Welcome to Galicia! Saw this on a store front. So true!! Very fragrant and lots of brown squishy stuff!
Monday morning Mary and I set off in the dark for the descent from O Cebreiro to Triacastela. Tristan needed to opt for a taxi again. Even Mary was wearing her sandals since her big toe was too swollen for her hiking shoes.
We did have a good day though. Here’s a few photos.
I haven’t had good enough internet to upload photos for a few days. We’re still here; still walking. On Sunday we made it to O Cebreiro, albeit by taxi. Tristan and Mary have been having some foot issues and the extreme uphill and unfavorable weather forecast led us to take a taxi.
It was very chilly atop the mountain, but we had two cute, old-fashioned rooms in a Casa Rural, located over a Celtic gift shop and a coffee shop.
We enjoyed some hot food (caldo Gallego was very good) and Mary and I went to pilgrim mass in one of the most beloved little churches on the Camino.
O Cebreiro marked our departure from the region of León and entry into Galicia.
Our blessing:
“May love be the light of hope in your path.
May peace abound in your heart.
May goodness be your mark in life.
May your faith strengthen you in the mystery of life.
And when the moment comes for you to reach your eternal goal, may LOVE embrace you eternally.
Be happy and make others happy.”
We had just a beautiful atmosphere at the Cruz de Ferro yesterday morning. The sunrise was brilliant and the pilgrims respectful.
A few km from the cross we encountered a very unique hostel and hospitaleiro Tomás. We stopped to play with his kitten Carbonita. Tristan offered to have Carbonita join our pilgrimage but it was not to be.
The downhill from the cross (highest point on our trail at > 1500m) was tough. The trail descends over very steep and slippery schist for over 10km. I slipped once, but just got a skinned knee.
Our destination was the historic village of Molinaseca. Our host at hostel Señor Oso (Mr. Bear) was named José. He was quite the micromanager, but the hostel was clean and full of some of Tristan’s friends.
New friends Ana and Francie told us about ordering drinks at the river.
Today was a long trek across the Bierzo valley, a rich agricultural micro-climate full of vineyards. We’re all a bit sore or injured now, though. Tristan has adopted an ankle brace and is treating swollen arches. Mary has a toenail that wants to part ways with her foot. How fortunate that we made a new friend today. Mary and I walked most of the day with Karen, a traveling pediatrician from Minnesota.
Tomorrow is supposed to be very rainy and we are supposed to do a steep climb. I think it’s already been decided that we’ll taxi up to O Cebreiro and have a “recovery day”.
Our visit to Astorga was lovely. Mary and I took the bus to cut short what would have been a 31km day, but Tristan walked the whole way.
Our hostess Patrícia and her son Gabriel at the hostel Só por Hoje (“Just for today”) were lovely and welcoming.
We had a lively pilgrim dinner of classic Brazilian food and made some friends.
Tristan finally got a chance to go out and meet the ”young crowd”. There was apparently quite the gathering and a bit of a pub crawl to celebrate a pilgrim’s birthday.
We visited the chocolate museum and the Episcopal Palace designed by Gaudi. It was even more beautiful than I had imagined and I was glad to see it this time since Rich and I missed it in 2017.
I think I need to redecorate at home now.
We left Astorga yesterday morning headed up our first mountain to Foncebadón. Tristan was really feeling the long distance from the day before and struggled, even with his pack transported ahead. We ended up needing to call a taxi out from Astorga to transport us 5 km to Rabanal del Camino where I was hoping there would be a pharmacy.
Alas, no pharmacy, but an ice pack and some lunch enabled him to climb the last 5 km to our hostel.
Foncebadón, a tiny hamlet. They’ve paved the only road since I was here last time.
And Mary and I made it too. We met 80-something George on the way up. He’s from Alabama and doing his 6th Camino.
Absolutely gorgeous weather. We’ve been lucky so far! I was way too tired to post last night so… lots more to share. We’re in Molinaseca now about to go stick our feet in the river. Next post- our visit to Cruz de Ferro this morning!
On our way from Villar de Mazarife to Astorga, Wednesday.
We’re headed for those mountains.
We left later than we should have after a sleepless night. It turns out that having a hostel window that overlooks the main thoroughfare in old León makes for a noisy night. I also accidentally gave the baggage transport company that is handling Mary’s suitcase transfer the wrong pick up address. Whoops! That caused some unnecessary running around this morning.
Mary was able to help an American pilgrim in need last night. Our hostel companion Jeremy had locked his ATM card and needed to borrow Mary’s phone (with active cell service ) to get his money issues resolved. In thanks Jeremy gave Mary a gift of a knitted prayer square.
