Day 25 : there is no way to happiness - happiness is the way

Packing our bike bags in the morning saddled us with a mixed bag of feelings. We have been pedaling for 24 days through two countries, passing anything from glorious cities to ghost towns, witnessing some two thousand years of world changing history and admiring an equally vast palette of art and culture. Almost one month without a car, slowly traveling 1600km through a wide variety of gradually changing landscapes, along the seaside and across several mountain ranges. Our tandem mesmerized many people but still 4 insufficiently trained legs had to propel a total weight of 200kg all along. We've been confronted with annoying rain and strong headwinds as well as baking sunshine up to 35 C. We have climbed a myriad of hills and mountain tops too numerous to be counted, totaling to an impressive accumulated ascent of 11430m.

Arriving (at last) at the Praza do Obradoiro in Santiago de Compostela and getting off our bike in front of the Saint James Cathedral was a deeply emotional and immeasurably intense moment. Sure, after all, we hadn't expected any less than to make it to this place, but still we could no longer control our emotions when we embraced and kissed each other in a deeply felt eternal instance of time; tears in our eyes, immensely happy that we did it together, that we made it safely and healthy, but sad as well that is was over...
This was a triumphant moment of love. We did it together, really together - very close to each other on one and the same tandem as a symbol of unity. It took us 25 days to get to Santiago, one day for every year that we've been married - commemorating one achievement with another achievement. Therefore, my deepest thanks and greatest respect go to my honey who underwent this physical and mental testing with the sole purpose to help me make my dream come through. Neither Santiago de Compostela, neither the Camino, neither adventurous or enduring physical challenges were part of her Eastern culture or upbringing - as a reference, last year only one Taiwanese and one Chinese have been registered at Saint-Jean-Pied-De-Port... but she did it, she did it for me and she did it with all her love, love with a capital 'L' – THANK YOU HONEY, THANK YOU SO MUCH :-))

On the Camino we have been exposed to more than a thousand years of wonderful arts, culture and history. The physical exploit earned us almost heroic bragging rights. We'll go home with around 3000 pictures and a ton of stories. Yes, we realize that we accomplished something special, but as we biked along – turn after turn and mountain after mountain – we started to realize as well that it isn't reaching Santiago that matters so much, it's ultimately all about confronting yourself and being part of a unique human experience...
Here on the Camino nobody asks your name, nobody needs to know what your job is or what you do in life, there are no titles here, it is not important whether you are rich or poor (and from the clothes you certainly cannot tell here). Ten thousands of people come from all over the world, following many different routes, but all are hikers and bikers to one single destination, wanderers in pursuit of a single goal, in pursuit of this invisible Camino spirit. There are a thousand caminos but there is only one Camino.
Seeing back our Spanish and German Camino friends by accident in the cathedral and on the Praza do Obradoiro filled us with a joy as if we met good old friend that we haven't seen for a long while – although we hardly know them, let alone their name. We have all been united in sharing the same challenges, the same goal, the same dream, and the same passion. It is this human touch and connectedness that makes the Camino truly unique and so deeply felt – no matter how short the contact was, even if it was only a spark, it was a flash of eternity. There are simply no words for it. If you want to really know, there is only one way: the Camino – but you'll have to hike or bike it by yourself. We already wish you: "Buen Camino!"

PS: we would like to thank all the people who made our Camino a success. Our parents and special neighbors who – in our absence – took care of the children, the house and the garden. Our friends who came and visited us and took several superfluous kilograms of luggage back home. The post office clerk in Logrono who was willing to accept our oversized backpack so that we could get rid of six more superfluous kilograms of ballast. All the drivers who were so kind to pass us at safe distance, and especially those who waved or sounded their horn. All the other people who encouraged us along the road, not forgetting the freight train driver. The hotel desk people who always found a creative way to park our tandem in a safe and even special place like a computer room, the kitchen or the wine cellar (really!). All our “fans” that encouraged us via our weblog, via e-mail, via phone, via SMS or via their telepathic talents :-) Last but not least, all the other hikers and bikers on the Camino who turn the Way of Saint James into a generous international family. And finally, all the people we forgot to mention :-)

Day 24 : breaking the wall

Day 24 : breaking the wall, originally uploaded by raoul_dewinne.

Although on paper the high and tough mountains were behind us and by now we should be steadily making our way down to lower altitudes, day 24, the penultimate turned out to be the apocalypse. As said before, the last miles are the longest. This deep-carved hilly landscape proved to be a lust for the eye but also a noxiously stinging distress for our already warn-out quadriceps. Today the GPS showed an accumulated ascent of 1150m - the absolute record of this entire trip. All these subsequent hilltops were like an endless rosary, an endless string of beads to count each prayer at each hill climb - a prayer to let us be done with it. If we would have seen only a partial peek preview beforehand of what would be waiting for us, we would never have started. But as with many things in life you better don't know what is ahead of you simply because it would take away the opportunity to learn, to cope and to creatively adapt. As a matter of fact, hill by hill and pedal by pedal we learned to positively accept things the way they were presented to us, even finding joy and meaning in it, not trying to avoid it, not trying to rush to get over with it, not trying to blame it on someone else - simply believing that we will get where we need to be, no matter what, no matter how. Every experience in life has a meaning, a purpose or an advantage - up to us to discover it. We finally broke the wall...



The Spanish weather saint must be a relative of St. James. It might have been a bit too hot the first ten days or so but that has learned us to get up earlier. So far - and the end is near - we have been spared from rain in Spain. For more than 40 years My Fair Lady has been singing that the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain. Based on our experience there could be some truth in that. An advantage of cycling in the mountains? Or at least of cycling the Camino? After the heat wave, Spanish TV now continuously shows tornadoes and flooded areas in other parts of Spain. That's not the kind of stuff you want to be confronted with while riding a bicycle. But also here the skies are packed with heavy dark clouds menacing to pour down on us any moment. So far we escaped miraculously. We witnessed torrential downpours to the left and to the right of us, ahead and behind, but it never hit us. At times it was close, it started to rain heavily while we were just having a coffee or lunch break, then we simply waited till the rain was over to continue our journey. At times we felt the first drops but then we raced as hard as we could to stay ahead of it and reach the hotel kind of dry, kind of... more wet on the inside of our rain jackets than on the outside. Several times the skies were really completely dark around us, except above our head, a narrow open stretch of blue sky... Have we been too long on the Camino that we start to believe in miracles?



Getting closer to Santiago the number of hikers and bikers seems to multiply daily. Not that another miracle is happing, this time there is a simple explanation: the "Compostela" - your ticket to heaven :-) Pilgrims arriving in Santiago de Compostela who have walked at least 100km, or cycled 250km to get there (as indicated on their credential) are eligible for a certificate called the Compostela from the Pilgrim's Office in Santiago. The credential, also known as the pilgrim's passport, is a kind of pass which allows you to overnight accommodation in refugios. It is stamped with the official stamp of each refugio, church or monastery visited - it therefore provides the pilgrim with a complete record of where they passed by. And as it turned out, no matter how far you hiked or biked those Compostelas are all the same. People who only biked 250km almost without any luggage got the same ticket to heaven as those who biked 1600km packed with all their necessities (and unnecesities)... No gold, no silver or bronze medals, no first class or second class diplomas. This must explain the huge numbers of people only doing the minimal final stretch, following the path of least resistance to heaven. Those minimalist walkers were easy to spot: too white legs, too small backpack, too clean shoes, too fresh trousers, too little smell... Reminding ourselves of the wisdom that comparing yourself to others is a sure road to unhappiness, we accepted the idea that everyone is treated equally upon arrival in Santiago ;-) In any case we decided that the gold medal would go to the Swedish guy - no doubt about it - and that we would qualify for silver :-))

Day 23 : reaching the top of Mount Everest

Day 23 : reaching the top of Mount Everest, originally uploaded by raoul_dewinne.

