Back In Santiago

I was determined not to walk all the way from Arzua to Santiago yesterday. It was really hard and painful when I did it last time and it would get me into town two days ahead of Jeroen & Rick.

Most people - the vast majority of people stay 8-20km outside of Santiago and get in early the next morning. Somehow it ended up seeming more appropriate to arrive exhausted. And I knew today was going to be cloudy if not rainy.

Meeting up with the big riff-raff camino had more good than bad elements to it. I probably met more people yesterday than in the previous eight weeks. I walked almost 10km with a Dutch lady and two American college kids who were doing the last part of the camino for credit! (picture).

The last 3km into town was with a Canadian woman who was so irritating about directions that I finally had to ditch her. Once in the city there obvious signs.  Big huge official blue signs that say "Camino de Santiago" with double arrows.  She found them ambiguous and would stop until a local came by for her to ask. Finally I let her get a little ahead of me and when she decided to make a hard left 10 feet after a big official 'go straight' sign I let her do it, crossed the street, waited until she was at the edge of ear - shot and hollered for her to reassess the turn. I felt like a good guy for not letting her learn the harder lesson! 

What Was So Hard About That?

Notice the cool halo effect?

Last Stop On Del Norte

Passing through Boimorto, halfway to Arzua I saw a bar and it was lunchtime. I ordered a beer and got it in a nice frosty glass, with some perfectly executed tortilla and chorizo tapas.

My "passport" still has a few spaces left so a asked for and got a stamp. It's the first one in 800 km that explicitly mentions the Camino "Del Norte".  In 10km the route joins with the Camino Frances, which has 10 times the population. So I realized that this is my last stop on the Norte before joining the riff-raff of the Frances. So, here I am finishing my third beer of the day and last before joining the bigger camino in Arzua. Like a small line of ants joining a bigger one!

This Day Overdelivered!

The book says today is the hardest day. 40km and mostly uphill. The only option other than to sucks it up is to stay in an albergue (barracks) run by a British organization pretentiously called "The Confraternity of St. James" (CSJ).  My (British) guidebook urges people not to walk the 40km stage but rather to "spend a pleasant afternoon drinking tea and conversing with the English hosts".  The decision was a no-brainer. The 40km only took 9.5 hours.

Last night at dinner, Rick and Jeroen  were laughing at me because I refused to submit myself to the CSJ. The funny part was that in the town I'm in now the only place to stay other than the dungeon of an old monestary is a hotel with a consensus Tripadvisor rating of 1 out of 5.

Not only was the walk not so bad, but the hotel isn't either! 

The truck wash I stayed at last night might have had a quirky charm if it didn't smell like a concentrate of Eau de Stale Ashtray. And if the faucet in the sink worked. But you know what?  It was so stinky and bad that I was out of there at 7:30 this am - and the place I'm at now with the low ratings feels like a Paradore.

Almost A Disaster

I've been dreading this section for awhile now. Good places to sleep and eat are few and far between. So last night I took advantage of an opportunity for some comfort. I stayed in a Parador dammit!  One of those Courtyard by Parador versions. It was €70 and a very enjoyable experience.

The room was huge and after packing up this morning I couldn't find my trusty walking stick. I quadruple checked every corner and it was not to be found. I felt such remorse over being so excited to check into my fancy digs that I neglected my trusty stick - friend.  I've walked 1500 miles with that stick!

I knew that I might have left it by reception and that they might have found it and kept for me but I also might have left it at the place where  I had lunch earlier in the day.  The girls at check out had it all under control and I was very relieved to be reunited.

So last night was the Paradore and tonight is another swell sounding place, "Ruta de Esmarelda".  I scored a room right above the truck wash!

Will post later!

In Vilabla.

Not Many Options

Even though there's still 140km left, the end of this camino is in sight. That might be because for the first time since France I actually have to plan in advance. places to stop are so few and far between that I'm probably going to have to do at least one 40km stage.

People I've met are pretty shocked at how crowded "the Norte" is. A Dutch guy was telling me that his wife did this route the same time last year and there were only a quarter of the people there are now.

It's still not particularly social though. I think there are big groups of 'sectioners' who all hang out together and just do a few days at a time.

I came across something that looked pretty cool toward the end of today's walk. I think I read that it's a lookout / anti-aircraft site from WW1. That would make sense because it's at the end of a long valley.

Spoiled

My psychological state is completely dominated by the weather. I'm in the part of Galicia where I don't even hope for the kind of food and accommodation that was available on the coast.

