Can anyone give me the background on the "Liberty Bell" monument that overlooks the Rio Mino at Portomarin? I don't remember ever seeing it before my May 2022 Camino.... It struck me as odd and very much out of place... I can't guess when it was erected or why.... And why are the words on the...
An ALSA bus from Madrid Barajas delivered me to Pamplona (my favorite place on earth!) late on the afternoon of Saturday, October 14, 2023, to begin yet another Camino Adventure.... After checking into my hostal I strolled about a bit and in the Plaza del Castillo I discovered a noisy and...
Just completed my short October 2023 Camino Frances experience. Spectacular experience, as usual, but unlike any of my previous walks.... Because a twice-broken back since my Spring 2022 walk meant that I traveled mostly by bus. My cross-country days are behind me.
Now, bus travel in Spain is...
I have a day open at the end of my late October Camino, and am thinking of taking an out-and-back day trip to Padron. (Never been to Padron.) Looks like there are frequent train and bus connections. Any suggestions, recommendations?
If you were going to have a tiny vial of your post-cremation ashes deposited/placed/"sprinkled" somewhere on the Camino Frances, what spot would you choose?
A dear friend of mine and a many-times Camino veteran, now in his twilight, has asked me to assist him in this matter. I've prayed about...
A fairly obscure request, but important for my planning purposes, now that my ability to walk is compromised....There's an small bus company -- Gonzalez & De La Riva -- that provides bus transportation from Ponferrada/Cacabelos/Villafranca del Bierzo three days a week to Las Herrerias.... Where...
Just outside Astorga, on the left side of the Frances route to El Ganso and Rabanal and very near the Ecce Homo ermita, a Memorial Garden was established c2015 in the wake of the murder of Denise Thiem. A maple tree was planted there in her memory, I believe.....
What is the current...
Where is it, exactly? I once bussed thru from Piedrafita to SdeC and the bus stopped for O Cebreiro, but not where I had expected it to stop! It stopped just before reaching the village, not where any normal peregrino would think to wait for it. And I can't recall seeing any signage.
I stayed at this very satisfactory Sahagun hostal several times in the past, but am informed that it closed about a year ago. (COVID casualty?) .... Any hint that it might reopen, under new management? .... If not, I would appreciate suggestions on modest private-room Sahagun accommodations...
In September 2012 I arrived at Pamplona to discover a really spectacular public to-do going on. The Festival de los Tres Burgos', celebrating the union of three walled and competing neighborhoods into the city of Pamplona as we know it. Processions, gigantes, medieval markets, and all that...
Because age and infirmity are finally about to limit my ability to walk cross country, I'm thinking of significantly upgrading the places I stay next year, and just --- quite decadently --- indulging myself!
I've walked many of the various principal Camino routes (since 1977), but I've never...
I went off to walk the Camino Ingles this year with a brooding sense that something bad was about to happen to me. Well, nothing did! I flew home on June 8 ---- and one week later I fell and broke multiple vertebrae in my back. Excruciating, debilitating pain. I lived on hydrocodone for weeks...
At the entrance to El Burgo Ranero there is a lovely monumental cross, It bears this inscription: "A la memoria de los ninos."
Anybody know the story behind that inscription?
My May 2022 Frances was difficult. (Don't get old!) I attach a photograph taken at the place where my physical difficulties began. It was a bar/albergue where I paused for a good cold Kas Limon. It was west of the Casa Morgade, and before Portomarin. It was on the left-hand side of the trail...
My Anglican Catholic calendar notes that today, July 21st, is the feast of Saint Lawrence of Brindisi. He was a Counter-Reformation Roman Catholic priest of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin and a noted theologian -- indeed, he was named a "Doctor of the Church" by Pope John XXIII in 1959.. He...
On my 2021 Camino Frances I saw something I had not seen on my several previous passages through Astorga.
Leaving the Plaza Cathedral one fine September morning, headed for the Puerto Obispo, I saw a fairly large monumental slab attached to a home on my right. Upon examination I found it to be...
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