Travel 2023 – Page 2 – Lucretia Field

October 10, 2023

Well, it’s been a while! Turns out that not having a set daily routine and the deep desire to be horizontal for an hour or so between walking and dinner time, makes it harder to keep this thing updated everyday.

Anyway, I’ve been back in England for the past week and head to Germany today.

October 3

On My final day in Spain, I said goodbye to Rae and Rhonda in Fisterra and took a bus back to Santiago. I had a bunch of time to kill before my flight to London, so I wandered back towards the Cathedral and watched pilgrims come into the square for a little while. I found myself wondering if I would happen upon Linda who I knew had just recently arrived in Santiago. The magic of the Camino came through when I wandered into a flower lined square and saw her sitting on a bench. We ended up chatting on the bench for a few hours, which was really nice. When I started to get antsy about my flight, we said goodbye and I headed back to the bus station to catch a bus to the airport. Getting through security at the tiny Santiago airport was a breeze and I didn’t even have to take my shoes off. After a short flight, I was back in London, once again confused about which way to look when crossing the street and slightly jarred by the local language being English.

October 3-6

From October 3-6, I stayed with my dad’s cousin, Christina, in London. It was a lovely visit with some much appreciated dog time. Becky and Christina’s flat was a great central location for getting to different places. I saw a few friends, went to Portobello Road Market, walked around a cemetery, sat in St. James park, and went to the National Gallery. It was a nice, relaxed visit to London again.

Fisterra harbor from the bus

October 6-9

Then I headed to Bosham with my dad’s second cousin, Julie. She and her friend had been in London for the day, so I was able to meet them on the train to Chichester and we had a nice ride, chatting and looking at the countryside out the windows. We had a nice time working on a puzzle together and getting to know each other.

On Saturday, we walked around Bosham a little bit to fill the dog bag dispensers and see the town. Then we headed into Chichester to see a Peace Doves exhibit at the Chichester Cathedral and ate sandwiches in the Bishop’s public garden. It was a really nice, relaxed day that we ended with eating beans and baked potatoes while watching Strictly Come Dancing. It was really refreshing to have a day of doing touristy things but in a way that felt relaxed and more homey.

Bosham Church

October 11, 2023

October 2, 2023

Last full day in Spain. After I leave tomorrow, I will have been in Spain for almost exactly one month, which is kind of wild! We walked to Fisterra today. The damp laundry hanging off the back of our packs may have actually gotten more damp during our walk through the fog. But it was a short walk today, which is good because it left us with energy to walk out to the ‘end of the earth’ at the tip of the peninsula.

We had a picnic of our traditional trail meal (cheese, turkey, bread, and fruit) on my rain poncho ‘blanket’ sitting on a grassy hillside at the ‘end of the earth’ to watch the sunset.

It was a really lovely final full day in Spain!

Today’s statistics:

Kilometers walked: 13 (+6 to/from the point)
- Started in: Lires
- Ended in: Fisterra
Elevation change:
- Meters up: 225
- Meters down: 225
Blisters: 0! Just calluses now
Different pairs of shoes worn: 1
Granola bars consumed: 1
4-leaf clovers spotted on the side of the road: 2 or 3, I can’t remember
Favorite moment:
- Our dinner picnic at sunset. It was really lovely!

October 2, 2023

October 1, 2023

Back to walking! But only two days of short walks each day. The humidity this morning as we climbed up almost all of our daily vertical gain all at once was a bit killer. Not having carried it for 4 days made my pack feel way heavier. But once we got up the hill and the breeze picked up, it was a lovely day of walking.

After arriving, eating, and taking a quick nap, we walked to the beach and I swam in a protected cove again. The water was cold, but I adjusted quickly and had fun just floating around in the Atlantic.

Today’s statistics:

Kilometers walked: 15
- Started in: Muxía
- Ended in: Lires
Elevation change:
- Meters up: 240
- Meters down: 275
Blisters: 0! Just calluses now
Different pairs of shoes worn: 1
Granola bars consumed: 1
Favorite moment:
- Dinner outside listening to Galician bagpipers. It was really fun music, not too loud, and fun to watch in addition to listening. Plus the food was yummy!

