Hello, everyone!
Today we are in Porto Marin, less than 100 km. from Santiago. (I would shout yay! but it was a really really hard day today, very unexpectedly, and so I will save shouting for later.)
We slep in San Mamede, about 5 km. short of Sarria, last night, at a really lovely albergue called Paloma and (something) which was very clean, very friendly, and run by a brother and a sister. They have a large, soft lawn and plenty of lawn chairs to warm your tired, aching feet in the sun. Also, the lentil-vegetable soup they make is to die for!
Yesterday was a long day, because we walked from Hospital de la Condesa to Mamede, around 20 miles, and the day before was also long, because we walked from Perejes and climbed to O Cebreiro, a long, steep climb on dirt goat trails and rocks that was in 3 stages, before we came part of the way back down the mountain and stopped in Hospital. O Cebreiro had 2 souvenir stores, at least one restaurant, and a government albergue, plus a church that I forgot to go into. (Hey, after all that walking with a backpack, my brains fall out the back of my feet and get lost!)
Back to today: Porto Marin is on a river/lake which is very pretty, and gives the loveliest breeze while you are walking across it into the city.
This lovelieness followed a long slog of climbing up and down hills, often on goat tracks, sometimes on rocky meses, and a lot of the time on cow pats. (Come to think of it, cow pats have been the single commonest surface of the path since we entered the province of Galicia. Ugh.)
I don´t know if internet will be available tomorrow, but that´s the short scoop for the last three days.
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Progress report: Just past Mansilla de las Mulas
Please see the next Santa Catalina report, this one failed to make because it was on the bad network and the compose box wouldn´t open!
Progress report: Santa Catalina de Somoza, Leon
Hello, everyone! We´re in Santa Catalina de Somoza, just past Astorga.
Since the last post, we have been through the meseta, the plains, of northern Spain. It´s been great! Lots of compressed caliche paths, some horridly rocky ones too, of course, sunny weather, and lots of sights.
A tip to walking on the rockier paths, according to my sweetie: if there are sheep droppings, which there often are, follow them. The sheep have already found the less-rocky part of the path.
We went to the cathedral in Astorga today, and the cathedral museum, and it was lovely. They have an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, on the outside wall of the choir enclosure, and also a Capilla de la Santissima: Adoration Chapel, in our words.
We saw many lovely hand-sewn vestments in the cathedral museum, I took pictures. We also saw some ancient hand-written choir manuscripts (very large letters for the whole choir to share) and illustrated Books of Hours and Bibles.
We are headed up into the mountains tomorrow, towards Rabanal, hopefully without any snow falling on us, nor any more hail, etc.!
We can see snow on mountain tops, but not the ones we are heading towards.
The day before yesterday we ate gazpacho for the first time here, it was a lovely meal, a Menu del Peregrino in the Albergue de San Antonio de Padua in villarente. The chefs were called into the dining room for all of us to give them a good round of applause and Bravo!! The Aggie group was there, too.
The day before yesterday we were in Leon. We missed the festival, but we toured the cathedral there. It is about the same age as the cathedral in Burgos and it is lovely. In the morning, we stayed around, loafing, over breakfast, so we could go to the post office and ship home about 5 pounds of stuff that we don´t need and shouldn´t have packed. (I love you guys, family, but Spain is not the wild interior of Alaska!)
Yesterday we stayed in Santibanezde Valdeiglesia, about 10 km. before Astorga, in a new albergue. (No Aggies, this time--the came through late and decided to strike for Astorga so they could all stay in the same town.) It was very clean and spacious. And there was a washing machine and a dryer! Y'all would be surprised at how excited I get about such
ordinary things these days.
We will post again when we find another good network to post from. (Many of the rent a box computers have been on the paintballnnavarra network and I can´t get the blog new post page to even open on that one.)
We have many, many photos to upload when we get home. (I am homesick, too, but I keep stomping it down, because our way home goes through Santiago.)
