Day 48 bis – visit a niece and her family in Ontario, Canada, walk some of the Great Glen Way in Scotland, celebrate grandson’s birthday and later UK Father’s Day.
Sunday, 21 June 2026
1 097 km on my Via Francigena (283 km for 2026) (but see below)
From late May I have kept a watch for snow on the Great Saint Bernard Pass. The latest report continued to talk of snow on the Italian side. But with temperatures in London reaching the high 20s it is time to go.
UK fathers day was celebrated by us last Thursday with a lunch in Twickenham.
On Friday 19 June I am at Heathrow Airport boarding a plane to Geneva. And I continue to marvel how straight foward international travel is – almost as simple as getting on a local train – just an electronic boarding-pass / ticket on my phone and a hard copy passport. Check-in is done online and if there is no suitcase to go in the hold, sweet as.
On landing it’s an hours walk to the hostel and sleep.
Saturday morning has a big breakfast and a walk around Geneva, then board the train to Martigny. This is an old Roman town which has been totally refreshed. Just about everything is along the 2 km main street starting from Martigny Rail Station.
The parish church has the vigil mass at 18h and in the large building it is almost standing room only.
I follow with a salad dinner and local beer.
Sunday morning I tour the Roman ruins including a relatively small amphithetre.
Then back to Martigny train station and the automated train up the valley to Orsières – about 25 km distance and 400 m rise in elevation – it is no effort for the train
Over the next few hours I meet three other residents in the gite d’etape (hostel) for the night. And I walk the first km or so to get the route for leaving the village sorted.
I have decided to add the 40 km from Saint-Maurice where I stopped in 2023 to Orsières today to the distance covered, so:
1 137 km on my Via Francigena (323 km for 2026)
And so to bed.
y
