Category: Camino Francés

What a nice Morning. I started my day at around 7am this morning. Still psyched about having reached half way, so strangely also a bit sad that I am now walking a bit closer to the end of this wonderful journey of mind and body experiences. Yes the pain is tough, but everyone here hurts. Some more some less. But pain makes you feel your body, which is also a part of this experience. Mornings are getting really cold now. It is time to start with a sweater as well. The long sleeve shirt was not enough this morning. It …

The day started out great. After a wonderful dinner with Garry his wife Susan and of course Martin, Maggie was recovering in our room, with laughter tears – a lot of tears – and just pure love. We met for breakfast at 7am with Garry and Susan again. Before we started walking into a beautiful sunset, Garry told us about a Halfway compostela. A certificate of having come past the half way point between Saint-Jean-Pied de Port and Santiago de Compostela. Maggie and I were excited to get it. We passed the Hobbit Shire on our way 😂, and had …

What a day. Had a wonderful night with Floris, Maggie’s grandpa Martin, Orto from Denmark and Lizzy from Dresden at a Pizza place. Not really Spanish food but it was something completely different from the pilgrims plate. I finally said goodbye to my shoes. Walking in the sandals is just so much better, even though I know have 5 blisters on my feet. We started our day very late. Barely got out of bed before the nuns would have kicked us out. I still felt a lingering cold and the body was aching. Evertonet was leaving, but when I saw …

Got on the road when it was still dark, and had a good start. I popped the blisters and did not feel them after the first km. It was a quite walk and I enjoyed the time alone once again. Stan and Jake, the two British kids, decided to do a 42km walk today, why even they could not answer 🙂 The Camino now has a few alternative routes, and it is important to look up which way to take, as some routes even bypass Camino villages, and one might miss there stop. I chose the 2km shorter one to …

After yesterday’s wonderful spiritual moments of meditation and love, I still think I came down with a light cold. It was hard to get up. The two British kids Stan and Jake and I got out of bed at 8am, to make breakfast just in time. So I hit the road around 8:30am. It was raining like crazy, and so I took of in my poncho and did go with my old shoes again, as it was not really sandal weather. Even though I now have these shock absorber inlays in them, that support the foot a little better, I …

After a night in the tent, it took me a long time to warm up and get back into the rhythm. The new shoes were great to reduce the original pain, but I got a load of blisters instead now. It was a painful and long walk through nowhere. The next sign of human life was the ruins of San Antón. I decided to put the inlay soles I bought in Burgos in my old shoes, and try these for the next 6km. It worked much better, so I might switch shoes after 10k for the next days, but I …

I did not see the doctor, as that would have been an extra 6k with the backpack on Sunday leaving the town, as it seems we got to Burgos on a Saturday. For all of us time and the concept of weekdays lost all meaning. We just get up, walk, eat, sleep and do it all over again. But it does seem the rest of the world still operates that way, and pretty much everything closed at 2pm on Saturday, so shopping for shoes took a while. We finally found a mall and I got some 16€ sandals at Deichmann. …

After a great meal at the Comosapiens in Atapuerca with Floris, whom I had met on day one, I had a good start this morning. Waited for the Panadería to open and got a bread for the way. It was cold, very foggy but I had a good speed till I hit the first hill. A 2km climb… After that it was a beautiful view on the fog slowly disappearing in the village below. After a quick breakfast 6km into the daily stretch, the scenery changed abruptly. The picturesque villages and fields were replaced by industrial sites. It was horrible …

…seem to be the issue. Stayed in a nice place last night. Normal dorms with ten+ beds, but in a nice castle like ambient. The pilgrims plates were really good and I met Marcus, the Brit in his 70ties again, who together with Taxi-tom from Canada, got me through that hard day coming into Estella. I also met up with Shawn again, it turned out it was his birthday so I bought him a couple – too many – beers. Later we joined a group of younger pilgrims, one of them, Santo from South Africa, had taken a vow of …

Barley made the 13km today. It was cold, windy, I had no sleep and at 6am one of the yesterday’s roommates decided to turn on the light and make everyone get up. We did not find breakfast till Villafranca, so it was a rough day. The walk was unspectacular, only real realization was I should get some paracetamol at the next Farmacia, as supposedly that is not as harmful as taking 2 Ibuprofen a day. I will try to go see a doctor in Burgos about the foot. I feel good, and the body is adjusting to the daily walks, …