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Another AMAZING day….but long!  Today we ended up walking about 32 km by the time we got to our accomodation.  Today the Camino proper takes you straight through the middle of vineyards and groves of Cherry trees and poplars which are cut down for firewood it seems.  The views were spectacular and once we reached the higher ground the breeze helped to cool us all down.

We have all noticed that the folk in these parts seeem to be pretty wealthy and the cars in the well restored villages and out on the vineyards would suggest that this region isn’t short of cash.  We stopped off at a little bodega to grab a coffee and drink and discovered a wedding and a christening going on – lots of dressed up folk (same as anywhere in the world on a Saturday I expect) but surrounded by a whole lot of Peregrinos – all accepting of the dusty and sweaty folk with backpacks and walking sticks.

After a coffee and waters we set off again, depressingly out along a main road – this seems to be the only time we lose interest in the Camino when we are stuck walking alongside highways.  We got to a crest and consulted our guide book which showed we could walk further, but through the vineyards or prune some time and follow the freeway….the vineyard won.  We are SO lucky for the choice.  The views were (I’ll use the word again – spectacular) and suddenly, even in the heat, the spring in our step returned.

Coming around the corner of building in one of the tiny hamlets in the vineyards, I could hear Yothu Yindi playing – totally anachronistic…and coming closer we found our friend Maggie reclining on a couch (outdoors) in one of the most bohemian bars I’ve ever seen.  She was very happy to be relaxing and avoiding the heat of the day.  Further on I turned as I could hear bikes coming to see Lori – middle of the trail totally surrounded by Lycra….she don’t move for nobody and especially not a bike!!

On finally making it into Villafranca we were winding our way through the old part of town to find our accomodation and saw that all over the town there were string lines tied along the fronts of buildings with lots of coloured paper pegged to them.  Having now starting getting the absolute basics of the language we worked out that the town was hosting a poetry festival and each building had pegged individual copies of a range of poems written by one poet – each building therefore “hosting” a different poet.  The town is (again) amazing  -three huge churches, a Franciscan Monastery and the ruins of palace that was originally commenced in Roman times…of course.

 

 

 

We all love mountains!  Everyone that completed the 26.7km today has said it – even, Sue who has developed tendinitis probably because of the steep decent…loved it.  After the Pyrenees, I agree that this was one of the best days of the Camino – for many reasons.  Leaving Rabanal we started the slow climb up and in fact the climb was really quite straight forward (I can hear Lori saying – not in her books!!!). We were heading to the highest peak on the Camino which is marked with a Crucifix.  All Peregrinos are asked to bring something to leave at the site – most bring a small pebble from their home country or town.  After leaving your memento, photos are taken (somehow I became the resident photographer and got told off by an Irish lady for missing out the crucifix …“I’m not the important one you know!” will ring in my ears for a while) and then we headed to what we thought would be the beginning of the down.

Interestingly the BEST views followed – the mountains and the path today were amazing – none of us really wanted to come down.  The clouds throw the most amazing moving shadows over the mountains, and there is wild heather everywhere.  It was 30 degrees at the base of the mountains, but of course with a gentle breeze at the heights, it was a perfect day for walking.  We stopped at a pop up coffee van up on the heights and stayed for two coffees enjoying the view and chatting to folks who we have met along the way.

We headed into villages on the way down which we think work as Camino villages during summer and alpine villages for skiing during winter.  They are all slowly being repaired and amazing old buildings are being restored. Martin Sheen’s movie has a lot to answer for!! We chatted with other Aussies and agree that walking in our bush is not the same as what we are experiencing here  because, apart from the obvious, almost the entire route here in Spain you can hear water in streams and creeks and rivers alongside many of the paths we have walked.

We made it to our stop for the night -Molinaseca,  an amazing little subalpine village that was once used by the Spanish Queen as a summer retreat to get away from the heat.  The town, again, appears to be geared for pilgrims on the Camino or for city folk who seem to have their summer homes up here to escape the heat.  Friday night – lots of dressed up folk and lots of cheering from bars as Spain takes on Portugal in the World Cup!

