Made it to O Cebreiro yesterday, and onwards to Triacastela today. Rained both days. Welcome to Galicia, indeed - Galicia, Spain´s most northwestern province, is the rainiest province in Spain, with, according to my guidebook, rain at least once every three days.
The trip up O Cebreiro was mostly okay (only about 10km), until the last part which was cold and rainy and very windy - about what you would expect going up a mountain in Galicia. The hostel was the first experience with Galicia´s pilgrim hostel network. Unlike most other provinces in Spain where the pilgrim hostels are operated by local governments, here in Galicia they are centrally managed by the province, since Galicia is very proud of the Camino (and probably all the tourist dollars it brings in, since Santiago de Compostela and Finisterre, the end points of the pilgrimage routes, are both in Galicia). The accomodations were decent enough, and warm, but no Internet, which appears to be the norm for government-run pilgrim hostels in Galicia.
So today, several of us (the Italian, as well as a Canadian girl, Australian guy and German man that we´ve sort of travelled with today, and two of the Italian guys from earlier, though the Canadian and American girls aren´t staying here) checked into a private pilgrim hostel, which costs a bit more, but is smaller and has Internet, along with other amenities such as cheaper laundry, so it works out about the same. Since I don´t know how many public vs. private pilgrim hostels I´ll be staying in over the next week, updates could be sparse.
Today´s hike was about 20km, and it was cold and rainy most of the way. The rain finally let up in the half hour before we got here. I even saw the sun peek through the clouds in the distance, though not anywhere nearby. Maybe tomorrow there will be sun?
Tomorrow, on to Sarria. About 130km left to go to Santiago. Hasta luego!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
Ruitelan
Made it to Ruitelan. 19km have never taken so long.
Well, it was probably longer than 19km in the end - instead of taking the route along the road, the Italian man and a Brazilian girl who had joined us this morning (though she has gone on to O Cebreiro) and I took the scenic route over the mountains.
That is plural on the mountains. Though it was mostly just up one, and then around the sides and up a bit on the others. And down, can´t forget the down - down is harder than up, actually.
Ow that was painful - mostly in my back, it feels like my pack has gotten heavier for some reason, even though there isn´t anything new in it. I even got rid of some things.
Maybe it was because I was carrying a variety of clothes instead of wearing them - today was uncharacteristically warm, compared to the past two weeks. Today I was only wearing three layers as opposed to the usual six.
So far it is only the Italian man and I in the hostel here, but we will more than likely be joined by five French (four women, one man), because three of them send their packs on with a delivery service rather than carrying them, and their packs are here, so they should be as well. Whether the Canadian and American girls and their Italian boys end up here as well probably depends on which road they took - they were still in Villafranca del Bierzo when we left, but if they took the road route, they could be miles ahead of us by now. I guess we´ll see.
Now it is time to go rest and have a little snack. Dinner here in the hostel tonight, so no need to search for a restaurant. Hasta luego!
Well, it was probably longer than 19km in the end - instead of taking the route along the road, the Italian man and a Brazilian girl who had joined us this morning (though she has gone on to O Cebreiro) and I took the scenic route over the mountains.
That is plural on the mountains. Though it was mostly just up one, and then around the sides and up a bit on the others. And down, can´t forget the down - down is harder than up, actually.
Ow that was painful - mostly in my back, it feels like my pack has gotten heavier for some reason, even though there isn´t anything new in it. I even got rid of some things.
Maybe it was because I was carrying a variety of clothes instead of wearing them - today was uncharacteristically warm, compared to the past two weeks. Today I was only wearing three layers as opposed to the usual six.
So far it is only the Italian man and I in the hostel here, but we will more than likely be joined by five French (four women, one man), because three of them send their packs on with a delivery service rather than carrying them, and their packs are here, so they should be as well. Whether the Canadian and American girls and their Italian boys end up here as well probably depends on which road they took - they were still in Villafranca del Bierzo when we left, but if they took the road route, they could be miles ahead of us by now. I guess we´ll see.
Now it is time to go rest and have a little snack. Dinner here in the hostel tonight, so no need to search for a restaurant. Hasta luego!
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Villafranca del Bierzo
Made it to Villafranca del Bierzo today. 23km or so.
Spain has a habit of tucking towns into random little valleys, where you don´t see them until you´re in them. Sometimes this is nice, because you happen upon the next town before you expect to, but a lot of the time it can be annoying, because you think you can see the next town you are going to, only to find out that it isn´t the town, and the one you want is actually over three hills and to the right of what you were looking at.
