Monday, July 29, 2019 Markina To The Monastery Of Zenarruza

I got a great nights sleep 😴 in my private room at the Alburgue Pitis in Markina. I got up and was out the door at 7:30 AM and had a very pleasant walk out of town. This is an abandoned rock quarry on the outskirts of town.

As you can see from this picture it is a beautiful blue bird day. The rain in Northern Spain has apparently gone away for now.

Recumbent exercise bikes in a park on the outskirts of Markina.

I figured I needed some exercise so I put my pack down, sat on one of the recumbent bikes and started pedaling. As I was pedaling I looked down at the bottom of my pack and what did I see?

That green tab is the tab you pull to open the compartment where the backpack’s built in rain cover is stored. I walked Thursday, Friday and Saturday in the rain cursing my replacement backpack because it did not have a rain cover. I am such a moron! I didn’t even bother to look on the bottom of the backpack to see if it had a rain cover. I just assumed it did not. You know what they say about assumptions and the people that make assumptions. Well, at least I will be better prepared when we get our next stretch of rain.

I saw this graffiti spray painted on a wall in an underpass.

Encouraging message as I almost always walk alone.

In previous posts I have emphasized the importance of following the yellow arrows in order to stay on the Camino.

The CDN is so well marked that only a moron could miss a marker at a junction and start walking off the Camino. If you have been following this blog, and you should be following this blog, you know that on Saturday this moron missed a Camino marker at a junction and took the wrong trail. Quoting from the lyrics of an old Britney Spears song, “Oops, I did it again.”

I was walking along the Camino just outside Markina and I came to a junction on the trail. I could go left and walk alongside a beautiful little creek.

Or I could turn to the right where the trail went almost straight uphill. Last night I read in my guidebook that on the outskirts of Markina the Camino steeply ascends to the top of a ridge. The trail to the right looked like it steeply ascended to what I imagined would be the top of some sort of ridge. Based on this fact alone and ignoring the fact that I did not see a Camino marker or yellow arrow directing me to take the right hand path, I turned right and started to bushwhack up this goat trail. I kept climbing for 15 minutes. There were no Camino markers on this trail, and I use the term trail loosely, and no yellow arrows on the trees. The path was overgrown with grass and thorn bushes. I have no idea why it took me 15 minutes to figure out that I may be off the Camino, but I finally stopped and took out my phone and checked my GPS Camino App. Sure enough, the GPS Camino App clearly showed that I was not even close to the Camino.

As I turned around to walk back down to the trail junction I ran into an Eastern European guy and his son walking up the path. I stopped him and showed him my App and told him this path was not the Camino. He didn’t speak or understand English and I didn’t speak or understand whatever language he was speaking so it was a little difficult for us to communicate. I don’t think the father understood that I was telling him he was off the Camino, but his teenage son seemed to understand me. The father insisted that they continue to bushwhack along the goat path. The kid pitched a fit and pleaded with his father to turn back. I decided to continue my journey back down to the trail junction and give them some space to work out their father/son squabble.

As I walked down the trail I slipped and fell into a thorn bush. I now have a few souvenir scars on my legs to commemorate this Camino.

After I spent a minute or two sitting in the thorn bush cursing a blue streak, using language no true Pilgrim should ever use on the Camino, I got up and picked the thorns out of my legs, arms and hands. I then proceeded to CAREFULLY continue my walk down the hill to the trail junction.

After a few hundred yards I ran into a couple of Frenchwomen who were bushwhacking uphill. I showed them my App and they figured out right away that they were not on the Camino. They were so grateful and showered me with Mercis and Merci Beaucoups. We proceeded to elephant walk down the hill until we got to the bottom and the trail junction. I am embarrassed to admit that at the trail junction there was not one, but two Camino markers pointing to the left. I have no idea how I missed these two Camino markers. I need to stop walking HUA.

I am not the only one that gets lost. The Swiss Air Force has a demonstration flight team, the Patrouille Suisse, kinda like the Thunderbirds or the Blue Angels. The Swiss say that this demonstration flight team showcases the performance, capacity, precision and operational readiness of the Swiss Air Force. A couple of weeks ago the Swiss demonstration flight team was scheduled to do a show over Langenbruck to honor a guy by the name of Bider who was the first Swiss aviator to fly both ways across the Alps. The planes that the Swiss demonstration team flies are so old that they are not equipped with GPS navigation systems. Apparently, the pilots got lost and instead of doing their aerobatic show over Langenbruck, they would up in the next valley over from Langenbruck and did their demonstration flight over a yodeling festival. True story.

The next town I encountered on my journey today was Bolivar, named after the famous General Simon Bolivar. This is Simon Bolivar.

The town of Bolivar has a Bolivar Museum but it was closed.

The guidebook said that Bolivar has a supermarket and a restaurant. Unfortunately these were both closed. That is a shame because I had planned on eating an early lunch in Bolivar.

Beautiful countryside as I walked from Bolivar to the Monastery de Zenarruza.

I finally got to the Monastery de Zenarruza at about noon.

This is the cloister at the Monastery.

I was hungry and I was hoping the monks at the monastery would have something for a tired and hungry Pilgrim to eat. They had nothing to eat but they had a cooler full of ice cold monk brewed craft beer🍺.

I hoisted a few of these very potent brewskis and took a nap on a bench right outside the chapel. After an hour or so, the sound of a melodious Gregorian chant roused me from my slumber. I peeked inside the chapel where the monks were conducting afternoon vespers. Quiet as a mouse, I crept into the chapel and stayed for the entire 15 minute vesper service. It was in Spanish so I didn’t understand much of it, but I was moved by it nonetheless. While the monks were singing vespers I said a prayer for Anna and everyone else on my prayer list. This is the altarpiece in the chapel at the Monastery.

Three thirty rolled around and we all checked into the alburgue at the Monastery. It was a strange check in. The head monk stamped our Pilgrim credentials and then showed us the two dorm rooms and left us to scramble for an open bunk bed. At about 5:00 he came back and told us vespers were at 7:30 and dinner was at 8:00. Usually they ask for a donation at these religious alburgues. Maybe the monks will do that at dinner.

This is our bunk room. Notice the three tiered bunk beds. Thank God I got a bed on the ground floor!