Santiago

I was going to make a post when I arrived last night, but I forgot. Yesterday was a very, very long day; almost 11 hours on my feet. It was the first time I'd walked at night and the misery of the last hour and a half was practically surreal. It was pouring. 

I checked into the first reasonable looking B&B I walked past after entering the heart of the old city at 8 o'clock and ended up in a fantastic place called Casas Reais. 

I lied down for an hour and then went the 200 or so yards to the cathedral. 

I then moved on and had some tapas before heading home, but before I got there I ran into most if the gang that I had met the first day in Spain (last day in France) outside a bar smoking. The Boinga girls (Terri and Kirsten) were there as was Amir from Iran,Nick the young Canadian, Maria from Germany and a few others. 

Six weeks ago, before I even reached Bordeaux, I had met a girl named Sabine who was the only person I knew of that was walking the Tours route all the way to SdC. She actually started from her grandfathers house a couple of days northeast of Tours and had a very cool walking stick. I'd lost track of her after a day or two and was regretting not exchanging contact information with her. About 20km into yesterday's walk, Sabine passed me. I recognized her from her stick!  I actually knew she wasn't far behind me because a Polish girl named Anka had told me that she was walking with someone named Sabine from Paris who had come down with food poisoning at an albergue. Sabine & Anka hadn't exchanged contact info and Sabine thought Anka had probably finished days ago because she's a very fast walker. But this morning when I went to get my "compostela", I had the pleasure of seeing them reunited!

Roger That!

Santiago runway is in sight. 

Last Full Day

I'm about 35km outside of Santiago, which is less than two regular days of walking. I'll try and leave pretty early this morning to try & give myself a shot if getting there later today. Chances are that I'll end up short of Santiago and leave myself ten more km on Friday am. 

The pilgrim mass is at noon and its famous for the huge bale if incense (botafumiero) swinging from the rafters. Since its purpose is to fumigate smelly pilgrims, it seems appropriate to walk in right off the trail, but we'll see. 

Weather: Crappy to Mostly Crappy

The bad news is that it rained all day again today but the good news is that it didn't pour all day. 

My biggest surprise of this trip is how few things I've lost. Up until this morning the only thing that went missing was a long sleeve cotton pullover, which I replaced with a wool sweater in Pamplona. This morning I lost my duct tape!  

To those if you whose morning routine does not include duct taping plastic bags  around your feet before putting them in your shoes, this may not sound like such a big deal. But to me, in the last week or so the image that defines "cozy" to me is this one right here. 

Luckily I still have some fancy tape that I bought back in Puente la Reina to pimp out my walking stick. Actually it was to cover the duct tape I used to stabilize the crack in the stick. Anyway I think it'll do for the next couple of days. That's actually a sticker covering most of the blingy tape. 

I Might Make It!

Once the Camino enters Galicia, there are these markers every half km. All of a sudden I'm less than 100 km from Santiago. 

There's a whole new batch of pilgrims today - the group that started this morning in Sarria. They're mostly Spanish and their enthusiasm is nice to have around. We weren't a single km out of Sarria this morning before the groups were posing in front of the first wilderness they could find for pictures in their rain gear. At the end of the day they had their turn hobbling into town after their first 25km carrying a pack. It's amazing how day 1 makes everyone equal; we've all been there, walking up the stairs sideways at the end of day 1. 

Today's stop is Portomarin, and its just across the Rio Mino to the west. Back in the day there was a well known Galician seafood restaurant in Madrid called Rio Mino. It's a beautiful spot (the town on the river). 

Today's weather was a relief. It rained pretty much all day, but not hard. It's supposed to rain again tomorrow but we'll see. 

Baaah!

Are We There Yet?

When people say that the weather in a specific area is unpredictable, what they really mean is that the weather is usually crappy there. The weather app on my phone has a big yellow sun on it for this morning but all I see out the window is gray. 

