Santiago

Yesterday we decided to push through to our final destination. We got here late in the afternoon. It was a beautiful day for walking sun mixed with cloud and a little cool.

There were many people milling around the cathedral square. We tried to get our compostela but there was a long line.

We found a tourist office and located a hotel where we went to get cleaned up.

In the evening we went back to rhe old city and got our compostela. We went into the cathedral and joined a mass.  Then we celebrated by having paella at a restaurant.

Today I attended the pilgrim mass. The place was packed. Unfortunately I didn't see anyone I knew.

Arzua

We have now joined Camino Frances at this town. Our Cech friend has pushed on ahead and plans to arrive at Santiago tomorrow.. Jerry from Calgary is with us in a full municipal albergue here and also plans to push on the 40 kms to Santiago tomorrow. 

We will take it a little slower and do the same as the last couple of days doing up to 25 kms tomorrow with the remainder on Saturday.


Again the weather started foggy today only burning off late in the afternoon.  Pretty good for walking.

Apples are pretty good here, very sweet.   A lady offered use a handful from her garden.

Just learned that daughter Isabel eloped and married her beau, Michael Lambert on October 2nd.

Quite something that Steve Jobs is gone, a huge figure in personal computing. I doubt Apple will ever be the same.

No pictures today; am using an internet pc.

Sobrado

The monastery we are staying in is great. We just finished hearing the vespers service in the chapel, about 15 monks. A sung service.

The Camino de Norte finishes tomorrow when we arrive at Arzua.

We are now in an informal group of 6; us, a Chech, a Spaniard, a man from Calgary on the road since early July, and a fellow our age from North Carolina.

We were in an English albergue last night in Mariz. So nice to have our own language.

It was very foggy till noon. I thought it might rain but the sun came out.

About 3 more days to Santiago.

Baamonde

It is early afternoon and we are having a cervesa at a bar by the albergue.
We are now about 100 kms from Santiago. This has been a very different walk from the Madrid route. The geography is quite different but more importantly there are other people we see every day and sometimes eat with.
We cross our fingers, rhe weather continues to be fine.
This is the first wifi I have found in a few days.

Lorenza

We are now at the end of our first stage of the Camino of the North.

Our walk today was 30 kms of up and down hull country, very green compared to the meseta we just left. Lots of cultivated forests and small dairy farms. Lots of cattle and almost no sheep. The common theme is manure!

We walked 5 hours for our lunch and maybe another hour and a half after.

One big change also: we are not alone here. There are about 5 other pilgrims we gave been passed and passed.

Oveido

We hace had atravel day today, first from Sahagun to Leon then from Leon to Oveido, over mountains and closer to the Bay of Bisque.(sp).

We have decided to spend 10 days or so on the northern camino. We plan to take another train tomorrow to Ribadeo, where we will start the next day.

We had a walk with Patrick this morning; and the 4 dogs, 2 greyhounds, a britiannie and a little mutt.

He also showed us their bodega where wine and vegetables are stored under ground. Pictures attached.

maratinos

We are here with Rebekah and Patrick in their home on the camino frances. This is the treat after finishing the camino de madrid.

We are now re-grouping and deciding what comes next. We will keep you posted.

Melgar de Ariba

Another day of 20 kms or so. It was a difficult night because it was hot. We keep the windows closed because ofthe odour of manure. This has been farming country for these last few days. The farmers live in the villages, keep their equipment and livestock there and drive out to work their huge fields.

There are barns of pigs and sheep around rhe corner from the albergue.

Pasqual, had a drink with us last night. We were his only clients. He is from Barcelona. He works a number of 2 week shfts at albergues as a volunteer each year. We salute him and the other hospilateros.

Villalon

We are enjoying the albergue here with the hospilatero. We walked today from medina de Roseco where qe stayed in an albergue at a convent, very luxurious.

We walked about 24 kms, first about an hour or so beside an old canal.

