as well. However we didn’t have a leisurely connection in Newark so it was going to be tight. It all depended on the big 4. Immigration, bag claim bag re-check and security.

Immigration was a breeze with no one in line ahead of us. Bag claim could have been faster but no big deal. Bag re-check was ultra quick. Three down, one to go.

Anyone who has flown through Newark knows how much of a zoo security can be in Newark. The Airport just isn’t built for it. The halls are narrow and they’ve had to cram scanning equipment as well as serpentine queues in spaces designed for foot traffic. It just never works well.

We arrived in line with just a few minutes to spare. Then some disorderly people in front of us refused to follow the rules and everything ground to a halt. Tick tick tick tick.

It was fortunate that our gate was the first one in the terminal. As we arrived the last call was announced and we boarded (last on the plane). Whew.

After a few quick texts to family to say we’d re-entered the USA after being away for over 100 days we were taxiing down the runway on the quick 1-1/2hr flight to Greensboro.

It was so nice to be picked up by our daughter and granddaughter. It was a fun reunion. Somehow I think Allison is pretty happy! What do you guys think? Ok…so am I.

We arrived to a welcome home banner and a fridge and cupboards full of food and a beef stew dinner (a gift from our kids, my sister Nadine, and friend Cindy). We also heard that some saints from our church swung by and did some pruning and trimming and weed whacking for us as a gift. I’m overwhelmed.

Being home was bizarre. Some things had changed. We’d had some landscaping done while we were away and it really changed the look of the lot. Also the house felt HUGE. The bathroom was enormous; the kitchen immense.

After a few hours with the kids and a home cooked meal we planned on crashing early since the jet-lag was kicking in.

It is great to be home.

Tomorrow I will write a few summary thoughts to tie a bow on this vlog. In about 2 weeks I will add a P.S. to talk about the transition from pilgrim to citizen. After that we will all have to wait and see what the future brings.

It’s been a real blessing to have done this. The investment will increase as the weeks pass and the memories fade. I know I’ll be glad for the reminders of important people, special places and beautiful sights.

Thanks to all who have been a part of our journey. Thank you for your patience and for your thoughts and your prayers along the way.

Thank you for commenting and writing to us. It meant a lot to hear from you and know we were not alone in this. Until tomorrow…ciao.

Just a short post today to let you see a little bit of Rome and share a thought or two.

We packed our bags and left them at the hotel after we checked out. We had a mission to find a few simple gifts and see a few sights. A fellow pilgrim had told us about two churches on the same block designed by competing masters of the Baroque era. Here is an excerpt of the texts he sent me.

“In via Quirinale there are two churches near each other. One is San Carlino alle quattro fontane (architect is Borromini). The other is San Andrea al Quirinale (architect is Bernini). These are the two giants of the Baroque period with radically different styles. Borromini creates stark interiors with complex geometrical forms, especially curved lines, while Bernini does incredible embellishments. Their personalities were also very different. Bernini was the consummate man about town and Borromini was a recluse always dressed in black and committed suicide.”

His advice was Spot-On. The two churches were great examples if radically different styles of Baroque. Which do you like.

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Next we went past the Pantheon which we’ve visited in the past. It is awesome but the line was too long to re-visit.

We finally visited Castile Sant’Angelo the castle/fortress/palace of popes.

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Finally we strolled back past the Vatican

The time for us to head to our airport hotel finally arrived and not a moment too soon. Honestly this pilgrimage has made me restless. Staying in one place for two nights just felt odd. I don’t think we could have stayed another night.

As we walked out, the entire city came out and literally rolled out the red carpet. We were touched. Truly touched.

We hung around for a bit but never found out what was REALLY going on.

The last “adventure” was our short train ride to the airport where our hotel for the night awaited. It was surreal to see things pass by at high speed. Our journey home has begun. We so look forward to being home. We miss so much about it – not the least of which is our family.

First, just to let you know, I updated Day 94 with videos of our morning update and and our entry into St Peter’s etc for those that might want to see them. Check it out.

We began our first day off the Via with a quick trip to schedule our Covid tests. Then we hit the town to find some new clothes. Believe me…this is no vanity trip. We REALLY need some new clothes.

Allison HATES shopping and spending money in general, but once you get her used to the idea at hand she does alright. We spent a frustrating morning with little success…well, no success.

However after lunch we moved our search to Trastevere and she finally found a dress she liked and would wear. Oh, and our negative Covid results came back. Good news all around.

It’s our baby girl’s birthday today (Happy Birthday again Isabel) so we had a nice video chat with her. Then came a single glass of wine and boom, the gloves came off.

We were darting in and out of stores like madmen. It was fun, but tiring. In the end we managed the transition from Pilgrim to consumer pretty well I think.

Tomorrow however our feet have to come back on the ground.

We ended our evening at the street side restaurant adjacent to our hotel. Skipping the pasta and pizza for an evening we both chose salads. Grazie mille.

A street musician came by and played some nice music and then asked for some money. Normally I’d be happy to oblige but in this instance we literally had nothing but a credit card. He loudly proclaimed to everyone that we were too rich. Kind of sad really. But it didn’t ruin our dinner.

Well that’s it for the evening. Tomorrow we should have something more interesting to report but for now Buona Notte

We slept in late. When I mean late, I mean not just late for pilgrims but 8am late. It felt awesome.

Morning Update

Our first goal was to get to a pharmacy and get a Covid test. But when we arrived the pharmacist on staff convinced us to wait a day and get tested in Rome. So this was our decision.

Our morning walk took us through the city of La Storta and among the Via Cassia a major route into Rome. La Storta is really just a big suburb of Rome. It is not a very scenic walk but we attempted to see beyond the many cars and trash scattered about.

However after a couple of hours the path took us into some natural park areas.

These natural areas were mentally relaxing and took us several hours closer to Rome. In the course of our walk we climbed to the peak of Monte Mario and took on our first glimpses of Rome. Here we met a new friend!

Lilian from Brazil was admiring the view of the city. We decided to eat lunch at that very spot. We all shared our left over stash of food. It was a wonderful meal. And since Lilian had planned ahead and knew where to go to get the testimonial, we decided to walk with her into Rome. It was so nice getting to know Lillian and having some feminine company. Guess I should say this is Allison writing otherwise readers may wonder at that comment.

So we walked into Rome together and directly into St Peter’s plaza within the Vatican. We’d made it, 2250km (1400mi) from London to Rome. How did it feel?

Very honestly I was astonished and overwhelmed to be there. I was proud of our accomplishment. I was happy to have made it. But I was also I was sad to have finished the adventure. The desire to be home multiplied tenfold but also a sense of tiredness set in.

After walking through the Vatican and collecting our Testimonial we scurried to our hotel and celebrated with an ever so non-pilgrim dinner.

At dinner we chatted with some nice young ladies. It was nice to have some feminine company. This is Mark and I just had to throw that remark in for fun.

Seriously though we got some funny looks from a couple folks today as we were searching for a restaurant. We were tired and I mentioned that we had walked from London. The perplexed looks really made us laugh. Yes, we have actually WALKED here from London.

It’s still a little hard to believe.

For those that have wondered, we will continue this blog for a few more days. I want to document the time in Rome, the voyage home and the transition from pilgrim to citizen. It is not an easy path. In some ways harder than being a pilgrim. So…stay with us just a bit longer.

After a typical breakfast of coffee toast and jam we headed out for Day90 of our long voyage from London. Ninety days, three months…wow.

Morning Update

After leaving the city of Viterbo we soon encountered the unexplained Via Cave. These channels were dug by the Etruscans or perhaps even their predecessors.

As we walked through them I was initially unimpressed. Later the depth of the channels (as much as 15m) really was astounding. All dug by hand of course.

Their purpose is a mystery but they are scattered through Tuscany. Some think they are defensive channels, others mere roads, but none of these explanations really justify the depth and extent of the network. Before I did any research I actually guessed they may have been dug to follow a vein of copper or tin or gold. It seems it will remain a mystery.

What we do know is that they are still used today. Somehow they accommodate two lanes of traffic, but we have no idea how that works as you will see below.

After we emerged from the “Caves” we coursed through groves of olive trees as the Via undulated southward toward Rome. The paths were primarily farmland and other than our first spotting of Nectarine trees and Hazlenut “trees” and a few other interesting plants, we saw nothing remarkable.

We stopped for lunch at a hot spring. It was just a local one set up as a picnic spot. The water was lukewarm at best. But the grassy spot was perfect for a picnic – or so we thought.

As we ate our Avocado, tinned Salmon, and chips, the wind picked up and we both got quite chilled. Before lunch was over, we had bundled up in almost all our layers of warm clothing. The wind packed quite a cold punch.

The wind persisted as we began walking again after lunch. Sometimes the wind gusts were strong enough to make us fight to walk in a straight line. There were even a few times the wind won.

We started to enter Vetralla and I began thinking this must be an ancient place. For about 100m on approach to the village there were little caves carved into the rock. Some seemed to be sheds, others displays, and still others has addresses as if someone lived inside. Perhaps they do – did I see a Baggins address…or did I imagine it?

The town however makes the most of its Francigena roots.

We found our lodging without any difficulty. Our host met us at the door and showed us around. Because we were still a little chilled after our usual cleanup routine, we enjoyed a nice hot cup of cappuccino. As a matter of fact, I am sipping it as I write.

As a result of today’s slightly longer than planned walk (by only 4km), tomorrow will be a bit shorter. That will give us the chance to take a 1km detour and see the Roman amphitheater of Sutri … now, I must go, because we still don’t have a place to stay for tomorrow and I should fix that. 🙂

We left our pizzeria/lodging leisurely this morning since we had a short day planned. Actually there are no long days left in the itinerary anyway….so perhaps this is the new normal.

Morning Updates Part I and II

As we left Acquapendente we realized it was a larger village than we’d imagined. We spent several minutes at historical marker after historical marker soaking in the history.

Once out in the country I was surprised to see Radicofani still standing prominently in the background over our shoulders.

The entire rest of the day was strange in that we spent it mostly in silence. It’s good to walk that way sometimes but this wasn’t an intentional act but rather ….there just wasn’t a lot to say.

The silence was broken when we caught our first glimpses of Lake Bolsena. The lake, which will be our companion for today and tomorrow was formed from a huge collapsed magma vault The whole area is littered with evidence of past volcanic activity. The lake itself has black sands.

Next we saw a flock of sheep being worked by four dogs as their master whistled instructions.

Our approach to Bolsena was a nice wooded walk.

Finally we arrived at Bolsena. The castle dominates the approach and the steep streets leading to the Basilica were interesting.

We wound around the streets, through arches and alleys to the Main Street of the village. The town seemed like a ghost town – ah yes, it is 1:30pm on a Monday. All of the stores were shuttered.

It took us a minute to find the convent across from the famous Basilica of Bolsena. We rang the bell and pressed the buzzer, but the place, like everything else seemed lifeless.

Just as we were about to turn around and consider our options a weak voice in Italian spoke through the speaker. I don’t know much Italian, but honestly even if I was fluent I’m not sure I’d have understood what came out of that speaker. However I did perceive the word “pelegrini”…so I said “Si”. Then the speaker went dead.

There is the odd moment when something happens and you’re not sure what to do. Do we wait? Did she give us some instructions. Are we even in the right place?

I played back the speaker sounds in my mind and I thought I might have possibly heard a word that resembled “aspette”. Aha! That means wait. So we did.

Sure enough moments later we heard a key unlatching a distant door, some steps, and then a shadow appeared on the other side of the heavily frosted glass. When the door opened there stood a tiny nun who later introduced herself as Sister Rita.

The next several minutes we struggled with my 20-30 words of Italian. She rambled on at top speed despite knowing we weren’t taking in a word of it. Something was important about the stove. There were some instructions about coming and going and a mention of the Basilica.

Google translate was unhelpful because I’d ask my questions but she’d answer at full speed without taking a breath before I could get the transcription to English running. Simple questions like “Is there a key” were answered in 2min discussions. In short we were lost.

But Sister Rita was sweet and gentle. We just have no idea what she was telling us. For the 100th time this trip we decided to just politely nod and then wing it from there.

Later, after we were settled we decided to tour the Basilica. The basilica of Santa Christina is dedicated to a 12yr old Christian girl that was martyred during the reign of emperor Diocletian (beginning of the 4th century). The cemetery inside was in use by Christians for 100yrs prior.

Under the current cemetery is a series of catacombs that were discovered in the 1900s and date back to the Christian persecutions. These were burial crypts and not hiding places. The Roman authorities knew of them well and they were even protected by Roman law.

