On Saturday we left the beautiful province of Asturias to enter Galicia. Asturias –apple capital of Spain, as you will recall — has a stunning coastline and abundant hilly and even mountainous terrain. Naturally, it has an indigenous language (Asturiana), foods and customs. We have been surprised, however, at the extent to which fields of ripening maize adjoin cow pastures almost to the top of the shoreline cliffs.

Ed has been very curious as to how the maize is harvested, so imagine our pleasure when we encountered an active harvesting operation on our last day in the province! In case you are wondering, it turns out that the entire stalks, ripened ears and all, are cut, ground and stored as animal feed.

Leaving Asturias, in which we have walked for 15 days, not only means a nostalgic goodbye, but a somewhat harrowing walk over a long and high highway bridge over the estuary of the River Eo to the beautiful port town of Ribadeo. (The walkway is only wide enough for one person, and the outer rail is only at waist height.)

On the other side, however, we have been rewarded with gorgeous views of the salmon-rich estuary, sea birds and hills and mountains stretching into the distance. Since dawn happens around 8:25 am, we witnessed the sun coming up over the bridge to set the water sparkling.

Only nine more days to Santiago.

A long walk brought us close to Wednesday’s destination of Luarca. We decided to use Ed’s newly acquired Spanish SIM card to find our way through the town rather than directly to Apartamentos La Capitaine. Mistake???

Turning a corner, we gasped at the beautiful little port laid out far below. There had been no hint of the beauty — or elevation change — until that moment.

Naturally, we plunged down the hill to investigate. Later, we were ready to call it a day. We bought some groceries because the apartamento was supposed to have a kitchen and might be a distance from town.

Not only were we on the wrong side of the Rio Negro at this point, but faced another steep climb. And when we arrived, no one was there; the place was locked up tight.

No worries. Ed made a few Spanish phone calls, we waited, and Ángel and Josefa appeared. (It took a while for them to figure out how the stove worked, and meanwhile a concerned neighbor had called the Policía because two suspicious people — us– had been hanging around.) But the evening had a happy ending and we slept well!

We resumed our Camino pilgrimage on September 24 after a rest day. It rained on our rest day and that night. We thought that there might be some mud so both of us wore our water proof/resistant boots. We had another day of up and down but the slopes were not as radical or as many as we experienced on our last walking day. We started late and walked into Cadavedo around 5:00 pm.

We did need our boots. See attached photos of parts of the trail. We had barro (mud), brambles, and beaches as we walked.
We checked into our hotel. No wifi.

We went out to the only restaurant in town and had a variation of the “Pilgrim Menu”. It was filling. There was a great sunset

Tomorrow we walk to Luarca.

Home Sweet Home

What a change! From warm and sunny Rome to cool and damp (one might say, CHILLY) Northern Ireland. But we have been enveloped in the warmth and hospitality of Mary, Ed’s second cousin on his mother’s side, and Mary’s husband Tony. Ed and I first met Mary and Tony in 1989 when Ed’s brother, Bill, the Muldoon…

by Anne Li October 25, 2025October 25, 2025

Eternal City and Other Cities

Our beloved Pope Francis declared 2025 a Jubilee Year of forgiveness, love and joy. So we knew that Rome would be especially crowded with pilgrims… but we were not prepared for the sizes of the crowds we encountered. We visited Rome twice on this trip — once to catch the Ryanair flight to Dubrovnik, and…

by Anne Li October 19, 2025October 20, 2025

Crossing to Croatia and the Eastern Adriatic

To explain why we went to Dubrovnik, go back in your mind to the pre-Covid era. At that time, Ed and I had begun to plan a rail trip to parts of Central Europe (formerly known as Eastern Europe) that we had never visited. Since those plans were quashed by the pandemic, more recently we…

by Anne Li October 12, 2025October 25, 2025

We walked from Muros de Nalon to Soto de Luina today. It was a very difficult walk. It was about 16 – 17 km but it was up and down hills all day long. Most had very steep slopes of 10°, 20°, and some were 30° and more. The path was filled with loose rocks and stones, many roots, leaves and in places, mud (barro). Our legs are really tired. Today was the 6th day in a row that we walked, so we are glad to have a scheduled rest day! Not to mention rain in the forecast…

Our approach to each day is to start around 10:00 am and to walk without stopping for rest until we get to our destination. Today we walked for about 6.25 hours. We carry food and water and stop only to take a drink or get the food out of the backpacks. If we were to stop longer and sit down our joints would stiffen up. Experience tells us that it takes a while to get loose again, so we just don’t stop.

