MBR at Alto de Perdon

Nerea & Mai & Mai's dog

View from Nerea's house

Church in Merea'village

September 5th

Friends,

I am finally walking!  Just enough for a first day.  Since the intermediate albergues were both completo, Angel insisted on driving me, on a one lane country road high above the timber line to spontaneous on the Camino where it intersected this road. 

I thought I had a photo of the hundreds if orejas ( starting to think in Spanish!) sheep, but I didn't' get it.  Oh, we'll.  the wind was ferocious.  I needed my sticks to keep from falling over.   The mountains are beautiful, vast grassy slopes, dropping off into small farms, houses all with red tile roofs.

After the very top, we descended IMO. A series of copses with thick forests of birch and alder under which  green grass was mixed with moss, 

Nerea says that Navarra had a wet, wet winter and spring but is now unusually dry.  Plenty of grass for the sheep and horses remains, thank heavens.

The descent into Roncesvalles was brutal  - I found out after reaching the albergues that the tourist bureau in St. Jean was advising people not to go the way I went.  

We walked down 600 meters in 2 miles - my legs were trembling.  

All love,   Mbr

September 4

On the train, the Renfre fast train between Madrid and Pamplona.  Very tired - jetlag plus a lovely dinner at the home of Antonia and Antonio Sagredo, she an old friend of Katherine Gould-Martin.  They kindly walked me home at 11:30 p.m.   The train left Madrid at 7:35 this morning.  

I loved Madrid - for a city.  Hostal Dulcinea on a quiet narrow street very near the Prado, which is overwhelmingly large, but well-organized.  I have studied many of the paintings there but also found some unfamiliar artists like Joaquin Sorolla,a social realist from turn-of-the-19th to 20th centuries.  One of his works is "And They Still Say Fish Is Too Expensive!"  It depicts a young fisherman dying after an accident on the deck of a boat, attended by two older men whose faces are resigned and compassionate.

I keep seeing it even now in my mind's eye.

My fiend Nerea is meeting this train.  It will be good to see her, and she will help me get to St. Jean.  I should be on the Camino by tomorrow!  Love, mary burton

August 31st