October 1, 2023

September 30, 2023

We took the bus to Muxía yesterday morning after saying goodbye to Heather and Ines at the hostel. It was kind of nice to travel 3 days worth of walking in about 1.5 hours.

Stepping off the bus, it was immediately clear we are in a beach town because of the ocean smell and the seagulls swooping everywhere.

We grabbed lunch in Muxía while we waited for our apartment to be made available. Then wandered through a grocery store in our typical daze of being overwhelmed by grocery shopping. We got food to make a simple stir fry. I have missed cooking and so I enjoyed the novelty of a different meal as well as the act of cooking. We also found our selves enjoying the fact that we had a TV and after switching the settings to the original English audio, we enjoyed a few BBC murder shows.

After dinner we walked out to the point, to watch the sunset over the Atlantic Ocean. It was lovely and then we got to watch the full moon rise on the other side of the hill. It felt serene to be surrounded by the dying sun and the rising moon on either side. I felt a lot more connected and fulfilled than I had in the Cathedral in Santiago and am really glad to have added this to my trip. I also really liked that between the moon and the last remnants of sunlight was the town of Muxía spread out below us with the yellow streetlights mirroring the celestial lights. It was a fantastic feeling to see the contrast of the human built world – some pieces of which are so old and formidable that they have a significant gravitas of their own – with the power of nature – the ocean crashing on three sides of us, the moon glowing the majestic brilliance, and the last flecks of sunlight turning everything orange. It was really magical.

This morning we slept in, and it was glorious! I was mostly able to ignore the chorus of dogs barking, people shouting, and cars driving by and slept well on the pull-out couch in our apartment living room.

We had a yummy breakfast of scrambled eggs with spinach, mushroom, onion, and cheese. The novelty of a different type of breakfast was really nice. No coffee for any of us, though. Ines and Heather would not approve.

The fireworks started at around noon, and after heading to the local library to get wifi, we realized it’s a festival day, which explained the loud booming. These sorts of festivals seem to happen a lot here in Spain. This is at least the second one we have experienced. It was fun to see the Galician bagpipers and drummers who paraded past the library in costume. While fireworks during daylight don’t make sense to me and the booming is startling when you don’t expect it, it’s still cool to get to see pieces of the local regions festivals.

After lunch, I went swimming in the Atlantic! There was a small protected cove that was really lovely to bob around in. There were gentle waves and a sandbar through the middle. It was a great people watching spot and was also nice to just float in the water and enjoy the gentle waves.

We tried to go see the sunset again after another dinner in, but the fog rolled in sometime between when we came back from the beach and when we went out again. Being utterly surrounded by fog where there had been gorgeous views the night before was fun in its own way.

Now, I’m listening to the festivities still going on at 11pm and wondering if it is worth getting up to go check them out. Rallying the energy to do that though is difficult.

Cheers for now!

September 30, 2023

September 28, 2023

Well, it’s official, according to my Certificate of Distance, I arrived in Santiago de Compostela on September 28 after walking 312km from León, Spain where I started on September 12th! My Compostela (photo above) has the ‘Latin version’ of my name.

I got my final stamp in my Pilgrim Passport/Credential. I was able to fill every space of it, if you count the 5-leaf clover I found as a stamp, and I think considering that the previous stamp ran into that space anyway, I absolutely do!

After getting our certificates, we went to the Pilgrim Mass at the Cathedral. Photos were not allowed during mass itself and those I took before mass started don’t do justice to the size of the Cathedral at all. We were lucky and a group from Florida paid for the incense burning during the ceremony. It took 8 men to haul the thing up into the air to keep it swinging. I was almost too fascinated to think about the physics of the massive pendulum, but not quite. Overall, it was an interesting ceremony that I was able to somewhat follow despite it being almost entirely in Spanish (except for the rules about no photos and the instructions about communion).

After mass, we got lunch and went to the Museum of Pilgrimage. The museum had information about all sorts of things from brief descriptions about pilgrimages for various beliefs and religions, lots of information about Saint James (Santiago), and also information about the Cathedral itself. In some ways I found walking around a museum more exhausting than walking 20+kilometers per day.

