Camino Day 12

June 30

​Oh boy, yesterday was tough. I am not sure if it was food poisoning or dehydration, but I had a hard day walking from Pontevedra to Caldas de Reis. Total walk was over 13 miles, and I headed out early on my own to try and tackle it while it was cool. I did ok for the first half and then literally had to sit down on the side of the Camino and rest. Literally on the ground, under a tree, and rest. This was humbling and encouraging. Humbling because I pride myself on being tough, encouraging because I couldn’t rest at all with every other Pilgrim on the Camino checking on me. In all the languages with all the looks of concern and the common language of the questioning thumbs up, “you ok”? I wasn’t, but it helped a lot. I slogged on another couple of miles to the first café in a long time. Truth, it was called Oasis. I needed it and the shade provided. I was nauseous, exhausted, and felt gross. I put my head down on a table and rested, drank water, took an Advil, and rested some more. My family found me, supported me, and held my hand for the last four miles. The Camino will provide.

Today was drastically better. I drank all the water, walked with my crew, and we sang and played all the way to Padrón. Today was only about a dozen miles, well fueled by fresh fruit, coffee, and better overall spirits. I prayed for it, Lord God make my body well, and it was well. The Camino will provide. 

Our walking is filled with beautiful scenery, so many Pilgrims on the same journey (some more miles, some less), musicians along the way, and little stops for stamps in our Pilgrim credentials. These are little booklets given to Pilgrims when they begin the Camino. Pilgrims seek stamps for them each day along The Way as evidence of progression along the Camino. It is a fun little scavenger hunt of sorts and we love seeing the variety of each stamp. We will display our Pilgrim credentials proudly when we get home. Today the girls and I also picked up matching seashell necklaces. Dagny wanted matching tattoos. We settled for necklaces. 

We are really pleased to have completed 12 of 13 stages of our Camino. Each Pilgrim chooses different total lengths (ours is 278k/173 miles) and different total days of walking (ours is 13). The towns and accommodation along the way allow for a variety of decisions about daily mileage (ours 8-19 miles/day). Tomorrow, we finish our Camino in Santiago de Compostela (16 final miles) to the cathedral. We feel proud of ourselves and will be glad to take walking off our daily to-do list.

Pilgrims have been walking to this Cathedral from all over Europe since the 9th century to the burial place of Saint James. We are asked if we are on a religious pilgrimage and answer, not really. We are fans of the apostles, and think James was probably pretty special, but our Christian faith hasn’t called us to walk this pilgrimage, especially since we were all together in Jerusalem three years ago. But the blessings of the Camino don’t escape me. I am blessed. Having Dave and my kids alongside me for this long journey has been a gift. We are all grateful for our specialized walking shoes, properly fitted backpacks with hydrations bladders, sunscreen, SPF shirts, Darn Tough socks, and KT Tape. Can you imagine the original pilgrims and their efforts? We get that this is part walking tourism and part quest. “Everyone walks their own Camino” and I am grateful for my Camino.

 

Jll

Camino Days 10 & 11

June 28

On Sunday morning we woke up in Arcade, Spain. We packed our bags and prepared to start our walking. We taped up our feet and filled our water bottles. We ate breakfast at our hotel and started walking around 9 am. 

Our walk was very beautiful, mostly on little trails through the woods. We spent most of the time walking listening to music and singing along. The trail has gotten much busier in the last few days so we’ve been enjoying getting to know others on our walks.

 After about 8 miles, we stopped for the night in Pontevedra. We found an Italian restaurant where we could grab some lunch. Addie and Jll picked up some kind of food poisoning from the restaurant and were down for the count the rest of the night. 

We settled in to our hotel, took showers, and then Alastair picked up dinner from a grocery store and Maggie and I went to get pizza and an ice cream before calling it a night. 

