Travel Blog: Insider Tips, Recommendations, and more!
It’s done! I’m back from Porto now, after having hiked there all the way from Santiago. Well, there had been a few interruptions by car, metro and bus but they’re not worth mentioning. Before I will inform you here about general tips the costs and the route, here are first of all some impressions from my time on the not-so-traditional Camino de Santiago.
The Spanish coast, a castle, and beautiful Porto: the untraditional Way of St. James from Santiago to Porto.
In Barcelona, like in many other cities, there are plenty of free walking tour guides. Free? Yes! These guided tours last for usually two or three hours and they’re absolutely free! Seriously? Yes! So, what’s the catch?
The Basilica de Santa Maria del Pi right behind the Travel Bar (meeting spot for the free walking tour).
The picture of the week shows the Camino de Santiago in Spain.
The Camino de Santiago alongside the coast heading to Portugal.
It’s been a long day… Every journey to any vacations destination – sometimes short, sometimes long – turns out to be somewhat exhausting. At least for all the packing and organisation, that needs to be done in the run-up. But then finally you arrive at your hotel, you do the check-in; you can’t wait to see your room. You open the door and all is stylish, and neat, and looks so good. Awesome! But then… The bathroom is made of glass! This is about how a nice hotel room can still turn out into a nightmare and what hotel managers really should think about concerning their visions of a vitreous guest.
A glass bathroom at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Zurich.
I hiked a total of eight days from Santiago de Compostela in Spain to Porto in Portugal. For this journey it was most important for me to have only very light luggage with me. Therefore I only chose my small “Deuter-Rucksack” (Deuter Cross Bike 18, a bikers backpack actually) which at time off departure had a weight of about three kilograms (6.6 pounds), excluding drinking water. The backpack itself weighs 650 grams (1.4 pounds) with a volume of 18 litres. It features a chest strap and a waistbelt, which both are not really comparable to real hiking backpacks of course. I bought that backpack for my Around-the-world-trip as a daily packer and was absolutely satisfied with it by now – in any circumstances. So what did I take on the Camino de Santiago (Way of St. James)?
My three kilogram backpack for eight days on the Camino.
In June I finally visited Barcelona for three days. I wanted to go there for a very long time. It definitely was love at first sight! The city is absolutely lovely and beauftiful! These are some first pictures of Barcelona…
First impressions of Barcelona: architecture, market place, doves, and Columbus.
