Mountains and Miles

Week 5 Summary : Day 29 - Ventas de Naron to Melide (16.6 mi/26.7 km) Day 30 - Melide to Arca (20.5 mi/33.0 km) Day 31 - Arca to Santiago de Compostela ! (12.4 mi/20.0 km) Bonus: Day 32 - Santiago de Compostela to Negreira (13.6 mi/21.9 km) Day 33 - Negreira to Olveiroa (20.7 mi/33.3 km) Day 34 - Olveiroa to Finisterre (19.5 mi/31.4 km) + 3 mi roundtrip to the Lighthouse

My bad! Or maybe not, but according to Sixt rent a car in Dublin, I damaged their 2017 Toyota Yaris while it was in my possession for 7 days, but it’s okay because before leaving I had done my homework and knew just how to tap into the benefits of my second best travel companion after Heather: My credit card. After booking our trip to Dublin, I knew that we’d be renting a car and driving it on the wrong side of two way roads that can hardly even fit one car; therefore, I thoroughly researched the rental vehicle collision damage waiver coverage that’s offered by my bank. Most credit cards offer this benefit with varying levels of coverage and different terms and conditions. If you're unsure whether you're covered, you can start by looking here , but it usually pays to double check your specific product offering. In my case, $75,000 worth of vehicle coverage is offered free of charge which is way more than enough to cover our Yaris. Good start. The trick here was following the ru

Week 4 Summary : Day 22 - Astorga to Rabanal del Camino (12.7 mi/20.5 km) - Our book recommended an additional 5k this day, but Rabanal del Camino was a slightly larger town and we loved our accommodation! Day 23 - Rabanal del Camino to Ponferrada (19.9 mi/32.1 km) Day 24 - Ponferrada to Villafranca del Bierzo (15.0 mi/24.2 km) Day 25 - Villafranca del Bierzo to La Faba (14.7 mi/23.7 km) Day 26 - La Faba to Triacastela (16.0 mi/25.7 km) - First day in Galicia! Day 27 - Triacastela to Barbadelo (14.3 mi/23.0 km) Day 28 - Barbadelo to Ventas de Naron (19.4 mi/31.2 km) - We went one town past the book recommendation here. Again, the next town was bigger and had more accommodation options.

Week 3 Summary (Meseta) : Day 15 - Boadilla del Camino to Carrion de los Condes (15.2 mi/24.5 km) Day 16 - Carrion de los Condes to Terradillos de los Templarios (16.5 mi/26.6 km) Day 17 - Terradillos de los Templarios to Calzadilla de los Hermanillos (16.4 mi/26.4 km) Day 18 - Calzadilla de los Hermanillos to Mansilla de las Mulas (14.7 mi/23.6 km) Day 19 - Mansilla de las Mulas to León (11.1 mi/17.9 km) Day 20 - León to Villar de Mazarife (13.4 mi/21.5 km) Day 21 - Villar de Mazarife to Astorga (19.6 mi/31.5 km)

At the beginning of September, we broke away from Granada and hit the road again. We spent 11 days of September in Morocco and the remaining 19 days in Spain on the Camino de Santiago . We were constantly on the move, never in the same city for more than 3 nights (one night in most cases), and traveled a total of 2,661 miles, many of which were by land. This put a healthy dent in the Transportation category of our budget which included first class bus tickets from Granada to Malaga, a one way flight from Malaga to Tangier, train tickets to Fes, a private transfer for four days from Fes to Merzouga (Desert town on the Algerian border) to Marrakech, train tickets to Casablanca, taxes on one way flights from Casablanca to Pamplona booked with British Airways Avios (Miles), and bus tickets from Pamplona to St. Jean Pied de Port so that we could start walking the Camino de Santiago (but at least walking is free!).

Week 2 Summary: Day 8 - Logrono to Najera (18.4 mi/29.6 km) Day 9 - Najera to Santo Domingo (13 mi/20.9km) Day 10 - Santo Domingo to Belorado (14.2 mi/22.9 km) * Day 11 - Belorado to Ages (17.2 mi/27.7 km) Day 12 - Ages to Burgos (13.9 mi/22.3 km) Day 13 - Burgos to Hontanas (19.5 mi/31.4 km) - Very long day with a long gravel road at the end Day 14 - Hontanas to Boadilla del Camino (17.7 mi/28.5 km) [gallery columns="1" size="large" ids="747"]