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Travel diary: the bureaucracy continues

May 20, 2012 in Travel diary

Our fourth week in A Coruña was certainly an improvement on the third. But we are in Spain, after all, so it still contained a fair bit of bureaucracy.

Monday 14/5: After a couple of hours of ITP work, I headed out to the supermarket and library, then made hamburgers for lunch. We both got so caught up with work that we almost forgot to go for our post-lunch walk, and only had time for a short one before I had to go to school.

I’d been planning to come home between classes, but as I left the first one, the secretary told me (dramatically) that I needed to get a Social Security number, and that it was urgent. I asked her where to go to get it and she spent the next 25 minutes trying to find out by searching online, roping in a student’s mother to help her. Eventually the address was found and I could leave, only half an hour after I’d wanted to!

In the evening, Oliva came around for a language exchange — Craig hid in the guest room and worked while she and I chatted.

Tuesday 15/5: Despite the secretary’s vehemence the day before, I didn’t go to the social security office — it’s only open in the morning and I had to be at school from 10-12:30. And it’s a half-hour walk away.

Craig on the beach.

After lunch, we went for a long walk along the beach, amusing ourselves by racing the tide around the promontory that divides the two beaches. We both made it, and were still laughing when another wave crashed up further than expected and Craig didn’t get out of the way in time.

Christmas is coming! Oh wait, no it isn't.

Yolanda came over for dinner, bringing fresh-laid eggs from her chickens as a gift. I put them to immediate use, since I’d half-prepared a tortilla but hadn’t added the eggs yet. It was almost a disaster, as the frying pan I was using was anything but non-stick, but we switched pans, Yoli came to the rescue when it was time to flip, and it turned out tasty.

Wednesday 16/5: I got up early to head to the Social Security office, where I was seen quickly and issued a number without any problems at all — in fact, it was the easiest and most pleasant bureaucratic experience thus far. The clerk was happy to be able to practice her English and gave me two copies of the official document so that I’d have one to give to my boss — amazing.

She’d mentioned that I might be able to get the NIE card (which the bank wanted) from the police station, so I stopped in there and waited for half an hour before giving up — there were too many people ahead of me. Instead, I went to the bank, where I was told that it was all looking promising, that I probably wouldn’t need a NIE card at all, and that I’d have to come back in the afternoon.

It doesn't look like much, but that promontory is a challenge to get around at high tide.

Back home, we got some work done then had a tasty chicken stirfry lunch before both heading out for our walk… to the bank. Luckily we didn’t have to spend much time there, the clerk (Nuria) took a copy of my passport and told me to come back on Friday. This left us with extra time, so we decided to walk back along the beach; since it was a beautiful day, there were people sunbathing and a few had even ventured into the water.

Oliva came over in the evening for another language exchange — we’d planned to do them on Fridays, but failed last week and this week she was away for the weekend. After she left Craig and I had soup for dinner and watched TV before bed.

Thursday 17/5: May 17 is a public holiday in Galicia — it’s Galician Language Day. We did absolutely nothing to celebrate the Galician language, but we did make the most of the festivo by working a lot less. We slept in then headed to Amy’s place for a goodbye brunch; her programme has ended and she’s heading back to the States. The food was great (blueberry pancakes!) and the company excellent; we’d met some of Amy’s friends before and she’d also invited Oliva and Guille.

Another view of the A Coruña beaches.

After a rest back home, we went on a mammoth walk all the way to the Millenium Obelisk; the weather was a little cool so it was perfect for walking. In the evening we played cards and watched some TV.

Friday 18/5: When I left the house to go to the bank, I optimistically told Craig that I’d be back in an hour. I was wrong.

The bank’s a 15-minute walk from our house, and I had to wait for Nuria to finish serving two other customers before she could get to me. What followed was a flurry of paper-moving and phone calls — she printed duplicates of the twenty or so essential documents and I had to sign most of them. To activate the account I had to put money in it, so Nuria gave me a bank book (!) which I had to take to the counter with me and then insert into a red machine so the transaction could be printed on the first page. Sadly, though, it turns out five euros wasn’t enough money, so I had to repeat the process; the teller who’d first served me was concerned he’d done it wrong, and abandoned his customer to come and ask me if everything was all right: “I’m sure I heard you say cinco,” he said.

Boats at A Coruña port.

Nuria set me up with internet banking and explained why I couldn’t have an ATM card: you can get one for free after your account registers an “official transaction” such as a wages. Otherwise it costs €15. Looks like I’ll be waiting a little longer!

After a lentil lunch, we got some work done then I headed to school for a couple of hours. Craig went to meet our friend Dave at the train station, arriving late due to technical issues (the all-important text never arrived) — but they made it home before I got back.

Since May 18 is the Day of the Museums, all of the museums were once again free to visit, so we dragged a tired Dave first to the aquarium and then to the Domus, before heading to the old town for a tapas dinner. We ended the night with a visit to Plaza Maria Pita, where the town hall was attractively lit up and a jazz band was playing.

Saturday 19/5: After a long sleep-in, Craig and Dave spent the morning working while I read my book. After a late lunch we headed to the art gallery, which is free to enter on Saturday afternoons, then decided to wander around the port. In the art gallery we’d seen a cool painting of a fortress on an island in the A Coruña bay, and we came across the fortress itself more or less by accident. It’s no longer on an island — the land between the ex-island and the coast has been reclaimed, so that we had no trouble getting to it. It now hosts the (free to enter) history and archaeology museum; we had a cursory wander around without really looking at the exhibits too closely.

By the time we got home it was after 8pm, so we prepared an early dinner and spent the evening chatting.

Sunday 20/5: Another lazy day. I slept in then chatted with Oscar for an hour or so while Craig and Dave worked; I eventually joined them and we spent a companionable couple of hours tapping away at laptops in near silence.

Dave and pulpo

At about 2.30pm we headed out to the pulpería in Plaza de España, where we enjoyed very very tasty octopus, potatoes and red wine for lunch. Afterwards, we went for an incredibly long walk: along the beach and around the coast to the Millenium Obelisk and the Monte de San Pedro. We caught the panoramic elevator up the cliff after waiting 20 minutes or so for it to descend, then wandered through the maze and around the park before heading slowly home again.

Linda and pulpo.

After a simple dinner, we all opened our laptops again, and spent another couple of hours tapping before bed.

Tags: a coruña, A Coruña Spain, Corunna, La Coruña, La Coruña Spain, spain, Travel diary, travel in a coruña No Comments »

by Linda Martin

Travel diary: the honeymoon’s over

May 13, 2012 in Travel diary

The honeymoon is over. While we still love A Coruña bureaucracy and various other issues got to us this week, making it quite a challenge. At least the weekend was awesome.

Monday 7/5: I had to make a couple of phone calls, first to make an appointment at the immigration office, and then to return a call we’d received from DHL the previous Friday. Neither went well. I called the number I had for the immigration office, and was told I had to call another number, and was told I had to call the first number. I eventually managed to make the appointment, but the woman at the other end of the line sounded doubtful that that was the right thing to have done.

DHL was worse. I couldn’t call using Skype because the number was blocked, so I called expensively on Craig’s cellphone; of course I was put on hold for ages. I was finally transferred to the correct person, who told me that a package had arrived for us (Craig’s replacement Kindle) and that we had to pay €110 in taxes on it. That’s 60% of its value. I was literally dumbstruck, and when I could speak again I couldn’t marshal good enough Spanish to argue with the woman, who wasn’t interested in understanding me anyway. I hung up and got very angry and very upset, and decided to go for a walk to calm down.

A typical dinner

I visited the library and did the shopping, and after lunch Craig and I recorded the podcast and worked on the ebooks. I had to head to school for the afternoon, but we had a pleasant evening reading and watching TV.

Tuesday 8/5: I seemed to get out of bed on the clumsy side, and spent the day dropping things, knocking things over, and walking into walls. My classes went well though, and lunch was tasty, but after I finished cooking we noticed that the sink was blocked. Craig searched online to try to learn how to unblock it and we tried all sorts of things, but to no avail. Eventually he texted the landlord (who lives downstairs), who fixed it the next day.

We headed out for a walk along the beach and through the city, and spent the afternoon working before blobbing in front of the TV. At least we were watching something in Spanish — Españoles en el Mundo. It’s about Spanish people living in different parts of the world, in this case first Philadelphia then Kenya.

Wednesday 9/5: While chatting with my Chilean friend Moroni, who’s now living in the Czech Republic, he told me that as the wife of an EU citizen I have the right to residency here in Spain. I couldn’t believe it — first that he hadn’t mentioned this earlier, second that I didn’t know. I’d assumed that I’d have to get residency in the UK to be able to benefit from Craig’s citizenship, which is a long painful process, but apparently it’s a lot easier here. I was incredibly frustrated — had I wasted a lot of time and money getting my working holiday visa? At least having it has taken the stress out of the application process, but arghhhh!

After a quick visit to school, where I met the last of my students, a lovely woman called Ana, I headed to the immigration office with Craig to hand in the documents for my work permit and ask about this new residence possibility. The poor woman who was helping us had to get up twice to go and ask someone else what the story was (a running theme, it seems), but she eventually gave me my all-important NIE number and a copy of my application and pointed us in the direction of the comisaria to register Craig as a resident. We couldn’t find it and were incredibly hungry, so we admitted defeat and headed to the shopping centre for kebabs for lunch.

I spent the next hour or so looking into residency options (and learned a lot) then headed back to school briefly, coming back with strawberries for a snack. In the evening, we walked along to Kiu Bar, off the Paseo Maritimo, to join a language exchange group that Amy is part of. Unfortunately there were six English speakers and only one Spaniard, but it was a pleasant (if sightly expensive) experience.

A Coruña beach

Thursday 10/5: As if to compensate for our spectacularly bad week, the weather finally sorted itself out, and Thursday was warm and clear; when we went for our walk on the beach in the afternoon, we both got down to just t-shirts — very exciting!

