Triacastela

     We awoke to a very cold and extremely windy morning. We both decided to stay in bed and chat until the sun showed up. Laura says that she misses her Camino family. We have been staying on impromptu stops and seldom on the designated Brierley stops, part of our "On a whim" scheduling for this trip. It is sort of backfiring as we seem to encounter fewer pilgrims on our schedule. I mention that this trip has not been as challenging or invigorating as the past ones because we know that we'll be able to finish it and that we seem to stop or slow down whenever any signs of aching starts manifesting itself.

     Well, the Camino always provides. We come down for coffee and there's Stewart from Scotland who we met on our first day of this trip. Stories and gossips are exchanged because we have not seen him for over two weeks. Soon we meet his friends, an Australian mom and her two daughters who started their Camino in Pamplona. Next thing you know, a new branch of Camino family has been formed and walking together.

     Today had a plethora of steep uphills and even longer downhills. It was walked amidst a gorgeous backdrop of mountains and valleys riddled with crystal clear streams bursting with trout. We passed through numerous tiny little hamlets where cow poop production seems to be the primary industry. They seem to produce cow poop in all three states: solid, liquid and gas. It was produced in total disregard to overabundance. The streets were paved with it, the dogs and cows were pasted with it, the air was thick with it, all the townspeople including the old women wore knee high boots. Now I understand why the streams were bursting with such fat trout.

     It was on such a town where we were approached by such a woman carrying a plate full of cold two day old crepes and a jar of sugar with small holes  pierced through the rusted metal lid. She offers each of us a crepe which we hesitantly accept but fearful of offending her generosity otherwise. The instant that we bit a piece of it, she ask if it was good. Of course we said bueno when what we wanted to do was pour hand sanitizer over it and her hands. Next comes the big question. Do we have any donativo to give in return. I empty my wallet of all the loose change-70 cents and I reluctantly give it to her. She looks at me with her poop glazed eyes and says more? I tell her all I have are 50€ bills. She says she has change and that is when we hurriedly left before she start hurling you know what to you know who.

     We also met, walked and talked with Christina and Zurich, Uri not Zurich as this spell check keeps %+^< my blog. Great 30 year old couple. Learned more about Spanish life in an hour than I have in the two other Camino. It helped that they understood and spoke English.

     The undulating 22 km went quickly and we rewarded ourselves with a lunch of seafood paella and the local specialty of very tasty but slightly tough beef short ribs. The green sauce was very spicy and the red sauce was very tasty and my descriptions are very very similar to how our president would describe it.

     We are currently in the town of Triacastela where no 3 castles can be found. Hoping to increase our mileage tomorrow as it is still dry with rain forecasted to arrive on Thursday. I will be posting a section on SIGNS and adding more to it as I discover more.

O'Cebreiro

     One of the better hiking days on this trip. The climb to O'Cebreiro is usually feared by most pilgrims because of its steep and constant grind. Laura and I have always loved it and today was no different. A quick stop at a vegan bar for some melon or beet/orange shakes plus some crack cookies with 21 secret ingredients probably did the trick. At one point I had to turn around and run downhill with the bulls. Laura and I actually came close to being trampled by one that was running on the ridge when he leaped to join the herd. Zoom in to see the bull behind me ready to gore me from behind. Only my sixth sense and third eye plus innate fast twitched muscles combined with catlike ninja skills aborted a disaster of immense proportions.

     We reached the top with time and energy to spare. I called ahead to see if the next few towns had vacancies but none did, so we were force to spend the night here. We typically spend our nights in albergues until the last quarter of the Camino when we start booking private rooms. At this point, word of my great snoring have reached the final albergues and sadly, I am banned from further association with the albergue family.

     Laura mentions that we always get rooms up in the eaves with no rooms next to us or even a window. Do you think they know?

Steps leading up to our room, talk about isolation.

Contentment

     Stayed last at what Laura considers the best yet. They washed and dried all our clothes for 6 Euros and delivered to our front door, good because I had only a clean pair of socks to wear. They also have a portable heater, miniature bar of soap, small packet of champu and towels-none of which I have in my backpack. Last night's dinner was rabbit stew. I know, it looks and taste like chicken but I had fun analyzing the difference in their bone anatomy.

