We arrived at our guest house in Bilbao. Just 12 hours in the air and a few hours in the airport to get to this destination. Grateful to all those who are excellent at their jobs and make this kind of travel possible. Take a guess from the pic below on what airport we flew through on our way to Spain.
On our travels it seems like folks think I look like other people. So far two have been called out….Dutch football player Wesley Sneijder and Liverpool Coach Arne Slot.
I looked at this poster on my home office door every day over the last 11 months. Lots of steps to get to this point and now the dusty footsteps of the Camino await us.
Today we head to the airport and make our way to Bilbao, Spain. After making our way to our guest house we will have a night to rest before beginning our hike. Some have asked what this Camino hike is like – here is a short description.
The Camino del Norte, also known as the Northern Way or Coastal Route, is a historic pilgrimage trail that traces the rugged and breathtakingly beautiful northern coast of Spain, from the French border in Irun to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia.
The Camino del Norte hugs the Cantabrian Sea, offering pilgrims a unique blend of coastal beauty, lush landscapes, and a more challenging, yet rewarding, terrain. It’s considered one of the more physically demanding routes, characterized by its undulating hills and frequent ascents and descents, particularly in the initial stages traversing the Basque Country and Asturias.
The route showcases a diverse array of landscapes:
Dramatic Coastline: breathtaking coastal cliffs, secluded beaches, and charming fishing villages along the Bay of Biscay.
Lush Greenery: The region is renowned as “Green Spain” due to its verdant hills, fertile valleys, and forests.
Challenging Mountains: The route’s proximity to the Cantabrian Mountains means encountering significant elevation changes and rewarding climbs with sweeping views. Beyond the stunning scenery, the Camino del Norte immerses pilgrims in the distinct cultures and traditions of the Basque Country, Cantabria, Asturias, and Galicia.
The Camino del Norte offers a more tranquil experience compared to the bustling Camino Francés, offering solitude and a deeper connection with nature and themselves. While the infrastructure might be slightly less developed than the Francés, we can still find welcoming albergues, hostels, and other accommodations along the way. The route is well-marked with the traditional yellow arrows and scallop shells, guiding the way through varying terrains.
The Camino del Norte is more than just a physical challenge; it’s a journey for the body, mind, and soul. It’s an opportunity to connect with the landscape, fellow pilgrims, and yourself, finding peace and personal growth amidst the stunning beauty of Northern Spain.
Lord willing, we will make our way to “Santiago de Compostela,” which translates to “Saint James of the Field of Stars” or “Saint James of the Well-Ordered Burial Ground”. The city holds the tomb of St. James the Greater, one of Jesus’ apostles. Pilgrims have been traveling to Santiago de Compostela for centuries to visit his shrine.
One of the funny quotes I heard Merritt say to his sisters, “I don’t know what Dad and I are going to talk about for 25 days and 416 miles.” Ha, yes son, I hope some of those miles are quiet 🤪.
Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. Travel documentation – insurance packet – financial records – online map apps – airline and hotel details – almost 150 pages of prep material from the travel company – luggage – the right amount of stuff is not too much stuff but the right stuff – blister aids and travel meds – hiking food items – backpacks – hydration packets – shoes – and………Merritt and I with almost identical packed bags – and we are almost ready to go.
We are excited and have a healthy dose of hopefulness and wonderment as we imagine taking on this challenge. 412 miles to cover of the Camino Del Norte means some good elevation work is ahead of us.
A phrase often stated on the Camino, “The Camino does not give you what you want, but it does give you what you need.” We’ll be paying attention to that as we embark on this 27 day adventure from door to door.
We’re gonna miss our family and home. What’s App will be a welcome communication tool for the month ahead.
7 years ago I did the first 100 miles and learned a lot about myself along the way. As father and son now do this one together, I am reminded that we will discover,
“I did not walk the Camino to find myself; rather I walked it to lose the pieces that were not me.”
Buen Camino.
Lord God, thank you that we are unable to save ourselves and that each time we try, we fail. Have mercy on us. Be the strength in our weakness. Clear our heads of the foolishness of believing we can be our own gods. Steer our hearts to utter dependence on you. Amen.
May the peace of Christ go with us: wherever it is that we may be sent; may he guide us through the wilderness: protect us through the storm; may he bring us home rejoicing: at the wonders that he has shown us; may he bring us home rejoicing: once again over our thresholds and into our homes.
We all had lots of stuff that needed doing today. We all spun like bees in a beehive. Norah knocking out several levels of her summer High school geometry class – Holland with a training run and clothes sorting along with being in charge of play time with Rico – Koko sorting her clothes as we bought a Habitat dresser to organize her stuff better along with experimenting on making boiled eggs to perfection and she did it! – Jewel was the master organizer and declutter Queen of her space and the garage – Merritt organized the fridge and cabinets and kitchen for the day and then as he liked to point out he rode his bike for hours and he beat everyone in an early morning game of monopoly – Susan did Charis work this am and then spent the day spinning like a whirling dervish between all the other activities along with making Pho for dinner – and I was in a rush to complete a few projects that were half done – finished painting the trim on the house – drywalled the garage entry space (another trip to Lowe’s is needed for trim and outlet plates? – bought the dresser and paint with Susan at Habitat – and printed off 200 plus pages of docs for prep for the Camino in Spain – final packing tomorrow – and Susan and I bought ice cream for the crew to cool off and share some sunset time with the kids. Amazing what you can get done when on the move for 13 hours. Today was a Git-R-Done kinda day! Wowza.
