Arrived as Planned

I really did arrive at the Basilica of St Martin, in Tours, France as planned on 31 March after a fantastic 5 months of walking 5,126 kilometers (=3,185 miles).  I love being a pilgrim!  I met many wonderful people, stayed in majestic old monasteries and churches as well as in places found in small communities and family homes.

As anticipated, it was hugely difficult to find places from which to update my blog.  Countless hours were spent in the attempt, despite the pitifully few opportunities for successes.  I've got some busy travels coming up this summer but will endeavor to find a solution to make the blog function efficiently.

I appreciate the comments and interest from everyone.  The world needs more pilgrims.

Greetings from the Black Forest

One day last week, walking in falling snow on a quiet path through forests and fields, I crossed a small wooden footbridge over an swiftly flowing unmarked stream and hardly took note.  When I reached the next village, I studied a map posted in a open-air information kiosk between the church and village hall while I ate a partly frozen clementine.  The humble stream was the great Danube River.  From the delta to the omegas, the sluggish oxbows the drain collectively in the snowy Black Forest, I have walked the length of the Danube.  I reached the official source the day before yesterday and got a stamp in my book.  Including my little deviations to visit other places of interest on my pilgrimage to St Martin, my journey has so far taken me 3,681 km.

Onward to other places important to his story - Strasbourg, Worms, Trier, and Amiens... I'm easily on target to reach Tours for Easter...

   (...and it's nearly impossible to find a computer these days to update this blog - the blogging culture as evolved in the 11 years I've been a pilgrim...)

Greetings from near Budapest

Belated Merry Christmas - I was in Belgrade - and belated Happy New Year - I was in Croatia...

I've been looking hard for a computer update all along the way, but at Christmas, the warm and wonderful Petites Soeurs de Jesus had a dial-up modem... updating the blog just didn't work; then all the public buildings and most parish offices were closed for two weeks for holiday times, and well, that finished off Serbia and Croatia, and I'm now well into Hungary, and only have a few minutes in a school library before the kids arrive for computer class...

I've just passed the 2,000 kilometer mark for this pilgrimage, and now that I've entered Schengenland, the race is on to get to Tours and off the continent within 90 days.  I'm having a great time =D

The weather has been unseasonably warm, very springlike, which forces me to carry my winter clothes in my backpack and slosh through mud instead of snow.  The swans that have been keeping me company all along my Danube wanderings don't seem to mind.  I hope winter appears again - I only had one snowy week back in Romania.  Still, the scenery is tranquil and gorgeous.  Hungary is well set with pilgrim routes fairly well marked and very well supplied with information boards printed in Hungarian and in English.  Many people speak German, so communication has been getting easier.

The world needs more pilgrims...

cheers!