Pastel de Langostino

 Yesterday, since we were only the two of us for dinner, I made the crayfish loaf that we had tried at Casa Rural El Embrujo while walking the San Salvador route last fall. The side dish on the left is corn salad. Yummy!

Returning to the San Salvador--Last Day

 Hello, everyone.

View back toward Mieres in the dawn

Today's post returns to the pilgrimage for the last day of the walk into Oviedo.  This is a shorter day than many, but the middle portion was a very steep climb that was signed as a "greenway". The first portion was a gentle climb over switchbacks on the road and third portion was also gentle hill going through and around farms.

View of Oviedo in the distance

When we were walking through the farms, we met some of the farmers. They were very friendly and reminded us of the old saying, "He who visits Santiago and neglects to visit Oviedo, visits the servant and neglects the Master."

The actual entry into Oviedo was a gentle slope down suburban streets, passing the official albergue in Oviedo and arriving in the Cathedral square downtown. 

We had reserved a room at Hostel Fidalgo, the same pension we had stayed at when we bussed to Oviedo in 2018. This time, being mid October, it was a bit chilly in the room; the lady explained to us that the heat in the building is controlled for the whole building by the overall management. 

The tourism office wants everyone to know that Oviedo is the origin of the
 Camino de Santiago. Which it is, as Oviedo was the capital of
Asturias when the bones were found.

We paid our respects to the Sudario and the Cross of Victory from Covadonga when we went to the Cathedral to get our Salvadoranas.

The reliquary of the Sudario, the head cloth mentioned in the Gospel of John
 description of the apostles discovering that Jesus had been resurrected

The credencial for the Salvador, the bottom stamp is upside
down as the credencial is unfolded here and the
final stamp is on a different page.

The Salvadorana
It had to be weighted down to uncurl the shape of the carrying tube.

We took a rest day in Oviedo.

Recap of San Salvador, part 5

 Hello, everyone.

After our rest day in Pola de Lena, we set out bright and early in the morning en route to Mieres del Camino. This was a short day, because the "standard" day goes all the way into Oviedo from Pola, and that's over 30 kilometers. Mieres breaks the day in half, and has places to stay and to eat.

A view of part of the trail; it wasn't difficult and was pleasantly shaded for some parts.

Santa Olaya, a lovely church in a town just before Mieres.

The priest was in and he stamped our credenciales. He also said that we were welcome to visit the interior of the church.

There was a bakery near the church so we got to sit down for a little coffee and rest.

This is the info sign about the church. I believe the second language here is Asturian but I don't know for sure.




















When we got to Mieres, we had a pleasant walk through much of the town to our hotel, and then we went out for a glass of cidre. 

Recap of San Salvador, Part 4

 Hello, everyone.

We woke up in the albergue at Llanos de Someron, ate a bite of toast, and headed out. We encountered a sign at the edge of the village, just before beginning to walk downhill on a small, paved road. It had a map, with two routes on it, going down from Someron to the next village, Fierros. The left line was marked 5* on difficulty and the right line was marked 1* difficulty. We were beat, and so we began walking the easy way down. About 3/4 of the 4 kilometers down, we saw the cut-off for the hard way. It went uphill steeply and after the previous two days of hard walking it just looked like too much. Besides, we were on the easier way and they would both go the same place, right? Famous last words!

At the bottom of the mountain, we followed the arrows past the train station and through a protected sidewalk. The village looked like very few people lived there. There was no bar to stop and chat at if we had any questions. Arrows seemed to have stopped at the end of the sidewalk. At the end of the village we followed the road and one arrow. It pointed around the side of a little chapel.

We followed the arrows and they led us around a little house and began climbing up over rocks, then leafy dirt, and the path became very overgrown. When we encountered a tiny bridge over a tiny stream, DH asked me to wait as the route was becoming questionable to us. He found a missing board in the bridge--note well, you need to use poles! His poking the pole where he proposed to step prevented an injury--and after crossing followed the tiny path around a bend. A few minutes later, he came back and said that the path had grown more overgrown, seemed not to have been walked on at all, and possibly was an old, no longer used route. So we made our way back down and went back to the sidewalks, looking carefully for arrows. The arrows had fled. Or so it seemed to us. After much back and forth over the half kilometer or so of Fierros, we went to the train station. Which was one of the self-service variety with signs of the schedule and no way to go inside and pay the ticket. A man was pacing on the platform and he told us that the system is to pay when you get off the train when you board at a station like this. We decided that we would hop the train for a few stops and re-join the route farther on.

