Saturday I Met Group From Malaysia

 

Here is the sign out on the road by the albergue where I stayed Friday night. I think the 226 kilometers between here and Santiago is a little low. We’ll see.

On Saturday morning I started out late from my albergue because I only had 7 or 8 miles to walk to reach Luarca. My friend Elizabeth offered to split a hotel room with me if I wanted to stay in Luarca for Mass Saturday night. Which I did, and we had dinner and had a nice time.

I set out Saturday morning a few minutes ahead of two German friends, Andrea and Martina. I stayed at the same places they did the past two or three nights, so we knew each other pretty well. They, too, were looking forward to mass on Saturday night. We seem to be missing it, and if you’re on a religious pilgrimage it’s something you especially look forward to.

After walking a few minutes we came around a corner to this church where a small group of people were standing. It seemed to me to be people waiting to go inside. I asked if there was going to be a mass there. They said no, they were just looking at it, and it only opens at noon.

I realized they were pilgrims too.  They said, and anyway, we have our own priest, we have mass every day. Their English was native, and I assumed they were from the United States. No, they said, we are from Malaysia, and they gave us little Malaysian flags. I think their pastor has come on a half dozen pilgrimages now, he said. Thomas was their tour manager. He said “I am a human selfie stick,” and he took a picture of all of us. He flipped it, you can see the church is reversed.

This was such nice news I forwarded this photo to Elizabeth. I didn’t know she was ahead of me in the very next albergue, getting ready to go to the cafe for breakfast.

I walked past her cafe, a few minutes before she came downstairs and sat down. She read my message and looked up to see the Malaysian group walking towards her. They had a nice conversation and said they would be in touch. So maybe we will hear mass in English.

On Saturday night I finally got to mass in a beautiful church called Santa Eulalia. A pilgrim came in wearing a Parks Half Marathon shirt. It turns out he is a friend of Elizabeth’s.

I did several Parks races, and asked him about the shirt. He also served in the Marines and did a bunch of Marine Corps Marathons. I sent this picture to Rick, who thought he looked familiar. Steve is a Deacon at s Catholic Church in Silver Spring, Maryland,

Another Gorgeous Day

 On Friday I walked the Coastal route instead of going over the mountain. I walked down to a stone beach. A pilgrim I was walking with told me she had been sick, and  was taking a slow day. She lay down and took a nap in the sun.

There were stone cairns there that people had made. So I made my first-ever cairn. No telling when I will get a selection like that to work with again!

It was Kya’s birthday on Friday and it would’ve been great to make one with 19, but I had to stop at 7.

Then I went up and down more hills and saw a really pretty sand beach. This is looking down from a cliff. I promise I didn’t go near the edge.

The upper picture is the hill to the right. The stone beach is east of that. The bottom picture shows me taking the picture, the beach is far below me.

The Camino guide says that those who take the beach route do the same total ascending as those who climb over the mountain.  I think my tracker said 55 staircases. And of course every time I went up I had to go all the way down soon after.

Last night I stayed in a beautiful hostel called Yalga. I’m only 10km from the town of Luarca where I will go to mass and then spend Saturday night with a pilgrim friend named Elizabeth. Because of only walking 6 or 7 miles today I will need to do 18 tomorrow. I have done 18 miles, specifically the muddy, logging day.

Lisa Arrived in Santiago!

 

The very first morning in Irún, I left my albergue looking for an ATM. For some reason my bank card didn’t work and I was worried. José, a kind pilgrim from Valencia gave me 20€ to sign in at the albergue, but I had no euros. Liz, a woman from Australia who sat across from me at breakfast told me to try a big bank, so I was out walking in Irún looking for one.