As the saying goes, the last mile is the longest one. After having surmounted the Cruz de Ferro yesterday, we were still believing the Swedish guy who predicted that it was the toughest part to overcome. With that comforting thought we took off on day 23. Right away uphill - as usual. The climbing profile in my guide book indicated that we had to overcome a height difference of 784 m, which sounds impressive but doable since we had roughly 50 km to get over it. But contrary to what the mountain profile showed, this ascent was not a straight-line-smooth climb: it went up and down and up and down and up and down again - as usual. Sure it went always more up than it went down, but the downhill part was each time too short to recuperate from the previous climbing.

At a certain point we must have missed the Camino road since the road that we followed didn't reach the altitude as indicated by the book. We started to believe our self-created illusion that on this road we would not have to climb so much, it may even be a shortcut... It was past noon by now and in this believe we decided to have a quick lunch. If the restaurant people had told us at that very moment how much and how far we still had to climb we would have taken a taxi or hitch-hiked home, for sure we would have called it a day. One thing I learned at least on this exhausting trip: retired Swedish saylors are not so good in fortune telling ;-)

In complete ignorance, hope kept us going, hope that every top would be the absolute last one... in vain. After every climb, yes, there was some descent, but then there was another climb - even a steep climb. And so it went on for the first 50 km. The first absolute top that we reached is called O Cebreiro, it is not simply named Cebreiro, no, it is 'O' Cebreiro - by now we understand why. But after the Alto O Cebreiro (1300 m) came the Alto de San Roque (1270 m) and then came the Alto do Poio (1335 m)... Every descent was frightening us, rolling down is usually big fun, but this time we didn't want to go down any longer since going down meant going up again and we simply couldn't keep up with it any longer!

And then, finally, at last, thank God, came this long expected descent, but - you won't believe it - the wind was sooo strooong that we had to pedal hard in order not to grind to a standstill... Unbelievable, this headwind... With our clothes blown up by the wind we both must have looked like a Michelin Bibendum, unfortunately we did not run on Michelin tires otherwise it would have made a great commercial. Anything we did so far cannot compare to this, there are actually no words for it - the Pyrenees were Peanuts...

Numbers don't lie. Today we biked 80 km in order to overcome a total ascent of 1134 m! In fact, since we left Tours 3 weeks ago, our GPS calculated that we have so far conquered a total ascent of 9597 m, which equals more than climbing the Mount Everest by bike, starting from sea level !!! We deserve to go straight to heaven - even first class - and if heaven doesn't exist, I'll invent it... since I had promised my wife :-))

Day 22 : encounter with the Knights Templar

Day 22 : encounter with the Knights Templar, originally uploaded by raoul_dewinne.

As soon as we left Astorga we climbed continuously for the next 25 km till Rabanal del Camino at an altitude of 1200 m - time for a coffee break and to buy lunch since it will be our last chance to do so before we'll hit the real stuff. The sun was pleasant and not too hot. On the Camino you only meet like-minded people with one and the same goal. It makes contact between all those different nationalities easy, immediate and wholeheartedly. We had a fun coffee gathering with a German couple, two Spanish people, a Dutchman, another Belgian, an American and an Italian. The latter was kind of complaining that nowadays too many pilgrims are "cheating" since they have cars and vans following them to carry their luggage all along and even take them on board to skip some of the tougher parts of the route. Sure, he said, you can cheat your fellow pilgrims or the people at home, but upon arrival at Santiago how can you cheat Saint James, he has been watching you all the time! :-)

Tenuous as the old St. James stories may be to the modern skeptic, people at the time certainly believed them. By the 11th century, hordes of pilgrims were walking from their homes all over Europe to pay homage to the saint. Santiago de Compostela became one of Christianity's three Holy Cities at around this time. Santiago soon became more popular than Rome and Jerusalem since it was seen as a relatively safe pilgrimage, especially when the Knights Templar started building defensive bastions along the way. Those Knights Templar in white cape emblazoned with the blood-red cross were a secretive order of medieval warrior monks who protected Christian pilgrims. The Templars disappeared after they were denounced and burned at the stake in 1307. A few of their castles still remain, most notably the enchanting fortress at Ponferrada and the enormous castle-palace at Villafranca del Bierzo - cultural-historical highlights on today's trip.

But before we could enjoy the sight of these mesmerizing medieval castles we first had to get across the Iron Cross on the Montes de Leon. A steep climb of roughly 9% for the next 4 km. On the top is the Cruz del Ferro (iron cross), one of the most mythical and emblematic places of the Camino. For the past 2000 years pilgrims have taken stones, representing their burdens and sins, from their hometown or pilgrimage starting point and left them at this spot. In doing so they freed themselves of their problems, sins and burdens. The Romans, on their way to Finisterra, started this and offered them to Mercury (the Roman god of travelers). In the Middle Ages, the catholic church put a cross on the mountain and it became a Christian symbol.

A few kilometers further is another special place to be found, Manjarin. This town is totally ruined and abandoned for many years, with one exception: Tomas, Manjarín's most prominent (and only) permanent resident and a modern legend on the ancient trail. A straight descendent of the last Knight Templar, as he says himself... A stack of direction signs - Santiago, 222 km; Rome, 2475 km; Machu Picchu, 9453 km; Mere, 2000 km - provides you with the comfortable but irrelevant feeling of knowing precisely where you are in the middle of nowhere :-)

At our final destination of the day, Villafranca del Bierzo, there is another noteworthy monument besides the Knights Templar castle. The small Romanesque Church of Santiago has its own 'Puerta del Perdon' (Door of Pardon). Pilgrims who were too ill, elderly or injured to cross the upcoming mountains could claim spiritual benefits just as if they had made it all the way to Santiago by presenting themselves here. From the cemetery next door it was clear how often this was necessary. This right was eventually enshrined in a Papal decree. Unfortunately, when we visited the church this door was closed and we were unable to ask the parish priest whether a sore and aching butt would qualify for the above-mentioned benefit :-)

We were indeed 'well done' at the end of this 79 km long day through the mountains with a total ascent of 892 m and passing the highest point of our entire trip: 1516 m.

Day 21 : paparazzi

Day 21 : paparazzi, originally uploaded by raoul_dewinne.

After just one single day of rest we were no longer used to a life of fame, but as soon as we walked out of our hotel this morning we were immediately confronted again with our existence as celebrities. The paparazzi were already waiting. I hadn't yet turned on my GPS and a woman wanted her husband to make a picture of us and our tandem. While finding our way out of Leon, a guy jumped on his bike, drove ahead of us and at the next stop light started to make pictures of us... He must have noticed the amazed look in our eyes and shouted: "It is simply great what you guys are doing! Are you biking all the way to Santiago?" Still surprised we nodded. "Wow, then I have to make a few more pictures" and jumped on his bike again, raced ahead of us - indeed - to take some extra shots. On our first Isostar stop of the day two young German backpackers came to ask very politely whether they were allowed to make some pictures. We even had a freight train driver waving at us and giving us two long blasts on the horn of his slow moving train. Being this popular is putting our mental integrity to the test, but after being for 20 days on this in-all-aspects challenging venture, it seems as if we start to finally grasp the relativity of continuously being the focus of attention. Sure we have an appealing high-tech tandem, but to paraphrase the Greek-Roman philosopher Epictetus, we have a tandem but we are not our tandem, so we should not confuse being with having. Similarly, we do what we do but we do it for ourselves and not to impress other people, so we should neither confuse image with essence. To be or not to be... is indeed the question. On the other hand, isn't it the contact with people that make you feel alive? Would you still feel that you exist if you were all alone in the world or not noticed at all?



Leaving the high plateau we softly start climbing again. This transition is distinctly marked by the Puente de Orbigo bridge. Several of its 19 Romanesque arches still date from the 10th/11th century. It is the longest and most impressive medieval bridge on the Camino Frances. We pedaled over it three times in order to better absorb the history that emanates from this wonderful bridge.

Destination of today is Astorga, a 2020 years old Roman city also boasting the bishop's palace, designed by the famous Catalan architect Antonio Gaudi.



