Mar 24 Fly to Paris
Mar 25 On to Bilbao
Mar 26 Bus to Madrid/Flight to Tangiers/Train to Casablanca
Mar 28 Train to Marrakesh
Mar 29 Fly to Marseille/Train to Nice
Mar 30 Monaco!
Mar 31 Train to Venice
Apr 3 Train to Milan/Flight to Dublin
Apr 10 Flight to Paris
Apr 11 Paris Disney
Apr 14 Fly to Bilbao
Apr 16 Return to Vancouver (Via Amsterdam and Seattle!)
Jan 26Paris/Bilbao/San Sebastian-Donostia
Jan 27 Pasai to Donostia walking walking coastal trail
Jan 28 Bidart to Saint Jean de Luz walking coastal trail / Irun (side trip by train)
Jan 29 Saint Jean de Luz to Hendaye walking coastal trail / Deba (side trip by train)
Jan 30 Hendaye to Pasai walking coastal trail
Jan 31 San Sebastian/Irun/Hendaye/Bayonne/Saint Jean Pied-de-Port by bus (no train avail)
Feb 1 Walk from Saint Jean Pied-de-Port to Valcarlos
Feb 2 Walk from Valcarlos to Roncesvalles (edit. I walked to Roncesvalles on Feb 1, to Espinal on Feb 2 and then taxi to Pamplona. Decided not to do the Camino)
Feb 3 Pamplona to Santander
Feb 7 Santander to Ribadeo
Feb 8 Ribadeo to Santiago de Compostella
Feb 9 Fly to London/Train to Maidenhead
Feb 11 Train to Birmingham
Feb 13 Train to London then to Maidenhead
Feb 15 Train to Tewkesbury
Feb 18 Back to Maidenhead/Gatwick/Bilbao
Feb 20 Fly to Vancouver
So the first half of my journey was Spain and UK, the second half of the journey will be Spain, Morocco, France, Monaco, Italy, Ireland, France and Spain. I am doing the 'backpacking through Europe' thing I missed 30 years ago!
However, I am home in the middle for 6 weeks. I leave again on Michelle's Birthday - March 24th! We celebrated Dad's 75th on Friday! My birthday was early March and my sister's on the 24th Mom suffers in March!
I am looking forward to continuing the trip. I have a new backpack (birthday gift) and we are travelling RyanAir - so carry-on only! Overnight buses, overnight trains! I will post the itinerary on my next email!
Happy Birthday Dad!
Feb 2, 2017
Mom said go where it is warmer. Not sure I understood that until I was walking the Frances day two through the cold rain and very wet mud. The Camino Frances is known for the joy of walking on trails, through fields and pastures and not a lot of tarmac. This is often considered a good thing, however, when the trails, fields and pastures are under three inches of water it makes for awkward walking.
I am on the wrong Camino - the realization dawned during my 6km walk from Roncesvales to the Albergue Haizea: as they say . . . three fundamental truths at the exact same time
#1 I loved walking on the Norte and was only on the Frances because I thought I should walk the original,
#2 It was warmer on the Norte, 17 to 20 degrees in February which is amazing, and
#3 The Norte is a lot of road walking (quiet, deserted roads with no mud!)! So time to move up North.
I had a great journey from Pamplona to Santander and then out to my favourite oasis along the camino - Posada La Victoria. 2 days stretched into 4 as a storm rolled in and I felt the day would be much better spent sitting in front of the fire with a book, than walking along the Santander coast in winds strong enough to push me over.
Feb 6, 2017
On Monday I had my walk around the coast and this morning, Tuesday, I packed my bag and hopped another bus to Ribadeo.
I have 10 walking days left so I am going to 10 days out from Santiago. Hopefully I will find other pilgrims there, I am not looking for a solitary Camino.
Who knows. Flights to London are 39 Euros!
Feb 8, 2017
I got to the hostel in Ribadeo last night at 6:45pm, the sign said Credentials stamped at 7:15pm but it was 7:00pm when the Policia pulled up and took the money and stamped my passport. I was overjoyed at 7:10pm when 4 other pilgrims walked in, as the receipt book said that the last pilgrim at that hostel was Feb 1st.
I went out for dinner with John, Danny, Jamie and Genevieve and we had a great evening and returned to the hostel to sleep, that is when I realized that I didn't want to stay in the Albergue's alone. It is one thing to walk a solitary Camino when you have a choice, but when there is no one else around it becomes isolating.
So at 5am I decided new plan - hop on that plane to London and visit my family. Ester and Johan are having another baby any second now, and Dianne and Brian are further North with their son and his family and I haven't seen them all in 12 years!
So I hopped on a bus to Santiago de Compostela (got here the easy way!) and I will get a plane from here to Stansted.
