October6-8 then it must be Cartagena

October 6, the train to Cartagena was mostly uneventful, a 5.5 hour ride to Madrid, 2 hours in Madrid and another 5 hours to Cartagena. Except for, getting on the train in Santiago, 2 quite inebriated young couples jostled their way to seats across from us. At first we thought they were Spanish as they all spoke fluent Spanish, but later we realized they were from the US, maybe Cuban, but no matter. We were concerned as they were quite noisy and with beers in hand we were afraid we were in for a raucous trip. But no, once the train got going and they had some food and fell asleep (passed out). The girls fell asleep immediately, one boy fell asleep in mid sandwich, the other guy fell asleep mid beer which he eventually poured down his arm and the seat when he went to scratch his shoulder. He never knew he spilled that beer as it was all dry by the time they woke up in Madrid. Somewhat entertaining for us, oh to be young and fancy free.

Cartagena is an enchanting city, Blair was here last year as he left on his Atlantic voyage from this port. He has wanted to show Sharon around since that time. The city certainly lives up to the hype. Across from our hotel is part of the Punic wall. There is always a museum to go with it. It is quite unobtrusive as are all the museums here, it is not about the building but the contents or ruins they house. But because this city was established in 2 BCE there are layers of the cultures that inhabited from Roman ruins to Franco's bunkers.

We started out the day by walking on the promenade along the docks, very impressive, containers, industry, naval base, palm trees, mega yachts and of course Blair's favourite, all kinds of sailboats. So Blair was a happy camper. On impulse we took a harbour tour in a 70" Catamaran which gave a really nice view of all the forts on the hills and walls built by the various cultures.

View of harbour entrance and various walls and bunkers from harbour tour.

Mega yacht $100,000,000.

Sharon on cat tour.

 

This city (a very good easily held port) has been held at various times by the Romans, Vandals, Visigoths, Muslims and Christians. The influences can be seen everywhere. In fact the first place Blair took Sharon was the Teatro Romano, a Roman theatre that was unearthed in 1987. An amazing place where you can see the different levels of time. Starting on the top a church built in the 17 or 18 century, then a medieval church, under that a Muslim home and finally the theatre under that. The museum is set up wonderfully all enclosed as you pass through the layers then you walk out onto a vista as you see below, impressive to say the least! View from top of theatre.

Side view new construction blended with old to give better interpretation.

After breaks for lunch and some shopping we went to the excavation site of the Roman baths. Again, what is so impressive is how these sites blend into the city, oh and did I mention that the streets are paved in marble! (Well not all but lots).

Inside the Roman baths.

Had a great Italian dinner, among the best carpaccio and salad we have had and that is saying a lot, we may go back tomorrow night. Got up to another glorious day and headed UP to the castle. Good thing we have been walking so much, but just as we turned the corner to start our climb, TWO cruise shipships at the dock, oh, oh, our Cartagena has been hijacked! Didn't end up to be too bad, we just waited for the tour directors to take their charges through. There were really spectacular views of the surrounding areas, very clear why the castle was situated there.

Example of fusion of styles.

View from castle, one cruise ship.

View from castle, another cruise ship.

View of old bullring from castle. We thought they were restoring it, but no, they are excavating a Roman amphitheater.

Under the bullring, this was supposedly a drain way for the mock naval battles the Romans had in the arena.

View of the OLD and new theatre from the castle.

After lunch went to Casa Fortuna, a Roman house that they have excavated and interpreted, but what we have realized after our walkabout today is there are many lots where excavation has started and they must have found more Roman ruins so of course building is at a standstill. The other thing that they are doing here is taking old buildings down except for the facade, so the look of the city will remain the same.

Restored wall painting in the Fortuna house.

Floor tiling in the Fortuna house.

Oh, another Roman road fenced off by our hotel. Must be tough to be in construction in this city!

The last thing we did this afternoon, after it reopened at 4:30, (it has become very annoying that many stores, museums etc shut down from 2-4:30 or 5) was go to the Naval Museum. Cartagena has been the centre for the navy since the beginning, so has a long rich history including the first submarine. Blair was enthralled of course. When we were leaving a bunch of sailors in dress whites were walking with an older gentleman, the entourage included a phalanx of police and secret service complete with ear pieces, we are not sure who he was but we did hear some protests across the bay earlier??