The next three of the four remaining days will be tough ones - we'll be reaching the highest point of our entire trip. A few days ago we met a retired Swedish sailor who biked all the way from Sweden to Santiago and is now on his way back home. He thought that we were out of the normal to do this on a tandem, but we argued with him that he was the most so-called crazy (or should we say motivated) of all those others whom we met so far. He seemed to understand quite well how tough it is to ride a tandem uphill, so he warned us not to be too euphoric yet: "you're not done with climbing, you'll sweat on your way to the Cruz de Ferro" he predicted. The Cruz de Ferro will be on our program tomorrow. We'll find out whether retired Swedish sailors are also good fortune tellers...

And the 20th day they rested :-)

And the 20th day they rested :-), originally uploaded by raoul_dewinne.

Sleep - good. Shower - good. Churros - good. Capucino - good. Relax - good. Buonas dias - good. Walk - good. Fountains - good. Flowers - good. Sun - good. Trees - good. Shadow - good. Birds - good. Flowers - good. Mariachi - good. Cathedral - good. Museum - good. Plaza - good. Ice coffee - good. Sunday - good. Shops closed - good. Cochinillo - good. Smile - good. Spanish people - very good.

Day 19 : Leon

Day 19 : Leon, originally uploaded by raoul_dewinne.

During the daytime you almost don't meet any Spanish people in those towns and villages - you basically only meet foreign perigrinos (actually, the word 'pilgrim' originally did mean 'foreigner'). But in the night time it is the other way around - as soon as dusk sets in (and the temperature starts to become pleasant) all local people seem to leave their homes and flock together in public squares, bars and restaurants, or simply in front of each other's house. Great for social contact, less great if we, pilgrims - and clearly foreigners -, try to sleep in the meanwhile with our windows open since the hotel had no air conditioning. The Spanish chit-chatting goes on till loooong after midnight. Sure you can put earplugs but then it feels as if you sleep in a submarine - not a great sleep inducing thought either. In the early morning then you finally might fall asleep but not for too long since you better get up before the sun gets up in order to avoid the heat in the afternoon. In other words, a bad and a short night.

We comforted ourselves in the morning that (unknowingly) we might have learned some Spanish while so-called sleeping. We'll put this free sleep-learning program to the test in Leon, our next destination.

Luckily that it was only 58 km on quiet (except for the last 16 km) and relatively flat roads - relatively flat, since nothing is flat here in Spain, not even on this 800 m high plateau. It was a monotonous and dry landscape that we pedaled through and upon arrival in Leon we realized that we hadn't taken any single picture on the way...

We drove straight to our next historical Parador. This Parador San Marcos is one of the best and most splendid of Spain. The origin of the building goes back to the 12th century, with the purpose to shelter pilgrims on the Camino to Santiago. Later in the 16th century, it was converted into a Monastery and embellished in the marvel of the Plateresco Art, as we know it today.

This is a 5-star Grand Luxe Parador, but we feel OK with that :-) in the first place because it was originally intended as a shelter for pilgrims (and we qualify for that description), secondly because we deserve for it after 19 consecutive days of biking, and thirdly and last but not least, when we got married 25 years ago I only could afford a four day honeymoon to Paris in a cheap hotel - I even couldn't afford a decent lunch for my beloved food-loving spouse (imagine how much she loved me); so now, after 25 years, the time has come to make up for it :-)

Day 18 : less than 500 km to go

Day 18 : less than 500 km to go, originally uploaded by raoul_dewinne.

Today my sweet talking rear camera had a painful day off. Headaches and a hurting butt kept honey silent for most of the day. For her it must have been some tormenting long 90 km - our longes distance in Spain. But as they say, when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Early morning we passed a sign indicating that we are now less than 500 km from Santiago. We stop to quickly make a picture of this most important landmark :-) But we won't be quickly back on the road since I managed to lock up the chain. It took more than half an hour to get us on the road again. Luckily I brought many latex gloves (it wasn't the first time that the chain blocked).

We had a first stop at Fromista, a little town boasting one of the most beautiful Romanesque churches along the Camino (11th century).

From Fromista on the Camino runs parallel to the N-120 for most of the time. We exchanged lots of 'Buon Camino' with the hikers, whose numbers seem to grow by the day.

Until midday high clouds kept the sun from frying us, but by early afternoon we felt the burning heat again of temperatures rising well above 30 C. People keep telling us that so many such hot days are not usual for September. Before we started the trip, we hoped for sun and good weather, we certainly found it here in Spain and maybe a bit more than we had wished for.

Final destination today is Sahagun. Muslim invasion totally razed the region and it was not until the 10th century that monks coming from Cordoba founded a monastery here. The arrival of monks from the French monastery of Cluny and the financial support and royal privileges granted by the then king, marked the splendor of one of the most powerful and important abbeys of the Spanish middle-ages - unfortunately, of which only remains can be found today.

Day 17

Day 17, originally uploaded by raoul_dewinne.

For days the weather forecast predicted rain, finally, today we got some - a little - and it was gooood. We even didn't bother to put on our rain jackets since the rain was actually refreshing.

Today was a rather short ride of 51 km to Castrojeriz - almost a ghost town (nearly every other house is in ruins and rubble). Maggie almost had tears in her eyes when we entered the village, realizing that she had to spend the night here. The town is built along just one very long street - really long street; in medieval times pilgrims already named it the long city. If this is a city than our little home town is Chicago. The old houses are still built from rough nature stones and loam. The old castle on the top of the mountain (with origins from even before the Roman era) was turned into ruins by the big Lisbon earthquake of 1755 - and Lisbon is more than a thousand kilometers away from here...

But after all, our overnight stay turned into a little and nice surprise. Our two-star five-room hotel, in the middle of the nearly dead main street, wasn't exactly appealing from the outside, but inside it was a little marvel. Run by an extremely friendly couple who are happy and proud to keep alive the millenium old heritage of hospitality along the Camino. It felt as if you entered a little museum, but you immediately felt home and welcome as well. Although they don't speak or understand any other language than Spanish, just asking our hosts a very short question keeps them going and babbling for minutes and minutes as if we understood every word of it. Their little cozy library was filled with over a hundred books about the Camino and all the places to see along. These people are passionate Camino aficionados. Our stay here turned out to be a wonderful and touching experience.

Imagine how much we changed... On previous holidays we'd always ask the reception desk TILL what time we can have breakfast, for a couple of days already we ask FROM what time, and even if we cannot get breakfast earlier... Never say that people cannot change :-)

Day 16 : Burgos

Day 16 : Burgos, originally uploaded by raoul_dewinne.

We just got started this morning and after a few kilometers we already had a small celebration: our GPS indicated that we had achieved an accumulated magic 1000 km on this trip so far - a good reason to have a genuine Isostar toast :-)

Those who know me well should know that I would rather die than to give up my dreams, with one exception, I would give up for my honey... But having gotten this far my honey finally gave up the idea of giving up :-)) NOW we can start cooking with gas! Let's roll!



We needed some gas indeed since we climbed almost the entire morning. With La Pedraja, 1150 m @ 6%, we reached our highest point so far during this trip. Time for another Isostar party.



Lucky that we had all the climbing in the morning since by mid afternoon the sun was frying us again, although the weather forecast had promised lower temperatures for today, indeed today's 33 C is lower than yesterday's 35 C :-)



Burgos, the city that surprised us with its giant but stunning cathedral. Not a surprise that it is listed by UNESCO as World Heritage. It is one of the finest art monuments of Spain and even of Europe - for us it was the most awesome cathedral that we ever visited!



After 69.3 km biking and climbing you get pretty hungry and some tapas are a perfect way to survive till dinner time. We had an excellent dinner at 'El 24 de la Paloma' and although the Rodero in Pamplona still gets the prize for finest food so far, tonight's place gets the prize for best quality/price ratio.



So far, I've done pretty well in contenting my honey's fervent passion for gastronomy. Actually she doesn't worry that much about reaching Santiago and a straight-ticket-to-heaven since at this very moment, paradise for her is best described by a red Michelin guide. Thank you saint Michelin for doing a wonderful job for me :-)

Day 15 : @ the Camino

Day 15 : @ the Camino, originally uploaded by raoul_dewinne.

