Memorial Fiertel Walk

No hashing today, but we did gather for a 32 km hike up north of Bangkok for a special event, as follows from our organizer.

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Occasion: Memorial Fiertel Walk.
History: In the beginning, there was darkness…

LadyBoy (aka me), as you are well aware, was born in Ronse, Belgium (Google it). Ronse is an OLD city, on the southern border of Flanders. It is supposed to have Roman roots. It certainly has Spanish influence, as they have tortillas! But we digress.

The patron Saint (Flanders is Catholic) of the city is St. Hermes (also the patron saint of the mentally challenged, aka possessed by the devil). It is his bones that are being carried around the city every year, in a shrine, on a tour around the city. This tour goes from chapel to chapel and is followed by thousands of people. This route is on the hilltops that surround the city.

LadyBoy’s grandfather carried the shrine (bones) for over 60 years. His uncle (who is now 95 years old - and passed away last year) has beaten the record of his father and was still doing some of the carrying till 2 years ago.

The route around the city is 32 km. The city is situated in a valley, where the procession starts and stops. The procession ends with the shrine being carried into the city, accompanied by a group of people re-enacting some historical scenes. The high point is when the devil himself is being led down the hill into the city, guarded by a Roman soldier!

Oh … I did forget the “belleman”. He walks the funny walk and rings the bells in front of the shrine.

LadyBoy has done quite a few of these strolls, when he was younger, usually with his family.

Now the history lesson ends, with this last bit of information.
Five years ago, the father of LadyBoy passed away, a few days before the Fiertel was scheduled. That was somehow for the Vandenhoucke family a sign that we had to do the 32 km Fiertel in honor of his passing away. That is how another tradition started.

In Conclusion. You are all invited to join me on the walk. Date and time in the header. Hope to see you all.
LadyBoy - Aka Peter.

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And so we did, about a dozen of us joined Peter for what took us about 7 hours to complete. We started in the blazing sun, along with a couple hours of overcast . . . then the last hour or so was in the rain. But there was plenty of beer to keep our throats from getting too dry.Baca lagi