My stuff is mostly dry now, which I'm thankful for. I wasn't able to take much in the way of pictures yesterday, as it was pouring all day long. A lot of people I spoke with thought it was the most miserable day on the Camino so far. This is around the point where I gave in to the realization that my feet couldn't get any wetter and started walking right down the middle of the stream that the path had become. 

After today's stage there will be 115 km left to go which should take 5 days. The day ends in Sarria, where the route promises to get much more crowded because it only takes 100km to officially complete the Camino. 

Pouring All Day

I'm glad this is almost over!

Practically A Day Off

I barely budged today. My route was less than 10 km, from Cacabelos to Villafranca del Bierzo. This may be the most beautiful part of the route so far and if I've been through big Agro, big timber, and big wine, I guess I'd call Bierzo "big electricity". There are wind farms and high voltage lines everywhere, and even a nuke plant but it doesn't detract too much from the scenery. If you look closely you should be able to see the steam from the power plant. 

Tomorrow I'll officially be in Galicia, home of queimada. It's known as one of the more challenging stages of the Camino, 30+ km with a 700 meter climb at the end. I'll spend it thinking, hoping, praying for E&J in WH. 

Boinga

Terry from Wisconsin and Kirsten from Canada planted this song in my head three days ago (they have kids)  and I can't shake it out. 

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RcjomJCQwJI&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DRcjomJCQwJI

A Classic Day

If there is a day that epitomizes the Camino, it's today. 

I'm back up in the mountains, and today's stage included the highest point on the Camino, the Cruz de Ferro. 

The tradition is to carry a rock with you from home, and leave it on the pile. I've been hauling my Napeague rock for 1300 miles and I'm glad to finally leave it behind. 

It may have been the single hardest day of walking yet. It was a 350 meter climb from Rabanal to the Cruz de Ferro, which wasn't too bad. But the descent was brutal. It was almost a 1000 meter drop over 10km. On the plus side the temperature rose 30 degrees and there was some spectacular scenery!

I'm in the region of Bierzo now. Sandie sent me this article about the local wine so it seems like a good time to go see if I can find some!

http://nyti.ms/16rM8zf

Feels Like the Home Stretch

Having gone through Asturga,  I'm officially finished with the meseta and headed into Galicia. 

The original group i started with in St Jean has now been strung out over five or six stages. Im probably two days behind the fastest and four days ahead of the stragglers. 

There are more and more people on the trail these days, as many people begin in Leon or Asturga and just do the home stretch. 

You can only imagine how much I feel like the boss of the Camino 

El Classico

I'm in Villar de Mazarife for "El Classico", the Champions League game between Real Madrid & Barcelona. We're (Real Madrid) down 1-0 at the half. 

I'm at a great place to watch the game. The Akbergue I'm staying at; has the biggest tv I've seen on the Camino so far. Note the classic cigarette machine beneath the tv, the Camino plaque to the right of it and the rack of walking sticks to the left of the cigs. 

Too Wet To Post

I know. Lame excuse. The last couple of days have been unpleasant though. Lots of rain, industrial terrain and a shortage of places to stay. 

And I seem to have stayed somewhere with lots of biting bugs. Ugh. 

Leaving Leon this morning and I don't think it's supposed to rain today. 

Best Roman Road?

I took the traditional route, rather than a scenic detour and am in a town called El Burgo Ranero. Not a bad place, in fact a good place to have watched Real Madrid vs Juventus last night. 

What I didn't realize was that I'm now out of position to walk 17km on the best preserved Roman road in Spain, the Calzada Romana (not sure if that's the official name). I think I have a way to get there where I'm at least on it for 10 km or so. 

I'll let you know!

Another Day

This mornings first 17km broke all the records for miserable walking. I repeated the  mistake I made last April on what is now the second most miserable day of walking: I underdressed for crappy weather.  

