Spanish Musings

Where to start on my impressions of this time in Spain???

Hey there!

Firstly, the Spanish are an amazing people.  My Spanish has not improved dramatically but I believe that I can generally understand what they are saying.  Trace on the other hand is able to string sentances together and have a conversation with them. 
There is such respect in their way of life that the elderly can go for a walk at 12 midnight without being mugged.  In fact it was very common to see groups of Grandma´s and pa´s sitting on plaza benches having a good old gossip about everything between the hours of 10 - 12 pm.


You go to these Cafe/bars and you will see the men in there very early having a coffee or stronger drink, then later the ladies will come in for coffee and later in the day you will have kids come in for icecreams or sweets.  These cafes are like milk bars + coffee shop + tobaconis´t´s + alcohol bar all rolled up into one.  They serve the whole family.  That is what I liked the most.
We came across one Cafe bar that we really enjoyed spending time at.  It was in Mondanado and it was called the Bar El Peregrino. 
The owner was not able to speak Spanish but he was so accommodating.  In Spain they turn the TV on for guests of importance.  This guy (name escapes me) not only turned on the TV but spent 10 minutes flicking through the channels to find an English channel, finally settling on BBC News.
In Mondanado there is a camp where spanish children go to learn English, loads of activities for them.
It was in the bar that we finally met a person from the UK, Stuart (Leeds) and were able to have a full on normal conversation. phew!
Anyway from Ribadeo to Sorbrato we played tag with a quartet of Spanish uni students who knew a smattering of English.  They were a delight.



Secondly, bloody gum trees everywhere you look.
They use them for paper here so they grow plantations but they are concerned that they can not reuse the land for other crops as they say the gum trees are tainting the ground.
But these gum trees grow very straight and it was not for nearly 2 weeks before I saw a tree that had a normal Australian gum tree look, you know branches everywhere.

Thirdly, there are so many similar things about Spain and Australia, the are not quite the same but sometimes when you think you are in Australia.
But there is also those times when you know that you are not.  The towns / villages / hamlets etc are no more than 5 kms apart.  So sometimes you do not know if you have actually left one and gone to another.  And they have cows!  Whoooo the smell is with you most of the time.


 Lastly, I think that I could be quite happy to return to Spain and DRIVE around to visit those towns we fell in love with.
I also would not have given up the time that I have had with Trace for all the world.  We have been able to take our relationship to a new level of understanding that you can not do in your normal daily life.
I know that this woman is the desire of my heart.

Santiago ... at last the end of the pilgrimage

9 km

So instead of a lovely restful 3 days walking to Santiago, we arrived a day early.

What can we say, but it is great to be in this amazing heritage city where thousands of pilgrims have walked to. We arrived to celebrate St James Day, the biggest holy festival in Spain.

We´ll let the picture talk!


Rod´s boots


Tracey´s boot


Girls spanish dancing in the one plaza


Waiting for the fireworks

Sobrado - Labacolla: An unexpected long day ...

26 km

We planned to take 3 days to get to Santiago. But due to crowds, all the hotels/pensions were booked out. We met a lovely Danish couple on the day, had lunch together. When we got to a hotel on the route where we hoped to find somewhere to stay, our Danish friends had already arrived. The place was booked out. The owner's son organised for us to take our bags to Labacolla and booked a hotel for us. Another 9 kms to walk. It was great without our bags, but boy a long 9 kms.

Sobrado - Arzua

22 km

We had a long stretch on this day, which we started out late, so we hit the sun. Here we joined up with the French Camino. This meant crowds of people. We stayed in this town for two days.

Talking

- one of the important things about walking with your loved one, is that one ends up talking, being faced with miscommunication and differnent ways of doing things, so different expectations. This was one of these days. It is when we walk through conflict, that we can come out the other side, understanding and appreciating each other better. Oh, Carol (our communication coach) - how true are so many things that you taught us. It was an interesting day where Rod and I understood that we have differnent beats, but this does not mean we can't make a melody together, we just have to work on the tune. It's already sounding very good.

Sabrado

This town had the most lovely Monestery. We had a treat and stayed in the only hotel in town. We lazed in the afternoon swimming and lazing at the pool. That night, for dinner, we hijacked this little restaurant for tapa's. The owner was not expecting customers, but put on such a great meal for us. We sat together, solo, enjoying the night together.