Our yard currently looks like a bicycle repair shop. Where did all these bikes come from?
Today we set the day apart to celebrate Susan and her upcoming birthday. With Merritt and I soon headed out to Spain we wanted to share in this celebration with all of us together.
A first for us….attending the Seattle Storm WNBA game. Game tickets – check. Matching t-shirts – check. Pre-game party at Queen Ann Hall – check. Extra super sized chocolate purchases – check. A day of joy and fun and something new to all of us.
Every single day is a day to celebrate life. Birthdays like the cherry on top to our yearly rhythms. Extra special when we spend our days with those we love.
Have you ever stopped by a youth car wash to get your ride cleaned up good all while supporting a good cause? Yes, me too. And then after chatting it up and giving a nice donation to the group to get home and find out that only about half of your car actually got washed? Yes, me too.
Johnson 7.0 Car Wash
Ahhh, the life lessons that can be learned at the car wash. We practiced this life lesson at our own home today. 😛
As a teen I would wash my old 1976 Mustang II before heading into town to cruise the loop. I would spend a good hour washing and waxing and treating the tires to make it all shine. Ironically, I lived on a gravel road. So all that hard worked lasted a few minutes before the dust took over again. Each week I would repeat the cycle. Like the Karate Kid, wax on and wax off – do the job well.
In 5th grade, our neighbor friend and farmer would hire us kids to pick rocks from the fields. We would meet at 7 am and walk the 80’acre plots of land. If you saw a rock you picked it up and threw it on the flatbed. We would fill several of those a day and dump them all off alongside the fence line on the corners of the field. We never knew what the corn or soybean yield would be each year but we knew that each field had flatbeds full of rocks to be picked. You could say we were successful rock farmers – ha.
The value of that work was obvious. You see a rock you pick it up. That rock doesn’t break the combine or planter. It was an important job and one that needed to be done well. The farm owner would be the one driving the tractor and pointing out to us if we were ignoring parts of the job. If the job was worth doing it was worth doing well.
The same was true when we were hired to spray the bean fields. The chemical had a purple dye added so that as we rode that bean bar down the field and sprayed the weeds you could see if you were doing the job well or missing most of the work. If one of us 4 were slacking the farmer would slow way down or come to a screeching halt before reminding us what we were hired to do. I learned that in both of these jobs it was obvious to all whether you and the crew had done well or not. You can’t hide the results.
This carried into other jobs I had as well. Cleaning the bulk tank and milk room when we ran the dairy farm. The inspector would either give a thumbs up or down on cleanliness and that meant selling the milk or dumping it down the drain. Feeding the calves and keeping them healthy. The herd and the farmer depended on you doing that job well. Running detasseling crews for Pioneer Seed Company. After you had made your passes through the field an inspector would do a field test and let you know whether you needed to do the whole field again or whether you had passed the required percent. Passing meant a good hourly wage and failing meant repeating the work that should already have been done and thus barely making a few dollars and hour. The choice was ours. Do it right and do it well or spend your time repeating the task. Working on painting crews and making clients happy over the results of the job. You can’t hide a bad paint job. We were counting on each other to do our part. Our boss would remind us often, “Any job worth doing is worth doing well!”
Just like the car wash. In the moment it all appears clean. Give it a little time to dry and it will be obvious how much of that car was actually scrubbed down. Did we give it our best or did we pretend our way through the job? In the moment we may not know but in the end the results will be obvious.
Cheers to those who give it their best shot and don’t just go through the motions of their work. We see you. We thank you! Your work speaks volumes to the heart you put into it.
“Well done,” may just be the best compliment to ever receive.
Those are words I hope to hear from our Lord and Savior one day. “Well done good and faithful servant.” In the meantime, let’s put those wash rags to good use and be janitors for Jesus in this world.
The punch list of to do items is long. You know the list of I’ll get to that when I have some extra time? Then days turn into weeks and into months and into years and the lists grow but the tasks get ignored because of this busy life.
Today – finally fixing that bicycle chain the right way because we took the time to order the right tool. Look at that – it rides like a brand new bike. Taking down the broken poles and netting from the trampoline. Boom – it looks like a brand new trampoline. Mowing and weeding and clipping back overgrown plants and check it out – the yard looks amazing. Oops – discovered while doing all of this – that we have another rodent problem along with a massive hornets nest – add that on the list of to dos. Finally install the new water pump to a beautiful fountain. Ahh – a bit of serenity on the front porch.
But not to be ignored on this day, a full clean up of the dryer. That thing gets some heavy use in this household of 7. If I had a dollar for every time it stopped to tell me that the airflow sensor needs a good cleaning the kids would have a nice college fund going. So today, take it apart – shop vac it clean – and put it back together. No left over screws so that is a good thing. We’ll now see how long it takes for that sensor to go off again and for how many years I will ignore it for another day.
