Day 1. St Jean Pied de Port to Roncesvalles

First, I want to give thanks and acknowledge my good fortune to be able to walk my Camino. I thank Paula for giving me the freedom to leave home for some far away place to go roaming about the countryside. I thank my family for their support because they understand, somehow, that I need this quixotic quest. I thank all who read my ramblings because it gives me discipline.

Second, I pray for inspiration and strength. On my first two Caminos, I received a blessing, the first from Pastor Michael of the Community Church near our home in Encinitas and the second from Father White of St Kateri church near the Wranch in Buffalo, Texas. I did not get a blessing prior to this trip, so I ask that each of you send a good thought my way. Then, I am sure that inspiration and strength will find me.

Yesterday, 24 hours after leaving Encinitas, I took a bus from Biarritz to Bayonne and from there a jam-packed train to St Jean Pied de Port. While waiting for my hotel to open I sipped a beer at the bar next door and met a Ukrainian woman. I could see the war in her face, but after we talked a bit, she would flash the occasional smile of the happy young girl that Putin took away.

I walked around the village, seeing much more than I had on my first visit in 2023, had a decent meal at Chez Dede, checked out the start of the Camino, and, tired from the long day, went back to my hotel and slept soundly.

This morning was dark and cold and I was sleeping so good I got off to a bit of a late start, but I had a great walk. Last time, it was sunny and crisp and the vistas were amazing. This time around it was foggy and sometimes visibility was about 50 feet. The refuge in Orisson was crowded — seems there are more pilgrims this year — but the orange juice, tortilla and coffee were delicious. Total elevation changes today were +1260 meters (4135’) and -380 meters (1245’). Total mileage, about 15 miles.

I decided to stay this night in an albergue (like a youth hostel, where you sleep in bunkbeds in a room with other people) and checked into the place in Roncesvalle, which holds about 250 people. I had kind of forgotten they don’t have sheets or blankets or towels. I went to a nearby hotel and searched the floors for the cleaning lady’s cart to find a towel — with no success.

Tonight, I go for a meal at the hotel around the corner, called the Hotel Roncesvalles which looks like a very nice place — even if the maids don’t leave towels lying around— for which the albergue provided me a meal voucher.

By the way, in case you were wondering, I found a towel in the albergue Lost and Found. I had just enough shampoo in a small packet taken from my last hotel in case of emergency to have a good scrub. I feel much better! But I look forward to a normal check-in, towels and blankets, and a private room tomorrow night. And I haven’t even experienced the snoring, groaning, farting and sleep-walking in this bunkhouse yet.

Ultraia et suseia!

This is a short note to clear up some confusion generated in my last post. Yes, the wheels came off, but if there is one thing I have learned in this life, it is how to put the wheels back on. To make a long — and boring — story short, do not plan to stay in Poladura de los Tercios on the Camino San Salvador on a Sunday. The waters I muddied will run clear soon enough.

But not here in Minneapolis where I sit drinking a beer and watching the rain pouring down. My flight to Paris, already delayed, will hopefully get me to Charles de Gaulle in time to catch my final leg to Biarritz.

By my side is my backpack with all the earthly goods I will bring with me on my Hybrid Camino. It all weighs in under 15 pounds, including my trademark trash can liner rain jacket (which would be ineffective in this Minnesota rainstorm). Juliette cut the head and arm holes in the bag last night.

It also includes a book I brought along. I had been debating whether to bring St Augustine’s Confessions or Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Although I have started each one, I decided to read a random sample of each one and let that be the decider.

I opened Confessions to Augustine’s discussion of time. Auspicious, given the title of my last post, and definitely a subject I love to think about. I couldn’t get a vibe from a few random samplings of Pilgrim, but given its title and my upcoming role, I selected that book. Augustine can be a bit heavy and more suited to sedentary reading and pondering. I can read a bit of Annie and contemplate while on the go.

So…sorry for any confusion. Rain is clearing up. I will be boarding soon. Next post from the Camino!

Ultreia et suseia!

I had my Camino pretty much planned out and was happy just to pass these last few days biding my time until I head off to the San Diego airport and fly to France. I had written the two sections below and was waiting for an opportune time to send it off. Then, this morning, the wheels came off one stage and I had to re-schedule everything from about the mid-point onwards — and re-title the blog.

