Rothenburg is not Rottenburg and Other Lessons Learned

I'll be visiting three churches named after Saint James. The first is Sint-Andrieskirk in Antwerp, Belgium. There is a stained glass window of a Stella Maris, the Virgin Mary as, well a somewhat pagan protector of the seas. Vincent van Gogh found it striking and art historian Debora Silverman posits it may have influenced what many believe to be Vincent's Symbolist rendition of a Madonna, La Berceuse.There aren't any good pictures I've been able to find on the internet. I'll be sure to post some :)

I thought the second church, St. Jakobskirche, is in Rottenburg, Germany, a town southwest of Stuttgart. Good thing I checked! The church, with its Holy Blood Altarpiece, is in Rothenburg ob der Tauber some 200 km away. St. Jakob's is also famous as a starting point for the Camino de Santiago. A 2000 km trek, my route from Porto will be much shorter. Still, I guess I'm some kind of modern pilgrim, and perhaps the final leg of my journey actually begins in Germany.

The altarpiece (only the center is shown here) depicts three scenes from the gospels. Christ's arrival in Jerusalem, his Last Supper and his trial in the Garden of Gethsemane. It was carved by a German named Tilman Riemschneider. It took him five years. Riemschneider became a victim of the of the Protestant Reformation. After a failed peasant revolt, legend has it, both his hands were broken, ending his career as a sculptor. What a waste.

\The final church named after St. James is now the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, Spain; the ultimate destination of my journey.

New Bookings:

Nearly all of June and July are sorted for accommodations and airline travel. One flight left to book: Athens to Barcelona. This list looks insane to me but flying is now often the most economical way to travel in Europe:

June 2:    PDX - AMS         Portland to Amsterdam
June 20:  ORY - MRS          Paris to Marseilles
July 11:  FCO - LGW         Rome to London
July 22:  EDI - CPH            Edinburgh to Copenhagen
July 24:  CPH - CGN         Copenhagen to Cologne
Aug 3:    VCE - ATH           Venice to Athens
Aug 10:  ATH - BCN          Athens to Barcelona
Aug 28:   LIS -  OPO           Lisbon to Portugal
Sep 8:     SCQ - AMS         Santiago to Amsterdam
Sep 9:     AMS - PDX        Amsterdam to Portland

The bookings have been smooth. One mistake, I booked a discount train ticket from Brussels to Paris. It was only $20! In my excitement and haste, I forgot I hoped to bring my bike with me all the way to Bologna. I thought about paying separately for the bike, $30 -- the bike is more valuable than I am, but then I found a flight from Paris to Marseilles for less than the cost of a train ticket. So now, I have no idea where Frank's second-hand bike may end up as it won't be flying.

Meanwhile, business is humming along. I'm even working the weekends and putting in 8 hour days! I prefer my 5 to 6 hour days but the work is a little more satisfying with my quest in place.

Tchau for now,
Jared