The Camino Continues

For those of you who are following our progress on a map:
Day 7 Navarette
Day 8 Azofra
Day 9 Granon
Day 10 Villafranca Montes de Oca
Day 11 Cardenuela
Day 12 Burgos
Day 13 Hornillos Del Camino
Day 14 Castrojeriz

We meet people from all over the world.  Here is a list of countries so far:
France, Spain, Germany, England, Ireland, Hungary, Netherlands, Korea, Switzerland, Italy, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Brazil, Finland, Mexico, and a scattering of folks from the USA.

By now we have fallen into a typical day.  We usually awake by the sounds of early hikers  packing their backpacks, around 6 a.m. By 6:30, we are up joining them. After getting our things together we will have breakfast of bread, marmelade, yogurt, and tea if a kitchen is available, finish our packing and start walking between 7 and 8 o'clock. We like to stop around 10 in the morning for a coffee con leche (milk) and a goodie. We then hike until noon and start looking for a store to buy something for our lunch. This usually will be bread , cheese, jam, some fruit, and a sweet item.  Our favorite place to eat is on the main plaza of a town or on a park bench along a river. The afternoon is again taken up with walking until 3 to 4 o'clock when we will look for a place to spend the night. On the Camino there are  Albergues where as many as 40-50 people will sleep in one or two rooms.  There are also smaller places run by private groups which offer more services. We shower and wash our clothes every other day, write in our journals and read a bit about the next day to see what we will be facing. In some of the Albergues, a communal meal will be offered where we all eat together at long tables. Otherwise we look for a restaurant that offers a Pilgrim Meal, a salad, main dish, dessert, bread, and wine or water for a set price. We sometimes join our old and new friends to make a simple meal if a kitchen is available. By 8:30, we are getting ready for bed and try to be putting in our ear plugs by 9 o'clock. We sleep well even in a room of snoring!

Day 7

We are staying at an Albergue in Navarrete, a historic Camino town. After walking 22 kilometers since 7am until 1pm, it is time to rest.

Crossed Roman Bridge, Puente la Reina.

Hiking path out of town.

Waking through town.

Getting wine from Fuente del Vino in Irache.

Church tower in Villamayor de Monjardin.

Flowers in same town.

Communal dinner with fellow hikers.

Started in rain this morning but stopped after a couple of hours. We are excited to meet people that we have gotten to know at the stopping places at night. Already we have made friends with some of them and shared our reasons for walking the Camino. More to come.

Photos from the Camino

Day 4 & 5.


Thought we would like to share some of our favorite photos with you.

Back up a few days. Here is Ann in the snow on our second day of walking.

Sign on building about the ancient route of the pilgrims.

Narrow street in Pamplona, where they run the bulls.

Old church in Pamplona.

Family from Germany.  Youngest pilgrim at 8 months.

Mother pulling child in chariot.

Spring flowers.

Pilgrim statue.

Sending from Villamayor de Monjardin.  All is well.

Off to a Rough Start

Off to a rough start.
Flying from Madrid, Spain to Toulouse, France, we were met by friends from Bolivia days. We drove to see their 300+ year old house and enjoyed a restful time as we relived our past and caught up on our present lives. The extra days gave Ann a little more time to deal with her shingles symptoms which are slow to go away. Our hosts drove us to the beginning of our Pilgrim hike as we explored beautiful southern France.

Arriving in our starting point of St Jean Pied de Port (name of town at the foot of mountain), we were disappointed to find rain, thick fog and a forecast of snow the next day for the mountain crossing. The path was closed to hikers as it was too dangerous. Our friends offered to take us to the next town, Roncesvalles which is in Spain, about 10 miles away to  avoid the snow. We decided that was the best course so we drove there, ate lunch and picked up our Pilgrim Certificate (Credencial del Peregrino) and started walking in the rain. Our first night is in a hostel run by a nice Basque lady named Anna. Tomorrow snow is forecast along with cold weather. We will take it day by day.

Day 2.       Started the day with a few snow flakes which turned into a sideways blowing snow storm. At noon it was almost over except for a cold wind. We grabbed a bite to eat in a small village and got to our albergue in Larrasoana around 4 pm. We are in a dorm type room on upper bunks with about 30 other people. After washing some clothes and a shower we bought some food for dinner, breakfast, lunch. Hopefully we will sleep well as the 12 miles we walked should be a good sedative. Tomorrow we will walk through Pamplona (famous for the running of the bulls).

1. Day 3.   Just walked through Pamplona today and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. Have settled in an Albergue Sanjuanista run by the Knights of St. John of Malta.  Cold and windy but no rain or snow.

It's Travel Time

Sunday, April 21, 2013

The time has flown and Monday morning is almost here.  We are mostly ready to go, just a few last minute additions and more deletions from the backpack.  A goal was to get the backpack under 20 pounds and we are struggling, but hopeful we can accomplish that.

