-I wish I could change my video thumbnail...

-a few other highlights:

*Although time wasn’t an issue for me on the train yesterday, people eating their food was. No matter the volume of my earbuds, crunching, smacking, and wrapper wrestling might have almost been the end of me. Pray for me on future rides 😳

*Note: Lower class beer as in beer ranking and taste. Was compared to like a Pabst or Lone Star Light (and I know people like this beer). I liked Tennent’s. I’m obviously not a beer snob.

*the couple at dinner knew about Whataburger and asked a lot of questions about it. I found it fun.

*it’s a six hour time difference between here and the states so when I said 2:30am here, it would have been 8:30pm there not 10:30pm...🙄

*the rain here smells different. I think it still smells good, but it’s different.

*I love that there’s so much walking here!

*I washed my laundry for the first time last night in my portable laundry wash bag. It wasn’t hard but it was a lot of work. I’m very thankful for washing machines and dryers. My clothes were washed 24hrs ago and are STILL drying 🤦🏻‍♀️

*things are great. So far so good.

Hotel window views in Glasgow

Haggis

Wine happy hour

English breakfast

Fish and chips in London

Journal Entry

Journal Entry

Journal Entry

Journal Entry

Breakfast before leaving Glasgow

Going to Oban and waiting for the platform number to be called

Oban, Scotland from the ferry landing

Views from the ferry

Views from the ferry

View from my dorm at Camas

View from my dorm at Camas

Morning window journaling in the dining room

Journal Entry

Journal Entry

Journal Entry

Journal Entry

Journal Entry

A tree that I weeded

All (actually some) of the trees we are working on

Waterfront outside my dorm

Enjoying solitude time. We all enjoy it differently

Sheep on our beach

Picked hazelnuts on my birthday

Views from hazelnut picking

If you look closely, you’ll see an ancient standing stone. (Look to the left of the photo and to the right of the power line)

My dorm overlooking the sea

Seriously...these thumbnails 🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

Worship space

Bell tower

Walking around Taizé

Walking around Taizé

Walking around Taizé

Clothes out to dry

Goat cheese!

Goat Cheese!

Self explanatory

Food was simple but so delicious

Streets of Cluny

Y’all! A French bakery!

Streets of Cluny

Even their donuts are pretty

A friend bought this for me. So good!!

So so good!

Notes from Nadine

Sweet sweet sounds

Taize

McDonald’s in France is really good!! It actually has a healthy kinda taste 🤷🏻‍♀️

Monument fountain in Bordeaux

Snacks

I bought out the pharmacy in chapstick/lip balm. It’s a must on trips like this, y’all!

The streets of Bordeaux

This is the Bordeaux wine region and where they grow their grapes. Wine education and tasting for me took place in Médoc. It’s important you know your areas in France because that’s what tells you what grapes are being grown there. There’s a much more in depth set of info about this that I’ll gladly share with anyone that’s interested

Vines on vines on vines. I’ve been to Napa and this part of France has so many more. They speak in hectors here, but essentially each chateau (vineyard with a house) has about 200 acres on average of grape vines that are as old as 100 years. It’s amazing

Château number 1

We got to pick merlot grapes and taste them. Delicious! Most vineyards are in the middle of harvest so we literally got to see everything from workers in the field cutting bunches of grapes to the bottling process. It’s so cool to watch

Merlot on the vine

French oak barrels. I learned today that to but them brand new they average $8000. They can only be used up to three times and then often they are just given to distilleries to use or sold for no more than $100 a piece. Talk about depreciation

Château number two

This is the house (Chateau) on the second property

Way more barrels at this one and it was so cold in there!

Cement egg vats. There’s a whole science behind this that I found super interesting

Wine cellar and different vintages. I looks for my birth year but they didn’t have it. They had ‘87 and ‘84 but not ‘85.

But then I found this gem. They have bottles from 1966! Crazy

Took my wine education and applied it. When I ordered the 2015 Margaux, the server was super pleased and surprised. He said...”This wine is for serious wine lovers. I hope you enjoy it!”

The new risotto I have had in my whole life. SERIOUSLY

Wine!!

The cement eggs are huge. The picture earlier really doesn’t do them justice

Seriously...these thumbnails. And I have no way of changing them. 🙄

I have arrived! This is the train station.

My first set of directions

Get duck in France. It is so good!

Morning coffee and studies once I found everything

Beautiful streets of St. Jean Pied de Port

Beautiful streets of St. Jean Pied de Port

Beautiful streets of St. Jean Pied de Port

Beautiful streets of St. Jean Pied de Port

Morning Thoughts

”I made it” thoughts

Was feeling apples this morning for breakfast

Tips and Tricks from the Pilgrim’s Office for today’s hike

Beginning

Said a few prayers here as I was leaving St-Jean-Pied-de-Port

Above some clouds and fog. Around 10am

Lunch views. Took about a 20min break to eat and air out my feet

Break 2 views where I had a snack

One of the prettiest sights today. This is 12km. This was my halfway point

Break 3 views and I changed socks

More incline. This is Ken from Israel. He walked with me all day. Thank God for putting a motivator in my life today. I wouldn’t have quit but he kept me in conversation and time flew

The Way of St James

I made it to Spain!!