From Pamplona to Logrono a new freeway has been built, hence the old N-111 (running parallel to it) became like a freeway for bikers, almost no cars - actually almost no bikers either.

But from Logrono to Burgos was a different story. The new freeway is a toll road and probably 90% of all trucks take the local N-120 road to avoid the 'peaje'. We estimated that, in average, at least two trucks per minute were passing us at close distance - although we cannot complain about their attitude, when possible the truckers even drove on the opposite lane and some of them waved and sounded their horn. We're sure that the flags and the shell on our back helped a lot.

However, the most 'exciting' part happened to us in the early morning. I couldn't understand why my GPS (programmed to search for bikeable roads) was steering us away from this N-120. The reason became soon pretty obvious: the N-120 starts in Burgos right away as a freeway. Twice we stopped and asked for directions and twice it was "no problema" to bike along this freeway - and so we started our day by biking for about 12 km on the emergency lane of a freeway. Actually, it turned out to be safer (much more space) than on the upcoming (very) busy N-120, which we had to follow for the next two days...

Getting frightened and fed up with biking on this N-120 with cars and trucks whizzing by, we decided to try our luck on the real Camino for hikers, following the example of a young German biking couple. A dust road with small stones, but doable although much slower - but OK much safer and much more tranquil. Turns all of a sudden into a narrow steep mountain trail with big stones, very uneven and very steep - had to get off our bike and push it (both of us) to the top. Once above, we were craving to go back to the unsafe and busy road - at least there we could make a measurable progress... The real Camino, however, was steadily moving away from the N-120, for so much that we decided to walk with our tandem straight across and downhill through a vineyard (no path whatsoever) to regain our previous route.



The temperature today did climb to a sizzling hot 35 C (95 F), the best motivation for trying to reach as soon as possible Santo Domingo de la Calzada, our destination for today where a four-star Parador was waiting to welcome us. These Paradores are a great Spanish initiative - they are state-owned luxury hotels located in nicely restored authentic historic buildings. Our today's Parador (more to come) was an old pilgrim's hospital from the end of the 15th century just next to the impressive cathedral.

The small city of Santo Domingo de la Calzada in the region of La Rioja (great wines!) owes it beginnings to the endeavors of one man: Domingo Garcia (1019-1109). Not being admitted into a nearby monastery he decided to spend his life as a hermit and help pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela. Thanks to his hard labor, which included hacking a path through forests, building a bridge, a place of worship and a hospital, pilgrims could then travel along a reasonably straight route from Najera to Burgos, just like we still can do today almost a thousand years later.

Day 14 : @ the post office

Day 14 : @ the post office, originally uploaded by raoul_dewinne.

In the morning we had to pass by the village of Los Arcos where we paid a visit to some fellow countrymen who are volunteering as hospitaleros at the local refugio. A short note on those refugios: in Spain and southern France pilgrim's hostels dot the common routes providing overnight accommodation for recognized pilgrims, i.e. travelers who hold a credential. In Spain these are called refugios or albergues. Sometimes these hostels are run by the local parish, sometimes by the local council, and sometimes they are privately owned or run by foreign pilgrim's associations and their volunteers. Beds can be found in dormitories and usually cost between 4 and 8 Euro per night. Pilgrims are usually limited to one night's accommodation. The style of accommodation is somewhat similar to those provided by the simpler class youth hostels, or the French system of Gites d'etape.



Today we broke our speed record. Steering a total weight of 200 kg downhill at 68.9 km/hr is pure adrenaline :-)



As it had really sunk in very well yesterday, we had to find a way to become lighter and the sooner the better. Ourselves, we got light enough by now, but at our hotel in Logrono we examined our baggage one more time for things-we-can-do-without. Trying to outperform each other we managed to pile up another 6 kg of luggage with the intention to send it back home. We crammed it all in my backpack. At the local post office we found out that the well stuffed backpack was actually too big for the maximum allowable box size. But with the help of a friendly employee and a lot of tape we were able to make the box fit (more or less) around the backpack. Featherlight we left for an exploration of the local tapas specialties.

Day 13 : hitting the wall

Day 13 : hitting the wall, originally uploaded by raoul_dewinne.

Still digesting last night's great food and already enjoying a rich and comprehensive breakfast with lots of 'churros con chocolate'. In other words another slow start again. But today we would learn our lesson the hard way for not starting earlier. Today will be the day that we confronted ourselves...



By the time we were well on our way the temperature had climbed to a baking 33 C. Not only the temperature was climbing, we were too. Nothing is flat here, numerous climbs, two very long ones, one of them the Alto Del Perdon on which I literally ran out of breath. Before reaching the top I had to stop and in a hurry find some shadow in this unbearable heat... This was a shocker. I had underestimated our total weight under those circumstances. Despite the fact that in average our daily distances in Spain are shorter than in France, we still don't make progress as I had anticipated - and some longer trips were still ahead of us... And each day the butt starts to hurt earlier and earlier...

While regaining my strengths, it was now my honey's turn to teach me some wise lessons. Despite your family name you're not in a race here that is to be won and neither would it be a shame if you had to walk to the top, anyway, once you have to do too much effort, or worse, as soon as you start to suffer, you're on the wrong track, she explained calmly. She added, even when we are going way too slow as we do now, you still should not push yourself out of breath but rather enjoy every turn of your pedal, every moment, even the wind that we usually don't like is actually refreshingly pleasant. My lungs still pumping heavily, I had to admit that there was a lot of sense in what she just said - no doubt that she wants me to reach Santiago alive, heaven can wait :-) Thank you honey, that's why we came here together :-))



Mid-way we arrived at the beautiful medieval village of Puente la Reina, time for some strong coffee. We just had parked our tandem when a large group of Germans passed by. They stopped to admire our bike - just like many many others had done so before - but this group was almost abnormally enthusiastic, they all came to ask questions - without exception. Both, we had to address them in small groups, just as if we were organizing some guided tours here. They made tens and tens of pictures and many videos - we felt like movie stars but without being asked for signatures. After so much talking we were thirsty again and had another round of coffee while continuing to explain our tandem secrets to some Irish guys and finally to the owner of the bar and all of his personnel - my Spanish seemed to improve by the minute since they sincerely nodded as if they understood me. But in the meanwhile we hadn't moved any meter further. We left Puente La Reina cycling over its famous medieval bridge on which we stopped for a chat again, this time with a Flemish hiker. Sure, pictures were taken.



By that time the asphalt was scorching hot and while climbing (again) (a total ascent of 780 m this day) it felt as if we were completely evaporating and dehydrating, although we did drink plenty of water and other refreshments. Every climb seemed to last an eternity and as if we didn't really move forward, our sweat was dripping onto our sunglasses and running down our back in a continuous stream - I'll spare you further details. On our way we met another exhausted biking couple.



Arriving rather late at our remote hotel we immediately wanted to book a table at their restaurant. But the restaurant was closed on Sundays, and today was... Sunday. Taxi!!! After a long wait we finally got one, nice guy, could speak English.

Since we had decided to get up real early tomorrow morning in order to escape the heat of the sun in the afternoon, and since it was already 10 PM, we decided to have only a quick bite and skip the appetizers. Last night we had enjoyed some delicately prepared mouthwatering pork dish. So we were craving for some more. With the help of my Spanish dictionary I could decipher some of the menu in order to find a pork dish, of which there was only one. Seeing the word 'cerdo' (pork) was enough to decide ordering right away. It took another eternity before our dish walked out of the kitchen (that's why restaurants sell appetizers, I guess). To our consternation it was not only a very tiny piece of meat, worse, it wasn't actually meat but... intestines! We immediately ordered desert, the bill and a taxi - all at once. Now what? They couldn't find any taxi willing to bring us back to our secluded hotel... Taking pity on us, the waitress stopped doing her job, and kindly insisted that she would drive us back. Day 13 (yes: 13) will be remembered as the day that we met ourselves, but also as the day that ended with a nice touch of human kindness.

