Walking Day 4: 24 kilometers 34,914 steps We started the day leaving a sleepy Pamplona at 8:30 in a very brisk morning, almost expecting some rain. Thankfully, the rain never came. Pamplona is elevation just under 450 meters (1400 feet), and the main hill today is Alto del Perdón (The Hill of Forgiveness) at over 750 meters (2500 feet), and back down to Puenta la Reina at about the same elevation as Pamplona. So basically […]
Walking Day 3: Zubiri to Pamplona 22 kilometers 31,783 steps Today was a generally flat day compared to the previous two. But even the guidebook elevation diagram showed undulations, up and down, up and down. The climbs, while not nearly as long as the climbs of the last two days, were at times a bit steep. Much of the walk today was in forest or adjacent to forest by fields. And only some very short […]
Walking Day 2: Roncesvalles to Zubiri 23 kilometers, 32,235 steps The guidebook elevation map for today’s walk from Roncesvalles to Zubiri gave the impression that the walk was generally flat or downhill with two or three short climbs. While the guidebook was not wrong, it is unintentionally just a little misleading. This was a difficult day. The uphill stretches were very steep, most rocky, and some with mud and rocks. The flat or downhill stretches […]
Walking Day 1: Saint Jean Pied de Port, France to Roncesvalles, Spain 25 kilometers 36,044 Steps Today was the first day walking the Camino de Santiago in autumn 2017. The route is over the Pyrenees mountains from Saint Jean Pied de Port in southwestern France (elevation 200 meters, 600 feet) up and over the Pyrenees (high point elevation 1450 meters, 4800 feet) and then down to Roncesvalles in Spain at 1000 meters elevation, 3300 feet. […]
Today is the last day of travel – tomorrow I start walking the Camino Frances route of the Camino de Santiago, starting at a small town of Saint Jean Pied de Port in southwestern France. Saint Jean Pied de Port is a convergence point of three or four ancient routes through France and has become a very popular starting point for the route on the Camino de Santiago called the Camino Frances. The Camino Frances […]
Today was a long, long day of travel. First, there was the drive to Los Angeles International, and though it was Saturday, we encountered some unusual traffic along the way, increasing the stress level more than was needed (I am already anxious, hopefully a healthy mixture of excitement and travel anxiety). I arrived at the International terminal of Los Angeles International at about 12:30, in plenty of time for the flight scheduled to leave at […]
Motivation When I walked the Camino de Santiago in the spring of 2016 my stated motivation was to honor my parents who named me for Saint James. The question of motivation is tricky and can become complicated. Jack Hitt, author of “Off the Road: A Modern-day Walk down the Pilgrim’s Route into Spain,” walked the Camino Frances in the 1980s and again in the 1990s. In an interview with Mr. Hitt on a Camino podcast, […]
Background What follows here is Camino de Santiago background information, much of which I posted in the blog for my walk on the Camino in April 2016. That blog can be seen on this site by clicking on the plus sign in the top left, then at the bottom selecting “Archives” and then “Camino 2016” in the Categories list. If you read that blog, you will find this to be the same general information, slightly […]
Greetings! I am Jim Geier, more precisely (and legally) I am James Christopher Geier, having been named after both Saint James and Saint Christopher, a strong Catholic name. This blog is a record of my preparing for and walking the Camino Frances route of the Camino de Santiago. I will be starting the walk in Saint Jean Pied de Port in southwestern France, walking 800 km (500 miles) to Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain, in the […]
Saturday, May 28, 2016 Jim’s Pilgrim’s Credential Before the journey home, here is my Pilgrim’s Credential with the stamps I accumulated along the way. The first credential filled and got a second credential. This is also called the pilgrim’s passport. The first two photos are the first pages of the two credentials. both having been stamped at the pilgrim’s office at the cathedral in Santiago. The stamps read Oficina Del Peregrino S.A.M.I Catedral – Santiago […]
Friday, May 27, 2016 The journey home begins, Finisterre to Santiago by Taxi My original plan was to take a bus from Finisterre to Santiago. When I heard that the bus takes 3 and 1/2 hours, I was hoping there would be an alternative. Ben from Taiwan said that he had heard that there were always people wanting to share a taxi from Finisterre to Santiago to avoid the long bus ride. With that in […]
Thursday, May 26, 2016 Cee to Finisterre, the “end of the earth” Walking Day #35, the last. I have completed my 800 kilometer walk on the Camino Frances from Saint Jean Pied de Port in France to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain, followed by 88 kilometers on the Camino Finisterre from Santiago de Compostela to Finisterre. No more 6-7 hours (or more) of walking each day. It is a routine I have adapted […]
James the Intrepid Pilgrim 