More decisions have been made

Rick and his daughter booked their flights and will indeed join us for the last 6 days on The Camino! I'm happy they will be there to get a taste of and better understanding for what Tom and I are doing and.... be there for my Birthday :)  They will join us from Sarria to Santiago.

 This is last "100 KM stage" of the Camino is the minimum requirement to get your "Compostela" which is a kind of certificate. Pilgrims have been given "the Compostela" since the 16th century!

 We also decided that after we arrive in Santiago we will enjoy 4 days in Portugal to "deCaminoise " ( I made that word up but it sounds good to me ha ha ) before flying back to The USA and the reality of our regular lives again.
Question is what to do in 4 days Portugal? I was there 3 times as a kid but only in The Algarve. I have some thoughts but any suggestions are welcome.
 I do think we would like to stay in Central and Northern Portugal so we don't have to travel too many miles.

Getting more organized

The flights are booked !
We are leaving  (Tom from NJ and I from FL) the end of May and will meet in Madrid and then take the train to Pamplona together,

A difficult decision was what parts of the Camino shall we walk?
We "only" have 30 days but need to keep a few rest days in mind and 1 or 2 days to recover from our jet leg. So that leaves us with about 25 walking days.
We want to enjoy this trip together and are not going to rush it as if it is a race. A lot of people walk 15 to 20 miles a day (24/34 km) but we want to stick to 15 miles at the most. 
We decided to start in Pamplona and from there we will walk to Burgos (about 10 days of walking)
Then we'll take 2 rest days and take the bus  from Burgos to Leon. From Leon we will walk  to Santiago de Compostela (about 15 days of walking + 1 rest day somewhere)

The other thing we decided, is to sleep in very simple Hostels and "Rural homes" that rent out rooms for the night or in Albergues (simple lodging in farmhouses, monasteries etc.)

that have private rooms in addition to the big bunk bed rooms.... I will NOT sleep in big rooms with 20 + people snoring and coughing etc ( like most Pilgrims do)  That is where I draw the line lol!

For now I made reservations for the first 3 nights and the nights in Burgos, Leon and Santiago. We will see where we end up in between. The guide books say it is fairly easy to call ahead a few hours/day before we arrive at our next stop  to make reservations.
Most towns that you pass through offer simple "pilgrim menu's" for under 10 Euro's. This includes often a bottle of wine !!!  However now and then we will have to splurge on some good Tapas !!!

 

appetizer: Spaghetti, entree Beef stew, dessert Flan, and bread, water and wine. We can do that!

How to start prepping for this ?

After researching a lot online I made a list of all the things I needed for The Camino.
Turns out it is not a cheap adventure!
Good hiking boots, special good fitting backpack, trekking poles, "fast drying, moisture wicking, light weight clothing",(gear incl. pack cannot weigh more then 15 lbs)  travel towels, travel sleep sheet, etc etc. And last but not least.....a flight to Spain. Good thing Christmas was coming up so I got most of my gear for Christmas :) Thank you all :)
Some other things I will bring is a guidebook, journal and Kindle. That is about it !

The other part of prepping for the Camino was training for the long daily hikes (average 15 miles/24 km) day after day.
 I started out slowly in October. The loop in my community is 4 miles.(6.4 km)  I did (and still do) this about 4 to 5 times a week. Now and then I throw in a 8 mile (12.5 km)  walk to our local grocery store. Towards April I will start some longer walks with my full pack.

My biggest challenge are my feet. I have tried 3 different insoles and no matter what....the area under the balls of my feet keep hurting after a few miles while wearing my VERY comfy hiking shoes  (Keen Marshall's) No blisters....just a strange pain under the balls of my feet. When I wear my hiking sandals.....no problems at all. So I may end up walking as much as possible in these and then just the closed hiking shoes for when it's cold and rainy.

The Idea

In July of 2014 I watched the movie "The Way" about the Camino De Santiago and for some reason it just stuck with me.
After a few weeks and seeing the movie once more I decided....I AM GOING TO DO THAT !Yes a bit cliche because I know a lot of people made an attempt after seeing that movie.

I wasn't sure why I was so affected by it...Was it " Joost from Amsterdam "???? ha ha .....I guess just to do something crazy and the physical challenge, part also to be away from all routine in life and .....oh well 1 month in Spain didn't sound too bad either :) Also my brother walked all the way from Holland to Santiago 25 years ago so I always wondered.

After talking to my family, all my kids wanted to join me but 2 of them just couldn't take the time off from school/work... .however my youngest Tom could and he thought it was a great idea....

So by the October 2014 it was decided...Tom and I were going to walk, not all but at least 350 miles of the Camino in 30 days. I am super excited to do this with my son. It will be a once in a lifetime experience.
My fiance Rick and his daughter will try to join us the last week so they can get a taste of it and will be there on my Birthday when we arrive in Santiago .

It is January 2015 now so I'm backtracking a bit due to the fact I decided this week to start a blog. A lot of people are reacting : "wow!  really? Why? You're crazy ! SO awesome, I always wanted to do something like that " etc. etc. I also found myself looking for as much info and experiences from previous "Camino Pilgrims"
I'm new to blogging so bear with me :)

A bit of background information about myself and my son who will join me.

I'm 52 (as mentioned I hope to arrive on my 53rd B day in Santiago) and live in Florida with my fiance Rick. I have no real experience at all with hiking and am in average condition (hope to improve this a bit along the way) My son Tom is 19 and is attending college in NJ. He is in good shape but not a hiker. So the whole hiking thing is new to us. From what I read in guides and other blogs, walking 15 miles is not the problem....it's doing this 30 days in a row. We will see how all goes !