Madrid

Ah, Madrid. The tourist attractions are few compared to other international cities, but it is incomparable as a city made for walking, eating, and people-watching. And for two glorious days this just what I've done. I napped off my jet leg, meandered the warren of streets around my hotel, laid in bed all morning to watch the royal wedding, and spent 2 short afternoons contemplating art at the Prado. The museum waives its' admission the last 2 hours of each day, which is the perfect window of optimal viewing time before art-overload sets in, and 6-8pm nicely fills the void before the tapas scene starts.

I walked the length of Calle Mayor twice today trying to gain entrance to the Church of Santiago for my first credential stamp, but to no avail. By 7:30pm the closest I had come to anything Camino was this nice little statue of a pilgrim near the Plaza de Sol (and a very old painting of St. James & his stone boat in the Prado).

The weather has been perfect but the skies are darkening now - the rain is on it's way...

3rd time lucky

I left the Prado with enough time to once again transverse Calle Mayor and get to the Church of Santiago before evening prayers were over. I tiptoed in at the end(?) and listened in dumb fascination to the Spanish catholic service (neither of which I am fluent in). After the wine & cookies were consumed, I thought that the priest might come down the aisle and wish everyone farewell, as my vague protestant memories recollect, and I would then ask him for a sello (stamp). But no, the sneaky little man hightailed it off the stage, leaving the parishioners to blow out the candles! The 4 little old ladies scrammed with their shopping, so I accosted the last person left in the place: a young priest, it so happened. He only spoke Italian and Spanish but "Camino sello" turns out to be international, so he ushered me into the back office and introduced me as a peregrina. The Father couldn't have been more thrilled to meet me and set off on a long story of pilgrims and stars and finding his way (at least that's what I like to think he was saying) and cheerfully stamped my credential. I'm now official! (see the walking staffs and scallop shells in the background?)

Thanks, Allison
 Sent from my iPhone

Where exactly is Allison walking?

                                                                               (copied with thanks to santiago-compostela.net)

This is a bit boring, but it's all about where I'm going, where I'm staying, and a couple of nice maps so my mom can follow me along.

The route I'm walking in Spain is a little different from my first Camino.  Back in 2006 I started on the Camino Frances in St.-Jean-Pied-du-Port (see upper right corner), which is a little town just over the border in France.  I trudged up and over the Pyrennes, a little way past Logrono before terrible shin splints(?) caused me to stop.  Not wanting to leave something undone, I went back in 2007 and walked from Logrono to Santiago de Compestela (upper left corner) to complete my camino.

The Camino Frances is a great walk.  It has a superb infrastructure of albergues (pilgrim hostels), inns, bars & restaurants every 5-10kms; is very well way-marked with little yellow arrows painted on anything that doesn't move (ie. sides of buildings, trees, stop signs, fence posts, and the occasional cow); and tons of pilgrims.  10's of 1000's of pilgrims.  Too many pilgrims.

So this time around, I decided to go off the beaten path a little and try the Camino de Madrid, which starts right in the city of Madrid.  I won't, but it does.  One can walk from the Church of Santiago right in a main plaza, walk out of the city, thru the dreary concrete suburbs and into the beautiful countryside beyond, heading NW to where it intersects with the Camino Frances in Sahagun.  (hint: I'll start at the beautiful countryside part).

Here's a link to a map of the route (it will come up Peter Robbins Madrid route page.  Go down about 3 paragraphs, below the list of cities, and click the first 'view' button beside Google.  You'll get a map with a series of pink boxes, just click each box to reveal the route): 
http://maps.peterrobins.co.uk/google/overview/madrid.html

Then I'll take a Left and continue on the Camino Frances to Santiago:
http://maps.peterrobins.co.uk/google/overview/frances.html

Only 100's of pilgrims of people walk the Madrid route each year, so the pilgrim infrastructure is  minimal.  I'll have less choice of how far I walk each day as only certain villages along the way have any type of accommodation or services.  I'm planning to spend about 15 days walking this first camino, broken down as:

Day  1: subway to Tres Cantos, walk to Colmenar Viejo (12 kms)
Day  2: Colmenar Viejo > Manzanares el Real (15.6 kms)
Day  3: Manzanares el Real > Cercedilla (19 kms)
Day  4: Cercedilla > Segovia (31 kms and climb a mountain)
Day  5: Segovia (stay over to nurse my sore feet and see the city)
Day  6: Segovia > Santa Maria la Real de Nieva (32.2 kms, ouch!)
Day  7: Santa Maria la Real de Nieva > Coca (20.6 kms)
Day  8: Coca > Alcazaren (25 kms)
Day  9: Alcazaren > Puente Duero (25 kms)
Day 10: Puente Duero > Simancas (6 kms, then bus off-route to Valladolid to sightsee and spend the night)
Day 11: sightsee, then bus back to Simancas >  Cigunuela (6 kms)
Day 12: Ciguenuela > Castromonte (24.3 kms)
Day 13: Castromonte > Medina de Rioseco (17 kms)
Day 14: Medina de Rioseco > Villalon de Campos (27 kms)
Day 15: Villalon de Campos > Sahagun (37 kms) or > Grajal (25-ish kms)

I was planning to start walking this Saturday, but the weather forecast is awfully miserable, so we'll just have to see how it goes.  All the above is tentative - if I feel like walking further and there's a place to stay I might keep going one day.  And, more likely, if I want to walk less one day, and I can, then I will.  I'm playing it all by ear.  Or should I say, 'by foot'?!!

Decisions, decisions

I  leave in just 3 days, so I thought I'd better get off the pot and think what I'm taking on the Camino.  Wait, stop laughing!  Okay, I'll take that back.  All of you who have hiked with me this winter know that this is all I've thought about (and talked about!) for weeks and weeks and weeks.  But now I have to get serious and actually start packing.  The first dilemma was which backpack to take:  the one from my last Camino with all it's handy side and front pockets? 

or the new, fancy 2-lb lighter one with everything tossed in the one center compartment.... 

I took them both for a test drive here in Vancouver and oh my goodness, I should have done this several days ago!  The new pack clearly won as I hardly felt the 16 lbs.... for the first hour.  Then my knees and thighs started saying 'hello' and I realized that hiking day-in and day-out in California with an occasional 5-lb pack wasn't quite enough training.  But I do have exactly 6 days before I take my first Camino steps so I will walk every day (including airport days and the royal wedding day) wearing pack #2 and I'll be fine.  Just need a little conditioning tune-up...

The packing itself was pretty simple: 2 bottoms, 3 tops, a light layer, and my fleece.  A couple pairs of socks & undies, toothbrush, sleeping bag and 10 lbs. of accessories.  Really, I'm not kidding.  The clothes are minimal but it's amazing all the stuff you think you can't live without.  My electronics-kit, my first-aid kit, my sore-feet kit, my laundry-kit, my cold-weather-hat-glove kit, my kitchen kit (knife, spork, sandwich bin), and I can't tell you how much time I spent dithering on whether or not to take a corkscrew - I know, most of use would classify this as essential gear but the darn thing is heavy!  Has Spain jumped on the screw-top bandwagon yet?  But it all fits in and although the pack is a tad heavier that I had hoped, it's still several pounds lighter than last time so all is good.

Last item to check out is my rain poncho.  Again, I have two - a new and the old.  I swore that the one old wasn't very waterproof as I remember feeling quite damp on the inside during a heavy downpour in 2007.  So I'm just going to step into the shower and try it out....

'Electronica'

Not the music, but the plethora of computerized, mechanical, and electrical gadgets that are necessary for our everyday functioning. I'm trying to narrow it all down to just my iPhone for my trip to Spain = alarm/music player/book/puzzles/email/blog posting/and, oh yeah, a phone. We'll see if this email gets posted...

Thanks, Allison
Sent from my iPhone

The countdown has begun! Less than 2 weeks to go before I leave for the Camino de Madrid and I'm  busy making lists, checking the route, packing, and trying out new gear(!). The training has slowed down a bit but then I don't want to be burned out on hiking before I start on a 675km walk, do I?  I'll be home (the original one) tackling some of Vancouver's hills just before I fly out so that should stand me in good stead.  

I'm hoping this test text from my iPhone works correctly so that my travel blog might be up and running before I go!