Sept 30: Finisterre and Muxia

Today, we drove out to Finisterre and Muxia.  As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, these 2 places are now being considered more and more a continuation of the Camino, after visiting Santiago.  Both are on the coast.  Finisterre was visited often back in the Middle Ages because it was considered to be "the end of the world" (finis is "end", and terre is "earth", so it's name literally means "end of the earth").  It was thought to be the point farthest west on all of continental Europe, and since people thought the world was flat back then, the point farthest to the west was considered the end (looking at a map now, it appears there are parts of Portugal that are actually further west, but hey, this was back in the Middle Ages so we should cut them some slack).

There is a nice lighthouse out on the point of Finisterre, and there were also really nice beaches in the town of Langosteria, which is right before Finisterre.  There is a tradition for some of the pilgrims who go to Finisterre to leave something there.  Typically it was shoes, or socks, or something else that got worn out along the way.  Álso, we saw a lot of fire pits in amongst the rocks, so we were guessing that people came out to watch the sunset and built a small fire to stay warm.  And there were also some stacks of stones called cairns, which people built as a good luck "charm".   We saw a lot of these cairns along the Camino.  And lastly, there were a couple of crosses that people had made from sticks and then stuck them in the ground.  The first picture is looking across the way to Finisterre to the left and Langosteria to the right (with the nice long, curved beach).  The second picture is of us at the outcropping that extends beyond the lighthouse at Finisterre, looking up the coastline.

While Muxia was also right on the coast, it definitely had a different feel to it.  It was down closer to the water, and the rocks were much bigger and went out more gradually into the water, so you could go out and climb around on them.  You could also see that the water came in pretty far at high tide.  But what probably created the most difference was the church that was built out on the point in Muxia, which is the final picture (you can also see the Muxia lighthouse just to the left of the church).  Unfortunately, the church was hit by lightening back in November, which caused a fire.  Hence, all the scaffolding around the building for restoration work.  Anyway, the rounded rocks and the church made for a more serene feel to the whole place.  And there were a lot fewer people, too, which made it quieter as well.

All in all, Linda and I both agreed that if we had had more time, we would have really enjoyed hiking out to both Finisterre and Muxia and spending an extra day out there (the beaches would make for some good R&R as well).  People told us it takes 3 days to hike from Santiago to Finisterre, and 1 day to go from Finisterre to Muxia.  So for any of you who are considering doing the Camino, I would highly recommend adding this on to your trip if you can.

Sept 29: Santiago day 2

The attached pictures are of some more scenes from Santiago.  The first one is of the cathedral at night.  A lot of the churches in Spain are lit up at night with the lights pointing up at them, making them look even more spectular (of course, they look even better if they don't have scaffolding covering them).

The second picture is of the wooden choir loft that used to be in the main Santiago cathedral but is now in the Saint Martin's church in Santiago.  The amazing thing about the choir seating is it was all carved out of walnut back in the late 1500s.  As you can see, there are two levels of seating.  Looking vertically, there are typically 3 sets of carvings, but each set of vertical carvings is of one of the Catholic saints.  The first, lowest level carving (which makes up the back of the first level seat) is usually a carving of the saint from the waist up.  The middle level carving (which is on the back of the second level seating) is a full body carving.  And then the uppermost carving, which is above the second level seating, is from a key moment in that saint's life (for those saints who were martyred, they typically depicted the martyrdom itself, which in some cases was pretty gross).

The final picture is of a band of guys who were dressed like minstrels that we found on the big square right in front of the Santiago cathedral.  We were walking back from dinner a little after 10pm, and we thought we would go by the church to see how it looked lit up at night.  When we got to the main square, we could hear this music and clapping, and saw a bunch of people gathered together.  So we walked on over to see what was going on, and we came across these ministrels.  We stayed for some songs and also to talk with some people we had met along the Camino, but around 10:45pm we decided it was time to head to the hotel to go to bed.  We are getting up tomorrow and renting a car to drive out to Finisterre and Muxia.  These are 2 other sites that are often associated with the Camino, even back to medieval times.  It is becoming more popular nowadays for pilgrims to continue their hike on out to these 2 locations, but it takes at least 3 days to walk to Finisterre and another day to walk to Muxia, and we just don't have that kind of time.  So we're going to drive out there, and then back to the airport for our flight to Barcelona.  Then Wednesday, we'll fly from Barcelona back to the States.

Sept 28: we made it!!

Today, we hiked into Santiago.  In order to make it in time to attend the 12 noon Mass (which is the Pilgrims Mass), we decided to set our alarm for 4:45am.  We got on the road around 6:30am, so it was still very dark out.  Just as we were about to leave the road at the end of O'Pedrouzo and enter the woods, we met a woman from Ireland named Mary.  Between her handheld flashlight and the one on our cell phone, we were able to negotiate our way through the woods, avoiding the roots and large stones while also keeping track of the markers telling us which way to go.  Sometimes we could see the lights from other Pilgrims, so we would follow those, but always we were looking for the yellow arrows to confirm that we hadn't inadvertently left the trail (and thus were acting like a bunch of lemmings).  Once the sun came up, Linda and I both agreed that we preferred walking with some daylight, but it was interesting to try hiking in the dark, as we had heard about so many other people who'd done it.