An AMAZING day – one that we will never forget and one that has motivated everyone to look at walks in mountain regions in the future.  Tomorrow we are in for one of our longer hauls – 30 km when we are heading to Villafranca Del Bierzo – vineyard country.

Today’s walk was great.  Again, no rain and much happiness for that.  We are slowly starting the climb to the highest point on the Camino Frances.  The countryside has changed again, big open fields, then uncleared bush, then pine forests and finally we enter the foothills leading up to the mountains which you can see in the background of the photos

Along the way we came across the “Cowboy Bar”…whiskey shots at 11.00am – hilarious and totally incongruous break on the way but it works because it seems everyone stops.  The journey then started taking us through the most amazing small villages, each of course with a church and in most instances many are being restored.  Those villages that have benefited from the Camino path coming through have been saved.  We calculate that from about May to October you are looking at 5000 people per week walking past or through your village.  Most are now set up with Albergues and almost all offer Peregrino Menu.  Cold water and in my case Americans Coffee (long black) is served everywhere.  There is always someone stopping somewhere.

The village we are staying in tonight is fantastic and the ONLY business is Camino business.  We are staying in a totally bohemian Casa Rural – a restored old Spanish country home around a fully enclosed courtyard.  The two young people who have done the restoration are in their mid twenties and are cousins – it is vibrant in colours and has a great “treat the kitchen as if you’re at home” feel.  Tonight the second church in the town has Gregorian chant commencing at 7.00pm so we are heading up there….when in Spain….

Tomorrow we get to the top of the mountain – another milestone and they are all rapidly coming to the end of the journey. We have 11 walking days left and can hardly believe it….

    

So we are really getting very blasé, 20 km almost isn’t worth getting up for….now 25 is good and 30 is too much – so we may just have found our nirvana.  After the misadventures of yesterday in terms of accomodation, breakfast was great and the walk was wonderful.  It is wonderful when the scenery and the trail are different, and a little challenging but most of all when the destination is unexpected.  We don’t believe that any of us have heard of Astorga and yet there are elements of the history that seem familiar.

We walked in to discover a beautiful cathedral, a magnificent Gaudi Episcopal Palace (that was never used as an Episcopal Palace because the contracting Archbishop died and the new one hated Gaudi’s design – and Gaudi never received a cent for four years and never saw the completed building AND the building is beautiful) and the ruins of 300AD Roman villa beautifully preserved by the town.

I think that this is what has really blown us away – that we just keep discovering these amazing places so tied up with the history of the Church and faith and wars and destruction and really we would never have known about them if we had not been on this journey – the joys of discovery.

The rose sniffing continues – the Peregrino meals at the end of the day with the Anzacs  – walking with new people – Sue from Atlanta and her son Andrew who is completing auditions for a New York production of Amadeus by Skype and Paul from Montreal who is buying a house on a lake 8 hours from Montreal for $39,000 (we are still in shock!) and then you head to bed to do it all again tomorrow.

The next couple of days walk we think will be  fantastic in that we climb to the highest peak of the Camino and we have to rug up as we head up to the mountains that you will see in the background of some of the photos that still have snow on them.

Well we all knew that 32 km was always going to be a challenge and whilst we survived the walk the frustration of having accomodation stuffed up at the end of it was not pleasant (particularly for those who unfortunately witnessed an ethnic explosion on my behalf down the phone to the Spanish representative of the company who was responsible for setting up our transfers and accom and you should read the email I followed up with !!!).  However, not all was lost, we were transferred BACK 12 kilometres to a village we had walked through, were pleased to catch up with three of our fellow ANZACS, had a great meal and a great sleep and were tranpsorted back to where we had started from in the morning – at this stage if they had told us we had an extra 10km to walk, there would have been a revolt.  The walking today was pretty mundane really and the last 10km was actually on road – which is awful to walk on – hence the explosion at the end!!!