At the second stop we were at where we had planned to sleep for the night, Pola de Lena, so we got off, paid our tickets and strolled through the town down to the bottom. It was around noon, and we called it a rest day as we were still tired. 

We did remember to find the way out of town for the next morning before settling down to snacks and wine and watching the town enjoy their first fiesta in over a year.

Art of the last Station of the Cross on the front of the church altar. 

Ecce Homo statue in the church.

Finding the arrows for departure.

The bridge at the edge of town. Arrow sticker on the rail and painted on the safety rail of the bridge.

Recap of Salvador part 3

 Hello, everyone.

This is about the third day of our Salvador pilgrimge. We woke up in El Embrujo and had a bite of toast and a hot drink before departing. Then it was across the valley and up, up. 

The path approaching the Cruz del Salvador.

View of the cross, against a beautiful blue sky.

After that earlier photo, one might be excused for thinking this is a pic of the path. It isn't. It's just a pretty village in the distance, and some cows close up. The path passed them and at least on this day we didn't have to pick our steps between the cattle. 

The fall crocuses were blooming up a storm. Sometimes it was hard to step around them! 

It was mentioned earlier that there is crossing of wire gates. This is the gate behind Puerto de Pajares...we walked around the building with the bar (after our little break with coffee and restroom) and crossed the open bit (the crocuses above are a crop of that), passed the electric tower, and then encountered a mojon (cement marker) and the wire gate in the fence. We did remember to close the gate. On the other side of the gate, the path was unclear at first, though it was obvious where we needed to end up: at the bottom of this short descent in grasses with some damp mud. We found the most workable descent to the level of the road (very little traffic), stepped over the water channel and crossed the highway to enter the nature reserve. We still had a number of kilometers to cover, with mostly downs and some ups, before arriving at Sta. Martina and climbing the steep little road with the sign for the albergue at Llanos de Someron. Which was actually on the next mountain over, at the end of about 2 km. uphill we walked about .9 km. on a lovely woodland path. 

This was part of the nature reserve. There are peoples' farms in the midst of the reserve and the path pretty much sticks to some caliche roads that wind through it. 

The quoted distance for this day was about 18 km but they were tough kms. and it felt a lot more like mid to high 20's because of all the climbing.

Recap of Pilgrimage 2021: Salvador part 2

 Hello, everyone.

The last update brought us to La Robla. Today's update carries on through Poladura de la Tercia.

When we left La Robla it was easy for a while. Eventually, after going through some villages and stopping at a gas station (they do exist and sometimes they're on the route) we followed a side road into the mountains.

We walked along the side of a narrow road that was clearly marked "Mountain Road" so drivers wouldn't be surprised by snow. Or falling rocks. There were snow poles from time to time. We saw an insect sunning itself on the pavement.

We took his picture, and forgot entirely to take a picture of the small river/large creek alongside the road. 

We eventually arrived at Buiza, around midday, where there was no refreshment supplier. There is a lovely fountain near the entrance of the town, but our water bottles were still full. We followed the trail through the town, passing some windowsill art

and fairly quickly arrived at a pasture with some fencing. One follows the arrows and goes through wire gates and up the hill.

This day takes the pilgrim past the Forcadas de San Anton, a set of very interesting rock formations, which while we walked past them we aren't sure which rocks were the famous ones.

Where the trail split, we took the downhill side, which passes a cross, and goes alongside some water. Then the trail stays pretty level for a long time. The first village we came to was not Poladura. It was San Martin. We had to follow the arrows out the back side of the village, down a caliche road, and then turn at a small building and follow a mostly-unused trail into Poladura. The building does have a yellow arrow painted on the side. And when we walked this way someone had been walking there recently with their (cute) little dog and left trodden down grass that we could follow.

