Camino 2023 Spain Video

Just completed my video of the 2023 Camino through Spain's Cataluna - Aragon - Galicia regions.

Enjoy!!  

Camino 2023 Spain Video

Memoir: Zaragoza

Saturday, June 10th, 2023

Just about 14 days ago, Deb and I started our hiking trek across north-eastern Spain, starting in Barcelona with about six days in the Los Monegros desert, before reaching Zaragoza, Spain.

Our entry to this fabulous, and largely not-world-reknown city, is by private car at a hefty fee from our last stop point. However, the scenery along the ride is magnificent. We leave behind desert and sandhills and shrub brush, and we are coming into a cosmopolitan, metropolitan, very urbane city. The differences between today and yesterday could not be starker.

Walking from the taxi drop-off to our apartment we pass the impressive Basilica de Nuestra Señora de Pilar.

Our very first impressions go immediately to how lively and energetic the streets of Zaragoza are. After days in villages of hundreds or towns of a few thousand people, the activity is energizing, frantically energizing, intoxicatingly energizing. I have two conflicting feelings. Because of the isolation of the desert, I want to walk everywhere and see and touch and smell and taste and hear it all. And because of the isolation of the desert, there is too much coming at my eyes and ears and nose, and things are too close to the touch.

The fashion sense of the Zaragozans is casually stylish. It’s not that they are dressed to the hilt, not dressed like high society, but their clothes look good on them. Sad to say, Deb and I in our baggy hiking pants and loose fitting shirts don't match up with the local fashion sense and style. But we have an excuse. Not like the American tourists whom we can pick out of the crowd without too much effort.

The urban contrasts are vivid, like black and white. But they are also subtle like blue sky and blue water. Deb and I step from obscure narrow European streets which are hemmed in by buildings with gateways and doors every tens of feet, onto wide pedestrian boulevards with open spaces and trees and sun and shops of all sorts. The buildings themselves are a mix of architecture: some buildings are relatively modern, mixed in are many which go back a few hundred years, and some are many hundreds of years old.

Despite or because of everything coming at us, I can see that we should have planned on spending three here, rather than two. But the schedule is the schedule.

It is Sunday 8:00 a.m.  I’m in the queue at La Fama Cchurerría for breakfast. The line moves fast and the orders come quickly. Churros con chocolate and Cafe Con leche with sugar. In no sense of nutrition is that a healthy meal, but it tastes so good. I foresee a massive sugar crash ahead in about 3 hours.

Every major city has a spot where the free tours gather. I like these because the guides work for tips, and are motivated to show you stuff.

So here Deb and I stand, next to the monument to Caesar Augustus in the Plaza de Pilar. We spend the next two and one-half hours wandering all round the Roman part of the city.

We visit the Zaragoza Public Market and an 1800-year old Roman wall, built to defend against the Visigoths.

At St Elizabeth of Portugal Church we hear of the miracle by her that turned roses into bread for the poor.

We walk the streets of Zaragoza to the Igleisa of San Gil Abad where Franisco Goya, the famous 18th century painter, was baptized. We learn Goya was born in a nearby town, and had many connections to Zaragoza.

We end at the Basilica of Nuestra Senora de Pilar. It was built in the 1680’s. During the Spanish Civil War, three bombs were dropped on the cathedral. None exploded. Deb and I see the two bombs that remain on display in the cathedral.

After the tour, we get lunch which consists of mussels, croquettes and a local pastry called “Trenza de Virgen” or “Virgin’s Braids”. It is a fabulous concoction of almonds, nuts and sweetness. 

It’s now Monday.

I get up while Deb sleeps in. It’s one more trip to the churraría for my sugar-packed breakfast. I get back and we pack bags. Deb and I walk for about 10 minutes down to where we meet the taxi.

At the train station we have a bite for breakfast, then clear the security checkpoint

In the line on the platform, the attendant says our tickets are for tomorrow!

