The Road Home – Days 2 & 3
Combined and delayed due to fatigue and WiFi issues.
Sunday morning started in a packed buffet breakfast room at the monastery. I was astonished at the volume they do at the breakfast.
Almost every table was full and the workers were continually changing over tables for new guests. I was chatting with one of the workers and he said it’s the same every morning. One thing that stunned me were some piles of unused containers of jams, butter, olive oil – taken but then left behind pilgrims. Why?! The worker pocketed them in his apron and I think they’ll be put back out for other pilgrims. Good plan.
That said, I was also a bit wasteful. I took this bowl of chocolate rice crispies and was snacking on them (without milk) with my coffee.
Then I remembered the dried mealworms of the same size, shape, and consistency we throw to the chickens as snacks and had to stop eating them. 🤢
Went out for a walk in the city – then after noon I asked at the front desk and got directions to the local bus stand. It was only about a 5 minute hike from the cathedral and the bus to the airport was only €1. (A cab ride was about €50.). It was quicker than I’d thought and backtracked to Lavacolla and other sites I’d hiked through less than a week ago. A bit surreal to be on a bus traveling in a few minutes a distance that had taken a few hours to hike.
I was a bit early and waited at the airport over an hour for folks to show up to work the baggage check counter. When it was my turn I did something momentarily scary when asked and decided to check my pack all the way to Chicago. I did a quick mental check and realised it would be ok to not pick up my pack in Germany. In my carryon I’d packed my fleece jacket, a scaled-down bag of toiletries (just the essentials), my packet of chargers, empty water bottle, and my warm socks for the plane. That was it. All I needed for the night. I was also carrying my phone, change purse with credit card, and my passport. So off the pack went.
Flight to Frankfort left late. We sat at the gate for half an hour before they started the engines. When we arrived (late) they parked on a remote lot and we were bussed to the terminal. The scene at Frankfort was chaotic. Traffic direction was confusing. I think I might have skated past border control accidentally … but really not sure. My connecting flight to Munich was scheduled to board in 30 minutes. Eventually found the gate and had just enough time to run across the hall to buy a pretzel for dinner. No meals were served on either flight…. though, since it’s Lufthansa, they did hand out Lindt chocolate. 🙂💕
It felt really strange in the Frankfurt airport to feel my Camino tribe being dispersed. I’d been in the midst of my hiker / biker tribe for five weeks. We all could relate to the difficult days and the simple pleasure of finding a clean bed and having an inexpensive, filling meal at the end of the day. We all appreciated a solid night’s sleep. And all lived out of small packs. Experienced handwashing our basic clothes. Got a bit tanner and a bit more fit along the way. And we all walked for different reasons. Some reasons were talked about and some kept to themselves. But we became a tribe – all moving in the same direction.
On that first flight we were interspersed with non-hikers. And in Frankfurt, we dispersed even further as some stayed in Frankfurt and others caught various flights out in other directions. It will now be a rare treat to meet a fellow Camino traveler ‘out in the wild’.
Was relieved to be on the flight to Munich – it’s a pretty short flight and was my final of the day. Landed just after 10 PM and that decision to not pick up my pack in Germany paid off. Everyone else was at baggage claim and I walked right by to the exit.
Turned to the right out the door and there was the Hilton. Was so grateful to have prebooked and prepaid for my comfortable room prior to my trip starting. Was quickly asleep in the cushy king bed.
Woke up Monday morning before my alarm, showered, and readied myself for the day. First time in over a month to take a shower at the beginning of the day rather than the end. A morning shower while walking the Camino seems pointless. Walked out into what felt like Disney World. It had been dark when I arrived so I missed this. Everything was spotless, modern, polished, and very well-designed.
The airport was massive. I had no bag to check and I’d already checked in the day prior for my flight. The security line moved efficiently even though there was a huge queue….roped off in controlled lines like Disney World, too. Same thing with the border control line. I took a quiet, clean tram to another terminal and eventually found my gate.
I realized that all I’d had yesterday was breakfast and a pretzel so I got a sandwich while I waited. They called this ‘lye’ bread. It was a pretzel bread with seeds instead of salt – really good.
I didn’t know what to order to get a good First Coffee – so I just left it and took what they offered on the plane. If anyone knows the English words to get me a good ‘cafe con leche’ – please let me know in the comments! The baristas in Spain all have the perfect formula and I never have to elaborate.
Flight was delayed departing due to thunderstorms but eventually that passed by and off to Chicago we went. The flight is 9 1/2 hours and takes place during daylight all on the same day. I know I dozed a bit because I slept through the first beverage cart and missed getting a Diet Coke. And almost slept through the meal cart. I’ve learned that for long, international flights I’m a ‘window person’ so I can lean against the wall and feel relatively comfortable.
I opted to not watch tv/films but spent a couple hours going through my photos from this trip and deleting about a third. Blurry shots, photos of luggage tags that I used as reminders of where my pack was sent, or I’d do a series of five photos of one thing trying to get one good enough to use / keep. Time for the others to go. I mean, how many pictures of hot, dry fields with hay bales do I need in order to remember there were hot, dry fields with hay bales?
About 1 PM we started our decent into O’Hare.
Once landed, we were delayed by traffic control from proceeding to the gate, again when we got permission to go by ‘a minor steering issue’, and then again when we got there because nobody was at the gate to roll out the jet bridge. Fellow passengers with connecting flights were understandably anxious and I tried to stay out of their way when we finally deplaned.
Immigration line was long but moved fairly quickly. I remembered that it was Labor Day and though the workers probably got holiday rates – they might still have preferred to be off work. My pack was already on the carousel when I walked out. My friend Sue was just a few minutes away when I called her. So sweet of her to pick me up and we chatted all the way home.
It’s good to be home. Great to see Adam. He did a great job holding down the fort. The chickens have transformed into beautiful young hens. They were scared of me at first but I hung out in the run tidying and by the time I brought them out a piece of watermelon as a treat, they were all looking at me with an eye of interest like I was somehow really familiar.
I was able to stay awake late enough to start acclimating to the new time zone. During the past five weeks I completely forgot about the extreme luxury of pajamas. Imagine – having enough clothes that we have a separate outfit in which we just sleep!
And, this morning First Coffee was just a few steps and a few minutes of my time in the kitchen. Waiting for me, all along.
More Later…