We paid the 10€ to tour the crypt and had an unusual surprise. It wasn’t lit. In fact, at first we were locked in behind a iron gate….in the dark!

Now let me pause here and mention that it was really windy at this point. There were dark clouds overhead as well, but no rain. But there in the dark, behind the iron gate, the wind literally moaned as it ran through the underground tunnels.

We turned and saw through some reflected light a small room and a stone sarcophagus. Nothing else was evident. No exit, not light switch, not instructions…nothing. Our first thought was (that was kind of a rip off). But we knew there must be more.

We walked around the crypt and there was a nice mosaic, a crack in the sarcophagus in which you could see inside (nothing there).

Then we saw it, I the corner, hiding in the shadows was a dark set of stone steps leading down. Hollywood horror movies couldn’t have written a better script. On came the cell-phone flashlight…and down we went.

The wind moaned again and the faint sound of another iron gate closing echoed on the stone walls.

Down the steps we were in history. Row upon row of human-sized niches were carved into the rock. The main corridor had multiple branches, each with more stacks of niches which once held the remains of the victims of the Christian persecutions.

After our slow tour with the flashlight alternating between our next step and the walls, we made our way back up. By this time some other “victims” (a tour group) had joined us and we decided to linger until they left. We were the first in and the last to leave. As we did, the manager of the catacombs came in and uttered some words of disbelief. She walked over to a panel hidden in a corner and flicked a few switches. These had the effect of lighting the whole place up. Oddly, the moaning seemed to stop in concert with the lights. Spooky.

We’d seen everything with my flashlight but we couldn’t resist taking a second look in the light. I’m glad we did. We’d missed a lot. Carved into or painted on the rock were writings or Christian symbols like the fish and the chi-rho.

It was a pretty cool way to end the evening.

We made a quick grocery run to get some breakfast supplies before coming back to the convent to warm up a pizza in the oven and then hit the sack.

Also in the convent tonight are a group of about 5 gentlemen that are on Day 1 of their West to East cross Italy walk – apparently that is a thing.

Morning Update

We set out at 7:00 knowing it was going to be tough. We had a long day 33km and 900+m climb. The wind was cold and the warm weather gear came out for only the second time. But it was beautiful.

It is rare that we can see our destination at the beginning of the day especially when it is 32km away, but Radicofani sits atop a volcanic cone and it’s tower is so prominent that it is easy to pick out.

The problem of course is that it enhances the distance you have to go as well as how slow you progress. That tower just never seemed to get any closer. Well that was our impression anyway.

The Via in this area passes several thermal baths and if you had the time it offers some wonder relaxation. We, of course had a long slog ahead and couldn’t stop, but I was suspicious that they’d be closed anyway. They weren’t as it turns out.

At one point we came to an obstacle. The VF crosses and iconic foot bridge which was chained off with barricades. There were no detour signs in place and we had a choice to make. 1) Climb back up a steep hill, add 2km to our walk and follow a road around. 2) Scramble down the bank and rock up across the stream 3) hop the fence and risk the bridge.

Here’s a picture from the other side of the bridge. Yep we hopped over the barricade and walked across a perfectly good bridge. We are pretty light pilgrims ya know.

From this point the trail took a aggravating series of steep ups and downs never seeming to gain much net altitude. The weather was nice however and the company amazing.

As we approached noon, the wind picked up and the temperature dropped. The sweat on our backs allowed the wind to chill us quickly and we faced the shoo ever of windbreakers (that make you sweat more) or chills.

We had another water crossing albeit small. Now this is an interesting solution.

We made good time during the day despite the climbs and had a chilly lunch break on some gravel on the side of the road. While we were eating you could feel the temperature drop so we made it a quick lunch.

We also met to s of new pilgrims from Italy, France and Germany. It’s actually feeling crowded. Many people seem to have joined in Siena.

As I mentioned Radicofani sits atop a dormant volcanic cone. In hiker terms this translates to “a steep pumice-strewn climb at the end of a very long day. We were beat.

But a reward awaited us. In addition to the nice views and quaint town we had visitors! Dana and her husband Ido live near Milan and had driven 3hrs to meet us. Dana is Heidi’s (former owners of Hutton Vineyards near our home) sister We’d met several years ago and have stayed in touch via Facebook. It was so nice to see them and spend the evening together. They treated us to dinner and even spent the night in the Ostello (their first Ostello experience).

My night however was fretful. The blog had not been done, the clothes still very wet from a late laundry and poor ventilation and my batteries running low. It was after midnight when I was able to burrow under the covers and fall to sleep.

So…what a day. It was hard and fun and joyous and difficult. But I wouldn’t change a thing.

Pre-Morning update (no…the lens cap is not on)

Morning came early at 5:45 am. Having a private room is nice when you can turn on lights and pack up without worrying about waking up others. A funny fact about our private room was we shared a wall with a bathroom. Our heads were against the shared wall and with only one bathroom on the floor with 16 other people, the toilet got flushed a lot! And we got to enjoy every flush throughout the night.

We were out the door within 30 minutes of waking which is an all time record for us on this trip. And it was truly pitch black outside. We were in the country with no street lights so our headlamps were put to use. Within 30 minutes, the sun caught up with us.

Breakfast consisted of coffee and pastries at a cafe in the village of Buonconvento. It is a medieval village that grew along with the Via Francigena. Walking up to the city you can still see the 14th century walls and we walked into the village through one of the 15 century gates which is still used today. Pretty cool.

Now that we were somewhat fueled up for the morning, we headed up the trail. And up is the appropriate word as we began climbing. The rewards are the views of the beautiful rolling Tuscan hills!

A plus are all the grapevines covering the slopes. This is big winery country. We passed our first winery around 8:30am

And then we even found a winery offering pilgrims a deal! But it was only 9:30am. Then this happened.

Caparzo Winery is quite the place. The entrance was lined with cypress trees and surrounded with the rolling hills covered with grapevines. It’s all very iconic. We were told that they have 50 employees so this is no small operation. The staff was very nice and chatted with us about our trip. Thanks guys for the sandwich and wine. Both were delish!

After our little treat we continued over rolling hills and eventually ran into Jill, Thomas and Thomas from Clearwater Florida. They were having a two week vacation in Tuscany and were just out having a walk but it was good to talk to some Americans. Apparently, (and all you back home know this) there is some manhunt going on and the media coverage is hyper crazy . Ah, the advantages of not being in touch with the media.

Next after getting some groceries we met Alex from Stuttgart Germany. He’d walked from Lake Constance near the Swiss border but crossed the Alps at a different location. He’s tent camping so has the freedom to stop where convenient. We may or may not see him again.

Finally we encountered two Italian pilgrims. I apologize but I didn’t write down their names. They are on a multi day walk and may be in the same HOTEL we are in tonight.

Wait…HOTEL??? But didn’t I mention that we were staying in a B&B? Well our lodging struggles continued today with a crazy but true twist. About 30min from our destination tonight we got a message from our B&B host. She was in the emergency room and obviously couldn’t host us tonight. She’d take the time however to find a room in a nearby hotel for an equivalent price. That was nice. It’s not in the best location (out of the quaint part of town), but acceptable.

Our evening ended with another grocery run while Allison took a quick nap. We followed that up with dinner at the hotel restaurant.

So that’s it for today folks. Tomorrow is a long day with no sources for resupply, so everything goes on my back. We have nuts, energy bars, croissants, cheese, and prosciutto for lunch. For breakfast yogurt drinks, one hard boiled egg each, veggie/fruit juice, and a sweet yogurt treat. We should be good.

Ok…one last spin around our day.

Goodnight all!

We left our lodging while the sky was still dark. Bats were flying around outside….yes it was that dark. The storm last night was crazy. Mark, of course didn’t hear a thing. I don’t get it.

The day was not scheduled to be neither long nor hard but getting up early is a habit it seems and I, yes I have gotten used to it.

We only had a short walk to Monteriggiano but shortly after we stopped for a coffee and pastry the rain started. Why did we stop so early…that’s another story.

It’s best told in video though….

The rain seemed to be that frustrating kind of rain that came and went in direct opposition to the amount of rain gear that we’d put on or taken off. What it did manage to do was to make a mucky mess of the path. As a result, we were slipping and sliding most of the day and it was only the last few km’s when we neared Siena when we finally gained traction control on some hard pavement.

Along the way we met three Danish men who were walking the short way from Lucca to Siena. Two were college friends who’d drifted apart. Recently they’d gotten together lamenting their drift. They pledged to plan adventures together to rebuild their friendship. I liked that.

Arriving in Lucca we felt a little like coming home. We had visited Siena in 1999 and it was a place we’d always wanted to come back to. Although it was quite different looking walking in by foot than driving in by car. The small quaint city I recalled on my mind was much larger but still retained its charm.

We found our lodging easily and our host was nice enough to meet us there within just a couple of minutes upon our arrival. The apartment was wonderful and close to all the sights and necessities that anyone would need or want.

I am looking forward to spending a rest day here but sad to say goodbye to Paulo and Jean Yves tomorrow morning. It has been fun and nice to build friendships with these two fellas. God had more adventures ahead for all of us. And hopefully we will be able to visit together again in the near future.

Because there is much to see and say I’ll leave the rest for tomorrow. goodnight pilgrims.

The streets of San Gimignano were empty when we got outside this morning. What a huge change from the throngs of tourists in the squares yesterday.

Morning Update

Today’s walk contains a choice of routes long-but-wooded or short-but-asphalt. We decided on the longer route because we’d done a lot of road walking the previous two days.

We walked past a Swedish hiker who’s name was Borg (we think). He was a retired Lutheran priest and was taking his time walking for as long as it suited him. How nice is that.

As we were speaking with him it began to sprinkle and Allison donned her rain gear. I decided to chance it with just my rain jacket acting like a poncho. It doesn’t really do the trick but if the rain stayed very light it would suffice. This time my guess (and of course it was just that) turned out to be correct and soon enough we were climbing a hill and the rain ceased. Allison quickly packed up her rain pants and jacket and we were off again.

In that period of time however we landed at the dividing point between the long and short variants of the Via. Because of the rain we changed plans and bore left opting for the short way.

This variant had one advantage in addition to its shorter length. It travelled through Colle di Val d’Elsa, the “city of glass”. Colle was renown in the Middle Ages for its fine crystal, and art form that is still prevalent today.

But before we reached Colle we stopped for a coffee in the small village of Le Grazie (the Thank You). They had really good pastries!

Colle’s medieval walls are mostly gone but the “new” gate still exists and makes an impressive entryway.

Inside Colle we visited the Basilica. Three particular paintings caught my attention. The first depicts an angel speaking to Joseph in a dream warning him to leave Bethlehem for Egypt with his wife and the child Jesus.

The second shows the moment soon after the resurrection when Jesus bids Mary not to touch him because he’d not yet ascended to the Father.

The third was the moment Jesus appeared to Thomas after his resurrection. Thomas, doubting his own eyes was invited to touch the nail holes in Jesus’ hands and feet and the spear wound in his side. I liked these because they are rarely the subject of paintings.

Leaving Colle was a difficult few hours along very busy roads with little curb or margin. That was mentally tiring. But we did manage to find a little shade against a concrete wall by one of the many industrial zones we passed. So of course, that is exactly where we ate lunch. We joked about how relaxing our spot was however we will actually miss the carefree lunches once we return home.

When we finally arrived at the tiny village of Abbadia Isola (outside of Monteriggioni) we had a small problem. Paulo had made our reservation for the night at the small donativo in town. When we arrived however we were somewhat briskly told that there was no such reservation for any of us. It seems the number he’d called was misprinted in two of our three guides and actually belonged to a different hostel in a different town. Fortunately for us there was another hostel practically next door and they had space foe us for a good price.

Showered and clothes washed we had only to have a quick dinner and crash for the night. Tomorrow our destination is Siena. Tomorrow we also bid arrivederci to Paulo. He will not stop there or will at a minimum not spend a rest day there.

So our dinner together was a bit of a farewell meal. Sorry to see him move on…but that’s the pilgrimage way.

Our day began early and was cold as we left in the dark.

Morning Update

The sunrise, though, was spectacular!

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And for family and friends that know me well, know I do not watch many sunrises because that means getting up early. But getting up and out early on a day that involves many kilometers is the ideal way to hike.

We walked along a canal on a grass road first thing as the sun rose. It was a beautiful and peaceful way to begin the day. The path then changed to cinder and dirt and finally to asphalt for most of the day.

As we continued on the way we crossed the Arno river. This was a major landmark as a north/south border within Tuscany. The Arno also flows through Fierenza (Florence).

