Day 25: Gonzar to Melide. We have two days to go!

Tina is a genius.  It was her plan to go one town further than all of the day trippers who started at Sarria.  Our albergue in Gonzar was filled with serious backpackers.  The vibe was totally right.

At an albergue, you do a number of things.  You shower.  You do laundry.  Maybe you eat.  You sleep.  It occurred to me that we never posted a photo of the laundry part.  A few of the albergues have machines that you can pay to use, but most just have wash sinks, like the one in your laundry room at home.  Then, you hang your clothes outside to dry.  Usually, it's bring-your-own-clothespins.  We have seven clothespins, and we picked them all up along the way.

The clotheslines in the yard at the albergue.  This is luxury.  In some, it's just a rack on a window balcony.

We set our alarms for 5 AM and hit the road by 5:20.  We were nowhere near the first to leave.  This albergue was full of veterans.  We walked in the dark for a long time because the sun no longer rises as early as it did when we started. (And, we're much further West.)

Starting so early, you know that coffee is something of a crap shoot.  We were lucky to find two open cafes in the town of Ventas de Naron, about 5 kilometers out.  Unfortunately, the place we picked, had great coffee but nothing gluten free for me.  We enjoyed a cafe con leche, stowed our head lamps, and continued walking.  Our objective for the morning was a town called Palas de Rei, over 17 kilometers from where we started.  This would be our half way point.

Part of why I say Tina was a genius is because most of our day was spent alone on beautiful verdant paths which hours later would be overrun by yesterday's crowds.  Same place, but totally better experience.

The sun trying to break through the clouds, as viewed from a cornfield.  It never succeeded.

One of many tree covered walks that I photographed.  This Camino is almost over, and I feel the need to capture the beauty and serenity.

As we got closer to the half way point of our day, Palas de Rei, we became aware of the presence of the touregrinos from yesterday.  Where did these old people, carrying close to nothing, come from?  Why was there a pit crew waiting with walkie-talkies as we passed?  What was up with the big blue buses?  You too can have an authentic Camino experience!  Our big blue bus will be waiting for you with snacks, a rest room, and maybe a quick ride to an easier part of the day's trek down the road a piece...

First sighting of the touregrino bus.

An hour or two later, waiting at a random intersection for the brave touregrinos...

Anyway, enough snarkiness.  We stopped in Palas de Rei for another coffee and some Spanish Omelet at about 10 AM.  We had made very good time, but getting served took forever because of a large group of Americans who walked in just before us.

We have not seen a lot of Americans before today on the Camino.  We've seen tons of Italians.  Lots of French people.  We told you about all of the Koreans.  We've met lots of Eastern Europeans.  Heck, yesterday, we met a Dutch couple that started the Camino from the front door of their house in the Netherlands.  The Americans were somewhere else until it was time for my delayed breakfast this morning...  20 minutes later, I had my omelet.

The second half of the day was another 15 kilometers (plus altitude) to the town of Melide which has a population of 7,500 but for some reason has the reputation of being the octopus capital of this seafood crazy country.  95% of our walks were on totally isolated country lanes, covered with lush tree canopies.  We walked through groves of white birches and eucalyptus trees.  It was a dream.

Couldn't you walk here all day?

As we approached Melide, in the suburbs, there was a park dedicated to pilgrims who had died along the Camino.  We didn't mention this earlier, but there have been memorials since the beginning to people who have died along the way, and most were really, really touching.  This park had stone markers with names and dates.  Lots of them.

We got to the final outskirts of Melide just after 1 PM.  Here's a photo of Tina just before we crossed the last old bridge.  A car followed us onto the bridge, but there was no room to get out of the way, so he just had to wait.

Almost there!

For a town this small, it feels like a larger city.  Our albergue is in a newer part of town right next to the historic center.  It's very modern.  (We're washing our clothes in actual machines!)  We showered and went to lunch at a pulpería, a family style restaurant specializing in octopus.

Octopi waiting to get cooked

I told the cook that he was going to be famous.

In Galicia, this is called Pulpo a la Feira.  Ourside Galicia, it's Pulpo a la Gallega.  It's boiled octopus, olive oil, smoked paprika and sea salt.  Simple, yet delicious.

