Santiago de Compostela: The Beautiful City!

July 27th.  We arrived in Santiago today as planned.  It really is a beautiful city - much nicer than I had expected.  The cathedral, of course, is the central attraction but the small streets lined with restaurants and boutiques are also very lovely.  Our little hotel, the MV Algalia, is delightful.  Nonetheless, the atmosphere here is somewhat odd - as is to be expected with so many peregrinos crowding into the city. 

July 30th.  I have left Santiago and am now in the business lounge at Barcelona airport updating this blog and waiting for my flight to Palma de Mallorca.  I will stay there for a few days before heading back to Paris and eventually to Canada. 

What have I to say about the Camino?  It was a wonderful walk - which is what I came for - nothing more, nothing less!

WQG, 30 July, 2012.

Triacastela to Sarria and on to Santiago: The Final Days

July 22nd.  The walk today took us through mountains, farmers’ fields, farm yards and dilapidated villages.  We took the long way around through Samos to enjoy the river which snaked along beside the path for much of the way.  Once in Sarria, however, everything changed.  Now the trails are much busier with hundreds of new peregrinos stretched out for as far as the eye can see.  Gone are the peaceful days of the last four and a half weeks!

 July 24th.  Today I walked almost 27 kms in under five hours, up and down, up and down, in the blasting heat - but I felt really strong at the end of it.  Because of my pace I passed dozens and dozens of people - mostly new peregrinos (I could tell because their clothes were clean and their boots and backpacks were bright and new) - struggling along the trail or collapsed by the roadside.  It seems that many of the people who set out from Sarria are not as fit as they might be to undertake such a walk.  We spoke to one Spanish couple during lunch at the hotel who had arrived totally exhausted and who told us that they had never done anything like this before - not even short hikes.

July 25th.  In two days, we’ll be in Santiago and Roxanne and I will part ways - she to go to London with her daughter and me to go to Palma de Mallorca to work on my paper for the Inclusive Museums conference next month.  Before that, though, I think I’ll take the bus to Finisterre - not to burn my clothes on the beach as tradition demands but simply to spend a few hours beside the Atlantic Ocean.  I’ll be back in Paris on July 2nd and travelling back to Canada on July 4th.

 I’ll do a final update to the blog from Santiago

O Cebriero to Triacastela: High Above the Clouds

July 21st.  At the risk of being repetitive - and oh so boring - I have to say that, today, I had another beautiful walk - this time in the Montes de Galicia.  Early this morning when we left O Cebreiro we were high above the clouds.  We began with a short trek down the valley to Linares and then continued on through Hospital de la Condesa and up to the Alto San Rogue at 1270m.  This was an unexpectedly steep climb but well worth the effort as the view from the top was spectacular.  We had one more steep climb to the Alto de Polo, slightly higher at 1335m (4380ft), also offering us spectacular views.  The rest of our 22kms walk wound around the mountains both up and down (mostly down) to the lovely town of Triacastela, where we are staying tonight in the Casa David!  I feel so privileged to be able to walk this walk and every day I think to myself that there is really nowhere else I would rather be right now...

We have noticed that the food in Galicia is quite different from the food we were often offered earlier on our walk.  Today I had wonderful vegetable soup with potatoes and kale followed by a lovely warm green bean (i.e. kidney bean) salad - a very welcome change from some of the tasteless food we had been served earlier.  If I seem obsessed with food it is because so often I arrive in a place, hungry, after a long walk, only to find there is simply nothing on the menu that I can eat!  Spain is a very meat/fish-oriented society - quite often offering things like pig’s trotters, tripe, brain, tongue, and so on - food that even Roxanne will not try!  Even something as simple as a mixed salad always comes with tuna - which I have been told many times is not meat (sin carne) and not fish (sin pescada).  I am not sure what it is, then, but I will not eat it!

Tomorrow we head for Sarria, the place where hundreds, maybe thousands, of people begin the Camino in order to walk the 100kms required to receive the Compostela (certificate)!  I think our peaceful walk is about to end!

