No, we didn't fall off the edge like Columbus, but we didn't have WiFi the last two nights. We are now 19 km from the end in Santiago. We've gone Portomarin to Palas de Rei to Arzua to O Pedrouza. The second and third days were each a rough 15 miles with lots of uphills and downhills. Today was easier at 12 miles, the last half of which was gently rolling. The countryside has continued very beautiful farmland, mostly, with occasional eucalyptus forests, some planted. Leaving at 9 am we see many pilgrims strung out along the route, and the first cafe is always very crowded. We are walking with many pilgrims throughout the day, and occasionally the pace is consistent enough to have a brief conversation, if they speak English. And occasionally we have a ... read more

We were delighted to have two days in our hotel since neither of us is feeling 100%. Gary's cough has gotten worse, another phase in his healing. He slept in and decided to skip the morning events - postponing beakfast. Madalyn is having digestion issues but managed to go with the group on the walking tour of Leon. Our guide was named "Camino", she spoke excellent English and she was humorous as well. Three hours of walking around old town Leon, seeing the Cathedral of Santa Maria de Leon, several shopping streets and the Real Collegiate de San Isidro. The stained glass of the cathedral is in the process of being cleaned, a fifty year process before they start over again. Gorgeous Gothic windows show off beautifully on a sunny day. Going back to the room ... read more

Today was an easy day of travel first by bus to Barcelona Airport, an Iberia flight to Madrid and then another bus to Burgos. We met most of the Productive Learning folks at Madrid Airport so now we are traveling with friends with Victor as our guide. He has been our guide in Jordan, Egypt, Thailand and Cambodia - he takes such good care of us and we just float along with all the logistics handled beautifully, we are so grateful. Our hotel in Burgos is in an old monastery building, very comfortable with confusing hallways. We just returned from dinner walking by the gorgeous Gothic cathedral. It is much cooler here, we need our jackets and it might even rain some. Tomorrow we get a tour of the city. We are open to new adventures ... read more

Today was devoted to tours of Barcelona’s most famous landmark, the Basilica de Sagrada Familia (Holy Family), designed by Antonio Gaudí. We had an English language tour, went up a tower, and covered more of it on our own. It was all quite amazing. Work began in 1888 as a traditional neo-gothic building, and Gaudi took over from the original architect early on. He completely changed the appearance and developed new techniques of building structure as he did so, focusing on parabaloids and hyperboloids, making a structure taller, lighter, and airier than other Gothic cathedral constructions. To visualize many of the shapes and to determine strengths necessary for many of the columns, he built an upside down model using string and small bags of sand proportionate to the weights. He could then see what shapes developed ... read more

Woke up this morning early to go to the airport for our flight to Barcelona. We seem to be constantly getting to bed after midnight after late dinners, then showering, researching the next day, etc. So early morning alarms are not so welcome. We needed to leave before the hotel's breakfast opned, so we grabbed a light snack at the airport. We flew Vueling, a low cost no frills Spanish airline "competing" with Iberia Air but owned by the same holding company (that also owns British Air.) It was only a 1-1/4 hour flight that went very easily. Retrieving our luggage in Barcelona we were invited to share a taxi with a Canadian woman living in Ecuador and traveling in Europe. As a brief Ecuadorian resident she learned enough Spanish to communicate well with the taxi ... read more