I'm just trying to walk myself home.
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When you have lived somewhere for three years and you invite your friends along on what is to be your Final Walk In Scotland, apparently people feel obligated to come. Or maybe they just don’t want to miss a final opportunity to climb a munro with you. Or maybe lots of folks want to make …
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. …
On the Camino de Santiago, lots of folks head off to a place called Finisterre after reaching Santiago. There is a tradition of going to the sea to unburden yourself of your belongings. It’s a second and more final ending to your journey. But we really just wanted a day by the sea. So when …
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 …
In every bakery window in Santiago you can spot a Tarta de Santiago, a light almond cake that has the cross of St James dusted on top with icing sugar. You can buy boxes of these cakes to take home to your family and friends (I did!) but they tasted better right on the street …
We took our Camino Theme of Live The Way to heart when it came to stopping for photographs. We felt the freedom to stop for anything along the trail that we felt was beautiful. After years of walking trails with the men in my life, being able to stop whenever I feel like it is a …
While walking along The Way, every night we needed somewhere to sleep. A place to lay our heads and rest our weary bones. Sometimes it was a cabin on a farm, set back from the farmer’s vineyard and vegetable garden. And then he would feed us from his farm. Sometimes it was a room with a sunset view …
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 …
Chasing Daylight in July has been all about being outside with friends and family. Some of the those days have been drop dead gorgeous. But most of them have seen at least a few hours of rain. However, the weather has not stopped us from making the most of our kids’ short summer holidays. As …
The spring and summer months are so full around our house that sometimes I move from one event to the next without fully processing the first one. That is a little bit how it was to go from the Speyside Way in the middle of May to the Camino at the beginning of June. But …
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 …