On our way out of León we visited the modern architectural gem the Basílica de la virgin del Camino. Somehow RIch and I missed this back in 2017.
We had a picnic lunch during which we ate some of the pastries we’d bought last night from a little bakery shop last night. Tristan got something that was a bit like a Spanish Stromboli with pepperoni-like sausage and hard boiled eggs.
On the trail this afternoon we made the acquaintance of another pilgrim Denise from Colorado and Antonietta from Cuomo, Italy.
Now hungry and tired pilgrims are waiting for the hostel/bar kitchen to open at 7 for dinner.
Mary, Tristan and I arrived safely in León after an uneventful flight over. We’ve settled into our first hostel now and already met some pilgrims and Mary has fallen for a young beagle pup we’ve met on the street (the owners were very nice too).
We visited the cathedral this morning, got our first pilgrim stamp and have explored the old city and down to the river. Unfortunately a number of the museums are closed on Mondays.
So many well wishes from folks on the street already. It will be wonderful to be off on the trail tomorrow.
After almost 2 years of planning and a one year delay, my dream of leading a small group of pilgrims from All Saints’ Episcopal Church looks like it will finally be realized. God-willing, 4 of us will set out for Spain in 19 days. We’ll be beginning our pilgrimage in the city of León and after a day to get acclimated we’ll set off for 13 days of walking.
The pandemic has introduced plenty of uncertainties and a few complications. I am relieved and grateful that Spain is still letting fully vaccinated US travelers in and hoping nothing changes in the next two weeks!
Tristan, my soon-to-be 23-year-old son (how??) is one of my pilgrims. I am so glad that he is taking the time to come along. I hope it is a special experience for him as he decides on the next step after college.
Looking forward to posting updates from the trail….
Today is Memorial Day. Yesterday during “Zoom” church we viewed a moving video tribute to friends and family of church members who lost their lives in service to out country. It was striking to read about the deaths of uncles, nephews and fathers of people I know. I don’t know of anyone in my family who was lost to war, so I guess that makes our family very fortunate.
I’ve been doing a lot of other remembering these days. I’m in the beginning stages of re-organizing my Camino group trip plans to move them to 2021. Some folks have dropped out permanently, so I am planning on a group of about 5 and trying to move all of our reservations by one year, hoping that it is safe next September. In the meantime I continue my “virtual” Camino and I’m coming up on a milestone (www.walking4fun.com).
I am virtually on my way into Burgos, Spain, which marks the 1/3 point of the Camino Francés. Getting to Burgos was a big deal. I remember the day quite clearly. We had stayed in the town of Agés in a private hostel over a bar, about 5km past the guide book’s suggested stopping point. The Wi-Fi was so bad at this hostel that I didn’t manage to get an internet connection until the middle of the night. I remember waking up and realizing I had Wi-Fi, getting a blog post out and messaging with the kids.
As we climbed a boulder-strewn landscape on the way out the next morning, we made a new friend in an Italian woman named Siggi, who we learned was a nursing student in Austria. Siggi would become a regular companion of ours for the rest of the Camino. (For geologist friends out there she lives in the Dolomites and had her favorite peak tattooed on her arm.)
The way into Burgos had a number of trail options. Near the airport Rich and I turned left toward the “scenic” route and Siggi went right. By luck we managed to stumble upon the river-side way into town and we were very glad we did after hearing the grumbles of those who had walked in through the suburbs.
We got beds at the modernized hostel “La Casa del Cubo”, which really did have cubes for our bunks. It was nicely situated close to the Cathedral of Santa Maria. We explored the Cathedral, the first major church of our trip. The Gothic cathedral has been embellished with so many Renaissance and Baroque elements that it did not really appeal to me as much as the cathedral in Léon would later.
We had toured the Cathedral and been treated to a drink by our friend José Luis, a retired professor who we had met at dinner the first night in Roncesvalles. Burgos was his home town and this was supposed to be the end of the road for him, but to our delight he decided to continue all the way to Santiago!
Decision time arrived! We had made a great error in planning our trip, in that we had not scheduled any “rest days”. It hadn’t occurred to me that we would want/need such a thing. But we had decided that we would take a rest day either in Burgos or Léon and make up the time across the meseta. We had read and been encouraged by others that you could do extra long stages across the middle third of the Camino, as it is relatively flat. The day turned rainy and we decided that we would move on from Burgos without the rest day. On to the meseta! The rest day would wait until we’d earned it.