Monday was a lazy day – just 17 km, a lot of it downhill as we approached and entered Ponferrada. Weather was mixed with scattered showers, cloud and sun. The large municipal albergue was a little way off the route we took into the city so we used that as an excuse to stay the…
Today was meant to be another easy day, being only our second walking. First a nice 7 km trot under overcast skies. Dressed exactly right. Then another 5 km, planning to have the option of an additional 5 km if all went well. It did go well, so we decided to do the last 5…
The streets and skies of Astorga were wet yesterday morning so we had to don full rain gear. Then we proceeded to put in about 5 km walking from one end of town to the other and back, trying to find a place to get our credentiales – pilgrim passports that we get stamped daily…
This morning awaking in Madrid, we decided to get on with the journey right away. Took a few hours to wend our way to the right bus station and get tickets for the 4-hour trip to Astorga. Then, of course we wandered up and down streets before picking a hotel (I feel it is cheating…
We’ll be out the door in an hour and I should be researching a place to stay in Madrid. However, this post takes priority. I suspect that I will not be able to post here as often as I would like, while on the Camino. If I post a lot, it will likely be because…
On Halloween I’m flying to Spain to walk part of the Camino de Santiago with my husband’s sister, N. Both of our husbands think we are crazy. But she’s been married 38 years and I’ve been married 31 years, so this misguided perception is not news to anyone. Suffice it to say that the secret to long marriages is…
This book describes the young (30ish?)author’s experience doing 3 pilgrimages: El Camino in Spain (Catholic), 88 temples on the Japanese island of Shikoku (Buddhist) and a Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage of Hasids in Ukraine (Jewish) Lewis-Kraus writes extremely well and has a bizarre sense of humour that I enjoyed. However, he went a little overboard at times…
On a flight not long ago I watched The Way with Martin Sheen. It was a moderately good movie about a middle-aged American who walks the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain, in honour of his son who had just died. I’ve had an interest in doing some or all of the Camino for quite a while. More…
Seeing Clarely 