Author: 2cdssrs

Walked Today: 7.2 mi / Camino2022: 319 mi

It was 52F and almost cloudless when we started from Coto this morning. It’s supposed to be warmer today so Jim went back to his short sleeve tee and carried a jacket just in case. Linda was not so brazen but still went to a lighter jacket.

Only a few minutes into the walk we passed through Leboreiro, a well maintained hamlet including Iglesia de Santa María de las Nieves.

A church legend says that a mysterious spring appeared that glowed in the night. In searching for the source of the spring, the villagers unearthed a statue of the virgin and took it to the church. But that night the virgin went right back to the spring. After a few days of back and forth, a clever sculptor interpreted her move as a desire to be outside and carved an image of the statue and placed it over the church door and the statue has remained at the church altar ever since.

We can see the statue of the virgin over the church door, but we can’t confirm that the statue of the virgin is inside this Sunday morning or any of the other 3 mornings we have passed the small church, because the door has always been locked.

Positioned just outside the church yard was a Horreo type structure called a “cabaceiro”. As we walked out of the village, we looked back and captured this interesting sunrise.

Walking on toward Melide, we enjoyed the different methods of buffering the path from warehouses and other commercial buildings. This tree lined section was actually quite pretty.

We stopped in Melide for breakfast at a relatively new place called “Cafeteria Alborada“. And we hearby declare it has one of the best if not the best tostadas on the Camino. Linda also inspected the ladies room and declared it was hands-down the nicest, cleanest, well equiped and most pleasant ladies restroom on the Camino. Jim then did a followup and checked out the mens, which without-a-doubt is the best men’s public restroom on the Camino.

We shared our assessments with our waiter who seemed pleased and speechless, so we decided not to elaborate.

Our inspection completed we got back to our walk through Melide which led back into the forests and farmland toward Boente. The following are some scenery we observed along the 3 mile stretch:

Tomorrow morning we leave Melide behind and begin our final 5 days on Camino2022. One additional reason we chose Melide as a base for three days was its reputation for Pulpo (octopus) and Padron peppers. We’ve done a pretty good sampling, especially last night at Pulperis Garnacha. Have a look:

5 MORE DAYS TO SANTIAGO

Walked Today: 8.7 mi / Camino2022: 312 mi

Our taxi driver from yesterday met us at 8:30 and took us back to Lestedo to begin our walk today.

The pilgrim traffic was very light as we left Lestedo at 8:55 and it stayed that way for the entire morning. So why was the traffic less compared to previous days?

Most pilgrims, especially the younger ones, stay in Albergues and typically have to vacate by 8:00 am. Pilgrim groups are usually staying where there are more beds available, like Portomarín or Palas de Rei or Melide. So, by leaving Lestedo at nearly 9:00 a.m., all the groups were ahead of us and the ones behind us were too far behind to catch us.

After 3 miles we walked through a small group of stone houses and spotted a very old Horreo in a back yard. A few hundred yards further we walked through a sports camp complex with on-site housing for participants and impressive futbol fields with artificial turf, a indoor swimming pool, a large basketball gym, etc.

Next, we entered the town of Palas de Rei and stopped at St Mark’s church for a sello (stamp for our credential).

A minimum of two sellos a day are needed on a pilgrim’s credential for the final 100 km walked into Santiago to qualify for a Compostela.

Leaving Palas de Rei, we got back on the dirt path again and spent the next several miles alternating between dirt paths and sections of narrow local roads. We stopped for hot chocolate in the charming hamlet of San Julian (Xúlian, in Galícian).

We contined for another 2 hours through farmland and forests and made one final stop in Campanilla for lunch… tired from an 8 mile plus walk.

Our tummies full and bodies somewhat recovered, we walked another quarter-mile to a new albergue/bar/beer garden in Coto and arranged for a taxi to take us to Melide.

So, yesterday we reported that we had lunch and spent the night in Melide, even though we stopped walking in Lestedo. Let us explain:

Over a week ago, while waiting to get into our room in Villafranca del Bierzo, everything we had heard indicated the Camino was gonna be full for the last 100km. This is typically true, but especially true in this “Holy Year”. We were monitoring the number of Compostelas being given out to pilgrims in Santiago daily. The number has been 2500-3000 per day. When we walked the Camino in 2019, we had to wait 5 hours in line to get our Compostela the first week in October and only about 2000 compostelas were given out that day. Our fears were confirmed yesterday, when the pención manager said she was getting many calls every day from pilgrims who were frantic because they couldn’t find a place to stay for the night.

