BiH

Thats the cool way to refer to Bosnia & Herzogovina. As I'd hoped, Sarajevo is far cooler than the Croatian coast. Downright cold at night with short sleeves. SaVo is an interesting place. Not a whole lot of charm there but it's had a tough recent past with the Balkan war, etc. Its new for a European city; about 500 years old (I think).

The city is stretching the romanticism of their local urban landmarks. The main square is called Pigeon Square. Not to criticize, but with a few handfuls of bread crumbs, any town can have a pigeon square. There's also an "archeological site" complete with glass floors and architectural lighting that is the ruins of an old market that was built in the early 1600s and abandoned in the 1800s. Even as an American new worlder I'm not impressed.

The most interesting thing about SaVo is the somewhat segregated integration of cultures. There's a big inlay going across the main pedestrian street that says "Sarajevo Meeting Of Cultures" with compass points indicating east and west. All of the delicious smelling middle eastern restaurants filled with lemonade and coke-drinking women in hijabs are to the east and the Irish pubs and pizza places are to the west. It is integrated though because there are plenty of coke drinking hijab wearers at Irish pubs and vice versa.

One full day in SaJo was enough. I'm now headed back toward the heart of Europe. On a bus to Zagreb.

Where Was I?

Ah yes, Dubrovnik. I was there way too long. It's a nice enough place and all but not worthy of a week. It felt wrong to leave there the day before Maria From Cesca arrived so I stayed a couple of extra days. It was fun. She stayed in the old city and I was by the harbor in Lapad. The busses in DuBro are fantastic (I may have said that already).

I actually spent a lot of time in the water. The Adriatic is the perfect temperature this time of year. Mediterraneans seemed to have a tough time easing themselves into the water but it's bath water compared to the Atlantic. Not really being a beach guy, I was bothered by the fact that there are very few good ones in DuBro. The place I swam the most was off of a rock on Lopud island. The water is so bouyant that you can just hang there vertically and bob in the water!

Speaking of Bob, he asked about Sarajevo so since it's only a 5 hour, $20 bus ride I headed there to check it out.

Sorry for the lack of updates!

All is well here. Still in Dubrovnik and have been hanging out with Maria from the upper west side. I'm leaving here tomorrow to go to Sarajevo I think. It's much cooler up in the mountains. Then back to Madrid at the end of the week.

Still in Dubrovnik

And I've booked through Thursday night. It is an amazing city with two distinct neighborhoods. Old Dubrovnik is like Pamplona in that it has fortress walls and a drawbridge to access the old town. It is also right on the Adriatic and that makes it even more spectacular. Inside the walls are tons of cafes, restaurants and bars. It's not quite as midevil feeling as Diocletian Palace in Split but it's close.

I'm staying in the other popular neighborhood, Lapad Beach. It's about 3.5 km away from old town and not that nice of a walk. Lapad is fantastic though. Setaliste kralja Zvonamira is the main drag and is about a 1km long pedestrian only boulevard lined with outdoor cafes of all kinds. Most of them have several large flat screen tvs that have been showing the European Cup soccer championships. The most magnificent one has a screen that's about 10 feet wide and super high-def. Last night I had fish tacos at a Mexican place last night that were delicious.

I'm thinking of doing a day trip to either Montenego or Bosnia. They're both very close to Dubrovnik. My big decision now is where to watch Croatia vs Spain in the group of 16 knockout round tonight!

Now In Dubrovnik

Just arrived via ferry from Korcula. Did I mention that Korcula is Marco Polo's hometown?  Also did I mention that the catamaran ferries have seatbelts?

I hit 8 out of 10 top destinations without seeing this article and word has it that Krka is a poor mans Plitvice anyway. Granted I didn't get off the ferry in Hvar because I was told it was fancy and expensive.

http://www.touropia.com/best-places-to-visit-in-croatia/

What Could Go Wrong?

I walked around some more this morning knowing there was a 5PM ferry to Korcura. I found a guesthouse there with a 9.4 booking.com rating (that's rarified air!) for €37 and booked it.

I had a decadent afternoon drinking the local Croatian beer which is delicious. A little after three I set out to get my pack from the storage kiosk and buy my ferry ticket. What could go wrong?  It was sold out. I had another beer and thought about what to do next. My second trip to the ticket office confirmed that there was no standby.

So I called the 9.4 guest house and the proprietor, Helena told me to go to the ferry and call her from there. I arrived at 4:55 and told her it was mobbed and totally sold out. She told me to get on the boat and give my phone to a deckhand. I have no idea how it happened but I'm writing this post from that ferry!  It's a raucous scene because Croatia is playing Czech Republic in the European soccer championships. Big flat screen tvs are are common as good wifi here and the ferry boat is no different. It's a motorized catamaran and the 2.5 hour, 55 mile trip takes 2.5 hours.

Zadar To Split

Yesterday when I left Zadar the weather was overcast for the first time since I arrived in Croatia. Busses leave for Split every hour so I tracked down a laundromat on the way to the bus station, washed my clothes and started to get caught up on this blog. Even the laundromat had wifi. What's country!

There was tons of road construction on the way into Split so the trip took close to three hours.

Trip Advisor is gold. I stopped at a bar once I got into town and found a very unique guesthouse. Diocletian Palace was built in the third and fourth centuries and some of it still survives. It's the undisputed highlight of Split. There is a small guest house, just three rooms in one of the surviving sections. Actually it's in the most famous and well preserved part of the original entry to the palace. At the top of a three story spiral staircase, the room was modern and spacious. A/c and of course, wifi. I felt like a rock star walking out of it. People looked at me like I must be Diocletian's relative. Yeah it set me back €45 but Golden Gate Rooms was worth it.

Split itself is a unique place teeming with bars and cafes. And tourists. Charming as it is I've learned not to stay too long at any of these places unless I go on a proper excursion. So thev plan was to take a ferry from Split to the the island of Korcura the next day - today in fact!  I'm all caught up!

Three Nights In Zadar

After discovering the Sea Organ and Sun Salutation I sat on the wall to reflect on how glad I was that I didn't just hop on the next bus to Split (more about Split later). It was just before 7AM and it the weather was perfect. As I sat there, two lovely young women in sun dresses were walking along the embankment. The only thing better than a lovely young woman in a sun dress is a lovely young woman taking off her sun dress and jumping off the embankment into the water for a swim.

I knew then that Zadar was a special place. On a hunch I took out my phone and went to 'wifi settings'. Yup. Free wifi all over Zadar. From there I pretty much followed my nose into the heart of Zadar. After breakfast I found a place to stay in the heart of town for €37 a night and wandered around until 11:30 when I could be let in.

Like most of the smallish Croatian cities I've been to, there is a charming old part of town surrounded by some modern sprawl. The heart of Zadar is a 9th century church that was built alongside the ruins of a Roman forum. My cheapo room was in a perfect spot in the middle of the old city.

Ive been staying in 'guest houses' in Croatia. They're like pensiones in Spain in that the rooms are good, with a/c and wifi but there is no front desk so you have to coordinate with the owner to be let in. I can't imagine why anyone would pay double the price to stay in a proper hotel.

I realized another benefit of the Dalmation coast over Istria; it's a lot cheaper. Maybe because it's harder to get to from mainstream Europe. I'd say Dalmatia is about 2/3rds the cost of Istria. So anyway I decided to stay there for a couple of days.

