A New Chapter…A New Adventure

It’s time to share some exciting news. After cancelling my Camino return last fall, the return trip has finally been booked and is looking even more fun.

This iteration will take an entirely different route and will include a very special sidekick. My girlfriend, Cassidy will be joining me to hike the Camino Portuguese from Porto, Portugal to Santiago de Compostela, Spain…approximately 175 miles. What makes this adventure so much fun is that it will be Cassidy’s first time leaving the United States and an entirely different route.

As you can see on the map, the Camino de Santiago can mean a multitude of different routes. This is because over the centuries many people from many different parts of Europe blazed different paths to Santiago de Compostela, and those routes make up the modern day Camino. On the map above, the route I took in 2015 (yikes, how time flies) is colored in yellow. The route we will take this September is the portion colored in lavender and purple. We actually will be doing a combo of the Coastal Portuguese route and the interior route, from Porto, Portugal to Santiago de Compostela.

To add an even more intriguing aspect to this adventure, we will also walk out to the lighthouse in Finisterre, Spain and be joined by none other than my old Camino friend Alberto!!! Alberto decided to join us for the quick trek out to Finisterre and a couple of days in Santiago before Cassidy and I enjoy the “vacation” portion of our adventure in Barcelona, Valencia and Granada, Spain after the hike. Those of you who followed this blog on my initial Camino know that Alberto became a close friend on that trek and he has remained someone I’ve stayed in touch with over these three years. I cannot express how happy it makes me that we will all be able to share time together.

Personally, I’m over the moon to introduce Cassidy to the experience of leaving the United States. Further, I’m filled with the anticipation of her experience on the Camino, both the close friendships that are made and the peace that comes with putting one foot in front of the other, taking in the landscape of a foreign country and seeing the great sights of history.

To mark this new adventure, we will be posting our experiences on a new blog where you can follow along just like this blog. The new site is located here: Cass and Anton on the Camino Portuguese . As always, make sure to follow the blog so you get updates sent to your email address. As always, kind words, comments, questions, advice is always encouraged, so please don’t hesitate to post them in the Comments section. Bom Caminho, everyone!