Mary and Maurice World Tour 2023

Having got lost in open farmland in the UK, we were nervous about navigating El Camino in Spain. We had no cause for concern. El Camino is so well marked that neither map nor guidebook was required, at least not until the last 1000m. Another notable feature of the El Camino is the name. It translates in English to The Way. We think that is wrong, and it should be The Very Long Way. As Mary noted on one particularly gruelling day: "It's no longer about the journey, it's about the destination". When planning the walk, it sounded very easy. About 20km each day, strolling from one quaint village to the next, while a courier moves the bulk of our luggage to the next hotel. And indeed, it is in fact a beautiful walk, most of which is through beautiful rural and woodland settings.  It is also in summer. In Spain.  This was on our first day which topped out at 35 degrees with clear sunny skies.  Don't get me wrong, it was a fantastic ex...

We had sensibly planned a full day in Sarria before launching into El Camino. We assumed that there may be last minute issues to resolve before the walk, so a spare day to get organised made sense.  As it happened, notwithstanding our transport difficulties, everything seemed to have gone to plan, so all we we had left to do was to find a car park for our rental for the week. Excellent, we thought, a quiet day, with the only expected complication being our inability to speak any Spanish beyond 'hola', 'gracias' and 'hasta la vista, baby'.  We slept in a bit, then went to breakfast which was included in the price. The dining room was empty as all the other guests had been walkers getting an early start. Notably, the breakfast buffet table was also mostly empty. Regardless, we approached the desk confidently.  "But Senor, you have already had breakfast. See, you have been ticked off on the list". Say what!?  At first we assumed someone had go...

We had a window of two nights between leaving the UK and being due in Spain to start our El Camino trek. Just time to nip down to the south of France for one full day in Sommières with Mary's cousin Penny and her husband Chris.  Sommières takes the prize for being the oldest house we've stayed in, the building being around 1000 years old, with the foundations being around 2000 years old. Basically, the Romans built a bridge over the river somewhere around AD 100, and then over time this was extended, over and over again. In the basement one can still see parts of the original bridge. Unlike excavated ruins, such as in Rome or Pompeii, here the structure has been continously used for all that time. Astonishing.  Like many other locations in Europe, Sommières is a pretty, fortified market town with an important history, none of which we knew prior to our visit. And it was a nice touch for them to put out bunting to mark the occasion of our visit!  ...

We left Church Stretton in early May with the expectation of not returning, at least not this year anyway. Sadly, while we were in Austria Mary became aware that her aunt Helen had unexpectedly taken a turn for the worse, so we abandoned our plans for the rest of Austria and the south of France to be by Helen's side for her final days. Church Stretton had certainly become picture postcard scenic since we left, as Spring rolled towards Summer. Given that in a few weeks time we would be walking 117km over a week of the El Camino in Spain, we thought that, in between visits to Helen and working in the cottage garden, a bit of hill walking in Shropshire might be excellent training. Even better, just over the railway in Church Stretton is an iconic hill: Caradoc. Perfect! Let's climb that.  Caradoc is hardly Mt Everest and, as is apparent in the photo above, is surrounded by fairly open farmland. While steep in places, we figured it would be a str...

All we knew in advance about Salzburg was that it was Mozart's birthplace. And, in case any visitor was unaware of the specific location, the building is well labelled. We're not talking about a mere bronze plaque on the wall: On that point, Terry Pratchett in his book Equal Rites characterises plaques placed half way up a wall claiming someone famous was 'born here' as 'gynaecologically improbable'.  But I digress...  We were having to dash back to the UK unexpectedly so didn't have a lot of time in Salzburg, in fact really only half a day. We therefore asked the Reception staff at our hotel for their suggested itinerary for a spot of Speed Tourism. A map was promptly produced, route marked out, and in less than a few minutes our Navigator had figured out which way was up, and we were off...  First stop was the Mirabell Palace, which thankfully seemed to be a scaled down version of Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna. That is not meant to di...