Country tasting

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Hello everyone!

We have been back in the U.S. for a bit over a month and we are tying up the loose ends of our move to San Francisco. But before too much time goes by, we wanted to share with you the final part of our trip – we were too busy walking 300km across Spain and enjoying sweets in Portugal to spend some long hours in a hot internet café along the way.

Singapore

We wrote our last post in Singapore, a city/country that has some of the best variety of food we have encountered. While we were there, we ate delicious food from Malaysia, India, Korea, Japan, Morocco, China, Thailand, Turkey and Italy! Singapore was hot, not only in temperature, but also in architecture! For example, if you Google the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, your jaw will drop like ours did when we saw it. Walking around Singapore was like stepping into a futuristic movie! The city is super modern. For example, there are solar powered gigantic fans in the street for people to cool off, and fully automated light rail trains that operate without drivers.

Dubai

From Singapore the plan was to fly to Paris, but we ended up with an unplanned 1-day stop in Dubai. While on a city tour in Dubai we saw some of its very impressive claims to fame. They have the tallest building in the world, the only 7-star hotel in the world, the largest mall in the world (sorry Mall of America, you’ve been outdone!), and the largest indoor ski slope, just to name a few. We also had the chance to dip our toes in the really warm Persian Gulf of the Arabian Sea!

Paris

We spent a lovely day and a half walking in Paris in great fall weather. We also met our new Parisian friends (who we had met in Indonesia two weeks earlier). We had a lovely time with them enjoying one of Paris’s many sidewalk cafes (and it was great to see our friends roll their eyes at the “Frenchness” of our waiter!). From here we sent out a box back home with all of our clothes, keeping only the essentials needed for the Camino!

Biarritz

From Paris we took a first class train (thanks for the free upgrade TGV!) to Biarritz, a ritzy beach town on the Atlantic in southwestern France. We arrived there on a cold, rainy night – I guess we were finally getting the cold weather we had been dreaming of!

In Biarritz we walked around and were forced into prolonged coffee breaks as storms kept rolling in from the Atlantic. We walked along the waterfront and around the mansions and what used to be the vacation homes of people like Josephine (Napoleon’s wife!). We also saw some hardcore surfers take on the wild waves of the roaring Atlantic in the same beach where beginners were learning how to stand on a board. After our second day in Biarritz, we jumped on a half-hour bus to Bayonne and then on a one-hour train to St. Jean Pied du Port, the town from which we started the Camino.

Camino de Santiago de Compostela

The Camino de Santiago is a pilgrimage that millions of people have taken for over a thousand years. The destination is Santiago de Compostela in the northwestern corner of Spain, the place where a man reported discovering the remains of Saint Jacob in the mid Ninth Century. Since the discovery, pilgrims have journeyed to Santiago de Compostela. There are many routes, but the classic one was the route we began, from St. Jean Pied du Port, France, across the northern Spanish countryside to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. You follow yellow painted arrows along a footpath from town to town (occasionally a city) across almost the entire country. It traditionally takes 33 days on foot to cover the 800 km (500 miles). That’s about 15 miles a day! And carrying all of your clothes, gear, the day’s food, and a sleeping bag!

We walked the Camino for 12 days and we covered about 300 of the 800 kilometers. During every one of those days, we went to bed in albergues that housed between 20 and 100 pilgrims in large rooms full of bunk beds (we stayed in one that had 100 beds in a single room!). We woke up around 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning along with everyone else in the room, got dressed, packed up our sleeping bags, and started walking an average of 25 to 30 kilometers to the next town. We especially liked the time in the morning when we walked in the darkness because the sun didn’t rise until almost 8. Mostly every morning we walked for at least an hour in the dark with only the moon shining on the path (and sometimes our headlamps). It was still and cool in the Spanish countryside. We really loved this time of the day!

