One more beautiful church DH visited in Madrid

 Hello, everyone.

As has been mentioned before, when my leg got injured, I spent days recuperating in the room and DH wandered the city. He brought back photos to share with me each time.

One was a church we had actually never heard of before. It's a very old church and it may have been the official cathedral in the past. (Now La Almudena, across a large plaza from the Palacio Real, is it.) It was a Franciscan church, so there are numbers of paintings of various saints who were members of that order.

I'm not sure if this is St. Francis preaching, or St. Anthony de Padua.

Emblems of various military orders that served over the centuries. To the right of the Hospitallers is the Order of Santiago.

St. Francis receiving the approval of his Rule for the order.

Because this church is in Madrid, there are also themes of historical and cultural significance that don't involve St. Francis or his disciples, too.

The apparition of St. James as Santiago Matamoros at the battle of Clavijo, in an unusually hands-on image. I thought that the saint appeared over the heads of the nearly-beaten Christian army and inspired them to rise up and charge to a miraculous victory. The cross, the sword, and the white horse are always part of the depiction. 

Possibly St. Dominic? He's showing the rosary. 

I thought at first this was a depiction of the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Now I wonder if it's actually a depiction of her Assumption into heaven at the end of her life on earth. (I'm basing this on the way the angels are lifting her up. 

While he was out, he got a neat reflection photo of the church and the oncoming weather.

Things my sweetie saw that I want to see

 Hello, everyone.

While I was laid up (not to use the colloquial expression "stove up") DH walked all over Madrid. This was hard for him, as we customarily go together to see the churches, the gardens, etc.

He found more than one church that we had never seen together.

And, of course, he visited our favorite art museums: the Prado and the Thyssen-Bournemisza.

I will try to get the pictures that he took together over the next several posts to share them with y'all.

This was a church near the place where we were staying. I share a few of the many photos he took.

This view of the niche was amazingly beautiful.

San Rocco, with the dog who brought him bread when he was ill.

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, with the scapular.

This was a lovely church. I am excited to be there to visit in person when next we go to Madrid.

More from the day of the Long Walk

Hello, everyone. 

I did a short post while en route about the very long day,  but as the monastery didn't have wifi, there wasn't a lot in it.

Today, a little more, from Aljucen where we should have stopped. (We should have broken the very long day into halves.) 

Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows. The sorrows are symbolized by the swords.

San Isidro Labrador. Notice the angel tending his plow at one side. San Isidro would go to daily Mass, and the employer made a fuss about him arriving later than the others. "Be on time or else!" he is said to have declared.  San Isidro went to Mass anyway, and when the employer went to see if the field was being plowed as directed, he discovered that the ox was harnessed and the plow was working,  but no one was visible directing the plows progress. An angel had taken the plow until San Isidro got there after Mass.

There is an information sign outside, too.

A long, long walk

Hello, everyone. 

I warned y'all that yesterday there might not be a post. As it happens,  not only were we very tired, the monks we stayed with had no wifi at all. I suppose it's an opportunity to experience the calm of contemplation.

We walked, according to Strava, 39 km yesterday.  Yes it was hard. And I have no desire to repeat the experience. Today we did a shorter day, but it wasn't short: 26 km. We're staying in Valdesalor this evening. 

We did make it into town before a rainstorm got going, and then the rainstorm went somewhere else.

A poster display at the monastery.  They want folks to ask Father Leocadio, their founder, for miracles.

Leaving Aldea de Cano, we saw the cutest baby horse! (I don't know if it's  a foal, female, or a colt, male.)

Rest day in Mérida

Hello, everyone. 

We scheduled a rest day in Mérida because there are a number of things to take in. We therefore didn't stay in the pilgrim albergue in the town. Albergues typically limit a pilgrim's stay to one night. We will always figure out a place that accepts  a two night stay if it's a rest day.

