After Santiago, a few extra days were available...

Hello,  everyone.  We had a busy arrival day in Santiago,  getting our Compostelas, checking into our accommodation, and going down to the train station to get departure tickets. There we discovered that the people were not able to help us get the tickets. We were there too early,  and we needed to buy the tickets online or at the vending machine.

We went to the ticket vending machine, opened Monday, and discovered that the trains on Monday were sold out. Oops. Time to rework the plan. Switched to Tuesday and got early seats out. Went back to the accommodation and reserved an extra night. Sat down with cell phones on the wifi and fussed around with options until we decided on what to do with our days: Córdoba is very historic. So we got train tickets online from Madrid to Cordoba, reserved a few nights in Cordoba, and also reserved the pre-departure time in Madrid. (So we wouldn't be trying to run across the city from train station to catch the outgoing flight all at once.) Then we spent some decompression time in Santiago. 

On Tuesday we left to Madrid, took the metro across town to the other train station, and caught the train to Córdoba. This went smoothly--as long as you allow for buffer time it will work--and when we got to Córdoba we used our Spain phone Google maps to find our place.

This is dried tuna tapa. The garnish is almonds with a drizzle of olive oil. 

The other tapa we tried was gulas (baby eels, but actually imitation gulas made from fish) with garlic mayo on toast. These are the last 2 on the plate. 😉

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.

Seventeenth update on pilgrimage 2021

 Hello, everyone. 

Yesterday we took the 0630 train from Santiago to Madrid. We thought that buying first class tickets (after our Tarjeta Dorada discount, it wasn't super expensive) would be great. The description of the first class tickets included a power plug and wifi...neither of which was available on our particular (Alvia) train. So we sat there in our seats for almost 5 hours with a choice between sleeping and watching a no-sound movie on the TV screen in the ceiling. But we got into Madrid just after 11:00 and took the subway to Sol station, near where we're staying for the last few days.

A new dish, chuleton for 2, that we tried. It's a whole lot of beef, cooked medium rare to rare. Very tasty, but we think the "for 2" must refer to football players!

From Santander to Santillana del Mar, the village of the three lies

Hello, everyone. It's been a long time since the last post. Things are very busy around the homestead right now. Posting may continue to be "gappy."

The train station at Boo de Pielagos--no actual "station" just a
stop where people get on and off the train. 

The day after we arrived in Santander, we walked to Santillana del Mar. This was a long day's walk.


And after we crossed the river on the short train ride, we walked through what seemed like an endless series of tiny villages. When we finally got to Santillana, we didn't know we were there until we saw the information map posted at the outskirts of the village. Fortunately, we encountered the very friendly man who has the "milk bar" and he gave us a lovely recommendation for a place to stay. He also gave us a ride out to the museum of the famous cave with the ancient paintings.

A church we saw while walking that day.

The entrance to the museum.

We made a rest day in Santillana and enjoyed this small town a lot. If you are there, don't forget to look up the sisters in their convent, who sell pastries. They also have an albergue there, I think.

The Oficina del Turismo is close to the convent. They have maps of the village and give directions how to find the Camino route when walking on.

Block Play: Train engine (steam type)

Hello, everyone.

The block has finally been finished!

Here is a picture of the elements, just before the final seaming:

I was going to put up the sketch, but it's covered with scribbled letters and such.

This is an incremental development of the train engine block that is on Pinterest, and possibly also at About.com. (I don't remember seeing it there, but it probably is. A lot of blocks are!) The original had a shorter red body section and the two wheels were the same size. Also, though it's hardly an innovation, I decided to make the cow catcher black. It just seemed a little more true to the old-time steam engines' shape.

This is the list of fabric pieces, instead:

The background is blue. The main body of the engine is red. Stack and wheels are black. Cab top can be either black or gray, cowcatcher can be either black or red. Smoke puff is white.

Measurements are in inches. The block overall is in two parts: upper and lower.

List of materials

Size	Red	Black	Gray	White	Blue
3.5 square		1
2.5 x 7.5	1
2.5 x 3.5		1			1
2.5 x 4.5					2
2.5 x 2.5	1	1	1		3
1.5 x 4.5	1				1
1.5 x 2.5	2				4
1.5 x 3.5					3
1.5 x 1.5	3	5		1	4
1” square	2				2
Opt. scraps to decorate stack

Upper portion:

Stack section:

(Optional: add a bit of ribbon or fabric strip to make a painted stripe on the stack before proceeding with the rest of the stack construction.)

Sew a 1.5” black square to the 1.5” white square and add another 1.5” black square to the other side. Press, trim, set aside.

Sew 1.5” blue squares to the 4 corners of the 2.5” x 3.5” black piece snowball style. Press, trim and set aside.

Sew a 1.5” blue square to a 1.5” black square and add another 1.5” blue square to the other side. Press and trim.

Sew the blue-white-blue strip to the top of the 2.5” x 3.5” piece. Sew the blue-black-blue strip to the bottom. Press and trim. Sew the 1.5” x 4.5” blue piece onto the front end of the rectangle just created. The sub-assembly is now 4.5” square. Press and trim. Set aside.

Cab section:

Sew the gray 2.5” square to a blue 2.5” square. Press and trim. Sew the unit to the long front side of a 2.5” x 4.5” blue rectangle. Sew the other 2.5” x 4.5” blue rectangle to the other side. Press and trim. Sub-assembly is now 6.5” wide and 4.5” tall.

Sew the cab section to the rear of the stack section, press, and trim. Set aside.

Lower portion:

Wheel section:

Sew two red 1.5” squares to the upper corners of the black 3.5” square snowball style. Sew two 1.5” blue squares to the lower corners of the same square likewise.  Press and trim. Sew a 1.5” x 3.5” blue strip across the bottom of the square. Press and trim.(large drive wheel)

Sew two red 1” squares to the top corners of the 2.5” black square snowball style. Sew two 1” blue squares to the lower corners of the same square likewise.  Press and trim.  Sew a 1.5 x 2.5” red strip to the top of the black square. Sew a 1.5” x 2.5” blue strip to the bottom of the square. Press and trim.(front wheel)

Sew the 2.5” red square to a 2.5” blue square. Press and trim. (middle of chassis)

Sew the drive wheel to the rear side of the red/blue rectangle, press and trim. Sew the front wheel assembly to the front side of the red/blue rectangle.

Sew the 2.5” x 7.5” red strip across the top of the wheel assembly, press and trim.

Cowcatcher section:

Sew a 1.5” x 2.5” red (or black) strip to a 1.5” x 3.5” blue strip, placing the red strip crosswise and 1.5” in from the end and using a diagonal seam. Be sure to check the way the pieces will press out before doing any trimming. The idea is to create a 4.5” long strip with an angled seam  that goes from 1.25” up at the front to 2.25” up at the back on a 1.5” wide strip. (Think of joining strips to make bias here!) Press, check to make sure the edges are straight, and trim the back side of the diagonal seam to a ¼” seam allowance. (cowcatcher)

Join the 1.5” x 4.5” strip of red to the back edge of the cowcatcher. Press and trim. Sew a 2.5” blue square to the bottom edge of the cowcatcher assembly, press and trim.

Step section:

Sew a 1.5” red square to the end of a 1.5” x 3.5” blue strip. Sew the end of a 1.5” x 2.5” blue strip on the opposite side. Press and trim.

Sew the step strip to the rear of the wheel section. Sew the cowcatcher section to the front of the wheel section. Press and trim.

Sew the upper section to the lower section, press and trim. Final size of the block is 10.5” square.