I ask Deb, "What date is today?" She says the 11th and the attendant says the ticket is for the 12th. It doesn’t take long to figure out what happened. 

European calendars begin the week on Monday. American calendars begin the week on Sunday. When I used the web-site generated select-the-date calendar and booked the tickets, the very first entry on the left side must have been a Monday, which I assumed was a Sunday, which threw the date that I was thinking of off by 1. I have run into this before, and even cautioned Deb once during this Camino, but clearly I got burned again. 

Deb though saves the day. Looking the situation over, she does what she does best: She comes up with a plan. Knowing that the weather in Galicia tomorrow would be terrible, she suggests we stay in Zaragoza another day. That’s the plan.

On the positive side, we practiced everything from leaving our room to getting a taxi to standing in multiple lines at the train station to clearing security to making it to the train, just not on it..

After some quick phone calls to rearrange our lodging for the next three or four nights, things begin to look up. We lose one non-cancelable reservation, but everything else falls into line.

Our hostess at the apartment quickly agrees to allow us to stay one more night ... back to the apartment. 

After a little bit of a chill out, we do a walking tour of the Francisco Goya museum for a quiet afternoon tour of paintings and then walk around town a little bit more. 

With an incoming thunderstorm, it’s back to the apartment to chill out. Deb and I hunker down in the apartment. When we  finally go out, it is still raining but not too hard. 

We walk around without any real purpose and find a place for some tapas and pastries. For me, it was a nice evening walk.

It’s now day three in Zaragoza. Having had our unplanned practice run-through yesterday, we without problem make it to the taxi stand, the train station, through security and on to the platform where we board our train for Madrid … this time, successfully.

Memoir: Final Day ... Frixe to Muxia

The Final Day ... The Final Steps ... The Camino's End

Thursday, June 20th, 2023

28 days ago, Deb and I arrived in Barcelona by high-speed train from Madrid.

So far we have climbed mountains, crossed deserts, visited magnificent cathedrals in Barcelona, Zaragoza and Santiago de Campostela, and rested and replenished over meals of local soups, paella, seafood and other area specialties.

The ocean port of Muxia is both our destination for today and our final destination for our 2023 Camino hiking. Muxia lies only 8 miles away. 

We are in the absolutely tiny hamlet of Frixe, which literally measures at 800 feet by 400 feet. Deb and I are sitting in the dining area of the Casa Rural Ceferinos, which is similar to a Bed & Breakfast. We got up at 8:00 am for breakfast. but looking out the floor-to-ceiling windows of the dining area, watching the heavy rains splash off the road, we realize how absolutely, completely, stunningly little desire we have to hike  in the rain.

We have two choices: get soaked or wait it out. The weather forecast says that it will pour until about 11:30 am which means a close call on the noon check-out, but also three hours late in starting. 

And it is so boring waiting. I spend part of the time thinking about how I face challenges. When I start the day in good fashion, and it turns bad, I tend to press on because I'm already committed to the day.

But it's a different feeling when I'm sitting over breakfast, mulling over some unpleasantries - like heavy downpours of rain - and thinking to myself, “Do I even feel like getting out of bed?”

Noon comes around and the rains break. Deb and I suit up in our rain gear to handle the last of the drops. After 28 days and 270 miles, off we go on our final 42,000 feet, our final 210 minutes - give or take - of hiking.

Our final day takes us on dirt trails through eucalyptus forests, up and down sets of hills, on farm roads past fields of grain, and backroads past livestock.

Later in the afternoon, we come to the sandy beaches of the Atlantic Ocean and the Costa da Morte, in English - the Coast of Death, given this name because of the large number of shipwrecks along its rocky shore.

Galicia is a totally unique region of Spain. With its strong Celtic roots, you would not be wrong to think, except for the language, that you are in Ireland. The Galician “gaita,” a distinctive instrument quite similar to the bagpipes from Ireland, is often heard during local music festivals.

I know enough about Galicia and Muxia to know that it only converted to Christianity in the 12th century, so this countryside was a sacred Celtic place long before and long after St James preached here.