1. Hot Tips

I get a lot of questions about the Camino and, though I am far from being an expert, I thought I would record some of my thoughts. Of course, you could ask your AI slave to peruse various blogs and forums and Facebook pages and to summarize the findings in 3-4 bullet points. For example, if you asked for an AI review of the most popular footwear on the Camino, you would learn that trail runners are the preferred choice. But it is more fun to engage with real people, even if you have to put up with the occasional misanthrope, grouch and bot invader.

Which Camino? There are many Caminos to choose from, with the Frances, Portuguese and Norte being the most popular. For first timers, I always recommend the Frances. Also, do the entire Camino if possible, that is if you have 30-ish days or so. Of course, there are beautiful journeys, pilgrimages, nature walks, wilderness hikes, etc. all over the world. But for this discussion I will focus on the Camino Frances.

What time of year? I like mid-September to mid-October and mid-May to mid-June. Avoid summer months due to crowds and heat. Avoid winter months due to cold and fewer facilities.

Where to stay? You can stay in hostels with maybe twelve pilgrims to a room in a bunkbed or private room with bathroom in the many inns and small hotels along the way. Most people use Booking.com. Or you can pay top dollar and get a bespoke Camino tour planned for you. I stay in the occasional albergue, but prefer a private room in a “casa rural”.

What type of clothing, equipment, gear? You are on your own here. I have an Osprey Talon 22 liter backpack weighing 15 pounds fully loaded. I wear Ecco Yucatán sandals. I do not use poles or a staff. I take one pair of shorts, one pair long pants, two long sleeve shirts, a merino wool undershirt, a “puffer” jacket and a Tilley wide brimmed hat. Layering is important for cold evenings and hot days.

How to prepare? Be sure you can walk 5 miles without getting blisters. Michener’s Iberia is good pre-reading to learn a bit about Spain (he wrote a section on the Camino) and The Way with Martin Sheen will get you pumped. If you want to do it and you can do it, then do it.

2. Destiny or Delusion?

The big question, of course, is why do it? Each person will have their own reason and their own individual experience. But what about my reason, you might ask. Before I can answer, have a look at the second sentence of the fourth verse of the poem in last post: La dicha del camino se gesta en el designio. The original wording, before translation to Spanish, is: The joy of the journey begins with the plan.

I went back and forth from English to Spanish, trying to get something which might shed light on my reasoning for walking a Camino. “Joy” is too frivolous a word, bliss is too sublime. “Journey” is perhaps to rigid of a word; I wanted to convey something very physical, yet without excluding the very spiritual feeling one experiences. And “begins with a plan” doesn’t quite capture “charting a course through the heavens”.

But hey! I learned two new words: La dicha and el designio.

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That brings me back to the present moment. I have made the necessary changes to the itinerary and once again, await my departure, hoping for the best.

September 5, 2026

I have been looking forward to this Camino with eager anticipation for some time. But now that it is almost upon me, I hesitate. I must rein in my excitement for the sooner it begins, the sooner it will end. Best to relish these last few days to enhance the experience itself and to enrich the memories that follow. But if I seem distracted, it is because the spirit calls:

¡Despierta, Caminante! Sacude el sopor de tu cuerpo que yace sin sueños. ¡Que se alce el espíritu!

Mira alrededor: los tenues rayos de un nuevo día van empolvando el cielo oscuro. Respira hondo, como tu primer aliento, tomado con temor y con triunfo, hace una eternidad.

Salpica agua fría sobre tu rostro y pasa tus manos húmedas por el cabello. ¡Ponte erguido! ¡Vientre adentro, hombros atrás!

Prepárate para la prueba que te aguarda. La dicha del camino se gesta en el designio. ¿Qué planetas serán las piedras del paso? ¿Qué estrellas señalarán la ruta? ¿Bajo qué galaxias habrás de dormir?

No mires atrás. Todo cuanto hemos deseado se ha cumplido. Hoy es el nuevo comienzo. El mañana ya está sobre nosotros.

¡Despierta!

Nota: Peter y Stephanie, el verso anterior fue escrito mientras pensando en vosotros y en nuestra cena familial en casa de Cheryl.