We arrived at our hotel in Santiago around 11am.  You're not allowed to bring backpacks into the Cathedral, so we wanted to drop our stuff off before going to the mass.  We arrived at the Cathedral around 11:25, and it was already packed.  I found a ledge for us to lean against.  Some poor unfortunate souls who had found a primo spot on the stairs were later told they needed to move because it was a fire hazard for them to be there.  The whole reason we were pushing so hard to make today's mass instead of just waiting until tomorrow is that we had heard that the botafumeiro (swinging incense-burner) would be used on Sunday.  That is one of the things we really wanted to see, and from some research on the internet a couple of nights ago, we found out that there are only certain days when the botafumeiro definitely swings (typically only holy days).  However, if there is a large enough tour group and they are willing to pay, the church will swing the botafumeiro for them.  The group of girls Linda talked to were seniors in high school, and every year their school scheduled this trip just for the seniors. They said they their school had arranged for the botafumeiro to swing on Sunday when they were there, so we hustled to ensure we got to experience this very cool event.

The first picture below is of the outside of the cathedral in Santiago.  As you can see, it is undergoing some restoration.  The church dates back to the 12th and 13th centuries. It has a fabulous door with amazing carvings called the Door of Glory that was built in the 1100's.  Tradition was for people to place their hand on the central column of this entry way when they first arrived, but the marble has been so worn down over the centuries that they no longer allow it.  The doors were undergoing heavy restoration, too, so we don't have any really good photos of them.  In the picture, you can also see all of the people (particularly Pilgrims) hanging out in front of the church.  It was the main meeting place for everyone.  After Mass, we sat and had lunch in the square, and saw several people come in from their hike that day that we had met along the Camino.

The second photo is of the botafumeiro swinging from one section of the transept in the church to the other (so it swings perpendicular to the long part of the church).  It requires 6 men to pull on the ropes to get this thing going, but when they get it going, it really swings high.  It is filled with incense.  It's said that the practice of using the botafumeiro started centuries ago because of all of the smelly pilgrims attending the service, and I can attest to the fact that we did not have time to take a shower before going to the Pilgrim's Mass.  The final photo is of the relics of Saint James.  They are in a silver casket, which is underneath the altar.  In the church, they keep the area behind the altar open for people to visit, even during the service.  But the people are pretty much blocked from the view of the rest of the church, so you only notice them when they are being ushered into the back as they enter from the sides of the church.  

After our early morning departure, we are going to need a nap this afternoon, but we are staying 2 nights in Santiago, so I'll post some more pictures of the city in tomorrow's blog.

Sept 27: 1 day and counting

Today we hiked from Castaneda to O Pedrouzo, about 25km.  However, before getting into that, I wanted to share a picture Linda took of the inside of a church dedicated to Saint James (Igrexa Santiago) that was in the town of Boente, just before Castaneda.  The view is of the altar, and Saint James appears 2 times.  He's at the very top, riding a white horse and holding a flag that has the red Saint James cross on it.  When he is portrayed this way, he is Santiago Matamoros, which means Saint James killer of Moors.  Back in the 1200s through 1400s there was a lot of fighting in Spain between the Christians and the Moors, and the Christians often invoked Saint James to help them in these battles.  The second place where Saint James appears on the altar is smack dab in the middle, where he appears as a pilgrim, wearing his hat with the scallop shells in the top and cloak.  This is the milder, calmer Saint James.

The second photo is of the inside of our room in Castaneda.  The hotel was called Pazo de Sedor, and it was a 400-year-old stone manor house that had been converted into a boutique hotel (I call it boutique because there are only 14 rooms in the whole place, and it has more of a homey feel, ie. there's no reception desk, but there are two different sitting rooms with comfortable chairs, and one of the sitting rooms has a fireplace).  Anyway, as you can see from the picture, a lot of the original stone walls are still in place and being used.  And these walls are typically 2 feet thick.  Also, it had a swimming pool and a tennis court.  Linda took advantage of the pool to cool off her feet.  The tennis court was untouched (somehow, we didn't find room to pack our racquets :-).  This place was about 1 km off of the Camino.  We were told about it by some other people from Cincinnati who had done the Camino a couple of years ago (thanks Roger), and we were thankful for the nice stay there, as it was out in the country and very relaxing (and very popular, too, as the night we were there all 14 rooms were booked).

