Day 12 - Rest day in Palas de Rei

30 September 2018

Walking everyday takes a toll on our bodies, so after going for 6 days non-stop, today was our day for rest. We strolled around the village and stayed in our hotel to recover our energy.

It's amazing how many plants are still in bloom for how late in the season this is. What a beautiful region we are in. (Of course, they get lots of rain throughout much of the year, so we are lucky we have seen such little rain.)

Starting tomorrow, we only have 3 more days of walking before we reach Santiago de Compostela and the end of this journey.

Waking around the village of Palas de Rei is like being in a brilliant tunnel of green vegetation.

I found this postcard showing the distance from León (where we started) to Santiago de Compostela - 310 kms or 185 miles. The last distance post we passed showed 65 kms or just 40 miles left to go.

One of the joys we have found previously in coming to Spain has been the incredible dark chocolate that is available everywhere. It wasn't the Dutch, Swiss, or Belgians that brought chocolate to Europe, it was the Spanish. So it makes sense that they would have centuries of experience making great dark chocolate.

Giant hydrangeas are in bloom throughout the region. What a joy!

Almost every home has flowers in bloom, celebrating the warm weather that is still here.

Whatever this flower is, it was incredibly beautiful. 

Morning sun peaked through the trees as we continued our stroll through the forest.

Our journey to Santiago de Compostela is nearing completion. Only a few more days and we will be there.

Day 11 - Portomarín to Palas de Rei

29 September 2018

16.1 miles in 7 hours 7 minutes (including breaks)

Hundreds of pilgrims walked the paths we traveled today. They come from all over the globe.  So far we've talked to people from Korea, Germany, Italy, England, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Japan, France, Norway, Denmark, and a few other places. According to Wikipedia, over 300,000 people completed a portion of the Camino de Santiago last year - even more are expected this year.

The forests are lush and green. So far on this journey we have only seen rain for a few hours on one day - we hope our luck continues to hold out for the remainder of our Camino

Our walks each day here in Galicia (northwestern Spain) lead through delightful green forests.

We have enjoyed the Camino so far. The forests are such pleasant places for these daily journeys. It is like walking a half marathon every day.

The number of pilgrims has increased substantially these last few days with most people choosing to do the last 60 miles.  We are seldom out of sight of other pilgrims on the trail. 

Mountain bikers make up about 10 percent of the pilgrims. When groups pass us, it is like the peleton of the Tour de France swooping by, except they all shout out 'buen camino" as they pass by.

Many of the homes in these little villages are vacant. Abandoned farm houses sit vacant for years because they are made from stone and seem to last forever.

This is what the inside of one of these farm houses looks like. You wonder how many generations called this place their home before the house was left vacant. 

As we move further into autumn, we find more and more trees changing color. This has to be the prettiest time of year to make this journey.

In addition to speaking Spanish, about 90 percent of Galicians also speak Gallego, a half-Spanish half-Portugues language. The letter X in Gallego makes the 'sh' sound. Therefore, the name on this house (Xan) is pronounced 'Shawn'. 'Casa de Xan' is Shawn's House. (My name in Gallego would be Marxal!)

For dinner most nights we eat the 'menu peregrino' (pilgrims meal) in restaurants. It is a huge 3-course meal with drink for €10 (about $11.50). My first couse was a big plate of lasagna, followed by this big plate of Galician beef stew, followed by ice cream cake. It's a good thing we walk more than 15 miles per day or we would really be putting on the weight on this trip!

We make friends all along the Camino, including this really quiet guy.

After today's walk, we were really tired. Tomorrow is Sunday, so we are taking it off as a day of rest to allow our bodies to recover before the final push to the end.

Progress Map

Day 10 - Sarría to Portomarín

28 September 2018

15.6 miles in 6 hours 17 minutes (including breaks)

Today's walk led us through the lush green forests and farmlands of Galicia.

The number of pilgrims on the trail increased significantly starting in Sarría. This is because the minimum distance a person must walk in order to get a Compostela (official document stating you completed the Camino de Santiago) is 100 kms, and Sarría sits right at the 100 km point.

We finally arrived at our destination of Portomarín, an ancient city originally built by the Romans on a river. An interesting part of the city's history was the effect of putting in a dam 50 years ago. This required moving everyone to higher ground. The government built new houses for the residents. However, they had to disassemble the historic 12th-century church, stone-by-stone, and reassembled it on its new, higher location, a project that took years to complete.