We are almost half way to Santiago. We will walk 5 days in a row starting on Tuesday. Then a day off. Next we walk 4 days and then take a day off. Then we walk for 3 days and walk into Santiago de Campostela on the last day of this Camino.

We felt impelled to take a detour off the Camino del Norte to visit Oviedo, one of the most storied locations in Spain. The cathedral (seen above) is wonderful. Its huge altarpiece presents 23 scenes of the Life of Jesus and the Virgin which are more brilliant and eloquent than any movie or video. Its Sacred Chamber holds many priceless relics. Although bombed at least twice (once during the Civil War and later by anarchists) its antechamber is decorated with wonderful stone sculptures of the Apostles talking, two by two.

Artists from Burgos, our favorite city along the Camino Frances, were brought in to decorate Oviedo’s cathedral. The Apostles chamber has been compared to the Portico della Gloria of the Cathedral of Santiago de Campostela. We are anxious to see that Portico on this Camino: it will be our third try as it had been under major restoration during both our previous visits.

God is smiling on us during our Camino. First, the weather has been almost completely dry and there has been very little mud (“la boue” in France, fango in Italy and barro in Spain). Second, the circus has been following us from one small town to another, and then our overnights have coincided with the town’s major annual festival three different times. (Lots of fireworks and drinking.)

Most significantly, when we inquired about mass last night in Oviedo, we learned that it was the penultimate night of the sacred week during which worshippers at Oviedo receive a plenary indulgence. If you don’t know what that means, let’s just say that we are very lucky, indeed.

We had to catch a bus yesterday. The photo above shows Ed waiting at the stop. A sliver of the Atlantic ocean –actually, the Bay of Biscay– can be seen in the distance. The man who walked by was a local farmer (retired) using a staff.

After starting with a heavy downpour, the day turned partly sunny and very humid. While southern Spain has suffered from huge rains and floods, our northern slice has been blessed with good weather. There are still a stunning variety of wildflowers and only a few traces of autumn, seen in the bountiful apples, pumpkins and tomatoes we pass on the road.

A long and steep climb was rewarded with a visit to one of the oldest churches on the Camino. In San Salvador at the top of the hill in tiny La Priesca, 9th century frescoes can still be seen. The colors and shapes are faded but lovely. It’s amazing that they have survived more than 1,000 years, despite the local humidity!

Today, September 17, we walked to La Isla. Most of the walk was near to the sea and on paths – not on pavement. We have walked for 6 days, about 90 Km, and taken trains or bus or taxi about 45 Km. 

We spent our first rest day in Ribadesella yesterday and met our Camino friends Julio and Luz there for dinner. What a great coincidence that they were having a short vacation from their home in Madrid and were in Ribadesella when we arrived. We are looking forward to seeing them again in Madrid in early October.

The paths from Santander has been over hilly terrain and our legs have been tired at the end of each day. After yesterday’s rest day we were in better shape today and our legs seems to be getting used to the daily distances.

Walking today in rural Asturias away from any highways was quiet. We heard the bells from cows and sheep as we passed the farms. We heard birds singing and water running in the streams as we passed. The waves from the Atlantic greeted when we were close to the ocean. It was a quiet, peaceful day. 

We think of Mary MacDonald every day as we walk. We are also thinking of all our family and friends. In the peaceful and quiet time we are enjoying we are able to say prayers for all, to remember each one of you, see your faces and think of the good times we have shared.

Life is good on the Camino. No distractions. No rain so far. No significant barro (mud) yet. Good weather.

We will be walking to Oviedo this week. That was a  very important place in the history of Spain.

Our friend, Rafa, who had given us so many wonderful suggestions for our journeys through Spain, urged us while in Comillas (end of Day 2) not to miss el Capricho de Gaudi. This residence, one of the artist’s early creations, was dubbed by the locals as Caprice of Gaudi because it seemed so fanciful and impractical.

Crowned with a minaret and covered with bright sunflowers, the house is a burst of color and curving lines. Inside, it is amazingly practical and comfortable, with innovations like double-hung windows whose counterweights play musical tones and interior shutters that roll into curved cases like sidewise roll top desks.

Tragically, the wealthy lawyer, Massimo, who commissioned the house, lived there only one week before succumbing to illness. Massimo was an “Indiano,” an to immigrant to Spain from the New World (probably Cuba). So here in Comillas we see a century and half old example of the persistence and creative benefits of human migration.

