31.08.08 Sunday. At large in Santiago de Compostela. Yesterday when we received our Compostelas we had to state whether our journey was religious, spiritual or secular. One of each of us replied secular and spiritual, neither having a true feeling of a higher call to Santiago. We received different documents both attesting to our arrival …
Month: August 2008
30.08.08 Saturday. Arzua to Santiago de Compostela. The brief flurry of rain yesterday became a full thunderstorm that grumbled and muttered all night with intermittent heavy showers on the roof over our heads. We set off at half past six in light rain that soon got heavier, this seemed to put many people off as …
29.08.2008 Friday. Palas de Rei to Arzua. Out of town at 0630 and strolling over the Galician countryside in the dark as usual a slower pace than usual gets us to Melide a pleasant looking large town with a museum in an old pilgrim hospital by 1000. Unfortunately as the museum does not open for …
28.08.08 Thursday. Portomarin to Palas de Rei. Not a day when a lot happened. We got up, pursuing our Greek diver peregrino out of the hostal at about 0600 and wandered up the hill out of town having first crossed a footbridge over an arm of the reservoir. This was made of welded steel plates …
27.08.08 Wednesday. Samos to Portomarin via Sarria. The albergue in Samos filled up completely very late on and took a long time to settle for the night with 50 plus people in one room. We were first out of the door after a not too good night sleep (for Tim), but hey, how often do …
26.08.08 Tuesday. El Cebriero to Samos. Starting as usual in the dark we begin a 600m plus descent with a few ups and downs and then a steady, steep in places, descent into Triacastera, through countryside that would not be out of place in the Pennines except the views are longer and more distant. There …
25.08.08 Monday. Villafranca to El Cebreiro. What a great day, we enter Galicia almost at the top of climb to the small settlement of El Cebreiro. There are three options for the route on this section, the obvious old Camino up the floor of a steep sided valley, following the old main road either on …
24.08.08 Sunday. Ponferrada to Villafranca del Bierzo. Our fears of a noisy night were unfounded, we slept well and with a 0600 start we were soon wandering in the dark out of Ponferrada and along the road westwards. We now have less than 200km to go to Santiago de Compostella. Dawn found us in another …
23.08.08 Saturday. El Acebo to Ponferrada. We descended from our mountain village 600m in the course of the morning. We had carefully considered our options for today as spending Saturday night in a large town again was not on our list of priorities. However the options for accommodation in a reasonable distance past Ponferrada, plus …
22.08.08 Friday. Astorga to El Acebo via Foncebadon and the Iron Cross. First some more about Astorga which we left at 0600 this morning leaving Ray and Richard sleeping to catch a train later. This town is important as well as being a nice sized city with a number of good albergues, it was the …
21.08.08 Thursday. Villadangos dal Paramo to Astorga. Hurray! Hurray! The end of the ‘bleak plateau’. The day began as many at 0530 in the dark along a main road out of town, flat and tedious with wincing from those in the party with problems in the foot department. It was light before we reached our …
20.08.08 Wednesday. Leon to Villadangos del Paramo. Richard rises this morning to discover flea bites on both of his shoulders. We assume that he has received these from his pillow overnight and inform the albergue guardian. He takes this very seriously and says that the whole room will be fumigated asap. If they don’t deal …
19.08.08 Tuesday. El Burgo Raniero to Leon. After a good night rest at the municipal Albergue in El Burgo, run by volunteers German and Spanish, we are off and away at 0530. The moon is still giving good light and the route is obvious alongside the road for many kilometres. The day dawns on flat …
18.08.08 Monday. Terradillos de los Templarios to El Burgo Ranero. Another day another dollar, more strolling (marching!—ray) across the plains of Castille y Leon. Ray seems to have survived his first day on the Camino, he has ended up doing the stretch that many avoid by the bus from Burgos to Leon. Today was another …
17.08.08 Sunday. Carrion de los Condes to Terradillos de los Templarios. In the albergue, we meet a French lady from Auch. When we tell her that we passed through there on the 17th July then she says that she saw us, waved at us and tooted her car horn as she always does to pilgrims …
16.08.08 Saturday. Fromista to Carrion de los Condes. Breakfast as promised starting at 0600 in the albergue which gets us off to a fine start in the dark at 0630. There are the usual new road junctions with few signs to be negotiated but soon we pick up the old camino along the tarmac roadside, …
15.08.08 Friday. Hontanas to Fromista. We plan to meet Ray, who is coming to walk with us for a while, tomorrow in Fromista. The albergue offers breakfast from 0600 and a short day of 22km is planned. In spite of this we are off at 0630 in the dark, It’s cold! This is Spain? Yes …
14.08.08 Thursday. Burgos to Hontanas. The start of the Plains of Castille. First the city of Burgos redeemed itself somewhat. Although the new modern area around the old centre is vast and takes forever to penetrate, the old part and the magnificent cathedral are worthwhile. The deafening peal of the cathedral bells rang out as …
13.08.08 Wednesday. Villambistia to Burgos. A tough day, we started at the usual time having been fed a great meal the night before by the parish and the bar we were in (bar is parish rooms and centre of village and internet resource for local kids). Meet and chat with in the evening, a German …
12.08.08 Tuesday. Santa Domingo de Calzada to Villambistia. Last night in Santa Domingo there was the third night of four of an outdoor local production of the life of St Domingo. This runs from 2200-2400hrs. We did not attend but it is preceded by a street procession past the hostel. We did watch this complete …