All posts tagged: Travels

Day 9 Camino to Santiago de Compostela – from Portomarín to Palaís de Rey

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I never tire of these beautiful sunrises, the reward of early evenings and extremely early mornings. Today it’s uphill, uphill, and even more uphill for at least 15 km, right from Portomarín. However, it’s perfect walking weather, mostly overcast and occasionally drizzly. Even though it’s tough going, I’m enjoying myself. A new-born calf, and is that the mama cow anxiously watching it from inside the barn? If so, why separate them? A couple of times I pass the same couple, and on a particularly steep section of the Sierra Ligonde Mountain, I stop and rest on the same bench they are sitting on. We chat for a while in English, and then I ask them where they are from. Sweden, they answer, and we burst into laughter when I reply that so am I! After this I continue to walk with Bjarne and Grethel for a while. Then they point out another Swede, Melek, and we all join forces till we reach a restaurant where we stop to have lunch. We joke and say that …

Day 8 Camino to Santiago de Compostela – from Sarria to Portomarín

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I leave Sarriá behind me not long after 6 AM when it’s still dark. The first thing I meet is an express train rushing past me just by the trail! If I wasn’t fully awake before, I am now. The sunrise is particularly beautiful today, and I’m enjoying my walk. The first 10 km feels easy enough, and I rest for the first time at a café after two hours, where I have my breakfast, a coffee and a French omelette. I ponder again the difference walking the Camino from the last time, and the community spirit I’m missing when Wilfried catches up, and we continue to walk together. At A Pena we come cross the 100 km milestone! It has a huge significance, especially to those pilgrims who have hiked about 688 km up till now all the way from St. Jean Pied de Port. But, wait a minute! This isn’t how I remember this milestone from the last time! Yes, they have made changes since then, such as making new milestones and moving …

Day 4 Camino to Santiago de Compostela – from Villafranca del Bierzo to Las Herrerías

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Not quite the 05.30 departure I had in mind, but 06.15. I’m getting there if slowly. The town sleeps but is pretty with all the lights. Don’t see anyone else around and it will be a while before I run into other pilgrims. I chose the Pereje route which is relatively flat. For the more fit and seasoned walkers, there are two other routes, one that takes you over Alto Pradela and the other longer one over Alto Dragonete.  Villafranca del Bierzo in the distance Today I’m heading to Las Herrerías, which makes it a 20,3 km day, a more suitable length for me. If you follow different forums and groups, as I have done this second time around, you’ll discover there are about as many opinions as people. My tip for you would be, read them but then follow your own instincts. Someone wrote that he thought this particular stretch was boring as it’s next to a highway, so you might as well take a taxi…I myself enjoy the walk. Sunrise behind the mountain …

Day 1 Camino to Santiago de Compostela – from Astorga to Rabanal de Camino

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I follow the French Way or The Way of St. James which this ancient pilgrim path is also known as, just like the last time, but this time starting in the region of Castilla y León that borders to Galicia at O Cebreiro. It will be fun to discover a new part of the Camino.  It’s a beautiful start and feels wonderfully flat! In reality it’s a steady ascent from Santa Catalina to Rabanal, however I stop every 5 km as I had planned, for a coffee, lunch or something to drink, and luckily there are cafes evenly distributed along the trail.   Passing pretty and very rustic doors on the way. I knew that there has been a tremendous rise of pilgrims since my last Camino in 2012. The statistics show a staggering 438,589 thousand people finished the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in 2022, as opposed to 192,488 in 2012, and indeed, there are a lot of pilgrims on the trail today. However, I enjoy having brief chats with people from many parts of the …

My Camino to Santiago de Compostella 2023 – Arriving in Astorga

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This year the Camino called me again…  The first time I walked part of the Camino to Santiago de Compostela was 2012. At that time, I was living in Malmö in the south of Sweden and working at IKEA Communications, the in-house marketing agency of IKEA. This meant that I had to join the ranks of IKEA’s many commuting employees, spending a good three hours on the train every day, starting at the crack of dawn. The upside of this was that I got to know and become friends with a good many of my co-workers.  Anyway, one Friday evening in May, while we commuted back to Malmö, Gen, one of my interior designer friends from Quebec told me about walking the whole 800 km stretch of the Camino when she was in her twenties. Something struck a chord inside of me when I listened to her story. The whole of the next day I thought about it and the next day I found myself at my computer Googling away. On Monday when we met …

