pilgrim Archives - Page 3 of 3 - Cruisin with the Colemans

Gluten is Not My Friend

Posted on June 10, 2022 by Cruisin Michelle

Oh how I wish we were the best of friends. The pastries, the pizza, the pasta, the bread, Lord have mercy, the bread. I want to have a relationship with these foods like no other relationship I have had before. Sorry, Brian but you get me.

I don’t want to linger on this discussion because I made a decision many years ago that my life will not be defined by whether or not I eat gluten. But I do think it’s an important topic for those who care to understand how I manage my food allergy.

Let me take you back to our first pilgrimage in 2017 on the Camino Frances in Spain. I ate zero gluten the entire trip and, with regards to food, I was miserable. I hated missing out, I hated have to explain my food allergy to every sweet person trying to give food to a hungry pilgrim, but most of all I hated being defined by my food allergy.

In 2019 when we walked part of the Camino France and all of the Camino Portuguese, I decided food allergy be dammed, I am eating whatever I want. LOL My body said, “Oh you want to play that game, let me show you who’s really in charge.” Guess what? It’s not the mind, it’s the stomach. I paid a hefty price on that pilgrimage. I had breathing issues, anxiety, and the horrific, constant wheat belly. When I eat gluten, my belly protrudes and makes me look very round in the middle until is processes through my body at a snails pace as it impacts my breathing. I didn’t want to believe the gluten was to blame, denial was much easier to manage.

Fast forward to when we decided to go on another pilgrimage. I spent the year working with my doctor to ensure my heart and lungs were functioning well (since I developed breathing issues). I got a colonoscopy where my doctor did two different tests for celiac disease. He confirmed that I do not have celiac disease. Well, there’s a win!

I went to my allergy doctor, we decided to go ahead with a food allergy test. Guess what? Dang it, it was confirmed that I am allergic to wheat. Not the, “you will go into anaphylactic shock,” type of allergy but one step down, a moderate allergy. I already knew that but my mind needed the confirmation. Now what? I am going to Italy! I am eating the pasta! Ughh!! But I will not let my food allergy define me.

I did some research and found a gluten relief pill to help ease the pain my body goes through to process wheat. Click here to see what I use.* It’s not a perfect system, but as long as I take it before I eat wheat, my body processes it a bit faster. I still have a bit of breathing issue and my belly still protrudes some but it helps the wheat process faster.

On pilgrimage, the greatest problem is that we are at the mercy of those who are providing food for us. Some places we stay only have bread and coffee for breakfast as that is typical for Italians. I am not going to hike on coffee alone. See my blog, “I’m Hungry and I Don’t Want to Talk About It.” Therefore, I avoid gluten when I can, I take the preventative pill and eat it when I have to do so.

Life is a delicate balance of choices whether you have a food allergy or not. Sometimes we eat too much, drink too much, and that’s just life. My allergy will not define me, it’s just part of the consideration when I make choices. I can feel a life lesson in there, can you?

On this day, I found gluten free snacks! And a cappuccino with chocolate. 🥳

*We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

VF Day 1: Jet Lag, Eminent Rain, and Walking

Posted on June 1, 2022 by Cruisin Michelle

I should be asleep right now. It’s 1:30 a.m. There’s rain coming in at 11:00 a.m. so we have to start walking early. I definitely should be asleep. Unfortunately my body is still adjusting to the 6 hour time zone change and I’m restless with anticipation of the pilgrimage we’re embarking on.

I try to be productive with my time. I start by reading the book I have downloaded on my phone because if I’m genuinely tired that usually does the trick. If that doesn’t work, I play the most boring game I have on my phone, solitaire. It’s the modern equivalent of counting sheep. When neither of those work, I blog. So here I am, it’s 2 a.m.

Hopefully this won’t happen too often. Sheer exhaustion from the walking should allow me to sleep well. However, I’m a post-menopausal woman which means sleep doesn’t always come swiftly.