The rest of the afternoon was uneventful, except for the landlord coming to visit to let us know that the water would be turned off from 10pm. Accordingly, at 9:30, Craig went to fill up a bucket and some water bottles… but it had already been cut off! And of course we didn’t have any water available. Craig wasn’t too bothered (he drank wine instead), but I really didn’t want to have to brush my teeth with orange juice — I managed to get a little out of the shower hose.

Friday 11/5: I was dozing in bed when I suddenly heard the sound of running water close by; I’d forgotten to turn off the shower the night before, and the water had come back on. Not the best start to the day, but at least I heard it come on and hadn’t wasted too much water.

The rest of the morning was spent in bureaucracy. First we went to the town hall to do the empadronamiento, or register as residents of A Coruña. We took a number and waited our turn, and were given forms to fill out. The clerk took the forms, our passports and the apartment contract, and was starting to make copies and do the data entry when she realised that the contract didn’t have the house number written on it. The street name, yes, and the apartment number as well, but the house number was noticeably missing. We all stared at each other in disbelief for a few seconds, Craig and I envisioning an extra hour of stuffing around, when the clerk asked if we had the landlords’ phone number. After a quick call to them, the problem was resolved by the clerk neatly writing the number in the space left for it on the contract; we got our copies of the application, and we could go.

Immigration office

After that, we walked to the bank that Amy had recommended, but as the person who helped her wasn’t at her desk, I talked to another employee instead. I didn’t envision any problems with opening an account as I had all the documentation I needed: a job contract and the all-important NIE number. Apparently not; she wanted an NIE number card. This was the first I’d heard of such a thing, and I learned later that they aren’t being issued anymore. Despite the teller talking to two or three of her colleagues, it couldn’t be resolved; she’d have to talk to someone higher up and I could come back on Monday.

Next, we headed to the comisaria, where we had a longer wait and another failure to achieve anything. As a citizen of the European Union, Craig has the right to residency, but has to register with the police within three months of arrival. He should get a certificate, which I use for my application — which also has to be submitted within three months of entering the country. Unfortunately, the immigration laws for EU citizens changed two weeks ago and now nobody knows exactly what’s going on, and they aren’t issuing any certificates. The clerk suggested that we fill in the application form for the certificate and use that in my application — it probably wouldn’t work, she said, but we just needed to submit something before the three months were up.

So we went back to the immigration office, and talked to a very grumpy official, who gave us the forms we needed and wrote a list of the four documents I need to submit to get residency: the unobtainable certificate, an actualised copy of our marriage certificate (such a thing does not exist), a photocopy of my entire passport (possible), and the empadronamiento certificate (hypothetically on its way). Not very promising really, but we’ll give it a go with the approximations that we have.

I was at school for most of the afternoon, and in the evening Oliva and Guille came over for dinner.

Saturday 12/5: Being the weekend, we were free from bureaucracy, and we headed out of the city to enjoy our freedom. Sadly, Oliva caught our bad luck — first she got a parking ticket, later she almost lost her SD card, and finally Guille dropped her phone and scratched it.

This didn’t stop us having an awesome day though. Alba had planned a fantastic route for the five of us, which took us even further north than we already were. We started our journey by wandering along the sand dunes and admiring the lagoon at Valdoviño, then checked out a couple of viewpoints before stopping for lunch in the wind in Cedeira.

After that, we visited the monastery of San Andrés de Teixido, which has a really interesting architectural style and which is obviously a tourist attraction because it abounds with stalls selling souvenirs, bread and honey. There’s a saying that everyone in the world will visit San Andrés, if not alive then dead, and if not dead, then reincarnated — probably as a snake or lizard.

Monasterio de San Andrés

Next, we visited Cabo Ortegal to see its lighthouse and the division between the Atlantic and the Cantabrian seas, before driving on to Punto Estaca de Bares to walk out to the northernmost point in Spain. The wind was fierce and the cliff high; the others piked out 50m before the end of the path and watched worriedly as Craig and I continued as far out onto the promontory as possible. (It was a wide path, not dangerous at all, really.)

Oliva, Alba and Linda in the wind

We we all cold after the chilly wind on the point, so we decided to make our next stop a cafe. We got a little lost finding one, but eventually parked in Viveiro and wandered its charming streets until we found a bar, where we squeezed into a back table to drink our hot chocolates (well, us girls had hot chocolates, Craig and Guille wanted to be different).

After that, all that remained was to drive the hour and a half back to A Coruña, where Oliva dropped off Alba and Guille and completely failed to find a park near her house (it really wasn’t her day). Luckily, the walk back was along the waterfront, which is always pleasant.

Sunday 13/5: We’d planned to head out on another excursion (to walk a bit of the Camino Inglés) but were tired after our big day the day before. Instead, we slept in, Craig brought me breakfast in bed, and we spent the day relaxing. I chatted with Oscar for a while, read my book, and did some research into working visas; Craig played games on his phone and read a bit too. We only left the house for lunch; we had a menu del día in a cafe near our place, which was delicious and incredibly filling, much better than last week’s offering.

Tags: a coruña, A Coruña Spain, bureaucracy, Corunna, immigration, La Coruña, La Coruña Spain, office, Travel diary No Comments »

by Linda Martin

Travel diary: settling into A Coruña

May 6, 2012 in Travel diary

We’re well and truly settled in A Coruña now — we have internet access at home and I have a library card. Although the weather has been extremely changeable, we’re definitely enjoying our new base.

Monday 30/4: Since Tuesday was a holiday, we decided to do a few errands, such as getting me a sim card for the phone Oliva had given me. Unfortunately though, after waiting in line for twenty minutes and going through the interminable process of registering the sim (in Craig’s name, apparently I’d already bought too many sims), it turned out the phone was locked to another company.

Next, we headed to the library to pick up my library card (yay!) and enjoy the free wifi. Unfortunately, though, so many sites were blocked as to make the connection completely useless.

Instead, we went on a hunt for cafés with wifi and found one not far from home, where we worked for a couple of hours until our computer batteries were flat. After a bit of shopping and choripan for lunch, we found a bar just around the corner from our flat, where we spent another couple of hours.

In the evening, Oliva came around and we had burritos for dinner.

A Coruña is gorgeous

Tuesday 1/5: Being May Day, most of the shops were closed, including the bar we’d discovered the day before. Luckily though, we found two cafés to work in, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. In the middle had nachos for lunch and went for a long walk along the beach, across the isthmus and through the port.

In the evening, our neighbours came to visit to let us know they were happy for us to share their wifi for the next month, which is a huge relief for us — apparently getting the Internet set up will take at least two weeks and we were getting a bit sick of working in cafés.

Wednesday 2/5: I was all set to head out the door for my first English class, when my boss called to say the student had cancelled. Instead, I spent the morning at home with Craig and we went for a walk in the afternoon. I did have to teach my afternoon class, but luckily that went well.

In the evening, we worked on the Buenos Aires guidebook, sticking post-it notes all over the wall to get our heads around the different sections.

Thursday 3/5: My classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays run from 10am to 12:30, so I had to get up at a reasonable hour to get there on time. After work, we had a lentil lunch then went for a long walk around the paseo maritimo, with a visit to the Tower of Hercules halfway around.

Craig and the Tower of Hercules

Friday 4/5: I’d set an alarm in the hope of setting up a regular wake-up time, but the attempt failed miserably and we both slept in. When we eventually got up, we did some work before lunch, then headed out for a walk on the beach. Although the skies were blue when we left, they suddenly clouded over, and we were nowhere near shelter when the rain started.

Craig headed home for a Skype conversation with the BsAs guidebook author and I went to school to teach three classes, and in the evening we finally got around to watching Slumdog Millionaire, which we really enjoyed.

Saturday 5/5: A Coruña’s museums were having an open day with free entrance, so we took the opportunity to visit the aquarium, which with an entrance fee of €10 is by far the most expensive. We met Amy and Oliva outside the entrance and spent three hours wandering around enjoying the fish and learning some new Spanish vocabulary (my word of the day was rodaballos).

Seal at A Coruña Aquarium

We all headed to our own homes for lunch, but I met up with Oliva again at 4pm to go to the Domus museum, which is all about human beings. It was really fun and interactive; we tested our ability to jump, stretch and throw balls into holes, and measured our height, weight and blood pressure. We also saw a 3D movie all about African animals; it was very well done and I enjoyed being able to understand it.

Shark at A Coruña aquarium

Oliva’s parents were sitting in the row in front of us; after the movie I got to meet them. As we all walked back along the paseo maritimo together they gave me advice about what we should do in A Coruña while we’re here, and exhorted me to make their daughter speak more English. After that, Oliva and I spent another hour together enjoying the sun and laughing at a passing stag party, and I made her speak English.

In the evening we watched a Spanish TV show about Las Vegas; I regarded it as work since we’re currently working on a Las Vegas guide book.

Craig at work

Sunday 6/5: Craig brought me breakfast in bed after another glorious sleep in. Really, we are going to have to work out a sleep schedule but at the moment late nights and late mornings are working fine.

We spent the early afternoon working then headed out at around 3.30 to find a menu del día lunch. The first two places we went into (both with menu del dia signs outside) told us that they’d finished serving the menu since it was so late in the day, but we finally found a restaurant to eat in. The caldo gallego was a bit cold but my fish was tasty and at least it was good value for money.

Later on, we watched Spanish gameshows on TV and were amazed at how long the commercial breaks were, and how abruptly they start and finish — it was very strange.

Tags: a coruña, Corunna, Galicia, La Coruña, spain, Tower of Hercules, travel in a coruña, travel in Galicia, travel in La Coruña 1 Comment »

by Linda Martin

Travel diary: Setting up in A Coruña

April 29, 2012 in Travel diary

Our first week in our new home of A Coruña has undoubtably been a success. We’ve found and moved into an apartment, made new friends and hosted a small party, and I’ve found a ridiculously low-paying job. And we’re even on the way to getting all the documentation we need!

Monday 23/4: Since it was our first day in our new city, we decided to take an extensive wander around, keeping our eyes open for apartments for rent. Although our Couchsurfing host Yolanda had told us that it would be better to organise it all privately, we stopped into a couple of property agencies, which were spectacularly unhelpful.

