Oooh, we did that the year I retired as well. My last day of work was April 1, 2016, and we were on a plane to France on April 9. It was a great way to start my retirement. Two weeks in Southern France, 40 days walking the Camino, then a month in an apartment in Orvieto, Italy, to “recuperate”. A trip I’ll never forget!
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So here is a fun tidbit. As I said I have dreamed about El Camino for years. I booked a flight to Biarritzs and about 3 months later cancelled the flight. That very week I go to a sit and all over the house their are photos, books even refrigerator magnets about Biarritzs!
I ask and the lovely lady tells me that is where her grandmother is from.
She pulls out a photography book, all the photos are of Biarritzs. She explains that when she visited she found this book in a local shop and when she opened it there is a full page black and white photo of an elderly woman smoking a pipe on the street.
It was her grandmother!
Yeah I’m going.
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I blogged our entire trip if you’re interested in skimming through.
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Fabulous thank you!
I’ve done some 60 house sits here and abroad. I’m on here almost every day traveling vicariously and also looking for the right opportunities for places that interest us. We just arrived today in Whitefish Montana just outside Glacier National Park. Beautiful home and nice pets and people. Here for three weeks and plan on spending lots of time in a National Park that had so far escaped me. Can’t wait till Saturday when it warms up and the sun comes out.
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When I scroll through the available sits in these incredible far flung places, I actually feel a flutter in my chest … anyone else experience this?
A shout out to the beautiful Austrian Tirol: surely you want to go on a holiday and invite me over for three snowy weeks ‘in der berg’ ??!! I am waiting!
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Why don’t we get a group of woman doing the walk together. Would be fun
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Ahh, that’s lovely. Yes, I do that sometimes, to get a feel of what might be available, for dreaming and future plans! But I have walked 70kms on the El Camino (or St Jacque de Compostelle/Route of St James, which was called “la deviation” I think - in France. (Chemin de Compostelle - De Conques à Cahors par Saint-Cirq-Lapopie | La Rébenne) We so enjoyed just walking from place to place, although we weren’t really “proper” pilgrims doing the whole route, but still really helped out. Later in the holiday we gave a lift to an amazing old man who had walked ALL the routes. I asked him what boots he recommended, and he said he’d got rid of boots years ago, as he felt they weakened the foot, and wore sandals…even in the snow. He recommended the sea route on the Spanish side…but one of my dreams too is to do more of it!!
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One of the other ways that stimulate my creative travel dreams is talking to the people I sit for! I just got finalizing a bunch of dates for some of my friends in the UK and they are sharing all their plans…Antigua, Italy, Boston Marathon for my champion runners!
It is just so much fun and you learn so much it would take months to figure out on your own.
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Chiming in about the boots. My husband and I both wore regular trail running shoes and neither of us ever had a blister over the 800 km. Most of the people we met with foot problems were wearing hiking boots.
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Love this! I follow a gentleman that has been doing all the routes, he is a vlogger on YouTube channel as well as in some of the bigger groups on FB. He just completed a part of the French way that is often overlooked! The part that is actually through France, Via Podiensis (Chamin de puy). His photos and account of his experiences were so intriguing, I was prompted to ask him if this had best his part of his journeys and he said most definitely one worth doing and the most beautiful in the way of historical sites along the way.
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We talked a lot about doing the Via Francigena which goes from Canterbury, England, to Rome. Who knows, maybe some day?
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I think the thing I’d love most about living in England would be such easy access to so many places in Europe. Sigh.
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What do all the icons with Euro prices mean?
Fares for one way travel from London
Yep, I have happy thinking cap on. I like to hop and stop at different places.
It’s very close to a famous gorge with a cheese name in Somerset, England!!!
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Yes, I while away hours dreaming of sits in unusual places. I have spent the last three years dealing with cancer, family deaths and then covid so I have dreamt of sits rather than doing sits, have only done two in that time period, but I still look nearly every day and hope of finding the perfect place, time frame and location.
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It’s definitely therapeutic. I haven’t been facing anything like you but when I’m down it’s my pick me up. Better than anything a doctor could give me. Stay strong.