Our Walk Along the Camino de Madrid

Advice for the Camino de Madrid “My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. … But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.” -  Thomas Merton  From the city to the sierras, through forests, fields, and faith.  There was so much to the Camino de Madrid.  I suppose it is simplest to state at the outset that, above all, the Camino de Madrid surprised us!     It is one of the quietest, least-travelled pilgrimage routes in Spain, but it offered some of the richest moments of solitude, wilderness, kindness, and personal reflection we’ve experienced on any of the Caminos . Starting at the heart of Spain’s capital city and ending in the fields of Sahagún, this Camino took us through a full spectrum of landscapes and emotions.  A Walk Between Worlds There’s something symbolic about walking out of a bustling metropolis and into stillness. From the graffiti-t...

Camino Frances Rejoined Concluding the Camino de Madrid Two days ago we finished our walk on the 322 km long Camino de Madrid, walking from Spain's capital city to Sahagun, a town on the Camino Francés .  We have spent the past two days walking 55.3 km from Sahagun to Léon on the Camino Francés, making an overnight stop in Mansilla de las Mullas along the way. Essentially we are simply connecting two routes - the Camino Madrid and the Camino de San Salvador , but we have been curious about what our second time on the Camino Frances would be like.  It was an interesting experience.   We first walked the Camino Frances, and we've come to the realization that both the Camino and we have changed since we first ventured out here.  We see now that we were incredibly fortunate to have walked this way at the right time in our lives.  It felt like a great big adventure, full of meaning and magic, and it changed the course of our lives.  It feels different to us...

Cerrado, Cerrado, Cerrado Camino de Madrid meets Camino Frances  Today we finished the Camino de Madrid portion of our pilgrimage, and the ending was entirely perfect - the albergues and bars were 'cerrado' right up until the very end.  Nonetheless, it was a beautiful walk, the weather was gorgeous, and it was a phenomenal wildlife day.   We left the albergue just as the sun was rising, being careful not to wake the hospitaleros, who were out late last night.  We made our way to the centre of town, hoping to find breakfast, but nothing was open yet, and there were no signs that anything was about to open in the near future.  Once again, we set off down the trail with empty bellies, hoping to find breakfast somewhere along the way.  We followed the winding red dirt trail out into rolling fields of brown, green, and yellow.  The slanting golden rays of the rising sun were illuminating the young green crops and creating curving shadows across the rol...