3 nights in Barcelona with Michele

Upon disembarking my plane in Barcelona from Santiago I was met by the smiling face of my college girlfriend Michele. We had booked a double room in a place called The Generator. This place is a combination Hotel/Hostel and was pretty reasonable price wise for downtown - 190€ each for a 3 night stay. Pretty spartan but it had a good youngish vibe to it.

We walked and walked and walked over the next 3 days. Pretty much visited all of the areas of the old city. I got a much better feel for Barcelona this time around. On Sunday we took advantage of a free walking tour that was organized by a company who gathered groups from hotels to make the tour worthwhile for the guide. He worked only for tips. Our guide was a Greek fella who now lives in Barcelona and is also a elementary school teacher. He had so much information to share with us about the history of Barcelona and some of the reasons behind the protests that continue to go on in this region. Speaking of that, here’s what was going on while we were touring

The short of it is that the Catalunyans (people from the area in which Barcelona is located) are tired of sending all their taxes to Madrid. They want independence from the Spanish government. Apparently this dissent  has been going on a long time and just recently 3 of their leaders were sentenced to some pretty heavy prison time. The Catalunyans are NOT happy.

Besides the walking tour, Michele and I found these cool Halloween people to celebrate with,

Took a Gaudi tour

Shopped and ate and drank too much

All’s well that ends well though. We parted ways this morning. She headed back to Amsterdam where she is living and me to my Airport Hotel where this all began

I’ll be traveling tomorrow but look for one more post in this series faithful pilgrims❤️

Muxia and More 10/24-28

I won’t be able to get all of this in one post so I’ll be wrapping up my trip with a little surprise in a few blog posts.

After enjoying a rainy 2 days in Fisterra, I had to make the trip complete by visiting Muxia, another sweet fishing village on a bay off of the Atlantic in Spain. This coast is known by the Spaniards as the Coast of Death - obviously they hadn’t seen our Pacific coast if the name is supposed to reflect the ocean’s wildness. The weather continued to be overcast so I didn’t really get a good sunset picture. This is the best I could do

I was able to attend Mass at the church at this place in the evening and as you can see, the weather was finally beginning to clear.

The next day was spent poking around town and getting ready to catch the bus back to Santiago. This was the turn around point, the beginning of my journey home. While I was having a bite to eat, I was invited by 2 sisters from Oregon to join them. This is how the Camino works, you are only alone if you work hard at it! I ended up joining them on the bus and for dinner that night in Santiago. They pointed out this really cool image of a pilgrim caused by the light near the Cathedral.

I spent the night in my little cell in the hoity toity hotel Nextdoor to the Cathedral

And the next morning I went by bus (3€) to the Santiago airport - bound for Barcelona.

October 23, Fisterra. Bye, bye Rosa

I know everyone has heard the story that ancient Europeans originally considered the world to be flat. Well, I am now in the village at the end of that flat world. According to rumor, if you went any further than this, you would just plain drop off the side of the world. Last night we went up to the lighthouse and caught the sunset at 7:44pm

Today I walked around this village and in addition to seeing quite a few bedraggled pilgrims I enjoyed the view of the sea

And the town from the waterfront

This little village reminds me so much of San Felipe BCN. There is a Malecón with restaurants and bars, even a Bar Miramar

I am alone now. My friend Rosa from Holland has begun her journey home to the Netherlands😌 she has been a wonderful traveling companion and I will miss her.

It seems weird but I have one more place to go before I turn around. Tomorrow in the rain I will take the bus to Muxia for one night.

One of the things that I have learned on this trip is that people who don’t speak the same language only appear to be stuck up and unfriendly. If you truly try to engage them, even with a little bit of their language, they will try to use the little bit of yours that they know. I had a really good time last night doing this with our waiter. At first he seemed aloof but once I kept trying to communicate with the little Spanish I know, he did the same with his English. We both agreed that it is good and fun to practice!

Now What? October 21

Been finished 1 day and I must say, I find myself at complete odds. Walking around this city using google map and wondering what is next. I miss the walking in forests and along country roads already. Here is a better shot of the Cathedral which I took today.

As I may have mentioned, the Cathedral is undergoing a huge restoration in anticipation of 2021 which is some kind of anniversary year. Yesterday we were only able to see some of the place

As you can hopefully see from this small sample, the interior is full of opulent displays of celestial beings. Almost too amazing for words.

I walked around today looking for a place to buy some warmer clothes. The weather has turned really cool since the rain and I find myself shivering. I found a Decathlon store and bought some long tights, socks and a fleece. Hope I can fit it all in my backpack. This store carries a brand call Quechua which is French and is very popular here. The prices are much more reasonable than the name brands like Patagonia. We’ll see how they perform. BTW I happen to know that there is a Decathalin store in San Francisco.

I am going out to Finesterra tomorrow for 2 nights and hope to see a spectacular sunset and then on to Muxia for one night before returning to Santiago to catch a plane to Barcelona and begin my long journey home. I will be able to enjoy the company of a good friend from college who now lives in Amsterdam. She has agreed to fly to Barcelona so we can visit for a couple days. Keep your fingers crossed that the trouble in Barcelona doesn’t interfere with any of this.

