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Camino
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Camino

Our big retirement adventure part 1. We are walking the Camino de Santiago on the Frances (the french way) from St Jean Pied Deport, France to Santiago, Spain for a total of 879 km. Leggi altro
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    Day 25 Reliegos to Leon

    7 settembre 2024, Spagna ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    Started the day with a little bit of rain and a headwind. It was slow going for the first half of the day. We took a break for lunch, changed socks, and doctored feet. After this, things went smoother. The rain stopped, and we had good weather into Leon.

    Leon is the largest city so far, about 120,000 population. It was busy on a Saturday. We checked into our Hostal, showered, then explored the area.
    The cathedral was huge, we didn't tour this one but plenty of pictures of the outside. Had dinner with Lorreta, Denise, Hannah and Scott. We hadn't seen them for a few days. It was great seeing them    Leggi altro

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    Day 26 - Leon to Villa de Mazarife

    8–12 set 2024, Spagna ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Left Leon with good weather in store for us today. No rain and fairly cool. Met a young woman from Brazil, Stephanie, who was just starting her camino as we were leaving the city. We walked with her out of the city and helped get her feet wet on camino things. We split off to a different route, and she continued on.

    We hadn't seen any of our camino friends for two days now, but we met several today coming out of Leon. One was a couple from Brazil, whom we met on the very first night in Borda.

    Good day so far...Getting a little siesta in before dinner at the albergue.    Leggi altro

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    Day 27 - Mazarife to Hospital de Orbigo

    9 settembre 2024, Spagna ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    As you can tell, Teresa is much better at spelling the names of the towns than I am. I'm just going with the flow.

    A short day today, only 10 miles, so we took our time at breakfast and lunch. We visited with our camino friend Denise and then went to our albergues for an easy afternoon.
    This is a cool little village. They have a medieval festival in June where they celebrate jousting. As you come into town, you cross a bridge and the jousting grounds. We found a great pharmacy that is run by Maria. She was able to help us with our lotions and a brace that worked well on my achilles.

    Tomorrow is another shorter day to Astorga, where we're going to take another rest day before some mountain stages return.    Leggi altro

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    Day 28 - Hospital de Orbego to Astorga

    10 settembre 2024, Spagna ⋅ 🌙 16 °C

    Today was a good day for me. We received some help from Maria at the farmicia in Hospital last night. Today, I had the first pain-free walk in about 3 weeks, which was amazing.

    We had several surprises today that made the day memorable. One was getting a stamp and treat from an elderly man in the morning. No cafés were open, so we had no breakfast or coffee to start the day. Seeing this man was good for us since he had food and drinks, all for a donation. The other one was at about the 12 km we came upon a oasis with food and drinks, all for a donation also. Both of these are "the camino will provide" moments. The oasis had fresh fruits, cheese, toast, cookies, chips, juice, coffee, and water. You could also sleep there if needed, open 24 hours a day, again all donation based. David was the man manning the oasis so we took a picture with him. We gave our donation and headed into Astorga.

    Once in Astorga we had a nice lunch, visited the chocolate museum, and then checked into our hotel for our rest day. Got cleaned up, had a couple of drinks and dinner with Denise. It was a great day.    Leggi altro

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    Day 29 - Astorga

    11 settembre 2024, Spagna ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    We took a rest day today and spent the day exploring Astorga. This is a nice city with enough shops, bars, cafes, and sights to keep you busy, but not be overwhelmed with people.

    We visited the Gaudi palace and Astorga cathedral today. Again, the architecture is amazing. The palace is one of the few that Gaudi designed and built outside of Catalonia. After touring the town we spent an hour in the hotel spa enjoying a jacuzzi, sauna, foot soak, and a warm nap on the Turkish chair.

    Tomorrow we start walking again. We're 4 weeks into the walk, with 16 more days to go...    Leggi altro

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    A little update

    11 settembre 2024, Spagna ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    The kilometers make no sense here. We passed several markers that had the same distance on the but they were kilometers apart.

    As near as we can tell, we've walked about 541 km, which is about 338 miles. That leaves us with about 270 km more to get to Santiago.Leggi altro

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    Day 30 - Astorga to Rabanal de Camino

    12 settembre 2024, Spagna ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    After a great rest day, we started walking again today. Teresa's getting hooked, at one point, she said, " it actually feels good to be walking again".

    It's amazing how the km go by quickly when your feet and legs feel better. We did 13 miles, it went by fast, we even took time to sit and enjoy the day.