We are within a day or so of the end of camino Madrid.

Penaflor de Hornija

<p>We have left the land of pine forest (and sand) for a dry plain with aroyos.</p>
<p>We saw a church today dating from 985; very simple and beautiful.</p>
<p>We are staying tonight in a town hall under renovation. I have a picture.

Coffee in Cigunuela

This bar has wifi so I am sending a little post . We left early this morning and passed through Simancas. We will  see 1 or 2 villages before we stop for the day. It's going well.

Now in Puente Duero

It has been a few days since we have posted because we have not had internet access. It has been days of sandy roads and hot sun. On the other handwe have stayed in excellent albergues first in Santa Maria de Nieva in a private albergue, then in Coca and last night and tonight in Puente Duero.

Today we took the bus to Valladolid where we saw some churches and the Museo Nacional Collgio de San Gregorio which has mostly religious sculptures from 1400 onwards.

We write today from a PC in the library.  Hope to be able to share some more pictures soon.

Segovia

A beautiful old city filled with tourists.
We did a bit of a walk-about this morning outside the city walls then through a gate and up the steep hill to the cathedral abduction plaza major. Siepi found a net top to compliment her dress.
We had a lunch of pate and bread then carried on to the Alcazar castle. Hopefully I can load a foto. Further walking back to our hotel where we had the menu de dia. We checked with the tourist office about the next stages of the way.

A picture from the forest

Here it is.

Stranded

Hi there. Jim is on the bed with his feet up, more blisters. The walk today was on an old Roman road through forest. After 2 1/2 hours walking we met two park guards looking for a lost person on a bike. If we should see him we were to call 112.
Anyway we did see few bikers but they didn't look lost.
The weather was great for hiking; a walk of 6 1/2 hours. Just a beautiful day walking through an old growth pine forest.
Lunch in the woods consisted of sardines with a few nuts. I was looking forward to a cold beer but water had to do.
The steep uphill climb of about 650 meters to the Puerto de la Fuenfria (1796 meters), the pass over the mountain was well worth doing.
We found a hotel in Segovia near the cathedral. It is visible from our room. Segovia became an important Roman town in 18 BC.
Tonight we looked at the Roman viaduct, built of 25,000 blocks of granite put together without mortar more than 1000 years ago and still standing.
We had a beer with tapas on the plaza major and watched the Segovia promenade .
With Jim's sore feet we are going to stay another day. Adios.

Getting ready for the big day

Got to a town called Cercedilla this afternoon. Almost booked in to a small downtown hotel but stopped at 45 E. Tried to find the local albergue. Finally did but they weren't open. Ended up in a b&b costing 50 E. So far this adventure is a little dear.
Tomorrow we have a big day: a climb of 1500 ft and 31km.

Finishing our second day

It is late afternoon. We are in Manzanares el Real after 7 hours of walking in the hot 34 degree heat. We were going to try and find a cheap hotel but gave up after looking for an hour.
Yesterday we took the subway to the suburbs of Madrid and walked about 4 hours in the heat to Tres Cantos. Even late this afternoon we can see the Madrid skyline.
I will try adding picture again.

Ready to start

We arrived safe and sound in Madrid yesterday . We were able to have a bit of a walkout. We managed to get our first stamp at a cathedral . I'll try and add a picture .

Also some other  sites from Madrid.

I'll try publishing again.

One day to Go

We have packed our bags yet again and are checking items off our lists .

We just came back from the Parkinsons Super walk, helping out a friend and a good cause .

One more sleep to Go....

More preparations

We have done another hike today as part of the Frontenac Challenge; this time the Cedar Lake loop. It was choppier walking than yesterday but went well never-the-less.

We got a few more preparations accomplished.  We got an order placed with the post office to hold are mail while we are gone. Also I organized heath insurance for the time we are away.

Here is a picture from the hike today. I was just trying to figure out how you add pictures.

