Follow Vita and Charlie’s 558-mile walk along the ancient Camino Francés from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Cape Finisterre—plus their 2014 journey along the Adriatic coast of Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, and Slovenia.
Click any town marker along Northern Spain or the Adriatic Coast to preview photos and jump to that day’s journal entry.
Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog. Yes, me….I am blogging…about walking 558 miles across northern Spain. Craaazy!!! The way is called “El Camino de Santiago” or “Jackobsweg” or “The Way of St. James” – an ancient pilgri…
…..until D-day and I have not trained to much… some 4 to 8 mile walks with loaded backpack, so hopefully all goes well. Charlie as usually is right on… walking 14 milers almost daily. Hmmm….
Hello again! Leaving in the morning. Time got away from me with final preps and one more walk fully loaded……it went good. It still has not hit me, but we are ready to go. All we may need for several weeks is in these bac…
Bonjour! After 30 hours total travel time – plane – train – and waiting hours – we arrived in SJPDP at 7:30 pm in the rain. Today, Friday it is a continuous down poor and wind. In the pilgrim office where we received our…
……still raining…..going tomorrow rain or not Saint Jean Pied de Port UNESCO site The gate to the Way of St. James The Citadel
Hello everyone! I am beat….very tired. The first day is said to be the toughest of the Camino Frances….and boy was it that. Very steep……a climb from about 550 ft to 4757 ft and half of it in deep mud due to the rain. My …
Buenos Dias! Just a short day today. Started at 7am in fog and mist and arrived at Zubiri at 1:30pm with the Spanish sun shining on us. Had breakfast after 3 km and stopped a couple times for coffee and beer. There were …
Hola from Pamplona – capitol of the Navarre (Basque region) population 200,000 and city of the el Encierro/running of the bulls made famous by Hemingway. Wonderful day…sunshine…birds…beautiful vistas. Walked through seve…
Hello again! First a “Thank You” to every one for the nice comments and good wishes. The Internet is quite slow most of the time so rather then answering everyone individually, I upload pictures for you. A beautiful day …
Buenas tardes! This morning we left the town by walking over the “Queens Bridge” (the wife of the benefactor of Puente la Reina, Dona Mayor, commanded the magnificent bridge, spanning the river Arga, built to support the…
Hi you all! Had a night…we stayed at the Auberge Municipal in Estella last night…6 Euro per bed, the cheepest so far, usually we pay 8 – 10 Euro. They were quite full and crowded and about the only thing left were two to…
Hola amigos! Now we are in the La Rioja region, a special black grape is grown here…the Tempranillo ….makes very good red wine. Logrono is the capital of La Rioja and center of the wine industry – population 150,000. The…
Hi, no WiFi yesterday….2 posts today. Left Logrono at 7am..people still on the street celebrating the festival of St. Barnabas (Logrono resisted the French invasion in 1521). The previous night we were in the mid of the …
Hello again! Sunshine and easy walking today…but never without hills. The feet are OK…having a little pain in my left knee….Tigerbalm will take care of it….great stuff. Charlie is feeling it too, as are all our “Camino F…
Happy Birthday Kat and Ben 🙂 🙂 🙂 Hello, WiFi not available last couple days …catching up, but having a heck of a time with this post…keeps disappearing…now for the third time:-( La Rioja is behind and we entered Castilla…
Buenos Dias from Burgos – population 175,000 – alt. 860 m founded the year 884 and was home to the warlord El Cid. He and his wife Jimena lie in the 13th century Catedral de Santa Maria among the most beautiful in Spain.…
Hi everyone! Started the Meseta with the big 60 on my back and as a present I received a persistent pain in my left knee….can only do about 13 mi a day….down hill is the most painful and getting started in the morning…st…
Buenas tardes! Yesterday no WiFi….started walking at 5:30 am…first off we climbed a very steep hill….sun rise at the top….then the steepest downhill….oh, my knee….The meseta in early morning light….beautiful. By mid morn…
…from Fromista by bus to the city of Palencia then by train to Leon. My knee is really bad, putting weight on it is very painful ….I have been walking with pain since Logrono …not smart….only got worse…..didn’t rest in B…
Hello everyone! Here we go again…..the backpack is packed and we are ready. Tomorrow morning we fly to Madrid then by train to Leon where we will spend two nights at a Hostal and see the city…didn’t get to do that last t…
Hola my friends! It feels good to be back. After 24 hrs travel time we had a much needed rest in our Hostal Boccalino and spent today exploring the city. Leon City – pop: 130,000, alt 840 m, at one time a Roman military …
Buenos Dias! The first leg is done and we are resting in our Albergue “Tio Pepe”. So far, this is a different Camino from June. Then, we met numerous people on the trail and the Albergue filled quickly – now it is a more…
Hello there! Good day today. We started in the dark and rain. Daylight came at 8:30 am and the rain gave way to the sun. We stopped in about every one of the four villages we past through, had coffee con leche and met so…
Como estas! We took a room in a Hostal, so we could sleep in a little and see the sights of Astorga. Headed out about noon with sunshine all the way. An enjoyable walk, legs and feet are doing good. The trail led us thro…
Hi you all! Very tired today so I keep it short. We started in a mist up the mountain to Cruz de Ferro where I deposited my rock holding my burdens. I carried it from home and in my backpack all those miles and Charlie h…
Hola! A shorter distance today since our legs are still tired from yesterday. We also decided to try to skip the Albergues and stay in Hostals from now on. At this time in the year it is just little more for a room with …
Greetings! We are in the middle of the mountains again after crossing the valley between Ponferrada and Villafranca del Bierzo. Tomorrow we are facing the second steepest climb on the Camino going up to O’Cebreiro. l jus…
Hello again! Celebration! The last tough mountain on the way is conquered and we are at 96.4 miles to Santiago. Yeah!!! What a day it was…no luck with the weather. The light rain at the start progressively became worse a…
Buenos Tardes! Much better day today, cloudy but a clear view. Steep descend with short, but extremely steep inclines. The way leads through several farming villages and we encountered many “pets”. We pass many dogs big …
Buenos Dias from Galicia! We had a most beautiful and peaceful morning, a crisp day made for walking out in nature. Galicia shares many historical and physical similarities to other Celtic regions, especially western Ire…
Hello there! Another nice day for walking through the changing countryside ….rolling land, fields and meadows lined with stone fencing. The villages consist of small dairy farms and it is evident in the air as well as on…
Que pasa! We met a lovely lady, 71 year old Mary from Silver City, New Mexico in the Albergue yesterday. She has been layed up for five days because of her knee, but will be able to continue tomorrow, some of it with bus…
Buenos Tardes! 43 km/26.2 miles to Santiago. Rained last night again…the day was cloudy with some sun and cool. The trail led more through the country again rather then next to the road…much more enjoyable. There are big…
Hello Amigos! 20.7 km/12.5 miles to Santiago. Starting out I wondered how it would feel to be at this point…..well, it feels pretty darn good. The morning was quite cold ….we could have used gloves. Then the sun burned t…
Happy Halloween!!! We arrived…Llegamos….mir hams gschafft…jsme dorazili….
Buenos Dias! We have walked for 14 days continuous from Leon, without a rest day, we ate grapes, apples, pears, berries and greens growing along the way and had cafe con leche, tortilla de potatas, bocadillo, cerveza, vi…
Hello again, tomorrow we are getting on a plane to Tirana, capitol of Albania. No backpack and hiking boots this time….just easy travel with some other hopefully nice people. With my posts and pictures I hope to show you…
Sorry everyone, but time got away from me, this was a fast paced trip. We are back home again and I am ill 🙁