Palma in my heart

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What can I say. I love this town! It has everything really. It’s beautiful, cosmopolitan, vivid, has amazing cuisine, a wonderful climate, bags of culture, beautiful old buildings, a cathedral, old churches, a beach, the list goes on… As a wonderful coincidence my family is also here at the same time as I am. They arrive in intervals and we meet up a couple of times when I’m on my road trip around Mallorca. Here are some snapshots from Palma. Strolling around town and enjoying the ambience. Palma has some awesome architecture. Lunch at Duke. Heavenly salad. Cool small interior shop in La Lonja, Viveca. I really like chocolate ice cream and look what we found. Lucky me! More of these cool tiles, here at Hotel Cort. La Rosa is a wonderful place to have a few tapas before heading out for dinner. Having one of the best dinners ever here at Canela. The food is amazing! It’s the last night with this gang. Family, friends and a random guy. Copyright and photo: Anita Martinez Beijer …

Getting about Mallorca

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I’m very happy to arrive in Alaró, the third stop on my trip. Once again I’m in the Tramuntana mountains. I instantly take to this pretty little village and I adore the central position my apartment has, right in the middle of the village by the market square. I have a small balcony overlooking it, and I at the back I have a terrace overlooking the village, the mountains and one lonely palm tree.  I like that I only have to cross the square to buy fresh bread at the bakery in the morning. And also to have good restaurants on my very doorstep. But the best part here is that I have a sneak peak at village life from my vantage point on the balcony, without being noticed. The restaurants are frequented by locals and occasional visitors, not the other way around. I’m happy to see that there is a very active local scene here, just like in Esporles, after my brief visit on the southeast cost where tourists seem to dominate the scene. Though I’m sure there are still some nice unspoilt places there too for me to …

Road trip in Mallorca

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I love Mallorca and I decide to explore more of the island than I have done previously. Said and done I plan a route that take me to different areas, from small authentic villages in the mountains to popular costal areas where the tourist flock. I plan to stay in private homes as I always do. I book a flight, a car and set out in the height of the summer.  My first stop is in Esporles, a small but beautiful old village with honey coloured houses nestled in the Tramuntana mountains. Here I have my own room at the top of an old town house and I have a private roof terrace with this amazing view. In the morning the locals meet and chat outside the local shop. This shop hasn’t got any signs or displays outside, so arriving the previous evening there was no trace whatsoever that there is a shop here. It looked like an ordinary house like all the others. No garish signs are in your face when you enter either. Just …

Snapshots from New York

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New York New York. I feel exited to be here at last. I have a hectic schedule while I’m here so I barely have time to land before I’m off to work. But how rewarding isn’t it? I meet wonderful people! And get to see amazing homes! I’m down in the subway in no time. I discover, since it’s Sunday, that this isn’t the best of days to travel by subway, because a lot of maintenance are made on weekends and therefore some of the lines are closed. Which leads to a general confusion, not only for me, on finding the best way to get to one’s destination. And the journey back home takes forever. Oh well, all the more time to people watch then. I people watch and people talk too, as I continue to strike up conversations with whoever I meet. This artist I observed while he was sketching some people on the train and we had a nice chat waiting for the next train. He is armed with his sketchbook, pencils and …

Mexico II – Frida Kahlo

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Of course I just had to make time to go to Frida Kahlos family home and studio La Casa Azul in Coyoacán while I’m here. And I’m not disappointed. I love visiting this famous and colourful home of an amazing artist and woman. She was born here and much is intact from when she lived here. This is the kitchen.  Even at the colourful entrance to La Casa Azul I feel exited. Coming here is something I have been looking forward to a long time. And I’m not disappointed. I like this museum because there are rooms still decorated the way they were at the time when Frida lived and worked here, so you get a sense of her life. Frida Kahlo became bedridden after a terrible traffic accident when she was young and she was seriously injured by it. She broke her spine and pelvis and had eleven fractures in her right leg and her right foot was crushed. As if that wasn’t enough, a handrail in iron pierced though her abdomen and uterus. It’s heartbreaking …