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Oh yeah, we also crossed of Charles de Gaulle Airport for ever, what a POS. We did a short layover there. Once. Avoid it if you can

I've had the misfortune to fly through CDG several times. In fact, we went through there when we moved to Europe for the first time in '93. I agree. It's an utter POS. Maybe even worse than Newark, if that's possible. Laid out by idiots, managed by morons, and the staff are constantly on strike.

Paris was meh. Dirty and crowded, and populated by assholes. The Eiffel tower was cool. Normandy is awesome and you should definitely make that happen if you can. We went for the WWII history of course, but it's also a beautiful area with really nice people. I'd love to go back some day. Southern France is also pretty nice.

We were in Germany quite a bit when I lived over there. I have good memories of Berlin, and really enjoyed the cold war history stuff there. Lots of great museums, well designed public transit, and excellent street food, too.

Berlin is my favorite European city.

I walked the Camino from Porto to Santiago back in September of 2022.

If you have any questions I can try to answer them. I didn't stay in any albergues though as I'm a loud snorer and opted for hotels and AirBnB type accommodations. I feel like I did miss out on part of the experience because of this.

Here is the post I made about it with a few photos.
https://sigforum.com/eve/forum...010051005#8010051005

Looking forward to hear back about your experience.

Thanks for the link and the photos! My wife did Valenca to Santiago a couple of years ago, so she's somewhat familiar with the process, but I've never been. We're planning to stay in the Albuergues as she had a pretty good experience with them last time.

My wife wishes she'd had time to continue out to Muxia the last time she walked it, so we're contemplating starting there, walking down to coast to Finisterra, and then east to Santiago. Then we'll head south and see how far we can get towards Porto in the time that we have left. The plan currently is to fly in and out of Porto, but that may change depending on ticket prices.

Any tips or advice you can share from your experience would be awesome. I've read a lot of stuff online, but first-hand experience is usually more helpful.

I renewed my pre-teen kids passports today.

In and out in under 20 minutes at the county clerk office. It was $100 per kid to the State Department, and $35 per kid to the local county clerks office. $270 for two 5-year kids passports...

Its a much better value when the passports are good for ten years as an adult rather than 5 years as a kid.