Our lunch: octopus, chorizo, padrón peppers and a mixed salad (ensalada mixta.)  These salads have become a daily favorite, with all kinds of greens plus superb quality tuna on them.

After lunch, we walked into the old town and visited the main church in town, Sancti Spiritus from the 14th century, where we sat for maybe five contemplative minutes until we realized that all of the old ladies there were probably about to start a rosary.  We left having taken this one photograph.

We went to the supermarket to pick up some fruit, some sausage and some gluten free bread.  Yesterday, after some difficulty, we made a reservation at an albergue for tomorrow night, and we're not sure that there will be food available.  We won't starve, but it won't be like today!

So, tomorrow, we'll walk something like 36 kilometers to an albergue outside of Santa Irene, and the next day we will arrive, after 27 days (including two days off) at Santiago de Compostela!

Tina will fill you in on tomorrow.  Oh yes, rain is in the forecast.

Day 24: Sarria to Gonzar. Disney Meets the Boy Scouts

We now understand what the guidebook meant when it warned of the huge influx of pilgrims joining the Camino at Sarria.  Why does this happen?  Because you need to walk at least 100 kilometers in order to earn a “Compostela”, the certificate of completion for the Camino.  In Spain, a Compostela is a valuable credential when applying for jobs, applying to schools, etc.  It’s a status symbol.  Sarria is 112 kilometers from Santiago, so this is where pilgrims join the Camino for the last leg of the journey.

We left our hotel at 6:30 am, a little later than usual.  We enjoyed a quick cup of coffee in a local café, and no sooner had we finished when a hoard of young Italian students crowded inside ordering cappuccinos (Spaniards drink café con leche).  We could barely get out of the café, it was so crowded! 

Cafe Scene 6:30 am in Sarria

And that was just the start of it.  There were hoards of people walking onto the camino from Sarria.  There were school groups, church groups, large groups of friends, rowdy people, groups of people singing, people with babies in strollers(!)…lots of LOUD people.  Lots of people who wouldn’t let you pass. It was unbelievable. There’s a name for people walking the Camino in this manner: “tour”egrino.  The lines along the road leading out of town looked like those photos of Mount Everest this summer! 

About 80% of these “pilgrims” carried only day packs.  They checked their large suitcases in their pre-booked hotels, to be delivered to the next pre-booked hotel.  Why is this a problem? Two reasons.  First, carrying everything you need for the journey in a single bag, on your back, is a great life lesson.  It teaches you the difference between “want” and “need”.  Every additional item you choose to take along, you have to carry the entire way.  You learn not to pack anything extra.  If you need something, you can find it on the way.  So no extra food, no extra clothing, no “nice to have” niceties.  Just the basics.  Those checking large suitcases never had to make these choices.

Second, a bag weighs you down.  It slows your gait.  It makes you focus on the road so you don’t trip and fall.  The journey becomes a struggle, a good struggle.  Those with day packs were racing across the Camino.  We even saw groups of young people running, as if this was a marathon.  The runners and fast pacers were weaving in and out of the crowd, making the road all that more dangerous for the rest of us.  It was truly unpleasant.

After a few hours of steady walking, we started to get reasonable distance between us and the other pilgrims.  The day became filled with the familiar idyllic, rustic views of the Spanish countryside. 

Lovely Stream along the Route

Views From the Walk

We also passed many properties subdivided with low stone walls.  In Galicia, inheritance laws require(d) that real property be split equally among all the surviving children.  This resulted in smaller and smaller parcels of land, many too small to sustain a family farm.  An example of these walled divisions follows.

Subdivided Galician Land

We also started seeing many “Horreos”.  These are traditional corn cribs.  Thery’re built on four stilts to keep them off the ground.  They have an overhanging ornamental roof to keep the rain out, and (traditionally) wooden slats along the sides to keep the air circulating.  

Here’s what these typically look like.

A Typical Galician Horreo

Another aspect of this phase of the Camino is loud, boisterous music blaring from sidewalk cafes luring pilgrims to stop for refreshments.  It’s really annoying.  We walked 17 kilometers before stopping for our Coca Cola break—longer than originally planned.  It was a beautiful café in the town of Mercadoiro, just shy of the guidebook’s target for the day: Portomarin.

