Walking the Camino de Santiago
Preparations and planning.
Throughout this pilgrimage, I have several times had to adjust my schedule to Plan B for various stages. Today is the first time I’m going to Plan C. My original plan for today was to take a variant to visit San Millán de la Cogolla. Unfortunately, this would require a 30 km day tomorrow, almost entirely on an asphalt road […]
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Just one week from today, I will be in France. Yowza! It’s odd but familiar, this countdown matching the one to Easter, just as it did in 2013 and 2016. It seems to give both things an even greater urgency, as if that were even possible. Since I volunteer in our parish, this week – Holy Week – is already […]
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We are 25 days out, so it’s about time for an update. It’s also apparently time for my backpack to explode all over my dining room. I’ll cover both training updates and planning updates here, as best as I can remember everything that’s gone on in the past few weeks. Training I continue to stick to my plan, which includes […]
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The pilgrim routine at the end of the walking day is largely unchanging. Check into your albergue. Take a shower. Wash your clothes – almost always by hand, but every now and again by machine. Journal if you’ve got ’em. Explore the village/town/city neighbourhood. Dinner. Somewhere in there, usually all in there, is socialization with other pilgrims. Honestly, if there’s […]
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It’s been almost four months since I last posted my initial planning for the Via Lemovicensis. An update is probably in order. Let’s talk about transportation, route, and bookings. Along the way, we’ll touch on a new writing project coming out of this planning. Transportation The first thing about any Camino is, of course, getting to the starting point and […]
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Next year, I plan to walk a long Camino for Francine. Some background is probably in order. At the annual Gathering of Pilgrims back in 2022, Francine attended a talk on one of the four main Camino routes in France: the Voie de Vézelay, also known as the Via Lemovicensis. She was immediately smitten with this route. For one thing, […]
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Today is the Feast of Saint James the Greater, known throughout the Spanish-speaking world as Santiago and in French as Saint Jacques. He was one of Christ’s Twelve Apostles. Saint James is the patron saint of the archdiocese of Seattle. May you have the joy of the feast! James and his brother John were natives of Galilee, sons of the […]
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My new book, Practical Pilgrimage, is now available for purchase. Subtitled “Useful Rules for Walking the Camino de Santiago”, it’s a deeper exploration and expansion of a blog post that appeared back in 2023, Thom’s Practical Rules for the Camino. Purchase on Amazon (affiliate link)Purchase from Powell’s Books (preferred)Purchase at Barnes & Noble This short book (about a hundred pages) […]
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The quickest way to start an argument amongst pilgrims or on a Camino Forum is to pronounce your opinion on one of two hot-button issues: footwear and rain gear. So, of course, I thought I’d tackle one of those today. The usual caveats apply – every human is different, has different preferences, and different body types. My solution may not be […]
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In many of the larger towns and villages – and even some of the smaller ones – you will find tourist offices, like this one in Saint-Chély-d’Aubrac. They are absolutely invaluable. If you’ve been following along, you know that I reserved eight of my first ten nights in advance at various gîtes and hostels and monasteries. But Saint-Chély was the […]
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