So, back to Villafranca, while we waited for our room, we emailed, called, used Booking.com to reserve available places to stay all the way to Santiago. We were missing two or three locations, so we did some calculations and decided we needed to employ “taxi hopping” to manage our lodging selections. This resulted in booking Casa Cines in Pintin and Pención Orois in Melide for three consecutive nights each to use as a base to walk the sections of the Camino where lodging was not available.

We’ve successfully completed the Casa Cines plan and are now implementing the Melide plan.

We walked from Gonzar to Lestedo yesterday, taxied to Melide for the night, taxied back to Lestedo this morning and walked to Coto today. Tomorrow morning a taxi will take us back to our stop point in Coto and we’ll walk through Melide to Boente and taxi back to Melide to spend the night. The following morning, we’ll check out of Pención Orois, taxi to Boente and began our walk, continuing on normally from there on through the remaining villages/towns for the remaining days to Santiago.

Some purists might suggest we should just take our chances as I’m sure many pilgrims do. We believe the Camino presents many challenges that a pilgrim need overcome to earn the Compostela. Having personally dealt with arriving at a town and finding you have no place to stay or having to spend hours at the end of a long walk, walking more miles to find a place to stay or having to stay in a place that does not meet personal standards of cleanliness, safety, etc. have taught these two pilgrims to do some extra planning and be a little creative, in order to avoid unnecessary occurrences that can detract from an otherwise enjoyable Camino.

We believe as a pilgrim, you can and should do the Camino in a way that works for you and not necessarily adhering strictly to a guide or anyone else. In the end, your Camino is personal and is what you make it.

6 MORE DAYS TO SANTIAGO

Walked Today: 8.5 mi / Camino2022: 303 mi

We were so surprised when we looked outside this morning and saw clear sky with no fog and no rain. It was a little chilly at 47F but we weren’t complaining.

The Camino went through a couple of small villages and passed a large Castro that Jim explored and photographed in 2019, so we walked on, back along the highway for a mile or so,

then crossed over to a secondary road for another mile to what we call the “zig-zag” where we maneuvered through a small traffic circle associated with an exit off the highway, angling back onto another small road that took us to Ventas de Narón, where we stopped for breakfast.

As you can see from the photo, which was on the wall in the bar of Casa Molar, the village consists of two farms, two albergues, a small chapel originally owned by the Knights Templar and what appears to be a nice private residence at village center.

We have stopped here for breakfast every Camino and Linda liked their toast, so we decided to continue the tradition today.

We walked on for another couple of miles and passed through the charming village of Ligonde. We kept snapping photos of things we saw… here are a few:

We continued on, walked a few steps with a lady from California who had left her poles in Ligonde, walked back to retrieve them and was going to rejoin her daughter who was waiting for her at a bar up the road.

We stopped walking in Lestedo for the day after 8 plus miles. Jim flagged down a taxi and we headed to Melide. More about that tomorrow.

Walked Today: 5.7 mi / Camino2022: 294 mi

We had breakfast at Casa Cines then said our goodbyes to Núria’s mom and dad and left for Portomarín.

As we walked through Portomarín the streets and open shops were filled with teens. It began to rain lightly, so we stopped under an awning to put on our ponchos. We walked out of town, across the bridge and began the steep climb out of the valley.

About half-way up the mountain we were engulfed by a wave of about 50 or so really young pilgrims.

For the next mile, more waves rolled past us until finally we were spared further surges of humanity along the path. We actually had the Camino to ourselves for a mile or so…the first time in two days… and we enjoyed it while it lasted.

Our walk was relatively short, mostly uphill, a few steep places but mostly gradual.

We had a simple lunch while waiting for our room. Immediately after getting into our room, we gathered all dirty clothes washed and dried everything using the Hosteria facilities… 4€ to wash, 4€ to dry. We did our other chores, napped a bit and split a pizza for supper.

We’ve got another week of walking to get to Santiago and we’re anxious to finish. The last part is always the hardest for us because the change in atmosphere and struggle with the crowds is so different than that between SJPDP and Sarria… and it seems to be more true for each of our Caminos.

Walked Today: 8.2 mi / Camino2022: 289 mi

Soon after starting our walk we passed through Rente. We have stayed in Casa Nova de Rente each of our 3 previous Caminos and in 2019 stayed 3 consecutive days with the family, as we taxi hopped to maintain continuity in the walk, when there were no other places to stay.

In recent weeks we have tried multiple ways to contact Casa Nova to stay this time, too but got no response via phone, email or the casa rural websites.

We were concerned about the family, so Jim walked through the open gate and knocked on the door with no response. While deciding what to do next, he saw the mother in the back yard so he approached her and she recognized him. She speaks no English so with an app, we learned that the family was fine and was not a casualty of the pandemic.