Rabinal del Camino to Molinaseca: A Feast for the Eyes

July 17th.  We left Rabinal del Camino and immediately began a steep climb up to the Cruz de Ferro passing through Foncebaden and Manjarin (both no-where places) on the way.  The Cruz de Ferro is the highest point on the entire journey (1505 m - 4940 ft.).  From the start I knew that this would be one of the best walks of the entire trip.  The scenery was spectacular - we were surrounded by mountains for as far as we could see.  I was ready for the challenge of the climb after so many days on the flat.  Rabinal itself is a beautiful little town with a very old church and some other lovely buildings.  A large number of peregrinos left Rabinal at the same time as we did.  For a while it felt like hiking up to the Tuckerman Ravine on Mount Washington to ski on the Headwall or Herman’s Highway on the May 24 long weekend!  We soon got strung out, however, some people dropping behind and others rushing ahead.  It still amazes me how few people we actually see on the trail. 

As we approached the Cruz de Ferro, a large pile of stones and a cross on the top of the pass de Irago, I was reminded of the many chortens we saw in Nepal on the way to Mount Everest.  People had hung coloured cloth or discarded clothes on the cross and for a moment I thought they were Buddhist prayer flags.

As we continued our walk towards Molinaseca we were treated to wonderful colours - bright purple heather, yellow gorse, yellow star flowers and bright pink foxgloves.  From time to time there were pine trees or oak trees to provide a little shade as we walked along the sandy paths!  Later these sandy paths gave way to steep pebble/rock-strewn trails that led us down, and down, to the village of Acebe.

We are now at our hotel in Molinaseca - a very lively little town about 8kms from Ponferrada.  Our hotel, grandly called El Palicio, is beside the river and the local swimming hole so there are a great number of Spanish people out enjoying the beautiful summer afternoon - as well as many tired peregrinos staggering in.

Tomorrow we head for Villafranco del Bierzo.  We will soon be leaving Castilla y Leon and passing into Galicia - our final geographic/political region of the trip.

A Word on the Spanish Villages Along the Camino  As we walk along the Camino we pass through many Spanish villages.  For the most part they leave us baffled.  No matter what time we pass through - 7am, 2pm, 7pm - they seem deserted.  Many of them are poor and run-down - although earlier in the walk they were more affluent and pristine.  We almost never see children in these villages and rarely see women - unless they are out cleaning the street in front of their houses or scrubbing the steps.  When we do see people enjoying themselves they are almost always men.  In Villadangos, for example, we saw men in the cafe drinking coffee in the morning, men in the cafe playing cards in the afternoon (all afternoon) and men in the cafe drinking beer in the evening.  This is still a very male-oriented society - at least here in the villages of northern Spain.

Molinaseca to Villafranco del Bierzo: Vineyards and Window Boxes.  July 18th. Our journey today took us from Molinaseca to Villafranco del Bierzo passing through the lovely city of Ponferrada and the beautiful village of Cacabelos.  What I love about these cities/towns/villages are the window boxes, spilling over with brightly coloured petunias and bright red geraniums.  They are everywhere and they remind me of the small towns of the Black Forest in Germany where I lived in the early 1980s. 

Most of our walk today was though vineyards - beautiful but not spectacular like yesterday’s walk.  Outside of Pieres we took an alternative (country-side) walk to Villafranca and passed through the almost ghost town of Valtuille de Arriba.  I say almost ghost town because although most of the houses were very run-down or abandoned there were signs of renewal at the same time. 

Villafranca is a curious mix of old and new.  Our hotel is right on the main road out of town so it is very noisy!

Villafranca to Herrerias: Spanish Rounds and Babbling Brooks.  I was rather disappointed today as I wanted to take the cross-country trail to Herrerias but missed it coming out of Villafranca and ended up on the highway with everyone else!  There is also a wilderness trail that I would have loved to have taken if I had been with some of my more experienced hiking friends - maybe another time!  As it was two things made up for the missed route - first, we were serenaded by two lovely young Spanish boys singing rounds and duets to amuse themselves on the trail ahead of us and second by the sounds of a babbling brook (aka the Rio Pereie) rushing down the mountain beside the highway.

We saw our first goats and lovely little kids today and a few sheep with tiny lambs.  They were all being guarded by an enormous dog, which seemed to be taking its job very seriously!

 Our hotel today is in an old butter factory and is really quite luxurious!

