Donna Sch
Veteran Member
- Jan 26, 2014
- 829
- 1,447
- Time of past OR future Camino
- VdLP-Sanabres-Fisterra '15; Levante-Invierno '19
Quick intro about us so you get a feel for who we are. I'm Donna and I'm a Kiwi who has been living in the NT of Australia for most of my adult life. And over 20 years in Darwin where the temp is usually 30-35 deg C maximum and the humidity varies between 20-100% depending on the time of year. I did grow up in Dunedin, NZ but it has been a long time since I had to rug up against the cold.
I walked the VDLP in Jun/Jul 2015 and loved it. So I wanted to do something special for my 50th birthday in March. Kilimanjaro is on the bucket list. Problem is that Darwin is very flat so I thought a short camino could help with the training and I was eyeing up the Invierno. While it is cheap and easy to fly from Australia to Tanzania to Europe it is unaffordable in the other direction. So I started thinking Spain again. In the albergue in Zamora there is a map with camino routes and the Levante and Sureste looked interesting. I did want to do the Astorga leg of the VDLP too. And so the idea of a coast to coast Camino Mixto was born a couple of years ago. Then I meet Barrie. It gets kind of serious quite quickly. He proposes. We talk about building a new house. And then I know that he needs to experience a camino if we are to be on the same page. So I invite him along and he doesn't run away in the opposite direction. There is a slight catch. I was hoping to be on the camino on my birthday. He has to be in NZ over Easter to photograph some planes. So looking at dates that would allow enough time meant we left Australia on Feb 1st. Winter. Guess that will be the challenge.
We arrived in Barcelona on the 3rd and were there for 2 days to acclimatise a little and work out if we had gotten our gear right while we could still access a sports shop.
And play total tourist. Barrie was born in the UK but grew up in Australia. He has never been to Spain. He does a very good Manuel of Fawlty Towers impression. So I am it re our Spanish. The weather is cold but clear. We have a good selection of clothes. His asthma so far has remained under control which is one of my fears for this trip.
We got our Gaudi fix, and I signed us up for a Tapas, Taverns and History tour with Devour tours who I recommend to all the foodies out there. We stayed at the K+K Picasso Hotel which is a brilliant location. Compared to 2015 the things that strike me about the city is that the homeless are visible, there are many more Catalonian flags and yellow ribbons, more vacant places to rent and they are losing the battle against tagging and graffiti.
Anyway we took the train from the Frances station and it does a loop to Barcelona Sants and is direct to Sevilla with Valencia on the way. We left at 9am and got in by 1 pm to the Valencia Nord station. We are staying at the Pension Alicante.
Useful things so far:
My Paramo hiking pants.
My compression thermal leggings. The down vest.
Apps: Wikiloc, OsmAnd.
SettleUp for tracking expenses between the two of us.
SpanishDict and Google Translate. El Tiempo for weather.
I love instagram as it gives me a place to put the photos I am always snapping so if anyone wants to check that, look up "missywombat".
Today is the day for playing tourist, getting our first sellos and working out where we start walking tomorrow.
I walked the VDLP in Jun/Jul 2015 and loved it. So I wanted to do something special for my 50th birthday in March. Kilimanjaro is on the bucket list. Problem is that Darwin is very flat so I thought a short camino could help with the training and I was eyeing up the Invierno. While it is cheap and easy to fly from Australia to Tanzania to Europe it is unaffordable in the other direction. So I started thinking Spain again. In the albergue in Zamora there is a map with camino routes and the Levante and Sureste looked interesting. I did want to do the Astorga leg of the VDLP too. And so the idea of a coast to coast Camino Mixto was born a couple of years ago. Then I meet Barrie. It gets kind of serious quite quickly. He proposes. We talk about building a new house. And then I know that he needs to experience a camino if we are to be on the same page. So I invite him along and he doesn't run away in the opposite direction. There is a slight catch. I was hoping to be on the camino on my birthday. He has to be in NZ over Easter to photograph some planes. So looking at dates that would allow enough time meant we left Australia on Feb 1st. Winter. Guess that will be the challenge.
We arrived in Barcelona on the 3rd and were there for 2 days to acclimatise a little and work out if we had gotten our gear right while we could still access a sports shop.
And play total tourist. Barrie was born in the UK but grew up in Australia. He has never been to Spain. He does a very good Manuel of Fawlty Towers impression. So I am it re our Spanish. The weather is cold but clear. We have a good selection of clothes. His asthma so far has remained under control which is one of my fears for this trip.
We got our Gaudi fix, and I signed us up for a Tapas, Taverns and History tour with Devour tours who I recommend to all the foodies out there. We stayed at the K+K Picasso Hotel which is a brilliant location. Compared to 2015 the things that strike me about the city is that the homeless are visible, there are many more Catalonian flags and yellow ribbons, more vacant places to rent and they are losing the battle against tagging and graffiti.
Anyway we took the train from the Frances station and it does a loop to Barcelona Sants and is direct to Sevilla with Valencia on the way. We left at 9am and got in by 1 pm to the Valencia Nord station. We are staying at the Pension Alicante.
Useful things so far:
My Paramo hiking pants.
My compression thermal leggings. The down vest.
Apps: Wikiloc, OsmAnd.
SettleUp for tracking expenses between the two of us.
SpanishDict and Google Translate. El Tiempo for weather.
I love instagram as it gives me a place to put the photos I am always snapping so if anyone wants to check that, look up "missywombat".
Today is the day for playing tourist, getting our first sellos and working out where we start walking tomorrow.