La Gran Aventura Day 110: Pamplona to St Jean Pied de Port

Saturday, March 30, 2024

This morning we were up pretty early and packing for the Camino. It was so good to spend time with Gorka and Miren. They are great people, and Betty and the kids and I just had a great time visiting with them. We will miss them for sure.

I have had quite a lot of anxiety related to these first few moments on the Camino. Basically, they boiled down to a couple of things. First of all, I had this recurring thought that in the pilgrim’s office they would turn us away because we had River with us. Or at least I worried they would try to tell me I was crazy.

That fear turned out to be totally unfounded. The woman who attended us, Margarethe, was super nice, and she was great with the kids. She didn’t seemed bothered at all that we were doing this. I was so grateful I could have cried.

My second fear was that we wouldn’t be able to find a place to stay the night. The first place Margarethe recommended was the municipal albergue (hostel), which had been my plan all along. We ended up getting our own room with five beds in it. Alicia and River are going to share, and Ian and I will. Our accommodations are about as good as I could have hoped for.

My third biggest concern was the hike to Roncesvalles. We have wanted to do the Napoleonic route for a while, but it’s sixteen miles and really tough. I have worried for a long time about doing it, but wasn’t sure what the alternative would be.

Margarethe told us that at this time of year it’s impossible to get across that way. Even if it was open, which it’s not, it’s just too dangerous. So we will be taking the route through Valcarlos. But the second half of that way -- the toughest part of it -- is all along the highway, and she said she couldn’t really recommend it to us. So we are going to hike to Valcarlos (about seven miles) and then take a bus to Roncesvalles. It means our first day will be totally doable. And it’s Easter Sunday, so we will be in Roncesvalles with plenty of time to relax and worship.

The Lord really has provided the best possible first day for us.

In the afternoon we settled into our room and then walked to the store and got some food for dinner (yogurt and fruit) and lunch tomorrow (bocadillos). Then I took the kids on a sunset hike up to the citadel. It was amazing.

Now we are just trying to settle down so we can get an early start on the day tomorrow.

Click here for full pictures and video

La Gran Aventura Day 109: Pamplona

Friday, March 29, 2024

Today was perhaps the laziest day we have had on this trip. We slept in, and we mostly just hung around the house, visited, ate some simple but yummy food, watched a movie, the kids played video games, we all played some card games, and I had a big nap. In the evening we went for a little walk outside.

During that walk, I had the opportunity to chat with Ian. We were talking about how one of the keys to great communication and healthy relationships is trying to imagine another person’s point of view. He told me that it reminded him of a chapter in the book The Phantom Tollbooth called “It’s All in How You Look at Things.” The more talked the more I thought: I’ve got to read this book. So it’s on my reading list now.

And I bought bus tickets to St Jean Pied de Port. We will be there tomorrow afternoon.

This is all becoming very real. Alicia told me the other day that she has butterflies like when she is standing on the starting line of a race. I feel the same way. The anticipation is palpable. I’m trying not to let it cause me anxiety. I am just really excited to get things going.

This epic adventure is about to change pace quickly. We will be slowing down a lot.

Click here for full pictures and videos

La Gran Aventura Day 108: Barcelona to Pamplona

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Last night just before bed I realized I had not yet reserved our tickets for the train today. The Eurail system is a bit weird in that for some trains you have to pay a bit to reserve your seat on a train. And sometimes you can do it online and sometimes you can’t. Well last night I couldn’t.

So this morning I woke up at 5:30am and headed into Barcelona (about a 45 min trip) to the train station to get our reservations. When I go there and said I wanted to go to Pamplona the guy said it’s going to be tough because it’s a holiday weekend. Then when I told him there are seven of us he told me that’s going to be impossible.

But after looking around we found a train from Barcelona to Zaragoza and then another from Zaragoza to Pamplona. It was a tender mercy.

I headed back to the house, and we packed up and cleaned up the house a bit, and then we headed out. I wanted to show the kids some more of the city, but Betty has already seen it. So we dropped her and River off to hang out at the train station, and I took the kids to see the Sagrada Familia. We didn’t go inside, but I was able to teach them a bit about Gaudi and some of the symbolism of the church. Then we hopped on the metro and went over to Passeig de Gracia to see La Pedrera and Casa Batlló, two of Gaudi’s best houses in the city.