´Til next time!
Since the last post, we have been through the meseta, the plains, of northern Spain. It´s been great! Lots of compressed caliche paths, some horridly rocky ones too, of course, sunny weather, and lots of sights.
A tip to walking on the rockier paths, according to my sweetie: if there are sheep droppings, which there often are, follow them. The sheep have already found the less-rocky part of the path.
We went to the cathedral in Astorga today, and the cathedral museum, and it was lovely. They have an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, on the outside wall of the choir enclosure, and also a Capilla de la Santissima: Adoration Chapel, in our words.
We saw many lovely hand-sewn vestments in the cathedral museum, I took pictures. We also saw some ancient hand-written choir manuscripts (very large letters for the whole choir to share) and illustrated Books of Hours and Bibles.
We are headed up into the mountains tomorrow, towards Rabanal, hopefully without any snow falling on us, nor any more hail, etc.!
We can see snow on mountain tops, but not the ones we are heading towards.
The day before yesterday we ate gazpacho for the first time here, it was a lovely meal, a Menu del Peregrino in the Albergue de San Antonio de Padua in villarente. The chefs were called into the dining room for all of us to give them a good round of applause and Bravo!! The Aggie group was there, too.
The day before yesterday we were in Leon. We missed the festival, but we toured the cathedral there. It is about the same age as the cathedral in Burgos and it is lovely. In the morning, we stayed around, loafing, over breakfast, so we could go to the post office and ship home about 5 pounds of stuff that we don´t need and shouldn´t have packed. (I love you guys, family, but Spain is not the wild interior of Alaska!)
Yesterday we stayed in Santibanezde Valdeiglesia, about 10 km. before Astorga, in a new albergue. (No Aggies, this time--the came through late and decided to strike for Astorga so they could all stay in the same town.) It was very clean and spacious. And there was a washing machine and a dryer! Y'all would be surprised at how excited I get about such
ordinary things these days.
We will post again when we find another good network to post from. (Many of the rent a box computers have been on the paintballnnavarra network and I can´t get the blog new post page to even open on that one.)
We have many, many photos to upload when we get home. (I am homesick, too, but I keep stomping it down, because our way home goes through Santiago.)
´Til next time!
Monday, June 2, 2014
Progress report: Hontanas--over a Third of the Way There!!
Hello, everyone!
We did stay in Burgos the last 2 nights--but attentive minds will notice that we were there all day ong on Sunday. The public library in Burgos isn´t open on Sunday. We didn´t see any other place to use the internet--the little hotel we stayed in didn´t have any--so I had to wait until now to do a progress report.
We are in Hontanas, a village in the midst of the meseta. (Think the Kansas of Spain here!) We didn´t get rained on today, nor yesterday when between naps we strolled the city of Burgos, nor even the day before when we walked from Ages to Burgos. Prior to that, we had walked from Villambistia to Ages, stopping briefly at the church of St. Juan de Orbigo.
St. Juan de Orbigo was a road builder and started a monastery and aided pilgrims traveling to and from Santiago, hundreds of years ago.In later years, his monastery failed to continue, but now there is a working church there in the old building, which is being restored as part of "ínfrastructur of the Camino improvements" as part of a grant from the EU of all places. We had good bocadillos there, after our long, long walk from Villafranca on the other side of the Montes de Oca.
Ages is also a village, not miniature like Villambistia is (sorry, Villambistia, but you only had about 10 houses that we could see.) but still small. The albergue there had a U-shaped dorm with everybody in it. The showers and bathrooms were divided, but for some reason the top 2 feet of the wall below the ceiling was left open. Let me tell you, being closed up in the "ladies" potty and hearing a bunch of unexpected male voices was a surprise!