     Started this morning a bit later intentionally. We did not need headlamps, and what a revelation. We had the roads to ourselves. A crispy cold morning with majestic views among vibrant bird songs.

We stopped at the first town for coffee and croissants and I commented to Laura how nice the morning was and that we really shouldn't be rushing. It was vacation after all.

     She agreed. So here we are, in the third town at a very casual 9:30 having second breakfast and writing this blog. I ask if they can make me spaghetti as we have to climb up to O Cebreiro and she came up with this. I know it looks like it can feed four, which it can....or one Wig, which it did.

     I have trip favorites as far as food is concerned. Our first Camino involved flan, I had 38 of those. Second Camino involved daily chocolate croissants. This Camino' s first two weeks was chicharron or pork rinds and then the urges stopped. Perhaps I am attaining the 4th and last pinnacle of a good life-first in the picture. Laura says no way.

Now we climb. Maybe after another breakfast or is it lunch time already.

Signs

         Unisex bathroom-lots of these.

     No wonder Spanish cyclists are the best in the world, they get respect. Americans get 36 inches with our 3 foot rule while they get 60 inches.

     They had to have used Google translation for this.

     Thinking of enchiladas may cause your vehicle to go out of control. 

Come back to this segment at the end as I will continually add to it as I see more signs worth noting.

Picture of our SFCC Ride calendar on my phone. Quite a few words have been switched to Spanish.

More...

     Another ten hour day and I got my first small blister from not wearing my orthotics early on. Fall time change last night bought us an extra hour of snoring. This really means that we need to get up an extra hour earlier just to beat the heat.

It has been scary at times because all the hunters with their shotguns are all hunting in the fields that we are walking. Our best guess is that they are hunting rabbits as they don't hunt real early and it is the only game that we see hopping around.

     One of the things we miss the most over here is Wallie. We try petting cats over here but it just doesn't do it for us. So we went looking for better alternatives. These guys like us as much as we like them. They even compete for our attention. Don't tell Wallie.

     This is for my brother Robert who was a chef in his past life but now only assistant chef to his wife at home. My food favorites have been soups. Lunch today was this thick Callos de Garbanzo. 

Loaded with tripe, lots of beef tendon and some garbanzos-exquisite flavor.

My new favorite is the Sopa de Trucha. They had this in a double boiler, almost like a hot pot. A full trout on top which the waiter deboned for me. I got a bit worried he was going to eat my meal for me. The soup was almost dry as the breads in it sucked up all the delicious juices.

continuation..

     Laura continues to attract insects. She acquired a dozen new bites and reacting quite strongly to them. I threaten to put her on prednisone. The good new is that we found an all you can eat Chinese food in Ponferrada.

Who knows when we are going to eat like this again so we ate and ate. All told we needed the calories anyway as we ended up walking 10.5 hours. Not much of our planned distance as we wasted time walking around looking for this restaurant. Add to that, we avoided the rocky descent by taking the asphalted road in the dark. This serpentine road went left and right of the actual trail and easily put us in the mid thirty range for the day.

     We started this journey with our cycling friend Chuck Allgood. We got separated from him for the last two weeks. He rented a bike in Leon and caught up with us on the downhill from Cruz de Ferr. He was all smiles when we saw him. His feet have been in tatters, making it very difficult for him to walk. He finally said enough was enough, gnaws off both feet, attaches some cleats on his stumps, rents a bike and is now happy as a clam riding the bike to Santiago. He plans to rent a car and check out Portugal. I hope he knows it is not so easy to drive a car or walk on wooden floors with cleats.

Two Days

     It is actually 3 days worth because of the poor wifi last night. Anyone that knows me well knows that I am missing a filter between my brain and my mouth and that this stupid blog does not allow me to backspace and delete or change whatever bad or wrong thing I may have typed, so this blog is coming to you raw as in not that ripe as it comes out of my feeble brain. So, a blanket apology to those who I have insulted and blasphemied, I will probably continue to do so therefore continue reading at your own risk. But then, if it seems like I am talking about you, I probably am and it is probably true so live with it.

     We survived the climb up and down the Cruz de Ferr. Weather has been cold in the mornings when we usually walk with headlamps on the first hour. By afternoon, it is in the high 70's which is a bit warm for not sweating. I try not to sweat so I don't have to wash my clothes but it doesn't always work. Weather though has generally been perfect.