And from there we went down and got some lunch at the Boquería. Just outside, on the Ramblas, the human statues were out so we went over to see. A Don Quijote statue gave the kids a jump scare we will never forget. Alicia was in tears!

After that it was back to the train station just in time for the trip out.

That was all pretty uneventful.

The weather up here is definitely different. Colder and cloudy.

We are all feeling a bit nervous about the next stage of this. Alicia had kind of a little mini breakdown as we were getting to our friends’ house this evening. She’s just tired and a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of hiking to Santiago. So she had a good cry and then we got to Gorka and Miren’s house, and she had so much fun visiting with them. They are definitely angels for us right now. We are going to take couple of days to rest, and then we will be ready to hit the trail.

Click here for full photos and video

La Gran Aventura Day 107: Claudia and Carlos

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

This morning I woke up with just one thought: I need to make my pack much lighter. Everyone does.

So we all packed up our bags and decided to send away our air mattresses. On the Camino we will be in hostels or hotels, so we will have beds. I also sent my camera bag. It takes up a lot of room in my backpack. And some weight. It ended up being about 15 combined pounds. I’m feeling better. Betty can really tell a difference in her pack.

Other than that we spent the morning kind of resting and straightening out the house.

In the afternoon we went to visit Betty’s dear friend, Claudia. They were church friends in Mexico, and now Claudia lives here with her husband Carlos. They are both awesome people, and we had a great time visiting with them and their little girls. They also have a big park in front of their house, and we went and spent some time there so the kids could run around. It was really fun.

I was fascinated watching the Pakistani and other immigrants playing cricket. It’s something I’d never seen in person and never for sure in Spain.

We spent quite a bit of time with Carlos and Claudia, and we ate well. They made hamburgers, which made Ian very happy. It was a really lovely evening, and a great way to spend a rest day.

Click here for full photos and video

La Gran Aventura Day 106: Barcelona

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

This morning I woke up pretty early and got to work fixing up the blog. I ran some calculations and found some interesting stats.

Since this trip began we have driven over 6,400 miles in a car. We have flown over 4,700 miles, and we have traveled over 3,400 miles in train. That’s a total of over 14,500 miles.

We have visited 8 different LDS wards and 15 temples -- six in Europe. We’ve done all of this while sleeping in 13 different houses and spending only two nights in hotels -- those were driving back and forth from Michigan to Utah. We have slept one night in temple housing and two nights in a Catholic Church in Rome. It will take some time after it’s all said and done for everything to sink in.

Today I had the great blessing of showing my kids one of my most favorite cities: Barcelona. We took a train in from Sant Boi to Drassanes. It’s the same journey I took for a month when I was studying Catalan here 16 years ago. We saw the Columbus statue and I gave the kids a crash course on Catalan history. Then we walked up the Ramblas, a beautiful walking street filled with street vendors of all kinds: artists, jewelers, flower sellers, etc. Our first main stop was the Boqueria -- one of Europes oldest and best markets. We took maybe an hour walking through all of the stalls and taking in the different sights and sounds and even smells. In the end we got some fresh juice and candy for the kids. River loves gummy candies so we took a few minutes to give her birthday a little extra celebration.

Then we just went for a nice walk up the Ramblas to Plaça de Catalunya and then down through the Barri Gotic by the Palau de la Música Catalana and then to the Cathedral, the Plaça de Sant Jaume, and then to the Roman Temple d’August. And finally to my favorite church in Barcelona: Santa Maria del Mar, which we went inside and were even able to climb up to the roof.

We finished everything off with patates braves (spicy potatoes) and pa amb tomaquet (bread with olive oil and tomatoes) and croquetes. It was a great day.

We headed back to the house where we relaxed, talked, watched tv, and had a great seminary lesson.

We read the verse in Mosiah that says that if we keep the commandments we are blessed in ALL things, both temporal and spiritual. And then we talked about the interesting questions that scripture brings up.

