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Day 6 of our Camino de Santiago Pilgrimage

June 12, 2018 by Shelli

“The art of life is to stay wide open and be vulnerable, yet at the same time to sit with the mystery and the awe and with the unbearable pain—to just be with it all.” -Ram Dass

Today was Day 6 of our pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago. (I’ve walked 98 miles so far, and Jerry and the boys have walked 76; We have about 60 miles to go!)

Hi there!

As a long-time hiker, backpacker and adventurer, I know that sometimes, for no particular reason, it can just not be your day. Unfortunately, for most of today, that is how it was for me. I just felt off. Fortunately, by the time we reached our destination I had bounced back, but it was a bit of a rough day for me, physically and emotionally. But enough about me and enough about that. What else can I report?

Until today, we’ve shared the trail with many pilgrims, but nothing like today. As we took our first steps out of Sarria this morning, a huge youth group was on our heels, and singing. And once outside of Sarria and on the path, there were hundreds more. Add to that it was raining, hot and muggy, and we walked through cow manure for a good stretch, which came with a thick odor that was not wonderful. LOL.

We knew it would be more crowded for this final 5 days – from Sarria to Santiago – because today we’d pass through a village that marks the 100-kilometer mark from Santiago. In order for pilgrims to get a Certificate of completion for the Camino, one must walk 100 kilometers. So today, we passed the village that marks the starting point for those masses of people who are doing the minimum to get the certificate. Still, any day walking with my family is a good day!!! So enough whining. Please forgive me!

We enjoyed an epically delicious (and TOO BIG) lunch about 12.5 miles into today’s hike, and then “waddled” the last 2 miles into Portomarín, a beautiful little town on the bank of the Miño River and Belesar reservoir. Jerry and the boys are champs! They walk without complaint, even though there are some sore achilles tendons and feet.

Last night, at dinner, Jerry and I challenged everyone to come up with a quality we’d each like to improve in ourselves. At our first break today we discussed those. These are the qualities each of us shared we’d like to work on: Kindness, Understanding, Flexibility, Presence and Patience. (Mine is patience, which is always something I’m working on. I have been walking in the back of the pack these last few days. I don’t usually hike in the far back, and this has been a great exercise for me. I dawdle, and see more, and I love watching Jerry and the boys up ahead. I don’t know if it’s helping me be more patient or not, but it feels like a good start for me, and it provides me with a different perspective.)

We met some more pilgrims with interesting stories today! Harry is from Madagascar. I would have guessed he was 60, but he told me he’s 74! He’s walking the Camino for the fifth year in a row. Each time he walks it with a different family member. So far, he’s walked it with his wife, his daughter, his brother, his nephew, and I can’t recall who the fifth one was. He says he does it to share a meaningful experience, and to get closer to his family members while doing something that is good for his health and his spirituality.

I also met Martina, from the Czech Republic. She is on Day 16. She started her pilgrimage in Léon, France, and will finish in Santiago about when we do, in 4-5 days. She said when she was 8 years old, her mother told her of her experience on the Camino de Santiago, and she never forgot the stories her mother shared with her. Three years ago, her mother passed away, and she decided she wanted to make the pilgrimage in her mom’s honor. Like so many pilgrims I’ve met, Martina is out here alone, and says it has been a wonderful experience. She predicts she’ll be a little sad when it comes to an end. Thanks for following along on our pilgrimage.

NEXT: Day 7 of the Camino

Leaving Sarria this morning to start our 14-mile trek to Portomarín.

 

A pretty fountain early in our walk today.

 

Flowers everywhere.

 

Today’s walk took us through lush, green forests and moss-covered rocks.
This lady was such a sweetheart! She had a food stand on the trail. There were homemade donuts, homemade honey, crepes, fruit and other pastries. She recommended we have her donuts, which she split in half and piled her honey on for us. THEY WERE EPIC!
A snapshot of the little crowd that was on our heels.
I love hiking with my boys.