If you don’t get another blog from me, stay tuned. I will be back in touch when I get home.

In the meantime friends — look at those glasses — there is some sunshine!

HERE! October 20 - 45 days - 500 mi

I left this morning, again in the rain. We stopped for coffee and breakfast after 1km. The walk into Santiago was (9 more km) such a relief. Although it rained off and on (which made it necessary to take my poncho off and on) we were all so excited about nearing our goal.
Here was my view before dawn this morning

Later the sky brightened up and maybe you can see the hint of a rainbow we were treated to

We arrived in the square outside the Cathedral of Santiago at about 11:30 am and, of course had to celebrate our accomplishment with a picture

After photos we made our way over to the Pilgrim office where we presented our credentials for a certificate of distance. Here volunteers check your pilgrim passport which you have held for the duration of the journey and obtained stamps in each village along the way. If they find it acceptable, you get a Compostela! I did pass muster so you can see here that I was most happy

We found our way to our accommodation for the night (2 for me) which is in an old monastery. I have a small cell, with a tiny bath which I believe was a nun’s room. 25€ per night (includes bfast). Here is a picture showing the view from my small window

 Tonight we celebrate. Luciena is leaving tomorrow. I will leave you with this thought that seems way apropos

The last BIG walk day Oct 19,

We have settled it. We will do 20 km today and walk into Santiago on Sunday around noon. Me and the Dutch girls, Roza and Luciena. Looks like it will be another day walked entirely in the rain.

After a nice dinner of Lasagna last night we retired to our bunks. We will leave the Albergue after breakfast at first light - 8:30 or so.

It’s obvious that the pilgrim season is winding down as most of the villages we passed through had cafe/bar establishments who have already closed down. This Albergue, however, was totally full last night. The young lady running it, Tatyana, was one of the most patient and cheerful people I have ever met. From what I could see she was the only employee (except possibly the cocinera who never did appear). The girl was reception, bartender, waitress and maintenance person for this establishment. Bravo Tatyana and done with such grace!

Not too many pictures today because I walked in a driving rain and was terrified of messing up my phone. Here is a picture of the boot hallway from last night. Albergues do not like you taking your boots into the sleeping room. Understandable — you walk through all kinds of shit on the road. So this is were they go!

Today I walked, as I said, 20kms through constant rain. It was a battle to keep my feet out of the wet. Sometimes I had the choice of putting my foot in a puddle deep enough to flood my shoe or in the sucking mud. Tough decision. So I am constantly looking at the ground. These things are all over Spain. They are chestnut pods — also known as Buckeye pods (Ohio friends). You see women gathering them everywhere. Not sure if they eat them or sell them.

Here is some lovely graffiti I saw as I entered O Pedrouzo (sometimes I think this area of Spain was settled by Irish-so many villages begin with the “O” - just joking - not really at dinner we discussed the relationship between Gaelic and Galacia).

So we are finally here, in a little Village called Lavacolla - 10 km from Santiago! We will walk in to the square tomorrow in front of the Cathedral of Santiago. I can hardly believe it is almost done.

13 km to go!

32km left😌. Oct 18, Friday

I can’t say enough good about  this little place Fuente.Saletas in Boente! Olga and Fernando are the best hosts. Olga doesn’t speak a lick of English and she seems proud of it. We spent about 15 minutes trying to determine that she was asking if we wanted 3 lower bunks in the same room. We tried Google voice and even that didn’t work. Once we finally understood each other. I tried to elaborate on it only to be told “alto, no mas.” Here for 12€ we were treated like queens. We were given towels, sheets — she even did our laundry for us for free. Dinner was an additional 10€ for the pilgrims’ meal which always includes 2 courses, desert and vino. This was served by Fernando (Olga’s husband) who raves about the “house” vino tinto. It was either really homemade or out of a huge box as he kept going into the storeroom to fill pitcher after pitcher of the red stuff. He also started with us a free shot of their house digestive which was made from mint.

We’ll have breakfast here before we head out. And we did! Served by none other than our Host Fernando!

I wanted a picture of Olga too but apparently her husband has morning duty as she was still sleeping.

So we did about 18kms today in and out of the rain. Everything here is so green!
The pictures just can’t describe the scenery. You have to see this to believe it.

Kelly asked me to find out what the price of gas is here. That is a little bit difficult because
1. I have only seen about 5 gas stations in the 6 weeks I have been here (there also don’t seem to be a lot of autos on the highways).
2. The prices are in Euros and;
3. The unit of measure is liter instead of gallon.
Finally I’m not sure which of these is diesel

Not so many pilgrims today. Here’s a great shot of a nice path.

Along the way you see many shrines to people from many countries. Here is one to someone in Mexico.