I only went 10km today. The next 15km should have amazing views, but only in clear weather. It was rainy & foggy when I got into this town this afternoon, and I found a nice €25 hostal so I figured I'd wait a day to see if I can get better weather tomorrow. The forecasts don't seem to account for the microclimates in the low mountains just in shore. They keep promising sunshine but I think we all know better. I'll move on tomorrow regardless of the weather.

The town I was in last night had another "10th century church", although this one seems more legit than the one supposedly built in 921. This picture of it is from yesterday afternoon when it was sunny!

Asturias vs Galicia

This of course is the symbol of the Camino de Santiago. The symbol of a scallop shell. I guess there are scallops around these parts but supposedly they use the shell as a symbol because the lines represent the routes that all converge at Santiago.

For most of the caminos ive been on, simple yellow arrows point you in the right direction. On "El Norte", Asturias and Galicia get a little fancier. There aren't as many painted yellow arrows. These regions have invested in nice ceramic plaques to point the way.

There's one important difference to make note of. In Astuias, the camino points in the direction where the shells converge. In Galicia it's the opposite. So in Asturias this means take a left but in Galicia it means take a right.

It's a little nutty isn't it?  I guess if one didn't know this, they could spend their entire time going back and forth on the bridge that separates Asturias from Galicia.

All Inland From Now On

I came really close to spending an extra day in Ribadeo tomorrow. It's the last day on the coast and it's a nice little town so I was thinking maybe I'd do some laundry and look around a bit. Besides the next stage is through some very sparsely populated terrain and even the albergue only fits 20 people. I called the only hostal at the end of the next stage figuring that I probably couldn't get a room tomorrow night - which would seal the deal for staying here an extra day.  I did get a room so I quickly washed some clothes in the sink and hung them out to dry.

Fingers crossed because tomorrow's weather is supposed to be like today's. The views on the next stage are supposed to be among the best of the whole trip. That of course means lots of hills.

It's nice that the last day on the coast provided some really fantastic scenery.

Last Meal In Asturias!

This might be a mistake but I've found myself at a great little restaurant in Tapia and I just ordered the €9 menu del dia.

It might be a mistake because I still have a three hour walk into Ribadeo. It's a beautiful day and the last one on the coast. Tomorrow the route turns inland for the final stretch into Santiago.

I'm toying with the idea of hanging out in Ribadeo tomorrow. That might depend on whether I can get a good cheap room on a Saturday night.

Last Day In Asturias

It was a long one but the weather was great. I have people waiting for me. Dutch father & son - Rick and Jerome. Picture of us at exactly beer o'clock!

Nice Little Town

The rain stopped so I scoped out the village. Very charming. It's in an interesting setting, with high bluffs on each side of the harbor and a winding river - like inlet extending inland. Although the harbor is lined with bars & restaurants, it seems to be a real fishing harbor based on the boats that are there. Really, this is what Montauk should be!

It's nice to see familiar faces pretty much everywhere in town. It's not all that social - there are LOTS of Germans walking the Norte. I think a German author wrote a book about it fairly recently. The ones I've met are nice enough but they still tend to stick together.

If I Was Pope

I'd seriously consider moving the remains of St. James to a place with nicer weather. At least in the rainy season. I'm not even in Galicia yet and it's been mostly cloudy for at least the past week. It poured for a good bit of today so my boots are waterlogged.

I'm in a town called Luarca now. Apparently it's a nice place but it's been raining since I arrived so I haven't done any exploring. I think it has let up so I'll give it a shot now.

Treadmill

It feels like a lot of steps but not much progress. All is well but nothing really to report.

I did stop in a place today that has an "El Classico" (Real Madrid vs Barcelona) Foosball table.

Check Out This House

This is next door to the €20 hotel. Classic Asturias. It looks like a horrero.

Happy Hour

I've hung out with Ray from California a couple of times over the past few days. He's the social nucleus of the non-albergue crowd. He's leaving to go home tomorrow and declared a happy hour at a terrace bar up the street from where I'm staying. I was thinking about putting in a couple more hours walking but hey, it's Ray we're talking about here!

Anyway, today was a really light day. I'm in a very inexpensive section of the camino right now so don't feel any need to rush.

Here are a couple of shots from the €20 gem I stumbled upon yesterday.

Back To the Beach

Everybody I met decided to bail out at an albergue 25km into today's stage. The albergue has private rooms but by the time I got there they were all taken. There was another village with a pensione 4km down the road so I moved on. 

I guess I missed a turn somewhere and ended up spotting a place by the beach with a full parking lot. It was from a distance but I went the half km or so out of my way to check it out. It's a hotel/restaurant - but mostly restaurant I think. Given how full the parking lot was I didn't like my chances for getting a room but low and behold, a nice big one with this view from my room for €20. I think I'm 1.5-2km off the camino but very happy to be here. Very happy indeed.

