Planning, Prepping and Packing (PPP)

Tuesday, May 23, 2023
Baltimore, Maryland, United States
We are about to embark on our second 
Camino de Santiago.   There are several routes throughout Europe that all converge at Santiago.  Back in 2016, we did the Camino Frances, from St. Jean Pied de Port, France, to Santiago, Spain. Tomorrow we’ll be flying to Porto, Portugal to walk the Camino Portugues.
A few big differences, mileage is down from 500 miles to 200 and only 14 days compared to 31.  Secondly, we have made reservations in all of our albergues (hostels), compared to risking the first-come, first serve we did last time. With making reservations, we have snagged private rooms in most places rather than dormitories.
We knew that walking 10 to 15 miles a day would require some training.  Since our return from Montana in March, we have been walking 4 to 10 miles almost daily, logging over 400 miles, half of those with 10+ pounds in our backpacks. Can’t count how many times we have walked to Fort McHenry, the Pagoda at Patterson Park and random city walks. We have seen more Baltimore neighborhoods in these past two months than we had in the previous 20 years!
We have packed and repacked to get down to under 15 pounds in our backpacks. We think we have it down to “necessities”, no one needs more than three pair of underwear!
Our planned itinerary for tomorrow morning is to walk up to Baltimore’s Penn Station for a train to New York’s Penn Station.  Then catch a commuter train and subway to JFK, fly to Madrid with a connecting flight to Porto. Fingers are crossed that it all goes as planned. We’ll keep you posted.
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Bligh Kwiatkowski
2023-05-26

Gonna be a great trip!

2025-02-06

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