And we're off!

Dad drops us off at the airport. We get checked in and wait for the plane. I swear there used to be a Krispy Kreme at the CLT airport, but it seems to not be there anymore. :(

We board the plane and end up sitting on it for an hour past take off. Apparently the plane is "broken" and they are working on "fixing" it. It is so comforting to know that the metal tube that will soon be hurtling through the air at several hundred miles per hour is currently broken and will not be tested before it takes off with you inside. Sigh...

We get to New York... I know we are there because I can see the buildings and we begin circling. The weather is perfect, WTF? After a couple of circles the pilot comes on the intercom and informs us that Obama is flying out of JFK right now and that they have shut down the airspace while they load and take off. Thanks Obama!

We finally land and proceed to eating some Chili's in the JFK airport. In New York it is apparently mandatory that they put the calories of each menu item on the menu. It sure did make me think about what I was ordering. We decided to split a cheeseburger and fries for only like 600 calories each. We finish up and wonder around the airport. I'm waiting on Chris to use the bathroom and I see this guy dressed as I would call "ghettolicious" walking around with two cops and then two more cops following and pointing. I'm thinking to myself "Why?" Chris finishes with the bathroom and we start walking back towards our gate. In the line at the Sbarro, the cops are now taking pictures with this guy. WTF? It then dawns on me...

This guy is Flava Flav. He has the big clock and everything around his neck. Chris wants to go up and ask him to take a picture, but I tell him to let Flava Flav get his pizza in peace.

We load up on the plane and off we go. They serve us dinner on the plane and it is actually a very yummy manicotti and salad and cheese and crackers and dessert. And there is free beer and wine!!!!! Woo hoo!!! I watch Adventureland and The Proposal and try to sleep but it is impossible.

What is the Camino de Santiago?

The Camino de Santiago is a collection of medieval pilgrimage routes to the Cathedral of St. James in Santiago de Compostela.  The most popular route is the Camino Frances which begins in France and traverses Northern Spain to end in Santiago de Compostela.  A fairly complete description is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way_of_St._James

We had actually wanted to hike the West Highland Way in Scotland, but the tickets to Scotland were quite expensive and the exchange rate with the pound was really awful as well.  Delta ended up having a once in a lifetime sale and we discovered we could get round trip tickets to Madrid for $210 each.  That along with me being laid off and having more time than I will ever have again until I retire, sealed the deal for us taking an almost 3 week trip to Spain.  We knew that it would not be enough time to hike the entire route, so we decided to start in Burgos, with an ambitious goal of averaging 35 km per day. 

Once we purchased our tickets.  We requested our "Credencial del Peregrino" from the American Pilgrims on the Camino.  This document would grant us access to the "alburgues", or pilgrim hostels, along the route.  The alburgues are accomidations that only pilgrims can stay in.  They are usually bunkhouse style and cost 3-10 Euros a night per person.  The credencial also serves as a record of places that you visit.  You can get "sellos" (stamps) from alburgues, bars, churches, town halls, random citizens, etc. and it serves as proof of your travels.

Since we were walking and needed to carry everything at all times, we packed light.  Only 1 change of clothes, our fleece sleeping bags, rain gear, and only the bare essentials went into our packs.  The base weight of our packs (without any water or food) was about 13 lbs. for Chris and about 14 lbs. for Rachel.

The only thing that I can equate the camino to in the U.S. is the Appalachain Trail.  But the camino is not wilderness hiking like the Appalachian Trail, and it is much, much, much more popular than the AT.  We went through towns on average of every 5 to 10 km.  We stayed in the alburgues and "hostals" (cheap hotels) along the way.  We ate in restaraunts and bought snacks from grocery stores.  The Camino is extremely popular in Europe, but apparantly not that many Americans do it.  Other pilgrims often commented that we were the first Americans that they had met on the camino.

This blog is a typed up version of the journal we kept while hiking and the pictures that we took along the way, supplemented with some pictures and info from the internet.

This is a map of all the routes across Europe

Here is a map of the Camino Frances.  We started in Burgos.