Tina at the Outskirts of Portomarin

For this leg of our journey, we decided we'd walk to destinations which weren't "featured stops" in the Camino guidebooks.  Most pilgrims follow the recommendations of the guides, so they congregate in those towns.  We wanted to set our own path.

We walked about 8 kilometers further, along cool, shaded paths, to a tiny village called Gonzar.

Paco Along the Shaded Path to Gonzar

We're staying in a wonderful hostel where we've met lots of new friends.  Maya is a young Israeli girl who will start University in October.  We also met two lovely ladies from Hungary who started the Camino from St Jean Pied Port one day earlier than we did.  It's such a small world!  And along the way today, we saw our bicyclist Camino friend from Santa Fe.  We're so glad he was looking strong and healthy.

We've planned out our trip for the remaining 85 kilometers of the journey.  We also booked our albergues for the next few days.  This was necessary because the "tour"egrinos pre-book everything, so regular pilgrims have no rooms when they arrive.  Sigh.  This really takes the spontaneity out of the equation.

Day 23: From O Cebreiro to Sarria. No room at the Inn...

Last night, we went over to the bar across the street to pay for our hotel room and have a glass of Albariño, the crisp white wine from Galicia that has been discovered by the rest of the world, including Napa Valley.  It was windy and cold and obvious that the morning was going to be foggy.  The bar assured us that they would be open at six the next morning for breakfast.

We were faced with the following choice: if it's going to be foggy, and you're on the top of a mountain, why would you want to brave it before having a cup of coffee?  Cooler minds prevailed.

Sure enough, at 6 AM it was pea soup outside and you could hear the condensing water droplets falling off the tree leaves like rain drops.  We had a cafe con leche at the hotel bar and headed out with headlamps on.  It was a new moon, and the fog was so thick that Tina switched her head lamp to the low beams because the higher setting was reflecting back too much.

Even still, as we walked slowly down the path through the forest, we passed a pilgrim in the dark with no lamp!

Our objective today was ambitious: to finish two days in the book.  First to walk 20 kilometers to the town of Triacastela and then to walk another 18 kilometers to the city of Sarria.  It sounded easy.  (Note, these distances didn't account for the amount of walking up and down hills we did.  Think about it.  You can be a mile away from something, but if you have to walk up a mountain and down the other side, you might walk two miles to get there.  We ended up walking over 41 kilometers again...)

The first thing we were able to positively identify was this famous statue of a pilgrim a little more than three kilometers out of town.  It was a good thing we had coffee before leaving, because the first town we walked through, Liñares, was totally asleep.

Pilgrim statue at the Alto de San Roque in the fog

We kept walking in the fog, first along a highway, then along gravel paths alongside, finally through the woods.  What we could see was gorgeous.  Galicia receives a lot of rain annually, and everything is covered with moss, lichens, and ferns.  This is not the arid Spain that my father talked about.

The sky lightened, allowing us to see our path

Eventually, the sun peeked through the clouds.

This is Celtic Spain.  Yesterday in O Cebreiro, there was a wedding and the traditional band they hired had bagpipers, gaiteros.  They also believe in witches and have a fun custom of mixing together all of the spirits in the house, setting them on fire, and drinking them.  It's called a quaimada.

This tree reminded me of why they believe in witches.

The ground here is really rocky, full of slate.  The houses in this part of Galicia are largely made of pieces of slate, piled on top of each other and held together by gravity.  Many old structures are falling down.

The towns we walked through were agricultural.  The paths we walked on were shared with many animals--you could tell by droppings on the ground.  Tina's best line of the day: "I'm becoming the doo doo expert."  At one point, in the late morning, outside Triacastela, we came face to face with a bunch of cattle as we walked on a path with a stone wall on each side.

At midday, we stopped in the town of Triacastela for a Coke and to plan the rest of our day.  Triacastela means "Three Castles", but none remain, so we'll have to take their word for it.

We decided to go another 18 kilometers to Sarria, the end of the next chapter in the guidebook.  Since it was already past noon, we decided to call albergues to reserve two beds.  I called at least seven, and they were all booked.  The towns in between were tiny, and not practical for the rest of our plan.  I called the one four star hotel in Sarria, and of course, they had a room.  (You couldn't book a Hampton Inn at home for this price, but when albergues are ten Euros a night or less, your perspective changes.)