We know that there are people who have kept the commandments of God and it does not appear they are blessed in all things. They may be sick or struggle financially. Or they might have a child leave the covenant path. So either one of three things is going on.

  1. Those people with challenges in their lives are not keeping the commandments.

  2. The scripture is simply not true.

  3. We misunderstand what it means to be blessed in all things.

For me there is only possible answer.

So we talked about what it might mean to be blessed in all things. That led us to talk about how the purpose of life is to grow to become more like God. And growth only happens when we are challenged. So the greatest blessing God could give us would not be comfort, but opportunities to grow. And when we keep the commandments, he gives us opportunities to grow in all areas of our life. It’s similar to what we discussed when we talked about the Liahona. It leads us to growth, not comfort.

It was a good talk for us to have because honestly we are all panicking a bit about this last stage of our journey. It’s going to be an intense opportunity to grow.

Click here for full photos and video

La Gran Aventura Day 105: River’s Birthday and Rome to Barcelona

Monday, March 25, 2024

First things first. Today is River’s fourth birthday. It’s crazy to think how isolated she was for her first year or so of life because of Covid. We are definitely making up for that now.

She has been really great on this trip. She just follows around and does whatever we are doing. And when we see a park, we try to let her run around a bit. I’m so glad she is here. I can’t imagine the trip without her.

Today was perhaps the easiest travel day we have ever had. We woke up really early and tried to be as quiet as possible packing up and getting out of the church. From there it was a short walk to hop on a bus to the airport. The airport was a breeze, and we had lots of time to sit on the floor and eat some breakfast.

It’s just a couple of hours on the plane from Rome to Barcelona, and then a bus ride from the airport to Sant Boi, where Elsa and Chris live.

We are sad they aren’t here to hang out with, but we are so grateful they have let us stay in their home for a few days.

Betty is particularly exhausted. She spent most of the afternoon just sleeping. She needed it.

We will try to get into the city, but I really don’t want to wear people out here. We hope to start hiking by the weekend, so we want to take a couple of days to recharge our batteries.

Click here for full pictures and videos

La Gran Aventura Day 104: Rome!

Sunday, March 24, 2024

Well, I can’t say we slept great. Our $35 Amazon mattresses are ok, but not great. And I think it was just a bit weird for the kids to be sleeping in a church -- with its dim light, old smell, and strange sounds. In the evening we could hear the bells tolling and the priests shuffling around in their quarters. I think we all thought for a minute there might be ghosts in there.

Our main goal for today was to see the Rome temple. Unfortunately, it is closed for cleaning now, so we won’t be able to do any ordinances, but we are able to visit the grounds and the visitors center and go to church.

One thing about the Rome temple, is that it is not in Rome. The same could be said about the other temples in Europe. London is about an hour outside of London, Paris isn’t in Paris. The same is true for Frankfurt or Rome.

Rome was particularly hard for us to get to. Saint Eusebius is about as close to the main train station as you can get, but it still takes about an hour on the bus to get there in the best circumstances. It took us longer than we had anticipated to get our bus tickets and get on the right bus, but eventually we made it -- about two hours after we left where we were staying.

What the Rome temple lacks in convenience, it more than makes up for in beauty. It’s stunning. Just amazing. And the visitors center is great as well. We spent a lot of time chatting with the sister missionaries there, and by the time we were done, they were exchanging emails with the girls so that the missionaries can receive the girls’ updates while we are on the trip.

(By the way, Alicia’s weekly letters have inspired me to invite the other kids to write updates. If you’d like to be on their email list let me know).

This temple tour has really been something else. In just three weeks we have been to the Paris, Holland, London, Frankfurt, Switzerland, and Rome temples.

Sacrament meeting was nice, but I think we were all a bit too tired to really enjoy it -- and it was in Italian.

The bus ride back was about as complicated as the ride out. And we stopped halfway to get some food. Everyone was very tired, and that generally means grumpy. But we had a good talk and I think got things sorted.

One big question was what to do with the rest of the day.

I didn’t want to leave Rome without taking a nice walk through the city and seeing some of the great monuments that are here. But I knew everyone was tired, so we counseled about it, and I offered to let anyone stay home who wanted to rest. Everyone told me they wanted in.