The morning comes and we are ready for breakfast at 7:00 a.m. I think I had about 3 1/2-4 hours of sleep. We enjoy our first pilgrim breakfast in Switzerland. I had yogurt with granola and a cappuccino. Brian had cereal with milk, yogurt, and a cappuccino. There was bread, meat, and cheese that we packed up for today’s snack.

We have a short 12 km walk and we picked the flat route. A pilgrimage is what you make of it. We are in the first leg of a marathon. The goal is Rome. The goal is also that we make it to Rome healthy, no lasting damage to our bodies, and we have a long way to go.

It’s a beautiful day. We’re on the official VF route for about 6 of the 12 km, a gorgeous bike path for all of the walk. I am thrilled today is easy because we have some extremely challenging days ahead to get over the Grand St. Bernard Pass of the Swiss Alps.

We arrive at the Abbey of St. Maurice a little before noon. Wow, that was quick! Fortunately, they allow us to check in. We take advantage of how we feel and tour the Abbey. It is stunning. Check our YouTube channel for videos as we will share a bit about the Abbey in our video.

Then comes the wait. It’s mid-afternoon and everything closes for a type of siesta. Fortunately the bar is open and it has wi-fi so we enjoy a glass while we catch up on a bit of necessary work.

It’s decision time. The restaurant opens at 1800 (6 p.m.) which is the same time as mass. Mass is all in Latin and French. The decision is made because we just heard from the Geneva airport, our bag was found and they will be delivering it tonight between 8-10 p.m. Sounds like we need to go to mass and then head to dinner so we will still be awake when the delivery driver arrives.

The mass was interesting, a lot of Gregorian chanting. We didn’t understand much but wow was is beautiful to listen to. No pilgrim blessing as we sometimes experience.

Dinner was pizza. It was good meal but I know we’re going to have a lot of pizza.

Tomorrow we’ll have breakfast with, hopefully, the sarcastic Father who doesn’t speak English but showed us to our room. I’m also hoping for a blessing. We need it. We start a small climb up today, then we have 3 days of intense climbing. It’s also supposed to rain for the next 3 days. Please lift a prayer.

By the way, our hiking poles/umbrellas arrived by a courier from the airport at midnight. At least we have them. if you haven’t already, make sure you check out our YouTube channel because we’ll will have a lot more details and stunning video of our walk.

Check out the video on YouTube!

Stats for today:

Walked from Aigle to Saint-Maurice – 12 km
Lodging at the Abbey of Saint-Maurice – 60 franks
Abbey Tour – 24 franks

Ohio Camino Day 7, The Final Day

Posted on April 1, 2022 by Cruisin Michelle

As I sit in our hotel in Newport, Kentucky overlooking the Ohio River, I can’t believe we just accomplished this goal. I knew we were able but until you do something like this you just don’t know how it will go.

I’m thankful to be warm. The crazy part is I am confident we will complain about it being too hot at some point this summer. We’ll probably complain more than once. We don’t like to complain. It’s just the nature of weather, right? It’s typically either too hot or too cold. It tugs at my positive personality to complain, but alas, sometimes Mother Nature really pushes back to make me more realistic.

In today’s YouTube video we talk about our takeaways from our 7 day adventure walking the Little Miami Scenic Trail from Springfield, Ohio to Newport, Kentucky.

Today we walked on the Ohio to Erie trail through downtown Cincinnati. We walked through some stunning neighborhoods, walking past homes we can never afford, and over the 150 year old Purple People Bridge to Newport on the Levee.

Impressive homes on the Ohio River and the Purple People Bridge to Newport

Thank you for following our adventure. Today’s mileage was 10 miles on the nose for a total of 70.3 miles of walking and 15 miles of trail magic via friends and ride share.

Ohio Camino Day 3

Posted on March 28, 2022 by Cruisin Michelle

Glorious day 3, oh how glorious you are for getting us back on track. We slept like babies, awoke with a renewed spirit, our legs were miraculously healed overnight, and as a bonus, the sun was shining.

