Mundane Monday: Walking Shoes

You hear a lot about shoes when you’re traveling, and it’s complicated figuring out which shoes to take. Shoes may be your heaviest item and make up the majority of the weight in your suitcase. And ill-fitting shoes can ruin your whole trip.

When travel shopping, I looked for some walking shoes that were also easy to slip on and off and not too heavy. I found these, and some Clark’s sandals. I wore them around the house for a day or two before we left.

They were pretty comfortable walking around Seoul for the first ~10,000 steps in a day. After that, my legs started to hurt. It wasn’t my feet that hurt but my joints, especially my knees. Surprisingly, for more than 15,000 steps, I was better off with the sandals, which were nicely cushioned but had more room and less arch support. This is probably because my feet swelled. Our hotel in Tokyo actually had an electronic foot and calf massager, which I used almost every night.

Foot massager in Shiodome hotel

When I got back, Facebook showed me last year’s picture that I took of my feet, near Munich at the Starnberger See. While I enjoy moderate walking, I have to say that this is more my kind of vacation:

Relaxing by the Starnberger See

For the Mundane Monday Challenge #118.