I’m back from my 2016 Camino de Santiago and will be filling orders.

It’s easy to get addicted to walking long distance, especially through northern Spain. The scenery is breath taking and filled with historic culture. There’s castles, cathedrals and chocolates, OH MY! Castles, cathedrals and chocolates! OH MY!!

Astorga was the first place in Europe that chocolate was made, 500 years ago, before Brussels or Switzerland got into the act. There’s even a Museum of Chocolate in Astorga, not to be missed. One of the early Spanish explorers to South America, possibly Cortes, brought the recipe and method for making chocolate back with him, along with lots of gold.

The symbol of the Camino de Santiago is the scallop shell. My seashell flutes were and continue to be a hit along the Camino de Santiago. This year I brought about 20 shell flutes with me and sold all but three by the time I finished the walk in Finisterre, the ‘End of the World’ and the place Columbus set sail from on his historic adventure to the ‘new world’.

I walked with many different people from around the world during my six weeks on the traditional Camino. I walk slowly and take in the sights. This year I walked with an interesting man associated with Dalhousie University in Halifax, NS.

He bought one of my flutes and said he knew people at the university that may be interested in studying how and why it works. Perhaps they will be able to provide some answers that Rollins College Dept of Physics was not. We will see.

For now I plan to learn to speak Spanish so I can return to Spain and enjoy walking the many Camino de Santiagos for, hopefully, many years to come.