In 3 days we have covered over 30 miles, with almost half of that mileage being today. We walked from Xenia to Corwin on the Little Miami Scenic Trail. It was a long one today coming in at 14.4 miles. But, honestly, it was easy overall. Our spirits were up, the views improved, and we have great company tonight with fellow Dayton Hiker friends, Mary & Mike.

Don’t get me wrong, our legs aches, I have Compeed (like mole skin but better) on a few hot spots on my feet, and we need to go to bed soon in order to do this all again. But today was great and even better as we continue to be with kind people who are able to put us up for the night. We wanted a pilgrim experience and we’re getting it. Yay!

There were flowers on the trail, a few great pit stops, we wandered by a lake, and had a fabulous lunch at Slim’s in Spring Valley.

A pit stop in Spring Valley and Brian taking video of flowers on the trail

This trail is officially an Ohio State Park, but the cool part is that some of it overlaps with the Buckeye Trail, the North Country Trail, and the American Discovery Trail. Ohio is a great trail state with more hiking, walking, and biking opportunities than many realize. The signage on the trail is great, you won’t get lost if you know what you’re looking for along the way. If you want to practice for a big trip like us or you just like long distance hiking, Ohio is the state to be in!

Today’s mileage: 14.4 miles. The cost came in at only $26.54 for lunch. We are beyond blessed that Mary made us a delicious dinner and has already mentioned coffee cake for breakfast. I will have sugar plum dreams in anticipation!

Ohio Camino Day 2

Posted on March 27, 2022 by Cruisin Michelle

The sun teased us a few times today but the cold air never gave us a break. I hate trusting a forecast only to be disappointed by it.

The 2nd day of walking is always harder. Momentum doesn’t come as easy as the first days adrenaline rush. The aches and pains start to kick in. The “what were we thinking when we planned something like this in an Ohio Spring” thoughts flow in and out of our minds all day.

Then there are the lack of views or distractions for the mind to toss around. Today we completed the stretch between Yellow Springs and Xenia on the Little Miami Scenic Bike Trail. It’s an easy walk, thank goodness, but don’t walk it for the views. Haha

We know how to hike in cold weather. We actually love hiking in the cold. We actually lead a hiking challenge over the winter months. This weeks challenge with the cold is two-fold. First, the forecast didn’t say it was going to be this cold. Have I mentioned that? Grrr…. Second, the wind was not supposed to be this intense. I’m trying not to complain, we are blessed to be able to do this, it’s just hard to be cold. Maybe the last two years have made us weak. Haha

Views from the Little Miami Trail from Yellow Springs to Xenia

Tonight we are lucky enough to have free lodging. Our host is a fellow member of our Dayton Hikers group. The generosity of others makes this feel even more like a Camino and that is the best feeling ever.

Our two stops for today: Nick’s Restaurant and the Xenia Station

For as many years as we have walked/biked this trail, we’ve never stopped at Nick’s Restaurant on the north side of Xenia. It’s right on the trail and in the summer their outdoor patio taunts us. Today we stopped and they did not disappoint our empty stomachs. Try the spin dip!

Tonight, we shared hiking stories with our host. We piddled away at documenting memories to the blog and YouTube. The YouTube video (linked below) includes a segment on our gear. My backpack is a Gregory Jade 38L, Brian’s is an Osprey 48L. We share with you what we carry in our packs so look for that video on our YouTube channel .

The goal of this adventure is to be more prepared for our walk on the Via Francigena. I know we are already one step closer to that goal as we’ve learned so much already. Who knows where the next 6 days will take us but we excited to share with you.

Focusing on one day at a day, I know this: We need to stretch – a lot – before we go to sleep. Tomorrow we will rise again. We will pray for more sunshine and less wind. We pray you enjoy following along. Please lift some love up for us, we appreciate it.