So we took the bus and then train all the way to Vatican City and then took a long stroll from St Peter’s to Castel, Sant’Angelo (Hadrian’s tomb), Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, the Temple of Hadrian, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps (another Mission Impossible moment), and we finished with San Pietro en Vincoli -- where Michelangelo’s Moses statue is, and where we arrived just as they were closing. We barely got it.

My thoughts on Rome. For art and architecture, it’s incredible. Just one of the things I just mentioned would be the jewel of any other city in the world. To have it all in one place is mind blowing. But the crowds in Rome were also totally overwhelming. Most piazzas were wall-to-wall people. It was difficult to even see anything. And it’s tough navigating all of that with kids.

So Rome was sort of a mixed bag. But I would definitely come back. I want to go inside many of these places -- especially St Peter’s.

From San Pietro in Vincoli it was just a bit further to a grocery store where we got some food, and then we headed home to eat and pack.

As we ate, I asked the kids what they have learned or how they feel they have grown so far on this trip. Their answers were all great. They are learning to be tough, to not be anxious in big cities and crowds, to take care of their stuff, and to be OK when things don’t go as planned. I liked Betty’s answer the best, though. She quoted from President Hinckley who quoted Jenkin Loyd Jones with the following:

Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he’s been robbed. The fact is that most putts don’t drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow up to be just ordinary people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. . . .

Life is like an old-time rail journey—delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.

Also, today I’ve really been feeling stressed about the next stage of the journey. There is a part of me that wants to get hiking on the Camino now. This train travel has been amazing, but the Camino beckons. The sooner we get started on it, the sooner we will finish. There is another part of me that wants to show the kids Spain. And there is another part that wants to wait as long as possible to start so that the weather can improve. Rain is forecast for every day this week.

A couple of really important things happened today that helped me out. First of all, I was able to get in contact with my friend Gorka, who lives in Pamplona, very near the start of the Camino. He said we can stay with him and his family before we start.

Then, on a whim I contacted my friend Elsa, who served in the Madrid mission at the same time I did. I stayed with her and her husband Chris while I was staying in Barcelona studying Catalan years ago.

Anyway, right before bed I got a message from Elsa saying that they are going to Madrid to the temple this week, and we can stay in their home in Barcelona as long as we like this week.

That means we can spend some time showing the kids Barcelona -- a city Betty and I love -- and we can have a few days of rest before we start hiking -- and we can wait out this rainstorm a bit. I can’t adequately express what a relief it is to me. It is the tenderest of tender mercies.

Click here for photos and videos of the whole day

La Gran Aventura Day 103: Vicenza to Rome

Saturday, March 23, 2024

This morning I woke up and read this:

You may have noticed that many new temples have been announced in recent years, bringing temples ever closer to members. Paradoxically, as temples become more accessible, it may be easier for us to become more casual about temple attendance. When temples are distant, we plan our time and resources to travel to the temple to worship there. We prioritize these journeys.

With a temple close at hand, it can be easy to let little things get in the way of attending, saying to ourselves, “Well, I’ll just go another time.” Living close to a temple does bring greater flexibility in scheduling time in the temple, but that very flexibility can make it easier to take the temple for granted. When we do, we “miss the mark,” undervaluing the opportunity to draw closer to the Savior in His holy house. Our commitment to attend should be at least as strong when the temple is nearby as when it is distant.

Dale G. Renlund. Jesus Christ is the Treasue

I think this points out one of the benefits of pilgrimage and sacred travel, which is that when you make a journey to a sacred place -- especially a difficult one -- you appreciate that place so much more. You pay more attention to the details of the experience. You notice the smell of a place. You remember the faces of the people you meet. I think one of the great challenges of modern life -- even modern life in the church -- is that we don’t appreciate the things that come easy. And most things come so easily to us.

It was a good thought to start the day.

We got a later start than usual, and we enjoyed our Italian pastry breakfast (generously provided by Lisa and Delwyn) a little too long. And before we knew it we were rushing out the door knowing we would have only a few minutes to get our train at the station. If ever we wanted a train to be delayed, it was today.

When we pulled up to the station in Padua, I sent Kimball and Ian to check what platform we were on and if the train was delayed. And thankfully, it was.