Next Day.  July 20th - On to O Cebreiro
We left early this morning to beat the heat, but we didn’t need to as it stayed cool.  Our walk (climb) today took us to the little settlement of O Cebreiro (1310m - 4297ft).  This has been one of my main points of interest on the entire trip as the name seems to have some magical quality for me and the idea of a steep climb was very appealing.  As it was, although the climb was the steepest yet, it didn’t seem very challenging - so I amused myself by running or walking very fast up the trail to try to increase my cardio-vascular strength.  Each day now I get to the end of our walk feeling as if I haven’t really done anything ...

Before we know it we will be in Santiago and our journey will be over

Hospìtal de Orbiga to Astorga: The End Of The Meseta

July 15th.  Today we began our walk in Hospital de Orbiga, a lovely little town far into the Meseta.  We entered the town over a magnificent stone bridge (cobble stones and pebbles set in concrete) and continued on to the countryside beyond.  We are still on the Meseta but the middle kilometres, which were so ugly (yes, those writers mentioned earlier were right about some parts of the Meseta being ugly – but not all of it), have given way to a more beautiful landscape once again. 

Note on the Ugly Meseta. One problem for us was that we were often required to take an alternative route that ran beside the busy N120, a major highway that snakes across northern Spain and passes through several deserted villages and run-down industrial areas.  Still, even amongst all that ugliness, I saw many beautiful birds - which rather made up for it.

Our Walk Continued.  As soon as we left Hospital de Orbiga we found ourselves in beautiful farmland, with hectares of maize (aka corn in N. America - here grown only to feed the farm animals) and potatoes.  Later, as we wound our way up several small hills we saw blackberry brambles and rosehips at the side of the trail.  Rosehips - another great childhood memory: picking baskets and baskets full of rosehips and selling them for sixpence a pound to I don’t remember who!  They were used to make that wonderful rosehip syrup (so full of Vitamin C) that we were given as a reward for taking the oh so horrid cod-liver oil!

Later we saw hazel nuts and apple trees - not the carefully groomed apple trees we see in southern Ontario but gnarly old trees laden with apples that will almost certainly be eaten by worms or wasps before they can be harvested.

One of my favourite sounds on this walk - and one not often heard in Canada - is the sound of roosters crowing.  We hear them in almost every village.  They always make me think of Chanticleer in The Canterbury Tales and, to be truthful, some peregrinos make me think of him too.  One in particular, who was on the same schedule as us for a couple of days, was constantly preening himself and prancing around in front of all the women.  I told Roxanne we should add another story to Chaucer's famous poem - we could call it The Rake’s Tale!

Later same day we saw beautiful black and white Friesian cows and heard lambs bleating from a large barn.  Today was such a wonderful contrast to the three or four previous days.  The predominant colours of the landscape were pale gold, burnt orange, red ochre and dark olive green - beautiful!

 Now we are in the lovely old town of Astorga, staying in the Gaudi Hotel right across from the Gaudi Palace (a great example of Gaudi’s work) and kitty-corner from the cathedral - life does not get much better than this!

Tomorrow we head for Rabinal del Camino and the day after that we begin our climb to the pass of Irago and the Cruz de Farro - the highest point on the entire walk.  I am very much looking forward to the view from the top which, I have read, is wonderful (actually there was no view from the top but great views on the climb up).

Next Day (July 16th).  Since we did not find an Internet Cafe yesterday, I am updating these last two days together.  Today we went from Astorga to Rabinal.  We walked towards, and into, the foothills of the Montes de Leon.  The countryside was lovely - mostly scrub grass and very tall gorse bushes.  Later the gorse bushes were replaced with rosehips again and then with small bushy trees with waxy leaves.  Later we saw more wheat fields and had a great view of the mountains up ahead and off to the south.  Of course, as usual, the mountains were dotted with the ubiquitous windmills.

Several friends have written to ask if it was not a little sad to meet people on the trail only to see them disappear a few weeks, or even a few days, later.  I think one could see it that way, but I prefer to think how wonderful it was to meet them at all and to spend time with them during our short stops or over a glass of wine or a meal.  We cannot physically hold on to people but we can keep them in our memories.  We’ll always remember our Camino friends and our brief encounters with them on this amazing walk!