Instead, we took photos of the many ads plastered on walls and lampposts, and sent text messages to the advertisers in the evening, after returning from a walk of at least 15km — and we thought the long walks were over! We had a menu del día lunch in the old town and visited one of the schools I’ve been in touch with about work. Plus I had an interview with the other one in the evening, which seemed to go well (especially since they offered me a part-time job a couple of days later). In the evening we made guacamole and pebre for a light dinner and chatted with Yolanda before bed.

Tuesday 24/4: Despite all of our work sending texts and making phone calls, we only had one positive response from our flat-hunting efforts. For some reason, none of the landlords are interested in a three-month let, they’d prefer to leave their flats empty while waiting for someone to sign up for a longer contract. We arranged to see our sole option, and spent half an hour looking around and chatting with the landlords before heading back to Yolanda’s place to think about it. The price was more than we’d hoped to pay, but still a lot less than New Zealand prices. We decided to go for it, and went back to talk to the landlords again.

Later, I met up with Fiona, the owner of Masterclass, for a chat about job possibilities. Although it looks like I won’t be able to work with her at the moment, she might have some work for me over the summer.

In the evening, I finally got to meet Oliva, my language-exchange partner, and we had hot chocolate and pastries in a friendly cafe. We’ve been friends for over a year and it only occurred to her recently to tell me that her name wasn’t actually Maria, as it appears in her Skype account — now I’ve got to get used to calling her Oliva! She’s just as lovely and funny in person as she is online, and I’m looking forward to spending lots of time with her over the next three months.

We had kebabs for dinner on the way home, and I had another long chat with Yolanda.

Wednesday 25/4: The day started with another visit to the new landlords, who took our passport details and told us where the supermarkets were. While I was talking to them, Craig had an adventure trying to print off his boarding pass, and eventually had success after enlisting the help of almost everyone in the shop.

We walked together to the bus stop, and Craig caught the bus to the airport, where he arrived ridiculously early for his flight to England. The flight was very pleasant, and Kevin picked him up from Heathrow and took him back to his and Gail’s flash new house, where they had delicious home-made curry for dinner.

I, on the other hand, got to have fun with bureaucracy. First I visited the immigration office, where I waited for an hour or so before being called to talk to a typically dragon-like clerk. I explained that I had a visa that allowed me to stay in Spain for a year and was told that that simply wasn’t possible. She disappeared with my passport for quarter of an hour, and returned to tell me to come back the next day.

On the way home I joined the library, and I spent the afternoon reading and getting a bit of work done before having dinner with Yolanda.

Thursday 26/4: My day started back in the immigration office, where the clerk seemed quite happy to see me. She disappeared with my passport again before returning to tell me that yes, Spain has agreements with New Zealand and Canada, and that all I needed to do was get a job contract for three months and fill in a few forms — a process which might actually be a lot easier than I thought it was going to be.

I visited the bank to find out what documents I need to get an account then went in to see my new bosses, who were happy to give me a contract but said it would take a while to get, since we are in Spain after all. The guy I’m taking over from, James, showed me around the school and explained what to do in each of the classes, so that was good. I spent the afternoon reading and chatting with Amy (Yolanda’s flatmate), then headed to the airport to meet Craig.

He’d spent the day at Heathrow, since Kevin could drop him off there before work, and taking public transport would have wasted a good couple of hours. At the airport, he got a bit of work done then met his sister Christina for lunch — she recently moved to London and seems to be enjoying herself. The flight back to A Coruña was delayed by half an hour or so because of high winds, but he made it out of security just in time for us to catch the 8:15 bus back to the city.

Moving day

After a light dinner, we headed to my new work, where the bosses (Ben and Jimmy) were throwing a goodbye party for James. It was great to meet all my new colleagues, who I’m sure I’ll see a lot of; they all seem really nice.

Friday 27/4: After a bit of a sleep-in, we packed up all our worldly possessions and walked the kilometre or so to our new apartment. The landlords showed us around, explaining in detail how things work, and we signed a contract and were given the keys.

We needed provisions, so we spent the afternoon visiting the various supermarkets in the area to get everything we needed. Of course we somehow managed to get lost, but that was okay because we stumbled across a well-decorated bar that had a great opening special: a drink and half-portion of food for €3.50. We decided that that would do for lunch and spent the next hour or so there, before returning to our place to prepare for our housewarming party.

We’d invited all our friends (Oliva, Yolanda and Amy) and they all came bearing tasty gifts. After giving them the grand tour of the apartment, we spent the evening chatting and snacking.

Beach excursion with Oliva, A Coruña, Spain

Tiny islands

Saturday 28/4: Although the forecast was for rain, the day dawned bright and sunny — a fact we were alerted to by a text from Oliva, who suggested an excursion. We agreed readily, and breakfasted rapidly before meeting her at her place (a five-minute walk away) and hopping in her car. She’d planned a fantastic itinerary, and we visited various beaches and ports, as well as a castle, before ending up in Sada, where we had a tasty lunch and stopped in at the market.

Linda and Oliva at the castle

After a rest in the afternoon, we met up with Oliva again in the evening, to discover the wonderful world of A Coruñian tapas. We were joined by her boyfriend Guille (who I’ve heard a lot about) and her friend Alba, and had a great evening visiting a couple of the most popular tapas bars. The boys both bailed early on, but Oliva, Alba and I headed to Valor for hot chocolate and good conversation before calling it a night.

Alba and Oliva in Caión, Spain

Sunday 29/4: After the early mornings of the Camino, a sleep-in is always welcome, but we took it to an extreme today! We had a light lunch of salad and lentils then got a bit of work done before heading out for a long walk on the beach. On our return, we recorded our first podcast in ages, then had a snack of cheese and crackers.

I headed out to meet Oliva and Alba in the afternoon, and we went for a drive to Caión, where there is a really nice paseo maritimo or seaside walk. We also drove to a couple of other beaches, and managed to get lost in a tiny Galician town on the way back to A Coruña — it was a real adventure.

Tags: a coruña, A Coruña Spain, Corunna, Galicia, independent-travel, La Coruña, spain, Travel diary 2 Comments »

by Linda Martin

Travel diary: Via de la Plata, week six

April 22, 2012 in Travel diary

It’s been a week of endings and beginnings: we successfully finished our thousand-kilometre walk and celebrated ten years of marriage, and have arrived in our new home of A Coruña, where we plan to spend at least the next three months.

Monday 16/4: Since there was a hospitalero on-site, we made an early start to avoid being forcibly kicked out of the albergue — for the previous few days nobody had been around to care if we left half an hour after the official time of 8am. Unfortunately, Orense is a sprawling town, and we spent over an hour walking alongside a busy highway, followed by half an hour up a steep secondary road. Luckily, things improved after that, except that the bar we’d been looking forward to was closed; the track entered a forest and we left the sound of cars behind us.

We finally got our coffee at kilometre 16, and after that there was only seven kilometres to go to our destination of Cea. The track continued to be interesting, passing through small villages, over a cute bridge, and through more forest.

On the way to Cea

On arrival in Cea, we checked into the albergue then had lunch in a bakery/cafe, where we relaxed for an extra hour or so while waiting for the supermarket to open at 4.30pm. We spent the rest of the day back at the albergue, resting and chatting with the group of French teenagers who were also staying there.

Tuesday 17/4: It was drizzling slightly when we left Cea at 8:45, carefully taking the short route (14km) to Castro-Dozon rather than the one that detours past a monastery and adds 8km to the total.

Cea town square

Although the weather cleared and the conversation was pleasant, we were both ready for a cafe to appear at about kilometre ten. Unfortunately we had to wait until Castro, where we had a coffee and tried to decide whether to stay in the albergue there or go on to Laxe. Our various guides gave us all sorts of contradictory information, and we’d just decided to stay when we checked the weather forecast for Wednesday — rain. We decided to go on, having a long day on Tuesday and a shorter one the next day. The supermarket provided lunch food and some vegetables for dinner, and we ate sandwiches in the square before setting off again.

Sadly, despite the fact that the GPS had indicated that our destination lay at least 18km away, Craig still trusted the hostel ad that said that it was only 15km from Castro, and was bitterly disappointed when he realised he’d have to walk a fair bit more. He made this discovery in Xestas, where our guide had said there was a bar but all we could find was a tobacco shop with a table and chairs in it. I asked the owner if it was possible to buy wine, and he looked confused for a minute before disappearing out the back and returning with a bottle of red and a questioning look. We smiled and nodded and asked if we could drink it there, which was apparently fine; he found some glasses and we proceeded to drink the whole bottle.

This made the next leg of the walk quite enjoyable, despite it being the wettest part of the day. We’d dried off by the time we finally reached Laxe, anyway. We pottered around the empty albergue until about 7:30, when we cooked dinner and a group of three Portuguese pilgrims we’d seen in Orense arrived. We thought it would just be the five of us, but the hospitalera arrived at 8pm with bad news — a large group of school kids would be staying in the albergue too.

They arrived at nine and spent the next half-hour making as much noise as possible, then headed out for dinner, returning loudly at 11:40. It was annoying that the rule about being inside and silent by ten didn’t seem to apply to them, and even more annoying that the lights in the bedroom that we were sharing with the Portuguese were on a sensor, so that anytime someone got up or moved around in bed, the lights went on. These annoyances, and the fact that the beautiful kitchen was equipped with only a small pot, three spoons and a rusty pan, meant that we weren’t overly impressed with the albergue. But at least it was warm and we ended up sleeping well.

Wednesday 18/4: Since the normal rules didn’t seem to apply, we stayed in bed until after we heard the school kids leave at about 8:45, then had a leisurely breakfast in the kitchen before making a move at around 9:30. Since we’d changed our plan, we only had about 10km to walk, which was great because the weather was as dire as the forecast had predicted. We were both wet through within two kilometres, but the fact that it was a pleasant walk and the idea that it was going to be a short one kept our spirits up.