Miraz: Meeting interesting people

An English group, CSJ, whom we bought our guide books through, thankfully opened an albergue in Miraz. As we walked into the town, there was a castle home. This castle has been in the same family for 500 years.

There was a French man Allain, helping the Englishman who was looking after the albergue, who was very interesting. He had a sad story of being a street kid until 11, where he then went to an orphanage. He didn't choose the life of street person, but choose to travel, with no money. His funnist story was an inspiration to go to Canada. So on the advice of someone, they said, the cheapest way to do it, is to go up Norway, which has ships going across to Greenland. From there work on a ship that goes across to Canada. So off Alain went to search for a ship. But as Alain said, 'I searched and searched, all the way up the coast of Norway, and there were no ******* ships'. We laughed, because Norways coast is long. He ended up living there for four years.Alain had a journal of all his paper clips where he had been in the news, for organising a group to celebrate 2000 twice, first in Manchuria, China, then to travel across the Bering Strait, Alaska to catch it there again. The journal detailed how he traveled through Pakistan, over the Himalayas, into Tibet, couldn't get into Russia so went to China.Listening to Allain is impressive, but underneath is a sadness. In his travels he got married, had a son in China. Today he is still travelling, divorced, his son doesn't have his father around. Basically I perceive, repeating his own sadness of his own youth, not having strong male influence around to guide and support him.


Chatting away on porch


Javier wicking his stick


Back on our trails, out of Miraz we walked over these unusual grey rock boulders.






We met our tweenie friends along the route. It was lovely walking with them. We met them at a café bar, where we played with the most beautiful natured puppy German Shepard. Along the route, the tweenies sang and chanted.




Clara had incredible pain in her knees that was slowing her down. As we were walking, her and I had time to just talk without the distraction of the boys. I discovered that she was a devout Catholic. When I questioned her why not catch a car to the next town, she explained the importance of her completing her pilgrimage, even if she had pain. If she could handle this pain, she could then in life face difficulties that were painful, and she could succeed. Explaining that life is not always easy. But if we can endure painful experience, we turn out to be conquerers and better people. So bravely, she kept on walking, knowing that this was a life lesson she was going to persist in.

I asked her about her boyfriend, whom she was walking with. He didn't believe in God, which she realised was important. She explained very simply that he was a sad person. If one has God, you are never alone, you are not sad, she said. She explained how her Granddad encouraged her in her faith as she grew up and her parents. We talked about how difficult it is when one tries to have a family where there are different beliefs. I explained how when Rod and I have kids, we will bring them up with the same faith, there is no struggle, there is agreement. She agreed and that this was her hearts desire. She is such a beautiful young woman. I loved listening to her instructing the guys to cook, how things had to be done a certain way. She was so lovely natured, yet had such a lovely strength in just being who she is. She'd sit painting her journal for hours. Then she'd have all the guys around her, painting too, except quiet Javier - he'd be wicking his stick or smoking quietly, thinking I presume.

We didn't chat again after that. I'm so pleased we had that moment.

Baamonde

Baamonde - a sleepy town. The walk out was just beautiful, walking through little villages and lovely horizon shots. We met a granddad and his granddaughter at their holiday home. He was just lovely, wanting to give us advice, talking through his graddaughter, giving her big words, where she would exclaim, "oh Pappie!". We had good laughs.

More pictures out of Baamonde

Tweenies walking infront of us


Incredible picture over horizon



Interesting monolith - we follow these signs or a plain paited yellow arrow to direct us to Santiago. Such a simple way to walk. One just follows the yellow arrows.

Lourenzá - Mondoñedo: Tracey twists her ankle

8.35 kms

After yesterday's walk, plus we left late this morning, we were pretty tired. We were aiming to do 16kms today. We had a few more hills, not as stressed as yesterday though. As we came into Mondoñedo, as walking off a pavement, my foot slipped and I almost twisted it, it was bruised and swelled. We found a lovely bar, Bar El Pelegrino where we had pigeon conversations with the bar man, who was just so delighted we were trying. We met up with an Englishman, Stuart, who was here teaching English on his June holiday at a school camp.

Picture is of Rod and Janosh

To rest my ankle we decided to rest for a day. Over these few nights we had loads of visits to our bar and meeting people. The first night we stayed at an old Seminary. Amazing big stone walls. Rod and I dream and dream of how to use this beautiful architecture oneday. It was so beautiful.