    Teresa's done a great job of picking places to stay. Tonight, we're in a private albergue with an amazing host named Kim. She had cookies, fresh baked banana bread, and coffee for us when we arrived. She did our laundry and made reservations at a restaurant in town for dinner. She's awesome.

    The landscape has changed from farmland to more pine forests as we head into the mountains. We have a big climb and decent tomorrow.    Leggi altro

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    Day 31 - Rabanal to Molinaseca

    13 settembre 2024, Spagna ⋅ 🌙 16 °C

    It's a roller coaster of a walk today. Lots of ups and downs, with a good uphill climb up to the Cruz de Ferra.

    Met some new people today, 2 guys from Philly and a couple from Australia/New Zealand, Mike and Jo. I walked with Craig from Philly most of the afternoon. The guy is 76 and walking this part of the camino. We did 16.5 miles today on rocky terrain.

    We stayed in a nice albergue and had a traditional Brazilian dinner homemade by our hosts. It was delicious. Another great day on the camino.    Leggi altro

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    Day 32 - Molinasesca to Cacabelos

    14 settembre 2024, Spagna ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

    Good day of walking , mostly on paved surfaces today. My quads feel it from the rocky steep walk yesterday, so it was a nice break today. Started out cooler this morning, but the stars were out when we left the village.

    Walked through some rural neighborhoods with gardens and livestock. Got into some vineyards where they were harvesting grapes and ended in a cute little town in wine country.

    The change in terrain has also changed the houses some. Instead of the terra cota roof tiles, they've turned to black slate roofs.    Leggi altro

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    Day 33 - Cacabelos to Vega de Valcarce

    15 settembre 2024, Spagna ⋅ 🌙 19 °C

    It was a long but enjoyable day. We went about 18 miles today(somewhat unintentionally) as we were supposed to save our legs for a climb tomorrow. However, we like to add complexity to our adventures.

    We took 2 alternative routes today. One was through the wine country and was an easy walk....the other was a climb of about 2400 feet in elevation gain and about 12 km. We were the only pilgrims on that route as we saw no one in about 4 hours.

    Ended up in a cute little village for the night. Tomorrow, we climb one of the bigger climbs on the camino. After today, it should be a breeze.    Leggi altro

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    Day 34 - Vega to Fronfria

    16–17 set 2024, Spagna ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

    Big climb today, thank goodness my feet have healed or it would have sucked. We climbed 3100 feet over about 12 km through beautiful mountain woods and pasture land. As tough as it was, it was a good day.
    Passed through some cool little villages along the way. There are lots of cattle in the fields and cow poop on the trail.

    In the village we're staying in tonight, the cows were being milked, then walked themselves to the barn for the night. Good-looking animals as well.

    Had a nice pilgrims communal dinner n a round house with about 30 people attending. All in all, a great day!    Leggi altro

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    Day 35 - Fonfria to Samos

    17 settembre 2024, Spagna ⋅ 🌙 16 °C

    I have to add this to yesterday's blog.
    As many of you know, I can be a little competitive at times. I've had to learn to let go of trying to catch up to the pilgrims in front of us or being pissed off when we get passed by little spanish ladies. We have a pace, and that's the best we can do, however...yesterday we were on fire! We passed 5 pilgrims during our walk yesterday. It was a record day for us. 2 were younger guys, and 3 were 70 year old ladies from Florida . We kicked ass!

    Today was probably one of the nicer days we've had walking so far. The weather was perfect, the legs and feet felt great, and the scenery was spectacular. We had shade, went through little villages, along a river, and only did about 18 km miles today.

    I had one of my favorite lunches, meat and cheese, and just had a relaxing vibe all day. And we passed 2 people today...

    A great day on the camino.    Leggi altro

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    Day 36 - Samos to Vilei/Barbadelo

    18 settembre 2024, Spagna ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

    It was a shorter day today, only about 12 miles. A nice walk into Sarria visiting with a young man from the Bavaria region of Germany. The countryside of Galicia is really nice and reminds me of southern Oregon some.

    We are about 110 km from Santiago at this point. The vibe of the camino will change from solitude to more people walking as this area is a starting point for many walking the camino on a limited schedule or even a school trip. Other camino routes also join here for the last 100 km into Santiago. We witnessed two larger groups showing up at our hostel tonight. We hope to beat them to the trail in the morning.

