Grace & Chris’ Camino 2025

June - July 2025
  • Grace SHANNON
  • Chris Shannon
Current
An open-ended adventure by Grace & Chris Read more
  • Grace SHANNON
  • Chris Shannon
Currently traveling

List of countries

  • Spain Spain
  • France France
  • United States United States
Categories
Couple, Culture, Hiking, Self discovery, Spirituality
  • 10.3kkilometers traveled
Means of transport
  • Flight8,963kilometers
  • Train746kilometers
  • Walking399kilometers
  • Bus48kilometers
  • Hiking-kilometers
  • Bicycle-kilometers
  • Motorbike-kilometers
  • Tuk Tuk-kilometers
  • Car-kilometers
  • Camper-kilometers
  • Caravan-kilometers
  • 4x4-kilometers
  • Swimming-kilometers
  • Paddling/Rowing-kilometers
  • Motorboat-kilometers
  • Sailing-kilometers
  • Houseboat-kilometers
  • Ferry-kilometers
  • Cruise ship-kilometers
  • Horse-kilometers
  • Skiing-kilometers
  • Hitchhiking-kilometers
  • Cable car-kilometers
  • Helicopter-kilometers
  • Barefoot-kilometers
  • 51footprints
  • 27days
  • 599photos
  • 286likes
  • Day 23 - Sahagún to El Burgo Ranero

    Yesterday in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    Church bells ringing every quarter hour throughout the night made for a long restless night. We reheated some cold coffee left out by our hosts and embarked on our 10 km walk to real coffee. We had a café con leche at the first bar, but they had no fresh food. We walked a few blocks to another bar but it also had nothing fresh. A few blocks later we found a bar with fresh tortilla and enjoyed that and a second café con leche. After that, it was only a 7 km walk to our lodging.

    However, upon arrival the hosts said we had no reservation. I took off to find another place while Grace looked for her backpack, which turned out had at least made it there. Apparently the hosts realized their mix-up and called ahead to the next place to secure a room for us as I was walking so everything worked out.

    There's little to do here so we had a lazy afternoon of lunch, laundry, napping, and planning for future stages of our trip.

    AllTrails

    French Way: Carrión de los Condes - Calzadilla de la Cueza
    https://api-v5.alltrails.com/explore/recording/…

    Buen Camino!
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  • Meandering on the Meseta

    July 13 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Today was a lovely, lazy day. We only had to do about 16 km/9.9 miles and the weather was nice and mild, so we slept in a little bit so we could grab a quick café con Leche from our albergue’s bar when it opened at 6:30.

    We’ve met a good friend, Amanda from Fresno, who enjoys good food and good wine as much as we do. Amanda joined our walk today. Chatting with Amanda made the kilometers seem to fly by.

    I know that Chris has already shared the details of our day, so I’ll just say this:
    I was really, really nervous about how the meseta would be because I had heard that it was really hot and sparse, but I’m finding it to be very lovely and mellow. The relatively flat terrain makes for easy walking and we’ve really lucked out on the weather. I also think that we have made a good decision to scale back on the number of kilometers we do in a day and that is made for a much more relaxed experience. We’re starting to develop friendships with some of the other pilgrims — partly because the easy terrain invites everyone to stroll and chat and the smaller number of pilgrims walking this part of the Camino means you’re more likely to see the same people so it’s easier to form bonds. I’m not sure that my mind is opening, but I feel as though my heart is.
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  • Day 22 - Ledigos to Sahagún

    July 13 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    We enjoyed a full night's rest thanks to a 6pm dinner at the albergue and only a 17 km walk today. We drank a café con leche at 6:30am as the albergue bar opened and then departed with a Camino friend.

    We stopped in Moratinos for another café at a bar built into the hillside like many of the bodegas, some of which are believed to be up to 500 years old.

    Today's walk brought us into the province of León, but the city of León is still three days away.

    At Santuario de la Virgen Peregrina we received our official halfway certificates. The approach to restoration/preservation there was interesting. They've preserved what they can but haven't tried to recreate everything. Even faded and incomplete, it was quite astonishing.

    The timing of restaurants and the lunch hours seems to vary from city to city, but we figured out this one goes from 2 to 4pm, which overlaps with siesta here from 2-5pm when all other stores close; in the bigger cities some of the stores remain open. Some cities have lunch before the siesta and some during; it always requires looking about as Google is only right about half the time about the hours food is served.

    We enjoyed a great lunch at Casa Simón with raciones like braised leeks with cecina (dry-cured beef) and asparagus in a cream sauce. I'm also gaining an appreciation for good vermouth served over ice and not as a component of a cocktail.

    Tonight there is a gathering of pilgrims at 5pm at the albergue, mass at 6:30, and then maybe we'll have dinner or tapas; they usually have a communal dinner where we were planning to get rid of the cookies, but not on Sundays. Instead, we'll bring them to the 5pm social.