A pilgrim walked towards me and we introduced ourselves. Her name was Lisa, she just arrived at the bus stop from San Sebastián, and she was from Australia. She only had three weeks to spend on the Camino, and her plan was to hike a few sections and then take the bus further west and walk continuously for the last hundred kilometers to earn the Compostela,

I wound up hiking with Lisa off and on for the next week. She’s a lovely person and lots of fun. She said she gave herself this trip as a birthday gift, but sometimes if it was a tough day’s hiking she didn’t think she’d picked a very good gift for herself. I might add here that she is really athletic and walked some very long days in the heat. Also, she’s a surfer.

Yesterday I texted her to see how she was doing, and she had just arrived in Santiago! She went to the pilgrims’ office and got her Compostela certificate. I’m so happy for her. I know some people think it’s difficult for me to be here alone, but Lisa came halfway around the world and doesn’t speak Spanish, Congratulations Lisa!

Gijón or Xixón as They Write in Asturian

 

This is the view from the sitting room in the Boogalow Hostel in Gijon. It’s a beautiful hostel with a lot of services. I would stay here again!

After the hike in the rain to arrive here, I decided to take the bus to the next town, Avilés. My guidebook suggested it, saying the walk was 18 miles beside a highway and that 5 of that was through an industrial area.

When I got to Avilés I walked a few miles then went to another albergue.

A Hard Day Hiking

 Last night I had dinner with Sarah from Lancaster, Mateusz from Poland and Ernest from England.

Sarah and Ernest are hiking the Primitivo, the first trail that was created after the tomb of St James was discovered. I am going to miss the ones that are taking the mountain path, but may see them again in Santiago.

Last night I stayed in a very nice hotel because I missed getting a bed in an albergue. Hotels cost more, unless you share the room, and you miss out on seeing your friends. The albergues are very social. 

This morning I had tortilla española  and a cup of cafe con leche before leaving. Tortilla in Spain is a big thick omelet of potatoes, a little onion, and beaten eggs. There is usually some on the counter of all the cafes. It’s very cheap and I like how it tastes so I get it every day if I can.

I had a text from my friend Rachael before I left, saying that there was logging going on in the mountains on the way today. This was troubling since it was raining pretty hard. In fact, it was pretty bad.

There was a big, long hill I was not looking forward to, and it turned out that was beside the logging operation.  So today’s hike checked all the boxes— cold, wet, steep, slippery and muddy!

A muddy walk

If it wasn’t bad enough to be in the mud, trucks were coming and going, so I had to step off the trail to get out of the way.

I was so glad to get to the other side of that mountain. There was lots more mud, and more inclines, but it was easier to handle without the trucks passing.

The guidebook said there was a cafe after the first 12 miles in Peon. It was closed for vacation. In 2 more miles there  was a tiny cafe. I sat for a half hour, then finally got up and finished the walk. I am hoping to rest tomorrow.

I took this rainbow photo earlier in the day. Hope you can see it!

Lots of Horses

 This morning dawned beautiful at the surfing hostel in La Isla:

Rain is predicted but we started walking before 8am and only had 13-14 miles to go. We met a lot of friends on the way. 

On the old farms in Spain there are grain storage buildings called horreos. They are very like our corn cribs on farms back home. They are built up on pillars and the top of each pillar has a big dome or lid, to prevent mice and rats from running straight up the pillars to get at the stored food. As cities gradually took over the old farming communities the horreos got absorbed into the neighborhoods. So you see some in yards that are not used as farms, but you still see some in use. Today we saw one that had a design on the side that looked like a Pennsylvania Dutch hex sign.

Sitting under this horreo was Cami, eating lunch. There were also some very beautiful and friendly horses we stopped to visit. Three at this spot, but several others from earlier in our walk I will include here.

First, the Appaloosa and two others at the horreo.

Here is a cream- colored one that wanted to come along with Sarah.

And here’s one from yesterday’s walk who seemed like he wanted to tell me something. He walked right up to the fence and looked me straight the eyes. We looked at each other awhile. I hated to walk away.

I’m now in Villaviciosa. It’s a beautiful little place. Sarah looked up the name and said it came from “ town of bad habits.” I saw this antidote-town name sign about 5 miles before we arrived here. Maybe this town is trying to make up for whatever bad habits led to viciosa’s getting its name.