The next day we moved across to our free albergue. A modern building ajoining an old church. Purple ostrich leather couches, kitchen. Everything modern. We experimented making spanish omelette. A meal of potato, onion and egg, which Clara in Ribedeo taught me (Tracey) to make. Well it didn't turn out too great, but it was a meal.

We just hung out in Mondeñedo. A lovely German, Janosh joined us at the albergue. As our now "tradition" in Mondeñedo, we hung out in our bar, Stuart popped around, Janosh joined us. We had our last evening talking deep thoughts of commited love, dreams, life and futures.
Janosh said something so true. While walking, we don't actually think deep thoughts of our past. I said, we dream. It was so true, walking brings about a time where one just dreams and dreams. Something in daily times that is so missing. Just time to dream.
Rod will start a thought of something and we'll expand that thought in dreams and ideas. It's great.

Pictures on route to Mondoñedo

Our good buddy Trev mentioned to post "life in spain picutures".

This guy had just come down the hill with this cart full of hay. We just missed taking this shot - so we caught him going back.

Dog sitting at statue in town. Classic picture

View over Mondoñedo

Ribadeo - Lourenzá

25.75 kms

Oh boy was this a tough day!

We have now entered the Galatia area, which goes inland. So we have incredible heat. No lovely sea breeze to keep us cool.

We met up with the "tweenies" when entering the town of Cubelas. Clara was struggling with the 3 guys. We hadn't realised this was our last stop for food and drinks, before an incredibly strenous trek, up and up hills. Thank goodness it was still relatively early.

After one particular hill through a forest fire track, we rested. Clara took ages to catch up. Rod and I walked on.

I've been really pleased. Rod and my walking is very similar. We have a steady, paced walk. Not sauntering, not speed chasing. I have felt really comfortable walking with him.

This picture details where we have just come from - see that hill in the background, we crossed over it!

The afternoon heat was really getting hot. As there is no breeze, breathing is difficult. After our trek over the hills, we finally entered the hamlet of Villamartin Pequeño. There was a public tap, the highlight of the day. We drank and doused ourselves with that blessed cool water.

We had some more hills to walk, before we finally descended into Calzada. The first bar for hours. We were famished. The kind bar lady stamped our credential and gave us a feast of cervesa, bacon and eggs. A normal meal!

Lourenzá

Oh my goodness, just as I thought our hill walking for the day was over. That the saint of pilgrimage would be kind, more hills. We plodded our way through the heat of the day to Lourenzá.

A gorgeous town, with a church whose façade is so similar to Santiago's, but a miniture version. We stopped at Café Cadon, a bright yellow café, had a beer. Through our pigeon spanish, the café owner told us of a patisserie that had habítion. The owner of Casa Gloria was delightful. Our rate included breakfast, which, in staying at a patisserie, meant christmas ala cakes. We had a whole plate of cakes, cooldrink, a whole kitchen to help ourselves. Our room had tiled floors and a delightful tiled bathroom. But we had a bath, read, ate cakes and went to sleep. It had been a long day. We could do no more in this lovely town.

Santagadea - Ribadeo

Walking 5.5 kms

Another short day. We needed to do quite a bit in Ribadeo, so needed the day. We stayed at the albergue, which looked over this massive bridge over the mouth of the river that lead into Ribadeo. A magnificent looking city, old and picturesque.

We met four young Espanola's, 1 girl and 3 guys, who were starting their camino. One guy, Javir was in the army. I wondered how this poor girl, Carla was going to keep up with them. She was about 6ft2 though, taller than Tash.

I was able to ask some questions on spanish, that had been bothering me, when chatting to them. They were a great help. You will read quite a bit on these lovely young people, whom we nicknamed, after Tolkien, "the tweenies".

This picture was taken outside our room in the Albergue. Not a bad view for a free bed! The Camino in Spain offers these accomodations for either a small donation or free, in the spirit of the original pilgrims, where they were housed by the churches, monestaries, etc.

