Advice for preparing to walk the Camino, Top Ten Tips In the Spring of 2017, I walked the 500 miles of the Camino Frances. For me, like many others, it was the experience of a lifetime. It’s a sojourn I would commend it to all, old, young, fit, feeble,Read More →
Completo 19 May – Santiago. These closing notes have been quite a few days in the making. The Camino was a challenging thing to do, physically. Reflecting on the experience and trying to capture its value is important and equally difficult. The difficulty in writing about it is to notRead More →
Albergues vs hotel (group rooms vs individual rooms) You’ll find many purists on the Camino who come with a prescribed vision of what it is to be on a ‘real camino’. In their view, any variance from the way it was done hundreds of years ago is not the genuineRead More →
Post Camino Blues The walks are done, the camaraderie is now a Facebook/WhatsAp phenomena, and the care-free living is in the past – this is living the ‘Camino Blues.’ Leaving the Camino is no difference than returning from a military deployment. The constant euphoria of living on the edge, inRead More →
Paradigms We all see the world based on the way we’ve seen it in the past, plus new experiences. Our new experiences mold our evolving perceptions. A simple experience many, many days previous caused me to reflect just how filtered we are by our paradigms and just how useful itRead More →
Camino Food It’s a subject I’ve held off on writing about because each region that we walked through is slightly different. What was similar, was the dreaded ‘Pilgrim’s Meal’. I’ve ranted about that enough that the only thing I’ll say here is that it was the staple. From there, onceRead More →
Azzura Leading the Hoards 17 May – A few days ago, a friend that is traveling a few days behind us, asked if the the trails were congested from Sarria onward (due to the 100Km Caminoites). I told him there was no significant change that we could see and thatRead More →
Birthday Boy 15 May, Portomarin – A room with a balcony and a view. I’m sitting in our three star hotel on the huge balcony over looking the Galatian countryside with it’s green fields, greener trees and wind turbines. Magnificent, and of course, the hotel bar helped me out withRead More →
A New Camino 13 May – My Camino ends tomorrow, our Camino begins tomorrow. Today’s walk through the frontiers of Galacia was pretty cool. The pictures I’ve posted on the countryside shows it all. It truly is one of the more beautiful regions on the earth and it’s been aRead More →
The Iron Cross So I made it up to the Iron Cross: Of it’s own physical accord, it’s not too impressive, just a very tall pole supporting a small Iron Cross on top a rubble of stones. However, it’s simplify can be disarming. The pole is wrapped with paper prayers,Read More →
Templar Castle 10 May, Today I finally saw an honest to god Templar Castle. Not the ones you see on TV or the movies or one of those ancient places that everybody claims was one….but doesn’t really know. It was basic, not much to it. Just like a modern dayRead More →
Back to the Foothills 8 May – Finally, the trail is leading us out of the Meseta – the miles and miles of wheat fields that turned into roads, city suburbs and industrial parks. What started out as a beautiful and contemplative trail (dirt Yellow Brick Road) turned into asphaltRead More →
Rest Day 3 6 May – Two nights in one of Castile-Leon’s biggest cities (Leon) provokes insightful contemplation of a brutally stark contrast between life on the Camino and life. As a Caminoite, one floats through time and space as a mere observer, effected by neither. (Lost in Leon) One’sRead More →
It’s all about your feet! 3 May – Last night before turning out the lights I noted my left foot was still swollen. Normally the swelling goes down after a few hours off the road….the fatigue and tightness in the foot doesn’t. Naturally, I took some Motrin, shrugged it offRead More →
Spaniards 2 May – The Spaniards I’ve come to meet are some of the most generous, gracious, distinguished and happy people I’ve met. I don’t know if it’s because I travel in a bubble along the Camino and the only ones we meet are those dedicated to the welfare ofRead More →
The Meseta 29 April- Short posting today extracted from my Face Book posting of the same day. I was half delirious from a long, hot day on the trail and was enjoying the moment after a bellyful of beer after finally finding the town and a bed to sleep in.Read More →
The City of Burgos 28 April – My last posting about all cathedrals blending together was premature. I’ve met one of the original ‘Shock and Awe’ religious sites on the camino tour – the Burgos Cathedral. Words and photos can not do it justice. Regal, beautiful, ornate are descriptive termsRead More →
St Dom, Belorado, Atapuerca 24 – 26 April – Atapuerca, It’s where Camino heaven and hell collide. I arrived in this non-descript little village after 18.6 miles of humping through the rain and snow flurries and finally, finally found a place to stay; the previous villages were ‘completo’ (booked). WhenRead More →
Longrono and Najera 21 -23 Apr, Quick recap and the previous three days. The terrain is definitely changing from the rolling hills and greenery of the mountains, to more open plains and sharp crested hills. There are even a few dusty mesas on the horizon. The agriculture is now changingRead More →
Estella 18- 20 April Time to catch up on the Blog as I sit here in a cafe in the ancient Camino town of Estella with it’s three churches, all representing the separate and distinct interests of its mixed inhabitants. I’m consuming the ‘Menu del Dia” of Pallela, Pollo conRead More →