Where Have All the Taylors Gone? Long Time Passing!

So we just abandoned you and the blog, didn’t we?!!!! I am sorry. It wasn’t until you were questioning if we were okay and where we were, that I realized I should have given you a “fair warning” that I was ceasing the writing.
Actually nothing negative really “happened” to us. We got distracted by the fascinating pilgrims we met. We came into villages ready to prop our feet up on our packs for 30 minutes. Snooze even longer. Take a shower. Find an early dinner. ( THIS IS A HUGE task in Spain where the average dinner time is 10 PM.) Then we CRASHED to arise before sunrise( which occurred 2 minutes earlier every morning.) Dress in the exact same clothes we had on the day before. Have Cafe con Leche and a croissant. Use the restroom. Put on packs and begin following those yellow arrows. It is the journey that wraps around your heart and opens your mind. It is the simplicity of your life. Walk; eat; talk: be silent; sleep; dream; arise; walk.
Let me tell you some highlights and in the subsequent blog posts I will try to answer some of your deeper questions. Such as: “ Why Camino?” Actually I think that I can answer that question pretty well for us.
We are pretty much in love with the Portuguese Route. I can’t say it was any less strenuous from Porto on. The elevations weren’t as high as on Frances BUT they were straight up and straight down. I will post a photo of one day’s topographical for you to see. The scenery was breath-taking. Enopion ( the presence of God) permeated even the flora…the trees..the constant running streams that accompany the Way. It was the peregrinos that made this so special. The delightful people from all our this earth who are on this path the very day that you are. You walk and share life. You become family. About the fourth day a Brit joined us as we began a climb. Just walking,conversing;sharing life. He began telling life stories and we were ROLLING with laughter ( and this was UP HILL). Ernest finally said, “Peter, you are going to have to stop! I can’t walk and laugh this hard at the same time!” As it turned out, Peter was a stand up comic by avocation. He was wonderful. We walked with another Brit, a film maker( and he looked the part). He had hired someone to carry his pack to the next village but he carried 10 lb binoculars around his neck for bird watching. There were a group of guys who struggled to keep one of their friends going. It appeared that they might be helping him survive an addiction. There were young mothers who came not as best friends but friends. They ended their journey as “sisters. “. We never met an American. We knew of two on the trail behind us and heard of newly marrieds that had chosen the Camino and were from the States but we never met them.
We arrived in Santiago about two ON Saturday. Had our photo made by a very young French couple trekking to the Middle East. We collapsed on the plaza for about an hour. Went and presented our credentials to receive our Compostela and then spent our day wandering through Santiago meeting fellow pilgrims who had arrived that day as though we had known each other since birth. Anna and Pelli from Majorca; Silvius from Italy; Annan from Germany; the Brits…all country barriers lost …we are peregrinos. We know THE WAY.