The second day was kind of a waste - but a cheap kind of a waste I guess. Just more walking around for the most part. I was thinking about moving on when I read Robbie's message about Plitvice Park. It turns out that Zadar is the perfect place to visit it from. The organized excursions cost €75 and include a guide, transport, entry to the park (which is about €25), breakfast and lunch. The tourist office suggested I take a bus by myself and pay the fee, saving me €30 but I needed to socialize a little so I did the excursion and I'm glad I did.

The park is stunning. I guess it's a rare phenomenon that results in pools of crystal clear water that continually cascade into one another. Apparently the geology results in mineral deposits that define the pools into miniature lakes. Depending on the time of year and the weather, waterfalls form, promoting the cascades and further cleansing the water. I've never seen anything like it. Some of it almost looks man made.

To get from one part of the park to another you have to take a boat. Our guide told us we'd be taking a boat from the lower lake to the upper lakes. I pictured some sort of an uphill lake.

Anyway, thanks Rob! Not only did he read the inflight magazine but somehow remembered the name of the park. I'm very impressed. As Jill would say, what ya guy!

Getting to Zadar

pula was such a strange place. I stayed in a room above a furniture in a modern office park. It was there that I had a Phone related panic attack. Croatia uses the same kind of electricity as the rest of Europe (except you England!  You always have to be different. Drive on the left, £, your stupid electrical plugs. Boy I hope  Scotland Scexits the U.K. Aand joins Europe. But where was I? Yes, My phone problem in Pula.) but in Pula, my phone went haywire and wouldn't charge. Whether I was in my room, in the lobby of the furniture store or at a bar downtown, the phone displayed an error message saying that the charger didn't meet Apple's standards and it wasn't charging. Okay, dead phone.  Big deal, right?  Not when you have to get up at 4:45 to catch a flight to Zadar!  The one day that I really needed my alarm and my battery wouldn't charge. When I was at the train station in Milan, for some reason I bought a €12 small battery booster pack, and guess what?  It charged - even in Pula!

Anyway, that was a long story. Taxi came at 5, plane left at 6:00 and landed 25 minutes later. I hopped on a bus into town and started walking into town which is about 20 minutes from the bus station. I was not impressed. I randomly took a route that was parallel to the water but not on it. I knew I was nearing the end of the peninsula where the old town is and started hearing an eerie sound coming from the embankment. It struck me that the sound was in sync with the pattern of the waves hitting shore and I remembered reading about a piece of landscape artwork in some exotic sounding place that created harmonic tones from the waves of the sea. It was in fact Zadar. I was suddenly impressed. The sea organ was built as part of a project to reclaim and improve the waterfront at the northern tip of Zadar. The installation includes another, visual piece called Salutation to the Sun. SttS is a big (20 yards?) circle of solar panel that does nothing during the day but lights up in different colors and panels based on the wave activity. Together these two things are amazing.

Croatia

Croatia is not part of the Schengen Agreement and that means time spent here doesn't count toward the 90 out of every 180 day European visitation rule.

From Trieste I took a bus to Rovinj, the most convenient location within Croatia. As Jill explained, the border crossing between Slovenia and Croatia is old school. It used to happen between all European cities. The bus stops at the Slovenian side of the border where an agent boards to stamp you out of the E.U., the bus pulls forward 20 yards where the Croatian agent boards to stamp you into the country.

Rovinj (or Rovigno as Italians call it) was Italian until the end of WWII. Although the town is very nice, looking back I stayed there too long. It is on the Istrian peninsula, which juts down west of the mainland and once you get south of Rovinj there is only one more city, Pula, before the end of Istria. You pretty much have to go to Pula not because the Roman amphitheater is so impressive (it is) but because mass transit doesn't go anywhere else. Rovinj seemed inexpensive while I was there. I paid €42 / night for a small studio apt in the heart of the old town. Only once I got to Zadar did that seem pricey. But expense wasn't the reason my stay was too long; it just was. There's not enough to do in any of these towns to spend more than a night or two unless you're taking day trips.

Anyway after three days I went to Pula. Great Roman amphitheater and great transportation off of Istria but that's about it. The next morning I got up at 4:45 to catch a 6:00 flight to some place called Zadar. All I knew about Zadar was that it was on the mainland and that it had an airport.

The Great Thing About Venice ...

You can get the Venice Experience without ever leaving the train station. After a nice train ride of less than two hours, I walked around Venice for an hour and decided to continue on to Trieste. Venice is obviously a very unique and nice place but it was over-run with young tourists. It's exactly as I imagined except maybe smaller. I'm embarrassed to admit that I never really knew that it was an island until I got there!  I'd like to go to Venice in the off-off season. Dead of winter.

Back on the train, headed for Trieste. Fairly recently, Lonely Planet named Trieste the most under rated city in the world. It's nice. Given the prices I think it's rated plenty high. It's an interesting location though. Barely still in Italy. A couple of minutes from Slovenia.

Lake Garda with Silvia

Remember Silvia from the Via de la Plata? Before she went home she kept saying that I should visit Italy before I left Europe. I wasn't sure whether this was an invitation or just a suggestion but she subsequently committed to 'showing me around a little'.

From Milan I took a train to Brescia where she picked me up at the station. We stopped back at her apartment in Salo to introduce me to her boyfriend Andrea and her cats.

She then drove us pretty much all the way up the western coast of Garda, stopping at some of the little villages along the way. It was a stunningly beautiful day and the scenery was as well. As far north as Garda is, the west coast is known for its lemon groves. I think it's been that way since the Roman era because some of the ruins are ancient structures for supporting lemon trees.

There is a road off that western coast of Garda that was the location for a famous James Bond car chase scene in Quantum of Solace. A winding one lane, but TWO WAY road with hairpin turns. Silvia is an excellent driver. I honestly don't know that I would drive it myself unless I had to. The view from the top is spectacular. I wish this damn Google blog platform didn't make it so hard to attach pictures.

Most restaurants in Salo are closed on Mondays so for dinner, Silvia and Andrea took me to there third favorite pizza place in all of Salo. It's called Adamello and is attached to a car wash. I'm not the pizza connoisseur that some of my friends are but this might be the finest pizza I've ever had. We split three of them and the favorite was one with some roasted vegetables and pancetta sprinkled with a little grated Parmesan.

The next day Silvia and I went on a hop on, hop off boat tour of the lower half of Garda. The highlight of this trip was Simione, at the tip of a long peninsula extending from the middle of the south part of the lake. There are the ruins of an ancient palace that was built around the year zero. i was coming down with a cold (forgot to take my vitamin C) so I was really tired after the boat tour. Silvia drove me back down to Brescia where I'd take a train further east the next morning.

Milan

it ends up that Silvia did graciously invite me to see Garda Lake, where she lives. First though, I had to fly to Milan so I figured I'd spend a day or two there, see the Duomo, etc. as luck would have it, Maria - a fellow regular at Cesca back on the upper west side - was there.

I flew Ryanair into Bergamo airport. Ryanair is a great product. No frills but they do exactly what they say they're going to do. My only negative experience with them was my own fault. I booked online via my phone and somehow reserved a flight for two weeks later than I meant to. Jill and I had discovered a great new (to us) Indian restaurant on Goya  near her apartment and that's where I discovered my blunder. I decided to kick the can of fixing that until the next morning and was relieved to learn that the error would only cost me €50.

Anyway, I took the bus from Bergamo to Milan but not without incident. The bus crashed. Some dope stopped halfway into the right lane while apparently deciding whether to hit Burger King in the rest area. The dope pulled into BK but left a car behind it, who also had to stop, exposed to traffic. We slammed into that car pretty hard, but the woman who was driving seemed okay. Not so much for her car though. We waited about 45 minutes for a replacement bus to come, and the national police came onboard to photograph all of our ids. Then we were on our way.