Tapia de Casariego - Santagadea

Walking 5.5 kms

I know a short day. I knew we were coming to the end of our journey along the coast. We passed this restaurant on a cliff, where we decided to have a beer. Beautiful long beach below us. After a bit of arm twisting and begging from myself, with my dreams of walking along the beach

We decided to stay. But a massive wind came up and we ended up having a meal and then sleeping/reading the afternoon.
Next morning we had a lovely walk along the beach, before heading off.

Tapia pictures

Rod resting in bunk bed in Tapia Albergue





Sunrise over the cliff outside our Albergue

Navia - Tapia de Casariego

19 kms

We had arranged with our German friends to meet them at Tapia, as the albergue was right at the top of cliffs. It was quite an easy day of walking, so we arrived pretty early.

We made it for the meal of the day, after organising a key to open the albergue and settling in.

We had heard from Harold about the joy of a 'Paella Marconsa' - paella with fish. As we were in Spain, it's the traditional meal. So we dived into our pockets to order this expensive meal. Being at a harbour, the fish was fresh. Oh my goodness, rice, a whole crab, calamari, exquisite king prawns, mussels. We ate and ate. Had all these funny instruments to eat this meal, the crack the crab shell and weed out the meat.

Sadly our German friends did not arrive. We hope that they are OK?

Luarca - Navia

17 kms




Out of Luarca, once again a massive trek up the hills of the town. The views over the town as we reached the top was beautiful. Between the hills, are these high old arched bridges for the train.

We paced our walking quite well, as it was a lovely day of walking mainly on village paths, farm tracks as we went through villiage after villiage, across farmlands. Each village is only about 1 - 3 kms apart.

On the way we caught up with our German friends. As Harold had new boots, they were not walking as fast. But to enjoy their company, we slowed down our pace to walk together to Navia. Such a lovely family.

Rod and I took a water break, where across the field, I had the privilege of watching a mother mare, "playing" with her foal. I was intrigued. We caught up with our German friends at a bar.

Out of a village, Piñera, Rod was 'hero of the day'. Our guidebook warned of using the yellow arrows and advised the road. We got to section of brush, which was totally overgrown. No way. After yesterday's wounds, which I am still dressing, I was fearfully starting to unbuckle my backpack to zip on my leggings. Rod has good sense of direction, so guided us along the railway track we had just had to cross. Harold was telling me how one could be locked up for life if caught walking on railway tracks in Germany. Rod found a path, that we had to do minor bush walking (compared to yesterday). These kind gents wedged a path for us girls and we emerged onto the road. Rod was so praised! He so earned it. I was so proud of him.

We separated in Navia as Rod and I weren't yet sure if we were going to stop for the day. But we had to get food, as the Spanish main meal is between 2 and 4. Sometimes we can get a meal at 1pm. But nothing after 4. The next meal time is normally from 9pm. So after a full day of walking, our last meal at breakfast, with only snacks (and beer of course) inbetween, one can understand the desperation to get that afternoon meal. We arrived in Navia at 4.30. Oh boy. We finally found a restaurant that couldn't resist the look of desperation on these pilgrim faces when they point at their watches and say 'mas tardes, cautro hora!' (too late, 4 pm). Even though they complained, they fed us a great meal of the day.

An old lady sat across from us. I could tell she was lonely. She tried to start talking, but I apologised. After a while, I just started normal stuff, we're pilgrims, from Australia, etc - in my pigeon Spanish.

We then fumbled away *talking* about each other's lives. She had no husband, we think her daughter is in Madrid, married to an American. Too many American's in Madrid, or something. She had grandchildren. She had just been to hospital. No, we didn't have children yet, discussed our prospects of a family. She bid us goodbye, saying she liked me, touched my face and gave me kisses goodbye. She liked Rod too. Who wouldn't!

Novellana - Luarca

14.75 walking, bused from Cadavedo

From our adventure yesterday through the bushes, Rod & discussed the walking through brambles. Little did I expect that we would come across this so soon. Just out of Novellana we took a forest track to the next town. It was so overgrown, we were getting so many scrapes. Rod got the real the brunt of it. I was wiping blood off both of us after that trek, through to Castañeiras. It was so tiring, after walking down a valley, then up again. I thought that must have been the worst for the day.

We then took a track, which looked good, descended into a vallley, which then yielded walking over streams, wet ground and more brambles. We then had a major ascend up towards the road. Going through one bush, I got a big gash above my knees. We also had tiny ticks on our legs.