While the entire experience was amazing, there were days that were better than others. Our favorite hiking day was also the most challenging physically. On our first day of the Camino we had to cross the Pyrenees on foot into Spain. The scenery was magnificent. We walked on green mountainsides, across fields, by sheep and horses, climbing straight for 13 miles until we reached the pass from which we started a steep descent into Roncesvalles. Crossing the mountains was no easy task, especially because we were carrying our packs (about 20 pounds each) and because we had never done something quite this hard. But, once we got to the top and saw the road ahead, we felt happiness as it can only be felt in moments when you feel you have achieved something huge! Yes, we were almost done with crossing the Pyrenees on foot, just like people have been doing for hundreds of years! Once in Roncesvalles we stayed in a monastery funded by a Dutch non-profit that has done a wonderful job of keeping the place modern and fully equipped!

We also had a particularly memorable night at one of the Camino albergues. This was around day 9 when we decided to walk an additional 7 kilometers to get to the very small town of Granon. As we walked the Camino, we learned that sometimes it was better to walk pass the big towns and sleep in the smaller ones as they were more peaceful and less crowded. This was the case with Granon, a small walled Jacobean town inspired by the Camino that offers lodging for pilgrims in the upper floors of the annex to the adjoining Church of Saint John the Baptist. Here our beds were mattresses lined up within less than an arm’s reach of each other on the attic floor and shared a communal meal prepared by 2 lovely hospitaleras from Italy. But, as if the setting itself weren’t enough, there happened to be a piano in the Church annex, and we happened to have a professional French piano player amongst us who played the evening away! It is hard to describe the atmosphere of the place as we were all there, people from more than 20 different countries, singing, dancing, doing dishes, cheering and toasting. One of the pilgrims there recorded the special evening and you can see it at

. We have talked about how this particular night was our favorite in the Camino. We will always remember it!

We walked as far as Burgos, Spain. Along the way from St. Jean Pied de Port to Burgos we passed several small medieval towns and also modern cities. Many of the towns we passed were perched on top of hills, just as you would imagine small medieval towns in the countryside would look like. The Camino is the main reason why some of these towns are still around. They get most of their revenue from housing and feeding pilgrims every day of the year, as they have for hundreds of years. As we walked through these small towns, we realized that we were now part of that cycle of life. The cycle of walking towards one common goal on the same road, following the same way, the Way of Saint James. We were not the first, and will definitely not be the last, but we certainly felt as unique as every pilgrim on that path must have felt over the centuries.

We wouldn’t be being honest if we didn’t share that not all was happy and fun during our time on the Camino. Spain was experiencing record fall heat and we were walking for entire days in open vineyard countryside without any shade, period. Paola was hit hard by blisters, and she was also forced to wear a knee-brace for most of the time we walked the Camino. Because we were sleeping in rooms with so many people, it was quite difficult to get a good night’s sleep (about 30 percent of men in each room snored!) and, given the change in season, lots of pilgrims were getting sick and so did we. In fact, it was because we got sick that we decided to stop walking. We did a lot of thinking before making the decision to end our pilgrimage in the city of Burgos. But, once we realized that the only reason why we would keep going was because we felt like we had to, we decided we should stop and just come back to finish the other 500 km at some other time in our lives. The question then was, where would we go for the next two and half weeks before going to Madrid to catch a flight home???

Portugal

With over 2 weeks left on our trip, we looked at our options and decided to bus to Santiago de Compostela, attend mass there, reflect on our time in the Camino and then go spend 2 full weeks in Portugal. We split one week in Porto and one week in Lisbon, the capital.

We loved our time in Portugal! It was one of the most romantic places we have ever been to. There was something about the older architecture, the friendly people, the abundant sweets, the settings of the cities we visited, and the slow pace of life, that really made us fall in love with the two cities we visited. Portugal has a slogan that says, “Portugal, to know it is to love it.” We couldn’t agree more!

In both Porto and Lisbon we rented apartments for our stay. In Porto, we rented from Luis, a young police officer who rents out his place with a gorgeous balcony overlooking the Douro River and the famous Ponte Luis I, a metal arch bridge that spans the Douro River between Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia (where all the Port distilleries are!). The bridge, completed in 1886, was designed by Teophile Seyrig, a student of the famous Gustave Eiffel.

