Califoregon Living

Day 8, part 1. 16.5 miles. Hardest day by far. First part was the most beautiful landscape, then 10 miles of what we have dubbed ‘Mordor to Molinaseca’. Hiking down rocky/riverbed type terrain. Our gift at the bottom was beautiful Molinaseca with its river that we soaked our feet in. Then another 6k to Ponferrada. We arrive at our albergue exhausted, and as our hospitalero told us repeatedly…late…lol. Still they fed us a lovely meal and put us to bed.

Day 7: Astorga to Foncebadon. Today was a booty kicker! 18 miles slight incline through beautiful small towns a varied terrain between. The last six kilometers were a steep incline and exhausting! So happy when we finally made it to our albergue.

Day six. Villares de Órbigo to Astorga. 10 miles. All country roads today. Fabulous rest stop (for my runner friends: aid station) on the way; donation only. We did some sightseeing in Astorga: Roman ruins museum, Cathedral, Gaudi’s palace that houses a museum of the camino.

Day five…Villar de Mazarife to Villares de Orbigo. 12 miles. Another perfect day weather wise. I had to actually wear my puffy jacket at dinner. Walked most of the time through farmland…corn, sunflower, and some other things. Stopped in Villavante for a break, then on to Villares de Orbigo! Loved the albergue here El Encanto. Marta is an incredible host. We have met such wonderful people from all over. Pilgrim’s dinner at a local restaurant and now bed.

Day 4, our first walk! Leon to Villar de Mazarife. I thought we walked 13.7, but it turned out to be 14.7 miles! We could not have asked for a better day! Started at the Leon Cathedral. Stopped at La Oncina de La Valdoncina and had coffee, bread, and tortilla at a fantastic hotel Domus Oncinae. Gorgeous property and magnificent host, Juan. We were getting hot and tired when we arrived at our destination. At the town entrance, a precious woman named Maria stopped her car to tell us about the meaning of the mosaic at the entrance. She spoke in fast Spanish and Elyse was able to capture it in Google translate. Early pilgrim dinner at our albergue then ‘early’ (by Spanish standards) to bed.

Day 3: Leon. We toured Casa Botines, a museum designed by and honoring architect Antoni Gaudí. (Is it just me, or does that portrait of Gaudi look like Jim Halpert from The Office?) There were also pieces by Rodin and Dalí!
Wonderful lunch with our favorite server so far, Ismael. We also were able to track down trekking poles for the four of us who could not bring our poles over due to a baggage handlers strike in Portugal.

Walked around, shopped a little, reorganized our packs. Early dinner. Up early tomorrow. Here we go!

Day 2: Train from Madrid to Leon. We arrived in Leon around noon and walked all over their historic corridor. Did a little shopping and eating. Met up with the sister of a friend who was walking the whole camino with her husband and was coincidentally in Leon the same time we were! Toured the Leon Cathedral, then attended the Pilgrim’s Blessing mass at Basilica de San Isidoro.

A bucket list item. Walking the Camino Frances from Leon to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Upon returning home from my WA road trip, I got really sick. Thankfully no one I visited with up there got it. It knocked me to the ground and I ended up with acute bronchitis. It stripped me of all the strength and stamina I had built up in training, and I had to release any expectations of how I was going to do. My compassionate girlfriends were supportive and understanding if I needed to change my plans. There were some very hard days, but we were all able to accomplish it.

Day 1ish: PDX-SFO-LIS-MAD Here we go! On our way to walk the Camino de Santiago from Leon to Santiago de Compostela! Portland’s remodeled airport is beautiful. Met my friends Tina, Eun, Kelly, and Elyse in SFO. Met our first ‘Camino Angel’, Suzette, who was on our same flight. She had walked the Camino Portugese in 2018 and we had a lovely conversation.

Flying into Lisbon, all you see are red roofs for as far as the eye can see. We were nervous about Lisbon. They were having a baggage handlers strike for 8/31-9/1 and there was absolutely NO checked luggage. Our packs were slightly bigger than the carry on dimensions. Fortunately, it all worked and we were able to carry on our packs.

Joined our Aussie friends, Aarti and Bronwyn at the hotel in Madrid, said goodbye to Kelly as she joined her daughter for a different adventure, and got settled for the night. Late night. Little to no sleep; feeling tired but overall good