We had a pleasant road walk into Santa Marina. We stopped for our morning coffee at the recommended bar where we had our pilgrim credential stamped. I cleaned off my newly scraped legs, over a good cuppa coffee and cakes.

We had a pleasant walk to Ballota, which lead down to the beach. It was too early and cold to swim. But we could still see the remains of the black desposits on rocks after the oil sinker 2 years back.

The walk lead through beautilful forest area, which was a steep, steep climb through forested area. My Rod commented that if he wasn't so tired, he could appreciate this forest more. So true.

As we made our way up to the smalll village of Tablizo, we decided to walk via road to the next village of Ribón. We met a kind Spanish cyclist who said we could walk via Road all the way to Cadavedo. But the guidebook mentioned this great alternative route, which I so wanted to take. But alas, could not find it. So we followed the arrows. Fortunately we did, because it ended up being this great short cut, by going steeply down a forest track. We then had this major climb up a village path to the road of Cadavedo.

Rod had bought a great (*** gift - can´t disclose now as Dad will read ***) for Dad from Cadillero, which was weighing down his backpack. So we decided to bus into our next stop of Luarca, as it had a postoffice. So we had an early day of walking. We found this great little family bar. The daughter, Tamarra was so helpful in giving us directions, bus times and general chatting away. She only knew about 5 English words. We had a great Menu de Dias (menu of the day). We just relaxed sitting in their patio. A group of pilgrims walked in to look for the key to the Albergue. An older, smiling Austrian who has walked 3000kms, a gentle, quiet french man and a younger, macho-type guy, who look like the type of group that are trudging a good 30km max a day, in pursuit of doing their camino. We offered for them to join us, but they were off to the playa (beach). For postre (desert) we asked Tamarra in our pigeon Spanish what she recommended. She was so proud of her Mama's homebakes. We had her Mama's lemon souffle & cheese cake. Oh mama it was so good!

In Luarca, we decided to try the Albergue. Luarca is a harbour town, that is embedded in the valley of hills. Really beautiful, but a killer of hills to walk up with a backpack. So after a hellish walk, we decided we didn't like the Albergue. On our way back down the hill, we met new friends. German couple, Harold and Gertrud, with Gertruds Aunt, Maria. We chatted away down the hill, found a pension, had coffee and arranged to meet that night for tapa's.

I love this about pilgrim walking, is the new friends you meet. During one's travel, we weave into each others walk and enjoy the fun of a new friendship.

Harold speaks good Spanish. This camino was their third year of walking the northern route. Something that many pilgrims do, is walk part of the camino, then return later to complete another section, until they complete.

Harold told us an interesting story. In Cadavedo the town had green banners/markers everywhere. The mayor was in talks to sell a part of the town to an overseas investor, in the interest of promoting Cadevedo. It meant relocating families and changing the face of Cadevedo. The town's folk were so upset they resisted and won. In winning, they had a green/rural festival.

Cudillero - Novellana

19.5 km + +- 3km getting lost & prospecting correct route

Leaving Comillas, we walked up and up out the city. We stood at loss of direction trying to decide which way to go, between routes the guide gave. We went through the train station, only to discover it met up w the other route. It was a lovely morning walk through little old hamlets and forests fire tracks. I don't understand why someone would choose walking such sereness, compared to road walking.

Rellayo: We came to this one intersection on the firetrail. The guidebook told us one way, but the arrows pointed differently. We choose the arrows. This lead us all the way up the hill, on a big roundabout, to where we had gone down the firetrail! So we went down again, only this time followed our guide.

We crossed the main road to come down into this gorgeous coastal hamlet of La Magdalena. We took a divert to come to the beacH FOR OUR MORNING COFFEE, at Casa Miguel, on the beach. Beautiful! Busy finishing my second cuppa cafe con leche. The wind is blowing a cool breeze and it's overcast.We are then off.

We asked the cafe owner if the roads behind lead to the next town, Lamuño, instead of having to double back. It did. So we accended up & up this road. Beautiful views of the coast.

From Lamuño we experienced our first bush-bashing, having to wade ourselves through overgrown bushes of nettle and blackberry. Due to this route not yet being popular, places on this route becomes overgrown.

We walked along desending into the town of Soto de Luiña, stopped to have cafe. We met 2 germams, cycling. Shared stories. Shared our woes of our recent scrapings across our legs from the blackberry thorns.