Our first pit stop was in the village of San Miniato. But just before arriving we found our first pilgrim donativo stand. Thanks for the gracious gift friends of the pilgrim.

At the top of the village of San Miniato is a tower. Of course we had to climb to the top even if there was an entrance fee. Each floor provided a little history of the town or tower and then the views at the top were impressive.

On our way down the many steps we noticed two pigeons who had broken through the man made barrier to watch all the people below. It was a funny sight.

Daily life continues as we walk through history of course. We stumbled across these beautiful flower girls waiting the the wedding to begin. I loved the shoes.

On our way out of town we stepped into a church which was an art museum dedicated to a local artist who actually painted religious scenes. But of course to be famous as an artist usually means you are dead so we just saw a picture of the painter. But a local lady chatted with us inside the church and told us all about Napoleon and some history of the area. This was all in italian and we understood some of what she said. And there was a pilgrim stamp there too.

We hit the trail or pavement again. Right around lunch time we crested a hill to find a rest area for pilgrims including a picnic table, trash can, water, and two people we know…JeanYves and Paulo. It is always nice to see familiar faces. They were going to make an extra long day of it so we bit them adieu and went off the VF toward our lodging.

Unfortunately it was a slog along pavement for the rest of the trip and until 30min before we arrived the heat and humidity seemed to increase with every step. The relief came with a crash of thunder ahead and a gust of wind. The sky darkened and our pace quickened. We were 30min away from our goal….would we make it?

We kept glancing at the hilltops where we knew JeanYves and Paulo were still hiking. It sure looked dark and menacing up there. Sure enough we were about 30 feet from our Ostello in Castelfiorentino when the first drops of rain fell.

There was shopping left to do so as Allison showered I grabbed my rain jacket and bolted to the supermarket. About 2min into the route the skies opened up and I took shelter.

My shelter turned out to be just outside an ice cream shop. You’ll be happy to know that with great fortitude I resisted having an ice cream without Allison. I opted to have a video chat with our daughter Sarah and granddaughter Evelyn.

Shopping complete, I returned and did the whole shower and laundry deal. So here I sit.

You know one of the great joys of traveling is trying new and exotic foods and lovely intricate wines….and then there is this: “Oh how low we have sunk.”

We ended our night with a video call with Isabel our baby girl and her new puppy Sully. Life is good.

Today we put our pilgrim hats back on and woke up at 5:30 (5:00 for me) and had a quick breakfast after packing. We were able to hit the road before 6:45am for our 29km re-entry to the pilgrim life.

Morning Update

The morning was pleasantly cool and less humid than the last several days.

The walk out of Lucca was stereotypical Italian suburb with fast paced cars and progressively rural neighborhoods passing one after another.

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During our walk we left the governance of Lucca and entered Pisa. Each town we passed had a 12th century church and a history related in some way to the growing pilgrim path. Over 1100 years ago Sigeric passed this way and most of the towns are easily recognizable for his records.

We also crossed a significant geological dividing line where sandy soil and a more arid environment predominates.

The destination for the day was Ponte a Cappiano and more specifically the Ostello Ponte di Medici. This Ostello is actually on a bridge over the canale Maestro. At one time the bridge held all the accoutrements of a mill including a gorge, mill, tavern and hostel. The tavern survives as an Ostello. The glass floors and interesting views of the Ostello make it a fun place to stay.

I’d emailed ahead a d was assured that there was a kitchen and a nearby supermarket so that we could do dinner here tonight but somehow some signals got crossed. There was indeed a nice kitchen but the supermarket is 1/2mile away. Ugh.

Allison went with JeanYves and Paulo for groceries and I was left to guard the bridge. They brought back a feast and we ended the day with a pilgrim meal of our own making.

Our first rest day since Day40 in Besancon France. That was 36 days ago peeps. This was certainly overdue and what a fun city to choose.

Back in 1999, Allison and I visited Lucca for an afternoon and hoped one day we’d be back. We’d never have guessed we’d WALK here, but that’s how life changes you.

Morning Update

Lucca is a walled city and has its full share of tourists and vendors hawking touristy goods. But it’s such a pretty place that you can overlook all that as you walk around its twisted streets that all have Roman roots.

In the piazza Anphiteatro you are literally in the center of a Roman Amphitheater.

The 13th century Duomo borders the Roman Forum. It contains several important art works on the interior (some of which irritated me for reasons I won’t explain here). The one image of the last supper I enjoyed because it was from an unusual perspective.

But the two things that intrigued me most were the labyrinth carved onto one pillar and the carvings for each month and the zodiac on the front portico.

Labyrinths are associated with a pilgrimage and some full size ones exist throughout Europe. The exterior has magnificent marble columns as well.

The 13th century Cathedral at San Michele is just as beautiful. The interior is stark but the crucifix above the alter shows Christ not suffering but triumphant in death. I like different representations like these.

Since this was a rest day the “waking around” had to stop. So Allison and I sought out a good spot for lunch. Serendipitously (good word right), we walked passed a couple who sat beside us at dinner last evening. They recommended the bistro called Ciacco who’s “motto” was “No pasta, so pizza, no stress”. There were no tables available so we walked on. Finding nothing better we returned and a spot had opened up. “Due insalasti per favore!”

We talked again to Jim and Brenda, and their two friends Scott and Lisa. Brenda had already hooked up with this blog so…a shout out to these guys and the laughter we shared one afternoon in Lucca.

After the late lunch we were done for the day. It was time to take off the vacation hat and become pilgrims again. A quick trip to the supermarket yielded groceries for dinner (microwave stew and a pre-packaged salad) and breakfast and lunch for the next day. It was sad to return to living in relative poverty. We are once again poor pilgrims.

Funny story to end the evening. The microwave we thought we’d see in the Ostello….was a toaster. Hmmmm. We’ll figure it out somehow.

P.S. more and more pilgrims joining the route. Yay!

Early morning and fast packing meant that we were on our way by 7 after already having a yogurt breakfast.

We shot a morning update but embarrassingly left the lens cap on. Oh well, enjoy the audio anyway.

The morning was cool when we left Camaiore. Four Polish ladies who’d shared the B&B left at the same time and we walked with them briefly until Allison’s 5th gear kicked in and we were off to the races.

It’s good that it was cool because three strenuous climbs awaited us. Ok, so they were nothing like the Alps in expanse but for a morning it got us huffing and puffing. The first climb was intentional, the second was labeled Via Francigena, but apparently it wasn’t the main route but rather an alternate “panoramic route”. We didn’t see that detail until we’d rejoined the main route and looked back at a sign. Oh well… ?? We needed the exercise ??

The third climb was also intentional but this time the “official route” climbed but there was a flatter/easier alternative…and that was our morning.

We started running into “Passion crosses” which were popular at the turn of the 20th century when a group called the Passionistas (no joke), were popular. These crosses all share features from the biblical account of the crucifixion such as a spear and a sponge on a pole Sometimes there is a crown of thorns and a hammer and nails as well.

We ate a rather posh lunch of Parmesan cheese, crackers and smoked salmon before making our way into town. Lodging had not been firmed up but in the end we opted for a hotel/B&B instead of the Pilgrim Ostello. We both needed a break.

The walk into Lucca along the Fume Serchio was nicely shaded and but the suburbs were big and the afternoon dragged on until we met the walls of Lucca.

22yrs ago, Allison and I visited Lucca. Here is our reflection of that event and a brief tour walking into the town.

We checked into our b&b which is just inside the old Roman Amphitheater.

We ended our evening with some class. A concert (opera) and a nice dinner together.

Here’s to over 75% through this adventure.

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First this depressing start…don’t worry, the day got much better.

It took a while for us to wake up today. The length of today’s walk was at least filled with interesting sights.

First we woke to a scene shrouded in mist and cloud. It was really pretty and make the morning feel like the start of an adventure.

Our history lesson started in the Copper Age about 4000BC. It is around this date when the Lunigiana people of this region created stone carvings or stele. The reason is uncertain but the human representations are interesting. The oldest are symbolic representations of people on rectangular stone. As the ages progressed the representations began to take more human form eventually become more statues that stele.

As was common practice, buildings were made from existing materials and some of the stele were incorporated into churches. One such church is Santo Stefano di Sorano near the village of Filattiera. While visiting we dropped by the Tourist Information booth and got a stamp and a gratis coffee.

The previous village was founded in the early Middle Ages around 550AD. A surviving tower demonstrated an interesting defensive principle. The entrance was on the first floor (for Americans that would be the 2nd floor – the first about Ground Floor). To reach the entrance, a ladder was lowered. The second floor (3rd floor for Americans) was reached by another ladder lowered from that floor etc. All that was interesting but just the fact that the tower still stands and has been incorporated into a house is amazing.

After visiting the Stele sight, we climbed to the town of Filatteria itself. This small town has a medieval layout and was the sight of the Hostel of San Giacomo di Altopascio. The 2nd church in the small town dates to the 12th century but houses the funerary stone of Leodegar of the Longobard Age (752AD)

The final history lesson came with the village of Filetto. This town is of Byzantine origin and has a precise square pattern. The portals to the city are still used by traffic and walking through the main square was like stepping back in time.

Our day ended with pleasant ups and downs that weren’t too tasking but enough to get the heart pumping. The weather however was humid so….let’s just say, we needed a shower.

Finally we headed off for a much deserved 5star dining experience.

We had yet another long day 70 so I’ll make the day 69 recap short. Sorry.

First this.

Then we ran across the solitary oak tree if read about.

….and then found this:

The Appenines are beautiful:

Then we made this momentous decision made with poor facts:

You already saw what happened in the end. Our facts were wrong and we ended with 26.3miles and a 4400+ ft climb. Ugh

I’ll amend this entry tomorrow but for now…..

Shortest entry ever everyone…. Because of this:

After a great sleep in the awesome Templar donativo at Corte San’Andrea and a slow morning we began our short walk to the Po river.

Morning Update

At this same location over 1000 years ago Sigeric also crossed the Po after paying the ferryman his wage. Of course he was going the opposite direction, but still, a ferry crossing is part of the record and we would cross as well.

The Ferryman of the Po (Best watched with the volume down or off).

The ferryman in this case is Danillo.

He has been operating a service for pilgrims for over 30yrs and each pilgrim is dutifully recorded in his walnut backed and leather bound pilgrim book.

It was a treat to be added to his book and to review his records showing the details of each pilgrim. It seems we may have been the first Americans to cross this year and only the 162nd and 163rd for all time.

There are several interesting things at Danillo’s house but my favorite, other than the book itself, was his massive Pilgrim stamp. This thing is huge.

The walk from Danillo’s to Piacenza was pretty but mostly streets. Large open bed trucks full of tomatoes flew pass in a hurry occasionally losing ripe tomatoes along the way.

Crossing the Trebbia “river” was odd. A massive bridge crosses the river, but at this time of year it was completely dry. The Trebbia feeds into the Po at Piacenza, ….well, it would, if there was any water in it.

In Piacenza we viewed the basilica of Sant’Antonio and noted the dedication to Pope Gregory X who was born in the city.

While Allison and I sat on the steps of the Duomo with Jean Yves eating yet another dry tuna sandwich we looked around at others. Jean Yves noted: “you know they are all looking at us saying ‘poor people’. Funny thing is, we were looking at them and saying the same thing.

The rest of the day was a blur. Not a blur of excitement, but a monotonous blur of passing cars and trucks as we walked along a very busy highway. It was far from safe and a small misstep could have been really scary. So for over three hours we plowed along at a rapid pace, head down, focusing on our feet and the traffic zooming past us.

For our efforts we logged over 20mi and after tomorrow we will be in Fidenza a day ahead of plan. It wasn’t intentional. It was purely a matter of the spacing of available lodging.

Despite the miles we opted for a very simple dinner (a chicken leg and some mushrooms for me, and a cutlet and fries for Allison). The bed will feel great tonight.

Morning Update – and a major milestone.

Today was a 30km day in humid, but blessedly cloudy weather. The light rain over night however really brought out the Zanzari (mosquitoes) , so we quickly coated ourselves with Deet and reapplied during the day. That did the trick but they were a nuisance.

We entered Nicorvo and discovered a small Chapel at the intersection of the two major Pilgrimage paths. We got a stamp here.

When you walk through repetitive parts sometimes the conversation and topics for video shoots can get a little weird. Here we are having a lovely conversation about sillage for example.

Those of you that know us won’t be surprised when I state that I’m the more spontaneous party in this marriage. Allison likes to deliberate and feel comfortable with her actions. I’m more reckless. Sometimes however Allison can be quite decisive.

