Winter 2016 – photo by Reagen M.
Hello all! It is about time that I started a travel blog; I should have started this years ago. I’ll try to update this on a regular basis when I travel. For now, feel free to contact me or ask any questions about any of the photos or destinations. I hope you enjoy the blog!
After Spain, I spent a little time back home in KY and then headed back to Maine for a solo camping trip and to spend time with friends. On my way to Acadia National Park, I visited The Lost Kitchen in Freedom, Maine. We’ve been trying to win The Lost Kitchen dinner reservation lottery for several years but it’s next to impossible to get in. Erin French has turned this into a really nice business. The property has a great retail store and small cafe that attracted many more folks than I anticipated.
Acadia National Park was much more crowded than I expected after Labor Day, so I cut my trip there from three days to two days and spend the remainder of my time in the Portland area–mostly watching football and golfing. I had an OK time at Acadia’s Blackwoods Campground, with the highlight being just relaxing and cooking a couple of gourmet campground meals (see pic above).
Still, the weather was magnificent—mid 70s the entire time I was there. I definitely miss this time of year in Maine and will continue to make Maine my primary destination for most future trips. While I was up there, my friends and I were trying to determine our next foreign or domestic traveling destination–still undecided. However, Stephanie and I already have plans to travel to California later this month–so keep an eye out for a post or two on that trip. Some pics from my recent trip to Maine:
I didn’t want to exclude the rest of our Spain trip which occurred as soon as we were done with the Camino. Unfortunately, my sister Joann and nephew Troy were only able to stay with us two days in Madrid and then headed back to the States. Jim, Ruth, Stephanie and I continued on, via train, to Seville, Granada and Cordoba. Stephanie and I had already been to these towns several years before as part of a wedding trip for one of my friends. We had a great time, but we continued to do as much walking as we did on a typical day on the Camino. Lots of good food, continued drinking and nice weather. Some pics from our Southern Spain adventure.
I was finally able to go through all of the GoPro video that Jim filmed during our recent 34 day Camino Frances walk and stitch together a start to finish video of our walk. I don’t expect anyone to watch the entire 80 minutes, but feel free to watch as much as you like.
We also visited Madrid, Seville, Granada and Cordoba after our Camino, and I hope to find some time to post those pics soon.
This was the last day of our Camino. For me, Ruth and Jim, it was the 35th day of our journey, and over 500 miles of walking. I think our bodies were ready for this day to arrive, but it was still a bit bittersweet to come to the end of our Camino. We left our apartment at 6am to beat the crowd into Santiago. We walked the first hour in darkness. This was the first time we walked in the dark and needed our phone flashlights in places. There weren’t many people out, which was nice. There were more hills than expected, but it turned out to be a nice quiet walk into Santiago. I had some emotional moments along the way, thinking about many things and the scope of what we had done in the last five weeks.
We reached Santiago and had a small celebration. We also encountered several friends we had made along the way, including Robin, a minister from northern England. He is as nice of a person as you could ever meet.
So, how do you celebrate walking 500 miles across Spain? Answer: with one of the best Italian lunches I’ve ever had, including more beer and wine than anyone should have in the middle of the day.
This is certainly one of life’s grand moments. I am very grateful to have both the health and means to do it.
I hope I remember how to drive a car.
Some pics from today:
Day 33 was one exhausting day of walking for all of us. It wasn’t the terrain, it was the distance…a little over 18 miles. On day 33, we left Palas de Rei around 7 am and got to the midway town of Melide around 11 am. There was a highly Google recommended restaurant called Casa Alongos in Melide that didn’t open until 11:30 and since the Camino is all about eating and drinking, we decided to head to a local tourist trap to order drinks to wait it out the 30 minutes. One of the best decisions we made since Casa Alongos made some of the best scratch food we had on the Camino. Almost everything had the Galician stew, which was exceptional. I had the Hamburger which was also great…the 2nd best I’ve had on the walk (the best was in Pamplona).
The rest of the day was a mental and physical challenge to get to the town of Arzua. We finally made it to our apartment, I headed out to rage local church to get a pilgrims cello in my credential, and then we all went out to wash clothes. On the way back, we stopped at a restaurant for dinner, which was slightly above average and then waited an eternity for the check.
Today, we had a relatively short walk to Pedrouzo…20 kilometers. It was a rather boring walk with nothing notable. We checked into our apartment and found out there was no hot water. The company let us use another apartment to shower. We are now at an Italian restaurant eating pasta and pizza.
Only one more day on our Camino…hard to believe.
Some pics from the last two days. Not many pics because not many opportunities.
Best of the World 2012 - National Geographic Traveler Magazine
