<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><FONT SIZE=3 PTSIZE=12 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Lucida Sans Unicode" LANG="0">The year 2000 was a Roman Holy Year; in the summer I walked from Roncesvalles to Santiago. It was my second Camino. In Burgos there was a group of young American college students, about twenty, who were singing American songs from the Kiosk on the paseo across the bridge from the Cid's statue. They were accompanied by two young priests, one of whom was wearing his clerical collar and a baseball cap backwards. They attracted a lot of attention from the people walking by who liked them a lot and applauded them warmly, more so when they said that they had just come from Santiago and were waking to Rome for the Youth meeting. At the Cruz de Ferro I met a group of young Mexicans who had walked to Santiago from Lisbon and were on their way to Rome. They had carried a rather large stone, with a moving verse carved on it, to leave at the Cruz de Ferro. The stone, about 12" by 10" by 4", green in color, is still there.<BR>
You may remember that the 2000 Youth meeting in Rome attracted almost two million young people from all over the world. Apparently a great many of them took advantage of the opportunity to combine two pilgrimages.<BR>
I am not given easily to tears, but the young Americans in Burgos made me cry with pride and happiness. And the verse carved by the young Mexicans, and their act of carrying such a heavy stone all the way from Lisbon, also brought tears to my eyes.<BR>
Of the several pilgrims I've met "walking back", those two groups are most memorable. <BR>
Rosina </FONT></HTML>