Gaudi loved and appreciated the beauty of Islamic culture and art and married Islamic elements with Western European to create loveliness and joy.

We have completed Day 3 of our Camino del Norte.Thanks to Ed’s excellent planning, we started out with an easy stage of 11 kms by taking a commuter train out of Santander to Requejada and then walking to Santillana del Mar, which is a lovely village that has been largely restored just within the last 20 years. Sadly, the wonderful 12th century church has not received needed attention. As we knelt in worship, an alarming amount of crumbling rock and mortar ground beneath our knees and seats. Gaping cracks were opened in the back wall.Among scores of ancient Camino churches where we have celebrated the Eucharist, this was in the worst condition.On Day 2 we wound our way up and down hills, near and far from the coast. That night we slept to the sound of the surf and woke to a band of dusky pink reflected from the sunrise into the western sky. Knowing that our needs will be provided, we started without our pilgrim symbols –the scallop shell signifying the Way of St James– and sure enough, found the very last two shells in a tiny shop tucked into the corner of the Santillana church.Notice the difference between this photo and the one at the top of this post. So we walk on, falling gradually into our pilgrim rhythm and listening to the quiet.

Greetings from Barcelona where it is raining, 51 degrees, and we have a four hour layover until flying onward to Santander to start walking tomorrow. Ed is standing in the photo in front of a sign which I playfully mistranslated as “Tower of Manliness,” holding a shopping bag from Mango Man.

Tomorrow, September 11, is Catalan National Day, but we will narrowly miss the marches and demonstrations by leaving Barcelona and Catalonia for Santander in Cantabria. We did arrive in Barcelona Airport during a labor strike by local security personnel, but so far that hasn’t affected our progress.

Apologies for the quality of the map (above) to illustrate our route. Mostly -but not strictly — we will follow the northernmost red line. In spring 2018 we walked one-quarter of the way down by starting in Lourdes (southwest France) and walking through mud to Irun in the Spanish border. From Irun we walked through Basque Country, including the beautiful seaside town of San Sebastien and the exciting small city of Bilbao and ending in Santander to return to the US for a family wedding.

Tomorrow we will pick up the Way from Santander, wending through the provinces of Cantabria and Asturias into Galicia. This is the ancient Camino del Norte, which is mostly even older than the Camino Frances,”The French Way, ” as is known the main route traveled today by the largest number of pilgrims (overall, 300,000 in 2017).

The Camino del Norte tracks closer to the coast than the equally or surpassingly ancient Camino Primitivo (the “original” or “Primitivo”) route. On the map (above) you can see the Camino Primitivo split off from the Camino del Norte about halfway across Spain. The Camino Frances runs even farther south, through the the agricultural heartlands of La Rioja (wine country) and the huge plateau called La Meseta.

We read that Caminos del Norte and Primitivo followed the tracks of the earliest pilgrims to Santiago de Campostela — starting in the ninth and tenth centuries C.E. — who were hardy pioneers who made their way through unmarked hills and sparsely populated valleys. Those first pilgrims stayed close to the coast to find occasional shelter and board and avoid getting lost. In the 12th century, the Camino de Santiago (the umbrella name for the varied routes to Santiago de Campostela) developed a significant infrastructure of albergues (inns), hostels, bridges, etc along the more southerly Camino Frances route, which had a generally more benign topography.

So today, relatively few pilgrims walk the Camino del Norte. We look forward to quiet, contemplative solitude, stunning scenery and fresh seafood as we take our trekking poles out of their mothballs and start walking tomorrow.

On Day Eight we will take a detour onto the Camino Primitivo to visit the historically significant town of Oviedo (see later posts). After returning to the Camino del Norte, we will take another detour on Day 23 to veer north to visit the famous port of A Coruna, location of the oldest functioning lighthouse in the world.

Although we’ve ended two previous Caminos in Santiago de Campostela (2015 and 2017) we are excited to finish there for a third time on Day 27. We will finally be able to walk through the cathedral’s Portico della Gloria, which had been closed for restoration for years, including both of our previous visits.

After Santiago de Campostela, we look forward to spending a few days with our dear friends in Vigo and then seeing our wonderful Camino friends who live in Madrid. From Madrid we will fly to Jordan and Egypt for our first-ever views of traces of those magnificent civilizations.

END OF ITINERARY.

 Please look in Recent Posts In September for the Dedication to Mary.