I'm just trying to walk myself home.
Browsing Tag
Happy Ten Year Blog Anniversary to Me! Ten years ago I started writing on the internet, and to celebrate that little milestone, I am releasing a little 60-page book of letters I wrote right here: It’s called Letters from Alison. I hope you enjoy it! Blogging has been the most wonderful gift to me as …
For me, a small inconvenience of being far from home is that I can’t pay for everything the way everyone else does. Because I don’t have a chip and pin credit card. The fact that I have to sign for purchases is like having “I’m an AMERICAN!” written in magic marker on my forehead. I try to …
An Epic Climb in Northwest Scotland: Suilvan Epic climb days always start early and end late. We started walking in low autumn light towards the hulking shadow rising in the distance. Our goal was before us. I love walking behind my boys. And their friends. We made this climb during October holidays with another …
Recently, a fellow writer suggested that I try to dig at the root of what has made me a traveler. Where did I get my love of the outdoors? How did I become a wanderer? As I have explored these questions through scribbles in notebooks and looked for answers to why I mark the calendar months by …
Chasing Daylight in August: Cruden Bay in the Rain Friday night, 11 pm The chance for rain had gone up to 90%. Taido had been checking the weather hourly all evening, watching the increase from a 10% chance to “almost certainly it’s going to rain.” Now he was feeling uncertain about our plans for a …
THE WAY: Summary Of Writing From Sarria to Santiago Friends, thank you so much for walking this pilgrimage with me! It has been a joy to share the adventure with you. I’ve enjoyed writing about our time on the Camino. For me, it’s like re-living the beautiful days on the trail to write about them. …
I’m reaching the end of my stories and snippets from the Camino de Santiago, and I feel similar to how I felt about finishing the journey in June. A little sad. The treasure in blogging is that I get to relive the memories as I tell the stories. And the princesses have relived them with me. …
LynEtte, Alison, Stephanie and Diane. We declared ourselves to be pilgrims on the road to Santiago. But before we ever started out on the trail, we had a hunch that we were taking The Way a little easier than most. (Camino Lightweights, if you will.) For starters, we were only doing the last stage, by …
Live The Way: Make Friends Jerry, come and have a look at these girls. They already have their seashells on their packs and they haven’t walked one step of the Camino yet. They’ve already been to the Pilgrims’ Mass! Two brothers, ages 67 and 70, had completed all but the last stage of the Camino …
An ode to the food along the Camino de Santiago! The last stage of The Way is in Galicia, a region of Spain known for fresh seafood and red table wine. We tried loads of new foods on our adventure and we definitely found a few new favorites. The octopus is a local specialty. As is the …
I’ve already mentioned that part of how we embraced our theme of Live The Way was that we stopped constantly. On our third day, we had fewer miles to cover so we just meandered from one stop to the next, and were treated with wonderful surprises all day long. This is the story of Day …
Ringing bells call pilgrims to the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. From east, west, north, south the doors are open and the people pour in. The church fills more bodies than seats. Folks wander and wonder looking up and spinning around taking photos taking it all in. People start settling against columns and along walls. …
If there is a better-marked trail in the world than the Camino de Santiago, I would love to know about it. The seashells, crosses and yellow arrows appear constantly along the path. You can see them on the ground. They are crafted with mosaics or set into paving stones. They are painted on signs for …
Your credencial or the Pilgrim’s Passport is an essential part of walking The Way. We were told that we would need our first stamp from one of the three churches in Sarria, where we were beginning our journey. Up on a hill we found a monastery, a place for pilgrims to worship and pray, as well …
On a bright June morning, somewhere in Spain, I set out from a hotel with three friends. We followed the vague instructions of our host and wandered the streets of Sarria in search of a well worn trail. The Camino de Santiago. After spying a couple of bikers with seashells, we picked up our pace …
Standing at my gate in Madrid Waiting to board a flight to Santiago de Compostela I first spotted them Scallop seashells Dangling from the backpacks of pilgrims With tears involuntarily filling my eyes I watch these souls, a group of girlfriends a mother and daughter a man all alone a gray-haired couple Fellow pilgrims, my …
Excuse me, miss, can I help you? I knew I was in trouble by the tone of his voice, but I was buying time. Um, no, actually, I don’t think so. I answered meekly. He came back with, What are you doing, exactly? Me: Well, we’re just walking down this road. (stating the obvious) And, …
We had expected to be at the end of the day’s walk by 5pm. We got an early start on our fifteen mile day, heading out under blue skies that promised to turn rainy later in the afternoon. We reached our highest point before lunch. All downhill from here, I thought. Piece of cake. I …
The cruel irony in this story is that I have become almost smug in the fact that I am an experienced train traveler.
Every time I read a historical novel set during the Second World War or see a film that takes place during the Holocaust, I find myself hoping that the events will take a different turn. I know the way the stories go. I know what happened when the Nazis occupied a country or a town. …