We took a wee wrong turn, sort of, and ended up walking all of the long way (6 miles of sidewalks) through Burgos and its suburb to get to the old-town area where the pilgrims´albergues are. We were kept company by a lovely girl from Australia, who is preparing to return home and finish her college classes, up until the region of the albergue. Then we split off from her and went to hunt down a hotel.
We walked past two weddings that were setting up bridal entrances: the one at the city records office, the bride was wearing a more traditional (for Spain that is) dark gray chiffon gown. (At least when I was looking up Spanish wedding traditions before my elder princess´ wedding, that was what the info sites told me.) The other wedding, in the Cathedral of Burgos, had the bride in a full white dress with a headpiece that, of course, reached to the end of her full skirt.
We walked 20 miles today, crossing over 3 mesas in the bright sunshine. I started shedding layers an hour in, and by the time we got to Hontanas, I was down to the inmost shirt and the pants. It was great weather for a South Texas pair of hikers.I particularly liked something I couldn´t take a picture of: the way the grain looked, kind of like God´s fingers ruffling the heads of grain the way I might run my fingers over velvet.
We´re starting to think of sending a box of unneeded weight home, too.
That´s it for today. I´ll try to do another update tomorrow but it might be a few days.
We did stay in Burgos the last 2 nights--but attentive minds will notice that we were there all day ong on Sunday. The public library in Burgos isn´t open on Sunday. We didn´t see any other place to use the internet--the little hotel we stayed in didn´t have any--so I had to wait until now to do a progress report.
We are in Hontanas, a village in the midst of the meseta. (Think the Kansas of Spain here!) We didn´t get rained on today, nor yesterday when between naps we strolled the city of Burgos, nor even the day before when we walked from Ages to Burgos. Prior to that, we had walked from Villambistia to Ages, stopping briefly at the church of St. Juan de Orbigo.
St. Juan de Orbigo was a road builder and started a monastery and aided pilgrims traveling to and from Santiago, hundreds of years ago.In later years, his monastery failed to continue, but now there is a working church there in the old building, which is being restored as part of "ínfrastructur of the Camino improvements" as part of a grant from the EU of all places. We had good bocadillos there, after our long, long walk from Villafranca on the other side of the Montes de Oca.
Ages is also a village, not miniature like Villambistia is (sorry, Villambistia, but you only had about 10 houses that we could see.) but still small. The albergue there had a U-shaped dorm with everybody in it. The showers and bathrooms were divided, but for some reason the top 2 feet of the wall below the ceiling was left open. Let me tell you, being closed up in the "ladies" potty and hearing a bunch of unexpected male voices was a surprise!
We took a wee wrong turn, sort of, and ended up walking all of the long way (6 miles of sidewalks) through Burgos and its suburb to get to the old-town area where the pilgrims´albergues are. We were kept company by a lovely girl from Australia, who is preparing to return home and finish her college classes, up until the region of the albergue. Then we split off from her and went to hunt down a hotel.
We walked past two weddings that were setting up bridal entrances: the one at the city records office, the bride was wearing a more traditional (for Spain that is) dark gray chiffon gown. (At least when I was looking up Spanish wedding traditions before my elder princess´ wedding, that was what the info sites told me.) The other wedding, in the Cathedral of Burgos, had the bride in a full white dress with a headpiece that, of course, reached to the end of her full skirt.
We walked 20 miles today, crossing over 3 mesas in the bright sunshine. I started shedding layers an hour in, and by the time we got to Hontanas, I was down to the inmost shirt and the pants. It was great weather for a South Texas pair of hikers.I particularly liked something I couldn´t take a picture of: the way the grain looked, kind of like God´s fingers ruffling the heads of grain the way I might run my fingers over velvet.
We´re starting to think of sending a box of unneeded weight home, too.
That´s it for today. I´ll try to do another update tomorrow but it might be a few days.
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Progress report: Najera
Hello!
