Part 1 – Unprepared?  Completely!  

As noted before, I had my doubts that we were really going to make this trip. That was my excuse for doing very little training walks or preparing my gear at least a month in advance. I meant to do training in my hiking boots to get my feet used to them again and to check their condition but on the few walks I did, I was just too lazy. The boots just stayed in the closet until the morning before the 11:40pm flight to Frankfurt / Barcelona. 

I think you already know what happened.  When I saw the boots yesterday morning, I checked the tread first. Uh oh!  That usually lasts two Caminoes plus training. I thought they were new before last year’s walk but I guess I was wrong. The heels were worn away almost completely. The leather on the sides of the boots was also cracking  open in several places. Instead of a slow day of packing, we were now racing around Singapore looking for size 13 Keen Targahee hightop boots. Do you know how few size 13 shoes are sold in Singapore each year?  I am betting that less than a dozen are because very few shops have them in stock for any brand or model.

We got lucky though. In our third stop, the saleslady assured me that they didn’t have a size 13 but she’ll double check and bring us the closest thing she had. I could live with a different model.  I could also live with ankle height shoes. If they only had them in pink, I’d even take those to avoid trying to walk on cobblestone streets in my running shoes. Beggars can’t be choosers. The Keen brand is important to me because of the wide toe box but I’d at least try on a different brand. Size 13 is the only thing mandatory though. I’m not folding my toes in half and then asking my feet to walk 25km every day.

Can you imagine my joy when the saleslady walked back from the storeroom with a pair of size 13, ankle height Keen walking shoes?  I could have kissed her!  I didn’t though because Melanie was there and I value my life. A shoutout to Feder Sports Store in Peninsula Plaza. That mall may smell like Burma but Feder’s has saved me a few times.  

We still had two more stops to make trying to replace rain covers for our bags that were missing or overly worn.   That condensed what was supposed to be a slow packing day into a more hurried afternoon of packing and praying that I didn’t need to make any more wild goose chases. 

Part 2 – The crazy connection

When I bought the tickets from Singapore to Barcelona, the best option for us appeared to be on Lufthansa with a connection in Frankfurt. The price, schedule, frequent flyer program all worked for us. It’s been 40 years since I last transited in Frankfurt but I still have great memories of that stop on the way from Saudi Arabia to Baltimore, just a few days before Christmas. My, how times have changed!

The flights that Lufthansa had proposed to us allowed a one hour layover in Frankfurt. Trust me, that is not enough time. Our flight from Singapore landed ten minutes early but that savings was swiftly lost in a very slow disembarkation. Just to get out to our arrival gate, there were two choke points that slowed us down considerably.  Next was a very long walk halfway across the airport to immigration. There, two ex-women prison guards shouted at the mob who were trying to take the only escalator down to passport control. They only would allow people to pass, one by one, alternating between ten EU citizens, then ten foreigners. 

This is when I gave up any hope of making it to Barcelona on time to catch our Vueling flight to Santiago. We eventually made it downstairs only to find a single line of about 250 fellow visitors waiting to get their passport stamped after being interrogated about our intentions. To Germany’s credit, that queue moved at a decent speed but still, we weren’t going to make our flight. We still had to try though and we walked as fast as possible through the other half of the airport to gate A34. I hurried ahead and was just in earshot of the gate to hear the attendants calling out our names. I shouted out “HERE” and waved to Melanie. They allowed us through and locked the boarding gate behind us. We even managed to find an overhead bin for our bags and to check our AirTags to ensure our checked luggage was onboard.  After a hug and a prayer of thanks we were on our way. 

Our layover in Barcelona will be three hours and we don’t have any passport controls to go through. The EU strikes again!  

The moral of this story?  Prepare better but keep the faith!