DeBoards in Spain

It’s 7:30 pm and we’re in our private room at the Hostel Virgen de la Encina, Ponferrada, French doors open to the balcony and church bells ringing constantly. Earlier an accordion duo was serenading the square. Before this, I washed the day’s socks and underwear in the sink and laid them on our small balcony…

Today was almost all descent, close to 4,000 feet of it in about 16 miles. It wasn’t an easy descent, either. Much of it was over loose rocks and gravel, while quite a bit of it was over large slabs of rock that are slowly becoming loose rocks and gravel. My right big toe felt…

Day 3 was from Astorga to Foncebadon. Some people stop in Rabanal del Camino about four miles before, but I just had to stay in a village with almost zero permanent inhabitants (OK, 13). So where did this leave us? With our second hike in three days of 16 or more miles. these are considered…

Listen up, friends—I’m going to walk this Camino my way. It was always going to be that way for me. On the surface, I take orders well—my bosses typically like me for this reason. But then I think it through, and I quietly do whatever I want. The standard line is “everyone walks their own…

Our day began by sharing breakfast with more Germans and it ended with Brazilians and Belgians. And in between was a lot of walking and reflecting. We started in Hospital de Orbigo, all decked out in its medieval festival finery. You can tell we’re leaving the flat Meseta and heading into the hills; in fact,…

And finally, thanks for your well wishes. I slept well, made sure I ate enough and had a good 12-mile walk. Tomorrow is much longer and more difficult—a 15-mile walk mostly uphill, with rain predicted 😬. Tonight walking around Astorga, which is lovely in the way of all ancient towns, we admitted our calves were…

Today was our first day walking the Camino, and the Camino tried to kill us. Maybe I should back up. Walkers on the Camino tend to divide the pilgrimage into three phases. The first is physical, your body getting used to doing its thing. The second is mental, when the boredom starts to set in.…

June 2. Thursday. International Sex Workers Day. Social Forestry Day in Bhutan. And the day Paula and I started actually walking the Camino. And boy, did it hurt. More on that later. We left León for what is our longest scheduled day of walking, and of course it’s our first day here. Leon to Hospital…

We took the early train from Madrid to León and enjoyed the world’s smallest café con leche. (Why did passenger trains never make it big in the States? So convenient, so relaxing.) The end of yesterday was bleak. Our flight from Frankfort was delayed, we wandered the airport only to arrive at the train terminal…

Not making a political statement with the title, I’m not sure if Madrid is “greater than” Leon. It’s my attempt at an arrow. As I write this, we are on our way from Madrid to Leon, the beginning of our walk. Getting to Madrid was … interesting. The short flight from Frankfurt to Madrid ended…