Sahagun and Beyond: Fast Forward to Leon

July 10 - 14.  The route between Sahagun and Leon, passing through El Burgo Ranero and Mansilla de las Mulas, looked long and boring.  It was senda pretty much all the way, running for the most part beside some major highways (we were scheduled on an alternative route because of the location of our hotel in El Burgo Ranero) and passing through some grubby towns and industrial areas.  So, we decided to change our reservations and fast forward to Leon.  This was a great decision as we met up with several of our Camino friends (Jennie and Julia, Carsten and his son Kieran, and a few others).  We had a lovely (this time for real) farewell dinner with Carsten and Jennie and Julia.  We may see Jennie in Santiago but Carsten and Kieran will be back in Germany by the time we get there on the 27th of July.  We are not sure about Julia.  It’s funny how we get attached to people we have never seen before and probably will never see again ...

Leon is a great surprise.  It is a really lovely city with lots of interesting ambiance in the old town.  It has a Visigoth, a Moor and a Roman history, with lots of Roman ruins.  The cathedral is one of the loveliest I have ever seen - not vast and sprawling like the one in Burgos, but decidedly more impressive (for me!).  Its straight, strong structure and its almost austere interior somehow accentuate the beauty of its magnificent stained glass windows. 

We have discovered that to get a really good meal here in northern Spain we must go out rather late.  The peregrino menus that are offered early continue to be mediocre at best.  After 9pm, however, the menus change as the local Spanish people begin to fill the restaurants for dinner.  Here in Leon, though, we have found a lovely Italian restaurant called Rocco (recommended by a receptionist from one of the hotels) that serves great food at any time of the day!

We have also discovered that there is a running of the bulls in Leon during the summer festivals in June!

Now I am off to find the art gallery and will post again in a few days.

Later same day.  I went to the art gallery - which is more of a history gallery than a traditional art gallery.  It tells the story of Leon in beautiful stylised pictures and texts - beginning in the year 711.  The gallery building itself is exquisite.  It is a wonderful mixture of old and new.  The old city wall (the oldest in Spain, I have since learned) forms the basis of a new glass structure, which is light and airy and intermingled with some older stone structures.  This produces a very interesting and aesthetically pleasing environment.

I am liking this city more and more.  The Spanish poet, Victoriano Cremer, has written: 

“Here in Leon, what matters is not so much what people do or achieve as what they plan or dream.”

I rather like this!

Fromista to Carrion de los Condes: Frogs and Monks

July 7th.  The first part of today´s walk was beside the Rio Uciera.  We took this alternative route to avoid walking on the senda - a pilgrim autopiste that runs along beside the highway.  These paths are long and straight and made mostly from concrete, which is very hard on the body.  Our route through the fields was much preferable - although we noticed that most people were walking beside the highway.  We heard very strange noises coming from the river and at first thought it was an unusual bird but later decided that it must have been the frogs.  They were calling out to, and answering, each other and at times they almost sounded like humans talking. 

Our hotel today is (another) former monastery - but this one is also a three-star hotel.  When we arrived we heard Gregorian chanting in the lobby and at first thought the monks were really there to greet us.  Of course, it was just a recording but it provided a very nice ambiance.  The hotel is huge and has lovely grounds with beautiful trees and a large golf-green standard lawn.  There was a very classy Spanish wedding taking place at the hotel while we were there, with all the guests in long gowns and tuxedos.  In the evening they had a riotous party in one of the courtyards just below our window with lots of huddling in corners and shouting and singing.  It was interesting to watch these different customs.

July 8th.  Today we walked from Carrion de los Condes to Caladrilla de la Cueza.  There was nothing much to say about this part of the trail except that at times we were walking between 8ft high purple thistle “hedges”.  Very unnerving as the path was rather narrow in places.

This morning, July 9th, was the running of the bulls in Pamplona.  We watched the entire event on TV during breakfast.  It was such a spectacle, with hundreds of people gathered in the streets or hanging from balconies all along the route.  The runners were lined up in their white suits and red kerchiefs.  There was a lot of pacing and stretching and praying, and praying, and praying ... and suddenly the bulls were loose.  Most of them ran straight through the streets, bumping into the runners and knocking some of them over.  However, there was one large black bull that was obviously very angry.  He was frothing at the mouth and kept turning in circles and attempting to charge the crowd.  Luckily the bull-handlers were there to prevent any serious damage.  Once in the ring our bull-hero for the day was kept performing by the picadors with their lovely yellow and pink capes.  We didn´t stay to watch the rest!  The entire bull-running event took fewer than 4 minutes but was quite amazing to watch!

We are now in Sahagun - a grubby little town with nothing much to recommend it.  We move on to El Burgo Ranero tomorrow!