In the village Madonna del Campo, just before Mortara we walked past a tiny chapel. You walk past hundreds of these guys (mostly closed), but this one had a plaque that interested me so we went inside. Wow, what a find. The walls of Santa Maria del Campo (built around 1100!!!) had some amazing frescos but the real treat was the acoustics.

Shortly after visiting the chapel, we met yet another pilgrim today. He had a really funny walk though.

Actually, today we had some other fun animal sightings. First we saw some animals called Nutria. They looked like otters, but they are actually giant rodents and are a nuisance animal. ….but they look so cute, don’t you agree?

We also saw flocks of Royal African Ibis.

Finally we saw bunches of decapitated crayfish. Apparently they are what all those water birds are feasting on. The whole circle of life thing ya know.

Well, that’s it. There’s little else to say about our walk. When we finally reached Tromello (one of Sigeric’s stops FYI) we met our host and we’re escorted to our rooms in the parish house. This is another donativo (they are such a blessing). Our host Carlo spoke only Italian but he took us to dinner and we used a lot of Google Translate to have a basic conversation. He loves history and has a collection of Roman coins. Sorry no pics.

Tomorrow is yet another long day but between the last three days we will have shortened our walk in this region by two full days. It’s really not as bad as we may lead you to believe. The walking is actually quite easy and the signage has been excellent, It just isn’t spectacular.

An issue arose last night with this blog. I hit a storage limit. Not sure what I’m going to do about it, but a starting point was to delete the Camino de Santiago pages. Another strategy is to post less video and utilize YouTube links more often.

So….let’s see if you notice the changes!

Day61 Morning Update parts I and II

Late start this morning due to a late night last night due to a late and long dinner last evening.

True story, we had a great dinner as I described, but it was late by the time we were done. I didn’t sleep that well so I just didn’t get much sleep. It really showed today.

We left the B&B after a self-made breakfast of the usual provisions and headed into day two of the rice fields. The posts are just going to be shorter these days because the walking portion is tedious.

Someone asked “What do you talk about all day?” The answer is “every and any thing”. Here is a clip as an example.

Some days are just difficult. Factors that influence that are lack of sleep, humidity, flat trail, walking along highways, and some days you just do not feel like walking, yet we must. Because what do pilgrims do? We walk!

We did get to see rice being harvested and that was kind of cool.

Today was not a long day in mileage but it felt that way. We stumbled into the village of Robbio hoping to find lodging. We had been unsuccessful in calling any of the numbers provided by various sources. All the numbers were no longer in service (the challenges of the VF in Covid). Lodging is definitely one of the top daily stressors.

We entered town knowing that we may have to walk another 12 km this afternoon/evening which would make our day a whopping 40 km day. I am so thankful we found a place to stay. Putting things in perspective, our lodging was the only option in town with a max of 3 beds. God is good.

Mark made a trip to the grocery which turned out to be another mile round trip. He returned with food for our dinner, breakfast tomorrow morning and lunch tomorrow too. He should get lots of praise for making that extra trip because I know how tired he is too.

Our lodging tonight is the municipal which just happens to be in a police complex. I find that kind of funny. We should be extra safe.

Morning Update

We had a great nights sleep with the windows open and the sound of rushing water of the kayak course acting as white noise. But we wanted to get out a bit early today so the 6am alarm got us up and moving.

There is an art to getting up, getting dressed and re-packing in a dorm setting. The goal is to get as much done the night before so that you can get out quietly without disturbing the other pilgrims. But backpacks and quick dry bags are notoriously “crinkly” and can make a lot of noise.

We were lucky this time and there was an outer room where we could stash all our stuff so we were as quiet as mice leaving before 7am. We’d been given a coupon for a center-of-town cafe in which to have a croissant and coffee so this was of course our first stop. Pilgrims are always looking to find a good deal.

But even breakfast was quick and soon we were off hiking out of the suburbs and into yet more vineyards and fruit groves. We did see olive trees for the first time and the remaining Alpine foothills disappeared quickly.

We actually crossed from the Valle d’Aosta and into the Piedmont yesterday, but today it was very evident. All the roofing changes dramatically from stone to red tile and it felt very much like the Italy I remember.

We walked past lake Viverone and watched the water sports from a distance. Our day ended in the smaller town of Cavaglia. Our lodging is the municipal Ostello and our friends Carlos and Suzanne ended up at the same place.

Tomorrow and the next few days are complicated. Lodging and villages become more sparse. Options are limited. But for now we are snug in our lodging and we’ve decided to let tomorrow worry about itself. Call it foolish or brave, it’s what we have left in us at this point.

The excitement of the Alps passing is behind us. Honestly we are still having a good time, but we are tired and feeling somewhat worn. That’s natural and not a surprise, but we’ve tried to be pretty honest in this blog and this is the honest truth. Pilgrimage is sometimes really mundane and difficult; it is hard both physically and mentally and often spiritually as well.

The next week will be tough, no lie, but then we get the Appenines and Tuscany and Rome. Finally the greatest and most joyous adventure – returning home to our friends and family.

Morning Update Day56

After a late start to the day we really struggled to get moving today. Perhaps it was the hard day yesterday, but we were dragging.

The day started by waking into Châtillon. We’d actually spent the night just outside of the village so we had to enter the village before continuing on. The entry was spectacular. There was a deep gorge and a scenic, flower regaled bridge overlooking a much more ancient Roman structure.

After we left Châtillon we started with a steep climb. The rains from the night before had “enhanced” the flow of the already turbulent streams that came off the nearby Alps.

Honestly, the whole day was one of steep inclines and declines as the VF clung to the cliff sides as high and as long as possible before plunging down into a small village. After the village, up back up you’d go.

The VF in this area rides along the south facing side of the Valle d’Aosta. The climate on this side is Mediterranean and allows for fig, kiwi, grape, apple and peach trees. We even saw a pomegranate tree today. That was a first.

Of course it’s been this way for millennia. The romans used these same paths for commercial trade with northern provinces and regions. Goods from Italy like olive oil, fish, and spices were traded for minerals, wood, and game.

Portions of the trail where we walked were documented Roman roads. You could even see clear evidence of wagon tracks carved into the rocks by centuries of trade.

The northern facing side of the gorge is completely different. It gets significantly larger amounts of snow and remains colder. It is heavily forested and void of major agriculture.

To protect these trade routes the Romans and their predecessors built fortresses on strategic peaks. Later castles replaced the forts. I counted no fewer than 6 castles today as we made our way down the valley. Some were ruins, some remain occupied.

At the end of our day we drastically descended into the city. The grade of the slope was incredible. We had to be very intentional with our foot placement.

This is one time I was thankful for my natural duck walk. Mark and I filmed a fun sequence here…

Once we entered the city we ran into 2 of our fellow pilgrim friends Carlo and Suzanne. They had stopped for an afternoon beer. We obviously were walking a bit slower today than usual.

Suzanne happened to be staying at the same place we were, so we walked to our lodging together. After doing our usual shower and laundry routine, we had a funny moment.

We could not remember where we made a reservation for the following night. So …we started over and this time wrote down the name and address of our reservation. Old dogs CAN learn new tricks, ha ha.

Tomorrow is an Easy day. Ahhhh.

P.S. Despite the moderate weather in France and Switzerland, I have a fully developed Pilgrim tan.

P.P.S. The Last Few Days Compilation

Morning Update Day54

Well what a cool way to start a day. We had a short day to Aosta today so we could sleep late and have a late (8am) breakfast at the B&B. After packing we headed down to the cellar/stalls for breakfast. This was a cool spot. Allison called it a man cave. It had a pool table, pizza oven fireplace, and bar for serving breakfast and espresso. Scattered around the room were trophies, two accordions, some odd bear and what looked like a badger masks, and other oddities.

The breakfast was the usual but with homemade jams, and a cream filled croissant – yum. But the fun was just beginning. Our host, Eric, turned on some Italian cafe music as he served up the food. Once done, and at our request he picked up one of the accordions and played a few traditional tunes.

Later Eric explained he’d won a recent Fiolet competition. What??? You don’t know what Fiolet is? Neither did we. You’ll have to look it up, but it’s a game that requires precision and strength.

https://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiolet

Next he described a local fete where the masks were used. The town parade includes animal characters as well as mock-Napoleon costumes (to poke fun at Napoleon who invaded in the early 19th century.).

Lastly he described an ultra marathon type event in which he’d competed. This crazy race, the “Tor les Geants” is reknown. You can check it out below.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_des_G%C3%A9ants

Well, let’s say we were thoroughly entertained and really enjoyed our breakfast. Before leaving Eric treated us to one last experience as we got to meet his golden retriever “Luna”. We love goldens.

The walk today was so nice and easy. The steep downhill was replaced by a gentle downhill on a wooded path that was soft underfoot. This path follows ancient, but still used irrigation channel that keeps the swiftly flowing alpine water at a high altitude for over 13km for use by farmers for irrigation. These are called rus. The walking path was wonderful.

The wooded path took us past a shrine in a grotto that had an interesting Madonna and adolescent Christ.

https://www.comune.gignod.ao.it

The Valle d’Aosta in which we were walking (and would continue to walk for a couple more days was destroyed by a plague in which 2/3 of the population was killed. Many traditions of faith and superstition have been instituted as a result of this tragedy. Several processions were instituted by law including one in the town of Gignod (gee-gno). Here the men of the town would face a steep fine if they didn’t participate in a procession once a year.

The last part of our short day took us to the valley floor through a region rich with orchards of walnut, apple, pear, plum, grape, and even kiwi.

We arrived in Aosta to find our B&B and enjoyed walking through the pedestrian zones.

After doing some shopping (shoes for me…it was time, hiking pole stoppers, groceries) we walked through the Roman/medieval town and looked for some pasta. Oddly enough, Italy has a pretty good selection of places where pasta is featured.

Returning from dinner where Allison has a mushroom pasta and I had a venison pasta dish (both good), we finally met our host Gabreiella. We had left some clothes to dry outside and she’d kindly taken them and dried them in her machine. So kind.

Just before Bed we got some sad news. Our fellow pilgrim Mona has decided to train ahead a bit. We knew this was a possibility but kind of expected to be together a few more days. We didn’t get to say our proper farewells, but perhaps we will yet meet again.

Mona, we will miss you. Buen Caminno Peligrino.

P.S. a no us to whomever can tell me what these are. I have no idea.

Morning update Day51

Last night ,at the Hotel restaurant ,Allison and I had what we voted as the worst meal on the trip. To put this in perspective our lunch the other day was canned tuna fish and Mayo on a 2day old baguette. Haha.

Our room was full with Allison and I, Mona, and a French young man who was hiking the TMB (Tour du Mont Blanc), the popular 10day trail around the Mont Blanc massif. He came in late and tired but we chatted about his experience and his gear for a long time. He was very curious about our lightweight packs, the camera and water filter system we used.

Despite the packed room I think we all slept well. Alpine hiking helps that pursuit by the way. When the alarm beeped at 6:00 we woke and got into “mouse mode” as we moved our gear to the hallway to repack as quietly as we were able.

Fortunately, breakfast was better than dinner and it included local cheeses, yogurt and croissants and of course, coffee. We downed the food leisurely but soon it was time to go. We had more steep ascents on tap for the day but the distance was blessedly short.

In the mountains the scenery changes with every hill summited or bend turned. Sometimes things can surprise you. Just as we left Orsieres, we were greeted abruptly by a bull who seemingly wanted to make sure to “steer” clear.

Unlike yesterday with its continuous up-up-down, up-up-down pattern, today was pretty much all up. The steepness varied but it was almost always up. We are only at 5350ft elevation but I can feel the change when going up the steepest sections.

The scenery was spectacular most of the day and the bright blue sky with some puffy clouds scattered about made it all the more dramatic. Most of the day followed the Dranse d’Entremont river higher and higher into the gorge. The sound of the stream tumbling over the rock- filled gorge was energizing and relaxing at the same time. The distant sound of cow bells on some far away hilllside made it magical.

We stopped for lunch in a shady spot at the foot of the stream. I crossed over the creek rocks to take a picture of Allison and Mona. Much to my frustration my iPhone slipped from my hand and fell on a rock resulting in a cracked screen. It happens, I know, but, perhaps I’ve been lucky but I’ve never before dropped my phone. The timing is unfortunate but the phone still seems to function despite a small dead spot on the touch display.

As we left our lunch spot we were treated to a red or fallow deer sighting. Those that know better please correct me if this is incorrect.

Walking with Mona has been fun as we’ve shared faith stories, music and movie preferences and life experiences. We even marched up pet of the alps to some John Phillips Sousa music keeping time like a crack military troop.

