Sarria to Portomarin

After our flight landed in Santiago we took the bus from the airport to the bus station.  With it being sunday the bus station was very quiet. Actually it was nearly deserted.  We were able to get ticket to go to Sarria. The bus however did not leave for a few hours, so we passed our time in the little cafe having our first meal in Spain.

Tortilla Sandwhich

 













Finally it was time to take the bus to Sarria. The ride itself was good.  As I gazed out the window I realized that we were driving across roughly the same path we would be walking over the 6 days.   Every now and then we would see a pilgrim along the road, not many though. Probably due to the fact it was after 3 in the afternoon and most pilgrims would have most likely been done with their walk for the day. 

We arrived in Sarria roughly 2 hours later.  We got off the bus and then using my gps on my phone we headed to find our room for the night.   On this trip I had decided we would be staying in private rooms, either in small hotels or alburges when private rooms were available.   With having our own room I was hoping it would help us get the rest our bodies would need.  That and it meant we didn't need to pack sleeping bag or liners or towels.  We found our room and took our things to our room, then headed out to find dinner and a walk around the town.  The evening was warm and it was nice to explore the area. We then went to the room to prepare for the start of our walk. 

First stamp in our pilgrim passport! 

Spring 2017 Camino

Looking back at my blog I realized that I didn’t write about my trip to Spain in 2017,  which was the last 100 km from Sarria to Santiago.  It was a wonderful time and I learned a lot during that trip. 

Pilgrim Shell at Tour Saint-Jaques

 A few years back, after I had heard about the Camino, my sister Donna visited me and we got to talking about the Camino and how we wanted one day to walk it.  She had plans to walk with her daughter and I was going to walk with my friend. 

In the fall of 2016 I had a dream and woke with the feeling...a certainty, that God was telling me I needed to help Donna see her Camino dream come true.  Since there were already plans for her and another of our sister's to come to Europe to visit, adding a trip to Spain seemed easy enough.  So I went about putting the plan into action.  After some effort and a change in flights, we decided that we would walk the last 100 km during Holy Week, walking into Santiago on Easter Day 2017.   

Before we headed on our Camino adventure, we first had a wonderful vacation with our sister Audrey, in which we traveled to Paris, France.  While in Paris we took the time and searched out the Tower of Saint James, Tour Saint-Jacques, an historical meeting place for pilgrims in the French capital.  It was here at the Tower that many pilgrims through out the ages began their pilgrimage.

Tour Saint-Jacque

After our wonderful time in France, we headed back to Germany to spend time with family and pack for our camino. Then we were off to Munich for our early morning flight to Santiago. We were excited that our trip was finally here, and yes, were also apprehensive as to what adventures awaited us.  This was Donna's first trip to Spain, and that did add to the apprehension as well.  

Cookie on plane tray

Our plan was to fly to Santiago and then take the bus to Sarria and begin our walk from there. We were able to get a direct flight from Munich.  When we boarded the flight we were given a German style cookie, which was quite large.  We did our best to translate what was on the cookie and then the flight attendant let us know that this was the first non-stop flight on Lufthansa from Munich to Santiago!  We saw this as the first of many surprises on our journey! It was a wonderful souvenir, especially with the date on it, but with one draw back. The cookie was very heavy! We also were concerned how we would keep it nice.  These cookies are more to look at than to eat,  so we did our best to pack it away. 

We were now officially on our way to making our Camino Dream a reality......

Time to get writing again....

Its been a long time since I wrote and I feel bad about that.  There were so many times I wanted to catch up on what was going on with my walk...and me...but then I felt ashamed in some ways due to the fact I did not get to Spain at all last October like I planned.  However, the other part of me knew I really had nothing to be ashamed of and I should have written. Then, as time went on, the harder it was to write.  Tonight I sit here and force myself to take that first step once again.  So here it goes a short note to catch up on some things.

In October I was all set to go back to Spain and walk part of the Camino Frances route. My daughter, Jessie, and I were going to meet up in Bilbao and head down to Estella and do some walking together.  However, over the summer Jessie started to have some health issues and concerns and as the day got closer to the walk, She became more ill and was unable to walk.  Jess asked me to come see her first in Germany before I went to Spain and go with her to some doctors appointments.  I agreed. After all, no matter how old your children get there are times when they reach out and say they need your support and you want to be there for them.  So instead of Spain, I went to Germany in October.

We experienced a lot of ups and downs during my trip to Europe, however, we did not make it to Spain.  Amidst several doctors appointments, we were also busy packing up a house for moving. Fortunately, we were able to fit some travels in, where we did find a lot of other bits of "The way of St James". I will be writing about those bit here next.

It is time now to refocus on some things and get my life in order and back to walking the Camino....