Cruz de Ferr

     Proof that I have been walking and getting my daily dose of skin cancer.

Rabanal

     23 easy km and we are at the base of the mountain. Tomorrow we climb to the highest point of the Camino at 1505 meters. This is called Cruce de Ferro. It is here where I leave a couple of stones that I have brought with me. A heart shape rock from my sister Marilyn together with a special prayer from her. Second one is for Margie who I have spoken with but have never met. She has always been on my mind on this pilgrimage and I bring her rock with thoughts, prayers and well wishes for better health. Margie's enthusiasm for life and selfless struggles against constant difficulties are my highest inspiration.

     Tonight's evening mass in Rabanal was served by a group of Benedictine monks, sang in Gregorian chant, and spoken in a multitude of languages.

Astorga

     Great early start. Walked in the dark until the next town where we stopped to say hello to Christine. She is an expat from the Netherlands and now runs her own albergue. We got to Astorga before it got hot and decided to get reorganized for the second half of the trip. 

     First, we unloaded 10 lbs of gear and mailed them to Santiago. This means my backpack is going to be a lot lighter and I will probably freeze when it gets really cold. I am now down to a single pair of pants, one underwear and a thin jacket. There is definitely going to be some commando days and I hope my previous problem of butt chafing does not occur. 

     Next, we get a private room at the municipal albergue for 5 Euros each. Municipal albergues are like local city YMCA, cheap, noisy, full of younger and more noisy folks. Our private room has two bunk beds, same door color as all the other rooms in this place that holds 165 beds. In the last few hours, no less than five people have entered our room by mistake. One claimed that it was his room, another wasn't too sure but had to have a closer look to be sure. Did I mention that all the rooms are not lockable?

     Astorga is a beautiful city with some Gaudi buildings, has the history of bringing chocolate to the rest of Europe and the start of some real climbing on the Camino. On our two previous visits, we tried but failed to visit the Chocolate Museum. Third time's the charm. It has moved a bit farther away from the historical side of Astorga and we had to search and walk a bit to Tour it. Sad to report that it was not worth the time and effort and the Cadbury factory in New Zealand or the Willy Wonka movie easily surpasses it.

Bishop's mansion by Gaudi

Laura and her Mini's great grandfather.

To Hospital

     Not saying it like the Brits do without the preposition but more like the newspaper headlines to capture your attention. Today we walked to the town of Hospital de Orbigo.

This town hosts a jousting tournament each year. We are experiencing an unusual autumn this week as the temperature will stay in the low 80's, a bit warm for walking in the afternoon. We were both glad to reach this town and call it a day.

     We spent the morning walking with a very nice 31 year old Italian named Alejandro. I gave him some sage advice and in return his faster walking pace gave us sore feet. He had a fascinating story about his mother who became blind at a very young age and had four children who she had never laid eyes on. We exchanged childhood memories and no matter how much I embellished mine, his was more fascinating. We separated so Laura and I can take a two hour lunch to recover and catch our breaths. A couple of hours of double Cokes and beers plus a couple of foot long bocadillas, the temps were up and we were ready to go down for a siesta. 

     But off we went for a brutal final 2.5 more hours of walking in the hot sun. We made a pledge to start our walks earlier this week and no more hour long breakfast chats as we did with an adorable South African couple this morning. They had done the Porto Camino in Portugal and were now walking the Camino Frances backwards, RETROgrinos. You'll find their description as I have finished updating the peregrino nomenclature from a couple of days back. I added a few more but became very bored with it as you'll find when you read it.

Last night's sleep bunks.

Tonight's dinner.

Back On Our Feet

Short day for our first day back walking. But when we saw this new albergue across the street, we just felt right about stopping.  Then we saw the hammocks, we are even forgetting about the usual post hike chores of laundry and showers!

Wig here. Bad night for Laura with fever, chills and incessant coughing. I, on the other hand, spent the night regretting my missed opportunity at the dessert bar below. Flashed my expired license at the pharmacy and got Laura some antibiotics and cough suppressant. Within two hours of walking, Laura proclaims she is over her cold. The power of placebo!

She is definitely feeling better.