Mona has often said that she feels like she’s holding us back. Too be honest, Allison and I do typically walk faster and we’d very likely arrive 30min earlier if we weren’t walking together. But those extra 30min are meaningless and we’ve really enjoyed the company and the more relaxed pace. It’s easy to do when the day isn’t packed with kms.

Tonight we’ve reached our second to last stop in Switzerland and the Alps. Tomorrow we reach the summit and the following morning we will cross in to Italy. That’s too crazy to think about just yet. Tonight we are staying at the Maison St Pierre in the alpine village of Bourg Saint Pierre. The village itself is tiny but has three hotels, three restaurants, and this hostel all of which thrive on the tourism trade.

The Maison itself seems to be able to house about 20 people and we are the only ones here for the night. It’s nice to spread out. It has a fully equipped kitchen and the girls are currently making a trip into town to get supplies to cook. Said supplies may or may not exist in this small town…but they are on a mission.

<Later>. I don’t know how Allison did it, but by shopping at two gift shops and raiding our meager food bag she ended up with a wonderful sausage-macaroni and red-pepper soup. She’s amazing.

5:30am alarm….you know the drill by now. But all that ends today (for awhile anyway). Ok, brain is moving too fast…let me back up.

Morning Update Day 48

We had a great nights sleep at the hotel. Did I mention it had one of those articulating beds where you can prop up your head, or more importantly raise your legs? That felt so good on tired legs, let me tell ya. Allison said…”I NEED one of these.” And she said this with a face that indicated there was no more discussion to be had. Gents….you know that face, right. Moving on….

We left the hotel in the morning coolness, knowing that the day would be long. We had the last, and I mean absolutely last optionally long day in our itinerary. With this, we’ve advanced yet another day ahead of our plans and have three rest days in Italy and a buffer day to boot. There is no more rationale to speed along…we can slow down.

Wrapping up the lake walking was pleasant. After leaving Montreaux with its funky art along the lake (including the tribute to Queen’s Freddy Mercury). The sun slowly crept down from the highest peaks and lit them up magically. We actually saw a castle early this morning. It sits on a little island right in Lake Léman. It was rather like a storybook.

The Chillon Clastle (Chateau de Chillon) was the last to be conquered in the Bernese assault on the Savoy. See more here:

The castle held its place in history due to its beauty. Painter Gustav Courbet used it as his subject frequently during his exile from France.

We bid the lake a farewell at the town of Villeneuve and headed into the gorge that would be our home for the next few days. We visited another Decathlon store (to replace a broken plastic spork), passed the Nestle headquarters and a Grey Pupon plant. Otherwise the walk into the gorge was uneventful. The scenery however became ever more dramatic.

The gorge is the result of a glacier that has retreated over the centuries. The bordering mountains begin far apart and slowly mover closer. The range know as the Dents de Midi (teeth of the south) are snow capped year round.

Then came a momentous decision. We’d toyed with the idea of various stopping places for the day. We didn’t want a repeat of yesterday. We had to decide between a long day or two short days. If we chose the long day we then had to snooze the long or short way to get there.

So we stopped for a 30 minute break at 10 am and made some decisions about our stopping point and called ahead for a spot. I am thankful for small blessings as the Abbaye of St Maurice had room for us. And the Abbaye has quite the history too. It was built into the side of a rock cliff.

The long day would take us through charming towns and some elevation with many kilometers or the shorter way which would shave off kilometers but be boring and flat along a train track. So we chose flat and boring since this after yesterday we need a break in km’s.

Legend of Theban legion.

We made it to our destination of St Maurice and found the church (Abbaye) fairly easily. We walked into the reception area to find a fellow American needing a little assistance. We struck up a conversation and voila, we are now friends. And her little problem was solved. We exchanged phone numbers and Mona later met us for a glass of wine. Tomorrow morning we will meet to begin walking for the day. I love how friendships are made on these walks.

The village of St Maurice is famous for the legend of the Thebian Legion. This town used to hold a temple to the Roman God Mercury. At the decree of the Emperor all legionaries had to offer a sacrifice here en route to Gaul. Maurice, a commander of the Thebian legion was a Christian and refused to worship the Roman gods and was martyred. A chapel was built here on the sight of his martyrdom.

The strategic location controlled the entry into Italy and was the sight of numerous military conquests over the years.

Tomorrow will be a short day in km’s but will contain our first major elevation. We will sleep in (wake up at 6 vs 5:30). Woohoo! So why is today’s subtitle “Faux Alps”. Because we saw many but climbed few. This all changes tomorrow.

We woke early and got downstairs quickly (well quickly for us anyway). Despite a poor night sleep for me due to some flies and mosquitoes in the room, I felt pretty good after some coffee and bread and toast.

Day46 Morning Update

We left to another cool morning but it was significantly warmer at this lower altitude than it had been the last few mornings.

The sunrise was brilliant and colorful and lit up Mont Blanc like a beacon in the distance. As our host mentioned last evening Mont Blanc is the “cream on the top” of the summer alps.

The morning wove through small suburban villages and corn fields. But for the second straight day the path was mostly downhill so it went quickly.

Eating lunch today under a tree was relaxing but a bit cool with a coming wind. We feasted on grocery store salad and a pasta dish. You can only eat so many sandwiches.

Unfortunately most of the rest of the day was walking through the extensive suburbs of Lausanne. Walking into a city often means walking through industrial areas and poorly kept areas that are often trashy. The walk into Lausanne was no exception. Some of the time it was along a nice creek at least.

After a couple of hours into the city limits we decided to detour from the VF and cut off 5km. We wove our way through the city streets to our destination.

We booked the nights stay at the Jeunotel which is the city youth hostel. This place is huge and felt quite empty when we arrived. That soon changed however when bus-load after bus-load of teens (school kids) began arriving. The place is loud and hopping now.

We’d always intended to mail our tent and a few other items back from the last stop in France. That turned out to be Saturday however so that plan was scrapped. We did manage to get to the post office here in Lausanne however and that chore is done. So we’re officially tentless now. The bonus is that our packs are also lighter just in time for our Alpine crossing in a few days.

As part of our post office trip we negotiated the bus and underground metro services in town. I’m always a bit intimidated by bus lines for some reason. I’ve never had a bad experience, but even in London I tend to avoid them. I wonder why? The underground metro in town is the world’s steepest and moving from the train to the platform is disorienting for a second. Our chore completed we headed back to the hostel.

There is no kitchen here in Jeunotel, but they do offer a cheap meal. I think that will be our destination. The experience here will make up for living high-on-the-hog the last few nights. I’d take a picture but somehow I think an image of cafeteria food might not be worth posting.

Well, it’s time for bed now. The natives have settled a little bit. Wish us luck in sleeping!

This morning the alarm sounded at 5:30am and honestly I was already awake. We both share in the writing of this blog, but by that single statement, those that know us have already correctly guessed that this is Mark writing.

Morning Update Day44

We did the daily routine of dressing and packing as quietly as we could knowing that the other guests in the hotel would not yet be awake. Checking the forecast when we stepped outside it would be in the 40’sF (eat your heart out family in the sweltering south -haha) and Allison whipped out her gloves for the first time this trip.

From the start we knew this was going to be a “different” kind of day. For starters we were going to be entering SWITZERLAND! Yay! Secondly we were going to be going downhill most of the day. That was going to be odd.

Thirdly we literally had no idea where we were going to stop for the night – neither lodging nor even the town. South was our direction but we’d had no luck up to that point finding an opening or more accurately getting a response from people.

So we headed off knowing that we still had our tent if thing didn’t look promising by the early afternoon.

The first part of the day was spent walking through the last small ski villages in southern France. Grassy ski slopes were dotted about as well as hibernating ski school buildings and ski rental shops. This area must be hopping in the winter.

Then came the big event, we strolled down a nondescript street that became a cinder path and suddenly we came to the heavily armed and manned Swiss border full of tank traps, inspection stations, custom and immigration agents waiting to pounce on two unsuspecting pilgrims.

Crossing the border

Well, actually it was about the opposite of that. At the border was an informational placard telling the history of the border and two steles to mark the division of the two countries. Not a soul was around so we crossed the border unnoticed except by a cow in a nearby field.

Next we heard some chanting, or was it hollering, or perhaps? What we heard was hard to describe. A mans voice in the distance was repeating a tone loud and clear but irregular. Between phrases there was a banging noise that was rather harsh and unpleasant.

As we drew closer we began to suspect that this was no chant or holler, but rather a rhythmic call by a farmer to his cows. The banging noise was a wooden spoon on an old pail. This farmer was coaxing his herd out of the barn, down the street and into the field. He’d blocked our advance by a thin rope and of course the string of cows. As he passed he bid us welcome and bon marchez. Our only remaining obstacle was the large carpet of recently laid cow manure across the street. Folks, let’s just say, there was no way to avoid it.

Being in Switzerland took some getting used to. Gone were our familiar VF signs and the red and white stripe. In there place were a myriad of signs for various trails and paths all with times instead of distances posted. We did however find our path marker.

Emerging over a hill we were both surprised to see the outline of the Alps in front or us. “Surprised” is not really the best word. When I saw them I was both shocked and terrified at their size. A shiver literally ran down my back at the enormity of the range so clearly in front of us. It stopped me in my tracks.

After walking along a beautiful but steep revine following the river, we followed a cinder and hard packed clay path through forests that were peaceful and cool. Here we stopped for lunch and decided to get serious about a plan for tonight’s lodging. We tried a few numbers, again to no avail. We then noticed a posting for a farm guest house in the village of Dizy 2km off the prescribed path.

One quick call later and we’d nailed lodging, and dinner at a family farm. BINGO.

Our 28km walk for the day ended with a steeply downhill stretch just before the town of La Sarraz followed by a climb back up into Dizy.

The farm reminds Allison of her grandparents farm in PEI. The sell a lot of produce at a roadside stand in front of the house and of course they have cows. The house seems to be a revolving door of friends and family as well as farm hands.

Postscript: I don’t often brag about any one accommodation. Most have all been wonderful and our hosts have been awesome. But if you are in the area, you HAVE to take this small detour and make this Ferme (Gite de la Venoge) in Dizy stopping point. Great, and I really mean Great, home cooking.

Our night ended yesterday with a note from Gilbert. He hoped to see us again and I responded with an invitation to walk with us today. I woke to a message saying he’d love to join us.

So we woke and readied ourselves with breakfast and the usual packing. At 7am Gilbert arrived and away we went.

The trail was mostly flat and wooded and for a time followed an old rail line. Off the side of the path was a rare natural phenomenon that we likely would have passed by but at Gilbert’s suggestion we detoured off the path and down a steep grade to see an odd site. The trail led to a hollowed out rock gorge that resembled a sink hole. It is a geological oddity because of a play of hydraulic pressures and underground caverns and their interaction with a nearby stream. The water here actually flows in different directions depending on the rainfall. It was fascinating and beautiful.

Some way further along the path we came to a long dark creepy tunnel. No light came through so we stepped into the darkness. Fortunately as we progressed, automatic lights flickered on to show us the way. We made spooky music sounds in the echo chamber of the tunnel.

The region is renowned for its water sports in the mountains stream la Loue. Fishing and kayaking are very popular and we saw several campsites as well. You can understand this when you see the beautiful scenery.

We passed through the beautiful village of Ornans home to the famous painter Gustave Courbet. Courbet led the Realism movement of the 19th century made way for the Impressionist movement. He insisted on painting “only what he could see” and rejected the formal rules of the romanticism of the past generation. His pictures however are dark as was the end of his life – spent in exile in Switzerland.

The village however was picturesque, dotted with bridges and cottages at the riverside and framed with chateaux and the cliff faces of the mountains behind.

As we wound our way along the river we had great and extensive conversations with Gilbert. He would say I did all the talking and Allison all the listening. This will come as no surprise to those that know us. To be fair, Gilbert is a crest conversationalist as well and we heard many of his stories. We covered many subjects including physics, religion, politics, global warming, as well as our personal lives, etc. The kilometers flew by.

Gilbert left us at Vuillafans after walking a full 21km. He met us at the next village after retrieving his car and gave us a nice gift of bread and some local cheese. For his overwhelming kindness and generosity as well as spending so much time in meaningful conversation, Gilbert received a Key. Gilbert, I hope you will use the key I gave you to open that door we spoke about.

Most of the day was on level terrain, but as soon as Gilbert left us it turned steep. And after our second visit from Gilbert it turned steeper still. What a way to end the day.