A New Menace

I saw a cyclist go off on a bunch of equestrians for hogging the road four wide. This time I was rooting for team lycra.

I Picked the Wrong Day

Today was such a crappy day. Not to rag on a town based only on my first impression but if Aviles had a sister city in the U.S. it would be Elizabeth NJ. And I listened to a guy from CA and am staying in the nasty part of town.  It's cheap, he said. I heard it was nice, he said.

My guidebook warned that today was going to be a drag. Unfortunately tomorrow is 40km unless I figure out some clever workaround.

And the Eau de Melisse / cortado combo didn't work so well today.

Time To Be Social

I've met a decent amount of people in the past couple of weeks. Chances are that I won't see any of them again. For some reason all of the English speakers were only going to Gijon. Maybe they know something I don't. 

Just before Gijon is where the route splits into the coastal route (I'm taking that) and the "primativo", which goes inland. It's ironic that earlier today I met a French guy who started in Arles (the same route I took from France, only his route was longer) .  I met him about a km before the route split. He took the primativo.

But the real reason I need to meet people is because I'm not leaving Galicia without at least one Quemada. And I can think of few things more pathetic than sitting by myself with a firey bowl of Quemada in front of me, chanting about goblins. Actually now that I think about it , that doesn't sound so bad!

Remember Eau de Melisse?

I hadn't had much Eau de Melisse lately. Mainly because they don't seem to use sugar cubes in Spain. I stopped for lunch halfway through today's stage and added EdM to my cortado (espresso).  Talk about a winning combination!  Not only is it incredibly tasty, but it gave me a huge surge of strength. When I slung my backpack over my shoulder I practically threw it through the window, it felt so light!

Big Apples

I'm in the apple capital of Spain. Villavisciosa has a dozen cider distilleries.

921?

The sign outside this church (San Salvador) said it was  built in 921. I suspected they left out the leading "1" because it looks pretty new to me. I'm sure it's been rebuilt many times and parts of it do look really old.

there was a couple of pilgrims at the church when I got there. I think they were Italian. I told them (in "Spanish") that I don't speak Spanish but asked if they thkught the church was more than a thousand years old. The Italian lady gets up from the bench, walks over to where I was standing - by the sign and starts reading it loudly and slowly. In Spanish. I guess she thought I actually could speak and understand Spanish. I just didn't know how to read. I gave her a look and walked away as she continued to read. I hope we were pretty much equally offended.

A First

At least I don't remember the camino ever going directly through someone's patio.

Cave Paintings?

Trying to come up with a reason to stay put in Ribadesello tomorrow. There are 10,000 year old cave paintings nearby but seeing them would just delay the inevitable. I'm past the halfway point of the Spanish section, so I'm 3/4s through the whole thing. Although I met a guy who said the walk from Santiago to Porto, Portal is nice. And cheap.

Real Madrid plays Juventus in a semifinal a half hour from now so I'm headed out to watch.

Hot or Cold

Sweet or sour, rain or shine, hard or soft, dog or cat - you get the picture. Today was cold, sour, rain, cat and hard. I don't know why, it wasn't that long. The €15 truck stop was fine but I think I got bit by a bed bug. The breakfast was pretty grim as well. Maybe I'll have more to say later but I've got to run out and find some Advil.

The Best €2.50 I've Spent So Far

After the insanely beautiful track on the cliffs along the inlets of the Bay of Biscay dropped me on the vast beach of Somo, the first sign of civilization was the Surf Bar. This tortilla (frittada to you new worlders) came with a frosty cana and hunk of pan for €2.50.

My Kind of Place!

I spoke to Mom from Colombres, which is the first real town in Asturias when you enter from the east. It wasn't real enough for me to be able to find a place to stay so I kept going for a couple more km until I found a truck - stop hotel / bar / restaurant. I asked the bartender how much a room was. I thought I was pretty good at Spanish numbers but didn't understand what she was saying. She finally counted it out for me on her fingers. The problem was that a room is only €15 and I can't count that low.

It was a beautiful day today and I'm just north of the Pico Europa mountains. Tomorrow it's back to the shore.

What the Hake!?

I just didn't feel it this morning. I'd had a bunch of long days, it was gray and dreary outside, blah, blah, blah. So I only went 12km or so to San Vicente de la Barquera. It's another seaside fishing town and I got here at 1PM.