Totals for today: 9.54 miles; $118.38 for meals, lodging is free. 🙌🏼

The Camino on YouTube

Posted on July 25, 2019 by CruisinColemans

We haven’t been blogging this summer but we’ve been posting about two videos a week about our Camino adventures. Have you checked them out? We’d love to share our Camino with you! Go to YouTube.com/CruisinwiththeColemans to catch up on our videos.

We walked about 300 kilometers on the Camino Frances from León to Santiago in June. Then we flew down to Lisbon, Portugal to complete the Camino Portuguese. We rode bikes from Lisbon to Porto, walked the coastal route from Porto to Caminha, took a boat over to Tui, then finished by walking Tui to Santiago. We arrived in Santiago on July 24th to enjoy the beginnings of the Feast of St. James.

We have one more adventure before we say goodbye to the Camino. We will leave on July 27 to walk to Muxia and then walk on to Finisterre.

You can follow the remainder of our journey on Instagram and Facebook. Our YouYube channel is a few weeks behind where we are now but they are worth the wait for sure!

For now we say, “Buen Camino,” and we will see you when we’re blogging again this fall.

He Said, She Said: 5 Questions on el Camino de Santiago

Posted on May 8, 2019 by CruisinColemans

As the school year winds to a close, we are getting very excited about our upcoming trek on the Camino de Santiago. As you probably already know, in 2017 we hiked the 550 mile Camino Frances from Saint Jean-Pied-de-Port to Santiago and then on to Finisterre. This summer we will be repeating part of that trek, walking from Leon to Santiago but also walking the Camino Portuguese from Lisbon to Santiago and the Camino Fisterre, walking from Santiago to Muxia to Finisterre and back to Santiago for a total of 1,162 km (722 miles) over a two month period. Today we bring you “his” thoughts and “her” thoughts about our upcoming adventure as we answer the top five questions that we hear most often.

What are you most excited about?

Brian: Revisiting some of our favorite cities (such as Astorga and O’Cebreiro) along the Camino Frances is really exciting but I am most looking forward to being back in Santiago on Feast Day. Seeing the fiesta from a pilgrim’s perspective was a great experience and getting to participate again now that the exterior of the Cathedral is finished is going to be awesome.

The opening of the Festival at the Cathedral in Santiago

Michelle: I agree that seeing the Fiesta in Santiago again will be fantastic, especially since the Cathedral is complete on the outside so I hope the projections will be on the Cathedral this year. But, ultimately, I am most excited about walking every day with friends! Walking next to my best friend, meeting new friends, meeting up with an old friend in Portugal, and sharing this incredible moment in time with so many other pilgrims.

What are you most nervous about?

Brian: On the Camino Frances we were averaging about 13 miles a day with frequent stops every 5-8 km. In Portugal, the villages are further apart and our days will be significantly longer with an average of 16 miles a day. Add to that the fact that we are further south and the summer heat can be brutal, I think there is plenty to be nervous about!

Michelle: Yes, what he said! I am nervous about how early we will have to get up in the morning to beat the heat. Also, the last time we walked the Camino, we were so lucky with the rain. It only rained twice while we were walking the entire summer. I am hoping for cooler temperatures and the rain is tolerable. But, what I am most nervous about, and it’s something I haven’t shared with people who don’t see me in person. I injured my foot when we were in Gatlinburg in March. I have been walking with a boot because of two stress fractures on the top of my foot. The doctor said I will be healed by the end of May and can do light walking until we leave on June 10th. Unfortunately, I fear re-injury. However, we have accepted that we may need to taxi ahead and accommodate as needed. There is magic on the Camino and I am praying some healing magic comes my way. Brian is quite patient and we always have each others back in tough situations like this one. Safety is always goal number one.

What village are you most looking forward to?

