Dearest friends!
The Year 2006 is still young so I wish that it will be good for all of you, that it will bring you prosperity, peace of the heart and the realization of your most wanted desires! For those who have sent us their personal wishes for Christmas and the New Year, thank you and please forgive me for not answering you... I was, at that time, involved with passing precious time with my beloved walker!
As I had informed you in my previous newsletter, I arrived at the Madrid airport, on December 16th around noon. My man was waiting for me while practising the virtue of patience as my flight was two hours late! We got settled in a small Hostal (similar to our Bed & Breakfast but without breakfast) situated downtown.
I have to confide in you now that angels also inhabit Spain! One of them is called Poli and resides in Alcobendas, a suburb to the north of the Spanish capital. Poli has been following Jean's journey for a few years already and he graciously hosted him on the eve of my arrival in his country. On Sunday, December 18th, our angel meets us at our Hostal and the three of us leave for a long walk that brings us first at the museum El Prado that exhibits some magnificent Works of Art. We delight ourselves in only of few of them as the museum, which is opened free to all on Sundays, is immense and composed of several floors.
Then, walking through the vast "Park of the Good Retirement" (Parque del Buen Retiro), we head towards the museum of Anthropology that we visit quickly as well. Next, we walk to the Bus Terminal where we buy our tickets for the city of Huelva situated at the extreme south-western part of the Iberian peninsula, only about 50 kilometres of the border of Portugal.
Two days before my departure from Montreal, that is December 13th 2005, another Spanish angel, Xavi Valero, had sent me an email by which he invited us, Jean and I, to live in his apartment in Huelva, and that, for the entire Holiday period. During this time, Xavi would be visiting his family in Castellón, in Catalonia. He is a professional footballer and he welcomes us with enthusiasm and warmth. He installs us in his modern apartment and invites us to feel at home!
Totally marvellous! We play the domestic life of a couple... a kind of life we have not known since Jean's departure, August 18th 2000!!! Hand in hand, we do our everyday shopping... buying the good fresh bread, the delicious shrimps, the exquisite Spanish ham, without forgetting the excellent wines that are no more expensive than a bottle of water...
The major part of our time is occupied by work... review and correct the volume 2 on Jean's walk... label all the photos taken by him since the border of Egypt... When we are tired of working, we leave to explore the city on foot! The people of Huelva are proud to say that Christopher Columbus departed from their city with his three ships, to find the New World!
After Xavi's return to his house, he brings us, accompanied by some members of his family, to the village of El Rocio where an important pilgrimage takes place every year. This village is neighbouring the magnificent national park of "Doña Ana" that is one of the most remarkable natural spaces of Europe. We remained in Huelva during 23 days. Jean met the mayor of the city there and had an interview with the local TV.
Then, we left for Seville where Jean was invited for the recording of a TV broadcast much appreciated and titled "The thousand and one nights". Seville is a truly magnificent city and we enjoyed visiting a few interesting spots of which the gigantic cathedral and the Giralda that nearly reaches 100 meters and that has been built as a minaret at the time of the Moors and that was afterwards prolonged in a bell-tower by the Spaniards.
Return in Madrid on January 15th, and in my case, departure for Montreal on the 17th. As for Jean, he went back by bus where he has stopped his last steps before my arrival... in Montemor-o-Novo, in Portugal and it is from there he resumed his walk.
In our latest newsletter, we had left Jean at the entrance of Morocco, a country where he was welcomed as well as in the previous one... The Moroccan policemen insure his security constantly and they wait for him from one town to another to welcome him! He crosses an arid zone and even though he knows that his African journey will end shortly, he stops in Fez for a few days to visit its medina filled with historical events, accompanied by his Moroccan friends, Mohamed and Nourdine.
On November 23rd, he writes to me from Meknes: "There are only four days of walking left before I move to a another continent! I have a lot of difficulties to contain my excitation! Morocco is a very beautiful country... we will have to come back together and explore it... Since last evening, I do not have a camera anymore... it disappeared from the bag sitting on top of my chariot..."
Jean arrives in Rabat on November 28th and his very first gesture is to go to the Atlantic ocean and touch its water in symbolic of his crossing of the African continent. Then, he meets Mr. Abdu Rahman Routbi, chief of cabinet of the "Walli" (the equivalent of our Provincial Prime Minister) who kindly offers him room and board for 3 days at a nearby hotel.
On December 2nd, he boards a flight for Lisboa... and lands on another planet! This is how the capital of Portugal looks to him after two and a half years of walking Africa and after close to five years in countries in development (Latin America and Africa) of which 14 months in Moslem country! He writes to his son, Thomas-Éric: "I confess that I had a brutal cultural shock when arriving here! Everything is so organized and very orderly that it seems that people show an incredible indifference to improvisation... so all you see is individuality, systematic concentration... I was accustomed to greet people as I walked by... as the people themselves had showed me, but I am going to stop this practice before one takes me for a madman!!!"
He begins to walk again on December 9th and is welcomed warmly among the firemen of Seixal. He realizes that the Portuguese are shy to his meeting, but he notes more opening as he advances more deeply in the land toward the border of Spain!
After our vacations, Jean finishes his crossing of Portugal and arrives in Badajoz, Spain on January 24th. Many thanks to the manager of the Badajoz branch of the huge Spanish store chain El Corte Inglés, who gives him a pair of shoes and thanks also to Mr. Fernando Plaza who heartily offers him room and board in his house during his stay in the city. Mr. Fernando also organizes Jean's involvement in a ceremony for Peace in the village of Arroyo de San Serván, situated in two days walk... In the village of Lobón, he is welcomed by the Guardia Nacional and he arrives in Mérida on January 30th and in the village of Ruecas, on February 1st, 2006. The weather is far from too hot, but compared to the one he remembers of Canada, he can endure it easily!
If you emailed me on January 18th, it is possible that the message was destroyed before I read it... I made a small mistake while configuring my email address again, but I corrected it after a few hours... sorry!!!
Till next time...
Luce