Tomorrow is my second to last day on the Camino. Beginning to be sad😢

Just one more thought. How interesting is it that Spanish has the same letters as us for the word “tuna?” They are just re-arranged: “atun.”    Hummmmmm? What came first, the chicken or the egg?

Nitey nite😌

Oct 17, cloudy with a real chance of finishing!

Another observation about the Albergue. See this

A house of cards? an accident waiting to happen? A new form of Jenga? Every Albergue looks like this. People have washed (?) their dishes and rested them atop those already in the dish strainer. It isn’t just because they are lazy but not a lot of these albergues have a place to store the clean dishes. What’s with that?

By the way, in case you are interested, here is a picture of my cubicle above a snoring Asian fellow (could hear it even through my excellent ear plugs). Nice spot once I got the hang of going up and down the ladder to get to the toilet (3 times last night).

So after coffee and in the rain I and Roza set out for our next stop. It was raining enough for me to have to don my rain poncho and so, in the dark (we had kms to cover today), we first looked for an automatic teller. Successful at that, we headed down the Camino

Out on the road I found this most awesome home I would like to sell you, or me

I mean, can you imagine living there?

Yesterday was a quiet day on the Camino. It must  have been the time I left this morning but I saw droves of pilgrims, all day long. 

Stopped to check out this old church (just one of so many) which was again dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. Inside there was a volunteer who would give you a stamp for a donation. Did I tell you about that stamp thing? If you want to receive your “certificate of Compostela” you must, no matter where you started this journey to Santiago from, get 2 stamps a day to prove you walked it for the last 100 km. This explains the multitude of pilgrims starting their journey in Sarria - just a little over 100kms from Santiago  here is a picture of the Church’s doorway

Hit town and my Albergue around 2:30 and with my 2 Dutch friends we made a plan for the final 3 days of our pilgrimage!

Wow! Only 31 miles from Santiago

Oct 16 more rain

Oh duh, it’s raining😬 Time to get up and walk. Everyone is still asleep so I’m waiting for 7. How do people who turn the lights out at 9pm sleep til 7am?

Today we walk to Palas de Rei. Gonna be rainy all day but at least no colder than 59 degrees. When I am walking with my poncho I don’t need a jacket also because the plastic acts as an insulator- that’s a nice way of saying that it makes a little, private “sweat tent.”

So I walked out of the bar/restaurant at 8:30 and the rain wasn’t there! Yes. I got to walk for about 3 hours without rain.  There were also very few pilgrims on the road. Here is a photo of a monument to Christ and his mother Mary done in the year 1670. On one side is the cross, the other Our Lady of Pain.

Not a really good picture but if you zoom in you can see how much pain she is in.

I continued on and met up with a couple of Dutch ladies at a cafe for a cupa cafe americano. The place was named after ants - didn’t ask .....

We conversed with a couple from Ashland, OR who suggested we might want to take a side trip to an old monestary and since it was a short day we decided we would. So glad we did. As we arrived a few minutes before noon we noted that the church was not open until then. No worry as an older man came ambling up the way and, although he didn’t speak English, made it clear that he would open up for us. Turns out his name is Jesus, he is 91 years old and he was anxious to share the history. We labored on in pig-Spanish-English until his fellow volunteer Elena arrived. The church was built originally for a bunch of nuns of the Benedictine order and once they were all gone (as in dead), the Knights of Santiago took over the place in the 12th century. Amazing stuff here

One of the 2 side altars

The doorway to the church. Mind you, this is in the forest in the middle of nowhere.

Enough religion and culture. We retired to the nearest cafe and enjoyed gazpacho 

More tomorrow. Trying for 21kms! Gotta get this done!!

Waking up Oct 15

Mornings are super different in an Albergue. People awake at all hours and begin to prepare for their day of walking. Most everyone is kind, quiet and considerate. We shuffle around with headlamps trying like hell to not wake the person in the bed next to us. If we are lucky everyone in the room (12 this day) has inserted their ear plugs to help mask the noise we make zipping up our zippers and occasionally dropping our cosmetic bags. And then, just like that, some inconsiderate 72 year old (No, not me) turns on the overhead light 😞 Oh well, someone had to do it!

Today I had breakfast and did not begin my walk until 8:30, because I didn’t want to walk in the dark. The area was foggy and green

This is certainly mold making atmosphere but no one seems to notice or care. Anyways, I had a really good day people wise. I only saw 5 other pilgrims all day long. Remember the invasion yesterday? I must be off their schedule by a couple of hours because a couple of my friends said that they had many pilgrims pass them by.

I made it to the 100km marker early this morning and found another pilgrim to take my photo

I walked alone all day and it just threatened rain. So close but not quite. Kept my poncho on. The countryside here is so verdant and pastoral

Did I mention it is also pungent with the smell of cows and sheep and everything they leave behind?

This picture is remarkable because I see so many of them posted along the way. Yesterday I saw a family of young Spaniards carrying a cross like this with the intention, I assume, of posting it in honor of a dead family member.

21km later I made it to my appointed Albergue and the first face I saw was this!

It’s all good. Nitey nite💋