Going out of Soto de Luiña, the guidebook advised not to take the high road of the camino main route. . Thus we choose the alternate route. At a point after turning a bend we had a choice of turning left or right. No arrows. I prospected left, missed an arrow high on a electric post. But I did see a yellow painted rock. Rod prospected right, after i returned a "negative". Rod saw these new yellow round signs, which we didn´t know what they were.

We choose the left. It lead us in guided direction. But only to have to do major bush bashing! Then we got lost, walking through bushes, trying to find a trail. Thank goodness Rod is pretty bush savvy, he found a way. Relieved we found the town of Valdredo.

The guidebook warned that the pilgrim route on the next section was overgrown. As we had already had scraped legs and tough battles with brambles, we decided to take the old road. I personally hate road walking. By now I was exhausted, it had been a pleasant, yet hard days walking. So we trudged along the road to Novellana.

We could only find a hotel to stay in, El Fornon. It was lovely, but formal.

Towards Comillas

This was a beatiful day of walking through villiage after villiage, through back country roads.

We met Novac, a Chec who had been walking from Prague, for 3 months. We met him being lost on the road, asking which way to go. He had seen pilgrims arrive in Santiago when he was there. But had not done the research of pilgrim walking. He had reached so far, without realising he could follow the monoliths or yellow arrows or scallops. So he was walking along the hard roads. He was proud that he slept out at night under the stars. Not realising that there were cheap albergues to take care of him. He was a blessed soul.

In Comillas we seperated from Novac. My (Tracey) cold had just got worse and I badly needed rest. Rod found us a pension, I climbed onto our bed and just slept. My Rod organised the washing of our clothes, bus timetables and just took care of me.

Comillas is a beautiful sea-side resort, old village. A place we knew we´d love to come spend some time later on.

Barreda - to Santallina del Mar

We caught a train from Santander to Barreda.

(Trace) I wanted to avoid the hard roads of walking on highways, so we decided to rather catch a train to Barreda and walk from there.

Off the train and we stopped at a bar for café con leche.  The owners cocker spanial did not like me - kept on barking.


Beautiful walk through farmlands.  Incredible looking horses along the route.  Saw two foals.  An old gentleman, feeding his cattle asked us about out route, gave us directions and milage to our journey, just happy to talk to strangers.  The part I love about walking, is the lovely characters we meet.

As we climbed up into Camplengo, an old lady, walking slowly, wanted to talk and talk.  Talked about her legs, our camino and goodness knows what else.

We decensended into this beautiful village, Santillana del Mar.  A medival village.  It's a historic village that they have kept original from the xxx.  Cobbled streets.  Now after a beer at a lovely terrace outside,  oh do we consider staying??  I think so. 

We stayed at the HS Montanes.  Lovely little hotel. 

As we were in town early, we changed and went out on the town.  We visited the Diocesan Museam. Incredible religious artwork over centuries, paintings and statues. We just walked around, amazed at this old art. I loved the statues depicting Jesus; his crucifiction, his trail and sufferings.

   


Next we visited a "Torture" museam.  This had original and recreated exhibits of different torture devices used over centuries. Rod and I were both disturbed by the cruelty of people and how such devices were chosen to be used over the centuries. What was more disturbing was that many of these devices are still used today.  I was amazed at how many torture techniques involved entrance via the rectum, to induce slow pain, until death. 
The most interested information was the argument against the chastity belt was not used by the husband, but by women themselves, as protection against being raped. The argument agains the normal belief of the husband instituting it was that it could only be used for short times, as she might be pregnant, thus the baby could not grow. Also how if used for prolonged time, she could develop septic diseases from the belt, therefore could die. Maybe this is something that could be reconstructed to be used in South Africa!

 

After a lunch and a siesta, we visited the 12th Cen Collegiate Church. We could only see the ajoining square, with incredible carved pillars. There was a wedding in procession in the church itself.

We then wandered through the cobled-street town, looking for our new companions, our walking sticks. Rod found a beatiful tall pilgrim carved stick. I found a stick with only a bulb head.

We then found a bar, where we had a beer and olives, passing away time absorbed in our puzzles.

That night, as we had a bath in our room, I soaked away, squished in this tiny bath, enjoying the warmth. But I was coming down with a cold.