    We've walked approximately 430 miles to this point. Putting it in perspective, that's like walking from our house in CP to Seattle. It was a little hard to imagine we could have done that. 5 more days and we'll be in Santiago..
    Yikes!    Leggi altro

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    Day 37 - Vilie to Gonzar

    19 settembre 2024, Spagna ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    A little longer walk today, a little over 16 miles. The morning was warmer than the past few days due to being overcast, so we were peeling layers early on.

    Nice walk with some rollers to get us huffing and puffing. There are definitely more people on the trail now, but we took a few alternative trails and saw fewer people. You can tell the newbies by their clean shoes, ours look like crap.

    It's been a little bit of a bummer not seeing all the people we've walked with over the last month, but we're getting used to that. We are keeping tabs on them through WhatsApp, which is nice to see where they're at.
    I was interested in these structures used for drying food, I believe. I'll need to do a little research on what they're called. It's the first we've seen on the trail so far.    Leggi altro

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    Day 38 - Gonzar to Palas de Rei

    20 settembre 2024, Spagna ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Today was fairly anticlimactic as we just walked. The morning was foggy, and the day stayed pretty cool. We had a touch of rain for a bit but nothing like we had earlier in the trip.

    I found out that the name of those structures is Horreos. They're a granary for drying grains and corn. They're meant to keep things inside dry and rodents out. With good air flow, it also reduces mold issues. They first were used in the 17th century, and in this area is they are trying to preserve them.

    Had a nice surprise in one village where they had a donation based coffee, water, and food set up. Nice people and a great atmosphere to come across.    Leggi altro

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    Day 39 - Palas de Rei to Ribadiso

    21 settembre 2024, Spagna ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    We planned for a wet day but lucked out and had only a little bit of rain that caused us to break out the ponchos.

    The walk today was through woods and farmland, which are mainly pastures and corn. From what I can tell, most of the corn is going to silage. They have a wicked looking harvester that chops the corn into trailers.

    We hadn't seen anyone that we knew until today where we ran into Patty and her family, it was good to see them. We found ourselves being sucked into the fast paced walk, and weren't enjoying this new camino vibe today. We had to slow ourselves down to enjoy our last few days before Santiago.

    I'm still fascinated with the Horreos and take too many pics of them according to Teresa.
    Met a few new folks today, Elaine from Ireland, John from Davidson, NC USA and Mina from South Korea.

    We also tried Pulpo (octopus) today in Melide, a city known for the dish. It was actually pretty good, not the prettiest of dishes, though.    Leggi altro

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    Day 40 - Ribadiso to O Pedrouzo

    22 settembre 2024, Spagna ⋅ 🌙 14 °C

    Today was interesting as we found ourselves in crowds of other pilgrims. As we were warned, the camino vibe has changed during the last few days. The bright spot of the day was this cutest little girl, maybe 4 years old, in a costume with fairy wings, waving and saying Hola to us as we walked by...again the camino magic.

    As we near Santiago, we've been trying to wrap our heads around the end is near. We're sad to end this walk but happy to start our next adventure, vacation. We hope to see some of the camino friends in Santiago over the next few days. We were going to walk to the coast but have changed our minds due to the weather.

    Tomorrow, we'll walk into Santiago about 500 miles from where we started.    Leggi altro

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    Day 41 - O Pedrouzo to Santiago

    23 settembre 2024, Spagna ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Sorry we didn't post yesterday. Yahoo, we did make it to Santiago yesterday afternoon around 2pm.

    We took our time to enjoy the last day of walking the camino. We reflected on our trip and what happens after we're done walking.

    The day was better than the day before. People were more friendly, happy, and overall excited to reach this destination. It was a little emotional to walk into the square together and see the cathedral with many other pilgrims.

    We found some camino friends who gave hugs and took pictures as we all arrived. It was a great day. We met up with one of our Australian friends for a celebratory bottle of Cava and lunch. While there, we had several other camino friends sit down with us.

    We shared stories and laughs because we separated a couple of weeks ago on the walk. We then had dinner together, laughed more, took more pictures, and then said our final goodbyes. Everyone is off to head home or go somewhere else.

    Today, we met our friend Denise as she walked unto the square, gave her hugs, and planned to see her tonight for dinner. We also attended the mass today and were able to see the bufamera swing, it was amazing.

    This was an awesome experience and sharing it with Teresa just makes it all better. Now, we're officially on vacation and will post our pictures and stories for this part but not as regular as we did on the camino.

    Oh, and was nice to sleep in until 8 today...🤣    Leggi altro

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    Fine del viaggio
    23 settembre 2024