Peregrino

     If you wondered what a peregrino means, you'll find that it is an oil field in Brazil. It also translates to a pilgrim. Someone who travels from place to place, sometimes for some religious purpose, sometimes for penance, sometimes for sport and vacation and sometimes because they are lost. As this is our third Camino, I feel that it is important to define the correct nomenclature to better specify the different types of peregrino. A peregrino could take different forms at different times, akin to a chameleon.

PERROgrino - A pilgrim that travels with his dog. Lots of them on this trip. They usually camp out but are occasionally allowed to bring their dog with them into their room. The proprietor hopes that the dog will carry most of the bed bugs with them and out of their rooms.

BUSegrino - A pilgrim who may have signed up with an outfitter who provides the infrastructure and logistics for the well heeled. They are usually driven to the better and more meaningful portions of the Camino. A less heeled pilgrim may also do the same whenever they come to a larger town where a bus stop magically appears and answers their prayers.

CHATEAUgrino - A pilgrim that chooses to stay in their private room in a hostal, casa rural, hotel, or even in Spain's finest paradores. They do this for various reasons. They may enjoy their privacy, not sharing electrical outlets to charge their iPhones, not having to wait to use a toilet that does not have a seat cover, having the hot water run out for your shower, sleeping with a complete stranger 6 inches from your face, not hearing incessant snoring all night, not being woken up at 5am by the rustling of backpack packing and having their headlamps shining on your face. Most importantly, the chateaugrino says that they do this so they can leave more space in the albergues for the less fortunate pilgrim.

RUSHegrino - No, these are not pilgrims from Mother Russia or other Eastern Bloc countries. These are the pilgrims that rustle their bags at 5 am. They race to the next albergue to reserve all the lower bunks and use all the hot water. They are the ones that unplug your charger and put their phones in its place. I am sure they wet the toilet seat in their rush to be done before the auto lights go out. I am not ranting and raving. This is not fake news! Deep breaths......and they voted for you know who.......just saying.

BICIgrino - Guilty of being one of these.

Usually a pilgrim that only has two weeks vacation but wants to do the whole Camino. This pilgrim pedals his bicycle following the exact route. This means that they ride their bicycles on the sidewalks, gothrough one way streets and ignore pedestrian lanes. They are usually given the last priority for beds as it doesn't take long to go another 5 km to the next town. They are easily identified in town due to the number of bugs stuck to their teeth from smiling with a wide grin while cycling. Unlike the regular pilgrims who gingerly go up and down steps, the BICIgrino is usually seen taking a seat tenderly with a cringe on their face. The nice ones ring their bells to allow you time to move out of their way. The not so nice ones don't even have a bell and scare the bejeesus out of you as they come speeding past you without warning.

RETROgrinos - There are two types of these. First type is a pilgrim who likes to walk the whole Camino from the finish to the beginning. We have seen and met a few of them. You meet them because they also stay in the same albergues as you do. You see them because that is all the time you have as you quickly walk past each other in the opposite direction.

I would like to be the second tim. type because I have yet to see one walking the entire route facing backwards. I would like to be the first...someday.

Of course I would wear my bicycle rear view mirror.

REPETOgrinos - An addicted pilgrim. One who has done the Camino numerous times and has no thoughts of stopping. A true sadomasochist. He may finish one and quickly start another, and then another. He lives for perpetual sore feet. He wears his Compeed, moleskin and ace bandages like badges of honor. He sports purple teeth from all the cheap vino tinto that is his sustenance. He is usually unemployed or unemployable and his motto is that the Camino will provide. He is also usually seen with his hand in the donativo box as if it is an ATM machine.

Leon

     We took our time this morning. We started out with a jaw workout for breakfast. Not the gift of gab type but the chewing type. I thought toasting any type of stale bread and coating it with any form of preferred spread can make almost everything edible. This bread had to be circa last month. It literally took a half hour to chew with very little chance of fully digesting it. I heard the bar proprietor offer pan to every single customer that came for coffee, he must have a stockpile of this. I notice no one except us finished theirs. Every Somalian mother would be proud of us.

     Today was our last bike day to the beautiful city of Leon. I never mentioned that the last 3 bike days have been ridden against a constant headwind. The wind was a no show and the 40 km to Leon was done in two hours. We felt strong, young and energetic and we celebrated it in Leon with the worst meal since we arrived in Spain. At least the toast this morning was unpretentious. We had cold , wet paella and soggy deep fried calamari. This meal was the counterpoint of how we felt this morning.