This was the case today. I thought I saw the town, but then the path ended up heading off to the right and over a bunch of hills before reaching a completely different town. I´m not sure what the town I saw was. I´ll look at a map later and see.
Tomorrow begins the journey towards the last set of mountains to cross. After that, the landscape levels out somewhat through Galicia. And in Galicia the mad seafood-eating begins!
Hasta luego!
Spain has a habit of tucking towns into random little valleys, where you don´t see them until you´re in them. Sometimes this is nice, because you happen upon the next town before you expect to, but a lot of the time it can be annoying, because you think you can see the next town you are going to, only to find out that it isn´t the town, and the one you want is actually over three hills and to the right of what you were looking at.
This was the case today. I thought I saw the town, but then the path ended up heading off to the right and over a bunch of hills before reaching a completely different town. I´m not sure what the town I saw was. I´ll look at a map later and see.
Tomorrow begins the journey towards the last set of mountains to cross. After that, the landscape levels out somewhat through Galicia. And in Galicia the mad seafood-eating begins!
Hasta luego!
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Rabanal, Acebo, Ponferrada
In Ponferrada today.
Where were we? Ah, last post was in Astorga. That day, after I made my post, I met back up with the Italian man I was travelling with earlier. I also saw the British teenagers that I´d travelled with the first two days of the Camino, as well as the Belgian priest I´d seen often at the beginning. They´ve all headed on further at this point though, since they move a lot faster.
However, since Astorga, I have been seeing a lot of this pair of Canadian girls travelling with a pair of American girls, with a trio of Italian boys thrown in for good measure. They like to drink a lot, which makes things loud sometimes, but they are good to chat with.
So anyways, after Astorga, we headed to Rabanal del Camino. The pilgrim hostel there was nice enough, and I also saw the American that I´d seen in Pamplona. They had Internet there, but it was outside in the entryway, so I didn´t come online, because it was cold.
The next day was up and over the mountains to El Acebo, where the downhill part was especially painful - walking steeply downhill on rocks is not fun.
Today was generally more mellow, but there were some steep downhill parts on slate rock which weren´t fun - I´m just happy it wasn´t raining.
Now in Ponferrada, where it took a bit of a hike and asking a lot of people to finally find an Internet cafe. But I found it, and am posting now, so everyone can know what has been going on. Also visited an old castle that was built by Templar knights.
Tomorrow, on to Villafranca del Bierzo. Hasta luego!
Where were we? Ah, last post was in Astorga. That day, after I made my post, I met back up with the Italian man I was travelling with earlier. I also saw the British teenagers that I´d travelled with the first two days of the Camino, as well as the Belgian priest I´d seen often at the beginning. They´ve all headed on further at this point though, since they move a lot faster.
However, since Astorga, I have been seeing a lot of this pair of Canadian girls travelling with a pair of American girls, with a trio of Italian boys thrown in for good measure. They like to drink a lot, which makes things loud sometimes, but they are good to chat with.
So anyways, after Astorga, we headed to Rabanal del Camino. The pilgrim hostel there was nice enough, and I also saw the American that I´d seen in Pamplona. They had Internet there, but it was outside in the entryway, so I didn´t come online, because it was cold.
The next day was up and over the mountains to El Acebo, where the downhill part was especially painful - walking steeply downhill on rocks is not fun.
Today was generally more mellow, but there were some steep downhill parts on slate rock which weren´t fun - I´m just happy it wasn´t raining.
Now in Ponferrada, where it took a bit of a hike and asking a lot of people to finally find an Internet cafe. But I found it, and am posting now, so everyone can know what has been going on. Also visited an old castle that was built by Templar knights.
Tomorrow, on to Villafranca del Bierzo. Hasta luego!
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Still in Astorga
I decided to stay another day here in Astorga, because the albergue is wonderful and warm and I really need something like that to get better from this cold.
On to Rabanal or Santa Catalina tomorrow, where somewhere along the way I will probably also meet up with the Italian man again, because he also decided to take the bus to Leon and is in the area now.
When it gets warmer in the day I´ll probably head out to a few museums, but for now, I´m going to curl up in front of the fire with a book. Hasta luego!
On to Rabanal or Santa Catalina tomorrow, where somewhere along the way I will probably also meet up with the Italian man again, because he also decided to take the bus to Leon and is in the area now.
When it gets warmer in the day I´ll probably head out to a few museums, but for now, I´m going to curl up in front of the fire with a book. Hasta luego!
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Hospital de Obrigo/Sant Ibanez de Valdeiglesias and Astorga
What a couple of days.