This was a day that is not listed as a huge distance, but all of those kilometers were hard ones.

Our dinner and room at El Embrujo were wonderful. And we met some really neat people at their patio, too. As I don't have their permission, I won't name names, but we learned a lot about the ensuing days on the Salvador from one of them. 😉 And were grateful for the advice!

Recap of Pilgrimage 2021: La Ruta del San Salvador

 Hello, everyone.

It's been busy at Ye Olde Homestead, what with Thanksgiving Day and then prepping for Advent (at church) and Christmas (at home)--that last isn't done yet.

Returning to the pilgrimage, we woke up on October 8 at around 7:30 or so...it had been a very long day the day before...and because one of us (me) takes a while to get going in the morning we didn't get out until at least 0830...which was sunrise in León in early October. It was also around 8 degrees C. 

We put on all of our layers and started walking. The way out of town, which we had scanned a little the day before, was nice, only a little wandering in circles and a very friendly local pointed us the right way where the routes split, but after we got out of the subdivisions in the outskirts of the city, it got quite chilly.

Very pretty bridge, this was where we stopped and put on some more layers. Buff under the hood of the windbreaker, yes! And I even got out my gloves for a bit.

The way from León to La Robla is flattish for the first third, steeply hilly for the second third, and then flattish again into La Robla. Very pretty countryside.

We kept seeing other trail signs, all along the way, many saying "Via de la Plata" which confused us a little, but we knew to stick to our own trail. These VdlP signs invariably pointed to an extremely steep and difficult-looking stretch of trail when they indicated another way than our own.

We encountered a map of the overall trail.

There were a number of signs marked "Quatro Valles" showing the way.

This trail mark surprised me. I didn't expect to see the stacked rocks ("keep straight on") here in Spain.

When we got to La Robla, we asked a friendly lady for direction to a place to stay and she told us where to find both of the options. We elected to stay in the one at the exit of the town, very friendly folks, and learned that we were "chicos" (kids). At our age, being "kids" is fine with us.

We discovered that, probably because of lingering habits from the 'rona panic, it was necessary to eat dinner quite a bit earlier than we had thought was customary in Spain. Nonetheless, we found a restaurant that served dinner and ate. (DH told the waitress that I wanted "salad" for some reason, and I really should have spoken up and said, no I want meat and fat. I paid for that reticence the next day in spades.) Then we washing some socks and undies to keep up with our clothing usage. We had only brought enough for "wear one, carry one" and some layers for chilly mornings, so doing at least a little washing wasn't optional.

Recap of pilgrimage 2021: Leon

 Hello, everyone.

During our one partial day in León we did rather a lot of errands: we walked to the Oficina de Turismo and got a map of the downtown area. Then we walked across the bridge to the K2 Planeta store and picked up our (ordered in advance) poles. Then we went to the Benedictine alberbue near the French Way entrance to the city and picked up our San Salvador credenciales. And then we strolled around a bit and found the museum about the ancient Roman era of León's history.

The Centro de Interpretation, I think it was called, incorporates some of the ancient walls into the building. (Not the only building that does that.) This is a view of a part of the walls with some other remains. It's looking down from the walking space on top of the walls.

The museum also had an interpretation of what the Roman soldiers' quarters might have been like...give or take some curtains, pillows and mattresses, and electric lighting. It's not that dissimilar from a modern pilgrims' albergue in many ways.

As this was the first "puente" weekend in a long, long time, the folks were going in for some festivities. They had made a flower painting on the plaza next to the Cathedral.

They also had an outdoor festival of sorts, fenced in and with door-dragons making sure that everyone who entered the outdoor area of booths was properly adorned with a mascarilla.

When we sat down to eat, we had a tabla of charcuterie: various cured meats and some cheese, along with bread and red wine. 

After we ate, being dog-tired by this time, we went back to our room and collapsed into bed.

Sixteenth update on pilgrimage 2021: honor to trustworthy companions

 Hello, everyone. 

Today I wish to honor our faithful companions--indeed our very guardians agaist catastrophe: our hiking poles.

These faithful aids were there for every scary moment. They kept us from falling numerous times. And now, since we have passed them on to aid other pilgrims on the Camino, I want to honor their service. 