Linda on the road

We arrived in Silleda at around midday and checked into a pension that had been over-advertised for the past hundred kilometres or so. Apparently its two parts are owned by different people: a man, who is responsible for the aggressive advertising, and a woman, who does the work of checking people in. Since we didn’t have a booking we chose to stay on the woman’s side, which was a good choice since there was only one other guest.

A quick trip to the supermarket stocked us up for the rest of the day, which we spent inside, in the warm, watching the rain fall and being happy not to be out in it. Craig cooked a tasty dinner and we watched a movie on the laptop before bed.

Thursday 19/4: The weather had improved dramatically from the day before, and our first leg of 7km was almost completely dry. We took a break in a cafe/bakery in Bandeiro, where we paid very little for coffee and a whole array of pastry snacks.

The next leg of the walk was unfortunately a lot wetter, with a sudden downfall soaking us in minutes. We waited out the second half of the squall in an oddly-placed bus shelter, and had completely dried off by the time we arrived in Seixo for our second break. We chatted for awhile with the Portuguese (who were already there) and just as we were about to go, our old friend Marina arrived. We put off our departure for a quick catch-up; it was interesting to hear what she’d been up to for the previous two weeks.

The last leg of the day was broken in half by a stop at the Ponte Ulla supermarket, since the town where the albergue is located doesn’t have a shop. After that the walk seemed like a bit of an effort, with the alternating sun, wind and rain making our clothing uncomfortable no matter what we did. But we made it, and had a tasty (if late) lunch in the well-equipped albergue, then relaxed before a pleasant (and also late) dinner.

Santiago fountain in Outeiro

Friday 20/4: We had to make an earlyish start if we wanted to make it to Santiago in time for the pilgrim mass at midday, so we set off at 8:05 and made good time until our first break an hour and a half later.

The first glimpse of the cathedral

It hadn’t rained during the first leg, but the skies opened during the second section, and once again we were wet through. Luckily the drizzle eventually stopped and the sun came out to dry us off, and we made it to Santiago by 11:30. After the compulsory photos and videos were taken, we headed inside the cathedral for mass; it was totally packed and we had to stand at the back. It was a beautiful service; a nun sang and the sermon was good (it was strange to be able to understand it, such a contrast to our arrival four years ago), and at the end they swung the botafumeiro — a huge incense burner that is only brought out on special occasions or when someone pays €250 for it. I was very, very excited.

After mass we headed to the pilgrim office to get our certificates then had a menu del día in a cafe we’d seen on the way into town. Then we headed to our flash hotel, where we were told we’d been given the best room on account of it being our anniversary. It was the only room on the fourth floor, with gorgeous stone walls and sloping ceiling, plus views of both the old town and the outskirts of the city.

The goal -- Santiago cathedral.

Since we didn’t have any suitable clothes for the nice dinner we planned to have to further celebrate our anniversary, we headed out to the shopping area to get some clothes. A couple of painful hours trawling the shops yielded some jeans, a shirt and a belt for Craig, and shoes, stockings and a blazer for me.

We’d been given a voucher for a drink and a tapa in a restaurant that’s part of the same group as the hotel, so after relaxing in comfortable surroundings for a few hours, we headed out to avail ourselves of it, and ended up having dinner there too — it was all delicious!

Saturday 21/4: All alarms were turned off, and we slept in as late as possible before heading out for a simple breakfast in a nearby cafe. Leaving there at about 11:30, we decided to wander past the parador to see if there was any places left for the pilgrim lunch, and we were in luck.

The parador hotel used to be a pilgrim hospital, and offers a free breakfast, lunch and dinner for ten pilgrims at each meal, which you can get on the first three days after having arrived in Santiago. When we arrived outside the garage, which is the meeting place, eight others were already waiting, so we had arrived at the perfect time.

A porter checked our certificates and wrote our names and ID card numbers in a book before writing out a coupon for us to give to the chef. Then we made our way through the hotel to the kitchen, where the chef served us up a generous meal of soup, meat and chickpeas, bread, fruit and wine — the same food that is given to the staff of the hotel. We ate in a small dining room on the first floor which is decorated with hand-drawn representations of the different Caminos, and it was a really enjoyable experience sharing a meal with other pilgrims, who all had different stories to tell about their pilgrimage.

Pilgrim meal in the parador

We spent the afternoon wandering around the city; apart from looking at souvenir shops, we also visited the modern art museum and I had a look around the fresh-food market while Craig headed back to the hotel for a rest.

In the evening, we visited the pilgrim museum (which was, oddly, all in Galician), then met up with Marina and two other pilgrims (Liz and Christine) and had a beer with them. After that, we all headed to Manolo’s for dinner, where we ran into the Germans and a father and son from Belgium who were friends of Liz’s. It was a pleasant evening, but sad to say goodbye to people we’d seen a lot of over the past few weeks — especially Marina, since we actually started the walk on the same day as her.

Back at the hotel, we continued the Camino theme by watching The Way, a movie about a father who walks the Camino Frances after his son dies shortly after starting it. It was fun to recognise some uniquely pilgrim moments, although it didn’t all ring true.

Sunday 22/4: Sadly, our preferred breakfast cafe was closed and we had to wander a little to find another, after which we packed up and checked out of our lovely hotel. We stopped by the cathedral to see the botafumeiro swing again, then had hot chocolate and churros in the Valor cafe, then collected our bags and walked to the train station.

The journey to A Coruña was swift and pleasant, and we had a snack in the station cafeteria before being picked up by our Couchsurfing host Yolanda. She took us on a tour of the city, showing us the important sights and explaining not to try to use the sea as a navigating tool. Since the city is shaped like a T protruding into the ocean, this makes a lot of sense!

We spent the evening chatting with Yoli and her flatmate Amy, then headed out for a walk around the area and a light dinner of hamburgers.

Tags: a coruña, camino de santiago, camino de santiago de compostela, santiago de compostela, spain, Travel diary, Via de la Plata No Comments »

by Linda Martin

Travel diary: Via de la Plata, week five

April 15, 2012 in Travel diary

Despite some aches and pains, week five has been a fantastic one, full of interesting walks and great food. We’re starting to sense that the end is near though, and we’re both sad and excited to think about finally reaching Santiago — it’s looking very promising that we’ll arrive next Friday as planned.

Monday 9/4: Monday had a lot to live up to after our wonderful Easter Sunday, and it made a pretty good effort. We made a late start after a pleasant sleep-in in the warm dorm room, and made sure to have a coffee with breakfast to give us a kick start.

Luckily the temperatures were a lot more pleasant than the day before, and the first leg (to Mombuey) was only 9km. We had a coffee there and stocked up on food for lunch, which we ate 8km down the road in Cernadilla. After that, it was only another 10km or so to Asturianos, where we were thinking about stopping but decided not to, though we did have a truly excellent glass of wine each at the bar beside the albergue.

On the road to Palacios de Sanabria

Instead, we trekked on another three or four kilometres to Palacios de Sanabria (naughtily not following the detour and being told off by a roadworks foreman), where we got a private room and spent the evening in first one, then the other, local bar.

Tuesday 10/4: It was a cold morning, which made getting up a little difficult. We managed it though, and headed out the door at 8:40, running into José outside the bar where he’d just had breakfast. The walk was pleasant, through forests and tiny towns, and it only rained lightly. We arrived in Puebla de Sanabria at about 11:30 and got coffee and a light snack in a bar — except that the two tapas Craig ordered turned out to be enormous. We decided to call it lunch.

Further along, we visited three ATMs before being able to withdraw cash, and although we finally managed we were left wondering what the problem was. Surely our bank hasn’t blocked our cards again?

Puebla de Sanabria

The next 12km or so to Requejo were full of beautiful views and painful feet, and we were happy to arrive and have a long afternoon stretching in front of us. There were two albergues on offer: the basic, cheap one and a private one with all sorts of mod cons for €12 — which we chose so that Craig could get some work done using the wifi.

After a merienda (okay, second lunch), we worked for awhile then headed out to find wine and tapas in a local bar.

Wednesday 11/4: It was a latish start, as we enjoyed the warmth of the albergue before heading into the cold wind and relentless drizzle that awaited us. The road led us along the highway for awhile, and we decided to continue along it rather than take the marked route into the forest, as it would have added another kilometre or two to our journey — this was proved by the fact that we had been installed in the bar in the first town for a good twenty minutes when a French woman, who had stayed in the albergue and left at least 45 minutes before us, arrived.

A rainbow to start the day

We used the iPhone to check the weather and make an informed decision about when to leave the warm bar, which had been very nice to us in terms of coffee and food (mmm morcilla and tortilla). The next leg was a lot less windy and quite a lot less rainy, but we still arrived in Lubián soaked through.

We’d only walked 17km by that point, so although the albergue was warm and well-equipped, we decided to brave the second ascent of the day and head to Vilavella, where a new albergue was waiting for us.

This stretch, between Lubián and Vilavella, was without doubt our favourite section of the walk so far. The route was interesting and a bit challenging, with narrow paths, stream navigation and a pretty steep ascent to handle; but the weather was fantastic (no wind, only a little rain on the way into Vilavella) and we saw corzos (a type of deer). It was very exciting!

However, despite a bevy of signs pointing us out of town towards the old railway station, it transpired that the albergue was closed for repairs. When we were told this (in the town grocery store) we were literally speechless, and the shop attendant took pity on us and called the guesthouse to see if she could get us a good deal. Well, €30 is a lot more than we’d planned to pay, but at least we got a place to sleep out of the (by then quite heavy) rain. The menu del día on offer was tasty and we ate in a romantic corner of the otherwise-empty dining room. On the whole, a win of a day.

To A Gudiña

Thursday 12/4: The forecast seemed to think the weather would improve after 9am, so we slept in and left at about 9:30, after coffee in the bar downstairs. The wind was pretty fierce and the drizzle came and went, but it was a lovely walk through a rocky and barren landscape. We’d decided to have a short day, just 14km to A Gudiña, so although Craig was still having problems with his leg, it felt like a holiday. We took a break for coffee at O Cañizo, then only had an hour or so to go to get to A Gudiña, arriving at 1pm. Being the first to arrive, we had to call the hospitalero to let us in; Craig waited for him while I went to find bread for lunch, which we ate outside.

