Category Archives: The French Way

Our Camino officially begins…. Well it began weeks ago but according to the official rules we only needed to start in Sarria, the city just before Barbadelo. Now we must get two stamps a day on our credential, one in … Continue reading →

Remember all that climbing we did yesterday? Well we did some more but then a whole lot of downhill.  We left early so we could capture the sunrise over the cross on the hill. We almost missed it but we … Continue reading →

We are in O Cebreiro! I’m starting the blog tonight with a picture taken at Mass in the church in O Cebreiro. The pilgrims Mass was at 7PM tonight. The priest was a young man and before he started he … Continue reading →

We have finished walking for the day and it is now early Sunday evening. That means we have just one more weekend left on the Camino. Wow – we will start week 7 on Wednesday. The uphill climb started today … Continue reading →

We are now starting to move into grape vine country again and soon into the mountains on Monday.  The weather was threatening to rain all morning but we made it into Cacabelos dry. The next few days the weather looks … Continue reading →

We explored quite a bit of Ponferrada today.  I’m not sure why we call it a rest day when all we do is walk.  One castle and two museums and we are done and ready to start the Camino tomorrow. … Continue reading →

Not much to report today as the walk from Molinaseca was short and mostly on city streets.  We wanted to get to Molinaseca early because tomorrow is a rest day and there are good things to see in Ponferrada. I’ll … Continue reading →

Leaving Foncebadon we have now crossed two of three major Camino mountain challenges. The pass at Foncebadon was over 5000 feet and we made a steady descent of over 2500 feet into Molinaseca. Good news though since we got to … Continue reading →

It was a short walk today from Rabanal del Camino to Foncebadon so we left a bit late and got to Foncebadon around 11.  Leaving Rabanal del Camino we passed a monastery church.  The monks have a Gregorian chant there … Continue reading →

Nothing too exciting today except we are finally out of the flat country and seeing hills again. It was slightly uphill all day and mostly the Camino was away from the road. It was quiet and a big change from … Continue reading →

You really need to add Holy Week in Spain to your bucket list.  As I write this it is Easter Sunday evening and it has been a remarkable week.  We thought Leon M – W was great with processions every … Continue reading →

it is Monday and we made it to Leon to begin our spring break.  On Thursday we will head to Astorga for the rest of Holy week. If you read our previous posts you know we entered Leon by train … Continue reading →

It is Saturday and we made it halfway! We will stay in Sahagun until Monday morning. This is the end of our fourth week of the trip and it feels great to be here. Sahagun was always a major goal … Continue reading →

Don’t look for too much today.  It was chilly out and the wind was blowing 25mph+. We got to Ledigos early to a very nice albergue with a private room.  More to say tomorrow as we cross the halfway point … Continue reading →

Fromista was a normal city and not much to do there. For us it was a sleeping spot and not much else. The woman that ran the house where we slept was very nice and spoke Spanish quickly as if … Continue reading →

It was warmer today starting out and by the time we ended it was pretty warm and all of our jackets were off.  Not much to report as the countryside changed from wide open wheat fields to a mixture of … Continue reading →

We left Hornillos del Camino at 8:30AM a bit later than we wanted to. It was 24 degrees at 7:30 so we waited until it warmed up to 28. Last night at La Casa del Abuelo was very nice. It … Continue reading →

After 3 days of rest we were ready to leave Burgos, a large city, and start our walk to a very small town (population 58). So we got an early start just before sunrise and 30 degrees outside. In an … Continue reading →

Burgos is a very nice city. We are staying close to the Cathedral and a vibrant city center. Since we arrived a day early we have had plenty of time to sight see. I’ll keep this post short on words … Continue reading →

Well… I had planned on starting this post with an April fools joke but when we woke up this morning it was mother nature giving us an April fools joke instead. – Snow and lots of it. The original plan … Continue reading →

We stayed last night in an albergue that also has private rooms. Ours was private. Belorado is a town that doesn’t have much to offer for this time of the Camino season so we were happy to find out that … Continue reading →

