The Spirit flies again

April - May 2021
From the southern tip of Portugal to Santiago. Read more
  • 87footprints
  • 3countries
  • 57days
  • 610photos
  • 15videos
  • 1.0kkilometers
  • Day 56

    I dedicate this Camino to Gregor

    May 28, 2021 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    I dedicate this camino to Gregor.
    And to the hero's around Gregor
    Some day he might look into this Photobook which I will print, and see written down, and in photos what incredible joy his coming brought to me and others.

    The last picture taken on the way to Finisterre shows a pilgrim battling on in the rain and wind, a symbol for the endurance of humans when they have something they believe in which lights their fire.
    May Gregor have this resilence and may he find his belief, his Fire and source of energy to take him through his life and have an impact on this world.

    In love 😍
    May God bless him ❤
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  • Day 56

    So, this is the end of my journey!

    May 28, 2021 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    So, this is the end of my journey!
    54 days and 950km's
    I am sitting here on a rock at FINISTERRE, the place where in the middle ages pilgrims came to burn their clothes and start a new life, and where the wold, as it was defined at the time, ended.
    For me, today, my Camino of 2018, of which the last 800kms were walked with Emmanuelle from Marseille, ends here today, and also somehow a new life begins.
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  • Day 55

    My last morning

    May 27, 2021 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    As I walk this morning, I realize that these are the last 10 km's of this trip. My last camino forest paths and costal views.
    A sadness fills me. Something comes to an end, something new begins.
    As I walk this morning I am again listening to "the five invitations" by Frank Ostaseski from the San Francisco Zen Hospice project on life and death. Through the trees I see the sea as he reads on "compassion" and "Empathy" and speaks the words:
    "Each of us is an Individual wave, absolutely unique, and yet inseparable from the whole, all in the same ocean".
    These words go deep.
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  • Day 55

    Muxia, an anticlimax

    May 27, 2021 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Whenever I meet Spaniards, they tell me I have to go to Muxia and see the "Nossa signora da baxa", a chapel dedicated to the protection of boats and sailors, built on rocks overlooking the sea with many boat models in the church.
    As with 99% of the churches on this camino it was barred and locked!
    1n 2018 I once asked a Priest in Spain why all the churches were locked, the answer was to stop stealing. My answer was, then put the things in a museum! What good is a church that does everything to keep people out. This is a place for reflection and quiet and needs to be accessible at all times. Interestingly enough, in France 90% of the churches were open at all times and were a place I often went to to meditate.
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  • Day 54

    The fragalisticexpialidocious machine

    May 26, 2021 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    Yes, I found it!
    The "SUPER CALA FRAGA LISTIC EXPIALIDOCIOUS" machine that Mary Poppins had in her bag, that made it possible to pull a whole living room out of her bag. There it was, simply standing next to the road!Read more

  • Day 52

    What am I grateful for?

    May 24, 2021 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    I've been.walking for 51 days and nearly 950kms now. By the time I finish it will be 1000km. That is a lot of time for thinking, singing, swearing suffering, and screaming at the weather and at the tarred roads.
    I started this trip after Easter and a long period of fasting to get my head and thoughts free, to get out of the insanity of our World at present.
    This Camino is not a religious thing for me, but it definitely is a spiritual journey!

    Time to reflect on the world, on myself and my life.
    It has helped me sort out my fear of the economic crisis that is heading toward us and to identify how I want to meet it.
    It has helped me take farewell from relationships that are no longer in my life and deepen those that are central to me.

    It has given me the.space to reflect on death and suffering and has thus helped me to live even fuller, as if every moment could be the last.
    It has once again let me become aware and astound at the beauty of god's creation, but also become aware of what humans are doing to this creation.

    It has given me the gift of encounter with Carina the Portuguese who walked with me for a few days, with the bubbling, lively Stefania, (Miss beep beep road runner) from Italy, It has given me the encounter Miguel Antade who started the hostel in Porto, the encounter with Ruth and Dietmar from Tamera and the wonderful meeting with Fernanda from Casa Fernanda and Diego and Julia from the Quinta Estrada Romana. These were deep experiences that will stay in my heart.

    As I walk these days I am listening to the newest book of Veit Lindau: "GENESIS". Once again Veit has totally surprised me. He did this with "Liebe Radikal", which had a profound impact on how I see myself, my role as a man, and was the impulse to sort out my issues with my father and my mother and to look into the topic of death and our passing.
    He again surprised me with "Die Königin und der Samurai", and now once again with "Genesis".
    Without 100% co-creation between men and women we have no chance of Solving the problems of this world. The expansive masculine energy of "LOGOS", unbalanced by the intuitive feminin energy of "EROS" (Not to be misunderstood with the limited sexual sense), has brought the world to where it is.
    "GENESIS" calls upon women to become aware of their immense strength and unique intuitive intelligence and to bring this energy into the world.
    On men Veit calls to stop suppressing their masculine energy of "LOGOS", and bring it into harmony with "EROS" the feminin energy in each of us, and put it at the service of the world. The book calls upon both sexes to become aware of and free the suppressed "dark" side of our personalities to once again become whole.
    The way Veit reads ithe book is incredibly inspiring and I can totally recommend it to both man and woman.
    A must read!

    This prayer of Saint Franciscus came up in the book and touched me deeply:

    Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
    Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
    Where there is offence, let me bring pardon.
    Where there is discord, let me bring union.
    Where there is error, let me bring truth.
    Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
    Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
    Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
    Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
    O Master, let me not seek as much
    to be consoled as to console,
    to be understood as to understand,
    to be loved as to love,
    for it is in giving that one receives,
    it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
    it is in pardoning that one is pardoned,
    it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life
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  • Day 51

    Arrived! But in a wrong world!

    May 23, 2021 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Arriving in Santiago today I was depressed. Depressed because I am alone and have a deep longing for more than the superficial "hello, where do you come from?"
    I am longing for true, deep, meaningful conversation, where I touch someone's heart and they touch mine.
    Depressed because the world is going crazy. I see lovers with masks kissing each others necks because they can't take the mask off,
    I see joggers with masks, mountainbikers with masks and finally pilgrims walking their pilgrimage through fields and allies with masks.
    I experience people walking through nature and when they notice me, they pull their mask up. And then there are small children, 5 years old, swinging on the Swing with masks!
    I see terrified people everywhere!
    This morning when I arrived at the cathedral for the pilgrims Mass, I was turned away because they only allow 25% of the previous numbers into the mass.
    "THE PANDEMIE" I am told.

    And then I am depressed because politicians are printing money like crazy (+ 15% in Europe in 2020, +20% in USA.)
    And then I constantly hear stories of supply chains collapsing and prices rising dramatically (such as building materials).
    What is coming towards us?
    The rich are getting richer and the tiny pensions of the poor are disappearing. (In Portugal agricultural pensioners are getting 250 euros per month)
    Again and again I gather myself, gather my energy, try to keep it up. And then something happens, and I am back at the bottom.
    And yet,
    Today I took a hotel room, the one I had in 2018 November and allowed myself a jacuzzi in the afternoon.
    Tomorrow, I continue my journey to Finisterre, the traditional End of the Camino and will thus also end my Camino of 2018.
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  • Day 50

    put, put, splutter, put! End of energy!

    May 22, 2021 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Yesterday, I was in an incredible flow walking nearly 40 km late into the evening.
    Then 7 km before Santiago the energy suddenly disapeared and my mood changed, and a slight depression set in as I dragged myself to the next hostel.
    Walking such distances doesn't do me good. Pain in my hips and knees during the night were the result.
    So today I head into Santiago and this journey comes to an end.
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