Our Walk Along the Camino Frances

“Our life is frittered away by detail… Simplify, simplify.”   Henry David Thoreau, Walden   What Is the Hardest Part of the Camino Francés?   Whenever we talk about walking the Camino Francés, people tend to ask the same questions. What was the hardest part? What was the easiest? Which section was the most beautiful? They are understandable questions, particularly for those considering or planning their first pilgrimage, but they are also highly subjective. The answers depend on the season, the weather, a pilgrim’s physical condition, the weight of their backpack, the people they meet, what their own interests are, and what they hoped to find when they set out.   For some pilgrims, the hardest part of the Camino Francés will be the first day’s climb from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and the crossing of the Pyrenees. Others will point to the heat and exposure of the Meseta, the ascent to O Cebreiro, an illness or injury, or the built-up exhaustion that develops after week...

Home after the Camino Frances After the Pilgrimage to Santiago We were awake at 5 AM out of habit, but we both sat in the hotel room until 8 AM, uncertain what to do with the extra time. By 9 AM we had enjoyed a brief breakfast in the lobby, checked out, and boarded the shuttle to the Charles de Gaul airport. Checked in, we were on the 11:30 AM flight from Paris to Montreal before changing aircraft for a short jump from Montreal to Toronto.  Our flights were again long, but safe and uneventful. Without the excitement of the Camino keeping us awake as we crossed the Atlantic this time, we both slept well and arrived in Toronto at 8 PM.  Here we again gathered our luggage and waited for the Airlink bus, which took us from Toronto to the small town we currently call home. We arrived home at midnight. Here it did not take long for the silence of our own home in our own neighbourhood to get to us. Ironically, after weeks of being frustrated by the noises of others at night, a...

Fast Transit Navigating Home  Leaving Santiago de Compostela We awoke early this morning and wandered back to the cathedral to spend some time watching excited pilgrims rush into the main square. It was here that the depression began to settle in. Our trek was done, and we didn't belong in the flood of new pilgrims who came with their groups to finish their quests. Two days after arriving, it is clear the transformation from pilgrim to tourist is complete, and it is time to go home and figure out how to fit the Camino into our lives back in Canada. With all of this in mind, we began our homeward journey. We hired a taxi from our hotel to the small, clean, and modern-looking Santiago airport to catch our Air Iberia flight to Madrid.  At first, this was a stunning experience, as the taxi was travelling at a much faster speed than we had been for the past 4 - 5 weeks.  However, by the time we arrived at the airport, we had already begun to adjust back t...

Reflecting on the Camino Francés from León to Santiago “Life is a long pilgrimage from fear to love.” Paulo Coelho Leaving León did not feel like beginning the final section of the Camino Francés. We were still learning what our first long-distance pilgrimage required from us; Santiago remained more than 300 kilometres away, and several of the route's hardest climbs lay ahead. Yet we could feel the journey changing and the end approaching. The Meseta gradually gave way to the Montes de León and Bierzo, the route climbed into Galicia, and after Sarria the pilgrim community around us became almost unrecognizable. This section contained places whose names we had repeated while planning without really knowing what they would mean: Astorga, Cruz de Ferro, O Cebreiro, Sarria and finally Santiago de Compostela itself. It also contained long urban stretches, road walking, steep rocky descents, crowded cafes and nights when finding rest mattered more than seeing another monument. As f...