Brian: Duh, Porto, the home of Port wine! We plan to do plenty of Port tasting while we are there. I’m also really excited about Tomar. While we are there, the Fiesta de los Tabuleiros will be happening. The Festival of Trays only takes place every four years and just happens to coincide with our layover. For me, one of the primary reasons for hiking the Camino is to experience the local culture and big festivals are a great way to meet locals.

Michelle: Mmmmm port, tinto, cheese, pastries, festivals. Let me dream about all of that for a moment! I don’t have one particular village in mind but I am excited that the first and last legs of our trip will be a repeat of some of our favorite spots. I love Foncebadón because it’s this super tiny village that many pilgrims stay at in order to hike to Cruz de Ferro at sunrise. O Cebreiro is another tiny village that we couldn’t stay at last time because they didn’t have any rooms, I am looking forward to staying there this time. If the village is tiny, I am looking forward to it. The big cities overwhelm me because Brian wants to walk them! Haha

What are you doing differently this time?

Brian: My packing list is a little different this time. I’m taking less clothing and getting rid of some of the same extras that Michelle mentions below. I’ve decided to take a dice game (Farkle) for evenings in the albergue (but to save weight, I’ve created an online score sheet on Google Drive). I also have some new camera gear that you can read more about in the next question.

Michelle: I am taking a smaller pack going from 48 liters to 36 liters. I am not taking a sleeping liner or towel because we will be in private rooms and they are provided for you. The biggest thing I am doing differently, beyond the “stuff,” is a shift in attitude. I was overwhelmed last time. This is a big adventure, far from home, where nobody speaks your language (or so I thought). I didn’t know if we could do it. This time, I know we can. I am more open to the relationships that form on the Camino. I am open to whatever food we eat as a pilgrim. I am open to the entire experience, in a way that I was not before. What a blessing.

What is the most essential piece of gear you are taking?

Brian: Because we are documenting this trip more actively on YouTube and our blog (we hope), my gear is probably the most essential equipment. I’ve found new trekking poles that can double as a monopod and I have a gimbal to help with better video quality. I’ll also be bringing a boom mic for voice-overs. All of the videos will be shot on a new iPhone X that I’ll be upgrading to in the coming weeks.

Michelle: I am adding extra shoe insoles because mine were quite beaten up last time. Finally, as of this moment and this could change, I am taking 3 pairs of shoes to help manage my foot problems. I am taking my Merrell Moab 2 hiking shoes and my New Balance 880 tennis shoes which I will switch between during the day, and then my Chacos for evenings and rest days. Again, we’ll see but I have to figure out how to manage my foot problems.

There you have it, another edition of He Said, She Said. We are just counting down the days, practicing our tinto arm, making sure we have all of our gear, purging as much as possible, and most importantly wrapping up the school year so when we return we will be ready to start another year. Do you still have a lingering question about the Camino? Leave a comment below! Your question may just show up in our next He Said, She Said blog post.

Outside the Templar castle in Ponferrada

If you haven’t already, make sure you click the subscribe button on our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/cruisinwiththecolemans and click on the bell so you will be notified when a video is posted.

