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Camino de Santiago (Frances)Camino de Santiago (Frances)
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Camino de Santiago (Frances)

August - October 2023
We're setting out on an adventure of a lifetime. Just two crazy kids walking 500 miles across northern Spain. I hope you enjoy following along. Read more
  • 91footprints
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  • 62days
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  • 6.9kmiles
  • 6.1kmiles
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  • Camino de Santiago (Frances)
    Day 1

    SFO to Heathrow

    August 28, 2023 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 64 °F

    Just waiting to board our flight to London and then on to Madrid.

  • Camino de Santiago (Frances)
    Day 2

    Heathrow to Madrid

    August 29, 2023 in England ⋅ ☁️ 68 °F

    We just got off a 10 hour flight. The turbulence near Iceland was not amusing but we're feeling good on land now.

    Our trip has been full of delays but we've finally arrived in Madrid. Pat says he'll only come to Europe again if we upgrade to business class. I think I agree. Time for bed.Read more

  • Camino de Santiago (Frances)
    21
    Day 3

    Madrid Part 1

    August 30, 2023 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 77 °F

    We put 8 miles on our feet exploring some of Madrid's delights. Started out with a simple but filling breakfast, walked up Calle Atocha through Plaza Mayor to the Catedral de Santa María la Real de la Almudena. We toured the cathedral and marveled at its beauty. One room covered in gorgeous mosaics didn't allow photography so you'll have to check it out for yourselves.

    Next we toured the Royal Palace and said hi to King Felipe and Queen Letizia (ok, it was a painting). Lots of beautiful art and tapestries. After that, a well earned lunch in the cave at El Botín, operating since 1752.

    For dessert, churros and chocolate at Chocolatería San Gines. Yum!

    We did a little more walking and window shopping, then picked up some Jamón Iberico de Bellota to nibble on later.    Read more

  • Camino de Santiago (Frances)
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    Day 5

    Madrid Part 2

    September 1, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 77 °F

    Walked 12 miles today.

    Started the day with the buffet breakfast at our hotel. I tried the pan con tomate. It was tasty but it's really hard to beat the freshly baked croissant. We spent the rest of the morning waking it off in the Parque del Retiro.

    We shopped and ate throughout the afternoon. I found several fabric stores but was only able to shop at two of them before they all closed for siesta. The Mercado de San Miguel was crowded and fun for tapas.

    We capped the night with an intimate flamenco show. They only allowed us to record the opening song. I really enjoyed the show. The female dancer made beautiful shapes with her dress and body. The male dancer looked like Rick Springfield (enough said there).

    Tomorrow we head for Pamplona.    Read more

  • Camino de Santiago (Frances)
    1122
    Day 5

    Pamplona-pre Camino

    September 1, 2023 in Spain ⋅ 🌩️ 68 °F

    Pretty chill day, not weather-wise (which was pretty warm). We made our way to Pamplona via train, which was a very comfortable ride. We saw several pilgrims on the train (there's a certain "look" about us). Once we arrived, we spent the afternoon exploring the old part of the city and walked the famous route of the running of the bulls. I'm fascinated by the architecture of the midieval, gothic San Saturnino church. I post alot about food, but I'm into the history of our surroundings as well. After late evening pintxos, we got drenched in a thunderstorm. Luckily, we only had to run through it for a quarter mile.Read more

  • Camino de Santiago (Frances)
    21
    Day 6

    St. Jean Pied de Port

    September 2, 2023 in France ⋅ ⛅ 64 °F

    Took a two hour bus to SJPP, a cute little town in the Basque region of France. Our hosts are lovely and they are sharing their home with 18 of us. We are sharing a room with two ladies who turned out to be excellent roommates. Pat was kind and let me have the bottom bunk. We met two couples from Australia who are great fun. It rained off and on but we should have nice weather to officially start our Camino tomorrow.Read more

  • Camino de Santiago (Frances)
    2
    Day 7

    Day 1-Orisson/Auberge Borda

    September 3, 2023 in France ⋅ ☁️ 68 °F

    No one slept much last night. We were all too excited. We had mild weather today which was perfect for hiking. We only walked 7 miles but it was straight up the Pyrenees. We went from 500 feet elevation to 2900 feet. Pat did today's walk in his Chaco sandals. We saw a couple different types of sheep, cows and vultures. The views are spectacular! The Aussies are with us as well as another Californian, NYer, South Koreans, a German, a Swede and a Brit. Our lives are pretty simple now....walk, laundry, eat and sleep...and converting kilometers to miles, pounds to kilograms, and Fahrenheit to Celsius. We really should just switch to the metric system.Read more

  • Camino de Santiago (Frances)
    Day 8

    Day 2 - Roncesvalles

    September 4, 2023 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 70 °F

    And just like that, we're back in Spain. What a day! Laurent, our host at Borda sent us on our way with a continental breakfast and a sandwich for the road. Hopefully, this offsets the gluttony of last night when he kept bringing out pots of food and bowls of bread. The other food available on this leg was a food truck that had snacks, including homemade sheep's cheese.