This morning the sun was out! it was wonderful. We left about 6:30 this morning and there were no bakeries open in Logrono at that time. :-(
We stopped at a vending machine and bought a Coke to share, then walked on through the nature park that encircled the lake and headed on down the road to the next town. (Starts with a V) There we found an open bakery and got cafe leche and ham-n-cheese croissants. There were 2 young magnolia trees planted amongst the little tables. _The morning suddenly felt so good, I started humming that song from "Oklahoma" about the fabulous day. (Hey, I am easily amused.)
The sun stayed out. About an hour later, I slipped between two olive trees and shucked off my fleece top and put on a blouse--that melon colored Columbia one with the button-up sleeves. It felt so good--the fleece was pretty wet with sweat by that time.
We kept on, passing all the lovely Irish folks who had been quietly laughing at us for our shivering and misery in the cold and rain and wind. It was a sunny day, most of the paths were the compressed-caliche type of surface, and we were happy campers.
We hauled into Najera about 1:30 pm and the sun was still out. We were still happy campers. (By the way, the A&M group is here too.)
There is a lovely river with banks of rocks in it in this town. There are mesas in the area, including one close to the town buildings. They are constructed of layers of red rock (Think Colorado Springs, but without so much of the extravagantly tortured shapes.)
We have bought a replacement Buff scarf. (The pretty green with spots like a trout one slipped off my hair on the approaches to Villatuerta, I think--it was the approaches to Pamplona, basically, we were scurrying ahead of a storm, and I think it just was embarrassed to be seen with me and slipped off.) It has Camino designs on it. And I firmly intend to use hair clips with it!
We had a Pilgrim menu tonite--mine was chicken thigh which came de-boned and grilled--and for dessert we were offered a tart con chocolate. Oh my goodness. It was so lovely, my sweetie took a picture. Think of three layers of genoise, separated by 2 layers of light, fluffy chocolate mousse, and with a drizzle of chocolate syrup on top. (I could remember the name of the syrup at the time, but there is a rousing singalong going on behind me right now and I had about one lovely glass of great Tinto too much. Sorry.)
We walked about 19 miles today in the lovely sunshine and warm air. For the first time I begin to understand why anyone would think this is fun.
Tomorrow we will do a short day, to Santo Domingo de las (I forget) but it´s about 13 miles.
The day after that we should be in Burgos, which is the city that El Cid was from and is loaded with history.
I´ll try to post again there.
Hasta laters.
This morning the sun was out! it was wonderful. We left about 6:30 this morning and there were no bakeries open in Logrono at that time. :-(
We stopped at a vending machine and bought a Coke to share, then walked on through the nature park that encircled the lake and headed on down the road to the next town. (Starts with a V) There we found an open bakery and got cafe leche and ham-n-cheese croissants. There were 2 young magnolia trees planted amongst the little tables. _The morning suddenly felt so good, I started humming that song from "Oklahoma" about the fabulous day. (Hey, I am easily amused.)
The sun stayed out. About an hour later, I slipped between two olive trees and shucked off my fleece top and put on a blouse--that melon colored Columbia one with the button-up sleeves. It felt so good--the fleece was pretty wet with sweat by that time.
We kept on, passing all the lovely Irish folks who had been quietly laughing at us for our shivering and misery in the cold and rain and wind. It was a sunny day, most of the paths were the compressed-caliche type of surface, and we were happy campers.
We hauled into Najera about 1:30 pm and the sun was still out. We were still happy campers. (By the way, the A&M group is here too.)
There is a lovely river with banks of rocks in it in this town. There are mesas in the area, including one close to the town buildings. They are constructed of layers of red rock (Think Colorado Springs, but without so much of the extravagantly tortured shapes.)
We have bought a replacement Buff scarf. (The pretty green with spots like a trout one slipped off my hair on the approaches to Villatuerta, I think--it was the approaches to Pamplona, basically, we were scurrying ahead of a storm, and I think it just was embarrassed to be seen with me and slipped off.) It has Camino designs on it. And I firmly intend to use hair clips with it!
