Journals

Planning for this "Camino" started in 2023 with a download of the Camino Track (.gpx file) where I intended to follow the route that Viennese (Austrian) Pilgrims would follow on their initial segments to Santiago. The duration was planned not to exceed 30 days, and it finally ended with a plan for 21 days. Challenges in finding lodging caused me to iterate on the route until I ended up starting at Tulln an der Donau and essentially following the Danube Bicycle Path along the Danube going upstream from Tulln until Linz. After Linz, the route then veers southwest to Salzburg and beyond until my 21 days were up.

Island Walk is a 700-kilometer (435-mile) Prince Edward Island trail inspired by the pilgrims’ route in Europe. It opened in 2021 and loops around the perimeter of the country's smallest province and has plenty of stops at sandy beaches and scenic viewpoints. Here is a link to a great source of additional information: The Island Walk.

Until my next major multi-day walk planned in Sept 2023—the Prince Edward Island Walk in Canada—I will continue to walk and train in my local area to maintain my endurance. My goal is to do at least 20 mi / week. Additionally, as a coordinator of the local chapter of the AOPC, I will also be leading walks with other pilgrims at least once a month.

Plan: On April 26, 2022, I'll be leaving for Budapest and starting a 170-mile Camino while Covid-19 still lingers and the Russian invasion of Ukraine is still raging.

Because of outbreaks of Coronavirus were announced in Milan (on Feb. 24, 2020), I had to rethink this journey!

In late December 2019, Andrea Vitiello made me aware of his Via Postumia Project (a Camino from Aquileia to Genoa, Italy). After years of work Andrea and fellow collaborators succeeded in connecting Budapest (Aquincum, eastern border of the Roman Empire, with the Pannonicus limes) with Santiago de Compostela, (Finisterre) the end of the world. Andrea made use of a collaboration, with the Associations with whom he had been exchanging information for years, each member contributing in his own area of the work. Today it is possible to travel on foot or by bike from Budapest and arrive in Santiago through Italy, using the routes depicted on the map below:

Plan: Beginning in late April 2020, I had plans to begin my trek in Budapest and walk to the Slovenian border (on Via Pannonia). I had planned to skip over Slovenia and go directly to Trieste, Italy, saving Slovenia for another time, perhaps as part of the European Peace Walk. Both segments will total 855 miles (1368 km).

This trip was canceled due to Covid and thus no journal. It's the one that got away! Hopefully someday I'll get to return.

This is Part 2 of my Via de la Plata (that I started in 2007). I walked 290 miles from Salamanca to Santiago via the Camino Sanabres.

Beginning in the Spring of 2019, I walked a 115-mile stretch along the Dalmatian Coast in Croatia, that was part of combined trip—followed by a visit to relatives in Austria, and then part 2 of my Via de la Plata (that I started in 2007).

In April 2018, I walked from Innsbruck, Austria over the Alps into Italy, following much of Ferdinand Treml’s German guidebook, Der Pilgerweg nach Rom, down to Padua. Then I took the train to Florence and picked up the Camino de Assisi in Florence and walked it to Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis, the founder of the Franciscan religious order as well as Italy’s patron saint. From Assisi to Rome, I followed the Way of Francis.

It was an unforgettable journey, especially meeting our grandson, Kurtis, and his wife, Jesse, in Rome. The three of us spent a week in Rome and to add icing to the cake, one of my daughters (Marjie) along with her partner (Mark), overlapped the end of their vacation to Greece with us for several days.

In 2016, I walked the Via Regia: starting in the south-eastern town of Medyka, Poland (close to Przemysl on the Ukraine border) going through Poland and then as far as a visa will allow, through Germany, France, and Spain to end at Santiago de Compostela.

Although I originally looked at starting in Kiev, Ukraine, I soon gave up on that idea because of language, political unrest, and sheer logistics. The three-month Schengen-treaty limitation might have compelled me to return in 2017 for a phase II were it not for a pre-Schengen agreement between Poland and the USA. As my walking buddy, Eddie, suggested, I should be applying for political asylum to escape the crazy political scene playing out in the USA for 2016.

In 2015, I tested a small portion of the Via Regia in eastern Germany, from Görlitz on the Polish border via Leipzig to Vacha during May, 2015. Because of train strikes, I fell short by two days making it to Eisenach instead of Vacha. This stretch was a golden opportunity to experience a part of Europe not yet totally modernized--I loved it, the slower pace and a simpler life.

In May 2014, I walked the Portuguese Camino, one of the many routes of the Camino de Santiago De Compostela.

I started the walk of the Historic California Missions Trail on the 22nd of September, 2012 and completed it on November 13th. It took 53 days and I invite you to read about my adventure. I completed my book My Mission to Walk in 2014, but elected not to publish it.

In 2011, I walked the Camino Frances again. 

Unfortunately, no journal is available for this trip.

In 2007, I walked a good part of the Via de la Plata.

No journal is available for this walk.

In 2004, I walked the Camino Frances. 

No journal is available for this walk.

This is a test entry.