June 29

We woke up the next morning, the morning of the 29th, earlier in hopes of getting ahead of some of the rest of the hikers. Jll started ahead of the rest of us because she still wasn’t feeling well and wanted to get a head start. Addie decided she was going to skip the walking and instead sleep in and then catch a bus from Pontevedra to Caldas de Reis. The rest of us ate breakfast and then began walking. 

We walked for 13 miles and then found a spot to grab some sodas and play cards before checking into the hotel. 

We dropped bags off and then found a lovely lunch spot. Jll and Addie were still not feeling so hot so they skipped lunch but then we all meet back up for some much needed nap time. I stayed back but everyone else went to the same spot for dinner before calling it a night.

Dagny

Camino Days 8 & 9

July 26

On July 26th we woke up in Baiona, and with the exception of Maggie who overslept, we were walking by 8 ready for our longest day. We hadn’t made it terribly far from the hotel when the skies opened up and we were met with heavy rain. 

After getting everyone changed into either a poncho or rain jacket we continued down the trail in the rain for about an hour before stripping off our rain gear, redirecting back to the Camino directly on the coast, and sitting down to grab breakfast and some coffees. For context, this day was roughly nineteen miles all told, and after covering about six before breakfast, we could still see our hotel. After breakfast I was ready for a speed change and pushed ahead of the group to go scout out some lunch options, and extend the amount of time I had to lounge around and drink beers in Oia. 

Once the rest of the group had caught up we tucked into some traditional Spanish grub such as tortilla, and I ordered for myself some of the best octopus that I’d ever had. And while by this point we had put more than ten miles behind us and had made it to the edge of Vigo, where we were staying the night, we still had more than five miles to go. 

Vigo was the first major metropolitan area we had walked into since we had left Porto, and walking past developed beaches with features akin to water world and then ship building yards was an unwelcome change compared to the coastal forests we’d grown accustomed to. 

The nineteen miles proved to be exactly that, and by the end of the days walk the family was ready to lie around for a couple hours without so much as rolling over in their beds. Eventually some of us ventured not far from the hotel to have some beers and nosh, and after such a long day, and likely being dehydrated, three pints punched well above their weight. 

As the resident foodie for the crew, being in a larger city afforded us more fine dining options for me to choose from. For those on the Camino who do choose to eat seafood, mushrooms, etc., I selected the one Michelin star restaurant Maruja Limon for dinner. Unfortunately, Spanish culture dictates that the restaurant did not open until 8:45, and so that is the reservation time we ended up with. The restaurant offered two tasting menus, and in a decision I would come to regret when we finally left at midnight, I convinced everybody to spring for the more expansive one. 

While I did leave the restaurant incredibly tired, I would not have changed a thing if I could. Being treated to traditional Galician cuisine dressed up in just the right way, with the origin of much of the seafood within eyesight, made the nineteen miles feel a lot more worth it. Some of the standout dishes from the evening included oysters with citrus butter, local scallops in a white wine sauce, and all three of the unique desserts, which incorporated all sorts of interesting components such as celery and corn. When we finally made it out of dinner, we jumped in an uber and jetted home to try and get as much sleep as we could before our seven o’clock alarms.

June 27

The following morning after getting all packed we made our way to the hotels continental breakfast to fuel up for a more relaxing day of sixteen miles. We got on the road at about nine, and the feeling of procrastinating the days walk was universally shared. 

Today’s sixteen miles were made especially memorable due to the duo of 800 foot climbs we were all lucky enough to walk, but with plenty of breaks mixed it, the day was made far less punishing than it could of been. 

Once we had walked out of the Vigo metropolitan area and up our first climb of the day, we were lucky enough to be surrounded by greenery, a waterfall, and a litter of kittens who had taken up residence under a dumpster. We trudged along with varying degrees of speed and enjoyment until finally we were reunited as a family once again, where we could lie about, rest our legs, and neither move or engage with another soul on this planet for a few hours before dinner. No rest days since we left Porto, eight miles tomorrow. 

Alastair​