A Surfer Hostel

 I am the last bed in this row, bottom bunk. My friend Sarah is across the way. This is a hostel right on the beach, but it was Sunday night so a lot of the weekend surfing crowd was gone. We had the whole dormitory to ourselves. This is how an old-time albergue looked.  Some of the old church and municipal albergues still look like this, but many now have the individual, built-in-the-wall ship’s berths and we each have shelves with a reading light and charging station.

We were right on the beach. There is a restaurant downstairs and loads of tables and umbrellas out on the grass out front. Here’s my view from beside my bed. That’s the bar on the left.

We paid 33€ for the bed, dinner and breakfast this morning. Today I am walking to Villaviciosa, which is a nice town even if it doesn’t sound like it.

The Tiniest Beach and the Biggest Pack of Poodles

 Yesterday I walked from Llanes to Cuerres. Lots and lots of views of the beautiful mountains to the south of me and beaches to the north.

I walked the first part alone, but kept running into different pilgrims I’d been walking with in previous days.

Here is a cafe on the way. Usually, if you have been staying in the pilgrim albergues, there will be people you know in the cafe. You can just say hi as you pass, or you can stop for a coffee and something to eat if you’re hungry.

I walked in to this cafe and stopped to talk with Maria Jesus(“Chus”) from Toledo, and her friend Emi, on the right. I arrived with the couple to the left, Canadians Kim and Diane from Vancouver. They stopped to talk with a Dutch couple they knew. My family asked me if there are other people around. Yes, they are all around,

I left the cafe and Chus and Emi caught up with me. Chus has a list of beautiful spots and historic sites to look for, and yesterday her goal was to see one if the most beautiful beaches in Spain, the beach of Gulpiyuri.

I don’t always have the energy or time to leave the Camino to go see something. Gulpiyuri would take me out of my way maybe a mile. But the weather was nice — rained in the morning but now the sun was out— so I said I’d go along to see Gulpiyuri.

As we were walking, we met a French girl, Cami. I first met her about two weeks ago. She is carrying everything she needs to camp. She only stays in an albergue every few nights, mostly she sleeps out in her tent. I hadn’t seen her for 4or 5 nights, so this was a nice surprise.

Cami and I both have to finish up before October 15. She needs to finish an early childhood training and take the test, and I am going to work in an albergue in Astorga. So hopefully we will be walking at the same pace and will see each other some more. I told her about the beach and invited her to come with us. She decided to join the group.

I have to confess to not understanding everything people say in Spanish, so in addition to being a “gem” and a jewel of a beach, I think I missed the point that it was a tiny beach. Teeny.

We walked towards it, following Chus’s directions. Gradually we came to lots of cars parked along the side of the road. If people were returning to their cars I asked them if it were worth the trouble to go see this beach. (remember, we have been walking past miles and miles of gorgeous beaches!) They all said Si, vale la pena.

So when we finally got there, I have to admit to you- I was disappointed. It was a tiny pocket beach. A little cove. There was a big, stone mountain between it and the open sea, A channel or cave perforated the stone in the mountain, and water gushed in and out. Cami and I looked at each other. It was cute, but kind of a let-down.

Until the poodles arrived. A family came, and brought their poodles to the beach.  There were a dozen poodles and they had a blast. It was a circus of poodles. The family members must’ve liked poodles and I think they bought them from the same breeder. The poodles ran around and played and posed and tumbled in the surf.

These photos don’t quite convey it, but the poodles made the side trip worth it to me.

It was lunchtime and we crawled down to the beach and walked in the water and had a good time.

I only got to my hotel at 5:30, with the detour and all, but it was a fun afternoon. Above is Chus and me at la playa Gulpiyuri.  And below is my hotel, where I met up with another Pilgrim I’ve been walking with, Sarah, who’s from Lancaster. 

Look How Well You’re Doing

 This afternoon before arriving in Colombres we passed a house that had this encouraging sign out in their front yard. It says we now have less than 500 Km to Santiago.

