Zabaldica 3

The literature that the Sisters hand out to visiting pilgrims states that the church was built in the 13th century.  So, let's say that the church is more or less 750 years old. There aren't many churches or buildings, for that matter, in Spain or Europe that are much older.  It's built in the Romanesque style which means round arches, massive walls and small windows.  The altar piece or retablo, is a later creation and is one of the styles present in Spanish churches.

Here we have Jesus at the top, Mary directly below and St. Esteban below her.  Also present are James, Archangel Michael and St. Francis.  Church art in the middle ages had several purposes.  One was to terrify the congregation with images of hellfire and damnation.  One was to incorporate pagan images and thus co-opt the belief systems that the church was trying to replace.  The churches of the Middle Ages were the Bible written in stone and glass.  Most people were illiterate and there were very few books around for those that could read.  So the churches filled the void by surrounding the faithful with images of the life of Jesus and the saints, heaven and hell and creation.  But back to the alburgue.  The Sisters think that the alburgue building is the same age as the church, 13th century.  They think that the alburgue was a medieval hospital on the on the Camino Frances.  Pilgrims would have visited the church for mass and found a bed and a meal next door.  So here I was following in their footsteps 750 years later.  Wow!

Zabaldica 2

I arrived in Zabaldica the day before I was supposed to start, or so I thought.  The two hospitaleras that preceded me apparently thought that since I was there on the 14th that meant that they were done.  Oh well, no matter.  The day started with a Spanish camino breakfast - toast, coffee, fruit and yogurt.  From experience, it was enough to get started on a 15 mile walk but also needed several coffee and snack stops.  My day began at 6:00 when a few of the more gung-ho pilgrims would be leaving the alburgue without breakfast.  By 8:00, everyone was gone and I could have my breakfast and then began cleaning.  Sweep everything, wash some sheets and pillow cases, clean two bathrooms and mop the kitchen floor.
Here is the dormitory with twelve beds.

Next on the agenda was shopping.  Assignment: buy enough food for anywhere from 2 to 18 people.  You have an hour and the sisters will give you money.  Sister Teresa's assignment was to take me shopping.  I had to make a very complete list because there would be no do-overs.  Sister usually had errands to do and was generous about giving me plenty of time to shop but I still felt pressured.  Everyone in the store was so helpful and patient with the tall gawky American that barely spoke Spanish.  I would buy two or three of everything that I needed because 18 people eat a lot of food.  Here is dinner:

So, people started arriving about 2:00 and usually by six everyone had found a place to stay.  The local parish priest did a mass at 6:30, dinner was at 7:30 and the
Sisters did a very nice blessing and sharing in the church at 8:30.  Then we loaded the dishwasher (yes, that's no typo) and went to bed.

This is the living room and the stairway to the dormitory.  More about this remarkable building and the church next.

Zabaldica

The camino is not just about walking although that is the part that is the best known.  It's also about eating and sleeping.  One of the oldest and most basic institutions along the camino are the albergues.  Albergue in Spanish means a shelter, refuge or lodging. We would recognize them as hostals.  On my first camino I met volunteers called hospitaleros that worked in albergues and I decided that I wanted to be a hospitalero some day.  Hospitalero as well as hospitality come from the word hospital which in the Middle Ages was a hotel for pilgrims, a place to sleep, eat and receive care on their pilgrimage.  Last winter I completed a three-day training session and then I was ready to volunteer.  Taking a deep breath, I sent the email asking for an assignment.  One of my choices was a small albergue near the beginning of the camino, east of Pamplona.  I had visited there but had not stayed overnight.  I knew that I would be the only hospitalero, there were 18 beds, I would have to make dinner and somehow do shopping in a nearby city because the village of Zabaldica had only about 20 inhabitants.  And I also knew that Zabaldica was a special place so I jumped for it.

That's the village where I was to live for the next two weeks.  The church steeple and bells are in the center.  The church is named for St. Esteban.  Both the church and the albergue are the responsibility of the Communidad de Sagrada Corazon de Jesus de Zabaldica.  It is a world-wide order of sisters known in English as the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  Here are my "bosses", the four Hermanas of the community plus a soon-to-be Sister from China.

From left to right: Sisters Marisol, Mariasun, soon-to-be Sister Wei Lei, Sisters Teresa and Carmenchu.  

The entrance to the church in the morning before any pilgrims are up and about. More tomorrow.

Leon, Burgos and Pamplona

The next leg of my bus trip took me to Leon, a busy city of about 200,000 in north central Spain.  Another camino good deed - I found a small hotel but was it was too expensive so the woman at the desk me sent to one nearby that was half the price. Leon is home to one of the most beautiful Gothic cathedrals in Spain and it has recently been cleaned.

The travel literature says that the three great Gothic cathedrals in Spain are in Leon, Burgos and Sevilla.  Burgos was my next stop.  

The cathedral in Burgos is a more flamboyant style than Leon.  Both of these churches were built fairly quickly and so have a unity of style that is missing in other cathedrals.  What was quickly?  Thirty to forty years.  The great Spanish warrior El Cid is buried in this church.

One does not think about churches in Pamplona but rather bulls and Hemingway and the best tapas in Spain.  

This sculpture is located in the Plazas de Toros and the bullring is only two blocks away.  

Another of the great public spaces in Spain: Plaza del Castillo.  Across the way, the brown building is the Cafe Iruna, one of Ernest Hemingway's watering holes.  Every evening this plaza fills with people out for a walk or in search of dinner and refreshment.  The lazy bus riding is over.  Now it's time to walk and then work.

After the camino

I'm going to finish the blog of this trip even though I am now back in New Mexico.  I left you hanging several weeks ago because the keyboard on my pad quit.  I'll go back to Santiago to start again with a newly-revived keyboard.  I had arranged a volunteer job for two weeks at an alburgue just east of Pamplona.  I had five days to reach there so I decided to take all five days and do some sightseeing.  My first stop was Lugo, a small city in Galicia.  I had no guidebook so I was going to trust that I would find what I needed.  Lugo is also on a camino, the Camino Primativo, so I would likely find pilgrims.  Lugo also is a walled city.

This wall was built in the late 3rd century (late 200's) by the Romans.  Lugo was a major commercial center on one of the main roads in Iberia.  This wall circled the entire old city and must have been 2 miles (3 kilometers) in length.  The height varied between about 30-40 feet and it was wide enough to have a road on top.

Lugo is a beautiful, friendly city that gave me a very good first impression.   I was standing in a plaza trying to decide where to begin to look for a hotel when a Spanish man asked me if I needed help.  He then directed me to the pilgrim alburgue and my problem was solved.  That was the spirit of the camino.  The Spanish people could be hostile and greedy with so many pilgrims flooding into their towns.  But they remain kind, helpful and appreciative.