Since i had a good 20e room in Carrion de la Calzada last night, and could hear the rain pelting down I had half a mind to sit today out and soak in all the culture Carrion has to offer (there's a souvenir store).   The rain stopped at around 9 so hatless and in a short sleeve shirt I headed out at 9:15. By 9:20 it was drizzling  and by 9:30 the rain was steady and 10 minutes later it was a torrential sideways downpour. 

I ended up in a town called Moratinos, 30km from Carrion. 

Just to show you that not all of the Camino is picturesque, here's the place I stopped to dry out and have a piece of tortilla yesterday. 

Since I'm On The Plain

I shouldn't be surprised that its raining in Spain. It's suppose to rain steadily for the next few days. 

My shoes have done a heroic job. I've walked almost 1900 km in them so far this year but they're coming apart at the seams. I glued back together the worst holes but I don't know how waterproof the glue is. 

If worse comes to worse I do have a roll of duct tape!

I Felt Like A Border Collie

Come on guys. Gather around and look at the camera. 

Lots of KMs

Since the extra day in Burgos I've gone 67 km: 32 yesterday (to a village called Hontanas) and today I'm in Fromista, 35 km beyond Hontanas. 

My feet, legs and hips hurt after about 20km but they don't really hurt any worse  after that so the difference between walking 20km and 35km is just another 3.5-4 hours of painful feet, legs and hips rather than an increasing amount of pain over that period. Does that make sense?

Here's a selfie. 

Name That Tuber

At first I thought these were exceptionally uniform rocks so I picked up a rock from the trail and threw it at the pile to see what lind of noise it would make. Theyre not rocks, but some sort of root vegetable. Some of them are as big as bowling balls. 

A km or so after this wall of yams I got to see them being harvested. 

This machine scoops them out if the ground, cuts off the leaves and stashes them in a humongous bin on the machine.  When its full, the driver dumps the bin onto the pile. 

I'm pretty sure potato farming technology has advanced since the days of ancient pilgrims. 

Sorry Meseta!

I take back all those nasty things I said and thought about the meseta. I was expecting it to be like the Landes region of France; flat as a pancake with 10km stretches of perfectly straight roads. But it's more like something out of a fairy tale. For the most part the roads are dirt paths that must have been the same ones pilgrims walked since the beginning of the Camino.  Since its just about all farmland, the terrain must look a lot like  it did 1000 years ago. 

Back in the 1700's, John Adams was on a trip to Paris when his ship started taking on water off of Finisterre. He ended up walking most of the Camino in reverse so as I walk west to Santiago it's not hard for me to imagine passing Adams on his way east. 

Is It Just Me?

Or is this a really good picture?  It's on the way into a town called Hornillos del Camino. So far I love the meseta!

McHungry

I'm almost ashamed of myself for this craving I've been having for either a quarter pounder with cheese or a whopper. All over the main streets here there are McDonalds and Burger King ads, but no actual McDs or BKs. I even checked on the web and the nearest McD is 1.5 miles away. 

The only reason I can come up with for this odd craving is the name of this town.   All I can think of is cheese burgos !

Whats Better Than Pamplona? Burgos !

That's where I am - Burgos. A big city with lots if history. I don't know any of it yet but will have plenty of time to learn, as I've declared tomorrow to be a day of rest. It occurred to me that I hadn't had one since Bordeaux over three weeks ago. 

It's all about pilgrims in these parts!

I am the old man on the Camino. 

Everyone Knows Its Windy.

Not that it's a surprise. As I get closer to the dreaded meseta the wind has picked up and is blowing at what must be a steady 20-25 mph coming from the west which is of course the direction I'm walking. The good news is that it keeps the bugs away!

I'm stopped in a nice little village called Villanbistia on the way to a place called St. Juan de Ortega. Population:20. 

A Spiritual Journey

I try to resist the temptation to post about the distances I've walked and other superficial statistics. I'd prefer to reflect on the deeper, more significant questions the Camino experience raises like "am I losing weight?" and "how is my tan coming along?"