I walked around Milan for the rest of the day and Maria invited me to meet her and two Italian guys for aperitivos (kind of like Italian tapas hour I guess) at a happening place called Radetzky. She told me their names were Gabriele and Stevie and for some reason I thought they were going to be woman. They're really nice guys who run with a fancy crowd. Stefano (Steveie) kept pushing for us to go with them to his friends apartment to sing  karaoke. Not my bag, and I tried hard to bow out gracefully but eventually relented.

The apartment was pretty near the center of town and I knew the apartment was gonna be great when after pushing the elevator button to the top floor, the door opened into a nook in the living room. There were about 15 people there - some of them English speakers. It was the nicest apartment I've ever been to - only beating Daves old place because of the elevator and the terraces. The living / dining room is about 20 x 50 feet with sliding glass doors that open onto a 15 foot wide wrap around terrace. There are big trees and all sorts of plants and flowers and small lounge area with couches and chairs, all beautifully lit. On the far side there's a view of the Duomo and a staircase that goes up to another terrace with more trees, more Duomo views and a humungous hammock under a tent like thing. So after a couple of drinks, Stefano and Gabriele fired up the karaoke machine and got at it. They were fantastic.

This was the ultimate batchelor pad. The host, Christian had a bunch of guitars, a small electronic drum kit, flip-down piano keyboard and a violin: I guess for impromptu jam sessions. They played from about 10 til 1:30. Maria only introduced ourselves to Christian on the way out to thank him for letting us hang out. Super nice guy. Great night thanks to Maria who seems to attract very nice and interesting people!

40 Years of Shadows

Did I tell you about my 60km day?

I've been pretty busy since then. I finished the Camino Primativo on Wednesday night and our "40 years of shadows" celebration began with Dave's arrival on Friday morning. Bob got to Madrid on Sunday and when Frank landed on Tuesday morning we hopped in our renta-car and headed north to Pamplona for lunch. We ate at Cafe Iruna - one of Hemingways favorite places. After lunch we drove the last hour & a half to San Sebastián. Hats off to Frank. Granted he was able to sleep on the plane but he put in a full day and night. He was losing steam until we walked past a bar on the way home that A) served bourbon and B) had a bartender who looked like Bernie Sanders. Somehow that combo revitalized him.

The next morning we took a cab to Irun and walked the 26km back to San Seb. I was in great walking shape and I'm pleased to report that the other shadows handled that walk - which was one of the more challenging of all the camino days I've experience - with no problem. Bob did it wearing jeans. He regretted that. It was muggy!

We had a stand-up steak dinner with tomatoes and peppers at Bar Nestor that night and the next day we drove to Castro Urdiales & stayed at another AirBnb.

We had a very good but very expensive lobster paella for lunch. The fact that it was almost 300€ didn't bother us as much as the fact that we didn't know it would be anywhere near that.

Anyway, we walked back to the apartment and hung out at a local bar called 'Donde Fran'. We had some fun with that!

To me, the highlight of the trip was the next day when we drove to Somo beach, took a cab about 15km back east and walked back to Somo via the coast. I was pretty thrilled to take my three best friends on my two favorite days of Camino walking.

Somo is totally beachy. It could be on the cape. But from there it's about a half hour ferry ride to the heart of Santander. We lucked out and scored four €50 rooms at a phenomenal hotel right on the harbor that usually go for €200 each.

We made it home by about 3pm the next day, had lunch at Asturian, down the street on Menorca and then, thanks to Jill, enjoyed the other highlight of the trip. Real Madrid played Atletico Madrid for the European championships in Milan. Jill reserved the bar area at Stefanos and invited a surprise guest - Rosa!  Real won on penalty kicks after 30 minutes of overtime so we got a full experience!

That was it. The next morning the other shadows left for home. I think we all agree that the 40 Years of Shadows trip was a big success!

I Was Afraid This Might Happen

I was 55km from Santiago, 15 from Arzua which I already knew I don't like, and 35 from Pedrouzo which I also knew I don't like. So after 11.5 hours I reached Santiago. An hour later I reached the old part of town.

Once I got here I was worried about finding a place to stay. Only the most expensive places are open after 10PM - the rest give guests a key to the front door. I was looking for a place that I found on Trip Advisor that was €55 and had a rating of 7.9. Not ideal, but given the hour I would have been happy to pay it. But I couldn't find it, and ended up stumbling past this place called Pensione Liganes where the owner was locking up. He had a room for €40, and had a booking.com plaque with a 9.1 rating. 9.1 is pretty exceptional. The place is perfect.

Anyway, walking to get something to eat put me over the 60km mark for the day, which blows away my previous record of around 42. Stepwise, it will be just under 80,000. A big day.

Two More Days

Last night I walked into a place that specializes in Octopus and had the feeling I had been there before. It turns out that I had gone through this town called Melide a couple of years ago and stopped for lunch. I still only vaguely remember that the wheels had fallen off that walk and I already felt crappy in Melide with 15km further to walk that day.

Anyway, there are 54km left. I'll try and do as many as I can today. Shooting for 35 or so.

The Wheels Are Falling Off

I know this feeling; it's happened before. In Galicia. A few days in a row of walking all day in hilly terrain in waterlogged boots takes its toll, even after the sun comes out.  I slept until after 9 o'clock this morning but was still dragging all day. My heels hurt and my hip hurts. The callous on my right pinky toe has rubbed a sore onto the ring toe. I've lost three toenails - two of them on the same toe (right index toe!).

I got one of those little but to me, unambiguous signs yesterday that made me realize that I am suppose to finish this Camino all the way to Santiago. Seriously - how often does cousin Roger post a quote from St. James on Facebook?

I didn't like Lugo. It seemed almost Portuguese in a way. The walk to this mini village was short and the guidebook described it as "very flat".  So yeah, it was only a cumulative climb of 42 floors but it didn't feel so flat.

I did have a really fine lunch experience though. 100m off the Camino was an old farmhouse restaurant with cars parked all around it. It obviously wasn't some pilgrim chow line so I went to check it out. A a German girl sitting outside told me it was all restaurant - no bar but that I should Try it. I started challenging her on the accuracy of her 'no bar' comment and she was sweet about it and motioned toward the door. I don't know why but I was actually afraid to step inside of a restaurant that had no bar. But I did. The place was really busy and very nice and a woman came out of the kitchen and asked me if I wanted to eat. I told her yes, but not a whole big lunch in the dining room - I'd rather just grab something at the bar. She ignored my bar comment and started reciting things that I could have. Soup? Salad? Vegetables? I could see some incredible looking trays and dishes of food in the kitchen so I pointed to a couple of things, saying I want a little of this and a little of that. So she said 'bueno' and motioned for me to sit down at the table in kitchen of this busy, excellent farmhouse restaurant's kitchen. I had a huge plate of delicious roasted chicken and potatoes and a nice big ensalada mixta - and Estrella Galicia beer at the kitchen table served by these charming chefs. I wish I'd taken more & better pictures but here's the view from the table.



Two and a half km later I ended up where I am now. Albergue O Candido where the cows roam freely to trim the lawn.

Sun?

What's that outside my window?  It's been 4 or 5 days of cold, dark and wet but it feels like 4 or 5 weeks. I'm about to head out of Lugo now on a short, FLAT 20km stretch to a place called St. Roman (I think). Lugo is a big city and seems a little edgy.