So tomorrow early we are off to Allicante for the excitement of the Volvo Ocean Race :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Santiago de Compostela Sunday October 5...the icing on the cake or one more blessing.

One keeps circling back to the square to see those coming in...you think Disneyland is the happiest place on earth, we think it is the plaza in front of the cathedral. All one sees is ecstatic faces. Many people are limping, 60 is often young to do the Camino, for some it is their last wish, all is very emotional.

View of the plaza from the Cathedral, LOTS of tour groups.

We slept in until 8:30 and as breakfast was included went down to a great breakfast before transferring hotels. We are now at San Martin Pinaro, recommended by George and Deborah, just off the plaza, facing one of the many doors to the cathedral. It is the old monastery, updated into a hotel. Very nice, we have 3 single beds in our room??? In any case we love it.

View from our hotel of Santiago.

Coming out of our hotel, just another gate/door to the cathedral.

Turn a corner and get another view.

So once we transferred we went to the cathedral as Sharon had her heart set on going to the pilgrims mass at noon. We weren't disappointed, the cathedral was packed, Sharon could even follow the service as it is very close to the Lutheran liturgy. Granted it was in Spanish, our sermon (delivered by the archbishop) was based on the scripture of Paul, traveling, becoming family, working hard for faith, the importance of faith. Pretty good for minimal Spanish,eh?

Altar of Santiago de Compostela.

The icing on the cake was of course the botofumiero. Yes, we lucked out, it was magnificent, right over our heads. Blair was worried lightning might strike, or the building might fall down, but no we were blessed, as we were through the whole Camino. Sharon kept thinking how excited Blair's grandmother would have been for us and pleased her that her grandson had experienced a Catholic mass, especially a splendourous one like this.

As close as we could get to the botofumiero.

Botofumiero in action.

People pouring out of cathedral after pilgrims mass.

After mass, we met Denis in the plaza and went for celebratory drinks and lunch, he is heading for Finnestere tomorrow another 90 some km to the ocean.

We went to the train station to pick up our train tickets, picked up a few souvenirs, then did a complete tour of the Cathedral and it's museum. Amazing history, so interesting.

Walking in the cloisters of the cathedral.

Another thing in Galicia is that you keep thinking you hear Celtic music, Sharon said in a conversation in a group once that you here more Celtic music here than in Ireland, she was quite succinctly corrected that it was Galician music, this part of Spain was conquered by the Celts pre-Roman, so the Galicians consider themselves part of the Celtic nations. They play an instrument much like a bagpipe which we witnessed today.

Traditional Galician clothing and musical instrument.

On our way back from dinner we passed by the square and ran into Dodo (Anna Marie from Denmark), who we had spent a number of days and evenings with on the road, she had just arrived at 4 pm, will spend a day in Santiago then on to Finnestere. Many people fly out of Santiago and find themselves with a few extra days so opt for the walk to the coast. We would almost not mind sticking around a few days to see other travelling friends come in, but not really, we are ready for the next leg of our trip. On to Catragena tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Salceda to Santiago...the Camino in 27 days

Had a chance to talk with our hosts before we left Salceda, they are doing well, they have made this old farmhouse into an ultra modern hotel/alburgue. Blair still hasn't figured out how they will change the bulbs/ballasts in the lights behind glass embedded in the walls.

Our hosts at Salceda Posada, hardworking folks!

Built in 1740 restored and renovated on 2012.

Beautiful as usual, misty mornings, dogs barking, cocks crowing. We were waiting for the hordes to show up but they never did. Had a seemingly quick walk in as the kms melted away, hard to believe we have walked 800 km.

Started to get worried when we saw this group accumulating but turned out to be an anomaly.

A last beautiful misty morn on the Camino.

The paths have been filled with chestnuts and acorns, were thinking we should get hard hats.

The path to Santiago stayed very rural very close to the city, what a treat.

The rain held off till we hit Santiago, but was only a light misty rain. We have been truly blessed with weather on the Camino. Three separate occurrences of rain showers for only a short period of time.

Lavacolla, 10 km to go, Lavacolla seems to mean to wash up, apparently pilgrims would stop and bath before going into the city. There is some controversy as to the exact meaning of Lavacolla but the most popular version seems to be wash your penis and /or scrotum. Hey, this is just what they tell us!