They were the balancing aid on rocks both ascending and descending. They gave us needed information about muddy patches. Once they spotted a missing board on a bridge. Imagine if the pole had not gone before in the overgrown weeds and discovered the missing board! 

Thus I honor their service.

They were bought from K2 Planeta sports shop in Leon, before we started walking on the Ruta San Salvador. They proved their worth over and over, going up and down on the Salvador, then up and down on the Primitivo. 

Today we delivered them to the volunteers at Pilgrim House in Santiago, to be passed along to other pilgrims who need poles.

Third update on pilgrimage 2021

 Hello, everyone.

We reached Oviedo the day before yesterday and had a rest day. Today we will walk to Grado.

This has been such a crazy couple of years that, since our Spain phone is now reactivated at the convenient Orange shop here in Oviedo, we are making reservations a day or two ahead.

In Pola de Lena, where we stayed at a small hotel, they were having a fiesta. A few fellows brought out instruments and did a song fest with their friends in front of the bar. (This was the bar whose owners had the little hotel. La Payareta I think it's called.)  

This was the first fiesta in 2 years, a long time. Everyone was out enjoying the evening.

More in next post. 

Second update on pilgrimage 2021

 Hello, everyone. 

Yesterday we started in Poladura, where we had stayed in the lovely Hotel Rural El Embrujo. (No signs of any actual wizarding here! Just a very nice room, great shower, wonderful dinner.) 

We were "scheduled" for an 18.7 km day. Well. Those were some long kilometers! We started by  walking up to the Cruz del Salvador. This was a bit steeep.  Happily, a fellow pilgrim from Chlekia arrived as we did and snapped a picture for us. Then we passed the high point of the Camino...don't know which crest of the trail it was exactly...then down and when we reached Puerto de Pajares we found the first bar all day. Cafe leche a little strong on the coffee side for my taste. Left there and passed around the back side through the most beautiful autumn crocuses, went through a gate and on down to cross the highway. Then through a nature park and up to the hamlet of Santa Marina (4 inhabitants, they told us) where we asked after the albergue and the nice bartender took us outside and pointed to the next peak in the mountains. "Only 30 minutes, I did it all the time when I was a kid," the nice man said. His older neighbor muttered "more like 50" as we thanked them and left, greeting the old ladies sitting on their stoops enjoying the late afternoon. The trail around the mountainside was lovely, thank God it wasn't dark yet.

About 8 pm, as the albergue was commencing to serve the very good supper, our Chek fellow pilgrim arrived. The sun had set about 7:25, I know how he did that trail in falling darkness!

At the end, in Llanos de Someron (alternate spelling Chanos de Someron) we found alovely, new albergue. Great supper, too. 

Update on pilgrimage 2021

 Hello, everyone.

I left off with our (long) day getting to Leon. 

What with all of the ridiculous airline changes (looking at you Air Canada) we ended up leaving on a different day altogether and because of the date changes we only spent one night in Leon. 

We walked to La Robla the next day, 27 km by the book. That's the same distance as the walk from Deba to Markina on the Norte route, which is famously difficult with much climbing. This was was nearly as hard for us, with a bunch of ups and downs in the middle third. The countryside is beautiful and we saw a lot more flowers than I had expected.

The following day we set off to Poladura. This began gently but we began climbing even before Buiza and there was a big climb after the town.

The city sign is a popular photo spot.

The big climb of the day went over a mountain and the down to the village of Poladura. The info on Gronze.com says 24 km but they were tough ones.

More in next post!

Pilgrimade 2021 is on the road!!!

 Hello everyone. 

We thought this walk would fail like the last two attempts did. It almost did fail. But some date changes, a ticket cancellation, and totally new tickets saved the day. Or at least the pilgrimage walk.

We stayed up for around 36 hours, flying from our home airport to DFW. Then DFW to Madrid.

We then bussed to the northern region of Spain. It was a really long day Wednesday-Thursday so I didn't make a post.

This very unusual machine was at a remote-area stop on the way to Leon. It is really big and tall. I took the photo through the bus window.

Today was also very tiring so I will discuss it in the next post.