A wrinkle in the plans occurred last week when Ann developed shingles.  Yes, that's right, shingles, which presented itself with a blistering rash on her back (where the backpack goes) and pain to accompany the rash.  She started taking the anti-virus medication right away but the pain and rash has managed to hang on.  A visit to the Dr. resulted in more medication for the virus and anti-inflammatory drugs.  The pain is starting to wain a bit so we are hopeful she will be able to hike and carry the pack.  Time will tell. A message from her, "If you haven't gotten your shingles vaccine, head out the door right now to get it."

As you can see by our equipment on the bed and in the backpack, we are putting it all together.  If we have to make one more list or review someone else's list, we may go crazy, but that seems to be the name of the game.  In theory, every item should serve at least two purposes, and if it doesn't think hard and long about carrying it for 500 miles on your back.  It's a good guide but sometimes hard to follow through.

Like the pilgrim in the photo above, we are now ready to start walking.  Buen Camino!   Bill and Ann

Camino de Santiago

We are off on another adventure, this time to Spain where we will walk 500 miles on one of the oldest pilgrim paths in the world, Camino de Santiago.  This will not be a camping trip as we will stay in "Refugios" where sleeping may be a bunk bed or a mat on the floor. There will be hotels along the way so we may use that option at times.  Meals will be from cafes so we will not take a stove or eating utensils.  The journey starts in France where we will cross the Pyrenees Mountains and walk into Spain on the other side. Many people from around the world (especially Europe) walk this trail so we will have the opportunity to meet and share stories with them.We have planned six weeks for the hike leaving on April 22 and returning June 6.

Along the way we hope to update this blog to share the adventure. We will try to post photos if possible.
We would recommend seeing the movie "The Way" to learn more about this trail. More to come later.

Back Home in Anacortes, WA ~ Jan 2011

Arriving home found us in a busy time.  Christmas holidays were approaching as we waded through piles of mail that had accumulated while we were gone for three months.  Time has gone by quickly and we realized a final entry to our blog needed to be posted.

After visiting family in Tennessee, we boarded an Amtrak train in Charlotte, North Carolina, to continue our trip home.  We had decided not to fly for a number of reasons, prime among them wanting to see another part of the country out the window (instead of from a bike seat!) and to give ourselves time to decompress on the journey home.

We had long lay-overs in Washington, DC, and in Chicago so we had a chance to see some local sights, although our lack of warm clothing kept us in heated, indoor areas.  We did have a great visit to the Postal Museum in Washington, DC, which we would recommend as one of the many places to visit in our nation's capitol.  The train stations in both of these cities are beautiful showcases, built in an era when trains were a principal means of transportation. 

Four hour lay-over in Washington, DC

Union Station in Washington DC

Freedom Bell, cast by the same foundry as Liberty Bell in celebration of US Bicentennial

Capitol building from the train station

Traveling on Amtrak's Empire Builder across the northern part of the U.S. was a treat for us.  Since it was winter weather, we saw a lot of snow-covered terrain but sitting in our comfortable seats with a large viewing area was a nice way to observe the countryside.  When you have a sleeper on the train, all your meals are included which turned out to be a special treat as you are seated randomly with other guests on the train.  We met some remarkable people and had long conversations with them over our dinners.  The meals were well prepared and cooked by chefs who knew how to stimulate our taste buds.

 Amtrak train accommodations.  Our day seats became beds at night.

Minot, North Dakota, temperature 1 degree

The train arrived in Spokane, WA, at 3 am and we peeked outside to see that we were at the train station. When we awoke four hours later, we were in the same spot.  Turns out we could go no further due to a landslide on the track between Spokane and Seattle.  Only 300 miles from our destination, we were "stopped in our tracks" -- ha!  After several hours of indecision by train staff, we were finally taken to the airport and flown to Seattle, then bused to Seattle's King Street Train Station where we collected our bicycles (thankfully shipped ahead a week earlier).  Chris, a friend of Shelly's, and his son Oliver met us at the station and drove us and our bikes to the Vashon Island ferry.  There we were met by Ann's dad, spent the night with him, and picked up our car.  The next day, we drove our car on to Port Townsend to see grandson Soren, along with his parents, Shelly and Jeff.  It was great to hear Soren call out our names, "Papaw Bill" and "Nannie," as we arrived at their home.  After one overnight, we boarded the brand new PT ferry, Chetzemoka, for the crossing to Whidbey Island and drove to Anacortes, finally arriving home on Dec. 14 -- six days after boarding the train in North Carolina and more than two weeks after completing our bike ride in Florida.

At our homecoming, we had to deal with a lot of emotions.  We were certainly glad to be on familiar turf again, surrounded by family and friends, but we also reminisced about the wonderful times we had on the bike trip and the experiences of seeing the country at a different pace.  We both agreed that the incredible people we met along the way, and who really made the trip possible, were a highlight of the journey. 

Would we do it again?  We both feel that long trips take you away from home a bit longer than we like and have resolved to keep them a little shorter, a little closer to home in future.  On the other hand, a walking trip in Spain, called "Camino de Santiago de Compostela," has caught our attention.  Who knows, you may see us trudging along that trail or bicycling down your street, as we have discovered we enjoy the slow way of traveling.      Thanks to all who made our bike journey possible.       Bill and Ann

On Christmas Day 2010 with grandson Soren