We had a Pilgrim menu tonite--mine was chicken thigh which came de-boned and grilled--and for dessert we were offered a tart con chocolate. Oh my goodness. It was so lovely, my sweetie took a picture. Think of three layers of genoise, separated by 2 layers of light, fluffy chocolate mousse, and with a drizzle of chocolate syrup on top. (I could remember the name of the syrup at the time, but there is a rousing singalong going on behind me right now and I had about one lovely glass of great Tinto too much. Sorry.)
We walked about 19 miles today in the lovely sunshine and warm air. For the first time I begin to understand why anyone would think this is fun.
Tomorrow we will do a short day, to Santo Domingo de las (I forget) but it´s about 13 miles.
The day after that we should be in Burgos, which is the city that El Cid was from and is loaded with history.
I´ll try to post again there.
Hasta laters.
Monday, May 26, 2014
Progress report: Logrono
Hello again! We are in the great wine city of Logrono. (That is spelled with an enye but I can´t find it on the Spanish keyboard.)
We stayed two nights in Pamplona, to see the many, many sights, to get a new fleece shirt for me, and to rest me feet. Well, that last was "sort of rest" really, because I trekked all over this city in my thong shower shoes. Don´t do that, friends. Shower shoes with thongs are for showers. (Ouch.) Still the stay did my feet, damaged by the wet walking of the previous two days, some good, and we got some great bandaging from a Farmacia.
I believe I mentioned before that the Cathedral Museum of Pamplona is very good.
When we left Pamplona, we walked to Puente la Reina. We stayed there the night and I got to eat my first garlic soup. It was wonderful. (And hot soup really hits the spot, I wish more bars and restaurants were serving it!)
The next day, we walked mostly in sunshine and it was great. That was Estella. We did go to Saturday evening Mass, and the priest gave a beautiful pilgrim blessing to everyone that came. This was at the end of the regular Mass. The day was the great fiesta of their patron saint: La Virgen de Puy, and it was also the big soccer championship game on the TV. So none of farnacias were open, and most of the restaurants were booked up with soccer parties. :-( But we got to eat inside when the rain hit, and between rain showers we walked back to the albergue.
Toward the end of the day´s walk, rain broke out--heck, a thunderstorm broke out--and with hail to encourage us and a need to rest, we made it into Los Arcos. There we found a washing machine--yay--and a working clothes dryer--even better!--and then after clothes were clean we went out to a bar and had some great snacks and wine. Then we went downstairs and had the Pilgrim´s Menu. Which unfortunately had no soup in it. It did have spaghetti. So we had spaghetti, milanesa, and flan for dinner. And of course went to bed early. We had not found an open farmacia in Los Arcos and didn´t want to hang around until one would open.
This morning we looked at my feet and punted: there was a bus stop in Los Arcos, so we hopped the bus 15 miles down the road to Viana and got off. There we toured the church of Santa Maria, took pictures, bought a ton of bandages from the farmacia and drank some hot cafe leche. Then we walked the 11 km or so to Logrono. THE SUN WAS OUT!!! Ity was wonderful.
The city is lovely, there is a weir dam on the Rio Ebro and a stork nest on a tall pole nearby, they have a pilgrim/tourist information office at the beginning of the city, and we´re staying at the municipal albergue there.
We have encountered the Texas Aggies student group again! And there is a rent-a-computer in the albergue, too, so I was able to do an update on happenings before Burgos.
We definitely love our sunshine a lot more after the last week. (But the Irish and Germans and north-French hikers have been happy as clams.)
I will update in a few days when we get to somewhere with a computer I can use...pictures will still wait until we can get home and work with them I think. We have both had to change out camera batteries now. We love the spare batteries.
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Progress report: Pamplona
Howdy, everyone!
We made it to Pamplona!