I discovered another great Tripadvisor tool today. When I arrived, I was jonesing for something specific. White fish sizzling in olive oil with garlic in one of those clay baking dishes. I looked up the best restaurants in town on TA. I never thought to look a the reviewers photo section but since I knew what I wanted but not what it was called, photos were just what I needed.

Boga Boga is the top rated restaurant in town and they had exactly what I was looking for. I practically ran there and was afraid they'd take a look (or a whiff) of me and not let me in. But it was the opposite. They seemed to enjoy the arrival on a hiker with backpack and walking stick and even gave me a free fish soup to start just for being a pilgrim.

I logged on to their wifi, fired up TA and showed them the picture of what I wanted. It's hake, which is very similar to cod. It wasn't the cheapest meal but not too expensive either. The soup, green salad, hake, half bottle of white wine, ice cream tart thing, and cortada for €41. And they threw in an awesome shot of ice cold orujo. It tasted like it had been fermented from old tires. That stuff isn't supposed to taste good.

Courtyard By Parador

There was a room in a Parador on booking.com for €80 in the village I was in yesterday.

It didn't look all that fantastic. Not like the Parador in Grenada or Leon. More like a Parador Express.

There was another hotel in town that was in a 12th century building (Hotel de Infantes) for €30 so I stayed there instead. It was great!  This picture is of the lobby.

Here's Something You Don't See In the States

A 9th century romanesque hermitage (?) up against a bus stop.

I'm Very Careful

I was talking to a guy on one of the stretches that was actually on the beach. Earlier he had told me that he slipped on a rock outside of Bilbao resulting in a broken tooth and a couple of stitches. I felt bad for the guy and remembered how hard it is to avoid slippery rocks sometimes when he points to a very big slippery looking rock sticking out of the sand and says "That's just like the rock I broke my tooth on!" 
"You mean it was on the beach?" I asked.
"Yeah, the first beach I saw." He replied.
"What the hell were you doing on the rock?!"
"Taking a selfie!"
Even he saw the humor in it.

One thing I've never messed with is train tracks. The only thing that belongs on train tracks are trains!

There is a famous spot on yesterday's stage where you have to cross a river. Back in the day (hundreds of years ago), there were so many on the camino that there were ferries to take people across. Now the only way across is to either take a 10km detour to the south, or cross a railroad bridge. The bridge itself is only 100 meters long, but you have to be on the tracks for a lot longer - all the way to the next train station a km away. I scoped out the bridge and it looked dangerous. If someone was on the bridge at the same time as trains on both tracks they wouldn't survive. The walls were too high even to jump into the river. And besides, in the half hour I spent pondering this, I saw three trains. So it wasn't like it was an unused stretch of track.

I talked to couple of German guys before I went and looked at the bridge and they were undecided. By the time I got back to where they were to tell them how dangerous it looked, they had already decided to take the bridge.   Later in the day I spoke with three older French women who also walked across the bridge.

I still think I made the right choice. I know I did. There was a station 500 meters back in the direction I came from. the trains I saw were local passenger trains so I went back to the station, waited 10 minutes and hopped on the next train. It took less then 2 minutes to get to the next station. The German guys had just gotten there so we had a beer at the station bar and continued on. We all saved ourselves 10km.

Phone Problems

A post has been uploading for 30 minutes  now. Here are some pics from today. It was a long tedium shlep out of Santander. Supposedly St Francis slept in this town that today looks more like a combination nuclear plant / fertilizer factory / oil refinery.

Cool Cow

Note the headband and the cool haircut with blonde highlights.

Nice!

I'm glad I didn't stay at the "must stay" albergue last night. There was no tv to watch the Real Madrid game and it's true, they were pressured into the group prayer thing, followed by macaroni (although I hear it was pretty good) then an hour and a half talk about why the place is special. A couple of them finally made it to the bar I was staying in the the second half of Real Madrid.  
Today was stupendous!  It rained hard until 8am and was beautiful for the rest of the day. Most of the first 12km was along cliffs above bays with waves crashing below. Finally the path descended onto a beautiful humungous beach which luckily had hard packed sand for most of the five km before reaching a town called Somo. Then a boat ride from Somo to Santander.

Nope

I couldn't pull the trigger and stay in the finest barracks on the northern camino.

Reason 1: 
The single negative review resonated the loudest for me. It was by a guy walking by himself and just wanted a decent meal, a couple of beers and a decent nights sleep. He didn't know it was a "donativo" which means pay whatever you want and when he asked how much, they told him €15. He agreed to pay it but before dinner he was pressured into listening to a priests lecture for an hour before dinner, which was macaroni.