Tonight a group of 9 lucky pilgrims got to stay in the private home of Mate and Yenka- I am not sure of the spelling— a Slovenian couple who liked the Camino so much they decided to live in Spain and host pilgrims. They take Saturdays off, but the other six they clean, cook and help pilgrims. They only have nine beds. The food was delicious. The pilgrims tonight were from Israel, Poland, Denmark, Germany, England, Netherlands, and for the first time in my memory, three from the US. Usually we are outnumbered in every social setting. The Polish guy is an Opera singer on sabbatical. The British guy was one of the Buckingham palace guards who wear the really tall black hats.

Today we walked through a lot of farms again. There are a lot of dairy cows here with a full set of horns. I would hate to have to milk a cow in a testy mood with horns like these.

Comillas, Tuesday

 

Tuesday afternoon I arrived in Comillas. It’s another beautiful little town next to the beach. I really enjoyed the walk on Tuesday, there was a lot of beach-side walking. Not like all the road-walking to Santillanas.

Comillas has a huge Pontifical College-a seminary for the traof priests. And since the beach is so gorgeous there, a friend of the king ( not sure what era) built a huge beach house- think Downton Abbey- for when the king felt like coming to Cantabrica to visit. Actually in Santander there is a summer palace too. But this one was made to host the king as a friend.  

Here’s a picture of the town from a hill up above. I got to attend mass in the church you can see down the hill, San Cristobal.

View walking down the hill. The spire on the right is where I went to mass. Up on the hill in the center is the Pontifical Seminary.

One more picture from yesterday. I have now seen this a couple places, a gigantic clam shell used as a holy water font. This one was the biggest yet, close to two feet across.

Booking.com

 Tonight I am staying in a convent turned in to a hostal for the Camino. The sisters had a very nice program for those who wanted to attend, (about 40 of us) where we all said our name, where we’re from, and something we like about the Camino.

There might be 70 or 80 here tonight. A lot of pilgrims were down in the courtyard singing until about 5 minutes ago. Even though there are hardly any Americans here- there are maybe a dozen Germans, 8 or 10 French, 6 Italians, 8-10 Brits— they sang all American pop songs. My Way, country road take me home, When the saints go marching in,  Sweet Alabama, John Lennon. It was fun to hear, but I was too tired to go. Here’s what I walked today:

Here’s a “half-sandwich” I had for lunch:

And finally I wanted to show you the house where I stayed last night. It was a very nice place! So I went from being by myself to being with 50 people singing My Way. I am really tired and going to bed now!

The Coast of Cantabria

 On Sunday September 14 I got to walk on some beautiful beaches, mile after mile of them.

We were headed to Santander, and when we got there lots of pilgrims were in line to catch the ferry to cross the bay heading west.

Here’s some beach photos I took before we reached the ferry. These are small towns with big surfing communities. There are parking places filled with camper vans and people hanging out.

The city in the distance is Santander. Here’s a shot looking down from rocky hill we had to climb over to get to the next beach.

And here is a good reminder that I’m not in Kansas anymore, a very private, nude beach. (We were walking along the cliff overlooking the beach. No telephoto lenses)

Tonight I am sleeping in a private house, on my way to a town called Santillana del Mar, where I will stay in an old convent. Last night I stayed at a beautiful Albergue way out in the country. So I am staying at a lot of different kinds of pilgrim accommodations. Buenas noches.

“The Camino Adapts to the 21st Century “

CBS Piece on the Camino

I forget how to do a link, so if nothing shows up here, this is a recent CBS piece on the Camino. It’s on YouTube, so you can look it up. Thanks to my friend Jane who sent it to me.

It’s 8:15 and I’m having breakfast at a café and pilgrims are flying by to catch the first ferry. It’s a festival weekend here in Laredo, I only realized as I was walking down the street and saw people cleaning and setting up tables. Sorry to miss it. I better get moving. Will probably only get the next ferry . it’s almost 2 miles from here, but we walk along the beach. 