Friday 13/4: Looking out the window of the albergue in the morning, I saw nothing but blue skies. Unfortunately, out the other side was a wall of cloud — a juxtaposition which neatly summarises our day. We had to climb up into the clouds then walked along a ridgeline in the bright sunshine, enjoying the views of rolling hills covered in heather, a lake to the left, and the occasional glimpse of snow-topped mountains. A rainbow appeared and accompanied us for an hour or so, and we walked through several tiny villages — one had sheep being driven through it, another had a picnic area where we took a quick break.

The way divides

Our goal was Campobecerros, a small town where most of the other pilgrims were planning to stay for the night but didn’t. We saw Gunter and Paco (a Spanish guy) in the bar, where we ate a delicious vegetable soup for lunch.

Very soon after we set off, the rain set in, quickly drenching us then hanging around as drizzle to keep us miserable. After three or four kilometres of climbing, the rest of the walk was a steady downhill on a secondary road — not particularly exciting, and with the low cloud hiding everything from view, not particularly visually stimulating either.

Stunning views on the way out of A Gudiña

We arrived in our destination, Laza, at about 5:30, and checked in with the Civil Defence. The hot water wasn’t working so I headed out to find dinner instead of taking a shower — and it turned out to be a mission. The small shops didn’t offer much in the way of variety and the bakery remained steadfastly closed despite my three separate attempts (with the help of far too many locals) to find a way to buy bread. Eventually there was success and we had a tasty dinner of green beans with garlic and sausage, a vegetable omelette, and bread with olive oil. And wine, of course.

Saturday 14/4: The weather was fine when we set out at about 8:45, but it didn’t stay that way for long. As we started to climb the hill that dominated the terrain, the light rain got heavier and heavier until we were both soaked through. We had half an hour of respite before our break in Albergueria, where we had coffee in El Rincón del Peregrino, where the walls are covered in scallop shells bearing the names of other pilgrims who have passed there.

El Rincón del Peregino

We were drenched again by the time we got to Vilar do Barrio, where José and the Germans stopped for the night. Craig and I had soup and coffee for €2.50 each in a buffet restaurant, then headed out into blue skies. We passed through several small villages and were in the middle of a long boring stretch of secondary road when the thunder clapped off to our right (to the left was blue), and the hail hit. Luckily our jackets are pretty robust, so we just kept on going; it felt more like an adventure than a tragedy. It was, however, inconvenient to be wet through again.

We arrived in our final destination of Xunqueira at about 5pm, as some more hail started to fall. Luckily the albergue was open, so we had a short rest there before heading into town to buy food for dinner. It was a much more successful trip than the day before; we managed to buy everything we needed (including bread) in the first shop we came to.

Dinner was oil on bread, followed by soup, then pasta with chicken and veges in tomato sauce. Pretty good, actually.

Sunday 15/4: Once again, the day started with good weather, but this time it decided to stay that way — there was just a bit of drizzle now and then to break the boredom.

The walk wasn’t particularly interesting, being along the road for most of the way. We had a break in one of the chain of small towns, the first that offered an open bar (after about 9km). The next break was within sight of another bar — we ate our lunch on a park bench then had a glass of wine inside. It wasn’t until after we’d eaten that we realised that we could have had pulpo (octopus) from the temporary pulpo stand across the road… We decided to have some anyway and negotiated a small serving. It was tasty.

The rest of the walk, through an industrial estate and into Orense, was unremarkable except for the small town of Seix Albo, which was charming. We reached the albergue shortly before 4pm and the hospitalero kindly let us check in early, which was good because we were ready to collapse. Luckily the beds were comfortable because we spent the afternoon lying in them.

Tags: camino, camino de santiago, spain, Travel diary, Via de la Plata 2 Comments »

by Linda Martin

Travel diary: Via de la Plata, week four

April 8, 2012 in Travel diary

Having more or less overcome our health issues (my cold, Craig’s blisters), we finally felt like we found our stride this week. The walk has been enhanced by the people we’ve spent time with, and we feel like there have been a lot of special “Camino moments”, that epitomise the spirit of the walk.

Monday 2/4: What we thought would be a nice, easy start to the week (just 20km to Salamanca), turned out to be the complete opposite. The first stage was a haze of pain for both of us, as Craig continued with his blisters and I discovered just how painful they could really be. The light on the horizon was the town halfway between Morille and Salamanca, Miranda de Azán, where we planned to stop for coffee. It was about 200m off the route, but we made the detour, lured by signs advertising a bar AND a restaurant. But no luck. The restaurant had closed down several months previously and the bar was closed on Mondays.

Craig collapsed on the side of the road while I headed to the lone shop to see what I could find. The shopkeeper didn’t sell coffee, nor did he have any hot water, but — moved by my plight — he called his son and asked him to bring the pot of coffee from his own kitchen bench, and then wouldn’t hear of taking any money for it. It was a real Camino moment, of someone going out of their way to help out (or at least making their son go out of his way).

After coffee, the world was a better place and both of us were able to walk, stride even, to Salamanca. There, we ran into the hospitaleros just outside the albergue, who opened it up for us to let us drop off our bags, despite us arriving well after the cut-off time. We headed out to find lunch, which was a textbook example of bad service, and which put me in a bad mood for the next hour or so — a state that was only alleviated by coffee and churros.

The main square in Salamanca

After checking into the albergue when it reopened at 4pm, we had a rest then headed out again to try to find a solution to Craig’s feet issues. The local sports shop yielded two answers: a pair of decent-looking socks, and a whole new pair of shoes, halfway between sandals and closed shoes. We bought them both and added a towel to replace the one Craig lost last week.

Back in the albergue, we cooked dinner and spent the evening chatting with the hospitaleros, José the crazy Spaniard, and our old friends Mimma and Marina. Mimma was heading back to Milan so we said our goodbyes; I gave her a hug and she stroked my cheek and said sweet things in Italian.

Tuesday 3/4: After a refreshing sleep in a room with no other pilgrims (thanks, Trevor), we had breakfast and headed out the door only five minutes late, at 8:05. It was an early start for us, but it worked out well, since it gave us extra time walking in the dry — Tuesday’s key words were certainly “wet” and “long”.

Our attempt to have a coffee in the first town was foiled by the bar being shut; luckily this wasn’t the case in the second town, since by then we were soaked through. The rain let up a little after our coffee, but we still stopped for another at the next town (Calzada de Valdunciel), where we also ate our lunch in the lobby of a building which houses the old folks’ club and the library.

The weather worsens

Our destination, El Cubo de Tierra del Vino, was 20km further on with no towns along the way to break the journey. Luckily the path was flat and wide, mostly following the road, but we were both footsore by the time we arrived. Craig’s new shoes held up extremely well, given that he walked almost 40km in them; he had a couple of sore points but a lot fewer than you might expect.

We were surprised to find so many pilgrims at the albergue, among them José, Toro, and Gunter. Craig and I had wanted to cook but the local shop didn’t have a wide selection on offer, and what there was was overpriced. Instead, we joined a group of the others for the menu del día at the local bar, where the waitress/chef seemed really put out that we wanted to spend money in her establishment.

Wednesday 4/4: Things seem a lot stricter in Castilla y Leon than they were in the previous region of Extremadura; most albergues have a rule that you have to leave before 8am, which is about 20 minutes before sunrise. This was the case in El Cubo del Vino as well, so we left dead on 8:00 (okay, 8:05) and had a pleasant first stage of around 13km to Villanueva de Campeán, where we ran into three pilgrims we’d met the night before, who were also having a coffee in the bar. Getting into the town took a bit of time, though — an old man stopped to greet us at the entrance and ended up telling us all about the nice Kiwi girl who works in the winery, the Semana Santa processions in Zamora and what he and his entire family think about them, and the politics of having two pilgrim albergues in the same small town. It was awesome.

Entering Zamora

We decided to make a slight detour off the marked way to have another coffee and a bocadillo in San Marcial, which gave us the energy we needed for the next 13km or so to Zamora.

After walking alongside the road for about 3km, the city came into view and it only took us about three hours to reach it across the flat plain. It was worth the effort though, the city is beautiful. It’s situated on a river, has an unbelievable amount of churches, and also has a town wall. The albergue was modern and well-appointed, and we were put into a room with a Dutch couple we’d met in Cubo del Vino.

I left Craig behind to frantically try to catch up on some work and headed to the supermarket. I ended up at one a lot further away than I’d planned to go, but found everything I needed for an enormous meal, which we cooked back in the albergue. While I was out, I saw a lot of people in procession costumes heading towards the cathedral — we planned to watch the procession but it was called off (for the first time since the thirties) because of rain.

Thursday 5/4: We headed out the door after a filling breakfast put on by the albergue, and made good time to the first town about 6km away, where we took a break and ate some candied almonds that you can only get a Easter-time.

Semana Santa bread in Zamora

The next leg (12km) to Montamarta was similarly successful, and we found a bar on the way out of town which furnished us with the coffee we needed. We had lunch in the square before heading on… And somehow managed to lose our way. We’d just slogged through 600m of sticky mud when a couple of farmers (working on a holiday, crazy) told us we were going the wrong way. Luckily we didn’t have to go back the way we came, a slightly less-muddy access road took us back to the highway, but on reaching the road we promptly went the wrong way again. Luckily Craig checked the map at the next intersection and there was a shortcut back to the road we actually wanted, and halfway along the shortcut we found Camino markers. All went well for awhile, until the markers took us along a very roundabout path to avoid walking along the highway — we decided to give up on the arrows and just follow the road. And just as well, too, because the bar we’d been hanging out for was on the side of the highway, but a good kilometre from the marked track.

After a drink there, we only had 4km to go to our destination of Riego del Camino. Halfway there, it started to rain. Luckily it was only a light shower, and we were a lot better off than Toro, who had got caught in a hailstorm.