Our Routes

As promised here are the links to the routes we will be taking:

First Camino Madrid http://www.turismocastillayleon.com/cm/jacobeo/tkContent?pgseed=1312940908193&idContent=541352&locale=en_UK&textOnly=false Note that this particular website from the province of Castill Y Leon shows details of the Madrid route in this province (245 of the 320 kms.)

Then Camino Del Salvador and Camino Primitivo http://www.caminosantiagoastur.com/.

For more general information on Caminos please explore the English Camino website here: http://www.csj.org.uk/

The suggested number of days for the Camino de Madrid is about 12; and for the combination of Camino del Salvador and Camino Primitivo through to Santiago is 15. We also need 2 or 3 days from Sahagun to Leon. We expect we will need a day on each end of the pilgrimage and a 2 or 3 rest days along the way for site-seeing and R&R. We have 35 days in total.  Maybe it will work. Who knows.
One thought for a plan B: we will try the Camino de Madrid and then just continue on to Santiago on the Frances route. For plan C, we go to the beach in southern Portugal.  We'll see.

Today we took on two more loops of the Frontenac Challenge: Little Salmon loop and the Little Clear Lake loop. It was listed as 15 Km for the first and 9 Km for the second for a total of 24 km. We walked for 4 hours and 25 minutes and we took at least 25 minutes for lunch. I'm a bit skeptical on the distances. We feel we walk about 5 km per hour. I'm inclined to think the distances today were somewhat overstated while the  listed distance on Friday when we did the Slide Lake loop is understated.

We got or connections to the airport straightened out today courtesy of Via Rail. Let's hope there are no cows on the tracks.

the Beginning

Lets start with introductions. I'm Jim and I live with my wife Siepi and her dog Bea, a springer spaniel. We are fairly recently retired.

The initial focus of this blog will be our adventure coming up in a few days. We are planning to spend several weeks walking in Spain doing a pilgrimage. This will be our second venture to Spain. Four years ago we did the Camino Frances pilgrimage beginning in France at St Jean Pied de Port walking to Santiago de Compostela in the Spanish province of Galicia. on the west coast about 800 km.

The path we are planning this year is a bit different. We will begin at Madrid, the capital city of Spain, walking the Camino de Madrid which leads about 300 kilometers ending at a town called Sahagun which is on the French route we had taking previously. After a few days on the Camino Frances taking us to the city of Leon we plan to veer north on a route called Camino Del Salvador to the city Oviedo.

Finally at Oviedo we would join the Camino Primitivo which will take us to Santiago again. Sounds good. But there is a problem: not enough days. Something will have to give. Perhaps we will take a bus for one the middle sections. We haven't figured this put yet.

We decided to walk another Camino last year sometime and got serious in February when we booked our airfares. More recently we have undertaken a schedule of walks around our community to get in shape. Also we have dusted off the things we took last time and have tried to come up with the items we intend to take with us. For us, the secret to a successful camino is keep the weight of our packs down. Last time it was in the neighbourhood of 12 pounds excluding drinking water. If anything this year we are trying to do even better.

One of the changes I have made this time is investing in lightweight ponchos which happen to come from  Spain. On our last trip we only had one really rainy day in 4 weeks. On that occasion we only carried disposable raincoats from the dollar store. It worked but just barely. This time I think we should be better prepared.

One of my issues is footwear. Last time I wore running shoes. It wasn't bad but not comfortable in all circumstances. This year I have been planning to wear waterproof trail running shoe with a stiffer sole than last time. Today we did our first hike of the annual Frontenac Challenge at the local provincial park. We chose to start with the most difficult one. It is 21 km plus entry and exit and took us about 8 hours in 30 degree heat and humidity. I wore proper hiking boots for this and found that my feet came through this in flying colours. This hike would be much more difficult walking than we would expect to find in Spain but not as long as some of our days there if last time is any predictor.

In the next post I'll try and give some links to the routes I've mentioned.