THE TRAINING CONTINUES...THE COUNTDOWN HAS BEGUN

In 53 days we will be heading to Spain so I've slowly been picking up the training regimen.  This past month I added 175 miles on the bike and 35 miles walking.  Now it's really time to get serious.  For the most part the body feels good, but my back is not used to the pack yet.  The usual tension between the shoulder blades which should diminish as I carry it more.  I had hoped to add Cathie's mileage here, but she has been pretty slow at getting in the training zone.

I reported in last month's entry about Pension Corazon Puro service of transportation from Pamplona to Saint Jean Pied de Port, but due to a family illness they have closed for the year. So with a little research on the Internet, I was able to figure out the bus system and we will be taking the bus from Pamplona to the start of the Camino.  Booking accommodation in St. Jean was the next task and I found THIS B&B run by an English couple.  My fellow pilgrim Len, from my 2015 Camino, had stayed there and recommended it to me.  Speaking of fellow pilgrims, the aforementioned Len from Canada and Alex from Brazil, both of whom I walked with, paid a visit to my home in San Diego this past month.  It is true that connections made on the Camino last a lifetime.  We had a great time catching up with each other.  You can read about their visit on my other blog, Gassaway's Adventures. 

  

Now for a little practical information for those who have not walked the Camino de Santiago, are considering walking their own Camino or those who are just curious.  In researching my last Camino, I purchased several guide books to compare them.  Most, if not all guides provide you with descriptions of the terrain, some history of the area, distances between towns and lodging. By far the most popular guide used by many is John Brierley's A Pilgrim's Guide To The Camino de Santiago.  Brierley has been writing this guide since 2003 with the most recent edition published in 2017.  Divided into stages, the book allows for 33 stages or days to reach Santiago. Of course you don't have to follow it's recommendations to the letter, but many do.  Because it's such a popular publication and many are following it's stages, those towns at the end of each day can tend to get crowded.

I preferred and used A Village To Village Guide to Hiking the Camino de Santiago by Anna Dintamin and David Landis.

It's better maps and for me a more understandable layout far outweighed it's slightly larger and heavier size.  It too is divided into stages, but many of the daily end locations are different than Brierley's guide.  I carried it in 2015 and will carry it again this year.

Another option is Wise Pilgrim, an app for both Apple and Android.  Although I had the app in 2015, I never used it.  But I rediscovered it in researching places to stay for this year's trip.  It's easy to use and it's lodging suggestions include a link to the establishments website.  Wise Pilgrim has also published a guide book for Kindle, but I haven't seen it so I can't say if it's any good.

Well, that's it for now, short and sweet.  Gotta get out there and train, but we'll keep you posted on any news.

TIME FOR AN UPDATE

BIKE RIDE SUNRISE

The training has begun, but we need to pick up the pace on our walking.  I ride my bike a lot, 250 miles in January, but the walking has been lacking at just a measly 21 miles.  It has been raining here in Southern California so for the time being we'll use that as an excuse.  One day it was raining pretty good so I walked in the rain to test out my rain gear.  Cathie stayed in bed.  A good steady rain for 1.5 hours and I managed to stay dry.

END OF MY WALK IN THE RAIN

The weight loss program is on track, and for Cathie she has met her goal.  As of this morning I've lost 60 pounds, so just a few more to go.   Walking more should help.  With all the weight loss, we'll probably have to buy some new clothes. Cathie will like that as one must have the latest fashions, if there is such a thing on the Camino.

One fly in the ointment is that Corazon Puro will be closed this year.  They were the folks that were to meet us at the Pamplona Train Station and transport us to Saint Jean Pied de Port, but there has been an illness in their family so we had to shift gears.  I figured out how to buy a bus ticket on-line so that will be our transport from the train to SJPDP.  We lucked out and I found this nice B&B for our one night there.  I have gotten a little more anal as I get older and I've been making reservations for our first week or so on the Camino.  Some will say that by doing so we do not afford ourselves the flexibility to change our mine.  The up side, in my opinion, is that we know we will have a bed when we get to town, so our pace can be more relaxed.

