Sunday, March 28, 2021

 A shoutout to all my readers.... It's been a couple of years since I've posted; but I do know that I frequently pop up when you are searching travel sites and I've given several speeches on my travels over the past several years.   But we've not traveled since the tour in Alaska in 2019.  We were scheduled to do a two month trip last June & July to celebrate our 60th wedding anniversary; but due to Covid-19, everything was cancelled.   We, my husband and I, my twin sister and our daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter had rented a car starting in Madrid, Spain, traveling to Portugal for a visit to Fatima.   Then, my daughter and granddaughter were joining with me to walk the Portuguese Camino during the day and then meeting the car each evening.   The three in the car were going to be tourist during the day while we walked to Santiago de Compostela.   After visiting Santiago we were scheduled to go west to the coast for Muxia and Finistere before returning to Santiago for two nights in the Parador Hotel next to the Cathedral.   A long time bucket list item!   Difficult to reserve.  

From there our son-in-law took the bus back to Madrid to fly home and the rest of us continued in the car to drive the Camino Frances all the way to the French Village of St. Jean Pied de Port to show the family what my daughter and I walked in 2018.   And, we pilgrims planned to walk segments of the trail.

Our plan was then to return to Pamplona for a night and then my granddaughter would take a bus back to Madrid to fly home (for work) as we continued for another two weeks of touring in Spain. 

All reservations were made and it was painful to cancel them when the governments shut down the tourist industry because of Covid-19 last spring.   We were fortunate that the cancelation fees were waived for 95% of our reservations for airplanes, the car and the many hotels.   We all plan to eventually make the trip but not this year.

Thank you so much for the many kind notes that you leave me after reading some of my travel diary.  Be safe and if you have not done so....GET VACCINATED!    We need to travel again!

Buen Camino

 

1 comment:

Leslie in Oregon said...

Hello, Martha,

After being one of your fascinated readers, I have not received a post from "Armchair Travel with Martha" since your post dated March 28, 2021. Tonight, I found myself writing about your second Camino Fraces pilgrimages to a friend who is going to spend a month in Spain starting 25 July. And that brought me to wondering how you and Jim are and what you are up to. Having no other way to reach you, I am leaving this as a comment to your March 28, 2021 post.

My husband Scott and I had hoped to be retired and travelling at this point, but he was diagnosed in July of 2018 with what turned out to be an extremely aggressive case of melanoma. I am very sad to say that after undergoing treatment for the next 2 years, Scott died suddenly on August 1 of 2020. I have been pandemic-isolated in Portland, Oregon with our now-16.5-year-old dog, Bob the Long-Haired Dachshund, since then, working mightily to close Scott's law practice.

I hope that you two are relatively well in this increasingly-crazy world and that I get to hear from you.

Fondly, Leslie in Oregon (Leslie Sorensen-Jolink)

lsorensenjolink@gmail.com

3004 NW LURAY TER
PORTLAND, OR 97210-2719