13 September 2019
Meeting and Greeting the World
Tomorrow my Camino buddy, Theresa (aka Terry) and I set out for Spain. On Sunday, we arrive in Madrid and stay for a couple days. On Tuesday we fly to A Coruna, work our way over to Ferrol and will start Camino Ingles there.
The European camino network leads to the shrine of the apostle Saint James the Great in the Cathedral of Santiago. In ancient days and today, the Ingles route is where those starting in England and Ireland would boat to and continue walking through Spain to Santiago. Many walk the routes for spiritual growth. It’s also popular with hiking and cycling enthusiasts and tourists.
Camino Ingles is a short one … about 60 miles and takes about a week to walk. We will finish in Santiago around the end of September. We look forward to meeting pilgrims from all over the world.
From October 1-15, we will be in Ribadiso which is about 30 miles east of Santiago. This little village in the Galicia region of Spain features beautiful terraced green hills. There is evidence to suggest connections to the Celts in Ireland and Scotland. In previous walks through Galicia, we have come across a few bagpipe players.
On the map below, the route we are doing is the magenta colored English Way. Ribadiso is on the red colored French Way and is close to Arzua.
In Ribadiso, we will be volunteer hosts at an Albuergue which has 70 beds and costs about 5 euro ($5.50) to stay overnight. This albuergue has a paid local staff, so our job will be to greet pilgrims who are walking Camino Frances, show them to their beds and direct them to laundry facilities, showers, nearby amenities and make them feel welcome. We will be staying in a two bedroom apartment and our work day begins at 1:00 pm. Last year, Terry and I went through Hospitalero training which prepared us for this adventure. We look forward to greeting pilgrims from all over the world.
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2018 CAMINO FISTERRA-MUXIA WAY
Diane walked the entire route with us which went from Santiago to Finisterre to Muxia and back to Santiago. However, we did it in a higgelty piggelty way to accommodate travel schedules for Peggy and Ellen.
The photo below shows the village of Finisterre at the far end of the beach.
There were four of us when we left Finisterre.
Peggy (far right photo below) is a Science teacher who was on Spring Break. She was able to walk the Finnistere to Muxia segment.
Below (Ellen, me, Diane) are in front of the city of Toledo. This was the beginning of our adventure. Ellen, a Spanish teacher, was on Spring break and had to return home before we started the Camino.
For more photos about the 2018 Camino, scroll back on the blog. It’s all there.
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2017 Camino Frances
This was our 550 mile Camino that took us 45 days to walk. We prepared for two years and I had a very rigorous training schedule. During the year prior to the trip, I walked 500 miles while wearing my 25-lb backpack to prepare. Lots of research was done and much was learned.
All Camino pilgrimages end in Santiago. We were happy to reach our destination but sad to end the adventure. In Santiago, we crossed paths with many people we had met along the way. It was like graduation day and there were many celebrations.
Below is the region by region route that we walked.
My son Quinn and wife Emily met Terry and me in Santo Domingo.
It was fun to explore Santo Domingo with them.
Emily, shown below, is a global animal lover.
My husband David met us in Santiago the day we arrived. The next day we took a bus to Finisterre and the photo below was taken near Lires at the Costa da Morte … the coast of death.
Forty-five days and 550 miles wasn’t enough … David and I spent two weeks touring Madrid, Toledo, Barcelona and San Sebastián which is shown below.
In 2017, Spain was the most awesome adventure ever … which is why we went back in 2018 and now 2019.
For more photos and information about our Camino 2017, scroll way way back to the beginning of this blog.
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Jane in Spain 