Tomorrow Christine and the three grandchildren depart for their adventure. Charlie and I depart for ours. Two different experiences, two different directions, each an adventure nonetheless. I will not see Christine for nearly a month and I will miss her dearly. I have decided that any future posts from this Camino will return to the “Dear Christine” format.
But that is tomorrow and today is today. Charlie and I toured the ancient and magnificent Monasterio de Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas.
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In 1187 the Pope authorized its establishment. In that same year King Alfonso VIII and Queen Eleanor granted the monasteries charter. The monastery is also their final resting place. 
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It stands today as an ancient monument surrounded by a modern city.
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Into the 16th century the Abbess was afforded near regal authority over a domain that covered over 50 towns and villages.
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Until the Council of Trent in the 16th century she was authorized to hear confessions, give absolution, and perform many of the duties now reserved solely to priests.
The monastery, once home to hundreds of cloisterednuns, now houses 10 nuns and approximately 22 women in formation to become nuns.
I took over 50 photographs, but I’m constrained to sharing only a few. I hope they give the flavor of the experience of our visit:
.Here is where the Abbass conducted meetings with the remaining nuns in residence. They voted on pending issues and received instructions from her. The stained glass windows which are barely visible in this picture are the oldest in the country of Spain. They date to the 12th century. Modern science has yet to figure out how the red panes were created Another view of the meeting chamber.One of the two main crypt rooms reserved for royalty and their children. Napoleon‘s troops looted these sarcophagi in the 18th century. .One of a number of paintings from the 1500s magnificently restored to their vibrance and beauty. ..One of the interior cloisters.
Walk back to the center of the city included passage along the tree line pedestrian ways.
.A brief clip from an incredible street performance.
The construction of this Cathedral, officially known as Santa Iglesia Catedral Basílica Metropolitana de Santa María de Burgos, began in 1221.
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It underwent major renovations in the 15th and 16th centuries. It was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1984.
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It and the city of Burgos are hidden gems unknown to most American tourists.
The highlight of the visit for me was a product of the 21st century. For only € 2 one was treated to an eight minute virtual tour of the cathedral, including “standing“ atop the spires, and viewing the cathedral interior while hovering 100 feet above the floor. It is a dizzying experience and I could not help but laugh when a virtual pigeon landed in front of me. Try as I might I could not catch him!
Charlie being fitted with his virtual reality headset. 
The experience was shared by Charlie and the grandchildren but not Christine. I am confident that if she had tried she would have lost her non-virtual lunch.
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Here are some images from the day:
The Chapel of the Constables, whose carved images lie atop their remains. .I could not resist including this image where it appears tourists are trying to use their cell phones to raise the dead. 😉A view of the hall that surrounds the cloister. A statue of Santiago The Moor Slayer, probably not politically correct in the current century. An example of the intricate carvings both in wood and stone, which are found throughout the cathedral. The main altar A view looking up from the floor beneath the main altar. The famous “golden staircases“. The Papamosc, an animaton built in the 1500s. He chimes on the hour, his arm pulling the cord which rings the bell. Simultaneously his mouth and eyes move. Pretty creepy! 
Buen Camino and Peace Everyone. Pete.
PS. This is my third day at the hotel. The first was in 2013, and the second in 2024.
Out hotel lies directly along the route of the Camino de Santiago. There are many routes of the Camino as this picture reveals. Most of them pass through Burgos, and by this hotel.
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Theresa is the desk manager and to my amazement she remembered me on both occasions subsequent to my visit in 2013.
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She greets me as a long lost brother and is an utter delight. My opinion is shared by Christine, Charlie and the grandchildren.
We have arrived in Spain, landing in Madrid without incident.
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We were early enough that our afternoon train tickets to our final destination, Burgos, could be exchanged for an early morning departure and early arrival at our hotel, Hotel Norte y Londres. It is a classic old world establishment.
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What it lacks in amenities it more than compensates for with friendliness and charm.
Another bit of good luck occurred at the Madrid Airport. There are five of us and the taxi cabs limit transport to four people. A woman driver with a taxi minivan saw our predicament. She waved us over and although she set the meter at four people (the maximum) she transported us with no additional cost. She deserved a good tip and got one.
Our neighbor, Charlie Murphy, arrived in the afternoon. He and I set off in search of tapas and beer.
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The difficulty was not in finding what was sought, but in deciding which place from the among the scores of inviting establishments.
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All of us have taken brief walking tours of the expansive pedestrian district, and we look forward to breakfast and sightseeing in the morning.
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Buen Camino Everyone! Peace. Pete.
The street scene beneath our hotel window This huge nest and the storks sit atop a nearby Church as seen from our hotel room. The nest measures approximately 6 feet across and must weigh hundreds of pounds!
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 1st, 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 7th 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 27th 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.
Mont-Saint-Michel, from Wikipedia.