Pilgrims on the road ahead

When we finally arrived at our albergue, we found the whole gang there: Toro, Gunter, Steffi, Holger and José. After a not-very-long rest, we all ventured out into the rain to Bar Pepe — José very kindly invited us all out for dinner.

Friday 6/4: Since we weren’t going to be kicked out at 8am, we stayed in bed a little later and rose to find that it was raining. This let up after a while, but this wasn’t the good news you might expect; it was replaced by snow. Actual snow. José ventured out first, followed by Toro (with plastic-bag gloves); the rest of us stayed behind to have a leisurely breakfast — luckily the hot water from the tap was warm enough to make coffee with.

Craig and I eventually left shortly after 9, and by the time we arrived at the next town 6km later, we were completely wet. Craig’s jacket seemed to have lost its waterproofing, and while mine is doing well, it doesn’t stop my legs from getting drenched.

We spent over an hour in the bar at Granja, examining an hour-by-hour weather report. It seemed to indicate that things would improve, though we weren’t sure we’d made the right decision (to continue) when there was a relatively heavy squall about 15 minutes down the road. Luckily, that was it; apart from a few sprinkles we were dry for the rest of the day. We could even sit down for lunch when we arrived at the bridge (8km after Granja) that was our waymark.

The wind was icy but we made good time on the 10km to Faramontanos de Tábara, where we planned to stay. Unfortunately, the refugio was being used for something to do with Easter (it being Good Friday, after all) so we couldn’t stay there. Instead, we had to continue for another 6km to Tábara, where we discovered that the albergue is located really really far away from the town centre.

Morning market in Tábara

Since the supermarket was shut, we didn’t have much option but to eat in the bar (back in town, a long long way from the albergue). Back in the albergue, everyone was so knackered that we turned the lights out at 9:30.

Saturday 7/4: After a pleasant sleep-in (broken only by Toro crashing around), we left the albergue at around 9am and stopped at the supermarket on the way out of town. Unfortunately the light rain got heavier and heavier until it felt like icy needles, but it let off and the sun even came out to dry us off.

After 10km or so, we had to choose between two routes; we chose the one that would take us to coffee. 4km further along, we stopped in a bar for half an hour or so then had a bocadillo lunch on the side of the road out of town. After that, it wasn’t too far to Santa Marta de Tera, where we stopped for the night. The only other pilgrim was another Spaniard called José, who we’d met the night before; the others had stayed in a private albergue a kilometre back along the road — and with good reason, since the low temperatures meant that the very basic refugio on offer wasn’t very pleasant.

In the afternoon we visited an eleventh-century church which features the oldest statue of Santiago the pilgrim, and drank cheap wine with José in a local bar.

Sunday 8/4: Easter Sunday was perhaps the most perfect day on the Camino so far. It didn’t start auspiciously — the albergue was freezing cold so we dressed hurriedly, and the bar where we’d planned to have our morning coffee was closed.

We set off into the frosty landscape, and although we walked fast, the time seemed to drag. We finally made it to Olleros de Tera at midday with coffee on our mind, but the church bells were ringing and we decided to go to mass instead.

Our attempts to hide at the back were foiled by the need for everyone to leave in a procession — the men walked around the church one way following a man holding a large crucifix, and the women walked the other behind a statue of the Virgin Mary. We all met up halfway and returned to the church together.

It was interesting that two women led the mass, something that we hadn’t seen before. A kind lady explained to us later that the priest had come the day before; he’s probably the one who has seven churches to look after, who is also in charge of the church we visited in Santa Marta the day before.

After mass, we found a bar (after asking around a bit), where we had our long-anticipated coffee and some very tasty tapas. I had my cheek stroked again by an older woman wishing us a “buen camino”, and we made our way out of town.

Craig at the fountain

Not only did we have more energy after coffee and a snack, we also had great weather. After leaving the albergue bundled up in almost all our clothes (for example, I was wearing a T-shirt, two merino tops, a fleece, a jacket with the hood up to keep my ears warm, and a scarf fashioned out of my merino longjohns), it was exciting to get down to just a T-shirt and feel the sun on our arms.

The walk was great too; a narrow bushwalk of a couple of kilometres took us to a dam, and after we crossed it we walked alongside the reservoir for a few more kilometres.

Our guide said there wasn’t anything in Vilar de Farfón, the last town before our destination of Rionegro, but shortly before arriving there we saw a yellow coffee cup painted on the rock and got very excited. The cup didn’t represent a cafe, though; it was the house of a South African missionary family who had set up a tiny albergue with a welcoming porch/kitchen area where you could enjoy an instant coffee and a chat with the host. As we were leaving an older couple arrived who recognised us from mass and we were given apples to eat on our way.

Rionegro in the sunset

The albergue at Rionegro is new and fantastic, equipped with a washing machine and dryer. We put all our clothes on to wash and headed out to the bar for wine and more tapas. However, disaster struck when we returned; someone had changed the setting on the washing machine and it had stopped partway through a long cycle without having finished washing our clothes. After reading the instruction manual carefully, we managed to put it on again, and stayed up late cycling the clothes through the dryer — we’d planned to hang them out for awhile but it wasn’t to be.

Tags: camino, camino de santiago, spain, Travel diary, Via de la Plata, walk 2 Comments »

by Linda Martin

Travel diary: Via de la Plata, week three

April 1, 2012 in Travel diary

It’s been a week of changes of plan: days that were going to be long that ended up being short, short days that ended up long. Plus, the longest leg of the whole walk: 40km! (and probably the shortest at 11km). Overall, we’re continuing to increase the average amount we walk per day, up to 26km.

Monday 26/3: The week started as it meant to continue, with well-meant plans coming to nothing. Craig was in a bad mood because of his blisters, which rubbed off on me, and we trudged along in silence for most of the walk, which was pretty much all along the side of a road.

We’d been planning to head to Cañaveral, but as we walked further, the idea of a short day looked more and more appealing. We’d seen an ad in a previous albergue for Hostal Lindamar, which offered a dinner, breakfast and accommodation package for €14 — it sounded perfect and we’d decided to take them up on it; the only problem was that Hostal Lindamar was closed.

Roman milario

It was very lucky for us that the nearby albergue was open, because there was nothing else around for 10km in any direction, and it was also lucky that the albergue had pre-cooked food for sale — this was important, since we didn’t have enough food with us, having planned to shop in Cañaveral.

We spent the afternoon resting in the modern albergue and had a tasty dinner of pizza, salad and wine.

Sunset over the lake

Tuesday 27/3:Another day of changed plans. We left the albergue at Embalse de Alcantara at about 8:20, and followed the advice of a couple we’d met a few days previously, following the lake and then the road, rather than the marked Camino. This saved us some time and meant that we got to check out a cool Roman bridge.

We had a coffee and bought lunch food in Cañaveral, then continued onwards through light forest until we reached the turnoff to Grimaldo, where we planned to stop. But we both had so much energy and it was still quite early in the day, so we decided to continue on to Galisteo, 20km away.

The first 10km or so were fine but we were flagging for the last 10, and that was when things got difficult. At two points along the way, we had to be very alert, as the markers are erased or deliberately misleading. We made it through though, and even made it to Galisteo, where we found Cipri, Marina and Mimma (and some Germans, but they didn’t talk to us). The shops were shut, since we’d arrived after 8pm, so we had a tasty dinner of hamburgers and chips in the closest bar.

Cows under the Roman bridge

Wednesday 28/3: All of these changes of plans left us with a short day of just 11km — a holiday! We slept in, the walked up into the walled town to explore and do some shopping: me for snacks, Craig for blister plasters, and we both had separate, lovely encounters with the people serving us.

The walk to Carcaboso was all alongside the road, but was pleasantly broken up by a random man giving us a brochure for an albergue and explaining its location by repeating the word “carretera” (highway) several times, with appropriate hand gestures.

Cáparra

After checking in (to a private room with a double bed! Luxury!), we relaxed, had lunch, explored the town a little, then had dinner and turned in.

Thursday 29/3: Today was always going to be a long day, since there are no towns on the 39km stretch between Carcaboso and Aldeanueva del Camino. You can break up the journey by walking off-route, or by taking a taxi to a nearby hotel, but we decided just to do the whole leg.

We left early and walked through farmland for 10km before our first break, then continued on, reaching Cárparra at around 1:20. This old Roman city boasts a famous arch which the Junta de Extremadura has appropriated as the symbol of the Via de la Plata, and it appears on all the waymarkers — so it was great to see it in real life! We detoured down to the visitors’ centre, where we bought some water and had lunch before being kicked off the property, as it was 2pm and the centre was being closed for the afternoon.

The third stage was the most pleasant of the day, since we were refreshed after our break, but the fourth was more difficult. Just after our last mini-break, where I finally left behind my old black boots, we reached a point where we thought we could choose to walk alongside the road or follow the arrows in a more roundabout way. We chose the road way, and followed first a gravel road and then a well-defined track. Unfotunately, eventually the track disappeared into nothing and we found ourselves bushwhacking through long grass. After ten minutes of this, a tunnel under the motorway led us back to the provincial highway, which we followed all the way to Aldeanueva del Camino. There, we settled into the albergue before getting our pilgrim passports stamped at a small bookshop (and getting a free drink into the bargain) and having a menu del día at the Hogar del Pensionista bar.

Leaving behind the boots

Friday 30/3: Neither of us slept very well, in part because of the extremely soft beds, and in part because the Japanese pilgrim sharing our room got up loudly in the middle of the night and early in the morning. We ended up leaving Aldeanueva quite early (8:20, before sunrise) and followed the road to the equally-charming Baños del Montemayor. Craig’s blisters weren’t letting up, so he switched to jandals halfway there, and we packed his shoes into our bags while having coffee in a fantastic bar in Baños. It had a well inside! And a sheer rock wall!

Pilgrim fountain in Puerto de Béjar

The relatively flat terrain we’d been enjoying came to an end in Baños, and for the rest of the walk we rose steadily, then descended steeply before rising again to reach La Calzada de Béjar, where we stayed in a private albergue.

