Sybille about to set off on her pilgrimage © Ricky Yates
This morning, my wife Sybille set out from the front door of the Chaplaincy Flat, to begin her long distance pilgrimage, walking from Prague to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. I took this photograph just before giving her a long kiss and hug, as if all goes to plan, I will not see her again for about two months.
Sybille started out this morning at 05.30, wanting to take full advantage of the cooler hours of the day whilst we are experiencing a Central European heatwave with temperatures rising to well over 30 degrees Celsius in the afternoon. Her main aim today is to successfully walk out of Prague, hoping to reach a campsite between Zbraslav and Radotin, adjacent a short part of the route that we walked together last November.
If you want to know more about Sybille’s pilgrimage, her motivation, proposed route and much more, then do visit her Prague-Santiago website. There is also a link in the right-hand side bar of this blog. She is hoping to post an update roughly once a week, dependent on time and wifi access. There is provision on her website for you to sign up to receive an email each time she does post an update.
I’ve been promised a text message update each day, whilst Sybille is walking within the Czech Republic as the cost of a text between two Czech mobiles is minimal. Once she reaches Germany, more specifically Freistaat Bayern, then I’m informed that contact will be less frequent 🙁
In early August, I will be taking some of my annual leave and the plan is for me to walk with Sybille for a couple of weeks, provided I can get Šárek cared for and find a willing plant ‘waterer’. Where that will be we don’t yet know. It will depend on Sybille’s walking speed which will only become clearer once she has been on pilgrimage for some weeks. However, we think it will be somewhere in France. Readers can be sure of a blogpost about it here in due course.
Go Sybille go! Have a wonderful pilgrimage! I look forward to following your progress. What an exciting spiritual adventure.
Thanks Karen – The best way to follow her progress is via her own pilgrimage website http://praguesantiago.eu/ . But there will also be a few updates here 🙂
I’ve just finished browsing Sybille’s website and added her feed to my reader, Ricky. Though I’ve left a comment on her latest post, please wish her godspeed from me when you’re next in touch. I shall follow her progress with prayer and keen interest.
Thank you Perpetua, both for leaving a comment here & on Sybille’s own website. I’ve seen your comment on Sybille’s website but I’ll leave it for her to approve & reply as I really only have access so I can correct Sybille’s occasional spelling or grammatical mistake in future posts 🙂 Since you left your comment, I’ve had my text message for today, saying she has reached Cernošice, slightly further than she intended as she discovered her planned campsite is no longer open to private visitors 🙁
Hi Ricky,
Buon Camino, good luck and safe journey to Sybille on her pilgrimage, she’s an inspiration. You won’t be seeing her for two months all going to plan you say; this reminds me of an employer I had in my young days shortly after I left school. His mother in law, who lived in the other end of Ireland near Cork city,was unwell and Jane, his wife, went to stay with her mother to take care of her and took their three young daughters with her. Jane was away for about six weeks or so and Thomas (my boss) was home alone. My workplace was a busy one and it wasn’t unusual to be offered overtime any evening and so I thought nothing of being offered four hours overtime one Saturday evening until it was explained that the work was at Thomas’s house not at the factory. It transpired that Thomas not being very domesticated (or just plain lazy) had used every piece of crockery, cutlery and all the saucepans in the house without washing or cleaning a single thing. I got paid good money for dishwashing duty to get my boss in the ‘good books’ with his wife. I know you’d be much too clever to do something like that but if there’s overtime in it I still do dishes. God bless, and safe journey again to Sybille.
Hi Sean – Thank you for your kind words a best wishes for Sybille.
I love the story about your boss during your first years in employment. I assure something similar won’t happen here – quite the reverse. Sybille to her great credit, has used the approaching deadline of her departure, to finally sort out several boxes of papers that were under & on her desk. Last week my paper shredder was hard at work & I made several visits to the paper recycling bin 🙂 She has also gone through her clothes, deciding what to take with her, what needs to stay here, and various other items that have gone to textile recycling. She’s also sorted out her books & packed away both computers.
All of this will make my planned task of giving the flat a complete Spring/Summer clean whilst she’s gone, far easier. They’ll probably be a blogpost in it too!
Wow! What an amazing journey! Sending prayers her (and your) way for safe travel. I look forward to following her blog.
Thank you Emily. It will be an amazing journey. I had mixed emotions this morning when we said farewell to each other, but like you, I’m very much looking forward to following her journey as well as being part of it for a couple of weeks in August.
Right behind you Sybille. Will follow your adventures with huge interest while I recuperate from my spinal op. Good luck. Heather and Fred
I’ll pass your message onto Sybille, Heather. Make sure you sign up on Sybille’s website http://praguesantiago.eu/ for email updates.
Go with God, presbytera (Greek term for the wife of a priest)! May the pilgrimage be fruitful– how auspicious to set out the day after Pentecost!
Thank you, Stephen. Sybille did choose her starting date with due regard to the liturgical year as you rightly point out.
[…] set off on her long distance pilgrimage the next day. You can see & read about her setting off here and find out more about her pilgrimage here. I can report that about thirty minutes ago, I received […]
[…] other big difference this summer is, as most followers of my blog already know, since 9th June, Sybille has been on pilgrimage, seeking to walk from Prague to Santiago de Compostela. To her great credit, before setting out, […]