November 5-8, 2022. At Barcelona, Spain.

Hi Everybody, and you too Christine (even though you’re here with me).

There has been so much that has occurred since my “Last Letter” from Valencia that it would be impossible to treat it with any real detail in this post. Instead, I will present the “CliffsNotes“ version. By the way, CliffsNotes was a product popular in the mid and late 20th century which gave well curated summaries of books, usually classics, that we were expected to read in high school or college. They rescued many a lazy student, such as me.

I arrived in Barcelona less than an hour ahead of Christine and Wendy. Our Norwegian “daughter“, Hege, arrived a few hours later. It was a wonderful reunion that was not captured in pictures. This picture, however, gives the flavor of my feelings about again rejoining with Christine.

Christine and Wendy had planned the next two days in an effort to accomplish as much as possible for all of us to share in this wonderful tourist destination. Our accommodations for these five days have been a 4th story 2 bedroom rooftop apartment in the heart of the city. We are 2 blocks from Las Ramblas and just a 15 minute walk from the Sagrada Familia.

Spending time together has been a gift that included long walks and evening dining out in the city.

Back in Kansas City Wendy and Christine rarely go more than a week without meeting for coffee and an afternoon chat.

We first met Hege in 1994 when she spent a year living with us as an AFS foreign exchange student. She calls us mom and dad and is indeed like a daughter to us.

Over these last three days we visited The 11th century monastery, Montserrat, and Parc Guell, designed and built between 1900 and 1914 by the renowned architect Antoni Gaudi.

This is our fourth visit to Barcelona. No visit to this city would be complete without a visit to the Sagrada Familia Basilica, also a creation of Antoni Gaudi.

This is one of the top tourist attractions in all of Europe, visited by millions every year. We have been able to see progress toward completion in each visit. In 2013 there were hopes that it would be finished by the 2026 centennial anniversary of the architect’s death. COVID has pushed back the clock to 2030.

What follows is a pictorial sampling of what we have seen and done. Where appropriate I have added captions.

The Monastery at Montserrat:

Parc Guell:

The Sagrada Familia:

For those who wish to dig a little deeper, here is a link to my 2018 post: https://mediationkc.com/2018/04/12/april-12th-the-sagrada-familia-a-supplement/

We are sharing our apartment these last two nights with Leesa, a Canadian who has recently completed walking the Portuguese route of the Camino.

On November 10th Christine and I board the ship Viking Jupiter, ultimately bound 22 days later for Buenos Aires Argentina.

For now, Peace Everyone. Pete

PS. All good things must eventually come to an end. Here we say goodbye and safe journey home to Hege and Wendy.

November 4, 2022. At Valencia, Spain.

Dear Christine. As I was contemplating a title for this letter it dawned on me, this IS the last letter. 24 hours from now we will be speaking face-to-face.

It is my intention to continue publicly posting from this trip, but in writing these as “Letters to You” I found a different voice. In my heart these have really been letters written to you, just wirh our joint understanding that they were shared with others. As I continue I imagine the “voice” will change, but in what way, and with what effect? In the past have I actually been writing to “someone”, or just speaking my thoughts aloud? These are questions I would like to discuss with you when we are together.

Yesterday I would have said that hell would freeze over before I would visit another cathedral on this trip, the exception being the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. Well, today I made myself a liar. I entered the Valencia Cathedral with the sole intention of climbing its tower. As I first gazed upon the interior I thought, “Oh what the hell!”. I said yes to the audio guide which was included as part of the admission and began the self-guided tour. I was not disappointed.

The Valencia Cathedral, or as it is more formally named, Iglesia Catedral-Basílica Metropolitana de la Asunción de Nuestra Señora de Valencia (!!!), was consecrated in the 1200s but it’s construction continued for hundreds of years thereafter. Thus it features a mixture of architectural styles.

Excavations beneath the cathedral have revealed that it was the site of an earlier Christian church, a still earlier mosque, an earlier still Visigoth temple, and beneath that a 2nd Century BCE Roman temple to Jupiter.

Visitors are able to see a portion of the excavations which include the earthly remains of worshipers from those ancient times. So much for “rest in peace“. As you will see, unearthing the dead is a common theme.

Among the things notable in the church and its adjoining museum were:

A painting by Goya of Saint Francis de Borja attempting to save a soul from the demons of hell by spraying the blood of Christ on his body.

A crucifix statue, not of Christ, but rather of the non-penitent thief who hung on the cross to Christ’s left.

The Chapel of the Holy Grail. Valencia does not hint that this “might be“ the Holy Grail, the Cathedral asserts that it IS the Grail and defies anyone to prove otherwise.

