The England of your imagination exists in a place called Winchester. The couple in the photo are friends Gillies and Kym, who stayed at my Airbnb last fall. They have been showing us around. 
We took a guided tour of Winchester Cathedral. Our guide, Harry, told the history of the area from the Romans forward with a twinkle in his eye. The tour was one of the best hours we spent on this trip.
We took a walk on a public path with our friends and learned that these are called kissing gates. There were quite a few so there was a lot of kissing. 
Famous trout fishery Itchen River flows through This area. We have seen quite a bit of the beautiful stream, but no trout. Izaak Walton wrote “The Compleat Angler” near here in 1653. 
This perfect cottage was across from the rural pub we found food and drink after our walk. There were many others along the way just as pretty. 
Our bill for breakfast yesterday came in this book. 
We went to church tonight at St Mary’s across the green from our AirBnb. A dozen people and a good message. One of the highlights for me.
We are most of our meals at the perfect pub-Carts & Horses.
Finally, our Airbnb hosts took us for a ride in their 1934 Riley to look fo trout. We found one in the Itchen at last – a 14″ brown trout. 
Before we left Winchester we saw the Round Table hanging on the wall of the Great Hall; Arthur’s? Maybe, maybe not, but from the 12th century.
The image of soldiers in a landing craft is from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5817635/amp/Anticipation-horror-chaos-D-Day-landings-brought-life-colour.html
Normandy is a green and lush place with historic buildings, vast fields of wheat, and fat cows.
I visited the place in the first week of June along with many thousands of people; I wanted to see it for myself, to make a personal connection with the story I had heard for so long. 
The French haven’t forgotten- these photos of the liberators in each community were common. 
This is Utah Beach at low tide. The water is very shallow and quite a distance from the beach. The landings here went well for the Americans. Today nothing but monuments remain. 
This is Omaha Beach at almost high tide. There was tremendous loss of life here, only 50% of the soldiers in the first waves survived the landing to engage the defenders. The heroism shown here by soldiers great and small was humbling. 
Pont du Hoc is a promontory between Utah and Omaha: this view is looking down to a beach. A soon-to-be-famous Texan led the Rangers up here to destroy the big guns. 
Col Rudder had 220 Rangers, but only 90 were able to reach the top of the cliffs to destroy this and other fortifications. 
This perfectly designed and kept cemetery belongs to the American people. This final resting place of almost 10,000 is above Omaha Beach. There are many other cemeteries in Normandy, and the number of men buried from just a few months of battle is staggering. I did not see the German cemetery, but it has 22,000 graves. 
It is hard to get the scope of this place in a day. I met an American in the customs line who walked the length of each of the five beaches over 6 days; he said it was a profound experience. If I ever go back that is what I will do. I read a book ( Stephen Ambrose) and visited 3 museums. Being there only increases my curiosity. I would like to re-visit at a time when it isn’t overrun with tourists and people wearing US battle dress as costumes.
D-Day was certainly the most significant experience of my parent’s generation; both served, my father as a B-17 navigator in England and my mother as a Marine (chaplain’s assistant) at Cherry Point. I left humbled by the sacrifice made by so many men and women.
I didn’t hear any ghosts, but I may return to listen for them at a more quiet time of year.
We fly to London today, leaving behind lots of friends. 
These are the Australians, Cliff, John, and Joan. Some people just seem to part of your destiny. 
Liz and Alex from North Carolina are a couple we expect to see again. 
We don’t expect to see these Austrian girls again, but we enjoyed getting to know them nonetheless. 
Alejandro and The Sloth helped make southern Portugal for us. The list goes on and on: Kenton (Indiana);John, a Scot in Georgia; Peter, an Austrian odds maker; Sally, an American in Germany. Ibrahim, a Frenchman and his companion Bernadette; Iris and her son Jonathan (Finland), the two Japanese men at Pilgrim Pause albergue; Monica (Germany); Colorado Tanya- hospitalera at Alpriate Albergue (one of our best stops in Portugal); Maria Rita, Alicia and Hans-Peter (Germany) in Azinhaga; Danielle, our waitress in Coimbra; Sugikubo-Kita and Sakuji at Pilger Pause (harmonica player, Japanese); the couple who own Se Vehla where we stayed on my birthday and gave us a shot of Port for breakfast to celebrate with us; Cris and Vanessa (Germany) who we think became a couple on The Way; Les from California, and the countless Portuguese and Spanish people who made us cafe con leche, delicious meals, warm beds, and pointed the Way to us when we made a wrong turn.
Our lives touch ever so briefly, and a spark jumps between us, and we are all forever changed.
We arrived in Santiago de Compostela yesterday early afternoon feeling beat up by 20 or more kilometers of trail. We had to walk quite a ways to find lunch. 
Squid, rice, and beer. 
We found our way to the hotel for a nap, then to the Cathedral. 
We found some interesting people, including this member of the university choir we saw last year. Bought the CD, of course. 
Met this Japanese pilgrim whose friends signed his hat along the way. 
Went to the Pilgrim Mass at noon. I saw that lots of the changes I had suggested last year (in a letter to the archbishop) have been incorporated. 