Day 12 : Buon Camino

Day 12 : Buon Camino, originally uploaded by raoul_dewinne.

We spent the night at the Posada of Roncesvalles, a historic pilgrim refuge in the middle of the mountains at the top of the Roncevaux Pass. Although nowadays a bit more upscale than in the old time the prices to stay and dine here are still very moderate; e.g. a bottle of AOC wine only cost 6 Euro and since that bottle was all mine we slept a bit longer than usual :-)

While the sun was evaporating the morning mist we enjoyed a lazy start and visited the beautiful abbey church. About ready to climb on our tandem again, we met a nice Canadian old man who was looking for help to make a phone call home. He had started out on the Camino but after a couple of days he decided to abandon. The culture shock in combination with the physical challenge, he told us, was more than he could handle. And still he looked sad as if he would be missing something.



As soon as the sun had the blue sky all for her alone the temperature kept rising to some 31 C. We had planned to start only by early afternoon since the short 48 km ride to Pamplona appeared easy - coming down from nearly a 1000 meters high to about 460 m promised to turn into a bicycle adrenaline feast... Sure there was a lot of downhill let-it-go, but we hadn't counted on two relatively long steep climbs - they might not have been as long as we sensed it, mainly because we hadn't expected these obstacles. As a result, those two climbs became also our first confrontation with the burning Spanish sun and some fierce Spanish flies.



On our way we passed several medieval bridges as old as the Camino itself. One of them was from the 14th century and was named El Puente de los Bandidos, referring once more to the uncertain existence of those early day pilgrims.



Unlike in France, we're no longer alone here on our way to Santiago, from now on you meet streams of hikers (but still less bikers) all wishing each other "Buon Camino!" But also local people of all ages send a smile and a "Buon Camino!" to you. More and more we're becoming part of this omnipresent cultural heritage.



The approach to Pamplona was uphill for a change and bathing in sweat we arrived at our hotel. A good bath does miracles in those circumstances and so we still found the time to stroll through this pleasant and lively city, made famous by Ernest Hemingway - who is still well commemorated here.

Our restaurant didn't open till 21:30 (which explains probably one element of the cultural shock of our poor Canadian friend) but luckily there is a remedy for such a situation: tapas :-) We finished the day once more in a tasty way: the Michelin-star Rodero restaurant was more than worth to wait for it to open!

Day 11 : the toughest challenge (?)

Day 11 : the toughest challenge (?), originally uploaded by raoul_dewinne.

On our way to Saint-Jean-Pied-De-Port we met a historic cemetery with very old graves of pilgrims who didn't make it to their intended destination. Being a pilgrim in those days long gone was apparently a pretty risky job - actually many never made it back home. Since reaching Santiago was not such a sure thing the prize when you got there was quite rewarding: a free ticket to go straight to heaven - all sins forgiven. As one witty Time journalist once explained it, in medieval times it worked more or less like our modern frequent flyer miles: the farther you got, the more sins were forgiven.



Before telling you about my plan B, I should mention that my honey joined me on this trip simply to be with me since this Santiago thing was rather my own dream. When I saw her so tired yesterday, I couldn't imagine how she would ever make it to the top of this upcoming 25 km climb with an 894 m height difference. My cunning plan was to have her taking a taxi and have a whole day rest. Surprise, surprise, when she woke up after a good night's sleep, she felt that if she would skip this mountain pass, she would no longer be entitled to a free ticket to heaven upon arrival at Santiago :-))

No more plan B, but that didn't mean that my worries were over. Two on the bike plus the weight of the tandem and all the luggage and a temperature of 29 C would definitely slow our speed terribly down on such a long and steep climb. One should understand that as soon as you start to bike slower than 6km/hr it becomes very hard to keep the tandem stable, you start zigzagging and the front wheel bags make the zigging and the zagging even worse, till you fall over or get overrun by the cars or trucks on this busy mountain pass. Consequently, I was quite convinced that we would never make it to the top or we'd end up as a future historic grave of pilgrims who never made it to their intended destination...

But when the need is high, an unexpected solution is always near. When we went to get our pilgrim's stamp at the Saint James association we learned that, as a matter of fact, quite many hikers and bikers don't actually carry their heavy loads to the top but have them sent to the next refugio. Aha! This even seemed a lucrative business since there were several such services available. However, after we had called them all, it turned out that you had to make a reservation the night before and that, anyway, they already went up to deliver the cargo - in short, no more deliveries today; what a disappointment :-( Who cares... let's call a private taxi then! And so we did, and so we managed to bike up to the top... alive :-) But is was still TOUGH... If you want to know how tough, well book your next holiday in this area (it's really gorgeous here), rent a tandem and just do it.



Not only is the mountain scenery great, this pass and its surroundings is also a historic and legendary place. Two thousand years ago there was already a Roman route via here, but it's name of fame got acquired in the 8th century when Charlemagne used this route to cross the mountains on his way back from the siege of Sarragossa. According to some ancient chronicles, his rearguard was destroyed by the Basques at the top of this pass at Roncevaux (Roncesvalles in Spanish). Several monuments remember us today of this famous battle of August 15, 778.



This battle was the inspiration for The Song of Roland (in French: La Chanson de Roland), which is the oldest major work of French literature. The story told by this epic poem is based on historical events surrounding a relatively minor incident, the ambush or battle of Roncevaux Pass in which the rearguard of Charlemagne's retreating army was attacked by Basques, whose motive for the attack is unknown. In this engagement, recorded by a historian and biographer Einhard (written around 830), the trapped soldiers were slaughtered to a man; among them was Roland, or Roldán. Roland, badly wounded, blew his horn (the Olifante) to call his uncle, with such impetus, that the horn and the veins of the hero exploded. Over the years, this minor battle was romanticized by oral tradition into a major conflict between Christians and Muslims, when in fact both sides in the real battle were Christian; the Basques have been replaced by 400,000 Saracens. Charlemagne did fight the Saracens in Iberia itself, but not in the Pyrenees. The Song of Roland, which commemorates the battle, was written by an unknown troubadour of the 11th century. There is a tombstone near the Roncevaux Pass commemorating the area where it is traditionally held that Roland died.

In the 12th century the Great Hospital of Roncesvalles was founded where the monks of Saint Augustin have welcomed millions of pilgrims since.

Day 10 : Saint-Jean-Pied-De-Port

Day 10 : Saint-Jean-Pied-De-Port, originally uploaded by raoul_dewinne.

A long biking day again of more than 90 km, I'm getting used to it, as a matter of fact I'm getting better at it by the day, however my sweet lovely passenger seems not to get used to distances above 70 km. Sure the biking was not very flat - today we had to overcome a total accumulated ascent of 735 m, which is as if we climbed Belgian's highest 'mountain' starting from sea level - whatever that means. Nevertheless, all these hills add up and some of them were pretty long and steep (7 to 9%). We were thankful again to our friends, Guido and Yes, who liberated from some not-so-useful luggage. The more you bike the less you get attached to things you have to carry yourself. And by now we even feel sorry that we didn't get rid of even more baggage - weight is really a killer variable in this mountainous terrain. Saint Guido where are you?



It was getting warmer and warmer (27 C) and I made a mistake not buying lunch in the city of Dax where we started the day. Village after village turned out to be a ghost village, no people on the streets, no people to keep the shops open either - OK I know, France is on holiday this month but that doesn't mean that we don't need lunch!



The prize of the day goes to the person who recognized the Belgian flag for the very first time this trip - a savvy Frenchman saved the honor of his country.