Freaking Galicia

The last two days have been very wet. It never poured but the entire walk was through fog and drizzle. This morning I was so cold I pretty much wore everything I had (well I only wore one pair of pants) and God did I stink!

I'm in a town called O Cadavo at a fantastic one star, 25€ hotel.  Why so fantastic?  For one thing the radiator is on!

The other great thing is the girl who runs the place. She is the bartender, the front desk clerk and as I happily learned, the laundry woman! She's an unusual kind of very attractive - picture Kelly Peters in a Doonsbury comic. Pretty like Kelly but with dark circles around her eyes. Anyway, I came down to the bar to ask her how long the radiators would be on. Usually it's just a couple of hours in the evening and morning. I asked because I was going to hand wash some of my stinkiest clothes and she offered to wash them for me. Obviously not for free but whatever she charges will be worth it!

I'm afraid something very bad happened around here recently. As I walked into town there were scores of people lined up outside a funeral home. Okay, people die and in fact for the past 2.5 days there have been notices in bars saying they would be closed this afternoon for the funeral of an important local elder. But this funeral had three hearses covered with flowers. I'd like to think there's a less tragic reason for three hearses than the scenarios in my head. I'll let you know if I find anything out.

I'm A Minor Local Celebrity

Yup. I went to a bar before dinner and they were selling these great Grandas de Salime polo shirts. They are selling them at all of the bars around town to market a local festival happening in August, and not only am I customer numero uno, but apparently the town government leaders all happened to be at the same bar when I bought mine. They took my picture (wearing the shirt of course) and asked where I was from, why I was here, etc.  - taking notes of course. It's a great shirt for 15€!

Last Day In Asturias

I can't believe how the weather has held up since Inleft Oviedo six days ago. The weather app on my phone had nothing but rain forcasted for the next ten days but aside from the first day, it has only rained at night.

Today's stage revolved around the Salime Reservoir. After starting out with about a 1000 foot climb, there were spectacular 360 degree views. Way down at the bottom was a lake and I guess I knew all along that I would be walking all the way down to it. Actually it's a reservoir, not a lake and the route went across the dam.

This is my best cow picture so far!

So yeah, the descent went on forever. I guess it was about 2500 feet to the water. After crossing the damn, back up we go to a nice little town called Grandas de Salime (I think).






Anyway, on to Galicia tomorrow.

It's Rainy

And hilly. It didn't actually rain until I arrived wherever it is I am right now. It starts with a B. It seems that this town is really into car racing.  There are posters of crappy little souped up cars all over the place.

My "go-to" website for these walks, gronze.com (thanks Ray!) said today was the hardest and the most scenic day of the Primativo. My phone agrees it's the hilliest but it wasn't as scenic as the previous two days. There were too many power lines.

It was a short day though. Only about 20km. Tomorrow will be the same. I'm kind of cranky today but don't really have any good reason. Well, yeah - I have serious first world problems. First of all, when I got to the place I'm staying, the lady wasn't there to let me in so I had to go to the bar. Believe it or not I really didn't WANT to go to the bar!  So I finally checked in and my room is €35!  And once again, "of course there is wifi in the room, the password?  'ILOVECARRACING'". So I'm back at the bar enjoying the free wifi. €35 and the place was freezing so I took a shower, got in bed and played games on my phone for awhile. At one point a couple of Spanish guys started having a 'heated' discussion with the lady who runs the place. I seriously imagined the dialog going like this:

  "Our room is freezing. Can you turn the heat on?"
  "Turn the heat on?  It's the middle of May!"
  "So our room isn't freezing?"
  "The guy in the other room hasn't complained. "
  "Does he speak Spanish?"
  " ....... "

So eventually I got up out of the warm bed to head over here to the bar for a beer and wifi when I noticed an odd sensation emanating from this big iron thing under the window. Heat!  I immediately went through my pack to find the stinkiest couple of things, washed them in the sink, draped them over the heater and headed here. To the bar.

Damn It's Hilly!

You know this Camino Primativo has a reputation for being very hard. But it has reasonably short stages, with alternative mid-stage options, lots of fresh, non poisonous water, lots of trees for shade and even randomly placed benches in the middle of nowhere.


So it's not that hard if you don't rush the hills. I will now jinx myself by telling you all how incredibly nice everyone is. Anyway, what was I talking about?  That's right, hills. Today my phone measured 168 floors of climbing. It supposedly uses GPS and counts a floor as every 16 feet of climbing.

Kinda Hilly

But wow. The Camino Primativo is living up to its billing, which is very hilly and spectacular scenery. Days like today are really special. The weather was supposed to be so so, with a chance of sun between 3 and 5. So I took a nap after breakfast and woke up at 10:30 to a perfect partly cloudy day. It took me a few minutes to get my act together and check out but I was on the road by 11.

It wasn't much hillier than yesterday but the scenery was ridiculous. No, Ridiculous!

See those Picos back there?!  Nice, huh?

This next one is a panorama. The path is actually straight - just a thing you do with your phone camera. 

Unexpectedly Dry

it was supposed to rain today but it never did. Phew because my boots and pullover never really got dry. They're all still wet though because it was pretty foggy all day. As advertised, this route is hilly. The total climb was about 20% more than my previous high and tomorrow should be 20% more than today.

My stomach really is still not back to pre-Portugal health. I had a pretty rough morning and haven't had much to eat or drink today. I hope tomorrow am is better because the hills are a very different kind of strenuous from the flats. And I'm not taking another sick day!

Best Bus Ever

I used to be such a train snob but not anymore. The ALSA bus from A Coruna to Oviedo was an extraordinary experience. how do I describe this bus?  It looks like a regular bus from the outside but inside it's like business class on a wide body. One seat on the left, two on the right. Shaq would be comfortable in one of those seats. The route was pretty special to me as well. It passed through a good chunk of the Camino deal Norte that I did last year, including crossing the bridge from Ribadeo in Galicia to Asturias. That bus had the cleanest windows I've ever experienced in mass transit. There's a 'help yourself' water fridge with excellent free snacks (dried unsalted nut / dried fruit mix) and an on-board engineer who helped a lady with her balky in-flight entertainment center. Need to use the rest room?  Best to wait until the driver turns off the fasten seatbelt sign (I shit you not).

I was so wrapped up in this luxurious experience that I came thisclose to utter disaster. I had put my wallet and phone on the side tray between my seat and the window. About 50 yards into the bus terminal I did my usual instinctive phone/wallet/keys check (no keys of course) and crap!  No wallet! I go running back to the gate wearing my backpack and frantically waved down the bus driver, who had already backed out to continue his trip to Gijon. He wasn't happy about it but sttill let me back on. No luck. Couldn't find it so I got off the bus only to wave him down one more time so I could have a second look. There were only a couple of passengers left on the bus and they were fantastic. My wallet is really small and it had fallen from the tray and wedged between it and the seat. I really appreciate that driver and those people. I had 40€ in my pocket. Credit cards, debit cards - all in that wallet. ALSA rocks!

Stage one of the Camino Primativo is behind me. It's only been a year but I forgot how much I love Asturias. I wish I could bottle the smell of Asturias. Trees, grass, rain and even a little bit of clean smelling manure all seem to work well together. I remember having my first bottle of serious Asturian cider in Llanes last year and noticing that the cider smelled exactly like Asturias.

This route is going to be very hilly, although day one was just a warm-up. About 30km and the iPhone equivalent of 103 floors climbed. The route is really nice. Half of it was foot paths - not farm tracks or dirt roads. Foot paths make the distances seem much shorter for some reason. It rained all day. All day. It's going to rain all day every day for the next 11 days. I think the Picos de Europa are out there somewhere!  I'm sure I'll get a glimpse.