We ended up on the gorgeous village of Mouthier-Haut-Pierre. We were unable to get in touch with the alberge so we’d made reservations at a hotel. When we arrived however there was no one there. Thumbs down to Hotels.com who have twice left me in the lurch with regard to hotels. I dare anyone to try and reach someone to help them. Very poor customer service.

After waiting about an hour a worker at the attached restaurant showed up and helped us get into the hotel and to our room. It has an amazing view.

What a day. I took so many pictures because of the gorgeous scenery. I hope you enjoy this sampling.

We ended the night with a very fancy dinner at the hotel. We really have to stop eating like this but last night we cooked a stir-fry for ourselves so I guess it is ok!

Rest days are a blessing and a curse. Our bodies and minds really appreciated the rest day, but starting up again sure is hard. You’d think with toned muscles and a nice rest that you’d be invigorated and ready to go, but the opposite is true – it is for us anyway.

Morning update Day41

The morning started our chilly and the streets of Besancon were all but deserted when we headed out early this morning. We were there shortly after the doors opened at the earliest rising bakery – pun intended.

But today all we wanted was some bread for our lunch. We had a steep start right off the bat, so we didn’t want to load up with food. There was a grocery in the town ahead that we’d be passing just about lunch time and we had been forewarned by our next host that we needed to bring dinner and breakfast with us.

Leaving Besancon my hip and feet were complaining right from the start and the thought of a climb was not exciting me. I think Allison was also hesitant. But as we walked along the River prior to the climb I couldn’t resist the beauty of the morning. It was cool and crisp. The Doub River was flowing swiftly and the sound was like heaven to me. Looking up, the Citadel towered above us. It seemed insurmountable, but we knew that’s exactly where we had to go.

We turned the corner away from the river and the climb came at us like a steam train. I honestly don’t recall my pack feeling as heavy as it did this morning. My hip groaned and my knee complained. A second later I looked up and Allison was a good 50m ahead and above me.

But as I warmed up and my body gave into the reality that play-time was over I started to feel better. Soon, in a clearing I was astounded to see that we were looking down at the Citadel. It looked so small and “ordinary” from that vantage point.

The rest of our day was like this. Steep climbs followed by long slow descents, slowly gaining altitude.

I am making this sound like a final day on Everest. In reality we’ve climbed steeper and more difficult climbs and more will come in the next weeks, but today was just unusually difficult for some reason.

About 2/3 the way in we stopped for a break. As we were sitting there Gilbert stopped to talk to us. He is just recently retired and loves to walk in the quiet of nature. Now here is someone who would love long distance hiking. He did say that the Camino Français is too crowded for him. So of course we had to tell him about the VF. He was amazed that this trail went right through his town. We said our goodbye and Gilbert continued on his way. Just before we were going to pack up, Gilbert comes jogging back to say he has a friend who might be willing to provide us lodging for the night. He called and left a message on their home answering machine basically saying an American couple would be calling them later.

Gilbert’s story – amazing generosity.

The trail had been primarily woods through the day. It was lovely. The shade and beauty of the forest is hard to beat. It made the remaining climbs more bearable.

We ended up staying with our original plan as we had a reservation and we were both just worn out. It is so difficult to get back into the groove. We marched up to the building to find a sign on the door saying to call a phone number upon arrival. So we did and not 5 minutes later a gentleman showed up and gave us the grand tour.

He spoke only French but spoke so slowly and deliberately for us that we grasped just about every word. He wasn’t satisfied however and had his grandson called over to make sure we were ok. When he found out that we’d tried to stop at the grocery the town away but that it was closed he immediately decided that he would drive us into the next town to get supplies. This was overwhelming.

We went crazy in the store buying supplies for a shrimp stir fry – something completely unlike what we’d been eating and something we’d never be able to carry in our packs. It was great.

The place we are staying in has quite a history. Inscribed in the wall is the date 1643. It was a smokehouse among other things and today is a gite and museum all in one. The alberge holds 16 folks and it feels odd to be the only ones here.

P.S. After we’d gotten settled at our lodging I received an email from Gilbert offering to come pick us up and offering us lodging for the night at his house. What an amazing experience this has been. Wow.

This morning started like many others…too early for my body. Haha ,at least the pleasant toll of church bells echos in the street, a sound that I actually enjoy.

Morning Update

After a breakfast of bread, yogurt, homemade jam, butter, fruit and, coffee and orange juice we headed out for the day along a country road.

Today we walked mostly on the road or farm tracks which are still used by all types of vehicles. Along the way we passed by an old tractor. Mark just had to take a picture. Take a peak at the following photo to see why.

One odd sighting we had was a huge group of deer assembled in someone’s field. Mark attempted to take a photo but we were just too far away. There must have been at least 40 deer huddled all together. I have never seen that before. And of course we saw many more cows.

Just prior to eating lunch we were greeted by a Bernese Mountain Dog who just leaned into Mark’s leg for some extra attention. His master was standing close by and the dog was very well behaved. As a matter of fact, all the dogs we have encountered here in France have been incredibly well behaved and trained. Whatever the standard training method is here, works.

Deciding where to stop for lunch is always a guessing game – one that we routinely get wrong. Today, we ate our lunch of tuna and bread and grape tomatoes on our handy tarp of a trash bag using a stone wall as back support. I know, so high class. It wasn’t a great spot and certainly not the most comfortable. But sure enough, after packing up and carting out our lunch trash, we shortly passed 2 benches in the shade. We certainly can pick our lunch spots.

As we wrapped up for the day we noticed the hills we’ve been encountering for the last few days are starting to grow. In the background the individual hills are merging to for chains. We are slowly approaching the Juras.

Our place of lodging today is in the little village of Buysey les Gy. And our hosts are Dominique and Dominic. I think we will both be able to remember their names. It is the little blessings in life that make your day, like the fact this place has a washing machine. I may have been a little too excited about that because I began our load of laundry before Mark was finished with his shower. Yes, that meant a slight lack of hot water. Sorry honey.

We joined our hosts for dinner and had some fun conversations. The daughter-in-law is an English teacher so we had some much welcomed help in our conversations. The family seems very close and it was a joy to be with them. Allison was particularly happy that the cheese course had two hard cheeses to choose from. This is a growing joke between us since I like all cheese but most in France (and there have been hundreds) have been “stinky” soft cheeses.

We started dinner with a scotch followed by a tomato and egg vinagrette, pate and bread. The next course was an avocado, carrot mixture. The entree was pork and scalloped potatoes followed by the cheese course. We ended with a caramel cake with peaches and then coffee. Can you say “satisfied”

Tomorrow we hit Besancon and have another scheduled rest day, our last in France.

A word about the Word of the Day

The feeling the morning after tent camping is an experience that anyone who has done it doesn’t need explained. You aren’t the MOST comfortable but you survived and the best thing to do is start moving.

So we packed up our tent, thankful that there’d been no dew fall so everything was dry. We had two crickets in our tent and we joked that we’d better be sure to get them out or we’d have chirping backpacks all day.

Morning update Day3

On the road again, we made our way into the little village of Grandchamp. Sometime in the last km’s a strange thing had happened. We crossed an imaginary line in France and the people just changed. We’ve had zero complaints about the hospitality of people in France. Oh sure, there was the odd sales person who was brisk, but in general we have been warmly received everywhere we’ve walked.

But in Grandchamp, as we were stopping to tie a shoe, I said Bonjour to a man sitting outside his home. We exchanged the normal pleasantries “Yes, we were pilgrims”, “we’re walking all the way to Rome”, “yes, it’s been a very rainy and cool August”, “You slept in the woods last night??” and then…..it happened….he asked us if we’d like a cup of tea or coffee. It struck me that this simple act of generosity was very genuine. Also…after camping a hot drink sounded lovely.

We obliged and sat for about 30min talking to him. Jean Pierre received a key for this simple act of kindness. He mentioned that, like in the United States, the south of France is known to be more opened hearted.

About an hour later we stopped to grab some nuts out of our packs at a cute little footbridge in the small creek (later to become a river) Salon. We watched as a bakery delivery truck stopped to make a delivery to the cottage next to us. It was interesting to see this truck through the morning so far as he distributed daily bread, pastry, and fruits through the village.

After the truck left, a gentleman from the cottage came over to us and …. offered us coffee. We had indeed crossed an invisible line of hospitality. This man, Jacques was a retired judge from Marseille. He was spending time in the country for a vacation with his 11yr old grandson.

So twice in our day we’d been randomly offered coffee. Perhaps we’re just looking more tired than usual, but I think it’s more.

Later in the day we had one more quirky encounter. We walked past a beautiful old waterwheel and peered through an open gate to take a photo. A shirtless 30 something man with a small sunflower in his long hair strode toward us asking if we needed help. Struck by his hippie appearance I glanced in the background to see several other tie-dyed adults hanging around. It turned out to be a 70’s themed birthday party. Groovy.

Finally we reached our destination for the night, the village of Champlitte.

Champlitte is special. It is the headquarters of the French and Swiss Via Francigena society. A young man, Jacques had agreed to meet us and had even asked if we’d be willing to have dinner with him. On our arrival, Jacques and his associate Vanessa met us outside our hostel.

Jacques is a Christian believer and directs the Francigena society in France (and Switzerland) went out of his way to act out his beliefs and help us on what was ostensibly his vacation day. He even took our truly filthy and smelly clothes and washed them at his house. Wow.

Jacques further treated us to a visit to the local castle which is now a museum of culture and art of the area throughout history.

We ended the evening by having dinner at a local restaurant which was fun. Inviting Jacques to eat with us was only fitting as he had done so much to assist us. Jacques received one of our keys. We even got to taste the local pear schnapps. How do you get a pear in a bottle? Wait, I know. Do you?

We are here. Today’s short day Langres to Chalindrey became a 22miler with a stop to Wild camp. Tomorrow Champlite. Safe and with water and food. All is well. More tomorrow.

This is all y’a get folks. Saving battery. Wild camping somewhere in the woods tonight.

More later…including the reasons why.

Luv ya all. We’re safe and happy.

Our morning began as others have. We woke, groaned as we got out of bed, packed, and headed off to our hosts table for breakfast. Here we were served bread (including a really yummy cranberry hazelnut loaf) with jam and honey and of course COFFEE!

We signed their book, received our stamps, and headed off for the morning. Our hostess saw us off and requested that we send her a post card when we arrive in Rome. I actually wrote that down on paper too so I will remember.

Since my ankle has been acting up the last couple of days, I decided to lightly wrap it. And that seemed to do the trick! Walking today was almost pain free!

Thank you to all who were sending up prayers and well wishes for me. Now Mark’s knee is starting to complain. I am thinking that our next rest day will be met with great enthusiasm.

Back to today’s events. You know the drill by now. We walked on the road and then mostly trails and fields today which was a welcome relief. After walking up some seriously steep inclines, we found ourselves on top of a reservoir. It was pretty spectacular. We ate lunch on a bench facing the water side after opting out of the first open restaurant we’d seen in days. It was a little fancy for two stinky pilgrims we decided.

We truly emptied out all our food supplies. We feasted on an avocado, split a little can of tuna in tomato sauce (mostly sauce), bread, and one fig each. Knowing we were heading to a large town where we could easily resupply made emptying out all our food less stressful. We have discovered that most of the towns we are traveling through do not have stores or food markets open either due to going out of business or being away for the summer. Yes, small grocery stores do actually shut down for the entire month of August in France.

Then we started climbing. Did I mention we began walking uphill? That pretty much sums up our afternoon. Sometimes steep, sometimes not but always up. Just before the endpoint we went steeply down for about 45min loosing all the hard work of the afternoon. Weep not for us dear friends. Our destination was a hilltop fortified town, and we got to recover all that altitude for a second time.

And then in the distance on top of a mountain was our stopping point. We were truly winded after finishing the climb into Langres. Entering a city through the Arc Gallo-Romain gate was impressive. Of course there are many other historic gates too, but I promise not to list them all. But for fellow history nerds, the city of Langres is worth researching or better yet visiting. It is one of the few cities untouched by recent wars.

Mark and I walked on top of the ramparts that surround the city and provide some spectacular views then we actually went shopping for food. After stocking up on food for dinner tonight, breakfast in the morning, and lunch tomorrow we headed over to the pharmacy for some assistance.

You all know about the tooth saga. Well, the super glue supply dried up. Obviously Mark needs some more but where to buy it in France is the question. We walked into the local pharmacy and apparently made the pharmacist’s day because she could not stop laughing. But she did point us to a store through her tears of laughter. Then Mark glued in his tooth and went back to show the pharmacist that it is possible to use super glue to temporarily replace a tooth. She now has a great story to tell at the end of her work day. She left us with the words “you are crazy”! This truism didn’t phase us….we’ve heard it before…often from some of you reading this vlog.

