Coming Soon: My Megawalk in Europe from North to South

Inspired by a paperback I picked up in Mexico last year

Jul 06, 2025

Hey! I’m taking a break from the story of finding our home in the Netherlands to bring you, my dear readers, REAL TIME news (#1).

During yesterday’s walk I hiked to a dike near Delfzijl. It’s to the left in the distance.

The crazy idea of walking from the Netherlands to the Mediterranean started with a book I found in a used-book bin at La Biblioteca Pública in San Miguel de Allende, where Peter and I live in the winter. Published in 1986—before GPS and smart phones, “Walking Europe From Top to Bottom” was written by two women who completed the 1500-mile GR5 route from the Netherlands to Nice, France, in 1984. The journey took Susanne Margolis and Ginger Harmon 107 days.

Of course, I’d heard of the Camino de Santiago in Spain, a popular walking route made famous in the movie “The Way” with Martin Sheen. Turns out Europe has many numbered walking routes, many of which lead to the Camino.

I started wondering if I could handle a megawalk myself.

Rain was always nearby, but only a few sprinkles fell.

Here’s How a Megawalk Works

The GR5 is divided into 10 sections, and each section is divided into a number of stages, or daily walks. The first section covers the Netherlands and has eight stages, beginning in Hoek van Holland by the North Sea and ending in Bergen op Zoom near Belgium. The average distance from stage to stage is 11 miles (18 km), though some are shorter and one is quite a bit longer—15 miles (24 km).

I decided to try a few megawalks here in Appingedam, where we live part of the year (the warm part), to see if I could handle it. My first walk was 8.5 miles, and I got a blister on the ball of my foot. Nothing too serious. My next walk, a few days later, was 9 miles. Yesterday, I did another 9-miler, and (yay!) no blisters. Walking sticks help me move a bit faster, so I average about 3 miles an hour. I know, it’s not very fast, but who’s in a hurry?

Two canals converge near our house, each crossed by a picturesque footbridge.

It’s Not That Hard To Walk

The good news is it’s not that hard. Plus the Netherlands is notoriously flat unlike later sections (in France, for example), where ascents are part of the stats for every stage. Walking day after day will be the hard part, though I’ll be resting a lot and maybe having a cold Dutch beer here and there. Prost!

I hope I won’t get lost since I’ll be in a part of NL I’ve never been before, but unlike my predecessors, I’ll have a phone and a more recent guidebook (“The GR5 Trail Benelux and Lorraine,” which covers the first half of the GR5, by Carroll Dorgan) to help me navigate. As much as possible, I plan to follow the rectangular trail markers: a white horizontal stripe above a red horizontal stripe. But sometimes the markings can be hard to find, so it’ll be good to have a back up.

The house with the flags in front is our home, sweet home.

I’m Doing This

So yes, I am doing this. I’ll start with the first section in August and continue with the Belgian section next year. How long will this journey take? Let’s do the math. I’m 67 now, and there are 10 sections.

If I do a section every summer, I’ll be 76 when I walk into the Mediterranean Sea at the journey’s end.

My husband, Peter, who doesn’t love walking, will help with logistics—picking me up and dropping me off along the trail. We’ll use our camper for accommodations, so I’ll sleep in a comfy bed every night. I’ll be posting as I do the walk, so make sure you subscribe. For extra content, support me if you can with a paid subscription.

I’m so excited to start! My walk will commence on August 15 if all goes well. Meanwhile, more training days ahead—and hopefully no blisters!

If you missed my previous posts, catch up here!