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Camino Frances & Europe
  • Lisa Fleming
Currently traveling
Aug 2024 – Sep 2025

Camino Frances & Europe

An open-ended adventure by Lisa Read more
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  • Lisa FlemingTravelerCamino Frances & Europe
    12

    Zubiri to Zabaldika

    Sep 7–8, 2024 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Zabaldika felt like a slice of heaven. I arrived in the heat of the day after climbing a steep goats track off the main Camino route to arrive. It was so quiet and leafy & we were greeted by a sister from the society of the sacred heart that run this Donativo albergue perched up on a hill looking over the district. She showed us the church which has the oldest bell in the Navarre region. I walked up the over 100 steps in tiny circular stone staircase to ring the bell and hear it sing to welcome the pilgrims. It felt so peaceful and quiet after the booked out towns in the nights before. Ed had taken the bus to Pamplona as he had sore legs & a blister. I asked if it was ok with him if I stay in Zabaldika & meet him in Pamplona in the morning. I knew he wouldn’t be alone as he was with pilgrims in a Donativo. There was a beautiful mass with singing & we had home made dinner cooked by the volunteer hospitaleros, old local people who spoke no English (& when we didn’t understand she explained further with lots of fast words and more explanations of which we understood nothing 😂) of salad & bean & chorizo stew as a family with the other pilgrims. Best meal in Spain so far. Ed enjoyed his day to himself in the city exploring & I enjoyed my day of peace with heaven smiling on me. 😇Read more

  • Lisa FlemingTravelerCamino Frances & Europe
    1
    11

    Roncesvalles to Zubiri

    Sep 6–7, 2024 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    A long day of walking due to the rain. I set off early out of the monastery alone just as it was getting light. They woke us all with beautiful deep singing music on the monastery at 6am so everyone was up and about early. I stopped for breakfast in Aspinal the 2nd town. Ed started a bit later & got sopping wet as poncho which fits me well is small on him and didn’t cover him so well. I waited for him to get to Aspinal by which time he also had blister as wet socks had slid down into his shoes. He took taxi with another man to Zubiri. I was lucky with the rain & didn’t get the worst of it. I met lovely people on the path from England Ireland and Norway. Coming onto Zubiri with steep slippery shale took a lot of concentration. 3 people whom had fallen were taken away in ambulances. Zubiri was packed and my walking companion couldn’t get a bed & Ended up walking 40km that day as there was a festival in the next town. I had a lovely day but the weather and achey legs from previous days steep climb took the wind out of Ed. We went to the sporting hall for dinner where to our surprise we had really good dinner of salad grilled shrimp & mussels and ‘fruita’ of very sweet fresh pineapple. I’m eating a lot. It feels great to have good appetite & eat heartily after the days walking.Read more

  • Lisa FlemingTravelerCamino Frances & Europe
    21

    Valcarlos to Roncesvalles

    Sep 5–6, 2024 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    Day 2 walking. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast in the local bar then headed off in gentle rain. Lovely walking conditions. Cool and misty in the mountains. Again the beauty of the Pyrenees surprised me. I was hoping for Camino spirit but didn’t realise how beautiful it would be. Shortish walk 12km or so but quite steep uphill. Easy day for me but made Ed’s legs ache. We stayed in the monastery centuries old. So much history as a passing through the Pyrenees since Roman times. I went to mass & pilgrim blessing and the singing and atmosphere was beautiful. All the volunteer hospitaleros in albergue are Dutch. Huge place with hundreds of pilgrims & very well organised. We made new friends with lovely people from Columbia.Read more

  • Lisa FlemingTravelerCamino Frances & Europe
    1About to set off.. like starting new school in new uniform shoes raincoat - ready for anything...
    2

    St Jean to Valcarlos the alternate route

    Sep 4–5, 2024 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Our first day on the Camino Frances. We fought in the morning so Ed set off alone and I went to pilgrim shop to get hiking poles. He did so well, walked at great pace and managed to negotiate the app & maps and found our albergue which was not yet open and in the back of a school. He walked into a classroom before eventually finding Josef who could show him to our bunks. It was a small municipale albergue. Basic but comfortable & lovely atmosphere with fellow pilgrims. A wonderful start. I struggled to work out the maps on my own & didn’t know where to go & was nearly in tears so I went to pilgrim office & got help so I managed to work it out & set off on my own. Shortly into the journey a deep serenity came over me as I settled into the rhythm of walking and the beauty & peace of walking in the Pyrenees. Our journey had begun & everything felt right in the world. 😊Read more

