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Pilgrims' Adventure

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We walked to Jerusalem in the dark, cold, dreary months of January and February of 2021 We set out on Friday 8th January. 90 pilgrims participated, some as armchair walkers, some joining at the last minute. All, like the workers in the vineyard in St Matthew's Gospel, all are equally welcome and valued.                     We had at least 23 dogs for company along the way. Some could be allowed off the lead.                                                                  Some needed to stay on the lead.                   Some found it rather tiring                                                                                                Some are old campaigners Others were full of the joys of youth. We walked, ran, cycled, rode and totted up our totals every week.     To get to Jerusalem we needed 2886 miles The route there took us via Dover through Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, The Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and Lebanon. We took 4 ferries to cro
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Week 8 Home

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  Monday 1st March Leaving Oviedo we head for the coast road and hop along the cliff tops from beach to sandy cove, through red rooved villages more affluent than we've seen inland. We're in Santander for coffee, picking a watering hole from among the serried ranks of 20th century hotels along the waterfront. Further along the coast the cathedral of Bilbao is dedicated to St John so we feel we have to call in there. It is cool and airy, less ornate than other Spanish churches we have visited;  more reminiscent of British cathedrals, Salisbury perhaps, on the inside anyway. We stop to sample some Basque cuisine: bacalao pil pil, cod in garlic and olive oil, called pil pil for the sound the skin makes as it pops in the hot oil; alubias de Tolosa, baked beans more delicious by far than anything you'll find in a tin at Tesco. We are back among rolling hills, leaving the industrial lowlands behind us and gradually the scenery become wilder and more mountainous. We drop back to t
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Santiago de Compostela

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  Saturday 27th February With Compostela in sight below us, we join the obligatory photo opportunity by the pilgrims' statue below the top of the Monte do Gozo, the Hill of Joy. Indeed, the feeling of euphoria is contagious and everyone is babbling excitedly in the morning sunshine. The two pilgrims are pointing towards the towers of the cathedral, 4km away. Following their directions, we go into the Oficina de Acogida al Peregrino to get the final stamp for our passports and pick up our certificates. It is busy. The people in the office are welcoming, they smile and nod, but they see so many pilgrims all they want to do is the paperwork and move on to the next so they have no curiosity about us. It is a bit of an anticlimax. The carved romanesque Cathedral portico is a magnificent work of art on its own. Passing under it we find the ornate, gilded altar gleaming luxuriously in the lamplight. Janet, who has been here on a feast day, tells us about the Botafumeiro:  'The censer
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Week 7 Florence to Santiago de Compostela

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Monday 22nd February By the time we have bought new boots and succumbed to an expensive note book bound in gorgeous Italian marbled paper, it is almost lunchtime but we have a long way to go, and new boots to break in. 'Don't throw away the old ones yet!' Instead of sinking into a chair on a Florentine Piazza, we buy picnic food and set off for the coast. Tempting as it is to call in and say hello to the leaning tower of Pisa, we take the more northerly route through Lucca and Viareggio, past the marble quarries at Carrara and on to La Spezia and the Cinque Terre. Here we join the Sentiero Azzurro, the cliff path connecting the five towns with their brightly coloured houses that cling to the steep coastline. It is getting dark by the time we reach Genoa and the new boots have done quite enough for one day. The birthplace of Christopher Columbus seems like a good place for footsore travellers to stop for the night. Tuesday 23rd We set out bright and early. 'Lunch in Mona
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Florence

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Saturday 20th February Michael's recommendations mean we make a slow start today. Coming to the outskirts of Perugia we agree that it would be a dereliction to bypass the town so we loop up into the medieval centre before ca rrying on to the shores of Lake Trasimene. 'Hannibal defeated the Romans at the battle here in 217BC.' 'With or without elephants?' The shores are peaceful, the water twinkles but we don't stop at the beach and we only pause for coffee in Arezzo, lovely as it is, because Florence is now not far away and we are all keen to get there. We wind down through lush green  Tuscan  hills and  villages  punctuated with columns of poplars and cypresses. The villages come thicker and faster until they merge into one. At the point where we get our first view, Florence  is a distant smudge , the Bruneleschi dome rising alongside its Campanile out of  the wide sweep of terracotta rooves.  The really romantic view is from Fiesole but our approach is south o
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Week 6 Greece and Italy

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  Monday 15th February Likou was there to meet us as promised, his eyes twinkling from the depths of his wrinkles, on the inland edge of Marathokampos. He looked us up and down. We are walking fit, hardened by almost five thousand miles over every kind of terrain, and his Greek sideways nod said he could see this. Even so, Mount Kerkis rises steeply from the seashore, its rocky head as grizzled as Likou's, an imposing and rugged climb. He set a slow pace at first but, as we bunched behind him Likou, an observer not a talker, picked up speed until we were swinging along at our usual rhythm. Once we had gained some height, instead of taking the trail that led towards the rocks, he turned along the flank of the mountain, heading steadily inland and dropping at length into a green valley spangled with anemones, red, violet, white and humming with bees. Ahead of us the track was lined with brightly coloured hives, like miniature beach huts. Some of us were not keen to go any nearer but
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Samos

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 Saturday 13th February We explored the island of Samos on foot today. The wooded mountains and terraced fields, criss-crossed by roads and tracks, are studded with monasteries. It is an empty and peaceful landscape and as we head westward towards Potami, now and then we come upon a waterfall where water cascades into inviting pools.  'Anyone for a dip?'  The  foolhardy dip a toe but not for long. It is quite chilly. 'Nicer in August.' 'But more crowded.'  Indeed, we have this lovely island almost to ourselves. The tourist eateries down on the waterfront are largely shut up for the season but the locals are pleased to see us, to sell us meze and excellent Samos wine and to tell us what we must see and do. They direct us to the cave of Pythagoras who, it turns out, as well as being a philosopher, was a vegetarian and an advocate of communal living. 'Not the squaw and the hippopotamus bloke?' ? 'You know: the squaw on the hippopotamus is equal to the s
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