It turns out that, the family just decided to stop renting out rooms in their beautiful old farmhouse. She seemed happy to see us and agreed to tell the rest of the family how much we enjoyed staying with them and all the wonderful memories we have about our visits. We wished she and her family well and were on our way.

Pilgrims, pilgrims everywhere. That characterizes our entire walk today. Shortly after we left Rente, over a hundred pilgrims, all likely starting from Sarria this morning, began passing us. The hoards kept coming and it was almost impossible to relax and enjoy the scenery around us.

It rained off and on all morning, but mostly sprinkles, or a heavy mist or a short shower, but we kept our rain gear on until we finished as a deterrent for heavier showers.

When we decided to stop for hot chocolate, Jim waited in line for over 15 minutes just to place his order. Many of the pilgrims were part of a group of 4-12 people, and they usually hung together so when they passed it was like a tsunami disrupting our pace or place on the path, etc. Groups would stop to adjust packs or shoes or just chat, partially blocking the path creating more disruption, oblivious to it all.

Jim estimated that 400-500 pilgrims passed us during the 8 mile walk and to characterize the nature of the crowd, only a handful said “Buen Camino” when they passed. Needless to say, the 100km walk from Sarria to Santiago is very different from what we’ve experienced during the 700km walk from SJPDP to Sarria.

Núria is a very sharp, professional hostess and manager. When we got to Mercadoiro and tried to call a taxi to take us back to Casa Cines, none were available for several hours. Linda called Núria who responded “no problem” and arranged a taxi to retrieve us from our “stranded” location in a much more timely fashion… and had a plate of fresh cheese and homemade quince gel and a glass of wine to help us recover.

Tonight was our final dinner at Casa Cines. Núria’s mom prepared two types of peppers tonight along with sliced homemade chorizo and fries.

Everything was delicious, especially the blistered peppers, an Italian variety and a Spanish variety. They both were very tasty, comparable to Jim’s favorite, Padron peppers. Jim sneaked into the kitchen while Núria’s mom was blistering the peppers for a photo and after we settled our 3 day bill, got together for another photo.

We are so glad the lodging shortage in these final days of Camino2022 caused us to stay at Casa Cines multiple nights. Núria and her family created another wonderful memory for our Camino experiences.

Walked Today: 6.6 mi / Camino2022: 281 mi

After a 20 minute shopping spree, we were back on the trail with a slight deviation. In 2019, we found a route that was a bit longer but allowed is to walk around the base of Sarria. This route merges with the official Camino, which takes a torturous route straight up to the pinnacle of the city, then back down again. Not that we can’t weather a few ups and downs, but no point in asking for trouble.

We arrived at the merge point which is the Ponte de Áspera, a Romanesque bridge of medieval origins with some 18th century renovation. This bridge has particular significance, because our daughter, Amy, used one of our photos of this bridge to rekindle her artistic talents. Her painting hangs in our home and stokes our Camino memories constantly. We think we’ll refer to it from now on as “Amy’s Bridge”.

Once we arrived at Barbadelo, we called a taxi to take us back to Casa Cines. We wanted to stay here for the night but it was booked solid when we tried to reserve a room several weeks ago.

We’re employing our “ taxi hop scotch” technique to deal with lodging shortages. We’re staying at Casa Cines for 3 nights. We’ve stayed here on all previous Caminos and want to get to know the family better and give them our business. So staying here longer enriches our Camino experiences and hopefully theirs.

The taxi driver who brought us back from Barbadelo today agreed to return here tomorrow morning at 8:30 to take us back to Barbadelo, where we will begin walking where we left off. When we finish our walk, we’ll call a taxi to return us to Casa Cines.

We got back to Casa Cines at noon, got showers, had lunch and arranged to have our clothes washed and dried. We both napped for a while before doing some routine items.

Linda had a cold (a mild one) a few days ago and has completely recovered. Jim mysteriously got a cold a couple of days ago, also a mild one, and is about to get over his, too. We only mention it because neither one of us have had a cold for over 3 years. What’s interesting is, in spite of dealing with cold symptoms , we’re still able to walk our normal distances, and carry on with our pilgrim existence without restriction.

Núria, our hostess, prepared a delicious lental soup for our lunch today. Jim was still hungry and Núria suggested he try a plate of homemade chorizo sausage, cooked potatoes and green beans. When Jim had lapped it up, he complimented Núria on the soup. When he asked about the chorizo sausage, she pointed to her father who was seated at the opposite end of the dining room. He was looking Jim’s way and when Jim gave him a smile and thumbs up, he reciprocated. Núria said he not only made the sausage but also raised the pig! We made a great decision to stay here for 3 days.