    AllTrails

    French Way: Carrión de los Condes - Calzadilla de la Cueza
    https://api-v5.alltrails.com/explore/recording/…

    Buen Camino!
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  • Monasterio de Santa Clara (Clarisas)
    Church of Santa María del CaminoStopped here for a croissant and sandwich we packed before we knew the bar was openOpen bar!Refueling after the walk

    Day 21 - Halfway there

    July 12 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Carrion de Los Condes to Ledigos

    As we end our third week on the Camino, we reached the halfway point both in terms of time and distance (about 400 km done). It was another 4 am wake up to beat the heat and the first 17 km without services. This was complicated by our decision to go to mass last night, and then out for a fancy dinner at a hotel a kilometer from our own lodging. This meant we were in bed close to 11 pm, but with no regrets after a tasty meal where a Camino friend joined us.

    Luckily, this time one of the midpoint pop-up bars was open this morning so we were enjoying café con leches and tomato toast after only a couple hours of walking. Unfortunately, there was no bathroom, so we didn't have a second café or linger long. Grace did take time to offer up cookies to the other patrons.

    Thanks to a breeze and some occasional clouds the walk was enjoyable despite being almost a straight road through the wheat fields for a dozen kilometers. At the second bar of the day we finished off distributing and eating one box of cookies.

    After that, it was a 7 km walk via a detour that kept us from walking alongside the highway. We arrived at our albergue around noon and enjoyed paella, pizza, and drinks until we could check in. Grace was a saint and did the laundry today while I took my siesta nap--she's getting hers now. At these busier albergues you have to get your load of wash in early or wait in line. Also, doing the laundry early ensures it dries by dinner/bedtime.

    AllTrails

    French Way: Carrión de los Condes - Terradillos de Templarios
    https://api-v5.alltrails.com/explore/recording/…
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  • Why the Camino?

    July 11 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    An obvious conversation starter on the Camino is, "Why are you doing the Camino?" After 20 days I'm still not sure I have a good or simple answer like the ones I've heard.

    I enjoy traveling and was looking forward to spending six weeks immersing myself in another country with Grace. The challenge of walking across a country for almost 500 miles with only a backpack's worth of items was also appealing; I wanted to find out what this aging body could still do.

    I don't know if it's a pilgrimage for me; my relationship with the church is fraught with unresolved concerns. Regardless, the places where we visit are filled with history and art; we walk a path walked by others for centuries and view sights seen by others for millennia. There's something moving about them that requires no faith.

    The Camino is six weeks where I hope to have time for some self-reflection and deep thoughts while removed from most of my usual commitments, but few seem to have manifested themselves. The Camino can be hard work even if isn't the usual daily grind of home. Hopefully retreating from the world will allow me to return refreshed and ready to finish off one career, find something else, and fight for democracy and what's right.

    It's odd though because the world definitely continues to deteriorate while we're away. We're lucky enough to step off the crazy ride for a minute but it keeps on spinning out of control. I pray for answers about why and how and what now, but haven't heard anything yet; maybe my mind is still too muddled by the past and present.
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  • The late pilgrim sees the church

    July 11 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    Today’s lesson: the early bird might get the worm (and perhaps the last private room in the pilgrim’s hostel), but the late (or at least slow) pilgrim gets to see the inside of the 12th century Templar church.

    Yesterday was the first day where we felt unabashedly great — no blister or Achilles issues — so I tried walking a little faster than I’d been walking. It felt good and we were happy to finish up and get out of the heat that much quicker.

    BUT — the faster pace set off Chris’ blister and one of the things we’ve learned on the Camino is that when you change your gait because your blisters are hurting, you end straining muscles and tendons.

    The only answer is to pick a sauntering pace where you can achieve a comfortable gait, so that’s what we did today. I have to admit that it was strange to be the one who had to slow their pace to match their partner but it also felt good to be able to support Chris after weeks of getting his support when my feet were bugging me.

    We lucked out this morning: we found an open cafe after only an hour of walking. This was probably the first time we’ve had a good cup of coffee before 7 AM since we left home. After that, it was another almost three hours of walking on a tree- and wildflower-lined riverside path before we came to another town, Villalcázar de Sirga.

    The weather is not quite so hot today (high was 86 instead of 90) and we were pretty ready for a leisurely cafe stop, so we settled in, had an early lunch and chatted for a good long while with friends as they passed through town.

    What we thought we wouldn’t do, though, was visit the town church, La Iglesia de Santa María la Blanca since it wasn’t going to open for almost two hours after we arrived in town.

