Day 20 - Watermelon time

We awoke feeling a little sore and stiff but determined to carry on - it was only the second day after all. A quick coffee to get started and then we crossed the old bridge and joined the other peregrinos on the walk out of Hospital d'Orbigo.

One mildy concerning thing we had noticed along the way over both days so far was the graffiti on many of the camino signs and markers. It wasn't just your standard juvenile graffiti, this was quite bigoted and narrow minded stuff, comments like "no feminism", "no muslims", "no abortion", "no homosexuals" ... all in English and not isolated, at one point it was pretty much every sign we passed. Quite a surprise given what we had understood the Camino to be like.

It was another warm day and at times the shade was limited, but the day was shorter and having learnt our lesson from the previous day we took better advantage of the rest stops. At one point in what was seemingly the middle of nowhere we could see a large group of people in the distance, it turned out to be a "pay what you want" stand with all sorts of fresh fruit on offer. As we were pretty hot by this time we went straight for the watermelon, dropping a few coins into the healthy looking pile of coins on our way out. We later spoke to another person who had spent some time at the "oasis" observing the people, and he said it was amazing how many people didn't donate a thing! So much for the "spirit of the camino".

We made it into Astorga by around 3pm, crossing an unnecessarily long and high bridge over the railway line as we entered town (it felt like a two km detour by this point just to cross a couple of tracks), completing a relatively short walk for the day of only 17 or so kilometres. 

After a short rest we headed to the town square, which had a very impressive looking town hall at one end, with a couple of mannequins striking the bell each hour. Here, we, (along with all of the other peregrinos as well as a few locals) enjoyed some drinks followed by dinner. 

Day 19 - The long walk

We left our hotel at 7.30am saying goodbye to our luggage and hoping we would see it again at the end of the day. The receptionist at the hotel wished us our first " buen camino" which is the standard greeting to "pilgrims" on the Camino de Santiago (or "Way of St James" in English.) However, we are pretty sure that St James didn't catch the 8am bus from León to La Virgen del Camino. The basillica at La Virgen del Camino was quite different to most of the churches we'd seen in Europe, it was opened in 1961 and has an unusually modern feel.

After getting off the bus we had the choice of two routes to our destination Hospital de Orbigo, the shorter route following the highway or the longer countryside way. We chose the latter because we thought it would be more interesting. We started off OK, following a gravel path and as we came across peregrinos like us we exchanged "buen caminos". There was even a man on a bike with his lame dog in a trailer at the back. The dog was incredibly vocal, howling all the way, which we hope was a sign of enjoyment but we couldn't be sure. Our first stop was after an hour or so of walking at a small village called Oncina de la Valdoncina where we had a welcome coffee and toast before resuming our walk. So far so good.

At the next village we came across instead of following the signs to the eating places we sat on a bench and had a drink, still feeling pretty good. We didn't bother to top up our water bottles, so of course we found ourselves on a long straight road in 30 degree heat with no shade and nothing much to see except corn fields and a few peregrinos. We eventually came to a corner with shade where a group were sitting on the ground enjoying a break, so we wished them "buen camino" and pushed on. We rounded the corner to find another long straight stretch with no shade..... 

We finally came to the small quiet village of San Martin del Camino where we sat down for a drink with some others who had stopped. We had been advised not to spend the night there, we had booked our accommodation at the next village an hour away.

As we reached our 30km mark for the day we crossed the old Roman bridge into the village of Hospital de Orbigo (in this case Hospital means "a place to stay"). After a rest and a shower we headed out for dinner, K was so exhausted and dehydrated she couldn't take advantage of the €10 three course meal and headed back to the hotel while mumbling: "I don't think I'll be walking tomorrow".

Day 18 - Getting stamps on the road to nowhere

Today was a rest day of sorts, geared towards getting organised for starting the Camino the next day. We took K's small case packed with things we hoped we wouldn't need for the next 2 weeks along to the post office and sent it through to Santiago de Compostela. 

We then went into the middle of town looking for a place to buy our Camino passports, which are booklets you get stamped along the way to show you've done the Camino. Like every other place in town the places selling them were closed between 1pm and 4pm, we managed to get ours just before 1 and received our first stamp, even though we hadn't really walked anywhere yet.

Next stop was the bus station for tickets on the 8am bus the next day to Virgin del Camino. We had decided to skip the first 7 kms of the walk since it was through the industrial part of León, which  would change the first day from around 34k to a more manageable 24ks.

After some lunch and snack supply shopping for the walk we headed back to the hotel to finish our final preparations, which also made sense as we knew there wan't much open for the next few hours.

Day 17 - Stick em up

We drove the short distance to the nearby town of Oviedo which we had visited yesterday to return our rental car. M dropped K off at the bus station, returned the car then walked back to where K was waiting. The next bus to León was nearly two hours away, the train was leaving in 15 minutes so we quickly walked to the railway station, purchased our tickets from the vending machine and boarded the train. It cost twice as much as the bus (still only 12 euros per person though), but was comfortable and we didn't have to wait around to get going.


