Near the End

[Monday, July 28, 2014 — Garin writes]

We last sent an email when we were in Finisterre and we did end up walking to Muxia that next day. The scenery was beautiful and the trail was not crowded which was refreshing after the crowds that occupied the Camino after Sarria. We saw a total of about 20 other pilgrims that whole day, and enjoyed saying “Buen Camino” once again. It was strange, though, to have pilgrims walking in the opposite direction, since people can walk from Muxia to Finisterre. We spent just that afternoon in Muxia, enjoying being on the rocks with the waves crashing below us; it really was the powerful and spiritual place people told us it would be (we agreed it was a more fitting end to the Camino than Finisterre). After Muxia, we bussed back to Santiago on the 25th, the feast day of St. James. Almost everything was closed, but we didn´t see any big crowds because we didn’t go near the cathedral. While in a cafe eating breakfast, we saw on T.V. the Mass in the Cathedral of Santiago with the king and queen of Spain in attendance.

We endured the 8-hour bus ride (with stops) to Fatima, where we met a Québécois man [man from Quebec] who told us where he was staying; we went with him to a nice hostel run by a man and his wife in their home. We got a private room and breakfast every morning, as well as lots of friendly help from the owners who found us places to stay in Santarem and Lisbon, made recommendations for what to do in Portugal, and insisted on driving us to the bus station when we left. They also enlightened us about the mistake we had made when tipping our waiter at dinner – since the tip was not included in the bill and we had received good service, we tipped like we do in the US. Turns out we left about 6 times what would be the norm! Whoops.

The hostel was about a 10-minute walk from the Sanctuary but was just around the corner from the Stations of the Cross and old town Fatima where the houses of Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta are. We spent a total of four nights [?] in Fatima (the first one the evening when we got in, 2 full days, and this morning) during which time we went to 3 Masses, confession, adoration, looked through their museum, did two candlelit processions, a Eucharistic procession, visited the houses of the children, did the Stations of the Cross, and prayed lots of rosaries. We were struck by the way that Fatima is both similar and different from Lourdes – they have similar layouts, and both honor apparitions of Our Lady, but Fatima is about penitence and is more somber. It´s a blessing that we had the opportunity to see both holy places in the same trip.

We are currently in Santarem, Portugal, where the greatest Eucharistic Miracle after Lanciano occurred. You should look up the story, but in a nutshell, a woman stole a consecrated host in the mid-1200s and it began to bleed profusely. The relic of this miracle is kept in the local parish church; the host along with dried blood is preserved in crystal (the appearance of the crystal casing was the second miracle) which is held in a monstrance. It is accompanied by crystallized blood mixed with wax (from the original casing for the miracle) in a second case that was in a tabernacle locked behind the altar. When we entered the church, an elderly man asked us if we wanted to see the relic (of course!) and led us behind the altar and up some steps, unlocking doors as we went. It was truly amazing to see the host and the blood, and we´re all grateful that we made the trip out to Santarem and that the church was open. Almost all of the other ten churches in town are closed (we´re reminded of a taxi driver in Spain who, when we asked if there were 2 churches in town, replied, “Two? No, four!”).

Since we judge countries by their churches and their food, we’ve noticed some culinary difference between Spain and Portugal. To quote Kelsey, “Wow, I forgot how much I enjoy flavor in my food.” Also, while French fries are still popular, they are not the solitary side dishes to every plate imaginable; our food is now sometimes accompanied by other kinds of potatoes and these strange green substances we believe are commonly known as vegetables. Portugal also has the unique tradition of placing tapas on the table without them being ordered. Thinking they were complimentary on our first night, we unknowingly added several charges to our bill. We’ve since learned that the trick is to leave the tapas on the table, and the server will eventually take them back to the kitchen (this applies to bread and butter as well). Other than this trickery, the Portuguese are extraordinarily nice people. Today we asked a man for directions, and he proceeded to flag down multiple cars and even offered to drive us to our destination. We still insisted on walking, even after we had been told by the the lady at the bus station to take a cab because it was a 20 minute walk to our hostel. Having just walked the Camino de Santiago, we weren’t sure we could make it, but we decided to tough it out and walked the couple of blocks anyway.

While walking around Santarem, we noticed yellow arrows on some posts, and immediately recognized the symbols that had guided us all the way to Santiago. Turns out we were walking on the Camino Portugues, another route to Santiago de Compostela. We noted that you can take the pilgrims out of the Camino, but you can´t take the Camino out of the pilgrims. Also, in our hostel are two pilgrims from Santa Cruz, California, who are walking the Camino Portugues.

A few other changes since leaving Spain have been the occurrence of sunset at a reasonable hour, an increase in the afternoon heat (although there’s often fog in the morning in Fatima), and the existence of more American grocery stores selling toiletries and other non-food necessities. After experiencing how hot it is here, and knowing that Madrid is much hotter, we decided to spend more of our extra time in Lisbon rather than Madrid (although for all we know Lisbon will be just as bad). We´ll be taking a bus there tomorrow, after attending Mass in the church where the miracle relic is held. If we get bored with Lisbon, we’ll move on to Madrid, but no one is complaining about having free time to spend in Europe (darn).

With only about a week left until we return home, we are increasingly excited about coming back to the things we’ve missed most about America. Among them are non-smoking areas in restaurants, free water in restaurants, familiar and varied food in restaurants (Mexican!!), and peanut butter (not necessarily in a restaurant). It will also be nice to have really clean clothes out of a washer/drier (warm!), Mass in English, and have grocery stores with meat sections that sell beef and not octopus.

That just about sums it all up.

See you all soon,

Los Peregrinos (we have decided that we are pilgrims until we land in California)