We also found the Austrians for a post-mass beer or two. We are meeting for dinner at 7. 
Fig ice cream (delicious) then off for a nap. We will need to be rested up for dinner.
You stop for a third cafe con leche?
Your pack is just for show?
You taxi around big climbs?
A stage takes you 3 days? 
You’ve never slept on the top bunk?
You don’t know the “albergue shuffle” because you only stay in hotels?
You’ve never been in this line because you always book ahead?
You’ve never been on the trail at sunrise?
We started our second Camino in Lisbon with good intentions, well-fed and rested. . 
Because of a lack of pilgrim support we had to walk 20 and 24 kilometer days. 
Our resolve got us through some hard days. 
The company of other pilgrims, like The Sloth and Alejandro, kept us moving forward. 
Our slug fest with southern Portugal ended when we realized there wasn’t enough time, so we jumped forward to Coimbra, then Porto, at 165 kph. 
We cut back our plan to 18 kilometers per day, then to 15. 
“Are you sure you want to do the whole 12 kilometers in one day?
Since the ratio of suffering to beer/wine started getting out of whack when we cut mileage, we had to cut food and alcohol consumption by half!
And our diet has gone to hell. Chinese food two days ago, and pizza today !1/
We are forecasting our triumphant arrival at the Santiago Cathedral on Wednesday, but at this rate. . . .
There is some satisfaction in a cold beer at the end of a Camino walking day. We have come to realize that there is a ratio between suffering and beer. Kay calls this Roberts’s Ratio. 
Here at a Pilgrim Respite Area, Kay has noted that the suffering has begun. We have been trying to walk distances which take into account just the right amount of suffering. 
Sometimes the trail then takes you down roads full of speeding traffic. Suffering goes up as you have to be very careful not to misstep. 
And the directions get confusing. I use the Brierly guide, the Wise Pilgrim app, Maps.me, and my GPS to get us to the albergue as efficiently as possible. 
And then the door is locked and no one answers the bell. Suffering levels up, until a phone call gains us entrance. Now fun is up!
Finally, a shower and a change of clothes and a beer and all is well. 
Then it is nap time, followed by fresh seafood for dinner. And a bottle of wine. 
Finally, we decided we had to cut out the second cerveza grande and the second bottle of vino. Our suffering to beer/wine ratio was getting out of whack, and to bring it back into line we would have to increase suffering or reduce beer. 
And we are doing our best to avoid this!
After a couple hundred miles of walking on the Camino Portugues I have come up with a trail classification system. Brierly talks some about it, but my system is more specific, with 5 classes. 
Category 1 Woodland Tracks or Boardwalks. Great walking- only bicycles, foot traffic or tractors. If you get run over by a tractor you have a death wish. Cyclists only warn you sometimes; it is best to look before you change sides of the trail. Much of the way is delightful.
Category 2: It’s a beautiful day and I want to smell the flowers. Narrow roads and limited sight distance but less traffic and it isn’t fast. Includes industrial areas and 4-lane roads with good sidewalks. Not nerve- wracking but listening for vehicles approaching from behind is important. A quiet street can get crowded in a few seconds; be ready to step into a driveway or doorway.
Category 3: Ends your Camino prematurely if your focus lapses. Busy city streets, crossings required, busses, trucks, cars, taxis. Keep alert for traffic lights. “Is that driver really going to stop for me in this crosswalk?” Often comes after Category 1 Trail lulls you into complacency. Watch what the locals do and mind your P’s and Q’s.
Category 4: Pilgrim Highway of Near Death Experiences. No striping, steady stream of cars, narrow shoulders, in first photo cobblestone. Everyone is driving like they are late to work. First photo is deceiving- a rare quiet moment on this country road in southern Portugal, plenty scary the rest of the time. Just wide enough for one car at a time unless the shoulder (where you are) is used. Watch footing carefully, not a time to stumble. Be prepared to jump into the ditch.
Category 5: Pilgrim Highway of Death. Very little shoulder, no escape route (fence, parked trucks, steep bank), steady stream of 80,000 pound trucks at 60 mph just five feet away. Oncoming drivers seen talking on cell phones. The only Category 5 we experienced was just south of Azinhaga, this photo is not of that road (this road and shoulder are much wider and the distance to travel on it short). Takes a significant mental toll on you.
Take a bus or a taxi.
Bohm Caminho
You don’t get to have it your way on the Camino in Portugal. You take what comes. 
This guy followed us down a long hill on a stone road with an empty wheelbarrow. I hope he didn’t have to get it back up loaded. 
This bridge goes back to Roman Times and this is Via Romana XIX. The creek is clear and cool and fast. 
The trail is interesting, sometimes rough, but the scenery is wonderful. We are walking through rural farmsteads. 
We visited the tourist office this morning about getting a taxi to take us down the Camino to the downhill part. The uphill part was long and steep and we weren’t up for it. We earned our credits in southern Portugal. 
We are in a rural albergue owned by a German guy. It’s like being a ’60’s hippie. Great guy, but still German. 
We sang “Bring it to the Lord in prayer” to music this Japanese Pilgrim played in his harmonica. It’s going great. We make a new plan every day.
robertcdeming 