Portos to O Pedrouzo
Can’t find the address of your hidden pension? Just ask at a local bar because they will be watching for YOU!
Tag Archives: camino de santiago
Camino Crowds Means Good People Everywhere!
Camino day 7 & 8: Sarria to Portos, Spain.
Share this:
Teenagers take our beds!
The day started with confidence as we assured ourselves that we we will have no problem obtaining beds at the the Monastery of San Xulián de Samo, an active Benedictine monastery in Samos, Galicia, Spain. Upon striking up a conversation with a teenage pilgrim, we discover that the group of 100 or so teenagers passing by are taking ALL of the beds in Samos and more. Plan B is immediately put into action and we start hiking to Sarria. The plus side of Plan B is having son-in-law Tony join us in Sarria today rather than meeting up with him tomorrow.
“Life is 10% of what you experience and 90% of how you respond to it.” Dorothy M. Neddermeyer
Share this:
2022 Camino Frances Travel & Day One: Getting there is half the battle.
First video in a series documenting our experiences hiking the Camino Frances in July 2022.
Share this:
Walking for Fun
Whatever life may send your way – make the best of it. Don’t waste your time and energy worrying about it. Instead, find a way to do something about it. ~Les Brown
Here I am at St. Jean Pied de Port, near the border of France and Spain, ready to hike the Camino Frances across northern Spain! Too bad Spain is going into another lock down and won’t let me in with my USA passport. Darn Covid! Disappointing, to say the least, but all is not lost. I can virtually walk the Camino Frances thanks to the website walking4fun.com. Sign up, log your steps and trace your progress on one of 26 trails spanning 12,488 miles! Explore your trek through maps, photos and videos. Before you know it, you’ll have walked hundreds of miles and still be itching to get in a few more to see that view around the next bend in the trail! Signing up is easy and free!
Here is my route and current location. Looks like I’d better hop on the treadmill or get outside if I ever want to complete the trail!
I wonder if virtual blisters are a thing?
Share this:
Take a Hike
Winter arrived way too early in Minnesota this year and we are still in the midst of a pandemic. I guess I’ll just have to rely on one of the many lessons learned while hiking… embrace the suck.
Share this:
Got a Minute?
“Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time” Stephen Wright
Share this:
Caminho Portuguese: The Bonus Round #1~Back to Portugal
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
We bid farewell to Albergue Seminario Menor, Santiago, Spain and hike to the bus station to catch a bus back to Porto, Portugual. It’s kind of interesting to speed past towns and the path that took us fourteen days to walk.
Upon arrival in Porto we fire up Google Maps and proceed to locate Oporto Brothers Hostel. Intersections do pose to be a challenge when there are at least six or eight streets fanning out from the center, but with the help of locals, police and Google Maps we find our way to the correct neighborhood. Things begin to appear more run-down in this section of town… don’t think I’d want to wander too far in the dark around here. Google Maps says we have arrived, but we see nothing as to signage for our hostel. What to do? Start knocking on doors, I guess, until someone helps us. Yep, that works… we find the hostel name on a tiny hand written slip of paper taped to the doorbell.
Great accommodations at Oporto Brothers Hostel and serve our purposes well.
Tomorrow we’ll put one foot in front of the other and walk to the Porto cathedral to start our coastal section of Camino Portuguese. This may be a backwards approach to the camino, but it works for us. Make your own path, hike your own hike.
Share this:
Camino Portuguese Day 14 ~ Santiago, here we come…
Sunday, August 19, 2018 | Albergue Cruces Inn to Santiago de Compostela, Spain | 21 K
Reservations have been made at Seminario Menor (school, seminary and pilgrim hostel) in Santiago so we allow ourselves time to enjoy breakfast and plan for a leisurely walking day with no worry of racing to score beds. Really? Truth is, we are pretty excited to arrive in Santiago so it seems we keep a steady pace throughout the day.
We enjoy random encounters with friends made along the trail along with interesting conversations with new friends on this final hiking day. This is accompanied with a twinge of sadness knowing, most likely, we will never see them again. But, alas, this is the Camino. We experience a little piece of life together and move on. My hope is that they think of us as honest, decent, and kind human beings.
Thank you to all who took the time and energy to smile, laugh, converse and share experiences as we walked the same pilgrim path for this short while. Truly, the best thing about the Camino is the Camino.
Share this:
Portuguese Camino Day 12 ~ The race is on.
I find joy in living day to day, not in the future.
August 17, 2018 | 26.5 kilometers | Pontevedra to Caldas de Reis
Apparently, we missed a huge celebration during the night and as we leave our hostel a little after 5 a.m. we find a young man slumped over a table. This larger facility has a security system, so this sleepy young man most likely found himself locked out of the building after partying. Oh well…
The groups of men huddled together near alleyways (especially near the ATM machine) bring our guard up a notch. Leaving town poses to be challenging in the dark, but friendly, young revelers help us out with directions to the river, so we find our way to cross the long bridge. An older gentleman on his early morning walk is also kind enough to give us a detailed city map and directions.
Why the early start? It appears no beds are available to reserve in our destination of Caldas de Reis, so we opt to race for the 50 beds at the Municipal Albergue. Excitement fills the air as we count out backpacks in line and discover we made the cut-off…46, 47, 48! The crowd of fellow pilgrims cheer along with us, Yay, Minnesota! We wait until the 1 p.m. opening and continue to stand in line as each pilgrim is slowly checked in. As we get closer to the building entrance we are able to chat with friends already checked in as they leave to shower at the city pool since the albergue showers are dirty. I overhear others leaving to go to the drug store to purchase bed bug spray. No big deal… at least it’s a bed and we’ll survive. We get within 4 people and discover they only have a total of 42 beds (per small hand written sign in door) and we are turned away.
Luckily, an assertive (Irishman that lives in Italy?) man with excellent Spanish speaking skills takes on the role of advocate for all of us waiting in line. The albergue employees say they can do nothing as there are no beds available in the whole town, so we all must start walking the 10 kilometers to the next town, (Even though it is now mid-afternoon.) Our spokesperson continues to argue and scolds them for not cutting off the line of pilgrims hours earlier to allow time for those of us without beds to walk on. He insists the community must attempt to accommodate this overflow of pilgrims and proceeds to call the police, churches and hospital to no avail. Not one to give up, he continues to plead his (our) case. Like a true Camino miracle, affordable beds a short walk away and just a few Euros more than the public albergue magically become available. Yes, the Camino provides…
Our Camino Angel advocate is still very upset with the municipal albergue and the unprepared, unresponsive community, so he continues walking down the road. I hope he finds a bed.
RJMeyerArts 