We walked into the small town of Amenal and were greeted by Andrew, waving to us over a beer and sitting with two women from London on a brief Camino on break from work. It was a bit like a bad movie…swarthy middle-aged (handsome) man heartily greeting his “women” trudging in from the fields! It… Read more

I am sitting on my bed, dressed and packed at 8:46am…watching Roo trying to wake up.  She has been a truly incredible companion – mature, self-possessed, sociable but able to be introspective while taking and giving space.  I could not have asked for more.  We have not only been on a physical challenge together, but a… Read more

Palais de Rey has a bustling center street that was chock full of pilgrims drinking cervesas and trying pulpo (octopus) – a Galician delicacy.  We met up with our gaggle of Barcelona lady friends and had a fun tapas dinner at one of the small bar restaurants. I was delighted to see Ruth just jump… Read more

These were two physically tough days.  By the end of day coming into Portomartin Roo took her shoes off and walked in socks. We both have shoulder pain intermittently that requires iboprofen and muscle salve…and beer or wine with dinner! The unexpected uphills that are longer than our maps indicate are most trying.  We have… Read more

  This was 22kms of green and emerging sunshine.  Out of dreary clouds and rain and into rolling fields of green pastures and farm animals. The first half was more of a climb than we’d expected!  It was real work and when we reached a lone cafe midpoint along with many other pilgrims (traffic on… Read more

We got a later start today once we decided that another snow slogging day just wasn’t in the cards for us. We took a taxi over snowy O Cebriero and saw much heartier folks trudging as we had a few days ago through incredibly wet and cold. Jewish princesses, be proud of us for just… Read more

The weather wasn’t getting any better – overcast, rainy…a lot like Seattle winter!  Given that along with both of us feeling a bit weary, we decided to create a rest day for ourselves just short of an anticipted huge climb to O Cebriero. So we walked about 8km to Ponferrada where we knew a bus or… Read more

Wow! Talk about a change in scenery!!! We dressed for wet and cold leaving Rabanal, but we had no idea that the climb we were about to do would bring us into the clouds that turned rain to snow. We had seen what looked like snow dusting waaaay up on the hills…warning? Anyway, the waterproof… Read more

This was a day of mixed terrain and roller coaster emotions. Very much as I thought the Camino might be. Some of the landscape was rolling and wooded, some was skirting the noisy autopista. Looking back now the scenery gets better along this Way. We got to a point where sore feet and back and… Read more

    It was a rough first night for us both. We both had trouble falling asleep and I had both a terrible nightmare and bloody nose.  While we stayed in a fine simple place we were sleeping in close quarters so I felt terrible that my snores and mishaps at night woke Ruth.  I trust… Read more