What did we do in Porto? Well, we remember eating lots of sweets, especially pasteis de nata, a specialty of the region; walking around the awesome hilly stone streets of the city; tasting and drinking port; and going on a couple of day trips to nearby towns. On one of our daytrips we went to Villa do Conde, a beach town about an hour metro ride away from the city. The beach was awesome and the weather was perfect, but the best part of that daytrip was seeing a medieval aqueduct (Paola’s first!). We followed the aqueduct all the way to the end, to an old abandoned monastery. Those are the moments when you really feel you are traveling somewhere else, somewhere different. How often do you get to follow an aqueduct to a monastery?

Our second daytrip was to Braga, the third largest city in Portugal and one of the oldest Christian cities in the world! We decided to visit Braga because of Bom Jesus do Monte, a church perched on top a hilltop that has an amazing baroque stairway that climbs 116 meters. The church was pretty fun, but the stairs and the scenes and symbolism of some sculptures were by far the main attraction!

Overall, we had amazing weather in Porto! The sun shined everyday and we were able to sit out and enjoy the city at one of the riverfront cafes or just on our balcony. Fortunately, the sun and warmth followed us to Lisbon as well!

In Lisbon we rented an apartment on the 4th floor of a very old building in the Alfama district, the historic Moorish district. To get to our apartment we had to walk through narrow cobblestone alleyways full of people hanging out. Once we made it to our building, we had to climb really steep stairs to our top floor apartment from which we enjoyed awesome views of the river, the nearby castle, and the red rooftops of the city

We walked as much of Lisbon as we possibly could. There was so much to do and see in the city, from climbing up to the castle, to getting lost in the Moorish quarter, to grabbing a drink at one of the many plazas. But since we don’t want to make this blog super long, we want to share one of the daytrips we took. We took a day to go to Sintra, a magical place that felt like a fairy tale, as our guidebook described it. Sintra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is full of attractions: the Sintra Mountains, royal retreats, estates, castles, and buildings from the 8^th and 9^th centuries, including the Castelo dos Mouros, which we visited and absolutely loved. The Castillo is the walled remains of a 9^th century Moorish castle, perched along the top of a very tall hill. You have to climb up there from the town. The walk up was a great experience in itself! Then there also is the Palacio de Pena and the Sintra National Palace, both of which we walked around as well. The Palacio de Pena was our favorite because of its eclectic architecture and the wonderful views of the surroundings you got from the many patios and towers. We loved the Arab influence in the architecture. Apparently, when the Portuguese took over buildings from the Moors, they loved the architecture and design so much that they decided to keep them instead of tearing them down. As a result, the Arab influence is very clear and adds a lot of charm to many of the buildings around the area. When we were done at the Palace, we walked around the Gardens of Pena. It was as if we were walking in one of the many forests described in fairy tales. It was indeed magical!

Our time in Portugal went by very quickly. Maybe too quickly and, before we knew it, we were on an overnight bus to Madrid. We spent 4 days in Madrid before catching a plane back to Los Angeles. In Madrid we finally got cold weather. We joked about living in an endless summer after having lived in Santa Barbara for a year, then traveling to Equatorial regions, and then experiencing above-average temperatures in Europe. In Madrid we mostly did a lot of thinking about our travels, the future and the fact that we were about to rejoin the real world. Were we ready for it? Probably not. It’s hard to stop being nomads whose only worries are to think about the next stop. But, we seem to have managed to adjust to life in way too busy, too work-oriented United States… At least until our next adventure!

The 3 months we spent traveling were amazing! We saw so much and we met so many amazing people, both locals and tourist. We hope to have made lasting friendships and we will always treasure those we met along the way. We promised ourselves to bring a more relaxed pace of life to our lives, even in such a fast-paced place like the USA. If there is something that always impressed us when we travel abroad is how happy people seem to be. They might not have so much “stuff”, but they also don’t have to work their lives away while sacrificing quality time doing what they truly enjoy or being with the people they love.

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Comments

[Grit]

Traveling vicariously w/ joy & appreciation!
I've finally gotten 'round to reading your post & am I ever glad that I finally did! WOW! As usual, your descriptive writing and accompanying photos were fabulous. I feel like I had a mini-vaca while reading your blog post. Thank you. And it only increased my desire all the more to see these places myself some day! You 2 rock! I'm so glad you traveled like you did and shared so much of it beautifully w/ friends & family. Cheers! Grit