When I walked in 2015, one of the food items found in many of the bars along the way was the Tortilla.  Nothing like what we have here in the States, but more like a quiche.  The Tortilla Espanola is shaped like a pie and you are served a slice.  It is eaten for the most part cold.  Made with eggs, potatoes and onions it sounds simple enough, but it's not that easy.  I figured why not give it a try after finding a recipe on the Internet.  Here is my experience:

Ingredients:     3 medium or 4-5 small potatoes  (I used Yukon Golds)

                         1/2 large onion or one small one

                         6 eggs

                         salt and pepper to taste

                         a shit ton of olive oil (I mean a lot)

My first try was a failure in more ways than one.  First it didn't taste very good and second, when I flipped it, all the ingredients ended up on one side.  Fat on the right and skinny on the left.  So I added the following:

                          chopped garlic

                          grated cheese (I used cheddar, the amount is up to you)

                          more salt and pepper  (to taste)

Peal and thinly slice the potatoes

dice the onion, I suppose you could thinly slice it, but I used a medium dice

Put the oil in a non-stick pan and get it hot.  Not smoking but hot enough so a potato slice sizzles.

Put in the potatoes and cook till they are soft.  Don't brown them.

Add the onion and garlic when the potatoes are about halfway done.

Cook till soft.

While the potatoes and onions are cooking, whisk the eggs in a good sized bowl, add salt and pepper along with the cheese.

When the potatoes are done, transfer them to a colander and drain off all the oil.

Then transfer the potato mixture to the eggs and gently stir.  Let them sit for 5 to 8 minutes.  The eggs will cook slightly.

Wipe out the pan and keep it hot.

After the potatoes have soaked in the eggs, pour the mixture back into the pan.

You don't want the pan so hot that the bottom cooks and not the middle.  Start out with it hot, then turn the heat down so the middle cooks.

Something like this, still a little soft in the middle.  Any longer and the pan side would have been black.  Now for the hard part....Flip it over.

I used a plate to assist me.

Turned out pretty good, much better with the cheese and garlic.  I suppose you could put what ever you want in it, but then it would not be a tortilla.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT

OK, LET'S TRY THIS AGAIN

Happy New Year Everyone.  A new year and a fresh start, we are going to walk our Camino this time for sure.  After last years disappointment, having to cancel due to illness, we are in the planning and training stage of our Camino.  Thanks to trip insurance, we did not loose any money because of our cancellation last year.  A pretty painless process with the insurance company, and we had a check within a month.  British Air was a little more difficult in refunding the taxes on our tickets. They finally refunded the taxes, but it took a while.  Every time I spoke to someone is was a different story.  They provided me an address in New York to send them stuff and the address didn't exist.  They weren't refusing, just giving me the runaround.  Finally I got the refund in the form of a credit on my credit card, but their phone customer service sucks.

So, why you ask is there a picture of a British Air airplane?  Well, they are very convenient to get to Europe from San Diego with a daily direct flight to London.  So after watching the airfare stay at the same price for a while, I figured I'd wait a little longer for it to drop.  It went up, a lot.  But we pulled the trigger anyway and made the commitment.  We are scheduled to leave here on April 23rd and return on June 19th.  That gives us a total of 57 days, plenty of time to walk the Camino and have some time left over to explore Portugal.  There are many routes to choose from but we will be doing the French route, starting in Saint Jean Pied de Port and walking the 500 miles or so to Santiago de Compostela.  The plan is to continue on after Santiago to Finisterre, the End of the Earth.  As many of you readers know, I walked the French route in 2015, so together Cathie and I will be retracing those steps.  If you're new to the blog you can read about that journey on the Walking My Camino blog.

OUR ROUTE

We purchased everything we needed last year and with the exception of some new pants, we are good to go.  New pants because we have both lost some weight.  I had a little health issue with some A-fib which was discovered when I started a diet program with my HMO.  It took about six months, but the heart issue is in the past and all is well.  As for the diet, I lost about 50 pounds. Cathie decided to join in and lost 40.  I still have about 10 pounds to go, so new pants for both of us are in the cards.