I am well. Sore, tired but in one piece. I walked across the Pyrenees from France to Spain. Uphill for 25km. We got a ride the last 2km as it was getting dark and dangerous to be on a mountain road in the dark. These people drive like they are on a racecourse. Here is my route:
St Jean Pied de Port to Roncevalles
Made my way across France to St Jean Pied de Port. Tomorrow I start walking towards Pamplona.
Taking the route below:
There are more photos in the gallery.
Good night!
Monday didn't go as planned. Nice long hike then to Deba to get a Pilgrims passport-Credencial for the hostels. The Credencial must be stamped each night as I move across the country.
Well that was the plan. My hike was hampered by disrupted ferry service so I walked on a beach instead. Took the train to DEBA but didn't get off at the connection and rode it to the end, then went back to find the correct stop. Then got to Deba to find the tourist office closed for the day. No Credential.
Today a I am off by train to St Jean Pied de Port in France to start the Camino Frances.
A new adventure!
No Ferry!
I slept 12 hours!
It's 9 o'clock and I'm in bed, ready to sleep but I thought I should post some photos. I took the train from San Sebastian to Henaye, France and I walked down to their board walk which runs on the French side of the border.
After investigating that for a kilometre I turned around and went back to the elevator up to the train station. Weird thing about Spain, they have a lot of outdoor elevators.
I took the train back to Pasai and walked 4 km from the train station to the start of the trail. I walked up the side of the hill and did the 8 km trail and when I was done walked another 3 km to the train.
So 17 km for today. It didn't seem like that much because of the amazing views I had.
Check out the portfolio for more pictures.
Hendaye Boardwalk.
Pasai to San Sebastián
3 hours sleep so far
It is 1:55 pm in Paris and I am almost back to the Airport for my 4:10 flight to Bilbao.
We landed in Paris at 8:20am and it was an hour wait in the customs line before I got to the train for the city. The lines for the train tickets turned out to be just as daunting as passport control. 20 minutes and 20 Euro later I was on the train heading for the Eiffel Tower.
I walked around the outside of the tower grounds, to avoid the crowd waiting for tickets, and I still had 83min left on my timer before I had to get on the train to head back to the airport. So I walked along the Seine to the Louvre, took a lap through the Carrousel de Louvre and headed back to Musée d'Orsay to catch the train. This was the same route I took in 2011 when I was staying on the Houseboat Johanna. (Photo of Johanna in the Portfolio)
I took the RAR train from the airport the B line goes from the airport to the city and connects with the C line at Cathédrale Notre-Dame. The C line, while much more complex, services my 3 stops for the day Cathédrale Notre-Dame, the Musée d'Orsay and the Eiffel Tower.
Once I returned to the airport, I realized I was leaving from terminal 2G. 2G is a small regional type terminal that is bus ride away from the main terminals. When you get off the bus you are 50 feet from your boarding gate - one big general boarding gate. So even though I was two hours early I couldn't sleep for fear they would call my flight and I wouldn't go up to board. On the plane I fell a sleep immediately. And woke up as we taxied into Bilbao. I am currently on the curb waiting for my bus to San Sebastián my base for the next few days.
Count down timer - time in Paris
1.5 hrs sleep. In an unusual turn of events, I did not sleep well on the plane last night I got 90 solid minutes then nothing.
So I watched hologram for a king; frozen and into the woods. But now it is 3:30 PM and I am ready to sleep, might have something to do with it being 6:30 AM at home.
I will attach the map we flew over Greenland but just South of Iceland.
Flight path corroborated by the airline map.
Lesson learned! Never write a blog post in the Blog app!!!
I'm at the airport! After a quick detour to my house to pick up my batteries, The cab and I continued on to the airport and arrived in time to go to White Spot and pick up lunch. Now I am sitting at the boarding gate with my chicken Caesar in one hand and a full bottle of water in the other and my iPhone charging on one of the fully charged batteries.
As a geek, tech is a big part of my life, and on the Camino it is no different. I have three weeks vacation, which equates to three weeks to play with my toys. So why would I leave them at home? For those of you who are interested- my tech plan is to charge my batteries, 1 large, 1 extra large in the hostels and then to charge my equipment from the batteries as I walk. This way I'm not sitting by a charger waiting for my iPhone to charge and I will have power with me while I'm on the move.
They just called boarding, so I must go, first stop is Paris for a day layover.
Next blog post from the Eiffel Tower.
Air France 379.
For 2 weeks, I walk along the North Coast of Spain, Camino del Norte.
I will start in Irun and walk through San Sebastian towards Bilbao.
Google Map - https://goo.gl/maps/ydQAwo2LjFu
Then for the last week I am going to try to get over to the Camino Frances.
Start in France at St. Jean Pied de Port and walk to Pamplona
Google Map - https://goo.gl/maps/HrBgjs1czSo
However, I really do love the Camino del Norte and I may spend all my time up there!