    Well, lunch took over an hour. Friends, getting ready to walk takes me a long time: I have to put on new socks (changing socks mid-hike is supposed to help prevent blisters), reapply sunscreen, change into my mid-day shirt, stretch, and adjust my daypack before I’m well and truly “Champagne ready.)

    While I was only “sparkling ready” our friend Amanda went to check out the church and let us know that it wouldn’t open for half an hour and then she walked onto the town where we’re all staying tonight.

    Chris decided to take pictures of the church’s exterior while he was waiting for me to be Champagne Ready. A moment later, a volunteer showed up and opened the church almost half an hour early. …If I was more efficient in my pre-walk preparations, we’d have totally missed out on this really special church!

    The rest of our walk into Carrion de las Condes was uneventful, if hot and dry. We had just enough time to do our shopping and visit two of the town’s three churches before our check in time.
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  • Day 19: Sleepy towns are for sleeping

    July 10 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    We had a long day of walking (25.5 km/almost 16 miles) and temperatures were supposed to reach 90 by the afternoon, so we set off at 5 AM.

    We had a steep climb right off the bat, but the moon and stars were lovely. We crested the hill just as the sky started to turn pink. It felt good to beat the sun to the top of the hill.

    After a quick breakfast/snack of nun cookies, we continued another 7 km to our first town of the day where we found exactly one bar open. This bar is run by volunteers and the proceeds benefit local mutual aid organizations. The people working there were all sweet and earnest and their hearts were clearly in the right place, but they served us lukewarm, terrible coffee. Fortunately, the tomato toast was delicious.

    The rest of our walk was pretty unremarkable. We stopped for cold drinks about 9 km after our sad coffee stop and then walked the last 5 km by a shady canal.

    Tonight we’re in Fromista. We’re staying at a little hotel at the edge of town. On our way there, we grabbed a bite to eat and checked out a church that was built over a thousand years ago.

    The best part of our day was when our landlady for the night greeted us warmly and offered us cold beers before showing us to our air conditioned room. Having already seen what sights the town had to offer, we spent the rest of the afternoon napping.

    Fortunately, the restaurant across the street from our hotel serves great ribs and good beer. A nice, mellow end to a long day on the Camino. Tomorrow is a shorter day with more places to stop to cool off, grab a drink and a bite to eat.
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  • We have cookies!!!!

    July 9 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    Gather round, friends, as I tell you about the most Chris Shannon thing to happen on the Camino so far:

    Chris and I had a little bit of energy after resting at our albergue, so we decided to visit Castrojeriz’s three churches. We decided to visit the Convento de Santa Clara first. This convent is run by cloistered Clarist nuns who make their living by baking specialty cookies.

    Since the nuns are cloistered and don’t have contact with the outside world, you write your order down on a blank slip of paper, spin the giant lazy Susan around to give the order to the nun who’s on the other side, and then wait until the nun sends out your cookies and a slip of paper with how much you owe. (There’s no price list.)

    Chris thought he was ordering two of each 6 kinds of cookie. The nuns working the spinner thought he was ordering two BOXES of each kind of cookie.

    Chris tried to explain the mistake, but it turns out that the nun working the order counter was a native French speaker who maybe spoke less Spanish than Chris. Thanks to Google translate, the nun let us know that she couldn’t sell us just a couple of cookies since she’d already boxed so many, but she did let us buy only half of what she had originally boxed up.

    Each box contains at least a dozen cookies (some varieties have way more). Our fellow pilgrims have committed to helping us eat cookies at dessert, and our albergue host says the chocolate cookies are his favorite and will happily take those off our hands. Even so, we’ll be shipping a bunch of cookies in my backpack and might be eating nun cookies for at least the next several days. Fortunately, they’re good cookies!

    It’s worth noting that the temperature dropped by at least 5 degrees and the clouds rolled in after we made our sizable cookie purchase/donation. I’m not saying that we just bought a little bit of good weather, but I’m not *not* saying it either….
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  • Day 18 - Hornillos to Castrojeriz

    July 9 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    We departed before sunrise after a cup of coffee and packaged pastries. It was another beautiful cool morning and amazing sunrise. We had breakfast at the halfway point in Hontanas and were in Castrojeriz at our albergue about noon. The walk was nice but a bit more tiring then yesterday.

    Currently enjoying a Korean roll and a salad for lunch at our albergue and then bibimbap tonight for dinner. After siesta we'll check out the local churches and Convento de Santa Clara where they sell cookies and pastries. After dinner, we might return for vespers.

    On the Camino today we stopped in at one church and the ruins of an abbey that now has an albergue attached.

    AllTrails

    French Way: Burgos to Hontanas
    https://api-v5.alltrails.com/explore/recording/…

    French Way: Hontanas - Itero de la Vega
    https://api-v5.alltrails.com/explore/recording/…

    Burn Camino!
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