Five Steps to Planning our 2019 Camino

Posted on October 24, 2018 by Cruisin Michelle

I can’t wait anymore – I have to talk about the Camino! There is so much to say! This is the first of several blog posts over the coming months on the subject of the Camino de Santiago. We hiked the Camino Frances in 2017 which was a life-changing experience for both of our adventurous spirits. Many times we had heard the phrase, “you never hike the Camino just once,” but we had no idea what it meant until the draw of the Camino pulled us so hard we could not resist it. I have to admit, I am still shocked at how much I want to go back and hike the Camino again. Brian felt the same draw to go back, but he wasn’t as surprised as I was. There will be more on the reasons we both felt the draw in future blog posts.
Let me begin by telling you some people decide to hike the Camino and don’t plan a thing. This is not who we are, we like to plan, I can go so far as to say we love to plan. Spreadsheets are life to us! For us, the spreadsheet takes something that can be quite intimidating – hiking across a country – and making it more manageable. Our spreadsheet broke down the 550 miles trek into small sections so we had more confidence and set achievable goals. All of that being said, we have a lot of respect for the many thousands of people who complete the Camino annually without any planning. There is something to be said about just picking up and going, just because it is not for us doesn’t mean we don’t admire those who do.
It was about May 2018 when we both finally admitted to one another that we wanted to go back to the Camino; it was less than a year from being back in the states from our Camino 2017. I remember where we were standing in the new house we just purchased in April 2018 when we admitted our desire to hike the Camino again because my heart skipped a few beats. It took a few months to make any progress on that decision, mainly because we were in the midst of preparing for our son’s wedding and our summer 2018 adventure but we knew we were going! We plan the details of our next big summer adventure the moment we finish the adventure we are on and often while we are on the current summer adventure. So in September 2018, the real planning began. Determining when we are going to travel is not a step for us because we are teachers so we know that we’re traveling in June and July whether we like it or not. With that being said, before I outline the steps we have taken thus far, I strongly encourage you to join the American Pilgrims on the Camino Facebook group. With over 18,000 members, everything and anything you need to know to plan your Camino is in that group! Ok, without further delay, here are the steps we have taken thus far to plan our Camino 2019:
Monitor International Flight Prices
I cannot tell you how important it is to sign up for some sort of flight monitoring website. We signed up for a few and the winner of finding our cheap airfare was Scott’s Cheap Flights. You can pay up to about $1500 a person to fly internationally but with a bit of legwork, you can fly a lot cheaper. A couple weeks ago, I received an email from Scott’s Cheap Flights that Air Portugal was having a great sale so did further investigating and found great prices. If you are willing to fly from one of the main hubs (we picked Boston), they had round-trip tickets as cheap as $300. This means we still need to get to Boston, but we will monitor flights until we find a good price to get to Boston.
Determine the Route
Next, you need to determine which of the Camino de Santiago routes you will choose to hike. The most popular and the one we did in 2017 is the Camino Frances. Many people are inspired to hike the Camino Frances because of the 2010 movie, The Way, starring Martin Sheen, and we were no different. The moment we saw this movie we knew it was a bucket list adventure, and it only took us seven more years to get there.

This time we are going to hike the Camino Portugués which is 640 kilometers. Since we have the time, and we want to go back, we are going to hike part of the Camino Francés from Leon to Santiago. Finally, we are going to hike the “extra loop” to the “end of the Earth” which is Santiago de Compostela to Finisterre to Muxia and back to Santiago. We hiked to the end of the Earth in 2017 to celebrate our anniversary but this time we want to complete the loop and go on to Muxia and then walk back to Santiago. Our total hiking mileage is coming it at 1162.3 kilometers. This is epic for us! The last time we were there we had 38 hiking days, averaging about 14 miles a day. This time we will hike 44 days and average 26.4 kilometers or 16.4 miles a day. We like a challenge – and well – we have one before us!
Buy Guidebooks
There are several guidebooks out there about the Camino and we have two favorites. The first, and most popular, guidebooks are by John Brierly and you can find any of his books on Amazon. This is the basis for our spreadsheet and provided us with everything we needed to know about hiking the Camino from villages, distances, terrain, details about where to stay, and notes of stuff to watch out for as you travel. Many people carry his book with them on the Camino and just rip out pages as they don’t need them anymore or they have the electronic version on their Kindle.
The second guidebook we use is the Village to Village guidebook by Anna Dintaman and Matthew Harms, their books can also be found on Amazon. You should also check out their website too. It has been a great resource for planning where to stay, what to wear, what to take, and has links or email addresses to albergues.
Buy your guidebooks about 6-8 months before you leave. You don’t want to buy them too early because you want the latest edition; however, you want to buy them early enough to have the time to read the books so you can, at least, mentally prepare for this undertaking.
Make Spreadsheet
Disclosure: We were not the original creators of this massive spreadsheet! One of our fellow Ohio APOC friends, Greg, created this spreadsheet and shared it with us. We have shared it with others so as to pay it forward because if you are a planner, this spreadsheet is amazing!
Ok, here is where we went crazy! But you need to know that we plan our summer adventures with this type of spreadsheet every year. Our rationale is that when we are gone for two months, we need a spreadsheet to ensure we meet our goals for the adventure.