 

My handsome sons: Fin, Hayden and Wolf.
Hayden and Fin, being dramatic.

 

I loved these little flowers, growing out of the moss-covered rocks.

 

We ran into this little traffic jam. We loved these sheep, and their attitude.

 

Jerry, with his Epic lunch today, enjoyed after walking 12.5 miles, and with just 1.5 miles to go to our destination.
The boys, leading us toward Portomarín.
Beautiful Portomarín.
Family selfie on the bridge that spans Miño River, near Portomarín.
Steps into Portomarín.
Church of San Xoán, Portomarín.

Related blog posts:

Spain or Bust: Camino de Santiago Here We Come 

Day 1 on the Camino de Santiago.

Day 2 on the Camino de Santiago.

Day 3 on the Camino de Santiago.

Day 4 of the Camino de Santiago.

Day 5 on the Camino de Santiago.

NEXT UP: Day 7 of the Camino

VIDEOS FROM DAY 6:

 

NEXT: Day 7 of the Camino

Filed Under: Family, Fitness, Frontier Life, Life and Leadership, Travel & Tourism Tagged With: camino de santiago, epic adventure, epic family adventure, pilgrimage, spain

Bonjour de Paris!

June 1, 2018 by Shelli

Santé!

(This is blog #2 in a series of posts I’ll be writing from our Epic Family adventure and our upcoming Camino de Santiago pilgrimage. If you missed it, here is the first blog.)

It takes a while to get from the Frontier of Wyoming to Paris, France. After our 5.5-hour drive from Lander, WY to Denver, we flew for 3.5 hours to NYC/JFK, before catching a 7-hour flight to Paris. But as is always the case, the long haul was worth it.

Our reserved transportation was waiting for us at the baggage claim, and our adventure started. It was 7am, and our driver was zooming us in and out of traffic lanes. Just our ride in the traffic of Paris was exhilarating, and served to wake us all up out of slumberous states.

One of the exciting parts of these big international trips is when we arrive at a new destination and we get to see what our accommodations are like. Jerry picked this apartment/flat out months ago, and he did a great job! We are enjoying a spacious apartment on Rue Cadet that is right in the heart of Paris. Our windows are open and we hear the life of Paris almost constantly.

My amazing team. Here, Jerry and the boys, look at a street map of Paris, while simultaneously researching how to say particular important phrases in French. 🙂

After taking long naps, we set out on foot to see what all the fuss of Paris is about. We walked about a mile and a half to reach the Seine River, and get our first spy of the Eiffel Tower. Of course, along the way, we also indulged in baguettes, chocolate croissants, and the much-anticipated Nutella-filled crepes.

We ended our first day in Paris early due to sleep deprivation and jet lag, but not before enjoying an epically delicious French dinner at a sidewalk cafe near our flat.

The next day was a big one. We had a day full of tours planned, including the Louvre, Notre Dame, and a cruise on the Seine.

Jerry and the boys at the Louvre.

The Louvre Museum is the world’s largest art museum, and the world’s most visited art museum, with 8.1 million visitors a year. Its building—the Louvre Palace—was originally a fortress, built in the late 12th to 13th Century by Philip II. A central landmark of the city, the Louvre is located on the Right Bank of the Seine. Approximately 38,000 (out of a total collection of 780,000!) objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 782,910 square feet. (About a half of a mile worth of indoor space!)

Venus de Milo.

We saw so many famous works of art, including Aphrodite of Milos, better known as the Venus de Milo. Venus de Milo is an ancient Greek statue and one of the most famous works of ancient Greek sculpture. Initially it was attributed to the sculptor Praxiteles, however from an inscription that was on its plinth, the statue is thought to be the work of Alexandros of Antioch. Created sometime between 130 and 100 BC, the statue is believed to depict Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty (Venus to the Romans).