Why O Lord is there so much lint? And with this much lint how can our clothes and sheets not be worn down to rags? What happens with lint in heaven? Will we have to clean the dryer there too? Hmmm.
On another note of interesting thoughts….why do stores let you do self checkout for clothes? Have you ever picked up the item – scanned it – put it in the bag – paid – drove home – showed the item to your loved ones – and then discovered the security tag is still attached? Of course it is! In self check-out there is not a device to takes those tags off and in the mad dash to get out of the way of those behind you – you forget those tags are even attached. So add to the list to go back to the store to find a paid staff person in a regular check out line to ask them to do what needed to be done the first time – please remove those dang security tags. So much for everyone saving time and money.
These things might seem like frustrations, but in reality these are simply the day in and day out details of this life. Part of the adventure. Part of the learning. Part of the fun.
The cool thing, because I had some extra time, and so do our kids on summer break, I got to do all of these things with our kids. Each learning a small new and important thing. One day they will need the right tool at the right time. They will need to find the right video on youtube to make the task a little easier. They may need to make several trips to the hardware store or have someone from Amazon make several trips to them with special deliveries. In the end, their dryer will be fixed and their fountain will work and their kid will love riding their new old bike with a chain that works. They will experience those simple moments of happiness of a job well done. That will make me happy knowing that in those moments they may just remember the days they learned those small skills as we did life together. Yes, we did life together.
Time to take out the Lint and check what’s on tap for tomorrow. Thankful to have a list and to get after it one day at a time.
Another early morning out of the hotel to hit the airport to fly from Cairo to Istanbul and on to Seattle. Just 15 hours in the air and 7 hours in the airports and we should be back home.
We have taken in the world, and now it is time to sleep in our own 70 sq ft. Bedrooms with our creature comforts – most notably old mattresses that conform to our bodies. Head colds and stomach illnesses have traveled with us all along the way but we worked our way through it all. We ate all the varied cultural foods and drinks – felt like we all have gained 20 lbs – and snuck in some comfort foods when needed. Adaptation – flexibility – patience – loving kindness – trust – all required for our journey.
We were blessed by great guides all along the way. We have learned so much from them. Onur, Mohamed, Ahmed, Marian, Fikedu, and countless drivers, Pilots, cooks, hotel staff, etc….an amazing display of God’s goodness in this created world – Every single person just excellent!
You can’t travel the world and have a closed mind and heart. Travel alongside others begs you to be expansive in your love, heart, mind, and faith. Just as you learn a whole lot about others, you learn a whole lot about yourself. That is a precious gift.
A few quotes to share with you:
Through world travel you gain an entirely different perspective about humanity. You realize just how small you are and how all of us have a special place and purpose in the world. Norah
Don’t ever take anything for granted because not everyone has the same opportunities as we do. Koko
Don’t waste your life sitting on a couch and letting time pass by, get out and explore. Merritt
Life is amazing, especially when you make each day fun. Jewel
Don’t think about the negative things that happen but think about the positive aspects of beautiful people. Do that even when it is really Egypt hot outside! Holland
World travel is an incredible teacher. It opens your eyes to differences, your mind to understanding, and your heart to love for people and places beyond what is comfortable and familiar. Susan
We got rolling at 5:30 am with breakfast and then a dash to the airport for our flight to Cairo. We then visited some of the most important highlights in Cairo including:
· The Egyptian Museum
It includes a rare collection of 5000 years of art with over 250,000 priceless artifacts including the marvelous collection of treasures of King Tutankhamun. We saw his golden items such as his golden Mask that was enclosed in his tomb for about 3,500 years. A whole lot of mummies were available to see as well. Our guide did a masterful job of moving us through the exhibits while seeing the best of the best in Egyptian history.
· The Hanging Church
The most recommended religious destination for both Copts and Muslims who come to visit Egypt because of its shape and size as it was built over the Babylon Fortress and that is how it gained its name. Its construction dates back to the 3rd century AD. We all lit prayer candles and gave thanks for our special time in traveling together.
Remember from our Bibles – The Flight into Egypt refers to the biblical account in the Gospel of Matthew where Joseph, Mary, and the infant Jesus fled to Egypt to escape King Herod’s plot to kill the baby Jesus. An angel warned Joseph in a dream about Herod’s intentions, prompting the immediate flight. They remained in Egypt until Herod’s death, say about three to four years, after which they returned to Nazareth.
· Khan El-Khalili Bazaar
It is the largest open-air market in the world where you can find all of the Egyptian items which you may want to see or buy including clothes, spices, etc. We picked up a few extra soccer shirts as the prices were just right – dirt cheap!
A dinner of Egyptian pizza with a street cafe vendor was a good way to end the day.
A phrase we learned here from our tour guides – “Yalla Yalla” – which means come on or let’s go! We indeed have been Yalla Yallaing our way through Egypt.
Johnson 2025 Sabbatical 