I'm at a really nice place called El Lacayo de Sestiello just outside the town of Grado. From what I've seen, Grado is a dump. El Lacayo is one of those places worth knowing. At 40€ it better be nice, right?

Aye Carumba

I could use a margarita right about now. I've spit the bit on the Camino Portugues and am at the bus station in Coruna waiting on a bus to take me to Oviedo, where the Camino Primativo begins. I found myself in Pontevedra by myself, two or three days from Santiago, imagining how uninspiring it would feel to walk into that city for the 3rd time - only this time not having a gang of some sort to hang out with.

If I start tomorrow, the Primativa should take around 12 days which would get me into Madrid around four days before Dave & Bob (& maybe Ken). As long as I'm here I may as well get the excercise, right?

The bus right is just under four hours and I've got my 21€ hotel room all booked in Oviedo nAnyway I'm lucky to be here.  Talk to you later.

WTF

Why the face you ask?  My phone says I climbed 116 floors in 39km. You know how many good views I got?  That's right. Zilch. Somebody somewhere surely has something nice to say about Vigo. I don't want to hear it.

Back In Business

Back In Business

I pretty much stayed in bed all day yesterday. My choices seemed to be walking and avoiding the runs by not eating or drinking, or eating and drinking a little and staying near a bathroom all day. The night before last I needed to use the bathroom every half hour all night long so I was a little sleep deprived anyway. I know I got some sleep though because I had a couple of hilarious dreams.

In the first one, I had just gotten back to the States from this trip and walked into what I guess was a 4th of July party. I caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror. It looked like me only I was in my early 20s, 6'6" tall, had long blonde hair and was wearing a Mets uniform. There were about a dozen people at the party but they represented most everyone I've ever known. You all wanted to show me how much the US had changed since I left and were so proud of yourselves for really nailing the cool new national pastime which was 'singing' "God Bless America" in sign language. The song was playing in the background, and you were all SO GOOD at signing it, and having such a great time that all I could think was that I couldn't wait to learn how to do it. Actually it wasn't REAL sign language. There were shoulder shrugs, head bobs and other dance moves. It was more like the guy who interpreted Nelson Mandela's memorial service. Remember him?  Anyway, I woke up because I needed to use the bathroom but I  laugh to myself every time I think of it.  The other funny dream was Jill and Dad deciding to dye their hair the same color. Actually Dad grew a long beard, had the middle of it straightened and just dyed that part. It was a short dream.

Silvia is way ahead of me now so I'm completely solo for the first time in over three weeks. Today was a long but beautiful stage from A Guarda to Baiona. Lots of great coastal scenery and great weather. There are only two more sunny days in the foreseeable future so I'll do my best to enjoy them.

Back to Spain (phew)

The good news is that I'm out of the land of Super Bock. The bad news is that my stomach still isn't working properly and I have no appetite for Galician awesome food nor even Estrella Galicia.

Portugal is a nice place and the people are very nice. Still, Sandie nailed it when she told me it's like a third world country. The ferry from Caminho, Portugal got stuck on a sandbar for 45 minutes about 20 yards from the dock. Silvia was about 40 minutes behind me and when she arrived at the dock she started waving at the boat.  The ticket price is 1€  When the captain saw her he threw the boat into reverse, returned to the dock and let her on. I thought he was going back to take some of the cars off in order to lighten the load. Nope. Just being a nice guy!

It was a long day. Lots of sun but super windy with some big hills. 38km including getting lost a couple of times. I've really got to try & eat something.

Super Bock

Portugal is a fine country. I have a couple of minor criticisms, however. Remember Silvia from Via de la Plata?  She also shifted over to the Portugues route and weve both had bad stomachs since then. The kind of bad stomach that also gives you a headache and the chills but not bad enough to make you throw up.

There's only one beer in Portugal. "Super Bock". I'll say it's horrible but I might just hate the stupid name and logo so much that I can't give it a fair chance. Either way it's a horrible beer experience. I thought that IT was behind my gastric discomfort so I gave up beer beginning yesterday.

Last night I was sleeping under several blankets but was cold and shivering. Figuring I might be dehydrated from the sunny day, I got up and drank a couple of glasses of delicious Portugues tap water. Dehydration didn't seem to be the problem. I shivered more and my pulse was racing. A little while ago I googled Portuguese tap water and guess what?  Nope. Don't drink it. Live and learn I guess.

Tomorrow's stage ends up in a town called Caminho. From there we take a ferry across the Rio Minho to A Guarda Spain. I think most people will take the early boat on Sunday. I plan on being on the last boat out tomorrow night so I can enjoy some nice frosty Estrella Galicias (Feli's favorite beer!) and delicious, clean Spanish tap water!

Brits

I've had three separate experiences with foreigners this trip that have kind of choked me up. Two Germans and a Portugues didn't just tell me how much they admire and appreciate Anerica, but did so in the most articulate and sincere way. The first time was a couple of weeks ago when a German guy named Merlin told me how much he appreciates the U.S. doing the civilized world's dirty work and being taking so much shit from other countries who we defend with our military, etc. Another German guy, Klaus, a 70 year old German got kind of emotional when he thanked the U.S. (via me) for rebuilding Germany and not holding its citizens responsible for the crimes of the nazis. I told him I'd pass those thanks along to my elders who were way closer to the action than me. The Portugues guy, Pedro echoed Merlin's sentiments. He focused on the American service people who die in strange lands and for strangers - but almost always for the right reasons.

I'm staying at a decent hotel tonight and while sitting in the lobby I started talking to an older Englishman who was traveling with a group of other old Englishpeople, most of whom were sitting nearby drinking some sort of nightcap. Pimms or something. One old hen says to me 'So, what doo you think of your mister Trump!?'  I joked about how ungracious it was of her to 'go there' without introducing herself but replied seriously that he probably ensured that Hillary would be the next president. They were aghast at the thought. It turns out that this group is a bunch of retired conservative businesspeople.

Another woman then asked me if I could even believe what Obama said about the Brexit when he was in the UK last week. "He (Obama) shall be solely responsible when I cast my vote to leave the European community", she sniffed.

I was kind of proud of my response which was a good natured 'he just said that the U.S. supports a strong UK as part of Europe, because if you're not, Most US European headquarters will move to the continent or IRELAND (boom!) and Scotland exit will exit the UK to join Europe.  That's all he meant. The US really doesn't care one way or the other.'

Of course I don't really know what the hell Im talking about but they all kind of shut up about trashing the US.

Portugal: A Good Call!

I'm glad I moved over to the Camino Portugues. First of all, Porto is a spectacular city. I'll post some pictures when I get a chance but it kind of reminds me of San Francisco, only a thousand years older. 

Today's route wasn't particularly nice. It was all on roads. The end point is really nice though. A town called Vila do Conde. It reminds me of places like Castro Urdiales only way cheaper. I have more to say but I'm really tired. 

Porto Is Spectacular

It really is. I'll try & fill in details later.

Calling An Audible

As is obvious from the title of this post, I am leaving the Via de la Plata and taking the train to Porto to do the Camino Portugues. Actually, the way caminos work, Via de la Plata is pretty much over in Zamora anyway and a new one called the Sanabres (or something like that) begins.

I've never been to Portugal and I'm expecting this route to be completely different from VdlP - terrain, food, people etc. not that there's anything wrong with the food, terrain and people here but like I said, I've never been to Portugal.

