Our family participated in a hike with our Conversational English Group on the Camino De Santiago. The route is a 500 mile trek across the Iberian Peninsula which normally takes about 40 days to do, but we only did 3 days of it. Last year Crystal and Tanzen both participated in the first day and took a bus home, but this year they stayed with us the whole time. It was a great time for conversation, friendship building, and cultural exposure!

The first day we walked from Samos to Ferreiros, a full 30 kilometers. Tanzen did quite a bit of the walking (with the help of Crystal, and gracious friends!) and by the time we arrived at our hostel, we were exhausted!

We had a great group with us!

The path is a mixture: gravel, single track, rocky, smooth, pavement, and stone.

What keeps the pilgrim moving? Take a guess.

We count this as science class.

A church along the way

Enjoying the walk

Learning new whistling tricks

Pulling (or pushing) her own weight

Constantly changing landscape

By the end of the trip our stroller was a moving flower shop

We took a quick trip to the city of A Coruña for Crystal’s birthday. The city is a major port on the Atlantic coast and we loved walking around the city.

Last week we had a team meeting in a village about 2 hours away. While there we were able to visit one of the only (perhaps the only) Protestant cemeteries in Spain.

To North American ears this could be confusing, but the reality is that multiple factors (including the Counter Reformation, Franco, etc) have made it difficult in the past for non-catholic believers in Spain to live a life of religious freedom.