 

We walked into Santiago arriving at the square at about 2:45. Stopped for a few pictures then off to the pilgrims office to get our Compostelas. Yay! Had about a 15 minute wait in line, also got a distance certificate that confirmed we had done the 775 km from St John Pied de Port. Then off to find lodging as we were a day early and the hotel we booked was full. No problem though as there are lots of accommodations.

First glimpse of Santiago.

Of course we had our Templar knight to guide us in.

We ran into a couple of people we had walked with somewhere along the way, including one 74 year old French man who had completed in the same amount of time as us. We expect to see more people we know tomorrow. We are planning to attend the pilgrims mass at noon tomorrow where they will read our names and say where we are from. If we are very lucky they will bring out the botofumiero, the largest in the world, needed to be so big so they could not smell the pilgrims or so the story goes :)

After the rain the tourists came out of the woodwork.

We made it!

The Cathedral undergoing some serious restoration.

We will be tourists in Santiago tomorrow so more photos then. Tomorrow will be our last Camino post. Monday we will be getting on a train to Cartagena on the east coast of Spain,12 hours of bliss with our feet up! We will be following that with stops in Alicante, Valencia and Barcelona, we will continue to blog for those interested until Oct 17, when we head to Toronto to see our girls for a few days :)

 

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Ferreiros to Palais de Rei to Salceda... An adjustment day and a good long day

Ferreiros to Palais de Rei started out being our normal day on the Camino, leaving before dawn, in the mist, quiet, good. So quiet by mid morning we kind of looked around saying, "where are the hordes promised after Sarria?" Then lunch hit and the buses arrived and all of a sudden the quiet bar/cafés were packed to the gills, people were walking with no packs, some had little blue packs with logos, most were limping, some were playing their favourite Korean pop music. There is a preponderance of Koreans on the Camino as one of the pop-stars did the Camino :)

Early morning out of Palais de Rei.

So, we kind of felt that our Camino was hijacked, both of us had a little meltdown, but we got over it and resumed our wonderful walk. We have found that most people walk between the hours of 9-1, so if you walk outside of those hours you often have the path to yourself and with a few other kindred souls.

Country lane, Blair always asks if the pilgrims made this deep cut into the land, Sharon thinks it is farmers making the paths passable between their fields.

These corn cribs have sprung up everywhere in Galicia. Some very old school, some very decorative and stylized.

The day ended well as we got a great alburgue (San Marco) in Palais de Rei (which got its name from the Visigoth King 5th century, ya gotta love the history here rich history here).

Churches are smaller and more Romanesque in Galicia.

The San Marco served a great breakfast, coffee, huge croissants and fresh squeezed orange juice (gotta get one of those machines) and we were off.

Fall is not only in the air, but on the porches, lots of pumpkin and decorative corn here.

Today was much better, today no parachuting bus tours that walk 10 km Camino as part of their tour of Spain :) and of course we decided to do a long day to position ourselves for Santiago tomorrow.

Sharon trying to keep off the asphalt.

In the morning we stopped in for second breakfast in a place thar had just opened a few months ago. The older lady was wonderful, made us these great sandwiches that included half a loaf of bread, tow pieces of tortilla (we were sure we would not get these in Galicia), a whole bunch of bacon and cheese. We put away half the bread for lunch, and split everything else between the two of us, we got talking to a couple from New Zealand and next thing we knew an hour had gone by and we had 30 more km to go.

Lots of babbling brooks.

Arzua, the big top is in town!

If you look very carefully you will see the tigers waiting for their showtime.

Mostly country lanes today, some beautiful farmhouses and not so odiferous animals. We have learned that these people building these beautiful Albergues are mostly families and they don't get a break from the government. We lucked into another beautiful Albergue tonight, actually we are in the hotel part. Spanish man, Russian wife, 14 year old daughter, small pool, fountain. They have restored and upgraded a 18 century farmhouse, it is stunning!

Earlier in the day we were diverted as this new highway will cut across the Camino, see the blue rail with the yellow arrow,they have built the bridge for the Peregrinos an the farmers first. They made the Camino side cobblestone, I wonder why they think we like cobblestone???

So 26 km tomorrow and we are in Santiago, the wifi is down here so will publish from a cafe tomorrow.

 

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