Oops, I think this didn’t get published before when it was supposed to:

A Basque gothic version of a mandala.

I feel very lucky. Most of all the things I really love are all around me to learn about: nature, agriculture, history, food and culture. I can’t say I really love learning languages. I find language learning really challenging. But challenge is good. What a curriculum the Camino lays out all around us as we walk. It is incredibly engaging. And then there is the physical fitness part . . . . What a great forum for learning! I am so lucky to be doing this with my family, too. Thank you Kelley for being the instigator!

We have been on the trail only one week. Six days of walking since we left Irun. It feels like a month already.

In Gernika there is a Peace Museum and an Institute for Peace Studies. Isn’t it interesting how places that suffer the horrors of war become focal points for peace? Nagasaki and Hiroshima. It makes sense. Gernika is where the Nazi Air Force practiced saturation bombing for the first time on behalf of Franco during the Spanish Civil War in