There are many opinions, some of them strong, as to what constitutes a pilgrimage and being a true pilgrim.  Some believe that you must walk and stay in albergues (hostels) along the way. To them, this is the only way to be a true pilgrim. Others may ride a bicycle to Santiago or ever take a bus part of the way.  I don't think it matters as it is your own pilgrimage to do as you wish and feel comfortable with.  When I walked last time, I stayed in albergues some of the time, but for the most part I had a private room.  Albergues are inexpensive, about $7 to $12 a night, but sleeping in a room with 10 to 50 people was not a pleasant experience for me.  People snore, some quite loudly and I want my sleep.  If I get really tired, when I do finally sleep, I snore, loudly.  Some people fart, and sometimes I do. As for me I prefer to fart in a private room.  As the title says, Walking OUR Camino.  We will do it our way and not worry about other peoples opinions.  We will stay mostly private rooms in small hotels, pensions and B&B's with an occasional albergue thrown in.

So the plan goes something like this:  Fly to Madrid via London.  In Madrid we will spend two nights at Artistic B&B, a place we stayed in 2015.  Then we take the train to Pamplona where Istavan from  Pension Corazon Puro will met us and take us to his pension for the night.  There he and his wife Barbara will feed us dinner, breakfast the next morning and give us a ride to Saint Jean Pied de Port.  After checking in at the Pilgrims Office we start, heading up into the Pyrenees.  I have been making some reservations ahead of time, just to take the guess work out of the equation.  So there it is.  Put your e-mail address up there to the right for timely notifications of future posts.  Ask questions as we  go along and we will do our best to answer them.  Comments too are always appreciated.  Follow us and enjoy the experience vicariously. Hopefully we will inspire some of you to someday walk your own Camino.

Let the training begin.

WE HAD TO CANCEL

We figured a two week postponement would be enough, but it wasn't.  As for me, I'm better, but Cathie hasn't seen much improvement.  She is still very congested with a deep cough and now congestion in her head.  Because of this she is very weak and has trouble breathing with any simi-heavy activity, such as walking.

So I've cancelled our flight and all our reservations.  Now we'll find out if our trip insurance is any good.  Soon we will start planning for next year, as we're gonna do this.  Next year there will be no visits to the emergency room anywhere close to our departure time.  And I was really looking forward to not hearing anything about the election for two months.

But not wanting to sit still for too long, as soon as Cathie is up to it, we'll hook up the RV and head out.  I'll put this blog to rest for awhile, but as usual you will be able to follow along on Gassaways Adventures.   Till then......

A POSTPONEMENT

That's right we had to postpone.  This past Monday, Cathie was returning from the desert when she called me and told me she was in extreme pain, was throwing up and couldn't drive the rest of the way home.  So son Eric and I came to the rescue.  From what she was describing, we both figured she had a kidney stone, so off the the emergency room.  Turns out our diagnosis was correct and after spending 8 hours in the emergency room, the stone had migrated to her bladder and they sent her home.

NOW THAT'S A STONE!

But that's not all.  We spent 8 hours in the emergency room, 3 of which was in the waiting room with the rest of the sickies.  We both were exposed to just about every disease known to man and by Friday we were both hacking and coughing like the rest of those folks back at the E/R.  So off the the doctor who supplied us with the usual medications and sent us home to recuperate. We hoped that by morning we would be on the mend and would be able to leave the following evening.  It was not to be and we decided to postpone Our Camino by two weeks.

What a pain in the a$$ changing our flights, reservations in Madrid, train tickets and more.  We lost our B&B in Madrid but have managed to change everything else, we hope.  We had to pay a bunch more to change our flights, but luckily we have trip insurance. 

ALMOST A POSTPONEMENT, BUT NOW WE'RE READY

Well boys and girls, here's the last post before leaving in one week to start Our Camino.  I've actually had several queries from some of you as to when the next post would be, so here goes.

There have been a few hiccups in our training and with some of our equipment.  Turns out that after a week or two of walking with her Osprey back pack, Cathie started experiencing some back pain.  We tried all the usual adjustments, but it wasn't working so we headed back to REI.  She ended up with a 45 liter Deuter pack and it seems to be working well for her as the back pain has disappeared.  Both of our packs have a hydration bladder inside to allow us to drink from a tube as we walk.  We like this option best as it's difficult to remove a water bottle from a side pocket with the packs on.  So with 1.5 liters of water and just about everything we plan on taking with us, Cathie's pack weighs in at 19 pounds and mine at 21 pounds.  Some might say this is a tad bit heavy, but it's the same weight I carried last year without any problems.