The thing about going from Zamora to Porto is that it's a pain in the ass. I'm taking a 4.5 hour train to Vigo in 45 minutes, staying overnight there and taking another train for an hour and a half tomorrow am at 9.

I love making these last minute changes. Last year I changed plans in Pau to do the northern route and never regretted it. I'm sure I'll miss some good times that I'd have if I stayed this course but right now I'm excited about starting something fresh.

To Finish My Salamanca Story ...

It didn't rain at all today so I have a new complaint. My boots are falling apart. Every time I puts them on I can hear the insides ripping apart. I'm getting brand new blisters and have to look for a place to buy new ones.

It doesn't help that yesterday and today were the two longest so far (38km+ yesterday and 39km+ today). It's been very flat which is a foot killer in itself.

Leaving Salamanca was a letdown.  Not only was our night with Feli so good but our little walking group has broken up. Luckily I had one of those 'this can't be a coincidence' Camino moments on Feli night. Most of the people I had gotten to know we're busy making plans to leave early the next morning and we're staying near Plaza Mayor so we planned on meeting at a bar in Plaza Mayor at 9. Feli lives and works about two km from there and we she had suggested we meet in her neighborhood at 8:45 so our group plans didn't sync up for a last-night evening of dining and drinking. I didn't know what Feli wanted to do so rather than try to get my gang coordinated in a strange distant neighborhood we figured we'd try to just grab a nightcap by Plaza Mayor at the end of the night.

So I met Feli at the entrance to El Corte Ingles and we went to some random bar for a beer. Trip Advisor lists 468 restaurants in Salamanca so there must be close to a thousand bars in that city and we were a couple of kilometers from the comfort zone of Plaza Mayor. Feli and I were sitting at a ttable with me facing the door and out of nowhere Silvia and Nicholas appear, with Nicholas looking kind of upset and Silvia trying to calm him down.  They had no idea this was even the neighborhood I was going to be in but went there because they couldn't find an Internet cafe for Nicholas to confirm his flight home, print his boarding pass etc. Every local person they asked pointed them further and further into the newer part of town. I really couldn't believe my eyes. Some higher power delivered them to our random bar!  So Silvia called Charlie, who was waiting in Plaza Mayor and a half hour later we were all together in Feli's neighborhood. She took us around for a classic tapas-hopping tour of some of the most outstanding local eats. FAR better than we could ever have come up with on our own. It was really one of those magical events that seems to happen fairly regularly on Caminos.



Silvia, Feli and Nicolas on the left.  All of us on the right (at the far right is Feli's boyfriend Julian.  A very nice guy!

Long Day

Today was a long 9 hour walk through two rainstorms to a down called Cubo del Vino. I think that means 'wine box'.

Last night reminded me of why Feli is such an exceptional person. She showed me and my gang a truly great time in a neighborhood we had no chance of discovering on our own. I'll have more to say about Salamanca later but am too tired to go into it now.

I think I'm well beyond the halfway point. Tomorrow is 30km to Zamora which is supposed to be a very nice place. Talk to you from there.

Off Day In Salamanca

It rained a little yesterday when there was a 5% chance of rain.  I'm taking a day off today in Salamanca and theres a 90% chance of rain so I'm expecting to get wet.  The brighter side is that I've gotten my laundry done, and won't be wearing my hiking boots so they and my feet will have a good 40 hour break from each other.

I still haven't cracked the problem of (easily) adding photos to this blog so I'll spend some time now doing it the hard way.  In rough chronological order I hope.

Halfway

Salamanca is 20km away and marks the halfway point of Via de la Plata. I've been traveling in a group of four for the past two weeks or so. Silvia from Italy, Patrick the Frenchman, Nicolas from Holland and me. Some of them are going home from Salamanca and supposedly a lot of people start there as well, especially this time of year.

The route really has filled its promise of being full of ancient Roman ruins. There are 2000 year old cylindrical stone mile markers lining the dirt road that were on for much of the time. Not every mile anymore, but each time I pass one it sends my imagination way back in time.

The weather has been comically bad. It has rained enough to soak my boots for eight of the last ten days and it's gotten to the point that we don't even talk about it anymore. I'm afraid that the soaking / drying cycle has taken its toll on my boots because they're failing in the exact same places as my old ones did in Galicia a couple of years ago. Today we had to cross a river twice that was so overflown that we had to take off boots and socks, roll up our pants and cross barefoot in thigh deep water. It's rained so much that it seems like it will take weeks for the ground to dry out.

It's been interesting to see the difference in local people as I head north. Andalucians were pretty nasty and most of the pueblos were pretty crappy. It was mostly vineyards and olive groves. In Extremadura the people are much nicer as are the villages. Terrain changed from crops to livestock and now that we've passed into Castille & Leon it remains that way. Cows and pigs all day long.

Inevitabilities

This week has been full of pondering life's two inevitabilities. It's time to move forward but in terms of blogging the Via de la Plata seems to be a hard place to write from. Long days, too much socialness and bad wifi.

This seems like a very raw form of Camino in that the days are very long and more importantly, the local population is not geared towards Camino people. They are themselves and that is fascinating. The differences between villages each have their own tone and rhythm. The pueblos are so different from one another.

I'm in the middle of an interesting impromptu 'party' at an albergue in a town called Calzada de Bejar. Very interesting cast of characters. More later.

Good night.

Carl

I guess none of us should be shocked when someone dies in their 80s but that doesn't make the loss any less real.  Buzz and Dee were the first grown-ups I knew.  Michael, Kelly and Patsy were my first  friends. And Carl was my father's best friend for over 50 years so yes, he is already missed.

A couple of years ago at Lyle's 80th birthday party, Robbie had just found out first-hand how hard it was to become an actuary and Carl said to me "The kid looks at your Dad and me and figures 'how hard can THAT be!'".  He had such a dry quick wit.

Yup. I Feel Like Crap Today

But not because of the usual 'Good day -> Bad day' phenomenon. Remember how I said that walking home from the bar last night was going to make yesterday my highest step count?  Well that didn't happen. I got back to my room and triumphantly opened the step count app only to see a daily total of 550 steps. Yes, it was after 1am. A couple of us had another beer at the Casa Rural (which was excellent) and I didn't go to bed till after 2.

I made the 24km to Caceres in about 6 hours after stopping for a leisurely lunch at the halfway point. Caceres is the capital of Extremadura and is beautiful. The old city is all pretty much 13th & 14th century and very well preserved.

Anyway, Silvia just sent out the time for dinner Whatsapp message so I'll head down for a bite. I've got the latest episode of Better Call Saul all teed up so I have a good reason not to repeat my bad behavior of last night!

A Long One

By the time I walk back to my room from the Las Vegas bar (from where I blog) today will be my longest on the trip in terms of steps. I ran into Sylvia the Italian 'social nucleus' and walked with her for the first 20km until the town of Alcuescar. We stopped for lunch there and ran into most of the characters from the bar in Aljucen yesterday. They all stayed in Aljucen and I continued on another 16km to Aldea del Cano - home of the Las Vegas bar. The first 20km was a gradual rise of about 1000 feet. The rest of it was a gradual decline but it poured with rain right after lunch and my boots were waterlogged. Most of the day was on a pleasant dirt track in a national (or maybe regional?) park so that was nice.

The Casa Rural I'm staying at doesn't seem to have wifi, otherwise I'd post more pictures of cows and olive trees.