As I mentioned yesterday,  we hit  Mérida during the festival. There have been people in Roman-like costumes everywhere. The city had gone all-in on this, apparently for a number of years. School groups trekked across town in Roman-style dress with little banners to the Amphitheater (an actual Roman place) and watched presentations and cheered that they're the sons of Augusta Emerita. Which they actually are. There have been bands of "Roman soldiers" marching around the town, dressed in Roman legion-like costumes. Every toddler, almost, has a tunic and either a draped shawl (for girls) or a sword or shield and maybe greves (for boys) and they're all having a wonderful time.

Today we visited the Amphitheater,  where we saw part of the elementary school stuff, then we wandered over into the arena, then over to the shrine basilica of St. Eurlalia de Boveda (of the arch) which was lovely, and the nice man there had a sello for my pilgrim credencial. Then we wandered some more, found a grocery store and picked up some hand sani (great for cleaning a blister too) and sunscreen and cheese slices and local wine. With all this loot we went back to the hotel to eat at midday and rest during the siesta. 

Tomorrow we head out again for a long day, probably, and it's possible I will be too tired to post after arriving. 

You don't see a costumed plastic pig very often. 

The explanation of where St. Eulalia is buried.

The actual spot of her tomb.

The temple of Diana, fixed up for the Fiesta.

Zafra, and then on to Villafranca de Los Barros

Hello, everyone. 

Yesterday we were tired and went to bed without making a post. We had walked to Zafra, and walked around looking at things, and after supper we just crawled into bed.

One of the beautiful chapel Altar pieces in Nuestra Sonora de la Candelaria in Zafra.

We stayed at the albergue in the former Franciscan convent. The hospitalera was very friendly and helpful with directions to things in the city.

Today we left the albergue at about 7 in the morning and headed on down the road through Los Santos de Maimona, passed about a half million of grape vines, olive trees, and almond trees, and arrived at Villafranca dexlos Barrose around 1:30 pm. En route we both saw a hoopoe sitting on a fence;as soon as he saw me reaching for my camera he took off.

Tapita we were served along with our manzanilla (chamomile tea) and soda.The pork sausage bits were very tasty! 

Pilgrimage 2023 is on the road

Hello, everyone. 

Saturday we boarded a plane at 11 and on Sunday we arrived in Madrid. Then we took a bus to Atocha Station, bought tickets on the high speed train, and rode to Seville.  A little wandering around in the Old Town area and we found the pension with our reserved room.

It was a long day-that-lasted-26 or so hours. This is the price one pays for flying east: one loses clock hours. On the return trip, the same (approximately) length of flight will both take off and land on the same calendar day. (The lost hours will be returned. ) 

We visited the Cathedral of Seville--beautiful and edifying--and climbed the ancient tower called the Giralda. Then we walked over to the church of the Divine Savior, Iglesia del Salvador Divino, and that was also beautiful and edifying. 

View of the river

View of the round stained glass window from outside. Notice the elaborate decorations around the window!

One does need to be aware of kneelers sticking out from the back pew in a set. It can be painful if one trips over a kneeler that sticks out at the back of a block of pews. (Don't ask me how I know this!)

We also walked a proposed route from our sleeping place toward the bridge for our departure. This turned out not to be a good plan; it adds a lot of extra distance to walk the ring road around the old town to reach the bridge across the river. We changed our minds about the route after this walk. We're going to walk to the Cathedral, then go to the river, then follow the Paseo de Cristobal Colon along the river toward the bus station at Plaza de Armas and cross at the recommended bridge--which has shaded pedestrian paths alongside the traffic lanes.

Beads plus embroidery in one!

Hello, everyone.  Today's post is about the newest completed project.

The start was a plan to make a rosary. Colors: beaches and oceans, gentle and natural and calm. Method: wire-wrapped loops. I used a special pliers that gives uniform loop sizes, but in hindsight perhaps I should have stuck with the old standard rosary pliers for making the loops. Even if those loops vary a bit in size, they come out a little smaller. At any rate, the loops are very even in size this time.

I also thought that the chaplet would need a little pouch to rest in. And that an embroidered design would be nice.

Opened up Hatch and digitized an Auspice Maria (AM) design, added some bits of decoration, and embroidered it onto a charm square. (Charm squares are 5 inches in size.) 