Zoom into the bike to see the makeshift spoiler for the fast ride to Leon.

Too sad to part with our bikes.😩😩

     Laura is down with her cold and it is Sunday so nothing is open. Never can find a pharmacist when you need one. Pretty sure we are missing dinner again but our hotel is right above the best dessert bar so I am not worried. My friend Gretchen posted in Facebook today about a Tibetan quote that says: 

To live a long and happy life, eat half as much, walk twice as long, laugh three times as much and love without limits. I wonder what 3 out of 4 gets me?

From our hotel window. The awning is that of the dessert bar.

Bike 3

     Day 3 on the bike. In anticipation of unimaginable encounter of immense proportions with my bicycle saddle, we decided to not ship a bag so we can literally stop anywhere. Our heavy bikes have now reached weights of epic proportions. To add insult to injury, last nights wash did not dry completely and I was left to ride without my tights or undershirt. Ten hours of downtime has not led to much recovery and I procrastinated to leave until the cleaning woman  dutifully kicked us out of the albergue.

     The intense flame of searing pain did not come immediately as I anticipated. I was only pedaling when I needed to, standing as much as possible, praying that every horizon line would lead to a downhill. After an hour of riding, things were better. I was enjoying the wind in what little hair I have left. Snot was dropping out of my nose instead of tears coming from my eyes. Then I experienced an epiphany!

     I didn't witness a burning bush nor did God appear on the holiest of pilgrimage. I realized that wearing tights underneath your chamois bike shorts begged for lightning to strike me twice with unhealable saddle sores. We past town after town after town before we decided to call it a day due to our late start. All told, 30+ kilometers without much suffering, a far cry from yesterday. What a moron. Those tights are staying off all bike rides.

     Enough about my horrid experience, what about Laura? Well she loves riding her bike. Her toes have not fallen off yet. She is still fighting a cold. On the first day of riding she took a crash course in dismounting a bike with loaded panniers. Nothing broken, I am happy to report. Pictures were taken of the incident but the account could not be verified as the victim quickly took hold of my phone and deleted all evidences.

     No pictures the last couple of days because my phone is always buried deep in the panniers and either was in too much pain or too exhilarated to stop and take some. Tomorrow will be the last day of cycling as we reach Leon. 

     Just realized that we can read your comments but are unable to answer directly because we don't have a Spanish id for this Spanish blogspot that we are currently using. Our apologies but we enjoy reading your comments.

Day After Christmas

     Riding through Burgos in early morning mist was exhilarating. Speed is so much faster than walking. Those yellow Camino arrows come up much quicker and are easy to miss. You realize that signs are catered more towards the walkers than the cyclist. Arrows even had us going through one way streets. It wasn't long before we caught up with walkers that started two hours ahead of us. We rode 42 km to the town of Castrojeriz before we even realized it.

     The following morning, Laura and I had grand plans. If everything went so well yesterday on our warm up ride, we certainly can ratchet things up a bit today. I had a bag sent forward for the day and all told my bike still weighed a good 70 pounds with panniers, backpack and steel parts. The instant we hopped on our bikes, we realized something was amiss. The early morning mist was not as exhilarating. My sit bones were sore, my handlebar communicated every tiny crevice through my palms . Someone had stolen my handlebar grip and replaced my saddle with a string of barbed wire. If we were looking to abuse the next body parts, I had quickly found them.

     Just 2 km out of town, we were quickly assaulted with this monstrosity of a dirt climb. A 12% average gradient that went on forever. Of course all my weight was being carried on my rear wheel and I was careful not to grip my bars to keep from ending up like a turtle in its back. Still my front wheel wandered and hopped in the air quite a few times. Eons of eternity passed before we finally reached the top. High fives and kisses were exchanged as if we had just evaded death. Still Laura was nervous because of the downhill just on the other side. I said, 'You mean the average windy 18% grade with the corrugated cement of a meatgrinder they call a road? Just don't use your brakes too much or you'll lose traction and your brakes will overheat and fail but it is not much to worry about. I think!'  Tires skidded a bit, heart pounded a lot but we made it with our skin intact.