This photo looks better than this fountain does, outside of Triacastela

I can't explain why I took this photo.

We didn't take a lot of pictures during the second part of the hike because the sun was out, it was getting hotter, and frankly, we were just on a mission to get to Sarria and take a shower in the expensive hotel room.

The old town in Sarria.  We'll be walking this street in the morning to follow the Camino out of town.

A Camino marker next to the main church

The church of Santa Mariña dominates the old town, and the old town is on high ground visible throughout Sarria

We got to Sarria at 4:30 PM.  Our day lasted over ten hours with only two breaks.  We showered, had a beer in a cafe along the river Sarria, and had a really nice dinner in our hotel.  Oh yeah, we made a reservation at an albergue for tomorrow night, so we don't get stuck like this again!

One final note about Sarria, and it's a big one.  To get a diploma for completing this walk, called a "Compostela", you have to walk at least 100 kilometers of the Camino.  Sarria is where most people start.  As we sat in that cafe, we watched all sorts of people pulling roller bags, carrying day packs and fanny packs, all sporting scallop shells that identified them as tomorrow's pilgrims.  They will pay a service to lug their bags from albergue to albergue for the next 100 kilometers as they stroll the Camino...

The guide book tells us to not get pissed off.  Now, you get an idea why we couldn't book a room here!  Also, when I walked the Portuguese Route four years ago, you couldn't use the internet to book your room.  Now it seems that everyone is using Booking.com.  I'm not sure that this is progress.

Tomorrow's plan is 37.5 kilometers.  Hopefully, they hold our room!  Tina will let you know how it works out.

Day 22: Villafranca del Bierzo to O'Cebreiro...We're in Galicia!

Once again, to beat the heat we arose early and were on the road by 5:30 am.  Today's walk involved not only distance (28.9 kilometers), but also height (a rise of 900 meters, which is 2,700 feet--or 270 flights of stairs!).

Predictably, the first village we passed about an hour into our walk, Pereje, was still fast asleep early Saturday morning.  We had better luck an hour later in a beautiful mill town called Trabadelo.  We sat and had coffee and breakfast at the first cafe we found.  Fifteen minutes later, many more pilgrims started joining the party.  By the time we left, every table was full and more pilgrims kept coming across the mountains.

We walked uphill all day, passing many beautiful sights, new and old.

Meet Mr. Donkey Outside a Village Home

Check out this house, with windows almost at curbside.

Home in the Countryside

Kale grows really well in this cool climate.

Kale in a garden along the way.

One of the cool things about our travels throughout the Castilla & Leon region has been the very clear water in public lakes and streams.  Everywhere we walked, you could see to the bottom of the stream.  People were actively fishing and bathing in the crystal clear waters.  It wasn't just in rural areas--the same was true in large cities and intermediate towns as well.  Take a look at the clear water at a random stream we passed along the way:

Crystal-clear stream waters in Castilla & Leon

We divided our day into thirds:  we walked the first third of the way, then had our coffee break.  We walked another third of the way--about 10 kilometers, and had our Coca Cola break in the town of Las Herrerias.  It was about 10:15 when we stopped in there, having already walked 20.7 kilometers.  We felt like such troopers!

Las Herrerias is a small village high in the mountains that serves as a launching point for pilgrims traversing the steep climb up to O'Cebreiro.  The town has a collection of albergues, shops, cafes and bars to allow folks to stock up on supplies before attempting the 2,000 foot ascent.

There's even a vendor offering horse-rides up the mountain!  The guide will take you and your bags on a two-hour easy climb to the top.  (More on this later).

Las Herrerias.  Check Out the Horses.

We started our climb around 10:45 am.  The weather was beautifully cool and clear--until we started up the mountains.  It's amazing how hot it feels climbing steep hills, carrying a heavy back-pack, in the noon-day sun.  Suddenly, 80-degree blissful weather starts feeling really, really, hot.

The initial part of the climb was very steep and very rocky.  Here's a look at what 2,000 feet "up" looks like from here:

2,000 feet upward to go from here...

Of course, the views were amazing.  We passed livestock, rolling hillside, and even mountaintop castles!

Castle Ruins in the Mountains

One of the worst parts of the climb was the horse droppings.  Yes, those lovely animals that take pilgrims up the 2,000-foot climb leave droppings all along the way.  Not only are we struggling up the mountain in mid-day heat, but we're playing dodge-the-doo-doo with the horses.  Not fair!  (Sorry, no photo!)