Sewed the charms onto a zipper, flirted with and rejected a lining--the iron on interfacing needed by the zipper is I think sufficient--and sewed the pouch together.

Returning to the San Salvador--Last Day

 Hello, everyone.

View back toward Mieres in the dawn

Today's post returns to the pilgrimage for the last day of the walk into Oviedo.  This is a shorter day than many, but the middle portion was a very steep climb that was signed as a "greenway". The first portion was a gentle climb over switchbacks on the road and third portion was also gentle hill going through and around farms.

View of Oviedo in the distance

When we were walking through the farms, we met some of the farmers. They were very friendly and reminded us of the old saying, "He who visits Santiago and neglects to visit Oviedo, visits the servant and neglects the Master."

The actual entry into Oviedo was a gentle slope down suburban streets, passing the official albergue in Oviedo and arriving in the Cathedral square downtown. 

We had reserved a room at Hostel Fidalgo, the same pension we had stayed at when we bussed to Oviedo in 2018. This time, being mid October, it was a bit chilly in the room; the lady explained to us that the heat in the building is controlled for the whole building by the overall management. 

The tourism office wants everyone to know that Oviedo is the origin of the
 Camino de Santiago. Which it is, as Oviedo was the capital of
Asturias when the bones were found.

We paid our respects to the Sudario and the Cross of Victory from Covadonga when we went to the Cathedral to get our Salvadoranas.

The reliquary of the Sudario, the head cloth mentioned in the Gospel of John
 description of the apostles discovering that Jesus had been resurrected

The credencial for the Salvador, the bottom stamp is upside
down as the credencial is unfolded here and the
final stamp is on a different page.

The Salvadorana
It had to be weighted down to uncurl the shape of the carrying tube.

We took a rest day in Oviedo.

Reverted to "classic Blogger" and now photos work

Hello, everyone.

I tried again with the new Blogger setup. The photo upload was still not working. How these people managed to tangle up photo upload with google docs is beyond me. Maybe they should try proofreading their work.

I reverted the blog to the older format, which worked.

Now I can upload the photo of the two new Camino walking guides. They contain maps, suggestions for lodgings, brief descriptions of towns and areas of the path.

In this case, the path is the Camino Frances, which is the second-oldest of routes taken by pilgrims that begin roughly near the western Pyrenees. We walked it in 2014, going over the high route in the Pyrenees, called the Route Napoleon. (Blog posts from 2014 discuss this walk.) We would like to return to it and walk the lower route through the Pyrenees, called the Valcarlos route.

The very oldest Camino route to Santiago is the Primitivo, first taken as  royal progress/pilgrimage by the court of one of the Kings Pelayo when the relics were first rediscovered. It began in Oviedo, where his court was, and took a mountainous route to Santiago. We have not walked this route, but would like to in the future.

The oldest route from the Pyrenees (at least I think it is the oldest!) would be the Camino del Norte, which runs along the edge of the ocean. The villages are in little fjords and the path goes up and down a lot. Steeply up and down! (We walked this in 2017 and 2018, and blog posts from that time period discuss it.) The older routing connects to the French route at Arzua, and that is the way we walked.

I am not sure of the age of the Camino Portugues--interested readers can chime in their advice in the comments--but it used to run from Porto north to Santiago. Lately quite a number of people have been starting out in Lisbon. Like the Spanish routes, there are various walking options that allow one to either go inland or along the sea. We walked this in 2015, and blog posts from that time period discuss it.

Another old route is the Via de la Plata, the way of the platted road. (These days everyone remembers that "plata" means silver in Spanish and some call it the Silver Road.) This one is longer. We hope to walk it in the future.

As y'all can see, the go-slow retreat/pilgrimage on foot becomes an addiction. Also I have been privileged to visit Our Lady of Covadonga, the cathedral at Oviedo, and many other edifying churches.

It is not too much to say that I long for the days when we can walk the Camino again.

Israel pilgrimge: sixteenth in series

Hello, everyone.

This post will cover the last day of visiting in the Holy Land.

We rolled out early as usual. The visits of the day were all in Bethlehem, near our hotel. The first visit was the Church of the Nativity of Our Lord, also known as the Church of St. Catherine Martyr.

