On my way!
7 de abril, Canadá ⋅ 🌧 8 °C
The adventure begins!🎒
I am about to board my first flight. Edmonton to Montreal 🛫👋
The next step
8 de abril, Canadá ⋅ ☁️ -1 °C
Soon I will board my next flight, this one to Madrid. My cousin Larry was kind enough to come to the airport and help me to pass the time today. Ten hours is a long time to wait.
And what do youLeia mais
España 🇪🇸
9 de abril, Espanha ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C
Two sleepless nights in a rows is taking a toll! But tonight I have a private room!
I arrived in Madrid 🛫 about 6:45 a.m. (10:45 p.m. Edmonton time) and made my way to the train 🚆 station.Leia mais
Exploring León
9 de abril, Espanha ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C
A shower and a change of clothes felt wonderful after 48 hours of travel! I set out to explore León. I saw my first Camino marker, stopped in at the Basilica San Isidoro, then Catedral León. It isLeia mais
Day 1 - Leon to Oncina
10 de abril, Espanha ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C
I had SUCH a good sleep! And the hotel provided a filling breakfast. I was in no rush today, so I didn’t start to walk until about 10:00.
Walking out of León was easy but via sidewalks andLeia mais
Day 2 - Oncina to Hospital de Orbigo
11 de abril, Espanha ⋅ ☀️ 8 °C
Today I walked 25 km, a lot further than I have walked for a long time. But it was fairly flat, about half on dirt roads and half on pavement.
I stopped twice - once for café con leche and tortillaLeia mais
Day 3 - Hospital de Orbigo to Astorga
12 de abril, Espanha ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C
There was light rain today, so I tested my rain gear. It was sufficient. My boots are a bit muddy though. The trail was on gravel roads quite a bit, with a red dirt. And more hills as well.
TheLeia mais
Astorga
12 de abril, Espanha ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C
I met up with Llew, who will be my partner volunteering at the albergue. We went to see the Gaudi Camino Museum, which was once a Bishop’s Palace. Lots of history and art.
Some artifacts were fromLeia mais
Palm Sunday in Astorga
13 de abril, Espanha ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C
I managed to watch the Palm Sunday procession here in Astorga this morning. This is one of the things I was looking forward to in Spain 🇪🇸 and I was not disappointed.
It wasn’t huge, twoLeia mais
More Astorga
13 de abril, Espanha ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C
Other than observing Palm Sunday, I spent some time wandering around, enjoyed a café con leche with a slice of Tarte de Manzana 🍎. This is a walled city and had lovely views from the wall. TheLeia mais
Astorga to Rabanal del Camino
14 de abril, Espanha ⋅ ☁️ 7 °C
This is the day we arrived at the albergue we are to be volunteering at for a bit over two weeks. It was a 20 km walk, mostly up hill.
I had an oops with my garmin and accidentally turned it off atLeia mais
Hospitalera Training Day
15 de abril, Espanha ⋅ ☁️ 1 °C
Peter and Fiona, the outgoing volunteers, trained us for our duties today and introduced us to Susana at the tienda (shop).
It was snowing when the first pilgrim left before light, and continues toLeia mais
Hospitalera Day 1
15 de abril, Espanha ⋅ ⛅ 2 °C
Fiona and Peter left this morning so it is just Llew and me to run the show now. We had 14 pilgrims last night.
I get to clean the upstairs and Llew does the downstairs. My part includes theLeia mais
Hospitalera Day 2
17 de abril, Espanha ⋅ ⛅ 5 °C
I won’t bore you with the same details every day. Today the clean up was a bit quicker though, so I had time to walk around the village.
Also, the weather is much more pleasant today, so I canLeia mais
Hospitalera Day 3
18 de abril, Espanha ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C
Today started out with decent weather, then around 11:30 it started to rain and the temperature has dropped since then. There is more snow forecast tonight.
When we opened at 1:00 we had eightLeia mais
Hospitalera Day 4
19 de abril, Espanha ⋅ ☁️ 1 °C
Sorry to go on about the weather. Today is forecast to be the coldest day, then tomorrow slightly warmer. We might even get into double digits by Monday or Tuesday.
Today I decided to bake lemonLeia mais
Hospitalera Day 5
20 de abril, Espanha ⋅ ☀️ 6 °C
Happy Easter Sunday! The sky is much more clear today and we can see plenty of snow on the nearby mountains.
How many can say they have been to Easter Sunday service in a 12th century churchLeia mais
Hospitalera Day 6
21 de abril, Espanha ⋅ ☁️ 6 °C
My family asked for more donkey so I decided that Diego could help with my chores.
Most of our pilgrims were European today, but we did have one from Mexico 🇲🇽 and two bicigrinos fromLeia mais
Hospitalera Day 7
22 de abril, Espanha ⋅ ⛅ 5 °C
It’s hard to believe that we have been here for a week now! Today the sun is shining and the temperature is up to a balmy high of 14 degrees today!
Llew placed an order with our neighbouringLeia mais
Hospitalera Day 8
23 de abril, Espanha ⋅ 🌙 5 °C
Having a small group of pilgrims made the cleanup easier, and we were finished in record time.
The sun is shining today so I hung the washing on the line in the garden. It dried very quickly.
ILeia mais
Hospitalera Day 9
24 de abril, Espanha ⋅ 🌙 7 °C
Last night’s pilgrims were a bit slow to get going. Especially one fellow who forgot some clothes on the line in the garden, and then ended up forgetting some other things beside his bunk. Oh, well,Leia mais
Hospitalera Day 10
25 de abril, Espanha ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C
I have a total of 18 hospitalera days at Gaucelmo, so I won’t be upset if you get a little bored. Each day is much the same, but the pilgrims each day are so diverse and interesting. We did have aLeia mais
Hospitalera Day 11
26 de abril, Espanha ⋅ ☀️ 8 °C
Some of yesterday’s pilgrims were pigs. Usually people are quite tidy and considerate. Not so with a couple of the people from last night. It didn’t help that they spent the whole afternoonLeia mais
Hospitalera Day 12
27 de abril, Espanha ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C
Almost everyone slept well last night, and the cleaning was very easy today.
Yesterday Larry asked about the mountain in some of my photos, so I have added a screenshot of my best guess. PicoLeia mais
Hospitalera Day 13
28 de abril, Espanha ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C
Another beautiful sunny spring day in Rabanal de Camino! With a small glitch of a power outage. Hopefully it is solved before tea time❤️🫖☕️.
At least we are done all the cleaning, whichLeia mais






















































































































































































































































































































































ViajanteBrutal way to start, a red-eye flight and only two time zones! Glad to see you have begun the new adventure.🥾
ViajanteThanks. Now for another overnight flight with six more time zones.
ViajanteBuen Camino!