We arrived into León and were immediately struck by the number of "stick walkers" we saw on the street. Years ago on an earlier Europe trip we named the middle aged tourists who walked the street with hiking poles "stick walkers". Little did we know this was just the beginning - we knew the Camino was popular but we'd only been in Leon five minutes and we hadn't even left the train station yet.

We walked to our hotel for the next two nights, the Marriott branded AC Hotel, four star and very reasonably priced at AU$120. We spent some time organising our luggage for the Camino. We have pre-arranged for our large suitcases to be collected from our accommodation each day of the walk and dropped off at our next stop, we had arranged this all online via the Spanish Post Office (Correos). K also had her extra hand luggage case so we packed it with items we wouldn't need for the next fortnight so we could send it straight to Santiago where it would be waiting when we arrived. This way we only needed to take M's backpack with us on each day of the Camino.

We tried to book a free walking tour for the next morning but found they were only held in Spanish. That's was a bit weird, maybe all the English speaking tourists were so exhausted from walking to León on the Camino that they weren't interested in walking tours?

Around 4pm we headed into León old town and realised once again we had made the mistake of thinking places would be open at 4pm! We headed back to the hotel for a while and waited until around 8pm to venture out again. Now the streets and places were busy and there were lots of people around. We ordered some dinner which arrived in less than 10 minutes, so fast we had hardly had a chance to sit down. It's like you wait forever for places to open and then it's in and out and fast as possible. 

After dinner we walked back home to find that once again the streets were quiet, there seems to be such a narrow window of opportunity. Interestingly once we left the train station area we hadn't seen any camino/stick walkers again, maybe they were all exhausted and asleep?

Day 16 - Spain ..closed for business (again)

It looked like the rain clouds might be disappearing so we headed for La Playa Catedrales, a beach with a series of rock formations on the edge of the ocean beach - think 12 Apostles but not quite as good (according to us anyway). It was very busy, people everywhere, we took the coastal boardwalk until we came to some steps down to the beach. We were about to head down when we were asked for our tickets. Tickets to walk on the beach? No, we don't think so!

We continued the coastal route through Lacura and stopped for coffee at Cudillero, which in the morning drizzle didn't look nearly as interesting as yesterday, and of course because it was "early" (around 10am), almost nothing was open. What is it with Spain and their weird hours?

We then drove along the coast and then inland to Oviedo, by now it was about 2-ish but once again we found ourselves in a city that had closed for the afternoon and as it was raining steadily we couldn't find any reason to hang around. As tourists the "everything shut for the afternoon" thing does seem a bit silly. We haven't quite reached the point of wanting to do sit in bars for hours every afternoon drinking wine and eating bocadillos!

We drove onto Gijon where we had booked a decent hotel and bunkered down against the rain. We had to wait until after 8pm for the restaurant to open but the menu del dia was a good deal, with lots of yummy food, excellent service and a very reasonable price.

Day 15 - Siesta + public holiday = empty streets

A coastal drive to Asturia today with no plans of where we were going to spend the night. Our first planned stop was Llanes but as we drove through it seemed quite busy with tourists so we decided to keep driving.

Ribadesella was very busy in the port area of town and we couldn't find a parking spot so we crossed the bridge and found a park on the beach side. There was a large promenade with a good beach and we walked along looking for somewhere for lunch. It was more overcast than we were used to and the homes along the promenade were very grand, in fact so grand that there weren't any cafes just a couple of kiosks.

Back in the car we drove onto Lastres and we start seeing El camino de Santiago signs along the road, this is the northern coastal route, which is not as popular as some of the others routes. Hotels and hostels also advertised the camino sign with the yellow and blue scallop shell. We were searching for a lunch stop and the first place we came across as we just entered the town was a panaderia
with a queue out the door along the street. We drove on looking for a park just like everyone else on the road, we climbed higher and higher until we were on the outskirts of town, too far away to park even if we found a spot. We didn't see another panaderia in town, now we understood why there was a queue along the street.

We drove on again surprised by all the eucalyptus plantations until we arrived in Gijon, which was a decent sized city where we could find a park and somewhere to eat. We found an underground carpark near the promenade and started walking looking for somewhere for lunch as it was now 2pm. It was quite cool and incredibly quiet, was it because of siesta that everywhere was closed? We finally discovered that it was a public holiday, but we did find a little cafe. The beach was lovely but the weather wasn't keeping up its end of the bargain today. From Gijon we decided we had better find somewhere for the night and chose the town of Ribadeo.

Back in the car this time to Cudillero, when we arrived it was as if the whole town was asleep, there was barely a soul to be seen. We followed the tiny, winding road down until we turned a corner and found touristville, at the end of the road there was a village square bustling with eating places and gift stalls. There was even enough parking for cars and buses. We decided it would be a nice place to have lunch tomorrow on our way back to Oveido.

We arrived into Ribadeo and went for a walk to find somewhere for dinner but as it was only 7pm every place was closed. We chose a steak restaurant that opened at 8pm, unfortunately the rain then started so we skidaddled home hoping it would stop by 8, but of course it didn't, it got worse!