As the legend goes, the Virgin Mary herself met St. James here in Muxia and encouraged him in his preaching throughout Galicia. 

It is also believed the body of St James, after his beheading by the Romans, was carried in a boat back to Muxía. Said boat sunk along the Costa da Morte, and by a miracle, the body was only later discovered and taken to Santiago.

Muxia is both a working fisherman town and a tourist destination. Deb and I have supper in the seaside strip of restaurants. We look out over the harbor where the boats lie moored to either the piers or floating buoys … unless they are on the ocean, catching the daily catch.

The town of Muxia is not the end of Deb’s and my camino. We must walk just under another mile, out onto the point of the peninsula.

Finally at the end of the peninsula, we can go no further. The church, jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean, is dedicated to "Nosa Senora da Barca", “Our Lady of Ships”.

This place was originally a pre-Christian Celtic shrine and sacred spot. Christians built a hermitage on this location, and later the present church in the 17th century.

In the evening I stop in the church to visit the pilgrim support center to get my pilgrim credential stamped, the final one of this hike. I spend some time looking at what the support center has. How you view these items depends on your reason for walking here. They are religious artifacts for the true believers, or memories for those on a spiritual journey, or souvenirs for the tourists. I select a few items as memories.

The final steps are to walk out on the point. Hopping from person-sized rock to rock, I imagined myself with those sailors on those ships of wood, sinking in the shoals because we navigated carelessly. In my imagination run wild, I am with those forlorn sailors in their final prayers, regretting sailing the Coast of Death.

Ultimately, I feel no right to compare myself with them, having been a sailor on ships of steel.

I was sure that I recognized the flat rocky ledge where the movie “The Way” starring Martin Sheen, was filmed. The story centers on a man who loses his son in an accident on the Camino de Santiago, and so Martin Sheen walks the 500 miles to honor his son. It’s easy to remember the first time I saw that movie.

By the time the final reel slipped out of the projector, I knew that I would walk that camino someday. And here I stand on the Costa da Morte, by the Church of Our Lady of Ships. 

The sun sets over the Atlantic. Deb and I get up to return to our room. Another camino done … finished … complete.

Tomorrow we take the train to Madrid, the plane to America and finally home.

Memoir: Camino 2023 Spain

A Camino of Cities, Mountains and Deserts

Contrasts are found on each of the Spain’s hiking camino trails. Contrasts stimulate thought and reflection. In May of 2023, Deb and I started in Barcelona on the Caminos Barcelona - Catalan, wondering what we would experience over the next month.

After two days in Barcelona, visiting cathedrals, museums, resting and avoiding rain, Deb and I left this cosmopolitan city behind by following the Río Llobregat inland.

Montserrat

On day 3 of through-hiking, on the advice of a local, we avoided trudging up the road to Montserrat, and instead climbed just under 2000 feet up the backside of the mountain to reach the Abbey. Rather than guard rails, we had gorgeous views over the mountain cliffs. The reward was the Mediterranean far on the horizon.

Several days later, at the pilgrim rest house, Albergue Sant Jaume in Jorba, one of the few on the Camino Catalan - the parish priest and hospitalero, was surprised at our next goal of Zaragoza. 

We had to  cross the Los Monegros desert, which he described as the most sparsely populated area of Spain,  with daily hikes of about 15 miles with very few services, towns and/or people.

Deb and I “huddled” immediately, preparing for the next five days thru-hiking the desert. Two of the stages exceeded 22 miles / day with “nothing” in between. 

Truck stops would be where we sleep, and gas station mini-marts would replace supermarkets. 

Under constant sun, we prayed for lots of cloud cover. The low 80’s required lots of hydration. The shopping list made our backpacks a lot heavier: salami & cheese, protein bars, peaches, bananas, fiber wafers, flan, chocolate and six bottles of Aquarius mixed with water.

