Things have gone pretty well so far as getting here goes. I made my connection in London with just minutes to spare, but my trekking poles did not come with me. They are currently in London sitting in the vast reaches of Heathrow Airport baggage system. According to British Air, they will be located and returned to home, so we shall see.
A word about trekking poles. There is a lot of discussion on various web sites that cater to pilgrims. The question always comes up, “Can I carry my Poles on the plane.” The answer is no. According to TSA, they are forbidden as a carry on and must be checked with your baggage. That doesn’t end the discussion though as someone will invariably say, “I carried mine on from Denver with no problem”. Others say,”they took mine from me in Los Angeles”. It goes on and on. A recent post on the American Pilgrims on the Camino Facebook page had about 30 comments, from it’s ok, and it’s not ok. TSA says no, so I checked them and let British Air loose them. I really didn’t want to give them to the government. As luck would have it, there was a outdoor sports shop just down the street from my B&B so I now am the owner of some shiny new poles.
As I write this, I’m on the train heading to Pamplona. It has been raining in Madrid and much of Northern Spain and I got pretty wet walking in the city yesterday. As the train pulled out of the station, the rain had stopped and the skies looked like they were clearing. One hour into the trip and it’s a whiteout outside. The weather report for Pamplona says nothing about snow, just rain, so we shall see. Back at the station I met several pilgrims who were wandering around looking lost. I remember in 2015 that was me, now I’m an old salt answering questions for the rookies.
In Pamplona now, cloudy with rain forecast, but it’s not snowing which is good. On the train ride up here, many of the streams were overflowing. There’s been a lot of rain of late.
Start walking in the morning. I think I’m ready to go.