Mountaintop Countryside...and Paco, of course!

In the last kilometer of our journey today, we crossed over into the province of Galicia.  That's the province in which Santiago de Compostela resides.  It was a very special and moving moment.

The Province Marker for Galicia

We're staying in the small Galician village of O'Cebreiro.  It's tiny.  It's beautiful.

Downtown O'Cebreiro

We went to Mass at the Iglesia de Santa Maria Real.  The church dates back to the 9th century and is the oldest existing church associated directly with the pilgrim way.

Iglesia de Santa Maria Real in O'Cebreiro

Alongside the church is the resting place of an amazing parish priest, Don Elias Valina Sampedro (1929-1989), who pioneered the idea of using the yellow arrow symbol to mark the path of the Camino for pilgrims.  Thanks to his simple but brilliant idea, the Camino has grown and flourished.

The Camino Symbol: Yellow Arrow. The priest gave these to all the pilgrims at the mass.

Day 21: From Molinaseca through Bierzo Wine Country to Villafranca del Bierzo

As lovely as yesterday's town and albergue were, sleeping was another story.  We were on the upper floor of a converted house, and even though night time temperatures plummeted, there's always some genius who shuts windows and doors at night, locking in the heat.  Neither of us got a great night's sleep, and as a result, we hit the road at 5:50 AM.

The first part of our morning was perhaps a taste of things to come.  By the time we came downstairs, at least 20 downstairs pilgrims had left.  As we were walking through the streets with head lamps on, we saw another perhaps 30 leaving another leaving another building.  Where did they all come from?

The walk was just about 100% paved as we walked a little over 7 kilometers to Ponferada, a city of 69,000 that's supposed to be the capital of the Bierzo wine region.  When you get to a city at 7:30 in the morning, there's not much going on.  We had coffee and Spanish omelet in their main square, took the following photos, and kept walking.  We came away with two impressions: (1) it's a nice enough city, and (2) it has a lot of graffiti.

The clock tower which overlooks a street in the old town on the way to the main square

The Basilica in the Main Square.  This was our view from breakfast. There's a pilgrim's statue in the foreground.

This Knights Templar Castle dominates the town. It's so big, you can't fit it in the camera frame.

We continued our walk out of Ponferada through the Western suburbs.  Both on the way in and on the way out of the city, we passed by some of the most impressive mansions we've seen in this country.  There's some money here!

Our hiking poles have rubber tips for when we're on pavement and metal tips for when we're on dirt and gravel.  The rubber tips were on for most of the day as we walked through suburb after suburb, heading West.  There was one common element in these towns: they all had an Ermita, a small hermitage, for pilgrims, and they were all very old.

The Ermita of San Roque

Time may march on, but the vestiges of the old Camino linger.

We stopped for the obligatory Coke in a town called Camponaraya, but didn't take any photos.  There we met a bike pilgrim from New Mexico.  We've seen him over the last few days, but we didn't learn his name.  He did the first half of the Camino a few years ago, and is finishing it this year, keeping pace with us.  He looks to be older than us, and he kept rubbing his knee as we spoke.  This takes a toll on people, but not on us (knock on wood!)

We still had another 15 kilometers to go, and after the town of Cacabelos, the roads finally became less suburban, more Camino-like.

Stork dominating a church in Cacabelos

Tina in Bierzo wine country

Vineyards being replanted outside Cacabelos

Bierzo is a region of Castilla y Leon that is surrounded by mountains.  We climbed over one set to get here, and we'll go over another set tomorrow.  The red wine here is made from a grape named Mencía.  It's not as full bodied as a Cabernet, but it holds up to all kinds of food.  It comes in usually at 14.5% alcohol.  The white wine here is made from a grape named Godello.  These whites are very nice, but not as tart as Albariños or Verdejos.  Yes, we've been trying them every chance we get.

Our objective today is the beautiful eleventh century town of Villafranca del Bierzo.  You may note that we stayed in another Villafranca earlier.  When French pilgrims returning from Santiago decided to settle down instead of returning home, the towns they started were frequently called Villafranca, "French Town".  There are five of these in Spain.