Hope the link works. I met the priest Father Rindal, who founded the organization Warriors on the Way. It’s an amazing group. He is a military chaplain and (I think, it’s been some years) been deployed with combat units. An inspiring man. A lot of the people who get accepted for the Camino have been hospitalized for their PTSD and they get a lot out of the Camino. I’m just now remembering parts of his presentation. I’m carrying more weight than I should be (a hoarder mentality?) but I remember him saying some felt like they were still on duty, and felt as though they needed to carry 100 pounds of stuff to be ready for anything.  It was an accomplishment to have them realize they would be ok with a little bit, and that the Camino community would provide for them.

Leaving the Basque Country

 Yesterday I walked to Laredo . I’m now in a new region, Cantabrica.  I took this picture as I left the last town:

This tells the distance to Santiago, about 400 miles. I was going to jump ahead by bus in order to make it by October 12. But I met some women, Cindy and Marcy from Pennsylvania, and they said it’s possible to do in the time I have. They even share their spreadsheet with me that shows their daily hikes.

So I am going to see if I can do it, too.(and yes, they are my age. Lots of us are retirees.) Yesterday I did go on some roads again, although I also went in the mountains.  30 km is about 18 miles and I did 16, I think.

Soon after I took that picture I heard someone say Hi, Liz. It was Juan, and his friend Jesus, two guys from Andalusia down on the Mediterranean. They have been so kind and fun to walk with. I don’t always understand everything they say. To me Andalusian accents sound staccato, like Italian. I met them in the first 50 miles at a supper at an albergue in the mountains, and we’ve run into each other almost every day since, but they are going faster than me.  They need to be back at work early October, so yesterday was the last I’ll see them.

Once I happened to be in a group of people going down a really steep quarry road (literally down into a mining pit that cut across a wide valley. It was Sunday and the business was closed.)  It was so steep and we were walking single file down this trail, and Juan reached out and held onto a piece of my backpack and lifted it up. It took a lot of the weight off my shoulders. I thanked him. He said yes but if you fall, I am going to have to let you go!

Yesterday I was walking with a woman from Madrid named Veronica. She was just getting started and Jesus got her to stop and readjust her pack so it would be more comfortable. We walked in a little group for 6 or 7 miles and every so often they asled, “are you ok?”  I imagined they were thinking if their mom were on a hike like this they would hope someone would look out for her.

I must get up soon and head out for my next destination, Noja. There are no big albergues, just a small one like 20 beds, which I will never reach in time. So I reserved a little hotel room. Some of the towns are surfer towns with parking areas full of vans, and surfer hostels.

I walked by some beautiful places again yesterday.  A mile or two after this place above, I passed this little house and in the yard was a miniature swimming pool. I imagine they.can float there and watch the sun set over the Cantabria n Sea.

Castro-Urdiales

 

Yesterday I walked to a town called Castro Urdiales.. It is along the coast, and I think I am starting to leave the  Basque region.

On the way there I went through a rest stop, picnic area, and met a woman from Poland named Martyna.  We spoke in French.  She is camping out, but had her tent and sleeping bag put away by the time I passed her. She said it’s not legal, but they look the other way if you’re on the Camino. 

When I came out onto the coast she was there again and took this picture of me ( see Castro-Urdiales in the distance) and also this selfie of the two of us. 

I walked a lot of bicycle/ pedestrian rail- trail yesterday which was nice. But at one point I had to choose to take a very steep trail that was 4 miles longer, or walk on the highway. 

In June I did the Maryland Camino, which was 90% highway. So I chose the highway. The difference this time was yhat thrre weren’t any shoulders to the road. After looking at the sign, I sawan elderly woman sitting in front of her house. She said she didn’t think it was bad. “Tiene que tener cuidado,” she said.  “You have to be careful.” Iprobably won’t make this choice again. I was very careful and arrived in town by 3pm  

Then treated myself to gelato.