Morning has broken on a new day. Today is the day. Hoy es el día.

Memorize the Moments Do you ever have a day or an experience in which you think, “I have to memorize this moment”? I remember saying that to myself on my wedding day. (And on my daughter’s wedding day, which was Sept. 18 last year. It’s also the day we’ll walk into Santiago tomorrow.) Today, the […]

Hills and dales and forests, oh my. Trees that created cathedrals with moss-covered rock walls lining the center aisle. Stunning two days of rugged walking. And here’s Donna’s video in the morning cloud. A walk in a cloud      Remember Kojak of the Camino? We’ll, here’s the Caballeros of the Camino. And click Donna’s […]

The walk out of Sarria was busy and crowded as predicted. Donna and I chuckled at how spiffy and sparkly the “new people” seemed. All you have to do is look at someone’s shoes to know if this was Day 1 for them. Mine used to be an olive green, but now are embedded with […]

We were checking weather forecasts frequently and knew we needed to be prepared for rain. Here’s our morning selfie for Tuesday, Sept. 13. The scenery is stunning these last couple of days. We spent the night in Tricastela, which is a village nestled in the mountains. From O’Cebreiro there is a lot of downhill walking. […]

Background Last time (2019) we tackled this climb after having already walked 22K. In fact, we stopped to “fuel up” with lunch at a charming B&B. We left the B&B in the late afternoon and didn’t arrive to the top until 7:30 pm. I melted down, almost literally, from the exhaustion and heat. So, that’s […]

                Here’s a video of the El Bierzo wine district that we walked through on Friday, 9/9. I butcher the pronunciation in the video. Should be Bee-air-zoh. Brain boil after 22K of walking in the sun. The El Bierzo Wine Country Tomorrow, Saturday, Sept. 10, we walk to […]

A Series of Photos and Captions and Here’s Why As we have walked these last 24 days (24 DAYS!?), I’ve looked forward to what Donna and I call “library hour,” which is when we Air Drop photos back and forth and I write my posts. On the trail, I often think about what I might […]

Sunday, Sept. 4 We managed to arrive early in Leon because we remembered how much we loved our day off here in 2019. No days off, this time, however. CaminoWays booked us at a different hotel, a Parador. We couldn’t believe it.   More later, when I get a chance and good WiFi. Ultreia!

Pretty Close to Perfect Walking Today Donna kept remembering and talking about the “tree-lined trail” in the Meseta. Over the past few days, there were plenty of snippets of that, but she kept saying, “No, there were crops on the left, the trees, our trail and a road, but not a highway.” Today was the […]

About 400K Down and About 400 More to Trample 23K in Great Weather this Time It was this segment of the Camino three years ago that taught us the hardest lesson we were to learn.  When you put on your raincoat, put on your rain pants, too. Why? Because without rain pants, the water runs down […]

Castrojeriz to Fromista to Carrion de Los Condes Monday/Tuesday 8/29 and 30 We knew what the morning would bring first thing—a steep climb that felt like it went on f o r e v e r three years ago. We had to stop three or four times back then. In fact, it was on that […]

Hornillos de Camino to Castrojeriz: Stage 14 The calm before the storm. Actually, there’s only 47% chance of rain tomorrow, Monday. The “storm” I refer to is the Meseta. Google “Meseta Spain.” Today was only 20K and we were treated to hills and dales and sunflower crops that went on forever. People often ask if […]

Electric Fan!? Awesome  Let’s do laundry And now, we turn it around to cool us as we sleep. Buenas noche.

Surprise! Your Lodging is 6K Past Where You Thought Your Day Ended. We knew it would be a 24K day, which is long enough. When we checked the map profile against our lodging reservation. YIKES. We are in for a 30K day. (18 miles) This is when the mental game kicks in. We instantly readjusted […]

Here’s our little code. You chat with someone along the way, and you don’t learn their name, so you give them a label. So there’s Miami Man. Or Red Shirt Guy. New Zealand Gals. If we could keep up with the Boys in the Band, we would have. But they are three student-age looking guys […]

The day started beautifully, from a little rural cottage in which we were the only Pilgrims. (Others were couples and families on vacation.) Thankfully, the hostess said she would see that our luggage was taken down the stairs for the transport company to retrieve in the lobby. In the charming city of Viana, we were […]

Today, Saturday, Aug. 20 was Day 6 of walking, and we’ve covered more than 100K to date. Today’s “mileage” was 22K to our lodging. We knew it would be a tough one because of anticipated heat (93 degrees at the end of the trail), and the last “services” were at 9.5K. That means no water […]