We ate our traditional “homemade”, in-hostel Camino meal of salad, microwaved roast chicken, and soup with a shared bottle of red wine. It was a lovely end to the adventure and a great final day with the whole crew!

I procrastinated long enough on buying plane tickets for the next stage of my journey that I will be joining Rhonda and Rae on their bus trip to Muxía, Spain tomorrow. We will then walk 2 days to Fisterra, spend one night and then I will head back to Santiago by bus to catch a flight. So, I guess there is more walking in my future, but it’s much shorter distances with smaller hills, so I expect my feet will hold up!

September 28, 2023

September 27, 2023

We did it! We arrived in Santiago de Compostela today! After 15 days with 14 days of walking approximately 300km, I’ve arrived. My feet mostly held up, I didn’t have to jettison things from my pack like a madwoman, and ultimately I was glad I had all three pairs of shoes as they served different purposes.

Today’s statistics:

Kilometers walked: 20
- Started in: A Rua
- Ended in: Santiago de Compostela
Elevation change:
- Meters up: 315
- Meters down: 300
Blisters: 2
Different pairs of shoes worn: 1
Granola bars consumed: 1
Favorite moment:
- Arriving!!! We did the thing! We made it to Santiago! We walked to the Cathedral to see it and take photos and then we got ice cream to celebrate!

September 27, 2023

September 26, 2023

Today’s statistics:

Kilometers walked: 20
- Started in: Ribadiso
- Ended in: A Rua
Elevation change:
- Meters up: 275
- Meters down: 190
Blisters: 2 (new one between my toes is very unpleasant!)
Different pairs of shoes worn: 1
Granola bars consumed: 1
Favorite moment:
- The fact that despite yesterday’s foot pain, I was able to actually do today’s walk! It was and easy day and I sent my pack to allow my feet to have a bit of a break

September 26, 2023

September 25, 2023

Today’s statistics:

Kilometers walked: 26
- Started in: Palas de Rei
- Ended in: Ribadiso
Elevation change:
- Meters up: 540
- Meters down: 320
Blisters: 1
Different pairs of shoes worn: 2
Granola bars consumed: 0
Favorite moment: contenders
- Successfully rescuing my water bottle cap from the grate under the water fountain with chopsticks
- Foot fountain at the albergue for communal soaking of tired feet

September 26, 2023

September 24, 2023

Today’s statistics:

Kilometers walked: 25
- Started in: Portomarin
- Ended in: Palas de Rei
Elevation change:
- Meters up: 300
- Meters down: 460
Blisters: 1 (the 3 old ones are calluses now!)
Different pairs of shoes worn: 1
Granola bars consumed: 2
Favorite moment:
- Stopping for ice cream right when my feet were really starting to hurt, somewhere between 3 and 5km from our destination. After ice cream, my feet felt much better!

September 25, 2023

September 23, 2023

Today we passed the 100km till Santiago marker! This portion of the Camino is the most popular part and the throngs of people suddenly appearing on the road made that clear. People starting the Camino in Sarria can still get their certificate for completion when they get to Santiago, if they get 2 stamps in their pilgrim passport each day. So, the paths were absolutely packed with people who look fresh and ready for an adventure. I’ve already gone twice as far as these people will go, so I’m trying not to feel too superior. It’s also humbling to know so many other people have gone twice as far as I have.

Today’s statistics:

Kilometers walked: 22
- Started in: Sarria
- Ended in: Portomarin
Elevation change:
- Meters up: 475
- Meters down: 450
Blisters: 4 (but 3 are mostly healed!)
Different pairs of shoes worn: 1
Figs foraged: 0 (no trees had any figs on them, I wonder if the climate is different enough on the side of the mountains that they’re out of season)
Pairs of pot people seen: 0
Sightings of the Frenchman with the blue van walking the wrong direction: 0 (I think maybe we have lost him after our day off)
Houses for sale that might actually be currently habitable: 1 (if you count the albergue for sale)
Granola bars consumed: 1
Favorite moment:
- When I got sour gummy things from a vending machine and part way through the bag, we realized they were shaped like toes and feet! The ensuing jokes about replacing our blistered toes and feet were very funny

September 23, 2023

Category: Travel 2023