We hit triple milestones yesterday and today. At the end of today’s hike, we will have completed our first month of walking, We will have passed the 500mi mark, and sometime today or yesterday we passed the 1/3 mileage marker for our trip.

Our Day31 Morning Update

This morning was difficult to leave the Colombier. The atmosphere where you can chat with others on vacation is heart warming. The family that owned and or worked there was amazing in so many ways. I enjoyed the welcoming atmosphere that they naturally share with all their guests.

The Meteo forecast app that we use here in France said rain for most of the day. Every day we look at the forecast and the only part which seems to be accurate is the temperature. It did spit rain which made us practice our quick change into our rain gear. I am not sure why we look at the forecast, but we do so every morning.

The overall hike today consisted of lots of roads…tarmac, gravel, clay, dirt, and even some woodland trails (my personal favorite). Even though it was a short day in distance for us both, we were ready to stop after 27 kilometers. When you start singing Christmas songs to entertain yourself in August, it is time for some self care.

We did pass through a town with a largish amusement park. It was fun to hear the stereotypical scream of kids riding the roller coasters and other thrill rides as we walked past the park as hikers. No such thrills for us, but greater joy I think.

We ended the day deep-seated back in Champagne country, namely BarSurAube. This town was a hub of commerce and importance in the Middle Ages. It flourished in the trade of wine and was an important city in its day. Its oversized church of St Pierre to which our alberge is attached was a main pilgrimage spot.

For our part we are staying at the presbytery here in town. It is a pilgrim hospice (to add to the types of places we’ve stayed) and costs a set 10Euro per person. That’s about $12 per night per person. It’s not a full service hotel of course, but it is a bed and shower and kitchen. What more do you really need? Bruno went out of his way to help us get settled.

Our night ended with a champagne dinner and some funny food. We had a charcuterie board as an appetizer.

Allison had a steak for dinner. I went rogue and ordered something in the Fondue section. It turned out to be another charcuterie board – this time with a candle to soften the cheese. Funny experiences to remember. Of course the tiny tea lights did little to stave off the cool 15C temperature outside…it was a chilly dinner.

Looking forward, 10 of the next 11 days will be walking less than 17.5miles per day .   It’s odd to say that that is going to feel like a break.  As we walk out of the “desert” today,  the VF will rejoin us.  We will be hitting more populated villages and hopefully more open stores.  Unfortunately, today is Sunday.   So we will have to wait  one more day to see if that holds true.

Actually we were provided for very well by our host families,  and we never lacked for anything but cold water.  But passing open supermarkets and pharmacies will be comforting nonetheless.   Because of the spacing between villages,  we will end our day at a campsite (our third for this pilgrimage). 

Today started out cool,  but the temperature quickly rose as the sun climbed and pounded down on us. I found another use for my cotton bandanna since we ran out of sunscreen. I pinned the bandanna to my cap,  and it worked perfectly throughout the day.

We found a shady spot to stop for lunch. It is amazing the temperature difference in the shade here. I would imagine it is at least 15 to 20 degree difference in Fahrenheit. We enjoyed our sandwich and nuts and dried banana chips. Then we  began to contemplate how to refresh our food supplies realizing it is Sunday.

We decided that the largest town around was Brienne le Chateau (site of the military school where Napoleon was schooled). It was a total bust. 

We finished a hot day in the sun after totaling 18.1miles (more than intended due to a busted search for water and food in Brienne le Chateau. And everything is closed on Sunday in France apparently. But thanks to a kind young woman relaxing in her backyard with probably friends and family , who filled up our empty water bottles. That was physically and mentally refreshing.

We tiredly stumbled into the campground,  and we were promptly turned away.  They were full.   There were two campgrounds in the area.   We had one last chance.  The opposite of our somewhat rude dismissal at the first place, the second one initially said they were also full but quickly stated that for pilgrims they would find a place.  Indeed, they found us more than a tent site but an actual room with a double bed.  We were in end-of-day heaven. So no tent camping after all.

I so wanted to hug the gentleman who graciously found us a room. I highly recommend Colombier as a place to stay. They are so helpful, and the hospitality is beyond what is expected.

This is a family run business.  The oldest daughter actually sat and talked with us for some time.  They were a homeschool family (rare in Europe) and had travelled through the Middle East and Africa together as a family.  It was such a cool story.  see bostrotters.over-blog.com

Well, we ended the day with a dinner at the restaurant near the campground. This is a hoppin’ vacation area with lots of boaters and beach vacationers at the adjacent lake. 

Before we begin the day let me give a shout out to our hosts Brigitte and Jean-Claude Dulieu.  They fed us well, and we had a wonderful night of conversation.  We saw their pilgrim book of all those they have hosted,  and Brigitte received a Key.  This gift seemed to be very special to her and later we understood why.  Since the story is a private one, I won’t publish it here.   It was an important evening and I’m glad we came.

This morning starts Day2 of the Coole Valley ancient route.  It will be like yesterday except even straighter.

We left our host house with an escort. Brigitte insisted on walking us down to the boulangerie to get supplies for the day.  She then walked us onto the Roman road before heading back home.  It was a sweet gesture and gave us time to say our goodbyes. 

Speaking of Roman Roads…today was a heads down, plow forward kind of day.  We didn’t speak with anyone because there was no one with whom to speak.   We didn’t stop to visit anything for a similar reason.  This was pure left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot… for about 16.5miles. 

There was a breeze at our backs in the morning,  so we actually walked backwards for a bit to get refreshed.  But by the afternoon it was just still and hot and exposed.   We had an extended lunch in the shade and then plodded on toward our next host house in Donnement. 

To pass some time we listened to some music and two chapters of Oliver Twist.  In fact we ended the afternoon listening to our kids childhood favorite “We Sing Silly Songs” …. Ok… maybe it’s about time we got out of this desert.  Perhaps it’s making us a little crazy. 

We took our last swig of very warm water about 1/4mi before the end with some heart pounding John Phillips Sousa pushing us forward…Good timing. 

Our host for the night has a larger family than do I.   Not many people can say that.   This place has a bonus feature…an indoor family pool.

Dinner was so much fun. Our hosts had friends over, and he had a wood pizza/bread oven. We had homemade and home-fired pizza. In addition we had a homemade cherry wine and a walnut wine. The walnut wine tasted like a port. The wine and the conversation was fantastic.

Tomorrow we emerge from the “desert” to rejoin the VF and camp.

Hi everyone. This will be a short post because today was kind of a slog with little to see.  We knocked out about 17.4miles though.

I had trouble getting up this morning, not because I didn’t sleep well, but because I took a Benadryl before bedtime since our host had a few cats.  So I was unusually slow in getting ready. 

But our host had a breakfast of bread, butter and homemade jam ready for us with a bowl of coffee each. Yea, it seems to be a thing here in France to serve coffee in a medium size bowl. Hey, I’m not complaining, everyone knows I’m good for a nice size bowl of coffee. In fact I might start using a bowl when I get home.

We said our goodbyes and promptly left the beautiful vineyards for the flatter countryside with the typical corn and wheat fields.  It was sad to come back to this, but we are refreshed from our hills and woodland walks. 

When we were preparing for this trip, one word of caution was repeated by those who’d travelled before us.  “France goes on vacation in August”.  Honestly it hasn’t been a problem until today.  We’d been looking for a morning visit to a patisserie for our eclair fix, but every town seemed to be closed.  Bakeries – closed; Bars – closed; Cafes and Supermarkets – non-existent or closed. 

Several had signs in the windows saying some version of “We’ve gone on vacation – see ya in three weeks”.  Knowing how much local stores mean to a community and how much people rely on them – particularly the elderly – I wondered how they managed.

When we hit Conde sur la Marne, we re-joined the VF and travelled alongside the Canal Lateral a la Marne. Fifteen miles later our day ended. Well, that’s really pretty true. Walking along a canal is just like walking on a treadmill except that the scenery doesn’t change as much.

The only detour that the VF took was through Vraux and that ended up being a bad idea. I’ve mentioned before our skirmishes with mosquitoes. The recent wet weather has made the perfect stew for them.

Well, those skirmishes turned into all out war today. Normally the repellent has done a good job of keeping the away. Today’s battalions of mosquitoes seemed to feed off the stuff. We returned to the canal as soon as we could, pausing only briefly on a bridge over the canal that for some reason had enough of a breeze that the flying biters couldn’t catch our scent.

Here we had our lunch.  It was a repeat of yesterday, sans the avocado, demonstrating how short on supplies we’d be become.  In fact afer lunch, we had only a tiny wedge of fake cheese remaining.  We REALLY needed to find an open store. 

Two short things to end our day.

1).  We arrived at a supermarket that was within sight of our hotel for the night.  We did our provisioning using a shopping cart into which we promptly offloaded our backpacks.  At the checkout, the clerk looked at us oddly and rang up her manager.  They had us open and inspect our rucksacks before we could leave.  I suppose they felt we may have pilfered an extra box of cookies somewhere. 

2)  Our “hotel” for the night is a budget one. In fact, to say it is a hotel room is a gross exaggeration.  It is more like a closet with a shower, toilet, and sink.  The latter three are in such close proximity that you could literally (if one were so inclined) shower, pee, and brush your teeth in the proper place simultaneously.  If that room is more than a square meter in size I’d be surprised. 

But hey, we are safe, we are healthy and we are happy. What more is needed?

Last night we were the guests of Mme Tordeux-Bremand. She has looked after pilgrims for many years and was so kind to us during our stay. Her daughter Agnes was also visiting, and we enjoyed getting to know them both for a short while. Mme Tordeux-Bremmand received a key for her generosity to so many.

After a cooked breakfast and a wonderful cup of coffee, we set off with some hesitation after packing and not finding one sock each. They are likely folded up in some other cloths….well, we hope so anyway. Luckily, Reims is only 2 days away. There will be a chance to replace them, so it’s not too worrisome.

The descent from Laon was very steep, knee-straining steep. Luckily the descent wasn’t too long. Before long we were out into the country and heading south toward Rome again.

Our day ahead would be yet another 20miles. Honestly, we both admitted that we were in a good routine. Twenty miles was starting to feel normal. I know that sounds crazy, but your body does indeed get used to it.

We travelled through the village of Martigny with its cool Art Nouveau church built after the destruction of the city during WWI. The standing angels caught my attention as a beautiful detail.

After this, it was a beautiful wooded and hilly trail with the occasional ruins of an abbey nature preserve thrown in.

A short walk farther we stopped for lunch, and that’s when it happened! We started our usual routine of preparing a baguette for sandwiches. Today we were having sausage and cheese sandwiches with some applesauce and nuts to top it off. The baguette made, I took a big bite into that lovely crunchy baguette….and then this happened….

Well now for our day off in Reims on Tuesday, I hope to be sitting in a dentist office. Unfortunately, our Duolingo French lessons didn’t make it to “how to discuss dental repairs”. I’m going to be totally trusting Google Translate on this one folks.

The good news is that this is the tooth that I’d had a root canal on a few years ago. So there is no pain associated except for some rubbing on my upper lip. My French colleague from work Emmanuel is helping me find a suitable dentist in Reims. Thank you Emmanuel!

The rest of our day was relatively uneventful. After a broken tooth, even the cool deer encounter and short hail storm we walked through didn’t make it to the headline.

So now, we are resting at the lovely home of our hosts Jean Paul and Nadine Portet in Pontavert. He has a fantastic garden and also keeps bees. We are the first Americans that have stayed with them. “Apologies in Advance” to all future Americans for any damage we may do! 🙂

We loved talking to Nadine and Jean Paul through the afternoon. Nadine had told us over the phone that on Sunday she did no cooking, so she’d only be preparing some cheese and butter and bread etc. This was perfect for us since we really enjoy simple meals and had been craving something like home. Well, when we came down at dinner we were treated to a feast of eggs, ham, butter, bread, cheese, and from their garden: beans, potatoes, cucumber, and tomatoes. Oh Joy!!! To tomatoes from the garden, yum!!! It was so good. Exactly what we’d been missing. We were even treated to some ice cream with whipped cream after dinner.

What a way to end the day!

Sleeping last night in a pasture was so relaxing. Ok, it used to be a pasture but now the upper half is a building site of a new gite. I slept wonderfully! Mark…meh.