An impressive Roman bridge sits in the valley. It was too massive to move, so it now sits submerged below the water in the reservoir for 6 months of the year. Luckily, we arrived at the end of the growing season and the reservoir was fully drained so we could see the bridge.

Potomarín was a pretty little town. Sometimes it is hard to move onward every day.

Layers of fog covered Sarría as we left early in the morning.

Yellow arrows (and Sandy) make sure that pilgrims stay on the right path.

An ancient castle in Sarría overlooks the Camino de Santiago as pilgrims leave town.

Wall murals in Sarría document the centuries of pilgrims that have passed through.

The Camino led us through dense forests for most of the day's journey. 

Such a gentle, joyous path we followed.

Leaves were changing color as the autumn temperatures drop.

The dense forests gave us good shade thoughout the day.

An unexpected surprise awaited along the trail. This Galician piper playing the Gaita said he often stands along the trail to play for the passing pilgrims.

The number of pilgrims from around the world increased significantly after leaving Sarría.

Along the trail we sometimes see these Galician 'Hórreos', elevated storage barns to protect food from rodents.

Typical rock house in this region of Galicia, along with some early Halloween decorations.

The first sight that greeted us on arriving at Portomarín were the bridges. The tallest is the modern bridge. The lower one was built by the Romans and is now submerged most of the year by a reservoir. The water had drained at this point in the season, so we could see the ancient bridge.

The ancient Roman bridge (below and behind the new bridge) was too massive to move when they built the dam 50 years ago, so it now sits submerged most of the year.

The fortress-church of San Xoan Hosptialarios was moved, stone-by-stone, to this location when they put in the dam. It was used as both a church and a fortress during the 1100s when Spaniards were battling the Moorish invaders in this region.

This statue of St. James (Santiago) pointed the way out of town when it was time for us to move on. 

We are now more than 2/3 of the way from León to Santiago de Compostela. Our journey across northern Spain has been a joyous but physically challenging experience. The Camino calls us onward to Santiago, which we hope to reach by next week.

Progress Map

Day 9 - Triacastela to Sarría

27 September 2018

11.2 miles in 4 hours 55 minutes (including breaks)

Today's walk was a shorter distance. The rains started shortly after we began. We put on our ponchos and marched on for about 2 hours before the rain let up. The good thing is that temperatures cooled off, and the rest of the walk was sunny and pleasant.

Galicia is a really beautiful region. It's nice that we stay in this region until the end of our journey. We should reach Santiago de Compostela by the middle of next week. Then, we will travel the short distance to the Atlantic coast to Muxía and a place called Finesterre, which means 'the end of the earth'. Ancient people believed that the world truly ended at that point because it is one of the westernmost points in Europe.

  

Daybreak in Triacastela at the church and cemetary. The gray skies soon dumped rain on us.

The streets of Triacastela were quiet as the towm was still sleeping as we left.

Almost every building in town was made of rock. This was a really great home . . .

. . . except that the entry stairs needed a little work.

The rain came down, so it was time for the ponchos.

All the other pilgrims did the same during the rain.

Biker pilgrims also suffered just like us walkers during the rainstorm. (About 10% of the pilgrms on the Camino de Santiago are on bikes.)

The skies cleared up after a few hours of rain just as we passed this pumpkin patch. 

Stone bridges like this are common all along the Camino. 

The trail was in the forest most of the journey. You can tell this is a wet place from all the moss.

We meet people from all over the world on the Camino. These are our new friends, Jean and Joe from Ireland. We told them today's rain was on account of having the Irish with us. They laughed.

We made it into Sarría with its beautiful stone buildings. The sun was out in force for the afternoon,  so the day ended nicer than it began (although it rained and hailed really hard for about an hour later on. We were glad we were safely in our hotel by then).

We usually order the pilgrim menu in most hotels and restaurants. It is a three-course meal that usually costs around €10 (or $11). This was a typical first course of a dish called Fabada. It is a delicious Galician soup made with white beans, bacon, ham, and other ingredients. They serve it in a giant crock for two people, and we usually eat two bowls of this. Then they bring out the second course (a meat dish), followed by some dessert. We are really stuffed by the end!

We went to the grocery store to pick up provisions for the trail. We noticed their version of the cleaning product we call 'Mister Clean' back home. They call it 'Don Limpio' here, which translates into something like 'Sir Clean'!

Everyone here wishes us 'buen camino' (good travels) as we pass their villages. These guys seemed to wish us 'moo-en camino'! 

Progress Map