Villafranca del Bierzo

The town straddles a river and sits at the foot of the mountains we have to cross in the morning.  It is stunning.  Again, it's dominated by a castle.  The streets are really narrow, but that doesn't stop people from driving fast through them.  There are lots of places to eat and drink.  This is a destination in its own right.

The Castle up close.  That's a tourist on the left.

A pilgrim statue facing away from the town towards the bridge we have to cross in the morning.

We got here, showered and had a fabulous lunch in a restaurant with air conditioning. Temperatures are slowly rising, with today's highs in the mid 80's.  Now, that may sound yummy, but try it in the sun carrying a backpack for hours, and it gets old.  Lunch was awesome.  Here's a taste:

Roasted Pig's Knuckle (Codillo) with (the ubiquitous) French Fries

We walked by this vineyard, so we had to try their wine.

Tomorrow is going to be a challenge.  We have to walk over three mountains, and the total walk will be 33.4 kilometers, including climbing 900 meters.  (Multiply by 3+ for feet.)  Today's walk was 31.6 Km, and we were done--with very little climbing.  If we finish the route, we will be in Galicia, our last province of the Camino!

Tina will let you know how it works out.

Day 20: Rabanal Del Camino to Molinaseca

Last night, we stayed at a beautiful albergue, in a private room for two.  That makes such a difference in the morning!  We can turn on the light, pack up our things, and get on our way—without worrying about waking up our neighbors.

We got up later than normal today, since it was going to be cool all day and we were walking up a mountain first thing in the morning.  We decided to get coffee at the restaurant next door before starting our walk.  The café opened at 7:00 am.  We had breakfast and started on our walk by 7:30 am.

We had a beautiful walk up the mountainside in the cool morning weather.  We passed all forms of nature: farm animals, flowering plants, bees and insects, local fauna.  Soon, we were serenaded by a cacophony of frogs.  Here’s a glimpse of our walk:

An hour later, we came to a lovely town called Foncebadón.  Unlike previous villages which were suffering from neglect and decline, this town was decidedly on an upswing.  Many of the villages we passed by today were similarly growing.  This 12th century town welcomes pilgrims with newly paved roads, renovated buildings, and modern, fully-stocked restaurants and bars.  Had we known that his was such a vibrant village, we would have left Rabanl earlier and had our coffee here.  But who knew?

Moments later, we came upon one of the highpoints of the journey (no pun intended!): the Cruz de Ferro (Iron Cross).  This humble monument stands 1,504 meters above sea level (4,934 feet), and marks this highest point we’ll cross during the Camino.  It’s here that pilgrims leave behind a stone which they’ve carried throughout the journey.  That stone symbolizes each person’s purpose for the journey and hope for the path that follows. As you'll recall, we foraged our stones from the flower beds surrounding the public gardens in Madrid. We've been carrying them ever since: symbols of our goals and aspirations for the journey.  Placing them on the monument was a very special moment.

Crus de Ferro and all the Pilgrim Stones

We climbed another 2 /2 kilometers along a ridge line before starting our steep descent down the mountain to our destination.  The views were stunning.

Views from the mountains

It was a tough climb!  Remember those prior photos of the Roman roads and the rocky trails?  That’s what today’s path downwards was like.  It might not sound like much, but the downwards trail is where most injuries befall people.

Our Coke break was in the small village of El Acebo.  This is also a town on the upswing.  People from the large town of Ponferrada (we’ll walk through there tomorrow), have started buying and renovating properties in the surrounding areas.  The town is beautiful.  The local building style is marked by protruding balconies.  It’s quite striking.

View of the village of El Acebo

Protruding Balconies, Typical of this Region

About 10 kilometers further down the mountain we arrived at our destination: the historic town of Molinaseca.  A medieval bridge, Puente de Peregrinos, takes pilgrims into the beautifully restored and vibrant village.  

It was a gorgeous temperature today.  Families were out bathing in the clear waters of the river.  Teenagers were swimming races from shore to shore; others were sunbathing in the bright sun.  After checking into our albergue and showering and changing, we had lunch at the restaurant overlooking the water.

Molinaseca

Paco at the Bridge in Molinaseca

I took a nap after lunch, while Paco was interviewed by a local Leon newpaper about what the pilgrim’s life was like.  I’m married to a celebrity!