We came across a so called pilgrim's cross, which is a cross on which passing pilgrims can lay down a small stone (supposedly to have been carried from home). As I explained my honey, that stone represents the worries and troubles the pilgrim wants to leave behind. Unfortunately we didn't bring such a stone with us, "Yes, I did" my honey said, "Really?" I asked, "Yes, you...!" she joked, since she finally realized that - not knowing what to expect - she blindly has followed me into an out-of-the-normal way to celebrate our 25th anniversary. Another proof that love is blind, but a proof of love indeed :-)



But today's excitement culminated in the name of the destination: Saint-Jean-Pied-De-Port, a name almost as mythical as Santiago de Compostela. The earliest recorded pilgrims from beyond the Pyrenees had traveled to Santiago de Compostela in the middle of the 10th century, but it seems that it was not until a century later that pilgrims from abroad were regularly journeying there in large numbers. By the early 12th century the pilgrimage was a highly organized affair. Three established pilgrimage routes from starting points in France (Tours, Vezelay and Le Puy) converged in the Basque country of the western Pyrenees in Saint-Jean-Pied-De-Port. From here on a single combined track crossed the Spanish border, called El Camino Frances.



Although we had met, now and then, a lonely pilgrim so far, here you only meet pilgrims. Hikers and bikers from all over the world. At last we no longer feel abnormal :-))

The local St-James Association had registered 74 different nationalities in 2005! That Belgium and other Western European countries are in the top-10 is quite normal, but that Canada was in the 5th place and the U.S.A. in 9th is quite remarkable, but also South American countries like Brazil were high up in the ranking - or how tiny medieval Saint-Jean-Pied-De-Port remains a truly international focal point for more than a thousand years.



But despite all those amazing facts, my honey was completely exhausted. And this time, even a romantic dinner place on a terrace next to the river could not make her really feel better since we were right across of the beginning of the steep long climb that was patiently waiting for us next morning. Our toughest nut to crack was still to come! Watching my honey's face and reading her thoughts made me think of a creative plan B. But first, let's have a good night's sleep.

Day 9

Day 9, originally uploaded by raoul_dewinne.

Last night, while we had a wonderful dinner, rain was pouring from heaven - not that we cared much at that very moment but we said to ourselves that if tomorrow morning it also would rain like that we'd simply return home - I cannot stand it any longer to see my dearest honey suffering in such a weather... Belgians are born on a bike but Taiwanese never heard of such a thing, add to it that Belgians are born in the rain as well :-)



For some reason the weather gods had mercy on us or they were aware of our plan B. When we opened our window shades in the morning we were blinded by the sunlight - what a relief, no more plan B :-))



For more than 25 km we happily pedaled along the freeway on a service road which was not accessible to cars. Many truckers were blowing their horns loudly and waving to us. Great feeling to bike like that.



In a remote village - by the way, all villages are remote here - we stopped at the very first (open!) pub to have our daily dose of caffeine. To our surprise we were also asked to sign the official pilgrim guest book - or how they keep track here of weird foreign creatures.



You must have noticed the flags behind our tandem, not that we are chauvinists or nationalists - not at all, we feel like being world citizens - but those waving flags are a very obvious eye catcher for passing traffic. My honey feels a lot safer like that sitting in the back - she even has a rear view mirror, she doesn't want to miss any unidentified driving or flying objects :-) Actually she is my talking rear view camera - or should I say 'talkative'? But that's OK, at least it keeps her busy on the passenger seat :-)



Talking about the flags, that no one recognized the Taiwanese flag I can understand, but that no one - I mean absolutely no one - recognizes the Belgian flag (THE BELGIAN FLAG) that comes really as a surprise to me...!? Everyone confuses the Belgian flag with the German one - except Uli, our German guy (good for him). OK, Belgium had to import its first king from Germany, still... But as I mentioned earlier on I am a world citizen so who cares about those flags :-)



As a final note, on this sunny day we broke our average speed record: we were able to propel our 200+ kg mass at a staggering average of almost 24 km/hr.

Day 8 : still 1000 km to go...

Day 8 : still 1000 km to go..., originally uploaded by raoul_dewinne.

We woke up that day under a dark gray sky with menacing rain clouds - that didn't bode well... Strong winds were blowing eastwards from the ocean - that was the good news, since in the morning we had to bike eastwards as well, moving away from the sea.



To get effectively started we first enjoyed a short boat trip to cross the Bay of Arcachon, famous for its oysters - there are a few less by now since we had them for dinner last night - yummy, yummy. The boat was barely three times longer than our tandem bike and while other bicycles would go on the roof, ours was too long to fit. But the skipper found a solution laying our bike down to cover the entire front deck.



The wind made the pedaling a lot easier and we could pick up a decent speed for the first hour. As we got used to by now, some car drivers would wave and blow their horn as a salute. When we stopped to have a reinforcing espresso an old man walked enthusiastically up to our table telling that it was he who sounded his horn a while ago - he said that he had biked a lot when he was much younger but never was able to make it to Santiago de Compostela. Therefore he asked us to think of him and pray for him when we arrived there. He really shook our hands firmly and with strong emotions and he embraced Magic Maggie and gave her two kisses. Such touching moments give you extra power to continue to confront the elements...



A bit further when going down into a tunnel, a car with an open roof top, coming from the opposite direction, flashed its lights, blew its horn and a backseat passenger stood straight up and clapped his hands. Wow... We felt like the king and queen of Belgium, maybe even better since I'm not quite sure whether a Frenchman would do like that to our Belgian royal highness.



After biking through heavy car traffic for over an hour we finally hit a bike trail that was a former rail road. The trail let us cross the Landes in an almost straight line. This rather flat and sandy landscape offered us a never-ending scenery of old oak and chestnut trees amid patches of evergreen fern on which the morning raindrops glittered like pearls - and not to forget the omnipresent pine trees. This was a very enjoyable ride. But - as many other things in life - it didn't last forever, we had to leave the bike path to drive southwest against the wind again. And after a while the menacing clouds lived up to their promise and brought us... rain - and lots of it.



Every little village that we passed we looked for a pub or any other place where we could have a warm coffee and some temporary shelter, but either there weren't any facilities or they were all closed... Even the churches were closed... At one of those medieval churches we found a stone signpost telling us that we still had a 1000 km to go before reaching Santiago. That was encouraging news :-)



By late afternoon our legs were getting sore and we were soaking wet (again); tired we decide to take the shortest road to the hotel, which meant biking on heavy traffic roads with a lot of big trucks racing by and that for another 19 km - these turned out to be the longest 19 km of our biking life. Half dead we reached our charming hotel after 91 km of pedaling.



Before going to bed my lovely queen noticed that the king had a red biking butt - as red as a monkey's. After taking a closer look at the queen's butt as well, it turned out that hers was aching but(t) not red, while his was red but(t) not aching... Would that indicate - according to Darwin's evolutionary theory - that long time gone some mutant monkeys must have adapted to a biking life or maybe even invented it?

Day 7 : the magic shell

Day 7 : the magic shell, originally uploaded by raoul_dewinne.

The scallop, or St.James' shell, is the symbol of the Saint and the pilgrimage. For over a thousand years pilgrims carried a shell, the symbol of St James, since it was said that an early pilgrim who fled to the sea to escape vagabonds returned to land covered in shells…



A relatively short day of just 50 km but nevertheless with a 236 m total ascent despite the fact that we are cruising along the beaches. The temperature is rising but the sky is still heavily clouded.



The long and winding bike trail continues along the coastline behind the dunes protecting us from the strong winds. Unfortunately, these high dunes cannot protect us from rain - oh yeah, rain again for about one third of the ride, but since it is not such a stressful distance and the weather got warmer, we can stand the rain - or did we learn to accept this inevitable part of life?



Again, and at the risk of getting boring, wherever we park our tandem or stop to buy drinks, have a coffee or simply look at the map, people come to admire our two-wheeler - and when they see the GPS they go ballistic :-)



But as soon as people spot the shell in front of our bycicle or when they hear what our end destination is, many people take a step back and look at us if we're half saints , but I reassure them that we're rather half crazy :-)

Several people even asked us to say a prayer upon our arrival at Santiago de Compostela - it starts to look like we'll need a full day at the St. James cathedral to fulfill all those prayer wishes :-)

Day 6

Day 6, originally uploaded by raoul_dewinne.