While other trails in Spain have support structures for pilgrims, Deb and I had only each other mile after mile. When gas stations on the national highway are your support system, it changes the hiking experience. 

Yet in many places the desert was achingly beautiful. We found life everywhere: plants and shrubs, lizards and rabbits - all scratching out an existence in the arid land. Between the highways and heavily irrigated farms, it was a different world. 

 Reaching Zaragoza we had a well-deserved rest. 

Atlantic Ocean

Then we headed for Galicia’s lushness. Walking the path to Finisterre and Muxia through the forests and along the Atlantic Ocean was breath-taking. 

In three weeks we walked through cities, desert, forests and along the Atlantic Ocean. With such contrasts to excite the senses, such time for thinking, and such time for leaving the world behind, Deb and I were tired but happy, and looking forward to our next hike next year.

Memoir: One of our days in Los Monegros

Thirteen days ago, Deb and I arrived in Madrid to through-hike the Caminos Catalán and Aragon, just under 200 miles. Between cosmopolitan Barcelona and historical Zaragoza lay the Los Monegros desert - Spain’s least populated part of the country.

Today we start out from Lleide, which dates back to the Bronze age. Our stage is an impossible 22 miles, ending in Fraga. Yesterday’s problems don’t matter much at this point, and by noon, the overhead sun eliminates any shade.

The Los Monegros receives very little rainfall, suffers frequent droughts and bakes under high temperatures, but the amount of greenery is astonishing, due to the extensive irrigation. Still the land is brown, sun-baked and where barren, the rocks stick out. We can not imagine how this land was farmed thousands of years ago.

The Los Monegros is achingly beautiful. Between the highway and the heavily irrigated farms, it is sandhill after sandhill along the trail - truly, a different world.

The summer desert’s beauty is indescribable. Walking here is a mystical experience. We find life everywhere: lizards scurrying along the arroyos, and rabbits darting in and out from among the plants and shrubs - all scratching out an existence in the arid land. After nine miles and four hours, we find a bar in Alcarás, sling off the backpacks and order lunch: Tortilla con patatas, empanadas con pollo, café, carbonated water and orange juice.

We break after a further four miles. It’s around 2:30 in the afternoon. So far we’ve covered 13 miles, but it’s still ten miles to Fraga. Our only option is the truckstop at the Poligono Industrial along the traffic-heavy National II (two) route. It is the last option before Fraga, and it would be stupid to press on in the desert.

After checking-in, showering and eating, we put a good face on. Deb and I take a date-night to the gas station mini-mart, where we spend time shopping together for supplies. Sometimes necessity is more romantic than flowers.

During the evening, we sit on the patio enjoying the sunset and breeze. We ignore the highway a few hundred feet away. The feral cats are accustomed to the pickings in the trash cans. They jump from the ground to the lip of the can, balance themselves and then somehow scrounge through the contents for whatever. One of them has a gorgeous white-coat with the cutest face. But he won’t come close to us.

It’s dark now and time for bed. Tomorrow will be another day for thought and reflection as we get up early to beat the sun and heat of the Los Monegros on the walk to Fraga.

Back Home and Wrap Up

Back Home Again

Date	Jun 29th ( Wednesday )
Total This Camino:	277 miles
Total 2023 Caminos:	277 miles
Total All Caminos:	2000 miles
Total Lodging:	$ 1280
Planes:	$ 1350
Total Planes:	$ 1350
Total Buses / Trains / Taxis:	$572
Total Food:	$ 680

Reflection: A Camino of Cities, Mountains and Deserts

Contrasts are found on each of the caminos. Contrasts stimulate thought and reflection. In May of 2023, my partner, Deb, and I started in Barcelona on the Caminos Barcelona - Catalan. We wondered what contrasts we would experience over the next month.

After two days in Barcelona, resting and avoiding rain, we left this cosmopolitan city behind by following the Río Llobregat inland.

