Herding Cats in Europe

 

Well, not actually herding “cats”, but 7 grandchildren, 5 of which are seniors in high school, and one just graduated. The lone exception is a “cute as a button” 9-year-old granddaughter.

I am not the “cat-wrangler”. That sobriquet belongs exclusively to Christine. All I will be doing is hiking 300 miles in Spain, accompanied by our neighbor, Charlie Murphy.

We have long lived the mantra, “Don’t put off until tomorrow the things you may then find you cannot do.” In my case I will attempt to put a conclusion to my fourth Camino. It was started the summer of 2024, but prematurely ending in Burgos, Spain. Back surgery was the necessary result of a well abused spine and the need to remove a cyst that had formed on my spinal column during the hike.

For Christine this summer offers the pursuit of a dream to share her adventurous spirit and love of travel with our grandchildren. She will be doing so with 7 of the 10.

Here are the details:

Next week Christine and I, along with 3 of the grandchildren, one of whom just graduated from high school and two who will do so next year, fly to Madrid, Spain. There we will be joined by our neighbor, Charlie Murphy. We will immediately train to Burgos. The 5 of us will enjoy 3 nights at the Hotel Norte y Londres, visiting the remarkable Burgos Cathedral and taking in other delights of this hidden gem destination.

On the morning of June 1^st, Charlie and I will proceed west on foot, encumbered only by our backpacks and the unknown. More about that later in this post.

Christine and the 3 “grands” will return to Madrid for 3 days, to be joined by another granddaughter who will be a high school senior in the fall. She will have just finished walking the Portuguese route of the Camino with members of her high school class. Christine with the four in tow will fly to Paris and do a week of “Paris stuff”. They then train to Amsterdam, doing a week of “Amsterdam stuff”.

The first 3 grandkids will then fly to New York where they will join their mother, our daughter, at summer camp. This is our daughter’s 7^th year as the camp’s head nurse. Her 3 kids have been campers throughout but are now employed as camp counselors.

 Meanwhile: Christine and the remaining granddaughter will wander to Belgium, enjoying Brussels, The Hague, and Brugges. After days in Belgium, they will fly to Naples, Italy and meet our other daughter, and the granddaughter’s 3 siblings.

The 6 of them will spend a week exploring Naples, Capri, the Amalfi Coast, Pompeii, and Rome. Christine will then bid them “adieu” (which happens to be the most popular starting word for the daily New York Times game, Wordle. I prefer “SLATE”). On June 27^th Christine will fly to meet Charlie and me in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

Charlie will leave us, returning to Kansas City. Christine and I will fly to Paris (more Paris “stuff”) for two weeks that will include Brittany, Normandy, and two nights at Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey.

We will then return home… WHEW!!!

I planned to continue hiking the French route of the Camino, The Way of St. James, from where I left off in the summer of 2024. Charlie recently mentioned that someday he hoped to walk the Camino.

“How about joining me in a few weeks?” I asked. With a look and a pause that telegraphed his suspicion of a less than funny joke, he replied “Really?”. Me: “Really.”. Charlie, “No, REALLY.” Me. “Honest. Really.” Charlie (catching his breath), “Let me talk to Mary, change a few plans and…”

…and Charlie began searching for a pack, walking gear, voraciously studying about the Camino, and doing training walks with me.

Charlie is a very good and deeply spiritual man of 68. I also know that he and I make good travelling parters. Charlie and his wife Mary joined us in 2023 piloting a canal boat in England. We got along perfectly.

He and I are not without some anxiety. I am 74 and have been haunted by the accumulating hallmarks of advancing age; back, prostate, kidney stones. My illusions of invincibility have been attacked and soundly defeated.

At 68 Charlie is still a top-flight tennis player but wears a knee brace and like me favors the companionship of trekking poles.

Next week we hope to receive a blessing and first stamp in our Pilgrim’s Credencial from a priest at St. Peter’s Parish here in Kansas City. The Credencial is our proof presented at the Pilgrim’s Office in Santiago that we have fulfilled the requirements for receiving the Compostela Certificate.

Daily while on the Camino we will accumulate stamps from churches, albergues (hostels), municipalities…, that certify our journey.

We will each carry a stone, a symbol of our efforts on the Camino. A 1,000 year tradition holds that the pilgrim deposits the stone at the Cruz de Ferro. This is a high point on the Camino where the pilgrim then recites a prayer in this general form:

“Lord, may this stone, a symbol of my efforts on the pilgrimage that I lay at the foot of the cross of the Savior, one day weigh the balance in favor of my good deeds when the deeds of my life are judged. Let it be so. Amen”

Yesterday I sought an appropriate stone, one that within myself I find meaning. Over the years we have often brought home stones as impromptu souvenirs of our travels. Among a small collection of these stones was one that I rejected as being too small. Moving it aside it turned to reveal its hidden side. At that moment there was no question but that this small and insignificant stone would be the one I would carry.

An examination of most statues or images of St. James, along with the waymarks of the Camino explains why.

Next, I reached into a large “change jar”. I wanted a quarter to give photographic scale to the size of the stone. The quarter that I randomly retrieved bore the year 1977, the year that Christine and I married, the year we bought our first home, the year that I entered law school. We consider 1977 to be the most impactful year of our life together.

Perhaps I am reading too much into these events. However, every miracle, both large and small, comes in two parts: That it occurred, and that it was noticed.

It is easy to dismiss such occurrences as matters of mere coincidence. To do so is like drawing the shades only to hide the glory of a sunrise.

“Some may roll their eyes, but for us it is otherwise.”

In 2018 Christine and I embarked on another vast journey. Starting in San Juan, Puerto Rico, it included walking the Camino in Portugal. Nearing departure we were faced with some notable “coincidences”. Eddie, the host of our San Juan B&B revealed that he had walked the Camino two years earlier. To this he added, “Peter, in life there are no coincidences.”

Peace Everyone! Pete

PS. I cannot promise to post a running commentary of our upcoming journey. I hope to occasionally share pictures and thoughts. Please keep us in yours.