Today was a rest day.  We certainly appreciated this one – hair cuts, a little shopping for gifts and lots of walking (yep we are mad!!).  Again, another little gem in Spain that I had never heard of or at least must have confused with Lyon in France.  This city of Leon with 170,000 inhabitants is beautiful.  We are staying in a monastery that is part hotel and part functioning monastery with 100 religious folk still living on the site.  We took a tour of the monastery this morning to discover that the buildings are still used for university Examinations and that  certain times of the year the rooms in the accomodation are closed down to allow for  retreats for various religious orders.  The money that is paid by guests is used to maintain and restore the buildings.

Leon was established in about 300 AD and in the collection of the museum attached to San Isadora, where we are staying is said to be the Holy Grail.  The walls of the ancient city remain in tact in certain sections and we were able to walk along them…amazing.

We went to the Cathedral of Leon and spent a couple of hours there .  The   Cathedral is beautiful and to my thinking is the most beautiful I have seen.  It is not the largest of Gothic cathedrals that I have seen but it was completely built in 50 years and has not had additions and so is a text book definition of gothic architecture.  My proofing of Jordan’s essays on flying buttresses and German medieval cathedrals came in handy today.

What is amazing is the stained glass  and there is SO much of it to look at.  The photos that Lori took are transfixing. We spent ages just looking at the light pouring in.  We have said so many times on the Camino, how could it be that the architects and builders and artisans were able to create these amazing temples over 700 and 800 years ago.  They are still standing and still drawing our breath away.

From the sublime to the ridiculous.  When we had finished at the Cathedral we headed down to Gaudi’s building in Leon.  The man was a genius and SO ahead of his time.  A couple of the photos that are included in the blog hardly do justice to the level of design and drawing and most importantly building that this genius was responsible for.

We finished the day by eating dinner in a great little place (for the second night) and heading back to our rooms to prepare for the massive walk tomorrow of over 30km and…..it is raining.  Of course it is raining!

It’s raining ….still.  The walk today should have been a breeze – 17km and pretty straight forward…or so we thought. Initial 10km was fine until we reached the industrial edge of Leon.  It is always a down after walking in the countryside.  Braced ourselves for this (the guide book suggested we shouldn’t feel guilt if we caught a bus….).  The unanimous decision was that there was to be no buses for us.  All was OK until we reached the top of a about a 600 metre section on about a 35 degree angle that simply had turned into a mud slide….this was not fun.  Walking poles to the rescue and a whole bunch of Peregrinos with a LOT of mud on their boots and we made it.

The reward was immediate coffees and the discovery of hot chips being made and served.   Discovered a beautiful building by Gaudi (the architect of Sagrada la Familia in Barcelona) and a great statue of him  on the Main Street.  We have done very little other than shower, wash our gear out, go to the LAUNDROMAT and now settling down for a drink and meal and prepare for and explore around Leon tomorrow during a rest day…more about Leon tomorrow.

Well, today was a 26km day ( somehow a kilometer less than we had anticipated – a blessing)  the issue was that there wasn’t a coffee until the 20km point….I realise now that is simply unaccceptable – we can walk as  long as we are caffeinated!

The highlights of the day were the two guys that are doing the camino on horseback (plenary indulgences for the horses?) and the bar in the village called Religos that makes toasted ham, cheese and tomato sandwiches in a Breville sandwich press – hilarious (but tasty).

Again, the Martian theory was supported by the fact that we stood on bridge for ages and NOT ONE car went past on a new freeway – WHERE IS EVERYONE.  We understand that back in Sahaguna  they are running the bulls and that there is a bull fight – but really…NO CARS?????

We are staying in a  tiny Hotel Rural (4 rooms to rent) and the church bells I can assist in  ringing from my bedroom window.  6.00am should be all sorted for me!  We had drinks in a little alley and were joined by Adam and Owen  – two young Uni grads from Ohio and Bill and Steve from Florida and the ANZAC crew.  We still can’t believe that a bottle of Vino Tinto (local red) is cheaper than a bottle of water – so of course, it’s Vino Tinto all round (except for Lori who is on Vino Blanco con jelo).

