We made it, arriving at Laura’s house at 7:00 pm, local time, 23 hours after getting up this morning in Madrid. A long day.
So ends our taste of the Camino. Not counting the short tour of Madrid, during the 5.5 days of the Camino, I walked 49 miles which included 5,100 feet of elevation gain.
Observations and lessons learned:
- I have never been on a tour with this level of activity before, but look forward to doing another. In fact, I've asked Maxine to look into an Iceland trip for me in July of this year.
- The ability to take in the surrounding environment at a gradual pace was nice, as opposed to trying to capture the moment looking out the window of a bus.
- This was a nice sized tour group. There were 15 guests and by the time the week was over, even I had learned most of their names.
- The routes selected ensured you were exposed to the most interesting and scenic parts of the country. At the beginning of each day, we were presented with an "instruction" sheet of the route. These were often a little vague and some hikers (like myself) sometimes took the wrong path. They always found us however and at the end of the week, they had the same number of guests as they began with.
- During the tour itself, we stayed two nights in two different hotels and one night in a third. It was nice not to have to pack/unpack every single day.
- I was uncertain about my ability to "keep up" with the level of activity I really wanted to achieve. I found however, that I was satisfied with my abilities, but could do better and get more enjoyment if I were in better shape.
- As for the dining experiences, we enjoyed it all, but some observations:
- At least in the part Europe we visited this trip, don't confuse them with requests for coffee with cream. Instead, ask for coffee with milk.
- The scrabbled eggs were usually runny and the bacon very underdone per our customs. Laura said she actually avoided the bacon due to its degree of doneness. I noticed the lack of flavor in the bacon, probably due to how they cure it relative to our customs.
- The coffee was extremely strong (espresso-like) and, if you allow them to add milk for you, they use A LOT of milk as a diluent
- Always presented with the option of "still" or "con gas" (sparkling) water
- Salt and pepper were not normally found at the table
- Despite being old and out-of-shape, the biggest physical issue I had was with my feet getting sore and developing the occasional blister.
- The Moleskin padded tape I took was absolutely essential. I could not have made it without this stuff. One of the guides (Keith) told me that he thought Compeed pads were superior to Moleskin and gave me some to try. They helped, but I thought Moleskin was better. Later, one of the other guides told me that Moleskin is not easily found outside the US.
- The Body Glide Original Anti-Chafe Balm also proved useful.
- The flexibility to adjust your level of activity to accommodate your abilities and desires on a daily basis was reassuring.
- I thought I was over-packing, but ended up using most everything I took. I wish I had taken a little more underwear. The only thing I did not use (thankfully) was my rain gear and heavy clothing. The weather was perfect. I also did not use my swimsuit.
- The long flight from Newark to Porto and from Frankfurt to Houston was not too bad, but I will explore Business Class or First Class seating for the long hauls going forward.
- Need to take more small denomination local currency to cover tips and incidentals. Also need to do more upfront research on local gratuity expectations. We discovered that, on this trip, following our tipping customs from the US, we were far exceeding local gratuity expectations. While we encountered no "refusals" we did observe some raised eyebrows.
- Thankfully, the electrical adapters I took worked well.
- We lost very little stuff considering the number of different locations we spent the nights. Might have lost one of my electrical adapters (two prong Type E/F). If so, I need to get a replacement.
