All The Way to Sarria

I have been falling down on the job I guess, because my last blog was from 175 km ago: the day after I left Leon. I am now in Sarria, only 110 km to go to Santiago. I am waiting here for Margriet who is teaching in Venezuela and should be here in about 5 days or so. 

Two days out of Leon I arrived in Astorga, one of the typical, cute Spanish towns in north western Spain. Since I was ahead of schedule I decided to stay an extra day there and found a little hotel on the edge of town. I explored the city and then discovered that I was extremely lucky to have decided to stay there. I was having dinner on the edge of a large plaza when someone stopped in the middle of the plaza and installed a sound system. 
I had seen a stage on the edge of the plaza, but no activity. However that changed rapidly. Within an hour there were hundreds of chairs set up and people came from all sides. It turned into a huge dance festival that entire evening. What a shame that I did not have my camera with me! Beautiful colorful, traditional clothing was worn by the participants, exciting Spanish music with dances on the stage all evening. How lucky I was!

Enough for a few bocadeos, ham sandwiches

After Astorga the terrain stared to change and become much more interesting, more hills, more greenery, more small scale farming, more small villages you walked through, what a difference with the days before Leon. 

The following nights I stayed in some of the nicest little cities Spain has to offer: Rabanal, Molinaseca, Villagranca, Triacatela and finally Sarria. 

Again, the terrain changed more and more, higher and higher hills, more different green colors, steep terrain, difficult hiking through villages where the cows moved through the streets with the resulting slippery surfaces. 

I walked into one of the nicest provinces: Galicia, absolutely gorgeous views down valleys and across hills high enough to be called mountains by some people. Until the last day before Sarria the weather was great. Only the last day I got soaking wet after 6 hours of rain and more rain. 

Sometimes the food is good, sometimes not so much. Last night I had a terrific pizza in an Italian restaurant, a few nights earlier I looked forward to pizza which was advertised on a large sign out front of the restaurant, but it turned out to be a 'Costo' frozen pizza warmed up in the microwave, what a disappointment.  

A few days ago I walked up to one of the highest points on the camino: La Cruz de Ferra, it is a large pile of rocks that is created by the pilgrims. You are supposed to bring a stone from your home area and leave it on the top of this mountain. It was started around the year 1000 by a monk called Gaucelmo. He erected a cross on the site that was an original altar built by the Romans for their god Mercury. Since the 11th century every pilgrims and there have been many millions have brought a stone to put on the pile. Of course it has grown into a large pile over the centuries. Several months ago my grandson Nico gave me a rock he picked up from the beach when we were out walking one day. I told him that I would take that rock with me to Spain to put in a special place. And carry it I did. I did put it on the pile of rocks and made my wish as you may when you bring a rock. Unfortunately that day my ipad refused to take pictures and I could not sent him a picture of my putting it on there. However with my other camera I did did pictures and as soon as I get home I can show him. 

So now I have landed in Sarria. I found a cheap hostel where I can stay this week, found a bookstore with a few English language books and will be just fine holed up for awhile. I"ll check and see if I can catch a bus to Santiago to pick up Margriet from the airport and then we'll take the bus back to Sarria to walk the last 110 km of the camino together. I can't wait to see her after 5 weeks on my own. 
So for about a week there won't be much to report on this blog, hopefully Margriet is experiencing some interesting times and can report on it.
Talk to you next week,
Kees 

Galicia before the rain

Half Way

Landed in Leon, that is half way between Pamplona and Santiago! 
Time for a few days of rest so my feet can get back to normal if they still know what normal means. Found a cheap little hostel next to the cathedral and the first thing I did this morning was to visit the cathedral. It has the largest expense of stained glass of any medieval cathedral in Europe, absolutely beautiful with the sun shining though them from the outside. 

Last night I attended a pilgrims' mass in another church. Did not understand a word of it, but the atmosphere and singing was nice to just sit back and let come over you.   

It has been rather boring the past week, and the next 1-2 days don't promise anything different but based on my memory and judging by my guide the rest of 'The Way' should get more interesting again as well as harder. The elevation maps in my guide are showing some rather high hills in my near future. 