  • Lisa FlemingTravelerCamino Frances & Europe
    1
    112

    Bayonne & St Jean Pied de Port

    Sep 4–5, 2024 in France ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    We took the train to St Jean & due to my error spent a few hours in Bayonne which turned out to be a beautiful little city full of cobblestoned streets with historic church & a big wall around the middle of town. We enjoyed strolling around taking it all in and trying new food. Ed bought a butterfly fly knife which is illegal in Australia so he was very pleased and has been playing with it since. Then we got back on train to St Jean which is in the Pyrenees and the beauty took me by surprise. Drizzly and misty. We found our “Gite” & were welcomed warmly. We woke early but well rested with the other pilgrims before light ready to start our journey….Read more

  • Lisa FlemingTravelerCamino Frances & Europe

    Paris

    Sep 2–3, 2024 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    We flew overnight & arrived Paris 7:30am. Everything seemed easier. Paris was good to us. The sun was shining. We were warmly greeted by our friends brother Matko to his lovely Parisian apartment with pastries for us on arrival. We then roamed the city on electric lime bikes. It was so much fun, very easy to navigate. We easily found our way to the River Seine and then were just minutes away from the Eiffel Tower. We saw a cycling event in the Paralympics, streets closed off and crowds closing and yelling for cyclists on road bikes with prosthetic limbs. The atmosphere was so jovial. We made our way to a recommended French bistro and ate escargot for very reasonable price. Even Ed enjoyed them. I then walked back to our apartment and Ed made his own way back by bike. Time in Paris on his own. It was a special day for both of us. So much history every where you look & beauty and cool interesting characters & different fashion & people of all colours.Read more

  • Lisa FlemingTravelerCamino Frances & Europe

    Guangzhou

    September 1, 2024 in China ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    Today our pilgrim journey began. We arrived in St Jean Pied de Port via train from Paris yesterday afternoon and began walking this morning. Already it feels like a long time and so very far from home and we have had just 4 days and three countries. We spent a long day in the steaming humidity of Guangzhou China. We arrived at 5:30am in one of the biggest airports in the world. things felt exotic, hard and foreign. We were given a complementary airport hotel for our 19 hour layover but my careful planning of WeChat pay didn't work. Eventually I managed to get Alipay to work. For a bit we thought we were going to be stuck in the hotel all day. After leaving the hotel I saw not one other foreign person all day. We took the metro to town which required several changes of line which I felt proud I managed pretty well. It felt surreal to be somewhere so foreign. We wandered around and saw amazing things and ate traditional Cantonese food at a gorgeous tiny basic place served by an old couple where we pointed at what we wanted & enjoyed the very solid old wooden stools and table & everything. We got duck and chicken with rice, green veg & soup. That evening we got street food which was more unusual, some good and some a little too novel. There was a skewer of insects on offer to be grilled over hot coals. It was still sweltering into the evening and we were sticky and prickly with heat exhaustion, glad to return to the air conditioning. Our hotel had the hugest 50m pool, bigger than any 50m pool I've ever seen. We had to buy swimming caps to wear. We both fell sleep in the hotel after dinner and it was hard to rouse Ed to get the 10pm shuttle bus for our 12:30am flight. I think we were asleep before take off...Read more

  • Lisa FlemingTravelerCamino Frances & Europe
    1
    1

    Guangzhou

    September 1, 2024 in China ⋅ 🌙 27 °C

    Today our pilgrim journey began. We arrived in St Jean Pied de Port via train from Paris yesterday afternoon and began walking this morning. Already it feels like a long time and so very far from home and we have had just 4 days and three countries. We spent a long day in the steaming humidity of Guangzhou China. We arrived at 5:30am in one of the biggest airports in the world. things felt exotic, hard and foreign. We were given a complementary airport hotel for our 19 hour layover but my careful planning of WeChat pay didn't work. Eventually I managed to get Alipay to work. For a bit we thought we were going to be stuck in the hotel all day. After leaving the hotel I saw not one other foreign person all day. We took the metro to town which required several changes of line which I felt proud I managed pretty well. It felt surreal to be somewhere so foreign. We wandered around and saw amazing things and ate traditional Cantonese food at a gorgeous tiny basic place served by an old couple where we pointed at what we wanted & enjoyed the very solid old wooden stools and table & everything. We got duck and chicken with rice, green veg & soup. That evening we got street food which was more unusual, some good and some a little too novel. There was a skewer of insects on offer to be grilled over hot coals. It was still sweltering into the evening and we were sticky and prickly with heat exhaustion, glad to return to the air conditioning. Our hotel had the hugest 50m pool, bigger than any 50m pool I've ever seen. We had to buy swimming caps to wear. We both fell sleep in the hotel after dinner and it was hard to rouse Ed to get the 10pm shuttle bus for our 12:30am flight. I think we were asleep before take off...Read more

    Trip start
    August 31, 2024
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