I was the only person in the pilgrim hostel in Villar de Mazarife. It was chilly and lonely.
Then yesterday, I headed into Hospital de Obrigo optimistically, even though I didn´t see any other pilgrims along the way and even though I still wasn´t feeling the best.
Got to Hospital de Obrigo. All three of the pilgrim hostels were closed, even though one of them is supposed to be open year-round. Was not happy. The priest that ran the parish pilgrim hostel took pity on me and let me rest there for a few hours and gave me hot cereal and milk, and then drove me the 5km to Sant Ibanez de Valdeiglesias.
Which was a tiny town, with another chilly pilgrim hostel, that I was the only pilgrim staying at.
However, it was made better by the fact that unlike the previous one, the hospitalero cared, and tried to make things warmer. Also, part of the fee included dinner, which, since I was the only one there, the hospitalero made just for me, which was nice (unlike the people the previous night, who, when seeing that I was the only pilgrim there, decided to only serve sandwiches instead of a pilgrim menu). Hot soup with rice (with the stock made from scratch), eggs with fried potatoes and chamomile tea.
Today I made the relatively short (11km) trek into Astorga, and the pilgrim hostel here is wonderful. Warm, even has a fireplace downstairs, and I have met other pilgrims again (after two days of sleeping alone, I was starting to wonder if I was the only pilgrim left). Went to the Museum of Chocolate with another Canadian. I think Canadians are actually the largest group of people that I´ve met on the Camino, save for Spanish and French.
Had a nice warm shower. Tonight I want to find a good restaurant for dinner, and being as Astorga is a decent-sized city, that should be easily done. Unlike the small towns that only have one or two places to eat at - some have been good, but others, not so much.
And I need more chocolate. Chocolate gives me energy throughout the day, and Astorga is the chocolate capital of the region, so I shouldn´t pass up an opportunity to acquire more here.
Tomorrow I head into the beginning of the new set of mountains. Internet could be touch and go, so if there are a few days between posts, that is why. Hasta luego!
I was the only person in the pilgrim hostel in Villar de Mazarife. It was chilly and lonely.
Then yesterday, I headed into Hospital de Obrigo optimistically, even though I didn´t see any other pilgrims along the way and even though I still wasn´t feeling the best.
Got to Hospital de Obrigo. All three of the pilgrim hostels were closed, even though one of them is supposed to be open year-round. Was not happy. The priest that ran the parish pilgrim hostel took pity on me and let me rest there for a few hours and gave me hot cereal and milk, and then drove me the 5km to Sant Ibanez de Valdeiglesias.
Which was a tiny town, with another chilly pilgrim hostel, that I was the only pilgrim staying at.
However, it was made better by the fact that unlike the previous one, the hospitalero cared, and tried to make things warmer. Also, part of the fee included dinner, which, since I was the only one there, the hospitalero made just for me, which was nice (unlike the people the previous night, who, when seeing that I was the only pilgrim there, decided to only serve sandwiches instead of a pilgrim menu). Hot soup with rice (with the stock made from scratch), eggs with fried potatoes and chamomile tea.
Today I made the relatively short (11km) trek into Astorga, and the pilgrim hostel here is wonderful. Warm, even has a fireplace downstairs, and I have met other pilgrims again (after two days of sleeping alone, I was starting to wonder if I was the only pilgrim left). Went to the Museum of Chocolate with another Canadian. I think Canadians are actually the largest group of people that I´ve met on the Camino, save for Spanish and French.
Had a nice warm shower. Tonight I want to find a good restaurant for dinner, and being as Astorga is a decent-sized city, that should be easily done. Unlike the small towns that only have one or two places to eat at - some have been good, but others, not so much.
And I need more chocolate. Chocolate gives me energy throughout the day, and Astorga is the chocolate capital of the region, so I shouldn´t pass up an opportunity to acquire more here.
Tomorrow I head into the beginning of the new set of mountains. Internet could be touch and go, so if there are a few days between posts, that is why. Hasta luego!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Leon and Villar de Mazarife
Made it to Leon yesterday, but since the hostel didn´t have Internet, and it was a holiday so most Internet places in the city were closed, I didn´t get to post.
The bus trip was pretty uneventful. It took a similar route to the Camino, so sometimes I saw pilgrims (twice even people that I knew), and it got me to Leon in three hours.
Being on the Camino, and hence walking pretty much everywhere, really distorts your sense of time and space. The idea of taking the bus for 180km seemed so long, because walking that would be about eight or nine days, but three hours in a bus and you´re there. 20 or 30km seems like a great distance when you´re walking, because it is essentially a whole day´s walk.