The third picture is of eucyplytus trees.  They have been around a lot the last 2 days, and when you see the trees they are all in exact rows, so you know they were purposely planted there.  In the picture, the left hand side of the road are the more mature trees that are getting close to being harvested, and on the right side of the road are some younger trees.  The interesting thing about eucyplytus trees is it appears that the shape of their leaves change as they get older.  They go from looking somewhat like maple leaves to something that is much longer and skinnier.  Actually, on some of the "teenager" trees, you can find both kinds of leaves on the same tree.  Anyway, they are not native to this area.  Our guide book says they were brought in for the pulp industry, and there have been a couple of times when we have heard a lot of chainsaws hard at work, but we still appreciated the nice shade they provided along our hike.

Sept 26: Galician corn cribs

There are a lot of farms in Galicia.  One of the distinguishing characteristics, though, versus other farms in Spain is they have built little elevated structures to store their corn in.  The following are some pictures that Linda has taken of some of the different corn cribs we've seen as we've been hiking in Galicia.  If you look closely, you'll notice there is a lip about one-third of the way up, just under the main structure that the corn is stored in.  This lip is to keep the rodents out (sort of like how some people put metal rims around their bird feeders to keep the squirrels from getting into the bird food).  As you can see, the structures are all very similar.  The main differentiation is how they decorate them, ie. their color, or the types of spikes they put on the top of each structure.  These corn cribs are so common that some people even use them for decoration.  We even saw one miniature corn crib where one half served as a mailbox and the other half for bread to be delivered in.

One other thing about hiking in Galicia: while we have definitely enjoyed all of the green and all of the trees, there is one drawback.... the smell.  I have mentioned before about all of the wonderful "presents" that the cows (and horses) have left along the Camino.  Well, they use the same dung to fertilize their fields.  So even if there is no caca on the path that we are walking on, if the wind is blowing in the wrong direction, you still get a strong order of dung.  And if there isn't any dung, there is another smell that sometimes permeates the air: rotting fruit.  There have been a lot of apple and pear trees along the Camino in Galicia, and a lot of the fruit falls to the ground, where it begins to decompose.  And as you all know, the smell of decomposing fruit is not pleasant.  So again, while we have definitely enjoyed the change of scenery,the cooler hiking weather, and the clouds/fog, the smell is one other thing that will always stick in my mind about hiking through Galacia.

Speaking of hiking, it's hard to believe we only have 2 days left on the Camino.  As I near the end of this trip, it is with mixed emotions.  I am definitely looking forward to seeing family and friends again, and to sleeping in our own bed.  However, my body has gotten into a bit of a rythm, now that we have a routine and I have gotten over my physical issues.  It feels like I have finally learned to not be so focused on just reaching the next destination, but to also take the time to enjoy the scenery and appreciate other small things along the way.  And I have also enjoyed the quiet time for my brain when we are hiking, to contemplate whatever comes to mind.  It's also been fun exploring all of the history along the Camino, as well as meeting all of the people, and the camaraderie and caring among the fellow pilgrims.  I hope to carry some of these new habits and learnings going forward, and incorporate them into my life going forward, so I can to be more "in the present" and enjoy more what I have versus worrying about what I don't have, or worrying so much about the future.

Sept 25: who would have thought we would need gloves

When I did my research for our trip, I checked on weather.com what the temperatures were supposed to be like in September for various cities along the Camino.  It said that it would be between the mid 50's and the mid 70's.  However, the first 2 weeks, the temperature was in the 90's (some people said it even got into the upper 90's).  And today and tomorrow, the low is in the mid 40's.  When we left this morning a little after 8am, it was around 47 degrees, which makes our metal hiking poles feel very cold in our hands.  Linda was smart enough to buy gloves back in Astorga, when it first started to get cool.  I, however, have resorted to just sticking my hands up inside my jacket and holding the hiking sticks through the sleeves.  The first picture is of the fog envoloping a bridge we crossed as we left Portomarin. The fog didn't lift until around 9am, when we got to higher altitudes.  However, later in the day, the weather was great for hiking, with a high in the upper 60's.  So by 11am, we both were down to shorts and a short sleeved shirt, and it felt wonderful (which is good, because we did roughly 29.5 km in total today).

The second and third pictures are of a detour we took today to see the church that acted as the "home base" for the Knights of Santiago, a group that helped protect and defend pilgrims for over 600 years (starting in the 1200's and going until the 1800's, per the guide at the church).  The first picture is of some of the sepulchres used for the knights who were buried underneath the floor of this church.  The second picture is of murals that were drawn back in the 1400's in the altar area of the church.  The church is a national monument in Spain.  It's 2.3 km off the Camino, and we definitely thought it was worth the extra 4.6 km to go out and back to see this special place.

Sept 24: road to Portomarin

Today we hiked 22.4 km to Portomarin.  The first photo is of the steps leading up into the city of Sarria, where we started today.  You can see the yellow arrow at the bottom of the steps, letting all the pilgrims know that this is the path they are supposed to follow.  We actually already walked up this set of steps 2 times yesterday, first when we were exploring Sarria, and later when we went out to dinner.  By the way, we found an Italian place that served a Pilgrim's menu for 10 Euro.  It was great to have something else to eat other than chicken, fish or very thin steak.  It was so good, we stopped by the same place for breakfast, which was a buffet for only 5 Euro.  A nice change for us.