Day 14 - Yes, they have dogs in Spain, whoopee

We had booked a short boat trip along the coast of Santander for 1pm so we drove into town to spend some time before it departed. It turned out that there was a major bike race on called "La Vuelta" and today was the Santander stage, so we found that road after road on the route Google was directing us along was blocked for the race. After some creative backtracking we eventually made it into town, found our car park and arrived at the dock with only 15 minutes to spare.

(As this blog is written by K the next bit is about small dogs. I have no idea why we need to write about them, personally I don't understand the fascination. I usually delete this sort of stuff when I see it and K doesn't usually notice, but I think this time if I leave it in I won't have to write about it again. Here it comes ....). 

Small dogs are very popular and are everywhere, it seems most other guests have their dogs with them. Yorkies are most popular closely followed by Maltese and Chihuahuas, there don't seem to be any other breeds. (This is not true, I have seen other breeds but I don't know - or care - what they are called. Unless they were Yorkies, what do they look like?).

(OK, now it's back to the actual travel stuff ... which I know is just as boring).

The boat trip was a nice hour seeing the sites and beaches in the area, it was worth the hour or so trip. 

On the way back to our posada we went to a supermarket to get something to eat, arriving at 2:54pm to discover that at it closed in 6 minutes and the only part open was the bakery section. All other supermarkets were all closed until 9am Monday morning, we made our choices quickly and were practically shooed out the door.

We had been told the cliff top walk from our posada was worth doing so under the guise of Camino preparation we hiked the track, and it was indeed a very nice walk. We ended back at the restaurant on the beach to admire the view and drink sangria (again).

Day 13 - Goggling at the Guggenheim

Today we decided to take a trip to Bilbao for lunch and to see the famous Guggenheim. We had read that the collection inside was nothing to write home about and the best art was outside the building itself, so we had no intention of entering the museum. 

After eventually finding a car park (you may notice that this is a bit of a running theme, parking can be difficult at times) we walked the river front that felt very "un-Spanish", in that it was quite clean and modern. We circled the Guggenheim and found the giant "Puppy" sculpture out the front, a mammoth dog made out of beautiful flowering plants. We wandered through some of the streets of the Bilbao old town but being Saturday lunchtime the only places open were a few eating spots.

We drove back to Santander along the lovely road that followed the port and the peninsula. We walked the long harbour passing the stalls that were reminiscent of St Kilda Sunday market, before heading home to
our own beach side spot for the evening.

Day 12 - Beach time

Lourdes was bustling again when we left, so many hotels, so many shops, so many nuns, so many nurses, so many old people, so many people in wheelchairs ... you get the picture.

From Lourdes we headed for the Basque country. We had originally planned to stay at San Sebastian but as it was weekend prices were really high so we chose Santander instead, opting for three nights to use as a base to further explore the Basque area.

We did stop for lunch at San Sebastian and it was obvious why it is so popular. It had a lovely large crescent shaped beach that wasn't as crowded as we'd seen on many other European beaches, and had some great seaside walks in both directions from the beach. 

Our accommodation in Santander was a little way out of town, just across the road from a really nice beach with a good restaurant nearby, where we could get a view of the ocean and beach while sipping on a sangria or two. This seemed like a good choice for a stay of a few days as it wasn't too busy and very pretty.

View from the front of our Posada

Day 11 - Heal me!

We tackled the steep walk down to town for a coffee at an Aussie cafe, best coffee we've had so far on the trip, then made the steep walk back up the hill. Like everyone we filled the car up before we left thinking  this must be the last service station with cheap fuel, only to pass lots more petrol stations and shopping centres as Andorra milked the last tourist dollar before the border. We decided to take the longer route through Spain to Lourdes rather than the shorter way so we wouldn't have to backtrack.

The drive through the Pyrenees consisted of cute ski villages one after another. They were all built in the same stone and with sloped A frame slate roofs to handle the snow. It was a gorgeous, though a long and winding drive, but the road was in good condition and we passed family groups of healthy looking wild horses on the side of the road. At one quick stop we made there was a large group of disabled people who were obviously either on their way to or back from Lourdes.

We arrived into Lourdes not really knowing what to expect. The first thing we saw was masses of shops selling religious souvenirs. There were hordes of people exiting the church grounds so we presumed a mass had just finished. We pushed our way in the opposite direction and saw elderly people being pushed in vehicles that were a combination of wheelchair/human rickshaw/child's billy cart.

We headed to the huge impressive church and watched a tour group of the faithful, many in wheelchairs, having their photo taken. We then went to the grotto and watched a huge line of people pass through and touch the stone walls, which were polished from so many hands.

What does this gesture mean, and is it directed towards K?

After going inside to see the cathedral we left for dinner, returning to the church grounds in time to watch the 9pm procession. We were amused that in the huge line of pilgrims with their torches the first group were walking behind a banner that said English speaking pilgrims, do they get preference? We then headed back to our hotel shivering with the unexpected cool weather, we haven't felt this cold since we left home!