1 September 2026

Despierta, Caminante! Sacude el sopor de tu cuerpo que yace sin sueños. ¡Que se alce el espíritu!

Mira alrededor: los tenues rayos de un nuevo día van empolvando el cielo oscuro. Respira hondo, como tu primer aliento, tomado con temor y con triunfo, hace una eternidad.

Salpica agua fría sobre tu rostro y pasa tus manos húmedas por el cabello. ¡Ponte erguido! ¡Vientre adentro, hombros atrás!

Prepárate para la prueba que te aguarda. El gozo del camino comienza con el plan. ¿Qué planetas serán las piedras del paso? ¿Qué estrellas señalarán la ruta? ¿Bajo qué galaxias habrás de dormir?

No mires atrás. Todo cuanto hemos deseado se ha cumplido. Hoy es el nuevo comienzo. El mañana ya está sobre nosotros.

¡Despierta!

Today, all goals were achieved. Paula got her taste of the Camino, I completed the three stages I missed first time around, and I picked up my new Camino guitar.

The first part of our walk out of Fromista was nice. We took an alternative route and walked along a river shaded by trees, feeling sorry for the folks who took the unshaded trail along the busy country road. We met an interesting pilgrim walking the other way; he was returning from Santiago. He told us he has been walking the Caminos of Spain for many years and has seen many changes. He did not have kind words for the turigrinos who are noisy, deface walls and trail markers with inane graffiti, and have little respect for the Camino etiquette. But he accepted the way it was, finding joy in the moment, not the destination, and in meeting interesting people along the way.

Eventually, the trails met. We had a drink and a bocadillo and met another interesting character from Frankfurt, Kentucky who often sleeps on benches, in the field or under a bridge when it rains. That’s his thing! Paula and I bid him adios, and then had our share of walking under the sun as the temperature rose to 85 degrees along the road into Carrión.

We were both feeling the effects of the heat and headed straight to the Bar España for our arrival beer. Then we hoofed it to our hotel on the other side of town. We had a nice light meal. We were still too overheated for anything heavy. After a short nap, we headed to La Ermita de La Piedad, on the other side of town, to find Federico Sheppard the luthier.

Freddy took us outside to see a part of the Ermita that would be restored with the help of funds from my guitar purchase. He then took us back inside, and voila! there was Rene Izquierdo, a well known classical guitarist playing my new guitar. This private concert, which lasted about 45 minutes, was an unexpected pleasure. It was my guitar’s baptism.

We will not set the alarm tonight.

Castrojeriz has a lot more to offer than Hornillos and we got to see a lot of it just looking for a place to eat lunch. Our hotelier told us we had arrived too late to reserve a table so we went in search of food. We asked a couple locals and they recommended the Meson, so that is where we went and ate well. Returning to our lodging, we came across a community park where a group of men were playing a game called Tuta. The object is to hit a wooden pin, the “tuta”, with a metal disk about 3” in diameter and 1/2” thick, from about 40’. There were some incongruities about the rules of the game, but we did see several “hits”. I think if you miss you have to yell “puta!”.

We then went to the Santo Domingo de Guzman cathedral which had a light show of the Camino projected on the ceiling and several interactive booths with more on the history, legends and facts of the Camino. Santo Domingo was founder of the Dominicans who were prominent early on in the New World. (What’s the capital of the Dominican Republic? Santo Domingo!). The church was damaged in the Lisbon earthquake of 1756 and one of the main columns is visibly tilted, though buttressed on the outside.

We walked by an interesting hostel run by a Buddhist holy man and another woman. Our new Camino friends, Ed and Darcy, stayed there but found there were few boundary conditions, mandatory meditation and some weird pilgrims who seemed trapped there. Ed and Darcy managed to escape early before the Koolaid breakfast.

We rose early so we could take advantage of the cool morning weather and set out for Fromista, more than 15 miles distant. There is a difficult climb outside of Castrojeriz which had Paula a little worried, but she negotiated it successfully. The rest of the trail conformed to the meseta characteristics: flat and dry with wide vistas of brown earth and patches of green and yellow. After nearly 3 hours we found a coffee shop for breakfast.