    I don't remember every twist and turn of the trail today, but there was alot of uphill and then a very steep downhill in 40 mph winds. Luckily, it was a warm day so the wind felt pretty good (except when it was pushing us to the side). The view of Roncesvalles from Col de Lepoeder (4500 feet in elevation) was breathtaking. The terrain varied from asphalt to rocks to mud to six inches of decomposed leaves.

    My feet are doing well so far but the hips are getting sore. We have a short day planned for tomorrow, so we'll sleep in and take our time. The only downside to doing a short day is that we may not see the friends we've made again. But I'm sure we'll make new friends.

    Oh, and we walked 10+ miles, acended from 2900 feet to 4700 feet and then a steep decent to 3100 feet.

    After dinner, I attended the pilgrim blessing at the church. One of the priests offered a historical tour of the church but most pilgrims either didn't hear him or had dinner reservations so there were only four of us. The finale was a tour of the crypt that is not available for tourists to see. It still has the original artwork from the 13th century.    Read more

  • Camino de Santiago (Frances)
    11
    Day 9

    Day 3-Viscarret

    September 5, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

    Since we had a short walk today (8.5 miles of gentle decent) we slept in and started walking at 10am. We brought part of our breakfast to snack on later because they gave us so much. For 5€, we each had two pieces of toast, a croissant, ham and cheese, yogurt, banana, coffee and freshly squeezed oj. I won't even tell you about the three course gluttony last night. I did say I was going to eat my way through Spain.

    Our walk today took us through an enchanted forest and a couple of cute towns (Burgete and Espinal). We saw a couple people we knew and met a lady from Vienna that made a stamp for pilgrims' credentials. I was the first to get a stamp from her. She said she was too embarrassed to tell anyone about it until now.

    We arrived in Viscarret hungry and stopped at Bar Juan, one of two restaurants in this hamlet. The ladies were quite dour and stonefaced but after I asked the elder what Patxaran tastes like, she started talking to us and brought us a complimentary shot. It's anise flavored but mild and mixed with some spices.

    Now we're just waiting for feeding time. It smells really good.    Read more

  • Camino de Santiago (Frances)
    Day 10

    Day 4-Larrasoaña

    September 6, 2023 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 77 °F

    A bottle of wine shouldn't cost 3.50€. Just so you know where I am.

    We left Viscarret around 8:30am after a light breakfast. We walked under a canopy of trees most of the day.

    Up...down...up...down...down...down...down...WTF am I walking on...down. Actually, I'd heard so much about this treacherous descent on "dragon's teeth" that I was prepared for it to be much worse than it was. It was long and hot but I never doubted our ability to get through it.

    A couple from Chile were riding e-Bikes down the treacherous stretch and one of them got caught in a tree branch. When she pulled her bike out, it ended up in a jagged rock ditch. We helped her get everything righted on her bike and she was on her way. She has massive cojones riding down that trail.

    We stopped for lunch at Zubiri and saw a few people we knew. I had the ribs that came with fries and salad. It was all delish. The olive oil is so good here.

    All the pilgrims are in agreement that the distances on the maps are underestimated (that's polite speak for BS). We were supposed to walk 10 miles today but it was over 12 miles. We soaked our feet in the cold river and tiny fish started nibbling on our toes. We're sharing a room today with two ladies...we both got the bottom bunk since we arrived first. Pat's a lucky guy. We decided to forego dinner at the albergue since we had such a large lunch. We ended up sharing salad and pasta at a little place across the street owned by a couple who met on the Camino and left their jobs to work on the Camino. We met a couple there who live in Alsace, France (on the border of Switzerland and Germany) but the husband works in Switzerland. He is a chef and his salary is 3x what it would be if he worked in France. The wife does her shopping in Germany. It's fascinating hearing the everyday reality of other parts of the world.

    Tomorrow we head to Pamplona and will be meeting up with the Aussies for dinner.    Read more

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