Cathedral of Leon, Spain

My guide is good as far as info about albergues / hostels / refugios and for elevations, other than that it is useless to find your way. However the trail itself is so well marked that you can find it without too much of a problem the entire way. Lots of signs, small as well as large with the well known camino emblem are showing you the way. And if there is not a sign there are arrows on buildings, on corners, on the road itself, on curbs and anywhere you care to look. 
It seems impossible to get lost unless you are not paying attention. It is starting to get busier because several other caminos are joining the main trail. Plus that numerous people are starting their walk somewhere along the trail such as at Burgos or Leon. 
Well, I am taking a few days rest so the next blog might take a few days. 

Of Windmills and Lost Socks

I just sit down for a late lunch and before I notice it I have an open bottle of red wine plus a glass put in front of me. No questions asked about what I want. This is what you drink with your lunch. Fortunately I have already made my bed in the albergue next door and can sleep off my early drink after lunch. 

One of the few Spaniards who doesn't talk all day...

Two days ago I left Burgos and the trail immediately starts rising out of town. I am going up onto the meseta over which I will walk almost the entire next week. It is a high plateau, ranging between 800 meters and 1100 meters. Walking across the top of the table mountain is fine, but hiking up it at a12% slope. Or coming down it at 18% is hard and tiring. However the views across the top seem to go on for ever. Fortunately there is a little wind on top and that makes it quite pleasant because otherwise it can be extremely hot in August on the meseta. Most villages on the meseta are located in a fold of the terrain and you always have to hike down into them and after a drink or lunch back up to the top of the meseta. 

The Spaniards consider themselves great hunters and the result of it is that I have not seen a life animal expect cats and dogs anywhere. No birds in the sky except a few house wrens in the cities or swallows around a church. Not a dear, rabbit or anything else out in the field. Especially on weekends you constantly hear gun shots around you in the fields. What they are shooting at I have no idea because nothing has been left alive around here. Last February I was hiking in Andalusia in southern Spain and thought I noticed evidence of wild boars. However I was told the turned up soils were the result of farmers and their trained pigs looking for truffles. It is earily quiet everywhere you walk, no birds in the sky, no movement in the fields. 

On weekends there also is a noticeable increase in cyclists on the trail. The Spaniards love to go out biking and you better watch out as a hiker, although I must say, 99% of them are very polite. Except that a bike bell does not seem to be part of a mountain bike's equipment and they surprise you time and time again when they come up behind you. 

In one of the last blogs I wrote about how pilgrims travel. On Monday I walked into Burgos and noticed a 'pilgrim' getting on a city bus to take her from the edge of town to downtown. It was not a pretty part of the hike, 1 1/2 hour of walking through traffic and an industrial area, but taking the bus is not part of hiking the Camino in my opinion. 

One of the many changes I see now compared to 15 years ago are the forests of huge windmills. Just like in many other places in the world Spain has taken to building large windmill parks to generate electric power. Smart way to go, but it sure scars the viewscape of the countryside. The other change I may have mentioned, the Spaniards are spending billions on renovating older buildings and building new infrastructure. Everywhere, even over a small village, you see huge construction cranes swinging their loads through the air. 

Three days ago I lost a sock, it took me days to find a sports store that sold the kind of socks I want. Finally this morning I managed to buy a new pair of socks. A few hours later I slide into my sleeping bag to sleep of  the too-much-wine-at-lunch and what do I feel in the bottom of the bag, sure, the lost sock. Now I have at least an extra pair. 

The day I left Burgos I felt energetic and hiked 30 KM, I ended up in a quite village called Hontanas. This morning I did not feel as energetic and only did 20 km, so now I am in Itero de la Vega. (Population 190) so don't look for it on the world map.  

Need to do my laundry so talk to you later.

Will It Be Better the Second Time Around?