It was another of the thousand tender mercies we have seen on this trip.

Before I leave Vicenza, I want to say how grateful Betty and I are for Lisa and Delwyn and Lela for letting us stay in their house. Like Dinah and Dave in Paris, or Grant and Emma in London, they don’t know us at all. And they didn’t just open their home, they really took care of us. We had a wonderful time with them and only wish we could have stayed longer.

The train ride to Rome was pretty uneventful, but that’s how I like them.

Rome itself is another story.

In Rome we had arranged to stay in the church of Saint Eusebius, which is one of the oldest Christian churches in Rome. It’s right by the Termini bus station. We were able to do this thanks to our friends Anna and Lorenzo -- who both work at Hillsdale College and are native Italians. Lorenzo knew Don Maurizio, the priest at Saint Eusebius, and he was the one who contacted him and arranged for our stay.

So we walked from the train station to the church, and then we just buzzed in. Maurizio came out, and he was accompanied by another priest, Don Paolo, who is Italian but also speaks Spanish (Maurizio doesn’t speak Spanish or English, and we don’t speak Italian). They were both so kind and warm, and they showed us where we could stay. It was in some school rooms where they teach the kids catechism in the upstairs and back of the church. There were no beds, but we have sleeping pads and bags, so we were OK. There was a bathroom with a shower. It wasn’t fancy, but it was definitely an experience we will never forget.

Staying in the church gave us a great opportunity to talk with the kids about why we are doing this whole thing. Up until now this trip has been mostly about visiting LDS temples, but starting here, things are going to get really Catholic. The question has come up many times: why are we, a Latter-Day Saint family, doing this super Catholic pilgrimage? The best answer I know comes from Brigham Young:

It is our duty and calling, as ministers of the same salvation and Gospel, to gather every item of truth and reject every error. Whether a truth be found with professed infidels, or with the Universalists, or the Church of Rome, or the Methodists, the Church of England, the Presbyterians, the Baptists, the Quakers, the Shakers, or any other of the various and numerous different sects and parties, all of whom have more or less truth, it is the business of the Elders of this Church (Jesus, their Elder Brother, being at their head) to gather up all the truths in the world pertaining to life and salvation, to the Gospel we preach, … to the sciences, and to philosophy, wherever it may be found in every nation, kindred, tongue, and people and bring it to Zion (DBY, 248).

We are here to seek out goodness, truth, and beauty. And there is much to be found in the Catholic Church. Of course, I believe that a restoration of the gospel was necessary, and that it happened through Joseph Smith, but for centuries, the Catholic Church kept Christianity alive. I’m grateful for that, and I have learned so much that has enriched my own faith as I have spent time learning about Catholicism. And I look forward to learning even more.

After we dropped our bags and got settled a bit, we went for a walk down to the Colosseum and the Roman forum -- stopping for pizza along the way.

I’ve seen Roman theaters and amphitheaters and bridges and temples and aqueducts in Spain, but never anything on this scale. It’s the kind of thing that leaves you without words -- like looking at Zion National Park or Yosemite or Iguazú for the first time. There is just no way for the mind to take it all in, to calculate the age and significance of it all.

On the way back we stopped so River and Ian could play in a park, and then we headed home -- but not before stopping at what they say is the best and oldest gelateria (ice cream shop) in Rome: Gelateria Fassia. It was kind of an intense experience. There was a long line out the door of people. Then the first thing that happens is you get to a register and you have to order the size of ice cream you want. From there you go to the counter where they have at least a couple dozen flavors, but they aren’t marked, so you don’t know what you are looking at. You have to look at a sign that has the flavors listed, but they are all in Italian, and they aren’t all clear. All the while you know there is a huge line of people behind you, so you just kind of go for it. Thankfully, it’s some of the best ice cream I’ve ever had. The pistachio was super creamy, and had a really dull green color -- more olive than mint. It wasn’t anything like the pistachio ice cream in the States (which I also really like).

The portions were generous, and they topped everything with a generous portion of nata (whipped cream), which is super smooth and not nearly as sweet as our whipped cream.

It was a really good day.

Click here for full video and pictures