As y'all can see, our group had matching ID lanyards in pale blue. These had our names, and on the back of the little name insert was the name of the tour company. In case it should be needed.

St. Catherine. Note the broken wheel which, being a way the Roman
 government tried to kill her, is an identifying item in her images.

The image of St. Catherine was in the Latin part of the church. (Remember, all the major shrines are shared.)

The Church of the Nativity was never fully destroyed during
 the centuries of conquest and ruin. A few of the original mosaics
 are conserved on the walls.

We passed through from the Latin part of the shrine to the Orthodox (Greek) part of the shrine. The line of pilgrims was beginning to build.

The Orthodox are very into ostrich eggs
 on their lamps.

One of the pilgrims from another group was talking to me. We discussed the significance of the ostrich eggs. I mentioned the eggs being a symbol of the Resurrection of Our Lord. He mentioned another beautiful image: the mother ostrich, he told me, is said to stay near her eggs while she is setting. Even when she gets up from the eggs to eat or drink, she keeps her eyes on the nest. Thus, the ostrich eggs remind us that God, like the ostrich hen, is always watching over us.

(We had time to talk, since our group was at the head of the line for the Latin access to the grotto of the Nativity, and we were a little bit early. The Armenians were still praying inside the grotto. And no, you can't just scooch in on another group's time!)

When we went down the steps into the actual place of the Nativity, we discovered that there were filmmakers there, and also a man was setting up for Mass. (Not Mass for our group. We wouldn't have all fit into this tiny space anyway.) I settled for respectfully looking in from the edge and taking a photo to remember with.

After this, we went to the Milk Grotto. Or possibly it's the Milky Grotto. The significance of this shrine is that traditionally it is the place where Joseph took Mary and Jesus to hide on their way out of town after the angel appeared to him in a dream and told him to get the Child and His mother out of their PDQ.

An altar inside the Milk Grotto. The images are the betrothal of Mary and Joseph,
the Annunciation, the birth of Jesus, the adoration of the shepherds, the
adoration of the magi, and possibly the Holy Family hiding out
in the Milk Grotto as they fled Bethlehem towards Egypt.

The stone of the Milk Grotto, another cave shrine, is white instead of dirty gray-black. Possibly it was never used for cooking. (Thus explaining why it was a safe place to hide for a day or so?)

An icon of Mary feeding the baby Jesus. 

There are a number of interesting images of various saints, and also an altar with reliquaries.

The Flight into Egypt. Someone had placed a bouquet
among the rocks at one side. Possibly this is a thing for
Christian brides?

The shrine is administrated by Franciscan nuns. They have, at the very deepest part of the cave, an adoration chapel. It is separated from the area the pilgrims visit by a glass window. (Franciscan nuns tend to be cloistered.) They have made the neighborly gesture to place a kneeler by the window for any pilgrims who wish to join them in adoration of Jesus in the Eucharist.

Taken from outside of the chapel. This is a very modern, yet very respectful, monstrance. I see the shape of His Sacred Heart in the metal at the center. But that could be just me.

We also visited the Church of the Shepherds' Field.

We had Mass in the Cave of the Shepherds.
Above the door there was a bee nest.

Above the cave was this angel. (?)

While walking the paths back toward the entrance, we saw a group of Korean (?) nuns, also on pilgrimage. There are people from all over the world who visit the holy sites.

View of the entrance to the Shepherds' Field from the shop across the street. The lines were beginning to build up. By the time we left this place there were crowds going in.

A view of the place we later ate lunch on this,
our last day in the Holy Land. It has nice views
of Bethlehem from those big windows. 

This picture was taken because it was an interesting building. Little did we know that later that day we would be in there!

The offices of the tour company, next to the door leading to the
restaurant where we ate lunch this last day,

When we stopped for lunch, we were in front of the offices of the tour company who were organizing our visit to the Holy Land. We didn't go in and bother them, though. We went into the door at the right and rode the elevator up to the Skyline cafe.












We returned to our hotel for dinner and a very short night.

I finally remembered to take a food picture at the hotel.

