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Hmmmm. As someone who’s had double knee replacements, I always call ahead to reserve a bottom bunk. Often there’s a good reason for those assigned bunks.
Hmmmm. I’ve stayed in albergues with men (often cyclists) who wore no night clothes and brought no sleeping bag to lighten their load. Of course they wanted the windows closed.
Not surprised. Some albergues are notorious for that kind of behaviour, the one in Villafranca come to mind. Any place where there’s a lot of men and very few women, beware.
I’ve been travelling through Europe for decades, usually staying in hostels or other group sleeping situation and have come to the conclusion that all Europeans are night air phobic. The French are more insistent, the Germans are more vociferous, but it’s pretty much a continental attitude...
We’ll need more information. Are you going on the Camino or will you be camping closer to home? If not on the Camino then where? What’s the terrain, the climate? Are you going on your own or will you be sharing a tent? Will you have to carry other equipment and if so how much? Will it be...
Thinking about this a little more, have you asked your doctor about how strenuous the activity can be? Does she have to keep her heart rate fairly low? We don’t need to know any of that information, just something to be discussed with your personal physician. Everyone’s heart rate climbing up...
I dunno. I asked repeatedly and she said yes, they all go their Compostellas, even though she did tell me that not everyone walked the whole 100k, including an octogenarian lady who pretty much stayed on the bus, and they did it in five days!!!!! But I’ll ask her again about who they went with...
Nice breakdown. Very useful for a lot of us, thanks. What it does show is that the Frances into Santiago is not flat.
Also, up until this point none of us has really mentioned training. Finding a fairly hilly area to walk near where you live ( in southern England we have “The Downs”) will...
10 km is not a short day when you have health issues. May 2019 I walked up to 30km on some days over the last 100km, in order to spend as little time among the crowds as possible. Oct 2019 I struggled to do 10km/day, and couldn’t figure out why. Two weeks after returning I became terribly...
If the downhills are harder than the uphills, then forget about the Frances. I saw one elderly lady crying as her relatives coaxed, cajoled and bullied her down the hill into Palace del Rei. It’s a long incline, especially on a hot day. And I can’t remember which town it was where it was an 8...
I remember there was A/C in the couchette cars, at least in Italy. Spain only had it in 1st class sleeper cars, or at least that’s what I was told when I bought my Europass.
Yup. iPhone + tiny folding keyboard, although I didn’t type enough to justify the keyboard. The sight of a husband and wife each buried in their own Kindle looked a little weird to me. I preferred going down the road to have dinner with friends and yak until my eyes were drooping. And I’m...
True. And even in the larger, cheaper albergues an extension chord/flex is provided for multiple outlets, although not necessarily near your bunk. I always carry one of those multiple usb jacks, so others can charge their phones while I’m still charging mine.
So with you. I had planned to do some volunteering with Camino Companions this October, as my chemo should have been completed in May and surgery was to be in July. But chemo almost killed me and now they’ve started me on radiotherapy which won’t end until mid-August, and who knows when the...
Didn’t want to say anything, but usually when it’s something more aggressive they’re on the phone to you almost immediately. Then it’s an onslaught of contacts. So happy to hear that they think it’s more easily treatable and you don’t have to go through that awful chemo. With radiotherapy you...
And even when there were more hostels back in the day they were so far apart I would only walk in the Lake District, the rest of the time was cycle only. Add on top of that the reduction of bus service in more rural areas and the only viable option for an extended walk is wild camping, which is...
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