For our first Camino, we were not going to plan anything because we heard that most people don’t plan their daily goals on the Camino. It was about five months before we left for the Camino when we decided the no-planning philosophy was not going to work for us. There were a few determining factors going on here – (1) we have to travel during the busiest season, (2) we heard stories of people coming into a village and there were no rooms left (and we saw this happen!!), (3) we wanted to know where we were sleeping each night even if we had to bus ahead due to illness or injury, and finally most importantly, (4) our minds were at ease the moment we started planning our stays. For us, the spreadsheet is our lifeline and we love having it. Would we ever go without one? We could, yes. If we were only going for a couple of weeks, a good possibility, yes. If we weren’t going during the busy season, possibly. It is all a matter of preference.
Training Time
If you have the time, we would strongly encourage you to start walking! Walk 5, 8, 10 miles at a time as much as you can, build up to longer walks whatever that looks like for you. Start where you are comfortable to prevent injury. Since we are still about seven months out, we are walking once or twice during the week and have one long walk on the weekends. Do what works in your schedule. If you can get consecutive long walking days in, that would be perfect for your training! If you have any old Roman roads in our neighborhood, walk on them! Haha But seriously, do not go for a walk in the woods, which is what we would normally be doing. Walk on gravel roads, brick roads, pavement, anything to toughen up your feet. Carry a backpack with about 12-15 pounds in it during the last couple months of your training. I will talk about gear, I promise, in another Camino post! For now, here are a few more big suggestions to train for your Camino:

See your podiatrist and get insoles. They saved our feet! You have to find the shoes and insoles that work for your feet. It is critical. We both love Merrell shoes and insoles that are fitted for our feet.
Know how to care for blisters (see the APOC Facebook group, everyone has an opinion on what to do)
Do lunges and squats, just 10-20 a day, 3-4 days a week. Your knees will thank you for that specific training, I promise you!
Have your backpack fitted, we went to REI and both love our packs for different reasons.
When you know what you are going to wear on the Camino, wear it in your training. You want to minimize gear surprises.

Don’t overthink the training, just walk. There are people of all ages, backgrounds, and fitness levels on the Camino. We met two 12-year-old girls hiking the Camino, lots of 20, 30, and 40 something folks, and even more 50, 60, 70+ folks walking the Camino. If you can walk, you can walk the Camino. Even if you can’t walk the Camino will provide, see the 2017 movie, I’ll Push You if you need the motivation to walk the Camino.
Extra Step: Making Reservations
This step is not for everyone but it certainly made our Camino the most “relaxing” adventure we have ever had! I referenced making reservations in the “Creating the Spreadsheet” point but it needs to be clarified. The site we used to make most of our reservations was Booking.com. It won’t help you with every single reservation, for some villages you will need to email the albergue to make your reservation because they are not on Booking.com.
Before you make your reservations, check out the APOC Facebook group because everyone is talking about various albergues and may provide you with insight about where you want to stay or avoid staying because it does not meet your needs.
I didn’t talk about the budget in this blog, it’s a topic for another post. However, in short, you can spend very little or stay at 5-star hotels throughout your journey. You can find municipal albergues for $3-5 a night. We averaged about $40 a night for a private room. Sometimes that included dinner but often, for us, it did not. I will talk more about our “teacher budget,” this means that we had more resources than a college student but not as much as someone from Corporate America.
There are so many blog posts about the Camino, this is just our point of view from our experience. Read as much as you can before you hike your Camino. It’s your journey, it’s your Camino, make it what you want it to be. As we say on the Camino, Buen Camino!