Just before the previous town (Puerto de Béjar), we left the region of Extremadura and entered Castilla y Leon. We already miss the perfectly-sized mojones (waymarkers) that we sat on for the last few hundred kilometres, but we felt that Puerto de Béjar had made a real effort to welcome us to the new region. There was an abundance of arrows and signposts with distances, a map of notable cities along the route, and a little fenced garden with seats, a bike rack, and a water fountain just for pilgrims! The water was tasty, too.

After arriving, we had a patched-together lunch of salami sandwiches then washed our clothes and rested for the rest of the afternoon before a light dinner and bed.

Saturday 31/3: Our departure was delayed since we got talking with the hospitalera, but once we got started we made good time. Our first break was in the next town of Valdacasa, where we enjoyed a coffee and free wifi in a bar called “El Peregrino”. The next town had a shop where we stocked up on lunch supplies, including half a skinny salami and some hard cheese.

On the way to Fuenterrobles

The last leg, to Fuenterroble, was a pleasant walk, and we were welcomed into the albergue by three Germans (Holger, Steffi and Gunter) who we’ve seen a lot of this week, since they stayed in the same albergues as us since Thursday. Craig finally felt like we were on the Camino when all five of us were sitting around, looking after our feet and complaining about blisters.

In the evening, Holger, Steffi and I cooked dinner together and we all ate in the dining room, where we were later joined by Toro (the Japanese guy) and José, a late-arriving pilgrim who’d walked almost 50km in one day.

Sunday 1/4: The day started well, with a communal breakfast put on by the hospitaleros. Toro and José had already left, but the Germans and a group of cyclists were still around.

The path was wide and flat, passing farms and crossing though open fields, and we didn’t need a real break until we had walked for about 14km and reached the top of a hill — a momentous occasion! This peak was not only the highest point of our journey, it also was one of many half-way points for us: halfway through our day and halfway through our Camino in terms of days.

The road to Morille

After an early lunch of salami, cheese and pickled-pepper bocadillos, we continued onwards and downwards, until we reached the town of San Pedro de Rozados. There, we ducked into a bar for a (pricy) beer and to decide if we were going to stay there or go on to the next town of Morille, 4.3km down the road. The encroaching storm, Craig’s feet, and the desire to arrive early in Salamanca the next day were all considered; we chose to continue.

The walk was easy, along a dirt road, but the darkening skies kept threatening to open on us, spitting occasionally to remind us that rain was on its way. Luckily, we beat it to Morcille, and even found an albergue (our various guides had been remarkably contradictory on the subject), where Toro was already established.

Tags: camino, camino de santiago, spain, Travel diary, Via de la Plata, walk No Comments »

by Linda Martin

Travel diary: Via de la Plata, week two

March 25, 2012 in Travel diary

We’re still on the road to Santiago, but have picked up the pace a little, with an average of 25km per day.

Monday 19/3: After the ferocious wind of the day before, we were glad that things had died down a bit! We left at about 8:05 and got off-track almost immediately — a trend that was to continue throughout the day. In our first stop, a small town called Calzadilla de Los Barros, we wandered around a fair bit before finding a cafe, and in our final destination, Zafra, our handy yellow arrows disappeared and we went the long way around to find the albergue.

The walk itself was lovely though, a wide path gently winding through fields planted with cereals. I can imagine it would be tough on a hot summer’s day as there was no shade, but today was freezing cold — we both left our jackets on all day, and I had my gloves on until noon.

We took a long break at Puebla de Sancho Pérez, only 4km from Zafra, where we enjoyed a beer and the free snack that came with it — in this case, chips and pieces of pork. The gastronomy continued when we had a ración of patatas con morcilla for a late lunch, and Dave the Englishman cooked paella for dinner.

Almost in Zafra

My shoes have bitten the dust, despite my attempts to repair them — a hole in the right sole is getting bigger and is causing blisters. So we went shopping and I bought a new pair of shoes, which I now have the fun of breaking in! Yay!

Tuesday 20/3: Tuesday was a difficult day for both of us, despite being a short day of walking at only 19km. The first four kilometres or so to Los Santos de Maimona were fine, and the town was lovely to walk through. The church was beautifully decorated, with an incredibly ornate door that we stopped to look at.

I changed back into my old shoes at our first break after 7km of walking, and my feet started to ache and didn’t stop. Craig’s blisters were giving him grief as well, so by the time we made it to Villafranca de los Barros, we were both about ready to fall over. Since there is no pilgrim albergue in the town, we made our way to the address of a pension we had the details of… But it was closed. We hobbled back to where we’d turned off and struggled up the hill to the other option, which at €18 each for the night wasn’t our first choice. As it turned out though, no other pilgrims arrived to share our room, so we had a private room with ensuite. And no bunks for a change!

After a rest, we caught up on some work using the wifi then headed out to do some shopping for dinner. We ended up having lentils on rice, it was surprisingly good.

Wednesday 21/3: Although a longer walk (27km), we both finished the day in a much better mood than the day before. Perhaps we’re finally finding our stride?

We set off at 7:50 and made good time, taking our first break after about 8km. We didn’t walk through any towns (though we did pass within a few kilometres of one) and the way was straight and flat — it really felt like we were walking the Roman road. Sometimes we could see flattish stones under the dirt of the road, which I’m pretty sure the Romans put there 2000 years ago. Crazy!

Towards Torremejía

We arrived in town footsore but coping, and checked into the first albergue we saw. Unfortunately it turns out that the other one would have probably been the better option since it is located in an old castle, but you win some, you lose some. At least we ended up with a private room again — only one other pilgrim was staying in the albergue.

After a shower and a rest, we headed out to explore Torremejía, but as it’s quite tiny there wasn’t a lot to see. We had coffee in a really cool cafe/bar, where we also tried teculamecula — a cake made from an old recipe, with the principal ingredients being almonds, eggs and sugar. It was delicious.

We had a cold dinner, since the albergue didn’t have a kitchen, and went to bed early — wearing all our thermals and swathed in blankets to protect against the 0 degree temperatures.

Thursday 22/3: Since we had 33km of walking ahead of us, we decided to make an early start, stepping out the door into the freezing-cold wind at 7:30. The first stage wasn’t much fun, with the wind chilling me to the bone and making my nose run, but I felt a lot better after the break.

We arrived in Merida at about 11 o’clock, and sat by the river admiring the Roman bridge for a while. As we were walking through town, we ran into “our group” (Marina, Mima, Cipri and Ernesto), who gave us directions to the albergue and seemed very disappointed in us that we weren’t planning to stay there and see more of Merida. We said our goodbyes, since we probably wouldn’t see them for a while, and continued on.

Roman bridge in Mérida

After passing the impressive aqueduct Los Milagros, we stopped for a coffee and tapas in a small bar, then headed on to Proserpina dam, which was also built by the Romans. Water from this dam flowed along the aqueduct we’d seen earlier to supply the city of Merida in Roman times.

After a short rest by the water, we pushed on again, walking along a road for a while then finally turning onto a dirt track through sparse forest. We had a late lunch of salami, brie and pickled-pepper sandwiches, then continued on to our final destination of Aljucén, where we checked into the albergue with relief before visiting the church and having a two-course dinner: couscous at the albergue and hamburgers at the bar.

Our lodgings in Alcuéscar

Friday 23/3: As always, we were the last to leave the albergue (at 7:55) but we soon passed a group of French walkers who’d been staying in the albergue too. We made extremely good time along the wide, flat paths through farms and sparse forest, and arrived in Alcuéscar before 1pm.

After a trip into town to get some groceries, I spent a lot of time washing all my clothes, and then we had lunch and a long rest. In the evening, the hospitaleros Pilar and Alfredo took us on a tour of the building and explained its history, and then we all went to a special mass where the priest read aloud a blessing in Spanish and kept losing his place as he added thoughts of his own. After that, we had dinner together in a dining room hidden in the depths of the monastery, and the conversation was a little stilted as the only other pilgrim, a Dutch woman, didn’t speak Spanish and Alfredo didn’t speak English (or Dutch, but then neither did the rest of us).

Saturday 24/3: After re-examining the map, we decided to change our plans for the next couple of days, in order to avoid staying in Valdesalor, where the refugio on offer is on the floor of the sports club’s changing rooms. Oddly, they’ve built a new albergue, and it’s ready to go — except it hasn’t been inaugurated.

Instead of walking 28km there the first day followed by 23km the next, we decided to have a short day today and a longer one tomorrow: 17 and 34, breaking our journey at Aldea del Cano.

We left late and walked for about 5km, neither of us in the best of moods. After a short break, though, things improved, and they improved even more after we detoured off the Camino at a small town and found an open bar to have a coffee in.

To Aldea del Cano

Along the way, which was pleasantly flat, we saw two cool Roman bridges and four milestones marking the Roman mile of about 1.5km. The albergue was open when we arrived in Aldea del Cano, and we freshened up before heading out to the shop before it shut at 2pm. I sat outside for awhile, chatting with the customers of the bar next door (exclusively men, it seemed). As we were just starting lunch, we were pleasantly surprised when first Cipri, then Mima and Marina walked in. They’d come all the way from Aljucén, where we’d stayed two nights before.

We had a lazy, even a little boring, afternoon and ate microwave lasagne for dinner before having a drink in the bar and heading to bed.

Sunday 25/3: Since daylight savings was starting, we made an intentionally late start so as not to be walking in the dark. Even leaving at 8:20, though, we managed to see the sunrise — a first for this walk!

We saw a sunrise!

Our first long stop was in Valdesalor, which we learned is a planned town that was built in the sixties. We found the bar and had a coffee, then continued on up and over the hill behind the town. We were both tired when we reached Cáceres 12km later, so we stopped in the first cafe we saw for another coffee, before abandoning our route in order to see a bit of the city. Marina had once again been disapproving that we weren’t going to stay in Cáceres and explore during the afternoon, but I don’t think an afternoon would do it justice, so perhaps it’s better not to try. A quick glimpse through the old town was at least enough to see how awesome and historical it is.