The scallop shell on my pack is a symbol of the Camino.  There are several legends about the shell and one goes like this:  After Saint James' death, his disciples shipped his body to the Iberian Peninsula to be buried in what is now Santiago.  Off the coast of Spain a heavy storm hit the ship, and the body was lost to the ocean.  After some time, the body washed ashore undamaged, covered in scallops.  It is also believed, by some, that the lines in the shell leading to a point, represent all the different pilgrim routes leading to one place, Santiago.

Speaking of a storm, Cathie had another issue during our training.  After a recent storm, yes a storm in Southern California, a very large tree was toppled over across our normal training route. While climbing over the downed tree, Cathie hyper-extended both knees outward.  At first she didn't even know she injured herself, but a couple of days later she was in extreme pain.  She was hobbling around doing the Camino Shuffle, a condition suffered by pilgrims when starting out each morning.  Off to the doctor who told her, only time will make the pain go away, time and a Cortisone injection in each knee.  At first she was feeling no improvement and we were considering postponing our departure for a couple of weeks.  That would have created many problems with reservations, some which we couldn't re-schedule.  We were within in a couple of days of postponing when Cathie's nurse suggested the use of knee braces.  There was a big improvement and now with another 2 weeks  of recuperation she is pain free and we're a go.

I also had a problem with plantar fasciitis in my left foot, but some new insoles recommended by my podiatrist seems to have rectified the situation.  You know what they say about pain at our age?  The pain is there to let you know that you are still alive.

I've been following the weather and it's been iffy over the Pyrenees.  Apparently there has been lots of snow this year.  If the high route over the mountains is still closed when we start, we'll opt for the lower pass.  Here's a photo taken a couple of weeks ago of the lower pass, the one with less snow.

This second photo was taken in Roncesvalles, on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees at the bottom of the pass.  The pilgrim pictured is obliviously a Canadian.

On April 3rd we will hop aboard our flight to Madrid where we will recoup for two nights before heading by train to Pamplona and the start of the Camino.  So following along and feel free to share our blog with others.

56 DAYS TO GO, THE TRAINING HAS BEGUN

We're in training mode, 7.5 miles, 3 days a week.  I continue to ride my  bike 2 to 3 days a week, 42 miles each time.  We also breaking in new boots and Cathie's new pack.

OUT WITH THE OLD IN WITH THE NEW

Cathie tried four different packs and with the help of the folks at REI she settled on a 36 liter Osprey in a color she approved of.  Gotta have the right color, because a girl has to look her best.  Since December we've been outfitting Cathie as she needed just about everything in the way of lightweight clothes, boots and rain gear.  As for me, all that was needed were the new boots and socks.

Since I've done this before, the getting there and back part was easy.  British Air to Madrid with a change in London, booked. B&B for two nights in Madrid, booked. Train from Madrid to Pamplona, Booked.  Overnight near Pamplona with pick up at the train station and transportation to the starting point in Saint Jean Pied de Port, booked.  Return flight from Santiago de Compostela to Madrid, booked.  Hotel near the airport in Madrid, Booked.  And finally our return flight home is also booked.  Since we have a total of 56 days, about 10 of the last days will be used to take a look at Portugal, somewhere we've never been.  Because we don't have a definite date for arrival in Santiago, the Portugal portion of the trip will be on the fly.

For a new wrinkle, we will be taking a carry on suitcase for "after Camino clothes"  It will travel with us to Madrid where we will mail it to a guy in Santiago who will hang on to it until we get there, we hope.

TRAINING DAY

There is a San Diego Chapter of the American Pilgrims on the Camino and I've met up with some of them for a couple of hikes in the San Diego area.  On this day we were hiking in the Blue Sky Ecological Reserve in Poway.  Great group of people, most of whom have already walked the Camino , some more than once.  

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So, we leave April 3rd and I hope you all follow along by putting your e-mail address in the box on the top right.  By doing this you will receive notification each time I post.  I will continue to post on Facebook and send an e-mail.  For those on my manual e-mail list, remember that last year I had difficulty with Cox Web Mail and many times my e-mails were not sent.  So, be brave and stick your e-mail address in the little box.

Oh, and remember, comments and questions are always encouraged and welcome.  If you do comment you can do so by clicking on the anonymously button in comments, thus eliminating the need to open a Google Account.  But put your name in the comment somewhere so I know who you are.