It was a long day. The guidebook says it was 32km but it felt a lot longer. It took me nine hours to get from Ventosa to Santo Domingo de la Calzada. I was going to stop in a town called Ciruena but it was too creepy. It reminded me of Chernyoble or the video game Half Life.  It had a brand new golf community with hundreds if not thousands of condos, none of which seem to have been occupied. It was only 6km to Santo Domingo and its a nice lively place. 

Grapes Are Better Than Corn (Or Sunflowers)

Probably because I look at them, whether in Bordeaux, Navarra or Rioja and tell them "I'm gonna drink you in a couple of years". I think tomorrow is the last day walking in Rioja, then it's into Castilla y Leon. 

The scenery coming out of Logrono wasn't particularly nice. In fact most if it reminded me of walking by the 'interstate' in France. On the ugliest stretch of the ugliest section there is a long chain linked fence where people have made thousands of little wooden crosses. 

Anyway I'm getting a late start since I'm planning on a 32km stage to Santo Domingo. 

Best Sister Ever!

I'm now out of Navarra and into Rioja. The harvest festival in Logrono was a couple of weeks ago but for the most part the grapes are still on the vines. I couldn't help myself from sampling a couple of them and I have to tell you, they're WAY tastier than US grocery store grapes. They're pulpier and with thicker, sweeter skin. I guess I wasn't suppose to eat those grapes so I'll try to remember to buy an extra bottle of 2013 Rioja when it reaches the market. 

It was another one of those picturesque days. It covered 28km from Los Arcos (home of the town-wide Friday evening happy hour) to Logrono with the highlight being a mid-sized old village called Viana, 10km outside of Logrono. Here's me with Logrono 20km in the background. 

If you look very closely you may be able to see the top of a church tower in Viana just below the horizon, 90% of the way to the right of the picture. 

Oh, and if you're wondering about the headline for this post... Yesterday was a national holiday and there was a big fiesta in Logrono. I neglected to make arrangements and was starting to panic as the remaining accommodations quickly started to disappear. I was lamenting about this to Jill and she worked her magic to find me a spot at a fantastic hotel in the perfect location - just past the rowdiest area, right on the Camino. And paid for it!  With breakfast!  And guess what this place has for breakfast??  Bacon, chorizo and eggs!!

Thanks Jill!!!

Happy Hour

There's not much going on in Los Arcos, unless its Friday night between 8 & 10.  It's a town wide happy hour where all seven bars offer a glass of wine or beer with a pincho for 1.5e. 

One of the things people remember and mention most often about the Camino is the two-headed fountain that pours both water and wine. 

I learned two things about that fountain:

1) it's in a spot that most people pass at around 9:00 am. 

2) it was out of wine when I passed it at around 10:30am. 

Just Posting To Say Hello

I'm just tired. Not much to say. I gave the URL for the blog to some of my fellow pilgrims so now I can't really cant talk about them. Not that I would anyway of course. 

But check out this ancient roman road. It's weird to think that I'm complaining about the walking comfort of a road that's lasted 2000 years. 

It Doesn't Get Any Better Than Today

As nice as the Le Puy route was, it didn't have a stage that was as spectacular as today's walk from Pamplona to Puente la Reina. 

As much as I've raved about Pamplona, I'd only seen the eastern part of town. This morning started at my hostel near the Plaza del Castillo and proceeded out of town to the west. It took about five km to clear the suburbs and then the day's objective became clear, the Alto del Perdon (Hill of Forgiveness). It's one of the most famous spots on the Camino, where there's a sculpture of pilgrims headed west and leaning into the wind. 

The Camino crosses a line of about 50 wind turbines that run along the ridge from north to south, about 3/4 of the way to the top. The climb is about 1000 feet and there is a beautiful panoramic view back to Pamplona from the top. 

The view west is equally dramatic. In the 60 days I've hiked this year it is the only spot that gives a clear of both the days origin and destination. It's a little hard to describe but if you look at the white smoke in this next picture, Puente la Reina is just under the second of two horizontal green streaks, or the first under the horizon. 