This morning my sweetheart was still wondering why the heck she was doing this - but doubts were also creeping into my own mind. Indeed, there are much easier and more comfortable ways of traveling to Santiago. But once again the weather forecast was announcing improvements and once again it gave us hope, and yes, we saw patches of blue sky that seemed to be spreading the good news.



The dream of every skier is to stay at a ski-in-ski-out hotel - similar goes for the biker. We enjoyed the luxury having our hotels for the next three nights really ON the bike trial.



When preparing our bicycle in the morning for another 72 km ride we had an enthusiastic supporter to wave us out. Uli, a nice German guy who stayed at the same hotel was full of admiration of our bike and of our plan to cover such a long distance to Santiago - he thought I was a younger brother of Eddy Merckx. I love German people :-)



The magnificent bike trail - our first of this kind in a lifetime - that we commenced on last night would continue for another 120 kms. Accompanied by the relaxing sound of the ocean waves this lovely trail meandered through the dunes, along beaches and through pine tree forests...



A seaside resort bathing in the sunlight seduced us successfully to make a stop and enjoy the scenery while having a hearty café chantilly. Watching the smooth rolling ocean from the shadow of a colorful umbrella ma chérie commented with a broad smile: "La vie est belle..." and like a fully-qualified Don Juan I perfected "...avec toi" :-)



With our bike always in sight we could watch how numerous people would stop and marvel at our tandem. If we had received only half a Euro from every person gazing at our bike during this trip so far, our entire journey would already be completely paid for... and if this would continue till Santiago, I might retire by then ;-)



But the best was still to come. A group walked up to our bike and one of them started singing on the tunes of a famous French tango: "Le plus beau, c'est le plus beau vélo du monde..." Fabulous :-))



"Isn't it delightful having friends coming from distant quarters" Confucius said. Today, about 2500 years later we were able to comprehend to the full extent what he might have meant... Good friends of ours traveling to the eastern part of Spain drove via the western part of France (i.e. way out of their way) to come and visit us - and encourage us. We lubricated this special get together with plenty of 'pastis', a French aperitif with aniseed. That night we double checked our luggage for all unnecessary items (e.g. like a tripod - who takes a tripod on a trip like this anyway???) so that our visitors could take all those burdensome kilograms with them by car. And so we finally realized another eternal law of biking that "less is more" - indeed, we've never been that happy for having less than we had before :-)

Day 4 & 5 : enduring the elements

Day 4 & 5 : enduring the elements, originally uploaded by raoul_dewinne.

As the weather forecast had accurately predicted: the sun was gone, the blue sky was gone... Here we are again with our two wheels on the ground and in misty rainy weather, believing that our high-tech Goretex clothing will also protect our positive spirits.



From Poitiers we would smoothly work our way down to the seaside in two days of nearly flat terrain. At least, that was the picture that I had pre-programmed in Maggie's mind. Oops... The roads we traveled weren't as flat as I had anticipated, worse, they were not flat at all: up and down, up and down, up and down and on and on for the full 108 km of that day. Tandem plus luggage and two people made a total of over 200 kg, which is great when you go downhill but when going up it is as if you're grinding to a complete standstill... Countless hills... And after the initial drizzle we got some light rain for a change. "Who'll stop the rain?" this CCR song kept echoing through our empty brains. It kept raining till early afternoon and although our Goretex jackets and trousers might have kept the rain on the outside, we were nevertheless as wet on the inside from all the uphill sweating. At the end of our fourth day the GPS indicated a total ascent of 654 m !!

Not only were it the hills, the weight and the rain that wore us physically and mentally down, this distance of 108 km seemed endlessly. And when the rain stopped, we played another song: "Against the wind." Here the winds typically come from the southwest and guess where we were heading to?

Hallelujah, now we know what is too much... Although this seemed more than we could chew we finished the day with one more song "Our way" (with permission from the author to sing it in plural).

Our B&B was in a huge old farm from the 1600's - in the middle of nowhere, even no mobile phone connectivity... The old lady of the house welcomed us with hot chocolate - after everything we endured today this tasted like the best hot chocolate of our entire life.

After taking a hot shower we were regaining our mental strength and all we needed was a nice dinner. Haven't seen any kind or type of restaurant on our way to or in this remote village we asked the lady where we could find some food. Goodness gracious... We would have to continue pedaling to the next village, many kilometers further. I asked again with a faint hope that either she or me hadn't understood either the question or the answer - apparently not. Silence and a long sigh followed. And with even a fainter hope I asked whether she could call us a taxi? She looked at me as if I came from a different planet. A taxi? Here? You must be kidding? Actually

I wasn't. OK then... I volunteered to play for taxi... with my honey just sitting on the bike, refusing to pedal - the few people we met on the road smiled with amusement. Lucky me, it was a very fine restaurant... :-)

By the time we managed it back to our old farm, we had biked our longest trip ever on our tandem: almost 120 km. And don't forget to add the rain, the countless hills, our heavy load and the headwinds...



PS: It turned out to be impossible to keep up the schedule of daily sending a new update. Mainly it is a connectivity issue, either we had no signal at all or the GPRS service seemed not operating in a dependable way. We only met something like a city a day and when you are soaking wet finding an internet café is not immediately your highest priority...



Day 5 brought the same story as yesterday. We "only" had to bike 95 km - which under the current conditions was still way more than we could enjoy - and another 595 m of accumulated ascent was waiting for us...

Rain again till afternoon. People applauding and admiring us when we arrived in a city or a small village - or did they have pity on us?

After the rain, the wind. We're approaching the Atlantic coast and the wind is hammering us down or trying to knock us off our bike. Especially with all those packs we take A LOT of wind. When - on a flat road and with a lot of hard work - you manage only to develop a speed of 12 km/hour and your leg muscles seem to be ready to explode any moment and your back is about to break in two, than all kind of thoughts flash through your brain (if you have any left): why am I doing this; we must be crazy; we cannot go on like this; we're quitting; we're going home... But for some reason we kept going, we kept pushing, both of us, but maybe each of us for different reasons... :-)

If a pilgrimage needs to encompass some suffering then this is a pilgrimage with a capital P.



Finally, at last, the harbor of Royan where we'll take the ferry to cross the estuary of the river Gironde. Long lines of cars are cueing up, and then being able to coast along them and get in front of such a long line made us already forget some of the ordeal that we just went through :-)

The smell of the pine trees and the salty Atlantic ocean surpassed the best perfume by far, and things got even better when we reached a long smooth bike trail through the dunes along the coast line. The weather all of a sudden turned sunny and we forgot for a moment our sore legs and aching butt and we enjoyed a 200% - this was pure joy!

Our day ended with a touch of eternal beauty :-)

Day 3 : confronting history

Day 3 : confronting history, originally uploaded by raoul_dewinne.

At the end of the second day I impressed my wife by checking us in at the "Grand Hotel Moderne". Although I'm generally sceptic when businesses emphasize their qualities too obviously I had to give them the benefit of the doubt since the building had quite an impressing appearance from the outside. However, the inside brought us back with our two feet on the ground : our room was neither grand and worse it was a far cry from modern and it was equipped with a completely antiquated shower where the temperature of the water seemed to be controlled by a malicious neighbour.



Not that our rooms were better the day after when we stayed in one of the oldest monasteries of the world, but the monastery didn't make any claims, nor did we expect any either. Or, how a pilgrimage can remind you of the common wisdom that contentment is inverse prortional to your expectations...



Indeed, on day 3 we stayed at the Abbey of Saint Martin at Liguge, which was founded in 361!



On our way we also passed another historical place: the battlefield of the famous "battle of Poitiers". On October 10, 732, the Frankish forces under Charles Martel defeated a massive invading Muslim army that outnumbered the Franks by far. This battle seems surprisingly known as the Battle of Tours in English-speaking countries.