Well the weather is sort of turning poorer each day. Last night it rained and it was reported that it would be clear by 9am but no chance it rained lightly all day as we walked. We had a nice … Continue reading →

We studied the weather report for today and it looked sort of ok. Maybe cool and maybe a little rain. When we woke up and saw drizzle we felt like going back to bed but that’s not really an option. … Continue reading →

Not much to report today. We didn’t have a very long way to walk and made it to Najare around 1:30pm. Last Sunday was daylight savings time for Spain so we also lost an hour. As we walked around Sunday … Continue reading →

It’s almost the end of our rest day and we are looking forward to getting back on the Camino tomorrow headed for Najera.  Last night we went to the 7:30PM Mass and it was really nice.The Church, Iglesia Santa Maria … Continue reading →

There is not much to report today as we took a rest day and we transported to Naverette by taxi – 14 miles. There are a couple of reasons for taking today off and the first being we were tired.  … Continue reading →

Distance 11.45 miles 6 hours. 1000 feet elevation So today we started out around 8:30 and we were both a bit tired. We thought knowing we had a pretty short day might help pick us up but it didn’t and … Continue reading →

Distance 13.25 miles 6 hours elevation gain 1400. Easy to moderate We left Estella at 7:45 AM about 45 minutes earlier than other days. Normally we buy a picnic lunch in the morning somewhere and then head out. We bought … Continue reading →

Distance 14 miles. 6 hours Today was a bit longer than planned because we didn’t know our room last night was just before the entire town so it added another half mile today. The path has a few assents so … Continue reading →

Distance 14.6 miles 6 hours 30 minutes elevation gain 1500.   moderate **** Just a note- I hope you know you can click on the photos and see the pictures in a slide show. It skips the reading and scrolling to … Continue reading →

Just resting and sightseeing. We went to the cathedral first and we were in time for morning Mass. We couldn’t figure out how to get into the Cathedral at first and then a woman showed us we just needed to … Continue reading →

Distance 13.43 miles 6 hours 51 minutes. Hard We have been in Europe over a week now and this is the fifth straight walking day. We feel it! (Post Camino update) – This might have been the hardest day on … Continue reading →

Distance 10.24 miles  5.5 hours easy to moderate In Espinal we stayed in a private room and ended up having the whole 2nd story to ourselves.  Originally we planned to stay in an albergue but we didn’t like the looks … Continue reading →

Distance 4 miles – easy The lights go on at the Roncesvalles albergue at 6:30 AM with Beatles songs over the speakers. The rules are that everyone must leave at or before 8am.  The sun didn’t come up until 7am … Continue reading →

Distance 10 miles we made it 6.75. Many people start their Camino in Roncesvalles. Knowing what we know now after our experience getting here from Valcarlos we also would have started here in Roncesvalles. The trek from St. Jean Pied … Continue reading →

Today was our first real walking day on the Camino.  Watching the weather we expected cool temperatures and maybe rain.  Turns out it was just windy and humid. It was a great day and mostly we walked on small  country … Continue reading →

Finally arrived, St Jean Pied de Port, the traditional starting point for the Camino Frances. Our day started as we woke up in Paris, found (really not hard to find) a cafe with coffee and a coursannt – wonderful! Bought … Continue reading →

After months of planning, years of dreaming we finally left our house and we made it to the first travel stop, Paris! Our front door to the hotel front door took 22 hours. It takes some time to sink in … Continue reading →

Trains, Planes and well… a busWe will be leaving home and flying Delta through Atlanta and then Paris. Once in Paris we will take the train from Gare Montparnasse to Bayonne and then another train to St Jean Pied de … Continue reading →

I think we over prepared or maybe didn’t prepare enough! In any case we have now checked all the travel requirements, trained with filled backpacks, downloaded every app, booked everything we could book and now what? Just wait I guess…. … Continue reading →

(Post-Camino update) – Please review italics for post Camino comments and lessons learned. We thought we knew everything before we left – wow were we wrong. So a while ago I gave a short talk on the topic describing the … Continue reading →