Since I felt pretty good today I'm expecting to feel like crap tomorrow. I think it's 22km to a fairly significant town called Caceres. It's supposed to be an interesting place so I'm not opposed to spending an extra day there if I find a good place to stay.

The Compromise.

So I didn't have to walk 35 and 38km days in a row.  I woke up in Merida this morning knowing I only had about 20km to walk today and went back to sleep. I figured  I was good til 11 before I really had to get going but checked the weather just in case. Sure enough the hour by hour forecast said it was going to pour at 3pm so up I got and off I went.

On the way out of Merida I passed an old aqueduct ( like there are new aqueducts). And then a lake with an old Roman dam. So it was interesting.

I had reserved a room at a casino rural in a town called Aljucen and got here at around 2:55. The local bar was packed. Most of them ended up being caminoers but I didn't realize it until the social nucleus of this entire route, an Italian woman named Sylvia, motioned for me to join them. Sure enough, five minutes later it was pouring outside.

It turns out that I've run into a lot of these people already and aside from Sylvia, I'm one of the the younger people here.

After checking into my room I'm back at the bar now. It's crowded.

Good Day Off

Did my laundry and my taxes in the am and saw all of the sites this afternoon.  Merida really is an interesting little city.  The scale and setting of the amphitheater (like the Roman Coliseum only smaller) makes it feel more real than the Roman one.  It has nice signs in excellent English that explain where the gladiators entered, who and what they fought, etc.

Adjacent to it is the actual 'theatrical' theater.  It's so close, and the complex is so well preserved that it gives you the feel for how well thought out the civic entertainment was back in the days of Augustus.  AUGUSTUS!  The first Emperor right after Julius Caesar.

That's the amphitheater wall just past the theater.  About a half mile away is the 'circus'.  We're not talking about Ringling Brothers here.  It's the 'circo', or circuit where chariots raced.  It's almost a half km long and the access you have to it really gives you context of how big and important chariot races were.  I was able to walk all the way around the grassy area and that really puts it in perspective.

 Merida really is a mini-Rome.  Most of these ruins were only excavated in the past couple hundred years.  Everyone knew they were there because it was so well documented.  The signage even tells you things like 'this portion isn't original.  It was rebuilt in 435'.  The 'all access' pass cost 15e and was easily the best money I've spent here.

Have you ever read the book 'I Claudius'?  It's what first got me interested in ancient Rome and is one of those books that really impacted me.  So readable and interesting.

So after my big day of laundry, taxes and sightseeing I checked my pedometer and had walked 19,890 steps.  I had already taken my pants off but figured I should walk up and down the hallway with my phone to bring that number to a round 20k.  As I asked myself 'what could go wrong?' I remembered that the fantastic young woman named Barbara at the front desk had a bank of security monitors in front of her.  I was wearing a t-shirt and my boxers when I said 'uh-oh' and looked up to see this.  Hi Barbara!

Merida

It's like a mini Rome.  Watching the Mets right now.  Will post more later.  The next 2 days are 34km and 38km - don't know what to do about that.  I felt crappy on the shortest day of the entire walk today so I'm in a bad mood.

Oranges

Im not surprised that I've been eating the most consistently great oranges. I am surprised that a couple of these were oranges I picked up off the ground (under orange trees of course). They're like big sweet tangerines and now that I think about it maybe they are!

The app on my phone says that I walked 37km today which I don't think is true. The step counter seems as accurate as any and it counted just under 47,000. Either way it was flat as a pancake and I feel pretty good.

The most of the recent towns have been surprisingly lively given their size. It's all vineyards and olive groves around here. Some fields have both olives and vines interspersed. I never knew Extremadura was such a wine country. A good 20-30% of the vineyards are freshly planted. I don't know if that's a normal crop rotation thing or not. Maybe Extremaduran wine is becoming more popular.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. Merida is only four hours from here (Torremejia) and is the biggest city since Sevilla (or is it Seville?). The remains of a Roman theater are sulpposedly some of the best preserved ruins anywhere outside of Rome itself. Take a look https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9rida,_Spain.

The Via de la Plata marketing department claims that this entire route follows a Roman road from south to north. As are most people born on August 22 (according to 'The Secret Language of Birthdays - (hey Lauren, why is that!? ), I'm really into ancient Roman history. Back 12 or 15 years ago I was able to buy old Roman era coins that had been stashed in ancient coffee cans and then dug up by European farmers 2000 years later. I have a couple hundred of them. If they weren't in my storage unit on Long Island I was going to bring a few of them and leave them on the side of the dirt roads. It would make someone's day to find one of those, right?

Blisters Part Two

Dave you're lucky that he Google blogging system doesn't work properly on the google chrome browser in terms of letting you include pictures from your phone in the blog. Otherwise I'd show you all the picture that defines why those blisters needed stabbing.

I think it worked. Feet were way more comfortable today. It much else to say except that walking south to north is giving me a bad sunburn on the back of my legs but not much on the front. Fascinating huh?

I should be in Merida on Friday and hope to get good wifi to watch the Mets home opener at a civilized 7:30pm Merida time.

Let's Talk Blisters

First a little blister trivia. Did you know that blister fluid is blood plasma?

I normally don't bother draining blisters but this time I declared war and popped five of them. I guess I'm getting soft in my old age but they were affecting how I walked so yeah, I stabbed them. They'll fill up again quickly but at least the plasma will have a place to escape to when I walk on them. Today was fine, except for the blisters of course. Very muddy from yesterday's rain and the guidebook warned that there were two spots that are hard to cross after it rains. I managed the first one stepping from rock to rock but the second was more serious. The book says to backtrack a couple hundred meters and go to the main road but I decided to take off my boots & socks, throw them over and walk barefoot. It was a little over ankle deep and it felt amazing.

So I'm in Zafra now, which is a nice town. It actually might be a city since it has a bull ring. Anyway, since I'm once again blessed with good wifi I'm going to download last nights 'Better Call Saul', get some dinner and them come home and watch the Mets.

Rained All Day

since I had great wifi in Monesterio last night I set my alarm for 2:30am and watched the Mets lose to KC. Cespedes isn't great under pressure. Hopefully he'll 'get us there' this year but he's not going to bring us home. Neither is David Wright. He can't throw. Why was Conforto dh anyway?

So anyway, I could hear it pouring when I woke up at 9 so I meandered around and finally left at around 11. This first breakfast place was about 300 yards up the street and by the time I got there I was pretty well soaked. The bar guy gave me a plastic bag to put my phone and laptop in thank goodness. That could have been a disaster. Still, during breakfast I tried to look up the bus schedule to  Fuente de Cantos but couldn't make heads or tails of it so checked out where the tourist office was. It was all the way back down the hill, past where I stayed so I succumbed to the ultimate mental laziness and decided to just go ahead and walk the 22km to where I am now.

The five hours were split pretty evenly between 'just raining' and pouring with rain. It was between 50 & 55 degrees and pretty uncomfortable most of the time. I've been here for almost four hours and finally My feet are almost back to room temperature. My boots must have weighed 3 times normal but the coldness of the water really seems to be good for my feet.

The path today went through several huge ranches where you have to open the gate and then close it behind you. Between the gates animals run pretty much free range. With the rain coming down at its hardest I was keeping my head down to keep it out of my eyes and had a major surprise. I came within a foot of colliding with a bull that was grazing. He was pretty chill and scampered out of the way. I've seen thousands of cows on these walls but very few bulls - even behind barbed wire so this guy kind of freaked me out. After I passed him I figured I'd better walk backward away from him since the rain cover for my backpack is bright red.