It is a marble sculpture, slightly larger than life size, stands 6′ 8″ high. Part of an arm and the original plinth were lost following its discovery. She used to have real gold jewelry. It is currently on permanent display at the Louvre Museum in Paris. The statue is named after the Greek island of Milos, where it was discovered.

Another highlight of our tour of The Louvre was seeing the Winged Victory of Samothrace, also called the Nike of Samothrace, is a marble Hellenistic sculpture of Nike (the Greek goddess of victory), that was created about the 2nd century BC. Since 1884, it has been prominently displayed at the Louvre and is one of the most celebrated sculptures in the world. H.W. Janson described it as “the greatest masterpiece of Hellenistic sculpture”, and it is one of a small number of major Hellenistic statues surviving in the original form.

The Winged Victory of Samothrace, also called the Nike of Samothrace, is a marble Hellenistic sculpture of Nike (the Greek goddess of victory), that was created about the 2nd century BC

We also saw the Mona Lisa! Considered the world’s most famous painting, Mona Lisa is an oil painting on a poplar wood panel by the Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer Leonardo da Vinci. It was painted sometime between 1503 and 1519, when Leonardo was living in Florence, and it now hangs in the Louvre, in Paris, where it remains an object of pilgrimage in the 21st century.

The Mona Lisa.

This portrait was started in Florence around 1503. It is thought to be of Lisa Gherardini, wife of a Florentine cloth merchant named Francesco del Giocondo – hence the alternative title, La Gioconda. However, Leonardo seems to have taken the completed portrait to France rather than giving it to the person who commissioned it. After his death, the painting entered François I’s collection. Mona Lisa was stolen and the media reported on it so much that the painting is even more famous. (Someone is in the room for 24 hours a day.

After our morning tour of The Louvre, we enjoyed a quick snack and break on one of the 37 bridges that span the Seine in Paris.  

Jerry and the boys, taking a snack break in between tours.

Next up was a tour of Notre-Dame de Paris. We were looking particularly forward to this tour, not only because we have wanted to see Notre Dame, but also because our tour guide would be Georgia Darell, who led us on an exceptional tour of the Catacombs during our trip to Rome two years ago. We’ve stayed in touch with Georgia, and she’s become a friend of ours, so it was extra special to see her again. And, no surprise, she provided us with an unforgettable tour of Notre Dame.

Notre-Dame de Paris (meaning “Our Lady of Paris”), also known as Notre-Dame Cathedral or simply Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral in Paris that is widely considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture. Notre Dame is among the largest and best-known church buildings in the Catholic Church in France, and in the world.

 

Family photo in front of Notre Dame.
This spectacular stained glass in Notre Dame dates back to the 1300s.
Notre Dame.
We found our good friend, Georgia Darell, in Paris! She led our Catacombs tour in Rome 2 years ago. It was fantastic to meet up again, and she provided us with an exceptional tour.

After the Notre Dame tour, we went out to coffee with Georgia. It was so funny–our youngest son, Fin, 11, kept falling asleep while sitting upright in his chair at the cafe. We are all a little sleep-deprived and jet-lagged still, not to mention my FitBit reports 10 miles today.

While walking to meet up for our cruise on the Seine, we admired the spectacular Hôtel de Ville de Paris, and various street performers. We walked all the way around the hotel to admire it. The Hôtel has been the seat of the Paris City Council since 1357. The current building, with a neo-renaissance style, was built by architects Théodore Ballu and Edouard Deperthes on the site of the former Hôtel de Ville which burnt down during the Paris Commune in 1871.

We ended our day of sightseeing in Paris with a cruise on the Seine River.x

We ended our day of sightseeing in Paris with a cruise on the Seine River. The Seine is a 483-mile-long river and an important commercial waterway within the Paris Basin in the north of France. It flows through Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre (and Honfleur on the left bank). It is navigable by ocean-going vessels as far as Rouen, 75 miles from the sea.

