The Camino de Santiago, Ultreia!

We're off on the journey where thousands of pilgrims have gone before us, to the resting place of St. James at Santiago de Compostela.

We're packed and are ready to go! Mom (Debbie's Mom, Itza) has met us in San Franciso to do final preparations and start our adventure together. Our journey to the start of the Camino de Santiago starts at St. Jean Pied de Port and getting there requires planes, trains, and automobiles (and a bus)! We will fly to Madrid, via Lisbon, and spend the night in Madrid. We'll take an early train to Pamplona, transfer to the bus station by uber, then bus to St. Jean where we'll acclimate for a couple of days. We'll join the community of pilgrims on Saturday, August 27th as we begin our first stage,

Preplanning for the Camino de Santiago

Once we decided to travel for a year, one of the biggest decisions we had was where to start?! We had a bucket list of destinations and decided to start with Europe in the Fall as it was shoulder season of travel in many countries. We started reading about Spain and stumbled upon the Camino de Santiago which is a pilgrimage to the resting place of St. James, the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. There were a lot of factors that drew us to the Camino:

• We love hiking, and we thought hiking the Camino would be a unique way to explore Spain’s natural beauty, history and culture. We are happiest when we are out in nature, moving, jumping, and hiking.

• We learned that pilgrims come from all over the world and form community with one another, sharing reasons for walking and helping one another. We thought it would be great to hear Spanish, French, and other different languages, accents, and meet and learn from others from other countries.

• We learned that the Camino experience inspires inner reflection. We wanted to embark on this journey as a family to reconnect, be together, let the days unfold and just “be”. We wondered what it would be like to slow down, step away from our routines and stresses, to enjoy the day, and, yes struggle, and see what we discovered about ourselves.

• Sharing this experience with Mom is an extra special bonus! Mom brings to us her unmatched ability to connect with others from all backgrounds which ensures that we will undoubltedly meet lots of interesting pilgrams as we walk. Her unwavering faith gives us an appreciation for the religious and spiritual significance of the Camino pilgrammage. We are so grateful that she has agreed to join us!

After reading about the multiple Camino routes, we chose to walk the Camino Frances/French Way route, a 790km route (490 miles) that starts in the city of St. Jean Pied de Port, France, the gateway to the Pyrenees, and ends at the grand Cathedral in the holy city of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. The French Camino is the most established of the routes with the most infrastructure, i.e. hostels, cafes, minimarkets and is known as the beginner route or rather, a good “1st time route” as many folks return to do the different routes on other trips! We are each carrying 1 backpack with everything we need for the trip, and the year. We plan to walk about 8-10 km to start with and perhaps extend our distances as we get into a routine and become stronger. We are open to whatever comes and know it will take few days to get into a routine of packing, unpacking, doing laundry by hand, reserving our hostels, and figure our hydration, snacks and meals.

We opted to start in late August to avoid intense heat and crowds. You know that they say about best laid plans! We’ve learned through our Camino FB forums that the Camino is having record number of pilgrims this year as many folks had to reschedule their trips due to covid. We also know that Europe is experiencing a heat wave. All this to say is that the Camino is already teaching us how to let go of expectations and just be grateful. We are boosted, have our sunscreen, hats, and water bottles, and Baltimore tested heat resilience.

We have 26 days reserved for the Camino so have some flexibility and can adjust with the elements. We are not planning to walk every kilometer, opting to use bus/train as needed, depending on weather, our bodies, and desires to explore a particular city in depth, but we may surprise ourselves! At this time, we only have 3 successive nights booked, knowing that we will learn how far and how fast we want to walk each day as we get a feel for our packs. We have our handy Pilgrim’s Guide to the Camino de Santiago, Camino Francés by John Brierley, and our Camino Ninja and the Pilgrim’s way apps on our phones, which give us detailed info about the day’s routes, including maps, historical and cultural highlights, hostel options and food stops. We’ll ease into Camino life and listen to our instincts and bodies as we go.

Buen Camino!