Tomorrow we anticipate an unmemorable walk as we are entering the city of Leon and have to walk through the industrial area and suburbs – luckily only 17km or so….but the reward is that we have a day off – laundry and rest…we can’t wait!

Yep….Tammin in Winter.  We woke this morning to the gentle sound of rain on the roof.  Out came the wet weather gear…again …and we ventured out.  “Team Norway” a group of three women from Norway were bemoaning the fact that they had come on the camino for many reasons and one of them was to enjoy the sunny climate of Spain!  They then said that the temperature in Oslo today was 30 degrees Celcius…hmmmm.

Once you get going and the water proofing holds, it’s actually quite pleasant to walk along in the rain.  There seems to be a greater sense of quiet, not so many people talking and basically everyone is simply moving along.  What you do notice is that the backdrop of the grey sky makes all the other colours “pop”.  The greens just look deeper than those we have at home.

Although our accomodation had us reach our half way point the official geographical half way point on the Camino Frances (measured from St Jean Pied de Port – where we started from) is marked with a bridge, an 11th Century church (which was attached to a hospital for pilgrims which was built several centuries prior to that) and two columns(photos above)  and is a little further on just before the next town, Sahagun.  It bucketed at the time, but no resisting the photo opportunity.  Photos done we then walked on to the town of Sahagún.  Medieval relics, ancient churches, Roman paths and bridges abound – but the sign saying Cake and Coffee – captured our attention for about 35 minutes!!

We then clearly had to work off the afore mentioned cakes and put a hoof on  heading to our final stop for the day, Bercianos del Real Camino.  We came across a church which are still trying to fathom.  The Church of Ermita de Nuestra de Perales (11th century) sadly has been “renovated” by the locals – unfortunately they may have picked up their paint at the Dulux sale!!  See photo above.  The more puzzling is that on the side wall, framed was a series of medals in a display case – most of them Nazi war medals.  A fellow Australian, David took a photo, I will see if I can upload it tonight.  The region is well known for its staunch support of Franco, perhaps this may have something to do with it.

So, 25 km later we made it to Bercianos (Bruce Rock) and settled in for a meal and a drink… bigger day tomorrow – 27km.

 

 

 

 

Can’t go past recognising that we have completed 410km  and we are now officially half way to Santiago.  Funny how that was so easily written!

The San Zolio Real Monasterio which dates from the 11th century and where we stayed last night should be given one more airing in the blog.  It really is very special.  The restoration is amazing in that clearly the spaces and size of the structure have been all highlighted by the very sensitive conversion.  It houses the remains of the Counts of Carrion and St Francis of Assisi stayed here when he was on ‘the way’.  Amazing building that deserves its classification as a national monument of Spain.

Having previously waxed on about how the Meseta is not at all as we had expected, perhaps  we spoke too soon.  The Meseta is wonderful after the mountains, probably because you get a break from the climbing and the subsequent “downs” but after a while, it does get repetitive and I have found myself drifting away for ages.  They do say that the first 10 days of the Camino is about the body and the second 10 days is about the head and maybe that is true.  We are all saying that our experience is not at all like those described by those who travel it in July, August and September but nonetheless it is flat, it is a landscape of fields and there are few villages along the ways.

As we arrived in Terradilios de Templarios, I got the complete giggles.  For the life of me I feel like we are staying in Tammin (for the Western Australians who know Tammin, you will have an instant image  – you just need to place our Albergue about where the bowls club is coming in from the western side).  There is nothing much here, but the heating has come on in our rooms and for that we are eternally grateful.  Summer in Spain, this is not!  The two bottles of sunblock I bought I am seriously wondering about. I hope I am not tempting fate by writing that as walking in this temperature with a few 25km  and 29 km legs in front of us is quite nice.

The routine is pretty much set, but now we have an additional step – we arrive, Lori calls “order me a shandy” and I match her with a coffee.  Shower, telephone calls, emails, read, dinner, blog and bed.  Simple really.