The thing about this review was that the other reviews said similar things but with a positive spin: 'We all paid at least €15.'  'Ricardo had us captivated with his stories before dinner.'  The first guy sounded most like me so there ya go.

Reason 2: 
Id had enough socializing for the day. I walked all day with a young Italian guy (Stefano) who is awesome but after 9 hours of socializing, I needed a break!

Reason 3:
Stefano & I walked into the town where the fantastic albergue is so we could scope out a bar to have a beer and go later to watch Real Madrid vs Juventus in the Europe Cup semifinals. We found a great place and it had a big blue "P" on the sign. That means "pensione", aka they have rooms for the night. And they're only €25. Stefano went off to find the albergue and I'm here, about to go watch Real Madrid on the big screen tv.

A couple of beers after deciding I was going to stay here tonight, a young Asian guy walked into the bar and in good English, said to the bartender (who didn't speak any English) said "One milk.  Hot please. And beer - local beer. I'm hungry. Can I have food?"  We helped him get his hot milk, beer and food. The milk was for his girlfriend waiting at a table outside. Stefano explained to the bartender that the guy wanted "*local" beer, which of course the bar didn't have. So we decided he would be happy with a Cruzcampo, because it was local enough.

The guy came back in from delivering the milk to his girlfriend and asked us if we were hikers. We told him yes and asked how he ended up in such a place. He said he and his girlfriend were also hikers, and from China. I didn't want to generalize but pointed out that his wool dress pants and sniny leather shoes made it less than obvious that he was on the camino. 

He's in the fashion business and in Europe for the expo in Milan. Snappy dresser!  

Looked happy after having a sip of his beer and asked what kind of beer it was. Stefano gave the correct answer. "Local".

Tomorrow Is the Big Day!

I've read so much about the albuerge at the end of tomorrow's stage that I'm gonna give it a try. Supposedly it's a lot of fun, even as a room with 50 beds in it.

I'm in Laredo now. It wasn't the most pleasant stage; there was 30km of paved roads. The guidebook tricked me into taking a longer route because it promised an unpaved trail. It delivered 5km of unpaved, but there were still 30km paved!

Tomorrow starts with another ferry boat and ends at the communal Barack thing. I have some ambien.

Tunnel

Something tells me that 800 years ago people had to walk around the hill that this tunnel goes through. It's just for pedestrians and bicycles and I figured it was going to be a weird experience when I saw the big yellow warning sign before the entrance that said it's 400 meters long. I wondered why I needed to know that. Once I got into it and started to manage my fear of being mowed down by a lycra clad cyclist I realized how disconcerting the distance was, especially given how bad the lighting was. This picture is from about halfway through.

Double Down?

Yesterday's decision to stay at the combination hotel / gas station in Onton was a mistake.  I should have toughed it out to Castro Urdiales.  My big question this morning was whether I should attempt a massive 40km+ excursion to Laredo, Get myself somewhere between Castro Urdiales and Laredo (25km or so) or have a mini-vacation day by only going to Castro U.  The first two felt like doubling down on yesterday's mistake; even if I found every shortcut it would have been 40km so I wouldn't have been able to make option number one.  The places to stay with option two were the worst reviewed places I've seen so far so both of those ideas seemed like doubling down on yesterday's bad one.

So here I am in Castro U.  It's a beautiful place and my only complaint is that there's only one working electrical outlet and it's in the bathroom.  It's also one of those places where you have to put your room key card into a slot just inside the door for any of the electricity to work so I can't recharge anything when I go out to eat.

As nice as the town is I'm a little cranky because I've cost myself a day.  Also, the town is too big to expect to run into anyone else who's doing the camino.  Anyway, I've got some serious first world problems as you can tell.  As if that's not bad enough, I'm hungry now but restaurants won't open for another two hours so I guess I'll have to go grab a beer and some tapas.  Woe is me.

Out of Bilbao

I wrote a post last night but for some reason it didn't post. It was just about being lazy and spending an extra day in Bilbao - which I did. I did laundry and tried to figure out my next couple of days. It was a  ase of "you think long, you think wrong" because I ended up in a very lame place. It's a combination hotel and gas station a km or so off of the camino. I think k I chose it because it was cheaper than continuing on to the next real town, Castro Urdiales.  But it leaves me a long way from where I want to go tomorrow, which is Laredo (an even longer way from the Laredo I REALLY want to go to (the bar in Jill's neighborhood)).  Oh well.

It took forever to get out of Bilbao today. There's a designated foot/ bicycle path from the outskirts almost all the way here. Of course it being a city on a weekend it was dominated by lycra - clad serious bicyclists. Ugh. So, not the greatest day but it didn't rain, so that was nice.