Uncle Bob and Margo asked for some windmill pictures so here you go!

I walked up a few more feet above the Camino to get this shot of the pilgrim sculpture with turbines in the background. 

 And here's a close up. 

I Forgot How Much I Love Pamplona

I'm staying at a hostel that's right near "Hemingway Kabob and Pizza". Not sure whether its where Hemingway went for kabobs and pizza or if he owned the place. 

Ive never been west of here so tomorrow is a new camino frontier for me. I'm excited!

Belgians Bearing Beer

I'd blame Belgian buddies Nico and Fred for being a bad influence, but really I knew better. At least I should have. Yesterday, 8km into the climb up from SJPdP, after a climb of 400 meters in 3km Graham and I arrived at a nice rest stop where they sold refreshments. It was about 11am and out on the deck were these two guys starting on their second beers and lighting up cigarettes. Given the fact that they still had 600 meters to climb in the next 8km, I was impressed. 

I was taking a break on the way from Roncesvalles to Zubiri this morning when they walked by and recognized me from the terrace. 

  "You're from New York?!"

  "You're the guys from the terrace who were drinking beers and smoking cigs a                third of the way up the pass yesterday!?"

We talked a little more and joked about meeting at the next bar. A couple of hours later, at about the halfway point of the 22km walk, I was walking with Doreen from Sweden, who carries a backpack and three shopping bags - and  who do you think we see but Nico and Fred waving us in to have some beer for lunch. 

Decorum of course dictated that each person buy a round, so four beers and two hours later we were off for the final 11km of the day. 

During beerunch, we were joined by Graham and a friend of Doreen's. Thankfully, they were outside the circle of decorum.  As walkers, we dispersed almost immediately with Nico & Fred out front, with me, Graham and Doreen behind.   So anyhow, a couple of hours later Graham, Doreen and I had dispersed and I walked into Zubiri alone. 

To enter Zubiri from the Camino one crosses the Puente de la Rabia. The bridge got its name because apparently if an animal with rabies circles the central arch three times, it will be cured. At first I thought that sounded like a huge pile of crap but to circle that arch I'm pretty sure  you'd have to go into the river. And isn't that the biggest fear of a rabid animal?  

Anyway, I crossed the Puente de la Rabia and walked a few steps into the village square. There they were, Nico drinking a Mahou and Fred drinking a Heineken. Belgians. 

Yeah AMERICA!!

I'm with my peeps. The family whose names I forgot (mom, dad, late teenage son) from North Carolna, Graham the  commodities trader from Baltimore, Terry from Wisconsin, John from California, Marcia from Alaska. We are the USA Camino Class of St. Jean Pied de Port: October 6th 2013!  I talked their ears off. 

I heard that the easier route from SJPdP included 6km on the side of a busy road. I had enough of that on the Tours route so I opted for the high road regardless of the weather. As for the weather, it didn't snow but aside from that it was foggy and once we got up above 1200m it was pretty cold (below 10c). There was a momentary break in the clouds up toward the top of the route and even if I couldn't get it on camera it was a pretty spectacular sight - of SJPdP 1100m below and 22km away. You have to look close, under that little break in the clouds. 

I'm really getting a kick out of being in the same places as in May for a couple days. Since Ive got the same iphone as last time the place I'm at tonight remembers my wifi password, which makes me feel special in a weird sort of way. 

To Make Sure I Won't Ever Need A Sleeping Bag ...

I bought a sleeping bag - the cheapest one I could find. I'm lying in it now and it seems comfortable enough. 

The walk into SJPdP was partly cloudy the whole way - up until the Pilgrim's Gate was practically in sight. The sky opened up with a torrential downpour that managed to soak me to the skin within a half km. 

In May I made a post about the 'running of the lambs' in a town called Gramarth. A big herd of them marching through down the street to get their haircuts. Just as I was remembering that scene it recreated itself, only this time the had just recently been shorn. This picture was taken about 200 meters from the one in May!

