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I personally love being described as a “tourist, not a real pilgrim” for booking a hotel room and being told that I should trust “the Camino provides” a bed in an albergue. No understanding that the reason there are beds available is because many of us book private rooms.
One definite advantage to buying direct from CP (Comboios Portugal) or Renfe is they will provide you with notices of schedule changes and cancellations. Very easy to get a refund on cancelled trains and in peak periods it helps to get advance notice if you need to rebook.
While looking for info on discounts for Renfe I came across the following website for minors traveling in Spain. It might help answer some questions.
https://www.interior.gob.es/opencms/es/servicios-al-ciudadano/tramites-y-gestiones/dni/autorizacion-para-viaje-de-menores-al-extranjero/
if you have time, you can always get some Jamon from La Tienda. I remember when they finally managed to get Bellota into the U.S.
https://www.tienda.com/
I’m currently on the Camino Portuguese and had a close encounter with bed bugs while here.I typically wake up extra early, so had a private room and was laying in bed when I noticed that I had an unwelcome visitor crawling towards me. I quickly went to battle and squished him and it was obvious...
In one of the Facebook Camino groups I follow, a peregrina reported that as she was checking into the albergue she was told the price will be increasing to 10€ effective Monday. it’s been at 8€ for a number of years, so not that surprising.
I’ve run across several concerts that were preformed in churches. Most notably, managed to catch a concert in the Cathedral in Santiago, and another in Logroño at their cathedral. Both were found by paying attention to posters near the churches.
There isn’t a total prohibition on importing rice. I once had a long conversation with the customs agents about the rice I was carrying back from Thailand. In the end, I was allowed to keep all my rice.
When I was boarding the plane for my first Camino in 2000 I made a promise to myself that if I had three days in a row where I wanted to quit, that would be perfectly fine and I could go and do something else. That didn’t happen in 2000, but when I was walking in 2019 I took the option to go and...
Back in 2001 it was breakfast, lunch or dinner for tge first 10 pilgrims that showed up at tge entrance to the parking garage. You have to hand tge porter a photocopy of your compostela. They had a small dining room off the kitchen for pilgrims and you had to pick up your food from the kitchen...
With T-Mobile you can avoid the 25¢ a minute charge for phone calls back to your home country if you switch you your phone to airplane mode and then connect to the internet. I’ve done this now for a few years and it works great.
One of my favorites is the sello I received from Felisa who had a stand set up on the Camino where she offered Figs, water and love as I headed into Logrono. After she died, her daughters kept the stand open. Don’t know if they are still there.
Darn, I must have missed the memo on evening clothes. For me it’s one set of clothes on my body and one set being washed, dried and back in my pack.
Still remember my second Camino as I was leaving Leon after a night spent in the convent, deciding to take a day off as I was passing the...
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