However, this wander through the old town was quite exhausting (it’s on a steep hill), and by the time we were out of the city centre we were tired and footsore. We found a cafe/bar for lunch, where we ate paella and bull meat and rested for some time.

Cáceres

The route from Cáceres to our final stop, Casar de Cáceres, included 3km of walking on the shoulder of a highway, followed by an interminable if shallow hill. We made it though, and almost immediately ran into Cipri, who had left Marina and Mima behind in Cáceres and come on alone.

After buying some of the famous cheese that’s made here, we found the albergue and chatted with a German couple who was already there, then showered and relaxed for a bit. Dinner was a menu del día at the bar across the road with Cipri and Marc (a pilgrim who’s travelling by bike), and I finished the evening by chatting to a French/Spanish couple who were also staying in the albergue (with their dog), and who we’d seen and chatted with several times throughout the day.

Tags: alcuescar, aljucen, caceres, casar de caceres, merida, Roman, roman bridge, spain, Travel diary, Via de la Plata, zafra No Comments »

by Linda Martin

Travel diary — on the way to Santiago

March 18, 2012 in Travel diary

We’re on our way to Santiago! Slowly, certainly — we’re averaging about 22km a day — but we’ll get there eventually.

Monday 12/3: We made the most of what will probably be our last opportunity to do so for some time, and slept in. Then we spent the rest of the day running errands: first we booked tickets for Craig to go back to England to pick up the rest of our gear, and sent some Couchsurfing requests for A Coruña. Then we headed into the city to get our pilgrim passports (not from the cathedral, as it turns out, but from Hotel Simón nearby). We stopped by the police station to see about getting me an identity card, but the line was so long we decided to give up on it and go shopping instead.

Craig’s tiny backpack was just too small for all the stuff he needs for the Camino, so he wanted to get a new one. We had to catch a bus out to Camas and spent some time looking through the Decathlon store, eventually buying not only a bag, but also a new shirt for Craig and a pocket knife. We headed home after visiting the supermarket and having a coffee, and I rested while Craig played with the kids.

In the evening we introduced Ana and Alfonso to Vietnamese summer rolls, and had a nice evening chatting with them and drinking fine wine — Craig had managed to find a bottle of Ayala champagne for only €10, so we celebrated our impending departure in true style.

Tuesday 13/3: Alfonso told us there was a mass for pilgrims at 8:30 in the cathedral, and since we thought this would be a perfect start to our journey, we decided to go. We said a sad goodbye to Alfonso and the kids, and made it to the cathedral just on time, but there didn’t seem to be anything going on in the chapel where the mass was supposed to be. No matter; we wandered around the dark cavern of the cathedral until we found a service that had already started, and sat at the back with our bags beside us. As we were leaving, another mass in another alcove caught our attention, so we went to that one too.

Next, we needed to get a stamp in our pilgrim passports from the cathedral. This was going to pose a problem since the office where you get them opens at 11, and it was only 9am. Luckily though, as we approached the gates to the office, they opened to let a car out. We asked the woman who was opening them about the stamps, and she said she could help us. She ushered us into the office, stamped the passports, then let us out, locking the gates behind us.

The first part of the journey was uneventful. We got a little off-track when leaving Seville, but found our stride on the other side of the river. We walked through Camas, passing not far from the Decathlon we’d visited the day before, then continued on to Santiponce, where we had a coffee then explored the Roman ruins. There’s a theatre, thermal baths, and a huge complex of houses and an amphitheatre that was stunning to see. Although the house walls were not very high, there were several mosaic floors in very good condition.

We continued on, deciding to have lunch when we arrived in Guillena, our final stop for the day. Most of the route there was a straight line along a wide dirt track, so it was quite easy going. We were still exhausted by the time we arrived, though, and were grateful for the help offered by a woman who saw us looking lost at the police station (we weren’t, but the gesture was nice all the same).

Guillena at night

We settled into the albergue then headed out to the supermarket before a well-deserved rest. In the evening we went for a walk around town then met the other pilgrims at church for another mass. After the formal part of the service the priest asked us to come forward to give us a blessing and a little card with the church’s favourite Virgin Mary statue on it. Afterwards we all had a beer together in the local bar, along with the hospitalero (albergue host), Jacqueline. Because of the nature of this Camino, we’ll probably see most or all of the other pilgrims most nights for the next few weeks. There were seven of us that first night: a French couple, a Spanish man, an Italian woman and a Russian woman (all in their fifties or sixties), and Craig and me — who have already become “los jóvenes” (the young ones).

Wednesday 14/3: The others had all left when we got up at 7:30. We had a breakfast of coffee and magdalenas and were out the door just before 8:30, starting a short day of only 19km. Of course, since it was day two we were a bit slow to start, since our bodies were complaining about what we’d made them do the day before. We found a rhythm though, and enjoyed a pleasant walk along a dirt track with trees on either side. We saw rabbits and butterflies, and the birds were singing. For a while we had to walk along a road, which was hard on our feet, but soon a track appeared beside it — a lot more pleasant.

All five other pilgrims had already arrived when we made it to the albergue in Castilblanco, two of them welcomed us from the second-floor porch. We showered, laundered, shopped and lunched then gave in and had a nap — in good company though, everyone else was doing the same.

Castilblanco

I managed to cut myself with the new, sharp, pocket knife while trying to put dinner together, but otherwise the evening was uneventful and we all turned in early.

Thursday 15/3: Once again, everyone was gone by the time we got up, and we packed quickly and left without making coffee. It was a hard start to the day, made harder by Craig’s blisters, my cold, and 16km of walking along a road. A Dutch couple pulled their car over and got out for a chat with us while we were having a break; they’re planning on doing the Via de la Plata next year and are scoping it out. It was a good conversation until I scared them off with a coughing fit.

Things improved once we got off the road and entered the national park, which was full of cork trees. It was an undulating, pleasant walk… Right up until the end when we had to climb up and down a steep, rocky hillside. Luckily the town of Almadén de la Plata was at the foot of it! We went in with the other pilgrims for dinner; Mina (the Italian) cooked delicious pasta and chicken and we were joined by another Spanish guy who’s cycling the Camino.

Almaden de la Plata

Friday 16/3: Day four was certainly more pleasant than day three. We started off at about 8:25, and two minutes after walking out the door it started to rain. The rain continued off and on for the next few hours, with varying intensity but luckily not in complete downpours.

The walk itself was lovely, along a nice, soft, wide track that wound through a lightly forested national park. There was one serious climb about two-thirds of the way through, which Craig had problems with because of his blisters, but otherwise it was very easy going.

We met up with the other three when we arrived in El Real de la Jara, and all checked into a private albergue. There were three rooms and five of us (the French couple having continued on to the next town) so Craig and I had a room to ourselves — luxury!

Cows guarding a castle outside El Real de la Jara

We headed out to get lunch and buy some hayfever medicine as well as some blister plasters, then spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and enjoying the wifi connection before having dinner with the other pilgrims — Cipri (the Spaniard) had cooked a traditional garlic soup and rather forcefully invited us to share it. Saying no was not an option, but luckily it was absolutely delicious.

Saturday 17/3: Day five was another pleasant one, just 20km along a wide dirt road that wound through farmland. We crossed the border from Andalusia into Extremadura, saw two castles, and were barked at for about 15 minutes by a dog who didn’t like the fact we were walking alongside her paddock.

The last few kilometres were a bit of a struggle. On reaching the top of the hill just before our destination of Monasterio, we decided to take an extended break and have lunch at the picnic tables that seemed to be placed there for exactly that purpose. We chatted with a guy who’d pulled over in his car for a break and also with a pilgrim who’d come all the way from Almadén, where we’d stopped two nights before — he’s obviously in better condition than us!

In town, we visited the albergue, where we saw our three fellows as well as three or four other pilgrims. In the end though, we decided to stay in a guesthouse we’d seen advertised for the same price as the albergue. There was no kitchen or wifi but we got a private room with our own bathroom, instead of two bunks in a dorm. It felt like complete luxury!

After a shower and a rest, we decided to explore the town a little bit. We visited an old (fifteenth-century) church, and went to a mini-museum dedicated to the Via de la Plata, where we learned all sorts of things about our route and were given a map.

In Monasterio

On the way back through town, we finally managed to buy Craig some jandals. He was extremely excited, since it isn’t much fun to put walking shoes back onto blistered feet if there’s another option.

In the evening, we went to the bar below our accommodation and had our first menú del día of the trip — starter, main, dessert and a drink for €8 each. Win.

Sunday 18/3: The day started with a victory: we managed to leave by 8:05. Of course, losing the way about a kilometre down the road wasn’t so much of a win. We realised that we’d gone the wrong way but decided to keep on going instead of retracing our steps, and it worked out fine. We had a lovely walk along a stonewalled lane and hopped across a brook before coming to a road and trying to work out which way to go. We’d just decided to go left, when a car trundled down the road and pulled to a stop, both the driver and the passenger falling over themselves to inform us the we just had to turn left and we’d soon be back on the right path.

The right path wasn’t as pretty as the one we’d just left, but it was fairly straight and wide and we made good time. After a while we came out onto an open plain where the wind was fierce. I found it tough going but Craig had found victory over his blisters (almost) and has a windproof jacket, and really enjoyed himself.

Almost there! Fuente de Cantos, our last stop for the week.

We made it to Fuente de Cantos at around 1:30 and found a shop selling bread on the way to the albergue, which is located in an old convent– it’s airy and modern on the inside, and old and historical on the outside. Plus, it has wifi — which is how I’m able to post this travel diary!

After a rest, we went for a wander around town then visited the other half of the convent, which is now a museum-like space dedicated to the life and works of a local seventeenth-century artist. The guide was animated and informed and we spent an hour there without noticing it go by.

Tags: Almaden de la Plata, Camas, camino de santiago, diary, Fuente de Cantos, Guillena, Monasterio, Real de la Jara, Santiponce, Sevilla, seville, spain, Travel diary, Via de la Plata 6 Comments »

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Travel diary — on the way to Santiago

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