Remy’s 2023 Travel Notebook

Today should have marked my third day of walking the Camino. Instead, I’m staying in Uster, Switzerland due to an unforeseen family circumstance (not a bad place to be, just not my plan of course). I’ll be here until I fly from Geneva to Biarritz on July 25 (had to miss my previously scheduled flight but got lucky to find another direct flight from Geneva to Biarritz for 150 CHF). Part of doing the Camino is letting go of the stress of planning and taking life and it’s events as they come. I just hope that life will allow me to start walking soon and eventually make it to Santiago.

I am still unsure if I will walk the first day on the 25th because I will arrive in Biarritz at 1:30 pm, and train to St Jean by 3:00 hopefully. Then I still have to get my pilgrim passport at the office, and get informed about the stops and route. I certainly don’t want to get lost and die in the Pyrenees by walking up there too late in the day/in the dark or being caught up in weather. Maybe I’ll just start on the 26th. By this point I’m quite eager to just start.

I went on a nice run in Uster yesterday and started to break in my new trail shoes a bit more. Admittedly I will likely regret doing the Camino on shoes I have only put a handful of miles on. Tomorrow I am going to go hike in the eastern Swiss mountains near a place called Pizol. It has a beautiful 10 mile, 5 lake alpine loop and I’m hoping to be up there when the rest of the country is at work since it’s a Friday. I’ll take my uncle along as well who came in for the week from Canada. Looking forward to my siblings Ian and Leslie joining us on Saturday, in two days.