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.
Piloting the canal boat in England, 2023
Charlie and Mary Murphy
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”
The Cruz de Ferro, “The Cross of Iron”.
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.
I have been remiss and I extend an apology to you. We returned from our 3-week journey in Hawaii with Road Scholar on February 9th and my last post concluded with pictures and narrative only through February 2nd. That post was published on February 24th.
In the interim we have not been idle. Before finishing this post with concluding pictures and limited narrative about Hawaii I wish to detail some of our recent engagements:
I took 3 of the grandsons to Colorado for a week of skiing… and yes, I still ski (but not well).
We celebrated 2 high school graduations:
Grandson, Kane Cook is seen here with me, Christine, his 2 siblings, and 4 of his cousins. Kane, along with 40 classmates, graduated from Academy Lafayette International High School (ALIHS). A small multicultural institution (elementary through high school) that he and his twin siblings, Phoenix and Paisely, have attended since kindergarten. The primary grades are taught exclusively in French. Phoenix and Paisely will graduate next year.
Granddaughter, Audrey Schloss, is seen here with her mother (Niki Smith), our son Peter, and her younger brother (also Peter).
In contrast to the small graduating class at ALIHS, Audrey graduated in a class of 440 at North Kansas City High School.
It has a remarkably diverse student body that includes students representing at least a dozen foreign countries. We and Audry’s parents were beyond proud to witness her at the podium in Kansas City’s T-Mobile Center Arena delivering the commencement address.
Christine and I have been consumed with putting the final details in place for a remarkable 6-week journey that begins in one week. Details will be revealed in a post which will shortly follow this one.
Hawaii:
Waimea Canyon was stunningly beautiful. It is the site of not only the final battle in the unification of the Hawaiian Islands, but the world record for a non-powered glider flight. Set in 1931, William Cocle, Jr. piloted (solo) his glider airplane for 21 hours and 34 minutes.
The battle of Nu’Uanu Pali occurred in 1795. The forces of King Kamehameha I confronted an opposing army fighting for control of O’ahu. His army was victorious after backing the enemy troops to the cliff edge and forcing an estimated 400 of the enemy combatants (men and women) to plunge to their death.
There were also the Waimea Valley Falls and Botanical Gardens.
We visited Kilauea Lighthouse and National Wildlife Refuge, the northernmost point of Hawaii.
Kalihiwai Beach was alive with surging surf and surfers.
The Bishop Museum is a remarkable and expansive facility spread over acres of ground and divided among several older and newer buildings. It details the geological, biological and anthropological history of the Islands.
The knife that killed Captain James Cook in 1779. He extensively explored and accurately charted the South Pacific, discoverer of the Hawaiian chain of islands.
We attended a classic Lu’au at the Hale Koa Hotel. The food and entertainment were classic and absorbing.
One day was dedicated to an “exploration” of the modern and historical Hawaiian governments. It is one of two States, the other being Texas, that were independent countries before being admitted to the Union. Our visit included:
The Great Seal of the State of Hawaii
The ultra-modern State Capitol, which is designed as a metaphor of a volcano.
Hawaii’s House of Representatives chambers
Hawaii’s Senate chambers
Our group in the offices of the Governor of Hawaii.
Our group in the offices of the Lieutenant Governor
The Hawaii Supreme Court.
Statue of King Kamehameha I in front of the Hawaiian Supreme Court.
Iolani Palace, the residence of Hawaii’s last ruling king and queen. King Kalakaua who ruled from 1874 until his death in 1891, and his sister, Queen Lili’uokalani who reigned from 1891 until she was overthrown by the United States government in 1893.
She was kept in her palace under house arrest and threat of execution until she signed her formal abdication. She remained a fierce advocate for Hawaiian independence until her death in 1917.
One of the Queen’s dresses. This one made of peacock feathers.
The Royal “necessary room”.
The Royal Spittoon.
What visit to Hawaii would be complete without a tour of the Pearl Harbor National Memorial and the USS Arizona Memorial.
The WW2 Battleship Missouri, upon whose deck the documents of surrender were executed that ended the Second World War.
The USS Arizona Memorial. The final resting place for 1,102 of the 1,177 sailors and marines killed during the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor
Finally, we were treated to an Aloha Dinner at the “First Lady of Waikiki”, the Moana (Surfrider) Hotel which opened its doors as Waikiki’s first hotel in 1901.
In all our 3-week excursion with Road Scholar was a remarkable and in-depth exploration of the Hawaiian Islands. At times exhausting, but always informative and fascinating, we highly recommend Road Scholar as a means of discovering the Islands.
Christine with Susan, our truly brilliant tour director.
Perhaps when the world calms down we will book one of their tours of Ancient Egypt and the Nile River.
Peace Everyone. Pete
PS. We leave May 28th… more about that in the next post!
