I walked the Camino de Santiago last year from Lisbon to Santiago de Compostella,the Camino Portugues and then on to Muxia and Finisterra, a distance of 532 miles. What I love about the different Camino routes is the hostels that are along the route for Pilgrims, as the walkers are called because these are all ancient pilgrimage routes.
Each day you have an intention of where and how far you are going to walk. At the end of the day you hope you will be able to find a bed in a hostel, municipal or private, or resort to a hotel. The hostels on my route were not as prevalent as along the Camino Francaise. Many days you would need to walk a distance of at least 18 miles to reach the next lodging. I walked on average 23 miles a day, with just three rest days.
When I was young I had camped, but I also stayed in some beautiful hotels over the years as I traveled for work and vacations. I was not sure what to expect, although I had read about these hostels. I tried not to have expectations.
My first day walking, I reached a foundation that was listed as having a hostel for pilgrims. It took me some time to find and alas I was told they are no longer providing lodging. I had already walked 20 miles and did not feel like walking to the next hostel which was several kilometers further on. So I backtracked to some small hotels nearby. I ended up in a nice room, but I was now a little worried about finding a hostel each night. I also had not seen any other pilgrims on my route this first day.
My second day, I met up in the afternoon with a Dutch pilgrim who was on his 11th camino. We ended up at the same hostel, a room with 12 beds, co-ed, two shared bathrooms, no air conditioning, a basin for washing your clothes and a line to dry them. I was learning about the procedure, on arrival, shower, wash your clothes, find a place for dinner,serving a pilgrim meal, usually a 2 or 3 course dinner for ten euros, then back to your bunk, get yourself ready for heading out in the morning and fall asleep.
My next day, I again got to a church, after a very long days walking to find again because it was weekend that they were not providing lodging, once again I found a private hostel nearby, which fortunately had a bunk, and luckily it was on the bottom as I did not think this day I would have been able to climb to the top.
My journey was varied, walking for several days with a Frenchman, Andre, he preferred to stay in hotels mainly although we did stay in a couple of hostels.
After Porto it got busier, more pilgrims start from Porto, and some of the hostels were larger as well. This room had 40 beds in it.
Another night I slept on a mattress on the floor as all the bunks were taken. Hostels don't give much privacy, and you often are woken early by other pilgrims getting up to leave before it gets too hot to walk. So, sometimes a hotel was a choice to have some privacy and solitude. But some of the private hostels provided lovely beds with curtains like a sleeper train. Like these which also had real sheets and blankets, rather than paper ones, a shelf and socket for your phone so you could charge it, luxury indeed.
How does this apply to real estate in Tredyffrin Easttown and the surrounding Main Line area. The market right now in the low to middle range priced homes does not have enough inventory, that is $150 - $700,000.
There are plenty of buyers looking, but not enough homes to satisfy demand. So every buyer, like me looking for a bed is looking for a home with the right feel, number of amenities they want etc. Just like me, some of those buyers are not finding the home they want so they are adjusting by looking in different areas, changing what it is they want from a house so that they can find a home to buy. Our job as Main Line and Tredyffrin Easttown Realtors is to provide both our buyers and sellers with options and information so they can make those decisions with confidence.
If you need help in Tredyffrin Easttown or along the Main Line selling or buying a home contact Nick Vandekar, Selling the Main Line with Long & Foster Real Estate Inc. office 610-225-7400, cell or text 610-203-4543, email Nick@VandekarTeam.com, website www.SellingTheMainLine.com.
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