It is early morning again but what a beautiful place with all these rolling hills and a beautiful sunrise to greet us. We said goodbye to Bertaucourt and began our journey to Laon today. We found a place on the side of a path to enjoy our breakfast. It is amazing what satisfaction my growling stomach can receive from a chocolate pastry. The only way to elevate the experience would be to add coffee. Unfortunately, I had to use my imagination since no villages we travelled through today had any cafes.  Pretending my water tasted like a rich cup of coffee had to do for the day.

We mostly walked on well defined forest paths today. No bushwhacking our own paths today folks. And as I mentioned before, we love hills. Well, be careful what you ask for because all of a sudden today real hills with elevation appeared in our path and our climbing muscles went into shock.

Personally, we do love mountains.  Just the contrast from the flat open land would have been enough, but the joy of not knowing what is around the next corner is a thrill.

Our path took us along the Chemin du Abbeyes.  In a dark section of the woods, all of a sudden a large stone wall appeared.  A few hundred feet later we’d climbed to an overlook to view the abandoned Benedictine Abbey of Saint Nicolas.

After more beautiful woods walking, we stopped in a clearing next to some cows for lunch.  As we were eating, the owner of the field drove by with a fork lift carrying fencing.  We had a brief conversation, and he went about his work building a temporary corral.  Then with a call “la,.  la” and a tap of a bucket he was carrying, the cows came running. 

It was free entertainment for our luncheon. 

Soon enough after rounding a curve we spotted the clear outline of a cathedral on a hill up ahead.  When I say “up ahead” we are still taking about a 4hr walk away.  It was a sight to see!  I imagined medieval pilgrims being awe inspired by the sight. 

Just before we entered the city we passed a German WWI cemetery.  What a contrast the grey crosses made to the white marble headstones of the allied cemeteries we’d seen.  At the same time it began to rain lightly. 

Just as we were about to make the climb up to the city center, our heads hunched inside our rain gear, we heard an “Allo….Pelegrín…Pelegrín”.  A man (Guillian Herbecq) at his front gate heralded us and beckoned us to come over.  As it turns out, he and his three buddies will be attempting the walk from Laon next May.  He was happy to greet us, and he received a key for his pilgrimage.  We had our picture taken together. 

After saying our goodbyes, we again headed up the hill in the rain.  But moments later we heard a car behind us beeping.  It was Guilian.   He insisted on driving us up the hill and ended up giving us a quick driving tour of the city walls (beautiful views).  He even got us an early entry for the Gite in which we are staying tonight.  More about that tomorrow. 

The day ended with a tour of the Laon Cathedral and receipt of our stamp for the day. 

Our 32km day found us walking through more open fields and across the German Hindenburg Line into territory primarily controlled by the Germans for the greater part of WWI. In fact, our destination for the day, Peronne was itself part of that famous defensive work.

An early morning start.

Since we had a long way to go, we set the alarm early for 5:30am and began walking by 6:15. Making an early start is critical when hiking longer days.

We had the hotel make us some hard boiled eggs as a take-away for our breakfast, and we had purchased an eclair each…(ok, it was two each) as well. The air was crisp as we started off, and the blue skies were a refreshing change from the past week.

The early start however meant that whenever the trail went through overgrown areas we would get soaked with the dew saturated grass. This, as well as a way to avoid the ever present nettles, is another great use of waterproof pants.

Our feet, however, became soaked in just a matter of minutes. The high grasses and weeds were still nice and wet from dew and rain the previous evening. Not even waterproof shoes are immune to the amount of water we trudged through. But you continue on because that is what pilgrims do.

We once again saw no other pilgrims which is not surprising on this part of the VF. Our feet hit the pavement in anticipation.

At Rocquigny the church and village were destroyed as part of the Hindenburg line of WWI. After the war ended, a church was built. The style is unique. It is now considered a transitional architectural style. Unfortunately, the construction was sub-par and the building itself was falling apart. So much so that in 2000-something it was scheduled for demolition. I’m glad it was saved. I found it pretty cool. It looks like it was supposed to represent a church steeple damaged by war. Well, that’s what I saw in it. Just before arriving in Peronne, we left Pays du Calais and entered the Somme department. Tomorrow we will leave the Somme and enter the Aise.

We stopped at Perrone for the day after calling and reserving a donativo to stay near the city center. Actually we arrived a little earlier than expected, so our hosts were not home. We called and told them we had arrived and would be in town having a cold drink. Our two hosts showed up personally to chat and provide us with the key and instructions. Somehow we communicated with our poor French and their small grasp of English. I am thankful for patience and see God working in my weakness.

Mark pulled another mark-ism by asking if we were to stay at the “casa Blanche” mixing Spanish and French. Honestly, I don’t know what I’m going to to with that man! Haha.

Remember dinner last night…that fancy feast we had? Well, we’re making up for it tonight with a microwave pizza. You can’t live high all the time.

Tomorrow and for the next two days we have some slogging to do. Our goal is to camp tomorrow night, with another 20mi day the following day and near Laon the day after. That’s aggressive, and we’re both ok if it doesn’t work. But this section is a little sparse of things to do and see and places to stay.

Actually today’s 26.7km was from Amettes to Villers-Chatel, but you won’t believe the ending of today’s story.

Honestly today’s walk wasn’t hard, but it had its moments. We awoke to a checkered forecast of 80% chance of rain, and it was quite cool. So, we once again battened down the hatches on our bags.

• Electronics in waterproof bags – check
• Phone in plastic zip lock – check
• Waterproof pants and socks on – check
• Rain jacket covering it all – check

Before heading out, we joined our hosts and enjoyed our “simple” country breakfast of prosciutto, croissants, toast, 4 homemade jams, yoghurt, juice, apples, bananas cheese, butter, cream cheese, coffee and tea….and leftover apple tart from dinner. Regarding the tart, we were told we had to finish it before leaving. Yes madame!

Allison and I took turns rolling each other out of the breakfast room to collect our packs – and we were off. As we walked out of town, the many signs reminded us of the importance of Saint Beniot Joseph Labre to the village of Amettes. More about him is included the History Bits tab.

The morning was cool and grey, but we were happy to find that the French weather forecasters are no more accurate than our own. It misted a few times and threatened to downpour more than once. But other than a two minute torrent we stayed dry.

After taking several pictures, I noticed I only had about three minutes of recording time left on our SD Card #2. So I took the opportunity to interview both of us…(yes, I interviewed myself). I asked a series of questions that I would repeat on several other occasions along our journey.

Soon after that video was shot, the clouds broke and the day ended in sunshine. It actually got a little hot. We walked primarily on roads today because, shortly after heading out of the village of Amettes, we had broken away from the “official” route. We took a detour toward our intended destination.

All along this portion of France we’ve been seeing private chapels. These simple structures sometimes have a small worship space large enough for one or two people. Sometimes they are exterior altars only. They are quite interesting and varied; some are plain and some ornate.

Since I was wayfinding using my GPS app (Gaia), we walked mostly on tarmac. The “official” route likely included more fields. Tarmac is hard on the feet, but it does allow you to go quite fast. We were booking! We ended up averaging 4.8km/hr over the whole day. That’s just under 3mph over 16mi. That’s a fast average for us carrying loaded backpacks, But we were not intentionally trying to go fast. Those of you that don’t know us should understand that Allison and I are both a little competitive. As a result, we often find our pace quickening as one unconsciously tries to get ahead of the other. Normally Allison wins.

Speeding along didn’t stop us from meeting this exuberant man, Maurice Johnson. He was joking around with us about the approaching rain. He insisted we approach St Peter’s square on our knees and whisper to Pope Francis that “Maurice is a good man”. Haha

We reached the village of LaComte and stopped at a bench to eat our chicken salad sandwiches for lunch. A short way down the street from our bench was a sign that I could almost read. It looked like it said Hobbit Town. I was sure that I was not reading it correctly, but the font was quite Tolkien-esque. So I walked over to read it.

Sure enough, the village of La Comte claims Hobbits to be real and to be their ancestral home. I couldn’t understand all the words but there was an old map, c 1400’s with Hobbitebourg clearly marked just adjacent to La Comte. Hmmm.

Ok…now for the grand finale. Why did we divert off the formal Via today? Well, we’d heard about this special donativo run by Jean (John) and Maria, two fellow pilgrims. They’ve actually done the pilgrimage to Rome as well as a bucket-list item of mine, Rome to Jerusalem. Oh…and their donativo just so happens to be in a nice house…ok…it’s a chateau.

It is crazy, but this is where we are staying and being fed tonight…for a donation.

Our dinner was such fun and mostly came from their own garden. We had a cantaloupe as a starter followed by zucchini, roast potatoes, and omelets. Next was a course of 5 cheeses, and finally a lemon meringue tart. The conversation was almost exclusively in French for the second night in a row but I pretty much caught only words and a phrase or two. Allison did much better.

After dinner we browsed through their book of photos from their pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Dominiq was with us again for another but final night.

Well, that’s it for today. Anything I can add now would be anti-climactic. So au revoir and good night.

When the alarm went off this morning, it was hard to get out of my cozy sleeping bag. Our night at the Abbaye was the quietest night’s sleep we have had so far, and it was wonderful. After finishing our breakfast of fresh bread and homemade jams and fresh coffee (just like there will be heaven), we walked out of the Abbaye grounds onto the VF once again.

Our steps were lively after almost a day of rest at the Abbaye. I highly recommend staying at Abbaye Notre Dame in Wisques where you will be welcomed with smiles and amazingly generous hospitality. Soeur Lucy will make you feel at home. Mark and I both agreed that we felt restored mentally, physically, and spiritually this morning. Yesterday we were dragging our feet, but today we bounce.

We walked through a land of legends. We crossed the Aa River (a favorite of French crossword writers) .

Next we walked along Brunhilde’s Way. She was a queen in the 7th century and did a lot to restore the roads. She had a famous ferocity, but met a tragic end by being dragged to death behind a horse, tied by her hair.

In contrast to the ancient history, we walked past modern marvels as well. Our first up-close encounter with the modern windmills came this morning in Pays de Calais. The stiff breeze today made the morning refreshing up high on the hilltops. Shortly afterwards however, we came across this…no words can describe it, so you just have to watch the video to get an appreciation.

Well, after that “encounter” we finished up the day somewhat uneventfully. However at lunch, a moment transpired that is hard to describe. Sitting on a non-descript bench, next to a cemetery, alongside a country road, in no-where France, it struck me again. “How did we get HERE?” I mean, what in life brought us to be in this place at this moment? We both laughed at how content we were in a situation that few would understand.

But there we were, eating our dry tuna sandwich and partially shriveled green pepper on two-day-old bread, in mildly smelly clothes, on this less than pristine road-side bench. We knew instantly that some/most of our friends wouldn’t necessarily be enjoying this, but for us, it was just a wonderful moment. Pilgrims reading this – you know this feeling of contentment to which I am referring, but to others, you just have to trust me – there is real joy to be found here.

We had covered 21.79 kilometers by noon and surprised ourselves by reaching our end point for the day just 15 minutes after eating lunch. Our pace averaged 4.4 kilometers per hour which is pretty fast for us. We could have continued but the next lodging would have been just as far to walk so we called it a day.

The only lodging choice in Therouanne is the Gite Eden. What a fantastic place. The owners have a passion for helping pilgrims and love their city’s history. We learned from them that the route actually is shorter tomorrow than we’d expected. Alain, the owner of the Gite Eden, helped us book our lodging for the next evening. Just a step outside the door of the gite you can see a market and a bakery. Plus the gite itself has a washer and dryer and a well stocked kitchen. Yup, dinner tonight will be pasta cooked in the kitchen by us. Sometimes cooking for ourselves is such a luxury.

Well folks, that is it for tonight. I have several other videos to share and so much to say, but there is no WiFi here so videos are tough*. I will close with this final picture taken while our laundry was drying, and we had a few moments to explore the nearby church.

I did add a small story about Therouanne in the History Bits page.

* The strength of the Wifi sometimes prohibited the loading of video. However, once home I was able to add to several bits of additional footage.

By Mark

Sitting at Brinegar cabin with Allison after we flew up the cedar ridge trail and arrived here an hour early. We’re waiting for Cindy, Andrea and Jessica.

It is both exciting and terrifying to be done all the prep work and still have so much in front of us including all the unknowns of this particular Covid pilgrimage.

But very honestly I look forward to whatever comes. Unlike our other adventures where I kind of went in feeling like nothing could go wrong, this time we both know that not only is it possible but actually quite likely.

We expect at times to be hungry and filthy and even unhappy, and yet we suspect that those hours or days or even weeks will be surpassed by those where we are in awe…and there is very little more exceptional than to be standing in awe.

More later….