Camino de Santiago

A couple of years ago my younger daughter had plans to hike the Camino de Santiago in Spain. She is fluent in Spanish, and thought it might make a nice adventure. Since I lived in Spain for five years (long before she was born...but I'm still fluent) and also love hiking, I subtly (well, maybe not that subtly) suggested I would be happy to join her. But due to a number of circumstances, her plans changed and she never made the trip.

So last year I raised the topic again. I was going to hit a major milestone birthday (one with a zero in it) and thought it might be a good way to recognize that. But she had other plans, and, in the end, so did I.

When we saw her this spring, I gently reminded her that I was still up for the hike, if she were interested. At the time, it didn't seem like a priority to her. But about six weeks ago she dropped me a note and laid out some dates. And after a bit of back and forth to make sure it worked for both of us, we settled on a timeframe and a route. We'll be doing the Camino Primitivo--the original route hiked by Spanish King Alfonso II when he made the first pilgrimage to visit the tomb of St. James, Santiago, back in the 9th century. .

I fly out tomorrow morning, and we start hiking a few days later. My wife has decided to pass this one up, so it will just be the two of us--a father daughter trip.

And since we'll be traveling in areas that just might have cell phone coverage, and maybe even wifi, I'm going to try to keep posting during our trip. So stay tuned!