Whether or not it’s the Grail, it is a Roman stone bowl reliably dated to the first century.

I have lived 70 years and until now the “holy grail“ was just subject matter of Monty Python movie. In the last two weeks I have seen two actual claimants to the title.

By the way, the chapel itself, especially the ceiling, was amazing.

The Cathedral Museum had many works dating to the 13th century. They included stone statues of the apostles that were originally located on the cathedral’s exterior, but have since been replaced by replicas in order to preserve them from further deterioration.

The oldest painting in the cathedral was created in 1400 by a German artist. It depicts the apostle, Thomas, resolving his doubts as to the resurrection of Christ.

There is a room full of relics, literally pieces of various saints, preserved in gold and silver reliquaries. In the medieval church it was a big deal to collect and display these things for worship.

There is a chapel dedicated to the bishop, San Luis. Above the altar is a bust in his image, and within the bust for all to see is his skull and bones.

Similarly, in a niche behind the main altar Is another reliquary containing the arm of St. Vincent, patron saint of Valencia, who was martyred around the year 304.

Immediately across from his remains is the statue of The Virgin Mary of the Chair. Tradition holds that if a pregnant woman visits the statue, lights a candle, prays, and then walks around the interior of the cathedral nine times, her pregnancy will be protected. A pregnant woman walked in front of me as I was taking my picture of the statue!

Finally, there was a huge monstrance created for the veneration of the Holy Eucharist. This one was crafted in the 20th century from donations of silver by ordinary citizens of Valencia. It was meant as reparation for the sacrileges committed by troops during Spain’s Civil War (1936-1939) and contains over 1300 pounds of the precious metal.

Of course, my original purpose in visiting was to climb the 207 foot tall Miguelete Tower.

There were over 400 steps, round-trip. If nothing else this was a good test of whether or not I should defer knee surgery for the torn meniscus. There were no problems and so taking the surgery off the calendar was a good call.

You would have hated the confining spiral staircase and it’s unnaturally (to us) tall steps. The spiral narrows as you get higher in the tower so there are traffic lights at each end to allow for one-way traffic up and one-way traffic down.

The view from the top was stunning.

My reward for the successful climb and descent was a lunch of beer and tapas on the square.

There were many tour groups in the area, hinting that this was a cruise-ship day. Furthermore, German seemed to be the predominant language among these groups.

SEE YOU TOMORROW!!! Love, Me.

PS. I’m going to finish with some evening pictures from around the Cathedral Square.

October 26, 2022. At Burgos, Spain.

Dear Christine. The day has finally arrived and you are on a plane for Europe! Tomorrow we will find ourselves in the same time zone. There are still 10 days before we’ll be together but being on the same side of the ocean is a big step in that direction.

I arrived in Burgos this afternoon by train. The hotel is just as charming as I recall from nine years ago.

It is located on the Camino, which passes directly under my balcony, and is one of the oldest in the city having first opened its doors in 1904. At just over €50 a night it’s a real bargain.

My first order of business was to get some laundry done. The small coin operated laundromat was only two blocks away. Apparently, washing dogs in the machines is prohibited.

That task accomplished, I found a nice outdoor restaurant to enjoy an excellent pizza, a couple of beers, and a café con leche.

Three English speaking pilgrims, probably in their late 40s, were seated near me discussing their experiences on the Camino. One periodically met my eye. As they stood to leave I extended the common greeting, “Buen Camino!“. The gentleman replied, “Gracias!” to which I responded with “You’re welcome, I’m American.“ I have been wearing my beret in the evenings and the gentleman assumed I was Spanish or French. We had a good laugh.

Remember when we first began traveling in Europe in the early 80’s? It was so easy to pick out Americans. The sneakers, T-shirts, jeans, ball caps… There were so many “tells“. It’s no longer that way. American and Western European styles have blended to make nationality indistinguishable by sight alone.

Today alone I saw Harvard, Yale, and Marshall University sweaters all worn by Europeans. The same with Carhartt, Vans, and any number of other popular brands seen just as often on the streets of America as here on the streets of Spain.

However, it is easy to distinguish Camino pilgrims. It’s the shoes, the zip off pants, the haggard look that hints at near homelessness yet is contrasted with joy in the eyes and a smile on the lips. As I watched pilgrims walking interspersed among locals I found myself wishing to return again to the Camino. It would be such a joy to share this with Peter, our daughters, and/or our grandchildren.

I thought the evening beauty of Leon could not be beat, but after tonight I’m picking Burgos.

See you in my dreams. Love, Me.

PS. Dear Liz S. If you thought that the title to this post was meant as wordplay, congratulations! You know me well!