From March 20 to April 4 of this year, I hiked one of the Caminos in Spain to a grand cathedral in the Spanish city of Santiago de Compostella.  Hiking the Camino has become increasingly popular world-wide over the last few years.  This posting talks a little about the Camino, its history, and how I chose the route that I took to reach Santiago - the 3rd biggest pilgramage destination in the Christian world, behind only Rome and Jerusalem.  It is the first of many Camino postings, all uploaded simultaneously, with photos and explanations from my trip.  It is probably too mu ..read more

 After looking at multiple Camino routes in Spain, I ended up choosing the Camino Primitivo.  I could hike the entire route in the three weeks I would be in Spain, unlike several longer caminos.  It was a less crowded camino, with only about 4% of camino completers claiming to have arrived via that camino.  And several accounts listed the Primitivo as among the most beautiful, rural, and rugged routes.  Many sources discouraged first time pilgrims from this route, and it seemed that I would obtain a more authentic and less touristy Spain hiking this route.   ..read more

 I arrived in Oviedo mid-afternoon after a short train ride from Leon.  Oviedo presented much cloud cover - a big transition from the cloudless skies of Leon.  Oviedo is only about 20 miles from the ocean, but is elevated and is bordered by the mountains I traveled through (literally) on my way from Leon.  As a result, it has a much more maritime climate. With time to kill before checking into my hostel, I wandered around town and enjoyed the wide variety of statues in this city's public places.  Perhaps the strangest one honors movie director Woody Allen! &nbs ..read more

My first day of my Camino journey started relatively late - just before 8:30 AM on March 20th.  But it was still a little dark and overcast when I arrived at the Cathedral as Spanish dawns are much later than in the U.S.  And there were relatively few people on the streets when I started.  There is a split in caminos very close to the cathedral, but I had a secret weapon on my journey - I had downloaded other people's camino routes onto my phone and GPS to help me in case I got turned around.  On the phone, I used the GaiaGPS app, premium edition, which featured a great map ..read more

 On the second day of my Camino journey, I set off early with Antonio into a sleepy, foggy town, leaving at 7:45AM. Below, Antonio works on his pack just outside of our hostel, and then we walked through Grado and into a foggy countryside. The walk this day started out with a 1000 foot ascent over the first 3.4 miles before descending 1150 feet over the next 2.8 miles.  Because it was early in the day and we were fresh, the ascent was not a problem.  And, although this kind of elevation change is one reason many pilgrims are scared to take the Primitivo route, this would ..read more

This was the day where things did not work out as planned.  Up until this day, there had just been 3 or 4 of us in an albergue every night.  Ronnie, from Israel, stayed with us the first couple of nights, but chose a private albergue in Tineo.  But we saw him during our walk that day, and he reported that the hostel we planned to stay at that night was completely full.  Because that hostel was full, a hostel in the town before that had filled up, so we ended up cutting this day very short in order to obtain accommodations for the night.  This meant a longer journey the ..read more

 This was the "money day" of the journey.  If we had a clear day, we were hitting our highest elevations (4,000+ feet) and walking for several miles above treeline.  There was a cost - the first 7+ miles invoved an ascent of 2340 feet, but the views would be worth it.  It turned out that I could have taken a thousand pictures on this day.  The hike I've taken that this most reminded me of was the Presidential Range in New Hampshire's White Mountains. We left the albergue at 8AM and continued on the busy highway for nearly a mile before the route took us off onto a smal ..read more

  Day 6 was a bittersweet one.  Antonio needed to take the 6:45AM bus back home so he could work his final two weeks before retiring.  I wish he could have stayed with us and my Camino experience was much enriched because I got to know him a little bit. This day is also supposed to be a very beautiful one, but it started out wet and foggy.  Nagore and I hiked together, though we were usually separated by several hundred yards.  She enjoyed Basque music in her earbuds, and since I am normally a solo traveler, I did not mind the separation.  She was a faster hiker t ..read more

 We left Grandes de Salime early on Tuesday, March 26th, departing at 7:17 AM.  One of the first things we noticed was snow on the section we had hiked the day before - on the other side of the reservoir. Although we started to get a little snow, it was temporary, and it definitely energized Nagore! In fact, as we entered the little town of Castro, it seemed like the clouds would burn off!  Castro has an albergue that gets great reviews.  I would have liked to stay there, but I was happy quitting where I did the day before.  We stopped to get a coffee for Nagor ..read more

  Wednesday, March 27th started out with a great breakfast!  Unfortunately, despite now finding Almond Milk - maybe I just had to learn how to look for it in Spain - I would have to leave half of the container at each albergue because I could not (or would not) haul it.  I hope someone found it in the refrigerator and used it! Outside was threatening and still cold, as you can see from this photo taken looking back at A Fonsagrada about 50 minutes/2 miles into our day's journey.  There weren't a lot of photos taken this day, as it was cold and spitting for a good portion ..read more