Anyway, I'm here now and about to grab some dinner. Hopefully my boots will dry overnight. I've been stuffing them with newspaper and I think it's supposed to be sunny tomorrow which is nice.

MonesterIo Is a Nice Place

The Swiss aren't so bad really. Two guys passed me about 2/3rds through my walk today. Didn't say much except to tell me that a crazy 77 year old Japanese guy would also be passing me soon - carrying two backpacks weighing 15k (35lbs?). Sure enough a couple of minutes later I hear someone behind me making noises like 'Hyii! Yaoo!  Shianoug!' Then he passed me and took a bad step. 'Shit!'

Anyway, I ran into the Swiss guys at dinner - actually one is French and they're actually very nice. The Swiss guy whose name sounds like 'Johnnie' is 75 and walked twice as far as me today. Not sure how old the French guy (Daniel) is but probably mid to late 60s. He also walked twice as far as me. 

So I've crossed from Andalucia to Extremadura and apparently it's pig country. I encountered some free range pigs who looked as happy as clams. Extremadura feels a good kind of different from Andalucia. It feels more Spanish. Of course I'm only one town in, so we'll see. It's still pretty damn cheap. My deluxe room with excellent wifi, an adjustable radiator (for drying clothes I washed in the sink) and a to go lunch for tomorrow came to 25euros. 

The place I stayed last night in Real de la Jara was the worst. The guy who ran it was very nice but the neighborhood reminded me of the laundry where Walt cooked meth in Breaking Bad. People were  SMOKING CIGARETTES in the bar for Gods sake and those damn smoking drinking whippersnappers were hollering and making a rukus till 4 am. I felt like yelling for them to get off my  damn lawn. 

Anyway I'm going to take a nap and try to wake up to watch the Mets at 2:30. I hate to say it but I have a bad feeling about them this year. Harvey is such a whining crybaby.  

Pictures of a Cow, Pig, and the Top of a Pretty Big Hill

Remember Rock Dog?

I'm really mad at Google.  They no longer support their blogger app on iphone so phew, I brought my laptop.  Tell me this rock doesn't look like a dog?

Where Are the Roman Ruins?

The closest I've come to Roman ruins is the frozen pizza they tried to get me to eat at the Fawlty Budapest Hotel.

 I'm staying in a hostel above a bar in Real de la Jara trying to take a nap with a bunch of screaming people below. It was a nice walk that seemed longer than the 16km it was. I did get lost a couple of times and according to my step tracker I climbed the equivalent of 80 floors.

It got cloudy this afternoon and I think it will stay that was for the next couple of days, which is nice. I've gone through a lot of sunscreen so far and am still pretty burned.

El Classico (Real Madrid vs Barcelona) tonight. I'm guessing this place is going to stay loud!

Best Camino ever!

Not only is there a 7 foot tall German woman walking Via de la Plata in a skirt, I saw a rock that was probably carved to look like a dog by a prehistoric sculptor. Once I get some wifi I'll send you a picture of the dog. It's just lying by the side of the road with millions of other rocks and if it was smaller I would have grabbed it.

After 16km walking on a road (not too busy), the route turned into Parque Natural Sierra Norte (home of afformentioned dog rock) and it was pretty spectacular.  The VdlP had an April fools trick though - after 28.5 km it put a massive hill between me and where I am now.  I'll send a picture of that too. The town I'm in is Almaden de la Plata. Kind of a nice little place.

Anyway, I'm going to get some food. All I've had was some toast and an orange.

It's Not Them, It must be me!

This is a real mental slog and I'm having a tough time getting into it. While good on paper, the albergue I stayed at last night was a disappointment. I just erased a paragraph of complaints because really, who wants to hear it.

Today's route was actually very nice after the first three km on the highway. A mere 20km in all but uphill all the way. Not very steep but very constant. I guess it was about 900 feet in elevation. The 'problem' so far is that there is nothing between the stages. Today I only passed one rock to sit down and rest on and never got a chance to take my shoes off to air out feet. Tomorrow looks like another unrewarding stage. 30km with the first 16 on a road, ending in a pueblo that doesn't sound very charming.

I'm staying at a hotel that's a cross between Grand Budapest Hotel and Fawlty Towers. It's big and kind of majestic but run by a guy who, when I asked where I could eat tonight politely asked me to sit down and wait for him to finish eating dinner with his wife. There's wifi on the ground floor only. Sadly the router doesn't seem to be connected to the internet.

My other main gripe is the other 'peregrinos'. They're either sanctimonious Swiss or homogenous Germans. Yesterday a Swiss lady proudly told me that she left Sevilla (or is it Seville) at 6:30 am and got to the depressing pueblo by noon. I was kicking myself for being there at 3pm. It doesn't even get light out till 8.

Still, the weather is a lot nicer than back home and I don't have to hear about the elections.

So much for me not making you listen to my whining.

I said it before and I'll say it again

I'm never doing one of these oddball camino routes by myself again.  Okay I will admit that I'm only one day into this one and I knew it was going to be a drag but I'm just saying.

It wasn't all that bad actually.  Getting out of Sevilla (or is it Seville?) was easy and that was a surprise.  Usually getting out of cities is a pain in the ass but this time it was pretty straightforward.  

An alternate route let me avoid most of the suburbs so it was a flat dirt road all the way to Guillena and some of it was fairly nice.  It was one of those farming roads that went between fields.  This time of year you can't tell wether it's a corn field to the left and potatoes to the right or whatever.  It's a dirt road between two dirt fields.   Weather-wise it was hard to beat.  60's and sunny.  

Guillena isn't horrible.  Irritating but not horrible.  It's what I figure towns in California - on the outskirts of Sacramento are probably like.  I wish I loved it here because it's the cheapest place I've ever been in my life.  My private room, including breakfast, good wifi, and laundry service, was 12 euros.  Dinner was 6.  A can of beer is 1 euro so I've only spent a little over 30 euros here. ;)

Here's what I learned from my 38,340 steps today:  If you wear the same damn boots, expect the same damn blisters.  Hasta manana.

Matt Harvey Is Working On His Mechanics

The blood clot in his bladder happened because he wasn't peeing properly.  That's why we have spring training, right?

“I have to retrain my bladder to use the restroom a little more.”  

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/03/matt-harvey-has-a-mystery-medical-issue.html

Via de la Plata.

Day one and I'm in full whining mode. Nobody loves European trains more than me but not even the 2.5 hour (perfect amount of time), 200 mph AVE train from Madrid to Seville put me in a good mood.

I'm at the beginning of the Via de la Plata. It's an old Roman road that runs pretty much straight north from Seville. Not Constantine old - Augustus old. As a matter of fact I think Tiberius was born not far north of here so the VdlP is twice as old as the Camino de Santiago.

For some reason I pride myself on being totally unprepared for these walks so I know very little about it except this: tomorrow is going to suck. The destination is a suburb with a name that starts with a 'G' and seems to be best know for its park and ride lot for commuters. Tripadvisor adjectives for lodging there are 'grim' and 'sad'.

This is not my first camino rodeo and in some ways I've mastered the packing part of it. Time will tell but so far the only thing I know that I've forgotten is my phone charger. I do have the cord but not the base unit so I can always plug it into my laptop.

Since I didn't have a hat I got one at a souvenir store across from the cathedral. It says 'SEVILLA' with 'since 1869' underneath.

Anyway, off I go. I'm writing this offline after eating a paella and gazpacho dinner. The paella was full of mussels. I can't understand why anyone would intentionally order mussels. At least clams are festive and taste like the ocean. Mussels?