The second picture is of a bridge leaving Sarria.  Our guidebook said the name of the bridge was Ponte Aspera, which means Rough Bridge.  And it was an accurate name, as it was extremely bumpy crossing it.  I can't imagine riding a bike on it.  As mentioned in yesterday's blog, we are also seeing a significant increase in the number of pilgrims on the Camino.  We met a couple from Milwaukee who just started today from Sarria.  Add in the 50 teenagers.  We also met two couples from Seattle, all around 60 yrs old.  However, they've been hiking since Pamplona.  One of the couples even hiked across the USA about 10 years ago.  They said it took them 6 months and 3 weeks, and they only planned in advance for roughly 25% of the places they stayed.  The rest of the places they slept, they just relied on the kindnesss of strangers.

The final picture is of the bridges leading into Portomarin.  You can see the city in the background (population roughly 2,000).  If you look closely, you'll notice over Linda's backpack an older, smaller bridge.  Our guidebook says the original bridge was from medieval times, but back in 1962, they built a dam which created a reservoir in this valley. The lower bridge is what was used previously.  The newer, higher bridge was built with the dam.  You can see that the water must be low relative to where it normally is because the older bridge easily crosses the water right now (there's also a white ramp to the right of the old bridge which ends where the water should be beginning).  I also included a picture that Linda took from up on the higher bridge (which we had to walk over), looking down river.  You can see that a lot of the stone foundations are still in place from before the dam.  Our guidebook says they did move a few things before creating the reservoir, like the 12th century cathedral and some other historical monuments.  But they left everything else.  I guess when the reservoir is high enough, it's all just under water.

Sept 23: from Triacastela to Sarria

Today was our second shortest hike of the Camino: 18.7 km or a little over 11 miles.  We had another morning walking through the clouds, and we also got some rain again in the latter part of the morning.  The first picture is of some of the clouds as they started to roll in.  Again, though, just a slight drizzle that stopped after about 45 minutes.  But we pulled out the ponchos again because Linda just did laundry yesterday and we didn't want our clothes to get wet.

The second photo is from our hike today.  It's a stone walkway that was built to circumvent a stream that was running through the middle of the path we were on.  The 2 men who are closest to the camera are from Spain.  We met them on the steep hike up to O'Cebreiro 2 days ago.  Unfortunately, they couldn't find a place to stay there that night, so they had to hike back 3km to the last town to find beds.  We have definitely noticed an increase in the number of pilgrims on the Camino.  And from all that we have read, it's only going to get heavier starting in Sarria (where we are staying now).  In order to earn a "compostela" in Santiago, one has to walk at least 100 km.  Sarria is 110 km from Santiago, so it is a starting point for a lot of people.  Actually, tonight as we were walking back to our hotel, we came across what we estimated to be at least 50 teenagers, almost all of them wearing clothes that referenced walking the Camino in 2014.  So it looks like they are going to be one of the groups joining us in Sarria.  Oh joy, just what we need for our last week on the Camino, a bunch of teenagers :-(.

With the increase in the number of pilgrims, it will also increase some of the pressure for those people who are staying in the albergues to get to the next town and get their beds before all of they fill up (like what happened to our Spanish friends back in O'Cebreiro).  And Galicia is not a place where you want to sleep outside.  It's been in the low 50's/upper 40's at night, and there is usually a lot of moisture in the air, due to the mountains.  Today, after exploring the town of Sarria, we were walking back to our hotel around 4pm and we saw at least 10 different small groups of people just arriving.  Three of them stopped us and asked where the albergues were.  Our hearts really went out to these people, because they looked so tired and if all of the albergues are filled, the next closest town is another 4.2 km away.

The last picture is of the church steeple in Triacastela (the little white figure is Santiago or Saint James).  We attended what I think was the most personable Mass there last night.  The priest was very friendly.  Every person who came into the church, he told them to come up to the front where everyone else was (there were about 25 of us in total).  He also had Janet (a woman from Minnesota who is traveling with a group of friends who we run into frequently, and who's parents are from Argentina) translate the "sermon" for us.  The key takeaways I had were: we need to live more in the present, not in the past.  We also need to be happier.  He commented a couple of times that we all looked like we were attending a funeral.  And he also said we need to help each other out more, like Jesus did.  At one point, he had us hug those near us versus shaking their hands.  And in closing, he had us all hold hands as we said the Lord's Prayer.  He also threw in a couple of jokes, to keep things on the light side (at one point, one person's cell phone started ringing, and the priest said it must be God calling).  He said he has been serving as the priest there for almost 35 years, and the town of Triascastela only has 900 people, so he really must enjoy serving the pilgrims, because they probably make up the majority of the people in his church on any given day.  Bottom line, it was all very heartfelt, and it definitely touched me (at least more than some of the other Masses we have attended, which have tended to be more formal and completely in Spanish).