Not sure why but I'm kind of nervous about doing the actual Spanish Camino. 

SJPdP reminds me of the first day at a new school in a cliquey kind of way. I probably feel that way because last time I was here I was part of the cool kid clique; the three or four of us who had walked from Le Puy. 

Since my route merged with the Le Puy route I have had a chance to socialize with some fellow walkers, all from Germany. If for no other reason I'm glad to have walked the Tours route because I can say with utter surety and conviction that it sucks compared to the Le Puy route!  I'm glad for other reasons as well though. The Tours route has such a wealth of important history. I've been in at least three towns that claim to host John the Baptist's head. The Germanicus / Tiberius arch in Saints is the kind of thing you won't find on the Le Puy route. 

I had always thought that Leonardo Davinci lived in Florence, or somewhere in Italy but as it turns out, he lived and died in a town just outside of Tours. It was really great being an American up around Tours. Patton liberated that part of the country from the Nazis. So, while the Le Puy route has gorgeous scenery and is pretty much unchanged from how it was a thousand years ago, the Tours route is a completely different experience.

 

Still Burning Those Haagen Das Bars

I've been walking for almost four weeks now and I still don't think I've burned off those four ice cream bars I ate, one after the other back in July.  Although it was obviously Dave's fault for falling asleep without eating his two, I'm not one to cast blame. 

In staying at the same place I stayed last time, in a town called Larceveau. It's halfway between St. Palais and St. Jean Pied de Port. I probably could have walked straight through but I think the weather is going to improve enough by Sunday to make it worth doing the 1300m climb up the Napoleonic route. 

There were 16 straight hours of thunderstorms last night and this am so I came reasonably close to staying put in St Palais today. I left at around 10:30 this morning and made it here by 3pm - without getting a drop of rain on me. 

I'm still using the same non-store-bought walking stick I found in the woods south of Tours almost four weeks ago. It's still hanging in there so the plan is to take it the rest of the way. 

Yesterday I mentioned a a specific spot where the three French pilgrimage routes converge. In pretty sure this is it.

 

Church Bell Overkill

I guess there's a certain charm to marking the time of day with church bells. Most towns ring them from eight am to eight pm but that village I was in last night (the one with no food) takes bell ringing to a whole new level. They ring theirs 24 hours a day. Just in case you miss the count, they repeat the ringing two minutes after the hour, so youll know its midnight when you hear the friggin bell ring 24 times. It almost seems as if the bell ringers union has a master chief negotiator. This is the view from the town hall studio I crashed in. The bell tower is pointed right at me!

Basquing in St. Palais!

About 6km from here is where the Tours Route meets the Le Puy route. It's a specific spot marked by a Basque monument that has been "the spot" for more than 1000 years.  

I'm in the town of St. Palais. It's technically on the Tours route, but I came here in the spring because its only a few km off of the Route that I took (Le Puy). 

It's great to be back!  There is wifi everywhere and women all have these cute short haircuts. In fact it's a little better than last time because the main square was all torn up, and now the construction is finished. 

The laundry stars aligned today. I thought I remembered a laundromat in the main square from last time and sure enough I was right. So I'll be starting the actual Camino all squeaky clean. 

Basque houses are really nice. 

Next Career?

There was a big street fair in Peyrehorade this morning. Just about everything you'd ever want could be found there. The most impressive vendor to me though was the Chausseres Carricart. An 18 wheeler sized mobile shoe store. 

First Chapel!

It's hard to believe but it took over three weeks to see my first chapel. I was about to take a picture of it when a guy behind me said "you can go in if you'd like" (first in French, then once he saw my blank expression, in English). He and his wife are Dutch and live across the street from it. They bought an old house a few years back and the chapel was on their property so they restored it. I'm really glad the guy encouraged me to check it out because they really did a nice job with it!