The Pisuerga river broke the monotony of the dry trail as we neared Fromista. The Pisuerga rises in the Cantabrian mountains and it flows into the Duero. A forest of poplars surrounded the river and provided welcome shade.

The last few miles past Boadilla were along a canal with a little canal boat ferrying tourists. (Memories of Erin’s birthday — 30th, wasn’t it?).

It was nearly 90 degrees by the time we reached Fromista and Sra. Mila welcomed us to the Hostal Camino de Santiago with our arrival beer – a couple cans of cold Mahou. We celebrated Paula’s achievement with lunch at Los Palmeros, an upscale restaurant in Fromista. We had a great meal but the most unusual dish was the gazpacho: it was served on a scoop of tomato and basil ice cream. Perfect for the hot day!

The Camino has drawn me back…again! However, there is a reason for this madness. In fact, there are three reasons.

First of all, I wanted to introduce Paula to the Way. Between us, she is the more dedicated walker. But she does not want to walk 15 miles a day for 30 days while living out of a backpack. But fate had brought us to Europe, following a spectacular 14-day Arctic cruise from Reykjavík to Bergen via Svalbard island where we were within a whale’s tail of the 80th parallel and well north of the Arctic circle sailing the land of the midnight sun. We popped down to Oslo and then to Madrid for a night. We hopped on a bus and then another and ended up in Villanueva de Argaño. We walked into a bar and asked for a taxi to get us the final 5 km to Hornillos del Camino. We were told that Villanueva does not have any taxis. After a few calls, the owner of La Casa del Abuelo, the albergue in Hornillos we were staying at, picked us up and drove us the final leg.

The second reason to do a mini-Camino was to fill in the gap I missed on my first walk along the Camino Frances. With all the back-tracking and breaks I took the first time around, I had to skip the interval between Hornillos and Carrión de los Condes so that Lisa and I could stay on schedule to meet Paula and John in Santiago de Compostella.

The third reason is that I have an appointment in Carrión de los Condes to meet the famed luthier Federico Sheppard who has built a special Camino guitar for me. He reports that the guitar strings are already vibrating. She is singing and I am beguiled.

Of course, you don’t really need a reason to walk the Camino, even just a portion of it. We spent the night in Hornillos and rose at 6:00 in the morning to begin our walk together. It was a 12.5 mile walk to ease Paula into the Pilgrim’s routine. Paula did great!

The train has pulled out of the Santiago de Compostela train station and in the distance I can see the blue waves of Galicia’s mountains rising up through the mists. My God, how they tug at me! It brings tears to my eyes! It is like leaving a beloved child. I will return one day, but that child will have changed; and I will change.

Before I can truly say goodbye to my Camino, I have to say thank you to each of you who followed along with me. I never needed an incentive to get up in the morning and start my daily trek. But I did need a reason for writing my posts each night. Thanks for sharing my adventure.

And so the adventure pauses.

Last night, after my fine meal, while I watched Man City beat Inter Milan for the Champion’s League trophy, I toyed with the idea of taking advantage of the hotel’s offer to drive me to the airport from where I could catch a bus into Santiago de Compostela. However, when I woke up this morning, there was no deliberation. I hoisted on my backpack, slung on my day bag and headed off to complete my Camino.

I walked my normal pace but I took more breaks than I normally would. It was amusing to sit at the coffee bars and watch the pilgrims, some newbies and some veterans, men and women, old and young, from all over the world making their final thrust to the great pilgrimage destination.

No parador this time. I booked a room at the Casa Diocesana Via Lucis, a hospedaría, which was once a convent. It is located within the grounds of the University of Santiago de Compostela. It is simple, close to train station and to the Cathedral, and provides a quiet place to spend the final day.

I walked into Santiago earlier and had a plate of sardines for a late lunch. Now I am sitting at a family restaurant near the Via Lucis, watching families relax on a Sunday afternoon. Boys are kicking soccer balls with their dads, the girls lie on blankets on the grass comparing jewelry and older folks look on as they sip their beer or coffee. I am taking in the unintelligible chatter of the people around me and the twittering of the birds which are enjoying a late sunny afternoon. There is a deep and satisfying peacefulness about this particular place in the universe. I don’t need for it to last forever, but a little longer would be nice.