     What didn't remain intact were my nerves. They all seemed to have migrated directly to my rear end. While at the bike shop, I was too macho to accept a pull over gel cover. I should have noticed the Spanish snicker when the mechanic quickly agreed to remove it. I mistakenly took it as approval gesture between two male cohorts. Perhaps I misunderstood the words masochistic with machismo, they almost have the same letters.

     That misunderstanding pounded its true meaning for all 73 kilometers to the town of Terradillos de Templarios where my overconfidence had sent our bag. Live and learn. What doesn't kill you only makes you weaker so it can try and kill you the next day.

Christmas

     Extra day supposedly resting in Burgos. Found a Decathlon sporting good store on Google map. Needed some riding shorts for our bike rides so off we went after breakfast. Distances never seem that far in maps, farther still when you're on foot, farthest even when it is raining the entire time and you don't happen to have an umbrella or rain gear with you. They always tell you that the Camino will provide and not to worry or bring more than you need, maybe we strayed too far off the beaten track searching for a deal. We were drowned rats but got ten euro shorts so we're still happy peregrinos.

     The day was wet and we sat in our room quite a bit. For the first time while on vacation, both Laura and I were homesick. We miss Wallie, our house, our kids, our grandkids, our familia, our bikes, our friends, not in that exact

 order. To make matters worst, I felt I didn't do enough of a workout and decided for the second time to skip dinner. And just like the first time, I spent the whole night regretting it. Note to self, do not skip dinner unless you have backup food or fridge close by.

Having a room with this color doesn't help.

     Next morning, we woke up to a crisp day and not a cloud in the sky. What a perfect day for Christmas. We had breakfast literally next door to the bike shop waiting for it to open. We were giddy as kids wondering what size, color, gearing and panniers we would find when we unwrap our presents.

Excited kids with their new toys.

     Two virtual twin BMC mountain bikes, same color, same size, same gearing, even the exact Bike bell. We were two grownup kids with ear to ear grins who couldn't wait to see what new body part we could abuse next. Of course that didn't take long to find out but you have to stay tuned for the next episode to find out because it is way past bedtime in Castrojeriz.

Burgos

     Amazing how many different languages are spoken by the different peregrinos in our group, they even snore in a different language. It is like they all speak English but with different accents.

     In the small town of Montes de Oca, it was impossible to find breakfast before 9am. As our bus was due to arrive at 8:48, we went without one. Some person accidentally took one of our Finnish/Danish friends boots this morning, leaving her a similar but older and smaller boots without her orthotics.

This is about as bad as it can get for someone walking another 600 kilometers. We advised her to find a taxi immediately and to try and head off and find the shoe thief as the next town was small and 12 km away. Hope she gets reunited with her boots.

     The bus arrived in Spanish time but it took less than an hour to Burgos where we made up two whole days to catch up with our friends. We were able to arrange for some bike rentals as we'll be riding our bikes at twice the daily distance for four days to make sure Laura's foot heals. 

     Some pics of local townspeople and peregrinos that got turned to stone when they dared to look Medusa straight in the eye. They should not have messed with the Spanish mafia.

Plans Change

     As Laura stated, we are taking a rest day. Somehow while sleeping on the church floors the previous night, some insect decided to nibble on her big and second toe. I guess the critter did not like the service and meal and decided to leave Laura a poor tip. This swelled up her toes and gave her Toesilitis. Now walking 30 km with Toesilitis creates nothing but pain and more swelling. When we soaked our feet in some local watering hole, those bites became blood blisters and looked like this.

     

     A day of rest and some drainage and it looks much worst. So we are not walking tomorrow but taking a bus to Burgos where we will rent bicycles and ride in the rain without proper clothing.

     For the bike lovers that are reading this blog. I saw this family of five riding bikes. Check out their transport.

That's dad on what looks like a recumbent to start with 20 inch front wheel and disc brakes. First kid sits on top of the front wheel. He has a child seat behind his saddle and he is towing a trailer with a younger child inside plus oodles of panniers and extra luggage.

His wife follows in a tandem with just one kid and regular overload of packs. They were climbing a hill just to get to this church playground so the kids can release some pent up energy.

     As if we haven't walked enough, I stupidly left my hat at the last town where we were soaking our feet. Of course I had to remember after going up and down a steep hill. Thought about it for a bit before I went back to retrieve it. It would have been sad if it wasn't where I thought I left it.

Last parting shot of a real peregrino.