The battle followed twenty years of Muslim conquests in Europe, beginning with the invasion of the Visigoth Christian Kingdoms of the Iberian peninsula in 711 and progressing into the Frankish territories of Gaul, former provinces of the Roman Empire. Martel's victory is believed by many historians to have stopped the northward advance of Muslims from the Iberian peninsula, and is therefore also considered of macrohistorical importance in that it halted the Muslim conquests and preserved Christianity as the controlling faith in Europe during a period when Muslim rule was overrunning the remains of the old Roman and Persian Empires. (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

The Camino has always been linked to this confrontation of two cultures and religions in so much that by the 10th century St. James was regarded as the protector of Christian Europe against the Muslim Moors.

Unfortunately, more than one millenium later these battles still seem to continue in different forms and different places... As if history likes to repeat itself or is it human nature that hasn't changed that much?

The current memorial on those ancient battlegrounds had several wise words carved into the tiles of a giant checkerboard. One of them said: "I believe in the religion of love..." and another one: "People make ennemies of what they are ignorant of." When reading those words we smiled at each other since - albeit on a much much smaller scale - we experienced by ourselves that it takes love and respect to overcome the separation between two different cultures. And one has to start by taking an interest in each other, since confrontation with a foreign culture can be a very enriching experience - but true, it requires an effort on both sides. And Maggie (Wei Wen) summed it all up by reflecting that she cannot make a white calligraphy on white paper - white paper needs as much the black ink as the black ink needs the white paper. Food for thought indeed - it must have been the influence of this 1600 year old abbey :-)



By now it is exactly midnight and tomorrow the monks will wake us up at six :-( Our longest day trip is impatiently waiting for us, 108km, and to make it a real pilgrimage, we might be singing in the rain tomorrow - but saint Goretex will protect us :-)

Have a great weekend and check out on us again next Monday, we'll go on a weekend as well and guess what we will be doing...

Day 2: at last no longer lost :-)

Day 2: at last no longer lost :-), originally uploaded by raoul_dewinne.

The morning of day two we woke up by the gentle sound of a slow turning water mill, but what made us actually jump out of bed was the quacking of the ducks - subconsciously but undoubtedly this must have influenced our choice of dinner that night, guess what... duck indeed.



This secluded place was really a uniquely special place and worth more than the trouble finding it. ‘Les Moulins de Vontes’, our first overnight stop, are ancient water mills of medieval origin with foundations dating from the 12th century. They are idyllically located on three islands in the middle of the Indre river – a side river of the Loire. An extraordinary Bed & Breakfast with only three rooms, all having pieces of furniture from the 17th and 18th century. But it were our very friendly and well-traveled hosts who made our first night's stay even more memorable. Add to it that , a couple of years ago, they also biked to Santiago de Compostela...



It was hard to leave such an enchanting place and to say goodbye to such gracious hosts, but the sky was promising blue and the sun invited us to continue our journey.



So I explained one more last time to my beloved 75-year-young father how the GPS works. After we gave my parents a big hug, each party ser off in opposite directions. They headed north and we traveled south as if it were to prove that it was a far safer bet to continue our venture with one single GPS (in stead of two) in order to increase our chances of reaching our destination without too many unintended deviations :-)



It turned to be a great biking day. We pedaled along small scenic country roads with little or no traffic and the softly rolling landscape was decorated with a mosaic of sunflower fields.



Today we covered four times the distance of yesterday in only twice the time - a nice but welcome progress: arriving in Santiago on schedule becomes probable again :-)



Consequently, we arrived more than an hour in advance at our destination which gave us the opportunity to visit the local Saint James church in greater detail. This Romanesque church with its beautifully decorated façade dates from the 11th century. It was an important landmark and destination for the medieval pilgrims on their way to Santiago. Today this historic church still showcases a wooden statue of Saint James as a pilgrim (see picture).



The ‘Way of St James’, better known by its Spanish name ‘El Camino de Santiago’, is the pilgrimage to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in north-westernmost Spain. Legend has it that St. James the apostle fled persecution in the Holy Land and came to northern Spain. There he preached the gospel until his return to Jerusalem, where he was martyred in AD44. His remains were brought back and buried in Spain where in the 9th century they were discovered in a field indicated by a bright star – “Santiago de Compostela” means literally “St James of the star field”.



El Camino de Santiago has been one of the most important Christian pilgrimages since medieval times and it has existed for over a 1000 years. There is not a single path but a cobweb of routes threading throughout Europe to Santiago de Compostela. However a few of the routes are considered main ones, one of them is the Via Turonensis – starting in Tours, southwest of Paris, where many pilgrim routes from northwestern countries would come together. Although the spiritual significance of the Camino has been lost for many, there is little doubt that this is one of the most important, and exhilarating, long-distance paths in Europe.



PS: updating a weblog with a wireless PDA has proven so far to be a hurdles race... Not only is it a matter of connectivity issues, using different programs to get all the stuff uploaded, but it's a rather slow process before you have any feedback. It typically takes a couple of hours to verify the uploaded content, to find out then that your first picture with comments did not get through and neither your third. Next you reallize that the sent but not arriving information had not been stored in memory and one can start all over again... Then you get nervous and tired while your wife is already sleeping like a log, so you decide to do it over again on the next morning - while your wife still sleeps like a log :-) Obviously you're not as clear of mind yet and hours later you realize that you have made twice the same identical compliment of the French people being the most helpful on earth - well you see, THAT is a bridge too far and therefore I have to claim back one of the two compliments - one compliment in one day is more than enough :-)

Got lost...

Got lost..., originally uploaded by raoul_dewinne.

A French gentleman - no, this is not a typo - was so helpful that he drove his Vespa way out of his way to get us back on our way... Today we declared the French people as the most helpful on earth - no matter what the rest of the world might think of them :-)

Let's continue...

Let's continue..., originally uploaded by raoul_dewinne.

I must have pushed the send button too fast in the previous update - so let's continue: so there we arrived in Tours - our starting place - with the intention to still bike a short ride from the center of Tours to a small village just 20km outside of the city. My parents would stay with us for the first night, so they followed us by car - my car to be precise, and my GPS to be even more precise... On our bike we had also a GPS. That adds up to two GPS systems. Now, just like a man with two watches never knows how late it is, a man with two GPS's never knows how to get to his destination... The story is too long to tell here - although the distance was short - but we got lost at least five times, and we biked an additional 50% of the planned distance and if this journey continues as it got started we might not arrive in Santiago de Compostela before Christmas! Hallelujah:.. Despite two GPS's we arrived 2 hours late for dinner at our idyllic destination and the mere fact that we found this place in the middle of nowhere was due to the assistance of half of the population of France... As of this day, I consider the French people as the most helpful on earth no matter what the rest of the world might think :-))

What preceded...

In August 2002 we were infected with a serious form of biking virus :-). This happened after we climbed our first "grand col", the Tourmalet in the French Pyrenees (2114 m high, avg. 8%). Since then many more famous climbs from the Tour de France have followed: Puy de Dome, Mont Ventoux, Col du Telegraphe, Col du Galibier, Alpe d'Huez, Deux Alpes, Col du Glandon, etc...
We did those climbs and other biking trips using single bikes. This caused some frustration in a sense, since - although we were on holiday together - Maggie (also read: Wei-Wen) and I were separated most of the time...


Consequently, two years ago, we decided to buy a tandem bike - the Koga-Myata TwinTraveller. The bike shop owner warned us that - as a married couple buying a tandem - there are only two possibilities: or you divorce after two weeks or your relationship will get even better... Since then we biked more than 4,000 km on our tandem and we are still happily together :-)

Looking for a challenge to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary (July 3, 2005) we decided to plan for a tandem bike trip to Santiago de Compostella (northwestern Spain). We were not that much afraid of the distance but rather we wondered whether we would be able to cross the Pyrenees (the mountain range between France and Spain). Therefore we did a final test last summer in St. Moritz (Switzerland) where we took our tandem to try it out on several climbs:

Soon to come...

囍
In order to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary we will bike this summer (from August 22 till September 15) on our tandem along the Via Turonensis, which is the Latin name for the 1600km long medieval pilgrim route from Tours in France to Santiago de Compostella in Spain.