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
