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I was advised by my bank to put my Canadian sim back into my phone, use wifi for the banking app, the text message would come to me with the code, complete my banking and then put the Spanish sim back into the phone.
Receiving the text was cost free, but don’t answer any calls or send...
I’d use Señor or Señora. They are working and likely would appreciate the respect.
Perhaps that’s the reason the waitress at a certain restaurant served me before a pile of pilgrims who had gotten there before me….
If you decide against starting in Barcelona, and think getting to SJPDP is too complicated, consider starting at Somport and following the Camino Aragones. It has infrastructure, gorgeous scenery and is only a train to Jaca and a bus up to Somport.
You may want to confirm that your talk and data plan includes or excludes sms. My Orange plan in Spain did not include text messages and I struggled with Whatsapp for a while and accidentally sent text messages. Prep your loved ones at home to use Whatapp and you can phone them using your data.
I had a post nasal drip thing going on that caused me to cough (only at night) and apparently snore during one part of one of my caminos. I ‘cured’ it by adding to my pillow so that I was more elevated. But before I discovered that solution and before knowing I was snoring, I experienced the...
My 2013 Compostella does not have Santiago Matamoros on it. The stamp appears to be Santiago’s casket.
This is the first time I’ve looked at the 2013 Compostella in a decade; it is a lighter-weight paper than my later editions and has the same monochromatic reddish/sepia-ish coloured ink as...
The road option is only 400 metres longer than the steep downhill option. The road option may take you past horses, but definitely takes you along beautiful views and past the Ibañeta Chapel, and ends with a stroll through the woods to bring you to the door of the albergue.
I recall in 2013 (and in subsequent years) that the locals wanted the municipal to be operational, and were quite angry with the closure of the muni, but in 2013 the big hotel had opened a new albergue and were charging the same £ amount as the muni, so pilgrims were heading to the new one. I...
On my first Frances in 2013, I was forever having to listen to a woman strumming her ukulele - I’d try to get away from her but kept failing. On the same camino, I endured a group that would sing loudly, the same group of songs to which they did not know the words - again I struggled to escape...
On a nice clear day I encountered a small group of folks from Japan who were standing at a marker sign at a spot where the trail crosses another trail (which looked well traveled). They had no English or Spanish and no idea which trail to follow - no yellow arrows and the signs had Basque names...
If you aren’t positive about the path, sit down and get comfortable. Waiting it out is safer than falling off a steep drop.
Having a good map on your smartphone with the camino tracks would be wise to have in foggy conditions.
The little bus back to Le Puy sounds like a winning solution.
Just fyi, there is a train station in Decazeville, which is on the route, a day’s walk past Conques.
And all those places are on caminos, so if one wants to stretch their legs, shake off the flight dregs, and get in some practise finding and following yellow arrows, one need only head to the cathedral or the oldest church and start walking. 😎
This will be a sad event, since every loves getting stamps.
Actually it will be sad, because those stamps are useful for calculating how many days were spent inside the Schenzen zone. Is there a law against making our own notation on those soon-to-be-empty pages of our entry @ exits? … off...
It was still a thrill the first time I heard them say, ‘una Peregrina Canadiense de Le Puy’. You have to listen hard as it’s buried among the list nationalities and starting places. I’ve never been able to distinguish myself in the lists on subsequent caminos.
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