Day 1: Over Route Napoleon, facing increasing headwinds the entire way...well, worse, gusty increasing headwinds. The last 3 km we think the gusts were near 60mph. The trekking poles paid for themselves. (I didn´t fall off the mountain, in other words.)
Stayed at the monastery of Roncesvalles. Lovely, modern dorm facility, we were on the top floor. Ate the pilgrim menu, which was a lovely HOT! potato soup (and I was so ready for hot soup) and sweet pimiento peppers stuffed with chicken and to finish off, flan.
Day 2: Storms, rain, hail, wind. Feet got wet about 8 am and stayed that way. Arrived in Zubiri and called it a day. Feet sore, blisters, but what can you expect when you walk in water and get water dumped on you etc. etc. Saw more gorgeous flowers (between the raindrops) than you can shake a stick at.The trekking poles paid for themselves again, while we walked over slick wet caliche covered granite rocks sticking up in the paths in more than one place.Also the poles came in handy when crossing little creeks by way of the cube shaped concrete stepping stones, I planted the poles on the next stone and stepped across the little gap.
Day 3: Light rain on and off, got to Pamplona and got a hotel room for 2 nites. Ate the world´s most wonderful squid a la plancha. Bought a bottle of Tempranillo wine for Euro 1.99 and it´s very good. (We´re sipping on it.) The food is wonderful here.
My sweetie bought a great map of the city, with 3D sketches of some of the buildings and enough streets so a person can find things.Also--it´s been pretty cold--we bought a fleece sweater for me at the shop Caminoteca near the Cathedral. (It´s a pilgrim supply shop, hiking gear, guidebooks, hat pins, etc. etc.)
Went to the Museo Navarra and it was great. Loads of historical art work to look at. Some modern stuff too, but I´m not so into the modern stuff.
Went to the Cathedral and its museum and oh my goodness it´s great.
Tomorrow we´ll leave really early and probably get to Puente la Reina.
More news in a few days, possibly from Burgos.
We made it to Pamplona!
Day 1: Over Route Napoleon, facing increasing headwinds the entire way...well, worse, gusty increasing headwinds. The last 3 km we think the gusts were near 60mph. The trekking poles paid for themselves. (I didn´t fall off the mountain, in other words.)
Stayed at the monastery of Roncesvalles. Lovely, modern dorm facility, we were on the top floor. Ate the pilgrim menu, which was a lovely HOT! potato soup (and I was so ready for hot soup) and sweet pimiento peppers stuffed with chicken and to finish off, flan.
Day 2: Storms, rain, hail, wind. Feet got wet about 8 am and stayed that way. Arrived in Zubiri and called it a day. Feet sore, blisters, but what can you expect when you walk in water and get water dumped on you etc. etc. Saw more gorgeous flowers (between the raindrops) than you can shake a stick at.The trekking poles paid for themselves again, while we walked over slick wet caliche covered granite rocks sticking up in the paths in more than one place.Also the poles came in handy when crossing little creeks by way of the cube shaped concrete stepping stones, I planted the poles on the next stone and stepped across the little gap.
Day 3: Light rain on and off, got to Pamplona and got a hotel room for 2 nites. Ate the world´s most wonderful squid a la plancha. Bought a bottle of Tempranillo wine for Euro 1.99 and it´s very good. (We´re sipping on it.) The food is wonderful here.
My sweetie bought a great map of the city, with 3D sketches of some of the buildings and enough streets so a person can find things.Also--it´s been pretty cold--we bought a fleece sweater for me at the shop Caminoteca near the Cathedral. (It´s a pilgrim supply shop, hiking gear, guidebooks, hat pins, etc. etc.)
Went to the Museo Navarra and it was great. Loads of historical art work to look at. Some modern stuff too, but I´m not so into the modern stuff.
Went to the Cathedral and its museum and oh my goodness it´s great.
Tomorrow we´ll leave really early and probably get to Puente la Reina.
More news in a few days, possibly from Burgos.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)