Within Paris, there are 37 bridges that cross the Seine, including the Pont Alexandre III and Pont Neuf, the latter of which dates back to 1607. From the Seine, we enjoyed great views of all of the City’s major attractions.

The Eiffel Tower is the world famous wrought iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower from 1887-89. Constructed from 1887–89 as the entrance to the 1889 World’s Fair, the Eiffel Tower was initially criticized by some of France’s leading artists and intellectuals for its design, but it has become a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. (The Eiffel Tower is the most-visited paid monument in the world, with almost 7 million visitors/year.)

Eiffel Tower.

After the river cruise, our middle son, Hayden, took the leadership for figuring out which Metro routes we would need to take to return to our apartment. He did a great job, and we made it home after 7 stops on one Metro, and 2 final stops on the next.  Upon returning to our flat, the boys lovingly suggested that we get them dinner in, and we head out. They didn’t have to twist our arm, so Jerry and I headed to a nearby sidewalk cafe, where all of our culinary needs were met. 🙂

Everything I needed after the full day.

We are writing daily in our family journal, and by all indications from today, and each of our family member’s journal entries, it is fair to say we love Paris. What a magical day in the City of Lights.

By the way, for two nights in a row, I have been awakened at around 3:45am. What woke me up? Silence. It’s only brief here, and at least from what we can gather from our flat, Paris sleeps for about 30 minutes and it’s from 3:45am-4:15am. 🙂  It is fun to be in such a lively, energized city.

Hayden, meeting a locked door to the World’s oldest basketball court, in Paris. (It’s closed for renovations.)

Our final day was supposed to include a tour of the Catacombs of Paris, which we were so looking forward to. However, the workers are on Strike so that tour was a No Go. (We feel lucky that we toured the Catacombs in Rome a couple of years ago, so we at least have an idea for the kind of experience we missed.) And even though we’re bummed, after talking to locals, we understand the workers’ concerns.

We made the best of it by sleeping in late, walking all over and exploring areas of Paris we hadn’t yet explored, found a “street piano” for Wolf to play, toured a mall, found epic gelato at Amorino, and swung another strike when, in the interest of our son, Hayden, we found the location of the world’s oldest basketball court. And – you guessed it–it was not to be. It is currently closed for renovations.

We consoled ourselves by treating ourselves to a dozen Ladurée macarons – the best in Paris!

Wolf Googled “street piano,” and we found this one in a mall.

We are chillin’ in our flat and will treat ourselves to a final French dinner before closing in at a reasonable hour. Tomorrow we depart, super early, for Madrid, as we start to orient toward the main event of this Epic trip – our Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, which will begin in a few more days.

Thanks for reading! Merci!

 

Epic yum x 12. Macarons Ladurée.
All is well when you find epic gelato!

Here are some video captures from scenes in Paris:

Filed Under: Family, Frontier Life, Life and Leadership, Travel & Tourism Tagged With: baguette, eiffel tower, epic family adventure, epic paris, epic spain, france, notre dame, paris, seine river, the louvre, wyoming johnson family

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About Shelli

Hi. My name is Shelli Johnson. I live on the frontier in Lander, Wyoming. I’m a wife, a mother, an entrepreneur, certified life/leadership coach, wellness coach, keynote presenter and inspired speaker, leadership development facilitator, personal development strategist, writer and adventure guide. This blog mostly includes stories about adventures and travel, but other passions are reading/books, technology, fitness, nutrition, and national parks, so you’ll find a wide range of articles here. I am founder of Yellowstone Journal and YellowstonePark.com, and NationalParkTrips.com, which was my first business. My current company, Epic Life Inc., is in its 7th year, and going gangbusters. If you’re interested in learning more about my current work, I hope you’ll jump over there and learn more about that. I have a more personal blog, more directly related to life and living and leadership, at YourEpicLife.com/blog. I’d love it if you’d also check out that collection of my writings. Thank you for stopping by! Finally, if you’d like to connect with me directly, please email me if you’d like to connect.

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