The salad bar at the Hotel St. Gabriel

We met in the lobby at 1 a.m. the next morning. We had to hitch a ride on another group's bus for part of the way to the Tel Aviv airport--something about our bus's engine belt coming off--but about half of the way there our bus caught up with us and we switched back over.

After waiting in the airport intake line--these folks are serious about security, for good reason--we had a few minutes before we had to be in the gate area. We took the moments to visit shops in the airport and also the facilities. Because airplane facilities are guaranteed to be more miserable to use than airport ones!

In the airport, departing, this nifty wireless device to summon aid for restroom problems. Cool!

And that was the final day of our visit to the Holy Land.

The next few posts will be catch up posts for various things on the home front.

Israel pilgrimage: Fifteenth in series

Hello, everyone.

By now, we were close to the end of our visiting in the Holy Land. It was the day after the Stations of the Cross, which had been a lot of standing and a fair amount of walking on pavement. On this day we began by visiting the last surviving wall of Herod's Temple in Jerusalem.

(Herod's temple was I believe an enlargement of the second temple that was built by returnees during the Persians' rule. I think we're talking about the book of Nehemiah here, but am not completely sure. At any rate, later after the Maccabees pushed the imperialist Greek colonizers--who insisted that the occupants of this area become Greek pagans like themselves instead of letting them live their own lives with their own religion--there was unrest and much turnover in the kingship of the area. The Romans having come along by then, they grew impatient with the fighting over the king's seat and put in place the family of Herod as kings. One of the Herods decided to make the temple in Jerusalem really impressive and added on to it.)

The western wall foundation is the last remnant of Herod's temple. The rest was torn down during the rebellion of about 100 AD when the Romans rolled through in force and sacked the city.

Pigeons in a niche in the wall.

Ladies praying at the wall. (The local custom is for the ladies to have a section that is theirs and the gentlemen to have a section that is theirs.) It is the strictly observed custom for all the ladies to wear hats or scarves and all the gentlemen to wear a kippah, the Jewish mens' cap, while visiting the Western Wall.

Ruins in the vicinity of the wall.

There were a lot of people there. We saw a number of groups processing in to celebrate the Bar Mitzvah of their young man, carrying canopies and singing and being accompanied by drummers and other musicians. Some of them were dancing as they went. (To respect the privacy of the various people in these groups, I am not putting those pictures up.)

After that visit, we went by bus over to the church of St Peter in Gallicante, St Peter of the Crowing Rooster. (So named because here St. Peter was called out by various persons as part of Jesus' party and in an attempt to remain low profile he denied that he knew Jesus. And the third time he did so, the rooster crowed.)

A good look at the front of the church of Gethsemane, which is too close to the sidewalk for a view of the mosaic above the entrance, but from across the Kidron valley shows beautifully.

St Peter in Gallicante is built over the ruins of the house of Caiaphas the High Priest, who as y'all will remember was the one who interrogated Jesus after His arrest and convened a (kangaroo-style) court to judge Him. After the group of elders they had on hand condemned Jesus to death, they stored Him in an old grain cellar, lowering Him by rope, until morning. Then they dragged Him over to Pilate to convince the Romans to permit the death penalty.

These days there are stairs down to the grain cellar. Groups take turns paying respects to the site.

After this visit, we went to Ein Kerem, which is not pronounced in the German fashion like I expected but instead as if the I in Ein isn't actually there, and visited the Church of the Visitation. (The Visitation is the second Joyful Mystery of the Rosary, it is when Mary visited her cousin St. Elizabeth and is described briefly in the Gospel of Luke.)

Ein Kerem is in the hills and we had a very respectable walk uphill to the church. It was the longest continuous walk in our visit to the Holy Land.

There was a very peaceful outdoor chapel there where our pastor offered Mass.

When we returned to the parking area at the bottom we discovered that there is a walk in the hills around the area. The trail mark was oval and two-colored; it looked to me like the eye of Sauron from the Lord of the Rings

but I'm sure the people who picked it out were probably unaware that a movie would pick that shape for the eye years later.

This was the last stop of another full day.