Sept 22: from O'Cebreiro to Triacastela

The first picture below is from when we were leaving O'Cebreiro early this morning.  Our book had mentioned that oftentimes it can be foggy in the morning, to the point that some of the nearby mountain tops look like little islands poking up from the clouds.  While Linda did capture a picture that was just like that, I thought this photo was even more amazing with the morning sun just starting to cast an orange glow in the background.  There's something about being above the clouds that's really awe inspiring.  We stopped many times in our early morning hike just to gawk at the scenery.

The second photo is what much of the path of the Camino is now like, with rocky dirt paths, lots of vegetation nearby, and trees sometimes over head.  Very different from the brown, dusty open field hiking we did just a week ago.  Galicia also gets a fair amount of rain.  We got some today, but it was just a drizzle.  It was enough, though, for us to get our ponchos out for the first time, but the rain didn't last that long.  We've been very fortunate so far when it comes to rain.  Let's hope our luck continues.  And we're both very happy that we brought some warmer clothes with us, as the temperature this morning was 49 when we started.  It warmed up some, but when the rain came, it cooled back down again.  I think we'll continue to be adding on and taking off layers of clothing throughout the day as the week progresses.

The last picture is of some cows that we literally ran into along the Camino.  A couple of times today we came across farmers who were either leading their cows out to pasture or bringing them back in.  While it was funny to have them walking right past us, the one big drawback is the cows also tend to leave a lot of "presents" for us on the path.  With the rain and some of the rocky roads we were on, at times it became impossible to not step in some form of cow dung.  Fortunately, when we come into a town, the cows stop there and we can try and knock the stuff off the bottom of our shoes as we walk along the streets (I'm sure the locals are used to it, as they have to deal with it on a daily basis).

Sept 21: the knights who say "nee"

For those of you not familiar with the knights who say "nee", that comes from the Monty Python movie "The Holy Grail".  It's a great movie, if you like British humor.  Anyway, I thought I would take this opportunity to share some photos of some castles we've seen the last couple of days on the Camino. 

The first 2 pictures are of a fabulous castle in Ponferrada.  Back in the 1100's, it started as a Knights Templar castle that was used to protect the pilgrims on the Camino.  However, as some of you may know, the Knights Templar were dissolved by the Catholic Church in the early 1300's (supposedly with a lot of pushing by the French king at the time, who happened to owe the Knights Templars a lot of money and who also happened to be the brother of the pope at the time.  Furthermore, many of the Knights Templar who lived in France were burned at the stake, and many of the remaining Knights sought refuge in Spain).  Anyway, other Spanish nobility added on significantly to the original Knights Templar castle, to create a trully significant castle in the region with multiple levels of defense (one being the river that you can see in the second photo with the castle in the background.  There is even a tunnel that runs down to the river to give the castle access to water should it come under seige).  Many parts of the original walls remain.  However, there has also been a significant amount of restoration done to help people get a feel for what a real castle would have been like in its heyday, which was very cool to see.

The third picture is of the castle in Villafranca de Bierzo.  It dates back to the 15th century and is pretty much as it was back then.  Unfortunately, we were not able to get in to see the interior of this castle.

Today we hiked to O'Cebreiro, which is in the province of Galicia.  Provinces are like our states, and then they have regions within their provinces.  We've walked across 4 provinces now, Navarra, Rioja, Castilla y Leon, and Galicia.  Today's hike concluded with a 600 meter (1,800 foot) ascent.  We saw dark clouds in the distance and heard thunder, so we moved along at a pretty good pace.  Galicia is know for it's unpredictable weather, particularly rain.  Interestingly, it also has a strong Celtic influence.  I guess being near the coast they had earlier contact with the Celts and absorbed a fair amount of that.  They were even playing bagpipe music in one of the local stores in O'Cebreiro.  Our book said that we would see a significant difference in culture and weather when we entered the Galicia province, and they weren't kidding.  Also of note: 1 week from today we will walk into Santiago.  We are contemplating whether to get up really early to make the 12 noon mass for the pilgrims (that would probably require us to start hiking around 6:30am, when it is still dark). There is a noon mass for pilgrims every day, but we aren't clear yet if they swing the fumador (the large incense burning thing) for every mass or just the Sunday mass.  We'll have to see if we can get more definitive information as we get closer to Santiago.

One last point of interest: it's 8pm here, and we are sitting in the bar of our hotel right now.  We are watching the Redskins play the Eagles on tv while following the Bengals game on Linda's phone.  So the NFL has definitely gone international, because the game was already on the tv when we came in and nobody has asked to change the channel since.  Except of course Linda, who asked the bartender if it was possible to get the Bengals game on the tv, but unfortunately it was not available (hence, following the Bengals on the phone).

