Camino Musings

Well, all packed and ready for our flights tomorrow. We’re flying to Madrid via Charlotte (since Pittsburgh is no longer a hub for American Airlines/old USAir) and should arrive at 7 a.m. on Monday. We will be spending a couple of tourist days before we start our Camino adventure (hey, we gotta be tourists, too!). As per my usual OCD super planner persona, we will have our plates full of private tours(Prado, Royal Palace, Spanish Civil War) and of course a tapas tour. Then we will be taking the train to Ponferrada (our starting point in northern Spain).

Hasta luego!

No, not the Carly Simon song, but the feeling of excitement for this adventure we are starting in about three weeks.

It started with a memoir I discovered in a bookshop in Westport, Ireland. I’m a book-aholic, always searching for a good  “read” and I happened upon a paperback book entitled “Buen Camino” by Peter and Natasha Murtagh – a father and daughter embarking on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Why I happened to pick up this particular book, well maybe it was a sign, destiny, a calling ……….? I guess this was the beginning of my pilgrimage, in a lovely village in western Ireland (which, by the way, was part of my “dream vacation destination”). It’s taken almost two years of contemplating, reading, planning, and here we are only three weeks away!

Since I can’t take off six weeks from work, we are planning to walk the last 200 km, from Ponferrada to Santiago. We are flying to Madrid, being tourists for a few days, and then taking the train to our starting point on our Camino. So this is the beginning. More to follow…..

We are all travelers in life, learning from our experiences and hopefully making a positive impact on those around us. As we reach maturity and beyond, it is time to reflect – on what we have accomplished and what we have yet to do before our time in this world fades away. This is the beginning of a new road, a Camino, the Way….