I made it to Spain

Break 4 views

My shadow at break 4

My gps map today

Specs on today’s walk

Apple Watch gave me tons of awards today. I was 400% past my move goal

The only picture I took today. I was just beginning my walk for the day and thought it was a good reminder of how far I was going. (This is Kilometers)

Hotel views from bed

(I climbed those mountains)

Balcony views from my bedroom

Y’all I am lumbering today. I don’t mean to be—I’m just stiff so climbing 2 flights of these with my luggage to my room was a little rough.

Sitting room number 1 in my hotel

Sitting room number 2

And sitting room number 3. They are all so cute!! Trying to figure out which one to journal in. Y’all help me choose.

Outdoor seating with a view.

Beginning my walk today

This trail felt and smelled the best

I got to hike next to a river for about 8 miles

More river

Fall is trying to start here

And more river

The beginning of Pamplona. This is what you see when you enter the city gates

Buildings of Pamplona

Beginning in the streets of Pamplona

Pointing to the top of the mountain that marks about the halfway point today

Prettier picture of the same thing

Stopped at a vending machine to get a Gatorade and they had olives as an option

Monument to the Pilgrims at the top of the mountain. The picture really doesn’t do the view justice. Also, it is super windy up here and even more so today because there was a wind hazard warning.

A little dose of information

The windmills at the top

From the top I still had about 6 miles left to go

So this is downhill. It doesn’t look so bad in this picture, but these rocks are really hard to walk on at any sort of incline. I was thankful when I noticed some makeshift switch backs to help people down. It was a tough decent.

Today’s elevation chart

Gaspacho

Paella 🥘

Tomato, avocado, and grilled goat cheese.

Y’all I was hungry tonight!

The outside of my hotel and where I dined

Looking up from my dinner table.

I should also note that I had a great dinner with a couple from Colorado and a gentleman from Ohio. I really don’t know how we Americans find each other, but we do.

Not as dumb of a thumbnail but the video makes it look like I have no neck 🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️. Can’t win. Haha

Showing me the way. While walking, you find yourself looking for shells that seem to be guiding you. Sometimes they are obvious and sometimes they are subtle. As a pilgrim, this is overkill but appreciated. As a day to day person in Estella, these might just be decorative posts.

The view leaving Estella. Vineyards and vineyards

Wine for pilgrims

The fountain of wine and water for pilgrims

It was the beginning of my day so I only had a capful of wine

The scenery changed a lot today. This was the beginning

I hiked a bluff that reminded me a lot of camp

I definitely took the road less traveled today. There were two options. I opted for the shorter walk with a steeper incline.

View from the top of the incline

Me at the top

Then the terrain began to look like this. Orchards of some sort...

Rolling hills and orchards

Vineyards to the left, long stretch of road, mountains to the right...lots of topography today

I LOVED seeing this sign. This is where I ended my 6hr and 13 mile day

Today’s info

All the mountains

I keep finding things under construction. This is one side of the cathedral in León

Quiet streets of León

The cathedral from a different side

Lunch views

More León streets

There was an olive bar in the candy shop today

This is a former palace that is now open for tours

Palace signage

More streets of León

Casa Botines

Leaving my hotel in Sarria

There were apple trees everywhere today. I didn’t take any apples although there were an abundance

Growing pumpkins

The second half of my walk today

Dogs and cows on the Camino

This is the 100k marker. This was about halfway through my walk today. This is where a pilgrim must begin if they want to get their Compostela

It’s hard to tell in this photo, but this was a very steep decline into Portomarín

The town of Portomarín

The stairs into the town. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Rough way to end the day

City sign

View from my hotel window

View from my hotel window

The forecast for today

One of the only pictures I got today. This was as I was leaving Portomarín

Hydrangeas grow in abundance here and I thought of a friend when I saw these so I grabbed a photo. These are the only blue ones I have seen. Most are deep pinks that look almost purple

Wrinkled hands before showering. The rest of my body was wrinkled too. The rain and cool weather really did a number on me today.

Writings on the wall from previous pilgrims at the pizzeria I was at a bit ago

This was a wall hanging in my hotel last night. It may seem like two tulips but in the moonlight, this wall hanging looked like a skull. Think nightmare before Christmas.

Foggy morning

Yep

More fog

Walking through crap

This was a beer garden that served a beer called Peligrina which was a lager. I almost decided not to stop, but then reminded myself to enjoy they day and any adventures it held.

These are bottles that pilgrims drank from and signed.

I got my beer and my stamp. This is the only beer I have had since Glasgow by the way.

Finished my beer, signed my name, and added it to the collection.

I’m part of this place

Stopped to smell the roses today after my epiphany

These are the hydrangeas that are every where. So pretty!

Foggy woods

Autumn in Spain

My destination for the day