Sept 20: back in the land of vino

The last few days, we've been seeing a lot more vineyards as we've been hiking.  The last time we saw this many grapes in the field was in the Rioja region.  The region we are in now is called Briezo.  There has been a lot of advertising along the way for wines from this region, and also for some of the local wineries.  We've even seen a couple of wine cooperatives the past 2 days (one that offered a glass of wine and a tapa for 1.50 Euros, but we still had about 10 km or 6 miles to hike, so we passed on the offer). 

The first  picture is of a bottle of wine from our dinner last night.  Of note: wine here costs the same as bottled water, and is cheaper than soft drinks and most fruit drinks, ie orange juice.  Typically, when Linda and I buy a pilgrim's menu, that includes a first course, a second course, a dessert, bread and a bottle of wine for us to split.  All for 10 Euros each, or roughly $26 in total.  And it's a lot of food, too.  Anyway, the label on the wine bottle in the picture is actually the name of the restaurant where we ate (Meson Puente Romano, or Roman Bridge House, since it was right next to the bridge that I included in yesterday's post).  It wasn't a fancy place, either, but it appears there are enough wine growers around here that they're willing to put in the effort to place a private label on a bottle of wine that gets served as part of the pilgrim's dinner.  And the wine was good, too.  Not knock your socks off good, but very easy to drink.

The second picture comes from today's walk along the Camino.  As we were going along, we came across a man in this little building who was making his own wine.  He called it his "hobby".  He has his hand resting on his homemade wine press.  In front of the wine press, you can see inset into the floor a big bucket.  When he turns the wine press, the grape juice is squeezed out the bottom of the barrel and into that big bucket.  He then would take the smaller bucket that he is currently holding, and transfer the grape juice into the silver vat that is behind and to the right of the wine press, where he then ferments the juice until it becomes wine (I have the feeling there is no oak involved in this fermentation process, as I didn't see any barrels anywhere and this is a one man operation).  Anyway, he gave us a taste of the grape juice that was coming out of the press.  It was obviously very sweet, and very refreshing (particularly as we were about two-thirds into our 18 mile hike at this point in time).  

The third photo is of some of the people we saw out in the fields harvesting the grapes.  They did it the old fahioned way, picking the bunches of grapes, putting them in a soft plastic bucket, and when that was full carrying it over to a tractor with a trailer that all of the grapes were dumped into.  Most of the people seemed to be having a good time, although it looked like back-breaking work, particularly as most of the vines were not attached to trellises,  so the grapes were lower to the ground.  Thankfully, it wasn't too hot. The high today was probably in the mid 70's.  I'm not sure how long the harvest season lasts here, but they are going to need to get a lot more people out in the fields in order to get all of the grapes that we saw that appeared to be ready to be picked.

The last photo is of a winery that was in the town of Villafranca de Bierzo, as we were walking to our hotel.  The men were unloading the grapes from the trailers and putting the them into a press that squeezed out the juice.  And then the grape juice would be transported to the big silver vats to the right in the photo for fermentation.  So a process very similar to the older gentleman, just larger in scale and more automated.

Sept 19: go tell it on the mountain

Linda's shin was feeling better this morning, so we decided to hike from Rabanal del Camino to Molinaseca, about 26.5 km.  It was drizzling when we left, but the sun was also out, and we saw a very vivid rainbow in front of us, so we took that as a good sign and continued on our way.  One of the things we really wanted to do today was add our stones to the base of the Iron Cross.  This is a cross that sits atop a wooden pole that is probably at least 30 feet tall.  It marks the highest point for the entire part of the French Camino at 4,934 feet above sea level.  Our book doesn't say how long this tradition of adding a stone has been going on, but you can see from the pile of rocks in the first picture that it's been quite a while.  The picture is of the 2 of us adding the stones we each brought from our garden back home.  Some people also left messages or little banners, or even pictures of loved ones.

The second picture is of the clouds that were up in the mountains (with the ever present wind turbines also along the ridge line on the right).  It drizzled on us off and on, but nothing that required us to get our heavy duty ponchos out.  The only thing was when the sun came out, then we would get too hot and have to take off some layers.  When we left this morning, it was in the upper 50's, and I would guess that by the time we finished hiking around 5pm, it was around 80.  And depending on the sun, wind and rain, it would vacillate anywhere between 10 to 15 degrees.  But it was great to see everything green again.  It hasn't been this green since our first few days on the Camino.  And we also got to hear the sound again of cows, sheep and goats walking around with their bells on.  It's really a great sound to hear.  Very soothing.  Some of the goats were so close to us that Linda video taped them.  But due to network issues, I don't think I can post something that takes that much memory.  You can ask Linda to see it when we get back :-)

The last picture is of the town of Molinaseca.  Linda took this as we were entering the village.  It seemed so picturesque we felt we needed to capture it.  The bridge dates back to medieval times and is for foot traffic only, and the church in the background is from the 17th century. The whole town seems to be like stepping back in time a little bit (although I can attest that all of the facilities in our bathroom are up to date, including a fully enclosed shower area to minimize any water getting out).  We're looking forward to having dinner outside next to the little river that runs through the town.