In 1999 I walked the Camino the Santiago with my brother Rob. When I mentioned the Camino to people back then, I got a blank stare. Hardly anybody had ever heard of this 1000 year old pilgrim path that runs from the France/Spanish border to Santiago de Compostela in north western Spain, a distance of over 700 km or about 450 miles.
When I mentioned in 2013-2014 to my hiking friends that I was going to walk it again, they either had done it themselves or they knew someone who had done it. This trail has become very popular over the last few decades. Where in 1998 about 50,000 people hiked it, in a recent holy year about 250,000 did the same thing.
In order to qualify to have hiked the Camino you officially only need to do the last 100 km on foot or the last 200 by bike. However, just doing the last 100 is not really 'hiking the camino'. It requires the endurance of the hardships for the full 700 km. Including sore legs, blisters and any inconvenience you can imagine. People have made this pilgrimage since the year 800 and in the Middle Ages literally thousands of people walked it every year. The benefit is, apparently, that you cut your time in hell in half when you walk the Camino. So I figured that if I hike it twice I am scot free and will go straight to heaven :-)

After many months of preparation I was ready to leave. Margriet will join me for the last 100 km (just to be sure she qualifies for half her time in hell). However I will start in Pamplona, the first city after the Pyrenees where the trail starts. The reason I start there is because the first couple of days you only walk downhill and several friends have had to quit right then and there because they got shin splints so bad that they could not continue. When I walked in in 1999 with Rob I joined him there after he had walked from Amsterdam, several thousand kms. Unfortunately Rob succumbed to cancer a few years ago and even though we had promised each other that we would do it again together, we were never able to do so.

So this time I was going to do it by myself, until a few weeks before I left, a mutual friend of Margriet and I, Lies, whom we have known for 45 years, announced that she would join me for the first 2 days. OK, that was fine.
Margriet took me to the airport last Wednesday to get on the plane for (eventually) Pamplona. Victoria, Seattle went fine, no problems with the customs thanks to my Nexus card, on to Amsterdam via Delta Airlines. Ten hours is a long time to sit in a crammed place but at least you can watch as many movies as you want, so it is not too bad. In Amsterdam my luggage arrived no problem, which was an improvement since last February when they left my pack in Paris.
Got on the Iberian Airlines flight to Madrid, but it left 20 minutes late and as a result it lost it landing sequence into Madrid. We circled for an hour and then we had 5 minutes to make the connecting flight. I raced over to that gate and found my friend who was going to join me in Pamplona racing to it at the same time. That was a surprise because we had agreed to meet on the steps of the cathedral in Pamplona the next day at 11 AM. So, we made it but our luggage did not.
Lies went to her hotel 20 minutes from the airport which she had arranged beforehand and I found a hotel close to the airport to await the luggage. Since there are only 2 flights between Madrid and Pamplona a day, it made no sense to sit and wait so I went into Pamplona the next day. I had to buy a few things anyway, so that worked out fine. We explored Pamplona and walked the first 5 km of the Camino through Pamplona. I went to the  airport at 9 PM and lo and behold there were our packs.
The next morning we were planning to leave early, but when I called Lies at her hotel she had not slept well and was not sure she would make it very far that day. By 10 am we did make it to the spot where we had left the trail the previous day. Lies did fine that day, we hiked, climbed and cursed our way though some of the hardest 14 km the Camino can throw at you.

Day 2 announced itself with dark clouds and a forecast of thunderstorms that day. However, we decided to take a chance and go for it. First we had to take a bus to the point where we left the trail yesterday at the southern end of Pamplona. There the real hiking started. Lies did not feel very well and was not sure how far she would make it that day. However, after the first few miles she started to improve and felt a lot better. Lunch at a small village 2 hours out of Pamplona. There we had to make the decision to tackle the hardest pass we would be facing on the first part of the Camino. Or to stay put for the rest of the day. Lies decided that she felt good enough to continue, so off we went. I had trained a lot in hilly country but Lies, living in Rotterdam never had that opportunity and obviously that played a role in her falling behind quickly. However she is a determined person and did make it to the top of the pass and down on the other side. By that time we had done probably 15 km and those were some of the hardest 15 km the pilgrims face in the first half of the Camino. We found a nice refugio in a small village on the other side of the pass and stopped for the night. These refugios are like hostels with 20 or 40 people together in one large room in bunk beds. We had the first pick of the beds, but within a couple of hours the beds filled up in the room. These refugios are between 5 and 10 euros a day and a pilgrims meal is from 10 to 15 euros, ($15.- to 22.50). Not bad, although it does add up after 30 days on the trail.