Upon arrival at the hostel in Leon (which was in a monastery), the first person I saw was one of the people I´d started out with in Saint Jean Pied de Port (one of the Dutchmen that had been walking since the Netherlands). Seeing someone familiar was nice, and we wandered about the city for awhile and spent some time in a cafe chatting. He´s pretty fast though, so most of the people we started with are still behind him, so I´ll probably end up seeing them in the next couple of days.
Today was about 21km to Villar de Mazarife. Finding the Camino out of Leon was a bit difficult, but together with a French-Canadian couple I found my way. We parted ways about 7km after we started, since they took the main route that followed the highway, and hence the ¨pilgrim treadmill¨, while I opted for a more scenic route to Villar de Mazarife.
So far I´m the only person here at this hostel, but since there are at least three in town, it could be that there are other pilgrims staying in town, but I haven´t seen them (most people are probably in Villadangos, on the main route rather than the scenic route). The hostel also has a bar-restaurant that will serve a pilgrim menu at 7pm, so I can eat without having to leave the hostel, which is nice because it is cold (though not as cold as Burgos - it appears the snow I thought was in Leon is actually further south along the Via De La Plata, the pilgrim route that comes up from Sevilla).
Tomorrow is a relatively short day (14km) to Hospital de Obrigo, where I will spend the night so that I can take another short day of 16km to Astorga on Tuesday. Then the days get a bit longer again as I cross another mountain range, though apparently not one as difficult as the Pyrenees. We´ll see how that goes.
My feet are doing a lot better, and I could´ve gone on for a few more kilometres today, but being as the next place with a pilgrim hostel is Hospital de Obrigo, that wasn´t possible, since a 36km day is not quite what I had in mind. And Vicks Vaporub isn´t just for colds - it was suggested to me to rub it on my feet before walking, and it does seem to have made a good difference in terms of relieving aches and pains around my heels, so that is good news.
Time to sign off and go read about the route for tomorrow. Hasta luego!
P.S. The person ¨i¨ who has been commenting - do I know you? You haven´t mentioned who you are.
The bus trip was pretty uneventful. It took a similar route to the Camino, so sometimes I saw pilgrims (twice even people that I knew), and it got me to Leon in three hours.
Being on the Camino, and hence walking pretty much everywhere, really distorts your sense of time and space. The idea of taking the bus for 180km seemed so long, because walking that would be about eight or nine days, but three hours in a bus and you´re there. 20 or 30km seems like a great distance when you´re walking, because it is essentially a whole day´s walk.
Upon arrival at the hostel in Leon (which was in a monastery), the first person I saw was one of the people I´d started out with in Saint Jean Pied de Port (one of the Dutchmen that had been walking since the Netherlands). Seeing someone familiar was nice, and we wandered about the city for awhile and spent some time in a cafe chatting. He´s pretty fast though, so most of the people we started with are still behind him, so I´ll probably end up seeing them in the next couple of days.
Today was about 21km to Villar de Mazarife. Finding the Camino out of Leon was a bit difficult, but together with a French-Canadian couple I found my way. We parted ways about 7km after we started, since they took the main route that followed the highway, and hence the ¨pilgrim treadmill¨, while I opted for a more scenic route to Villar de Mazarife.
So far I´m the only person here at this hostel, but since there are at least three in town, it could be that there are other pilgrims staying in town, but I haven´t seen them (most people are probably in Villadangos, on the main route rather than the scenic route). The hostel also has a bar-restaurant that will serve a pilgrim menu at 7pm, so I can eat without having to leave the hostel, which is nice because it is cold (though not as cold as Burgos - it appears the snow I thought was in Leon is actually further south along the Via De La Plata, the pilgrim route that comes up from Sevilla).
Tomorrow is a relatively short day (14km) to Hospital de Obrigo, where I will spend the night so that I can take another short day of 16km to Astorga on Tuesday. Then the days get a bit longer again as I cross another mountain range, though apparently not one as difficult as the Pyrenees. We´ll see how that goes.
My feet are doing a lot better, and I could´ve gone on for a few more kilometres today, but being as the next place with a pilgrim hostel is Hospital de Obrigo, that wasn´t possible, since a 36km day is not quite what I had in mind. And Vicks Vaporub isn´t just for colds - it was suggested to me to rub it on my feet before walking, and it does seem to have made a good difference in terms of relieving aches and pains around my heels, so that is good news.
Time to sign off and go read about the route for tomorrow. Hasta luego!
P.S. The person ¨i¨ who has been commenting - do I know you? You haven´t mentioned who you are.
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