Two other little tidbits.  First, today's hike started at 1,150 meters (to get an estimate on what that is in feet, multiply by 3).  We then climbed to 1,505 meters, and by the end of the day we had descended to 610 meters.  So today was a lot of up and down, with more downhill than up hill, and both Linda and I think downhill is harder.  So we should sleep well tonight.  Second, we had an interesting experience last night.  We attended a Benedictine Mass, and 90% of the service was in Gregorian chants.  And to make things even more interesting, about half of those chants involved congregation participation.  And to top it all off, all of the chants were in Latin!! It was written down for us (with an English translation as well), but it was still very challenging.  Linda has had some practice with Latin from being in choir, but I'm sure I butchered over 90% of the words.  Still, it was interesting take part in a service like this with the chanting, and even more interesting to participate.

Sept 18: more Astorga

We decided to take a taxi today to the next town of Rabanal del Camino.  Linda's shin splints continue to be very painful and today's hike didn't really offer much in terms of sites to see along the way.  But most of all, there are some segments coming up that we really want to be able to hike, so we want to make sure Linda is as healed as possible.  Hence, a day off from hiking sounded like the right thing to do.

The good news is that in Rabanal del Camino there is an Albergue that has a person who specializes in physiotherapy to help the pilgrims.  Linda saw him and got an excruciating massage on her left shin & calf, plus the name of a homeopathic anti-inflammatory she should use.  And, as often happens on the Camino, on her way back to the hotel, Linda ran into a French woman who we have seen frequently during our hikes.  Linda explained about her shin splints and the arnica pills she wanted to find, and the French woman happened to have some with her.  Furthermore, this was her last day on the Camino, so in true pilgrim fashion, she insisted on giving Linda the rest of her arnica.  She said she worked in a drug store and could easily get more when she returned to France.  It was a wonderful thing to do, and as I mentioned, very consistent with the whole mindset of everyone who is on the Camino.  While in Astorga, we also bought Linda some compression socks for her lower calf, to hold the muscle and tendons closer to her shin bone (since shin splints are the muscle and tendons pulling away from that bone).  So hopefully Linda will be able to resume hiking tomorrow.

Instead of hiking, we decided to explore Astorga a little bit more.  Astorga is another walled city that still retains the majority of its walls.  As I mentioned in yesterday's post, it also has some Roman ruins that are still in good condition considering they are almost 2,000 years old.  We decided to explore the cathedral and the Bishop's palace.  The cathedral dates back to the 12th century, and like so many other cathedrals here, it was very impressive.  The first picture below is of the outside of the cathedral.  However, the Bishop's Palace was even more interesting.  It isn't really a Bishop's palace.  It's a museum.  Furthermore, it was built by Gaudi, so it was very interesting architecturally.  The outside was neat, but the inside was what was really fabulous.   It was very open, making it flow from one room to the next.  Also there were arched ceilings on every floor, and lots of stained glass to let light in, which allowed you to see the pieces that were on display really well.  There was an area with items dedicated to the pilgrims.  And as would be expected, there was also a lot of art that was church related.  And in the basement there was a whole display of Roman artifacts.  There were several stones from the 2nd century where we could clearly read what had been etched in Latin (and the museum also provided a Spanish translation next to each).  The second picture in the blog is of the outside of the Bishop's palace, and the third and fourth pictures are of the inside.

Sept 18: some selfies

Just for fun, I thought I would post a few pictures of Linda and myself.  The first photo is in Leon.  We are sitting with our good friend, Anton Gaudi.  There is a statue of him, right in front of his building in one of the plazas, and in the statue he is actually working on a sketch of his building.  The second picture is of us with all of our gear and a pilgrim statue in front of Saint Marks in Leon.  The final picture is from the castle in Burgos, looking out at the Burgos Cathedral.

Sept 16: other sites in Leon

I thought I would throw in a couple of other sites that we saw when we were in Leon.  The first picture is of San Isidoro, which is an 11th century church that was built on a Roman foundation and is also built into the medieval city wall.  We went to Pilgrim's Mass last night in San Isidoro.  The priest gave a very nice blessing to all of the pilgrims at the end of the service, and then afterward even personally dated the stamp that was entered on everyone's credencial. 