On day 6 of the trip (3rd day of hiking), we followed the advice of a local. Instead of trudging up the road, we climbed just under 2000 feet up the backside of Montserrat. The gorgeous views in a serene environment sans traffic were the reward for hiking on mountain trails, over big rocks, and along steep cliffs.

At the Albergue Sant Jaume in Jorba, one of the few on the Camino Catalan - the parish priest and hospitalero, was astonished at our goal of Zaragoza. 

He described the Los Monegros desert, the most sparsely populated area of Spain, as long stages with very few services, towns and/or people.

Deb and I “huddled” immediately, preparing for the next five days thru-hiking the desert. Two of the stages exceeded 22 miles / day with “nothing” in between. Taxis would divide each super long stage into something doable. 

Truck stops would be lodging, and gas stations would be supermarkets. 

Under constant sun, we prayed for lots of cloud cover. The low 80’s required lots of hydration. The shopping list made our backpacks a lot heavier: salami & cheese, protein bars, peaches, bananas, fiber wafers, flan, chocolate and six bottles of Aquarius mixed with water.

While the Meseta has pilgrims and support structures, Deb and I had only each other mile after mile. When gas stations on the national highway are your support system, it changes the camino. 

Yet in many places the desert was achingly beautiful. We found life everywhere: plants and shrubs, lizards and rabbits - all scratching out an existence in the arid land. Between the highways and heavily irrigated farms, it was a different world. 

 Reaching Zaragoza we had a well-deserved rest. 

Then we headed for Galicia’s lushness. Walking the path to Finisterre and Muxia through the forests and along the Atlantic Ocean was breath-taking. 

In three weeks we had cities, desert, forests and ocean. Such contrast, such time for thinking. Such time for leaving the world behind.

Los Monegros Desert

Beginnings of Los Monegros, Palau d' Anglesola, Cataluna (June 3rd, 2023)

Entering Fraga by dropping into the valley of the Rio Cinca, Aragon (June 5th, 2023)

Desolation around Bujaraloz, Aragon (June 8th, 2023)

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Summary :

It was a great Camino.

Had never been to Barcelona, but enjoyed my 3 days there prior to walking.

Zaragoza an unexplored treasure waiting to be enjoyed.

Galicia, as always, just stuns in its beauty and it's greenness and lushness.

Deb and I are so glad we did this Camino.

Did not do any Camino type reflection, but it probably wasn't necessary. I did enjoy so many unbelievable sites.

Most impressive to me was the Los Monegros desert. I think the 5 days or whatever it was we spent crossing it, was simply undescribable yet beautiful, in its own way .

Absolutely lacked the civilization of Barcelona and the lushness of Galicia, but it was a time to be enjoyed and cherished for what it was. To make comparisons would be an error.

The Problem

I've been home now two days. 

In that very short time, I've been catching up with missed social activities over the past 30+ days.

Falcon Fledge Watch

I'm a Fledge Baby Falcon Watcher, but due to the timing of this camino, I missed the period when the baby falcons took their first flight. 

Altho' I was able to follow the babys' aerial developments through Twitter, I missed the social interaction with all the other falcon watchers.

Boat Crew Search and Rescue

With the Memorial Day weekend, the beginning of the boating season starts in full force. As a member of the US Coast Guard Auxiliary Boat Crew Search and Rescue efforts, I was not in Rochester to participate in the boating season, or minimally, the boating season kickoff, 

Back now, and it's the end of June, I've missed 1/3 of the boating season. I am reaching out to Coxswains in the local operations area and trying to get on a SAR mission. I need to complete my annual qualifications so that I am not temporarily disqualified for next year.

Potential Solution

Because of these two above reason, I am making plans, very high level and very initial, for a camino in Spain in 2024, but seriously looking at mid-July to mid-August for next year. Then I can participate in the Falcon Fledge Watch and complete my annual requals before leaving for Spain.

Weight Scale

Everything in life is a balance. When a person wants to do two things at the same time, something has to give. Perhaps this change of months may allow me to enjoy more aspects of the summer season.