A quick shower, washing sweaty clothes, a beer and a nap or email and a meal - and we felt better. Lies and I had agreed that we would walk up for 2 or 3 days and then we would each find our own way to Santiago. I wanted to have some time to reflect by myself and be alone.

The changes I noticed compared to 1999 are (at least so far after only a day):
• in 1999 I noticed about a dozen pilgrims the first day on the trail. Today it was more like 50.
• In 1999 there were no mountain bikes on the trail, now there are numerous ones and not always very considered of the slower hikers.
• There are many more refugios, hostels and hotels along the route ( a good thing)
• the trail obviously is much more known and popular. It has become a multimillion dollar tourist attraction for the Spaniards.

These are just the initial changes I noticed between 1999 and 2014. More about it all later.

Hiking in Spain

 While Margriet is freezing her butt off in the Yukon and Toronto I (Kees) decide to find a warmer place to go hiking for a few weeks.
Via Seattle and Paris I make my way to Amsterdam but as soon as I arrived in Amsterdam I noticed how cold it was and miserably windy. My luggage took an extra few hours (and a few more flights from Paris) to arrive and in the mean time I inquired about flights to Spain (southern Spain where it was supposed to be warm). When I finally had my luggage I went into Adam and found the usual hotel on the Overtoom. The next day I tried to get a sim card for all of Europe, but in spite of the fact that you can get those via internet, I could not find an acceptable one in a store. Apparently they are available from some British web sites, but the ones available in A'dam were way too expensive. So I am taking my changes with the wifi in the hostels and B&B's I am staying at.

The next day I found a cheap flight to Malaga in southern Spain and three hours later I was standing between the palm trees. First a bus ride into downtown and a hostel next to the bus station. That evening I had supper at 10 pm outside on a patio because it was so nice and warm. The next day I first wandered through Malaga, especially the old part of the city, was quite nice. That afternoon I took a bus into the hills above Malaga and ended up in a small very cute village called Competa. Found a small B&B stayed there 3 damn cold nights. It was a beautiful old renovated olive mill, more a museum than a hostel, but cold, damp and hardly any heat to speak of. I was probably the first guest there this season and the thick walls had absorbed all the cold from the entire winter and was releasing it on me every night. The plaza in the village had several restaurants and I tried every one. unfortunately they did not start serving supper until about 8 pm, nor could I get breakfast before 8 am. Everything is closed between about 2 and 5 and if you are hungry or thirsty during those times you are out of luck.
The Local tourist office had lots of information about hiking in the hills and for 2 days I found beautiful (very steep) trails through the mountains without my backpack because i spent 3 nights in the same place. The next day I packed up and walked to another village, unfortunately I ran into a bees nest and got stung several times before I got away from it. Stayed overnight in a village high up on a pass, the coldest I have been all winter, including SSI. The next day I went back down and stayed in a B&B from a Dutch couple. A 200 year old farm house which again is cold as ice, but at least the beer and food are good.
In many places I find my English is understood and in some cases I understand their Spanish as long as they use lots of hand gestures. The maps I have to walk on are poor and yesterday I got lost pretty good, but as long as you stay to the roads and not wander off into the hills you are OK.
When I got 5 bee stings a few days ago, I hitch-hiked to the next village and that was no problem. I wrote on a piece of paper the name of the village and the driver dropped me off there. He would not accept any money. The cost of living here is dirt cheap. The hostels are between 20 and 35 euros ( $30-50) and an evening meal is between 8 and 15.
For the last few days of my two week hiking adventure I took a bus down to Malaga and spent 2 days hiking in the old city and surrounding hills. Southern Spain is a wonderful place to spend a few weeks hiking but February is still pretty cold much of the time unless you hug the coast.