Monasterio, and a little more about yesterday

Hello, everyone. 

Yesterday it was impossible to post from my phone as the wifi at our sleeping place was not working. 

We walked up to the restored medieval castle, viewed the town of El Real de la Jara, washed a lot of clothes by hand at the patio of our sleeping place, ate and went to bed.

Today we headed out at 0715 en route to Monasterio.

The famous pigs of the Dehesa, running to (maybe) their breakfast. There must have been more than 50 of them.

Complejo Leo, Spain's answer to Buc-cees! Excellent coffee, 2 restroom areas in the self-serve cafeteria, also anything a Spanish person might want for breakfast. Y'all should have seen all of the buses pulling in. There is also a 3 star hotel and a more formal restaurant. 

It rained off and on from when we left there until we reached Monasterio. We're staying in the municipal albergue Las Moreras tonight.

Camino del Norte day 8: from Portugalete to Castro Urdiales

Hello, everyone.

As mentioned in the last post about the Camino, we rode the metro to Portugalete. This is basically getting to the edge of the city. Once there we found the trail, which follows a dedicated bicycle path. The path is controlled-access: periodically there will be an exit for a village or town. After that, we continued on.

The way down at Las Arenas. It was still pretty brisk on temperatures, especially for us Texans. There was a little bar and we had tortilla and coffee there. Then we continued on.

This part of the coast was a mining region at one time. The trail even went through an old mine tunnel!

The walking was fine, but I did manage to trip over a rock on that day and get a bit of "road rash" on one knee. It is important to pick the feet up!

At Castro Urdiales, the person who has a sello for your crdencial is the lady at the tourism office. We stayed in a pension room above a restaurant. We did walk around the old church-castle complex and saw nesting seagulls and flowers. The church wasn't open that afternoon. The castle had some art displays.

Returning to the Santiago route

Hello, everyone.

The day we rode the bus to Tomar was a feria day: a holiday. (I asked, it was something to do with celebrating communities. I guess.) Probably explains why the organizers had picked it for a big youth shindig in Fatima.

More relevant to us, however, was that the feria bus schedule to Tomar was only 2 departures. We left on the early one and got to Tomar around 9 in the morning. The sidewalks were still rolled up!

Morning in Tomar. Templar castle on hill behind the square.

In July, they have a bread festival. Young women walk around with these 15 Kg. headdresses!

Baldachin of the Templars' church (honorary structure over altar)

Ceiling frescoes in the aisle around the altar of the Templars' church

View of baldachin with surrounding frescoes

The arrow loops are crosses.

An angel. St. Michael? This predates the Reni painting that has become the standard for St. Michael Archangel statues.

View of one of the staircases in the castle courtyard. The stairs are a spiral.

A building in Tomar. Pretty tiles!

The day we spend in Tomar was hot, as they had been, but the weather broke that night. In the morning it was delightful and cool.

Camino Portugues Gardens

Hello, everyone.

I thought I'd throw in another topic-based post here, this time about the flowers in the gardens of Portugal.

Possibly the explanation for their abundance is that, whenever the Portuguese sailors found a pretty plant growing someplace, they brought home a shipment of it to sell to the flower nuts of their home country. Certainly they garden without the temperature based restrictions of South Texas, and they have wonderful flowers to contemplate along the Way.

Blooming jacaranda tree in Lisbon, early June

Driveway on country place, dolled up with trees. There were HUGE tomato fields in this region.

Shrub bed at Fatima, near the piece of the Berlin wall.

Potted orchids on a balcony.

Entrance to Templar castle in Tomar

I saw roses, proteas, pines, grapes, figs, olives, eucalypts--many, many woodlots of eucalyptus and pine!--oaks: trees, vines and flowers all over the place.

One last photo of a garden, from Bom Jesus in Braga:

The grotto is full of delicate little ferns planted in niches on the walls--the spring tends to their needs quite handily.

Lisbon sights

Hello, everyone.

While we were recuperating from the flight over, we saw interesting things in Lisbon.

There was the Castello de Sao Joao, dedicated to St. John the Baptist who is extremely popular in Portugal.

You have to climb a lot of steps and slopes to get up there, but the view is great.

The staircase alone was over 100 steps. And then there were sloping lanes! Clearly this castle had an excellent view of the surrounding countryside when it was built.

There were some archeological investigations inside the complex, too. A prehistoric Celtic village and a historical era compound occupied by Muslim administrators (who had stayed over from the previous regime, I think) were excavated and labeled for the visitor to see.

Just imagine doing this stair in a hurry, with armor on!