Today was 13 miles walked and 300′ climbed. We’ve now walked 40 miles on this journey!

No doubt about it! Today, the Pilgrims came out to play! From the moment we started today’s walk, it was clear that we were on a popular route.  For most of the day, you could look up and down the trail and see between 3 and 20 fellow hikers

We had heard that the Camino Portugues had become the second most popular Camino, and now we were seeing it! Well, the weather was nice and the scenery, amazing, so why not?

Of note, the remarkable boardwalk along the beach (about 30 miles long) finally seemed to end today. I’m just curious how much did Portugal spend on this? It had to have been in the $100’s of millions!

When the boardwalk ended, we were in (for us) more familiar forest paths

and small village market streets.

So, about half way through today’s hike, we encountered our first rain! We were prepared Pilgrims, so we stopped and pulled out our rain prevention gear (ponchos, etc) and sure enough, as soon as we put them on,  we prevented the rain! It stopped almost immediately and the sun came fully out! Yes, that rain prevention gear really works!

All for now. Laundry awaits!

Today was 13 miles and 600′ of climbing. The totals for this journey are 218 miles walked and 18,600′ climbed.

When we connect 6 of our 7 caminos together, we get a continuous hike from the west coast of Spain to Rome, a distance of roughly 2,000 miles.

Today was another rainy day, but the hiking surfaces were good.  Much of the walk was on asphalt, but very much back country traveling.

With the rain and it being a Saturday morning, it was very quiet for much of the journey.

We have very poor internet at our current stay, so we will add more details when we are in Rome, tomorrow afternoon.

We are tired, but exhilarated!

More, later.

Today was 9 miles and 1,100′ climbing. The totals are 205 miles walked and 18,000′ climbed!

The story of the day was rain!

Yesterday, the weather channel predicted lots of rain from yesterday afternoon until midnight, then clearing for today.

Well, it absolutely dumped yesterday evening! Rain, wind, thunder and lightning! We were going to go out to dinner but it was raining so hard that we canned that plan. Rather, Bill ran between raindrops to the local pizzeria (there are lots of local pizzerias) and picked up two pizzas, to go. Then a mad dash home and that was dinner!

This morning was supposed to be that “clearing”, not raining time. Well, we had maybe 30 minutes of clear, then it dumped! Some thunder, but no lightning or wind. But rain, rain and more rain!

And that rain kept dumping for 3 more hours. 3 cheers for the quality ponchos we wore!

As it started to clear, we saw this rainbow!

If you look closely at the right side of the lower rainbow, you may be able to see it “landing” in the park! I can’t recall ever seeing the ‘end’ of a rainbow 🌈  .

The approach to our stay for tonight was steep; we climbed about 500′ in less than a 1/2 mile.  But it did afford us a great view. Actually, there is a peekaboo view of the sea!

And also, some nice panaramas.

We are now working on chores for tomorrow’s hike. Tomorrow will be our last day on this journey, and the last segment before we complete the hiking transit from the West Coast of Spain, through Spain, France, Switzerland and Italy, ending in Rome!

It’ll be kind of a big deal for us. Maybe we’ll have pizza to celebrate?!

Ciao for now.

Today was 19 miles hiked and 1,800′ climbed. The totals are now 196 miles hiked and 16,900′ climbed.

Today was a long one and a wet one!  The phone that we use for app-based directions was kept in a zip lock bag most of the day. It only occasionally came out for photos, when the weather allowed … with one exception.

Over two weeks ago, we hiked through the first serious downpour. At the worst of the rainfall, we got stuck behind a railroad crossing, in the middle of nowhere! We stood in the downpour for probably 5 minutes, getting drenched, and the train a long time in coming.  Strange.

Today, as a reprise to that moment, we started our walk on the rain … and got stopped by another “long time coming” train, while it was raining! A herald of what was to come that day?

Once out of town and in the local hills, we finally had “the view”! We could now see the Tyrrenian Sea! Beautiful!

We stayed in the hills for the majority of the hike, with awesome views

Also, we had some of the best trail surfaces we’ve seen during the whole of this trip!  Nice!

We finally (!) arrived, found our place, unpacked, found a grocery store, then started the clean up process.

A standard practice is to look up the next day’s lodging, then locate it on Google maps … so we have a sense of how far off the formal trail it is.

On locating Friday’s lodging, Google kept showing us a village outside of Turin, Italy … about 150 miles away!  We checked, double checked, cross referenced, etc, and Google was right. There were two villages of the same name; one was 9 miles ahead of us, and t the other was 150 miles away! Our reservation was in the wrong version of that village!

We had until midnight to cancel the incorrect version without charge. Done.  Now we needed to find another ones in the correct village.

We’re still working it out as of Thursday morning, but we have options. Lucca (the final destination) is about 25 miles away.  We can find a place there.  We could walk on Friday until we’re “done”, then catch a bus to Lucca. On Saturday, we’d reverse the process and finish the hike into Lucca. There are very few lodgings where we’d like to stop and we’re checking them out also.

This morning will be all about finding a place.

In other news, after almost two weeks of “water in phone” problems, Bill’s phone is back to charging with the cable. The wireless charger did work, but it was very sensitive to how the phone was placed on it, etc. Happy days!

Today is an off day for us, and we definitely have chores to do!

Ciao

Today was 11 miles and 600′ of climbing. Totals are now 177 miles hiked and 15,100′ climbed.  Overall, a nice day for hiking!

After yesterday’s non-start, we wanted to be sure we were properly fueled for our journey ahead. So, after a delicious seafood pasta dinner, we found a nice gelateria, solely for the purpose of carbo-loading for today!

Carbo-loading never was so much fun!

Knowing today was only 10-12 miles, mostly flat, we got out a little after 9:00 am. As it is every day, the morning was beautiful!

And the trail surfaces we much improved.

Our path brought us to within a mile of the coastline, where an ancient Roman port city, Luni, used to be located. All that remains are some ruins, like this old amphitheater

Before falling into ruins, this amphitheater held 9,000 people, enough for when the Golden State Warriors were in town!

A we approached the town where we are staying tonight, we noticed that the mountains looked like snow! It’s not actually snow, but rather Carrara marble, which has been mined here for millennia (Roman times).

In Avenza, where we are staying, all the main street sidewalks are made of marble! Wow!

Ciao for now!