The second picture is of a building that was built by Gaudi.  It's not quite as dramatic as some of his buildings in Barcelona, but it was still very striking in the plaza where it resides.  The final picture is of San Marcos, which was on the road out of town.  This was originally a pilgrim hospital built in the 12th century to honor Saint Mark.  It then became the headquarters of the Knights of the Order of Santiago, which was created to help protect the pilgrims along the Camino.  It has a lot of pilgrim symbols on it, like the scallop shells, the sword of Santiago, and metal medallions of each of the major cities along the Camino.  As you can see, it's very impressive looking.  Actually, a large part of this has been turned into a parador, one of the government-owned high-end hotels.  And who should we see this morning up on one of the balconies of San Marcos when we were out taking pictures of this fabulous place, but Don and Kim, who were in one of our previous pictures and with whom we have shared several23wesdzx/. dinners.  They were actually staying in the room where the parador scene was shot from the movie The Way.  Supposedly Francisco Franco (former dictator of Spain in the mid 1900's) also stayed in that room.  Anyway, it was great to see them, as they are staying on and they will not arrive in Santiago until after we have left.  So it was a chance to share some final goodbyes and email addresses (I'm sure all of the other people around us appreciated us yelling back and forth, as they were up on the 3rd floor).

Today we walked from Leon to Villar de Mazarife.  It was 22.2 km.  Walking through the suburbs & industrial section of Leon was not nearly as nice as the old inner city.  However, after about 5 miles, we got out into the countryside, with wide open spaces and less traffic.  At times, the Camino provides two options: one is along some of the more major roads and connects larger towns.  The other is through the countryside, with stays in much smaller towns (Villar de Mazarife has a population of around 400 people).  Obviously, we are taking the more rural route.  The positive is that the walk is much more pleasant.  The one drawback is that there are fewer places to choose from when looking for someplace to stay.  Tonight we are staying in our first albergue.  While many albergues have large rooms that a number of people sleep in all together, the one that we are staying in does have private rooms.  However, there are only 2 bathrooms for all 7 rooms to share (and there are probably around 15 people staying in these 7 rooms, so this should be interesting, particularly in the morning :-).  Anyway, we are chalking this up as one of those "cultural experience opportunities" when taking part in the Camino.

Sept 17: on to Astorga

Today was our longest hike of the whole trip -- we walked 31.2 km (roughly 19 miles).  Unfortunately, Linda has been battling shin splints the last 3 days, so it was tough.  She's been stretching it, icing it down at most of our stops, and also applying the anti-inflammatory that we bought for my foot.  It's still causing a fair amount of pain (although it seems to come and go at times, too), so she is going to do some research tonight to see if there is anything else she can be doing to help it get better.  If anyone has any advice for shin splint relief, please email her.

Also, our stay last night in an albergue (a bit like a youth hostel) was interesting.  As I mentioned in my last post, we had a private room with 2 twin beds, and there were 7 bedrooms with roughly 15 people in them, all sharing 2 bathrooms.  All of our doors (including the bathrooms) opened onto the same hallway.  So throughout the night, you could hear people making trips to the bathroom (particularly one bathroom that had a door that required a lot of force to close all of the way).  Also, one of the people sleeping in the room next to ours woke up a little before 5am to start his/her day.  Wanting some light and thinking of the people they were sharing the room with, this person moved all of their stuff out in the hall and proceeded to pack their backpack out there.  What they didn't think about was now everyone else could hear them packing before departing.  Bottom line, our stay in the albergue reconfirmed for us that we did the right thing by booking our hotel rooms in advance.

On our hike to Astorga, we crossed a bridge with a fascinating history.  According to our book (and also a sign posted at the bridge), in 1434 there was a man named Don Suero de Quinones who loved a woman, but she did not love him back.  To impress her and earn his honor back, he challenged all of the knights in Europe to a match on the bridge over the river Orbigo (the bridge in the picture).  For 30 days there were matches, and Don Suero won all of them.  Don Suero and his 10  comrades who helped him in these matches then traveled to Santiago to offer their thanks for returning his honor and for freeing him from the bonds of love.  As you can see, it's a very impressive bridge with 16 arches in it.  It is one of the longest and best preserved medieval bridges in Spain.  It dates back to the 13th century and was built on top of an earlier Roman bridge.  No cars use the bridge, only people.  And from a sign at the bridge, it appears they still have jousting and other medieval matches beside it during a festival in the summer.

The second picture is of a cross that is on a hill overlooking Astorga.  It is to honor Saint Toribio, who was a 5th century bishop of Astorga.  Astorga is in the background, and even further in the distance are some of the mountains that we will need to cross.  In two days, we will ascend to 1505 meters, which is even higher than where we crossed the Pyrenees mountains.  We'll have some up and down hiking for about 7 days, before finally coming down to around 500 meters (roughly 1500 feet). 

The other thing that is interesting about Astorga is it has some Roman ruins dating from the 1st century AD to the 4th century AD.  The third picture is of some of those ruins.  Besides just the fact that some of these walls are still standing, the other amazing thing is they created plumbing that provided 3 different temperatures of water to each of the major rooms in the house (obviously, this person was pretty high up in society to have this kind of plumbing.  Not everyone had it, but I was still amazed that they even had the ability to provide this kind of amenity).  Also, there were some mosaics inlaid into a floor in the house that we could clearly still see.