A day for minimal walking

Though I´ve had many hard days on many caminos, I have to say that the last two days are really the only two where I gave serious thought to calling it quits.  I have somewhat turned that corner, but I know that I´ll be going slow and that it won´t be a walk in the park.  My feet are not quite as bad as they were on my very first Camino, thankfully, but I have a ton of blisters on all sides of both feet, quite incredible really.  That plus the bruising from my very amateurish effort at bushwhacking has left me pretty beaten up. 

This morning, I slept till -- gasp -- 8:30.  After trying to pad my blisters as best I could, I started out on the short 3 kms up to the ancient monastery where the true cross sits behind a gate and in a huge gold piece. Though the monastery dates to the 6th century, it has undergone a lot of renovation and is not as ancient as I had hoped.

After visiting the church and cloisters,  I wisely (and uncharacteristically) resisted the urge to walk another two kms up to see the holy cave where the monks hid out in time of attack and instead decided to try to hitch a ride back to Potes (another unusual decision for me, I must be maturing).  The first car stopped, and the owner went on at great length about how he was unable to give me a ride because he worked for an outdoor adventure company and he had to record everyone who entered the car and this was extremamente prohibido.  I said muchas gracias, lo comprendo, and started to walk.  What he said next will not surprise anyone who has spent much time in Spain -- Suba Ud.  (get in).  So after the lecture, I got the ride, and he dropped me off right in front of this comfortable public library where I am now benefitting from the government of Cantabria´s efforts to connect everyone to the internet.  In these small towns, though, the only ones who seem to want to be connected are the tourists, and most tourists don´t know that these libraries always have free internet.  So I´m in a room of ten compters all alone and the librarian is gabbing away with her girlfriend uninterested in how long I might be on this machine. 

I have visited a pretty amazing exhibit on illuminated manuscripts, which takes up three floors of a beautiful old building. 

I have bought a new pair of pants, on sale for 30€ and a new hat that cost just as much.  So I have all the equipment I need, now I just need to see if the body will cooperate.  I´m going to go find a nice waiter who will give me a bag of ice so I can ice the unblistered parts of my body where I have some muscle pain on the sides of my shins. I´ll be back later today, and I´m sure you´re waiting with bated breath.  love you guys!

In Potes, hoping for the best

Well, I´ve had a few days of beautiful scenery, great albergues, but the walking has been pretty bad.  I left the Camino del Norte in San Vicente de la Barquera, and got to the point where the Camino del Norte and the Camino Lebaniego split. 

I was hoping for a little reprieve from the asphalt, but it just got worse.  On Tuesday morning, I headed towards the mountains, on the so-called Camino de Santo Toribio, whose destination is a small monastery hidden in a valley.  Its fame comes from the fact that it is the supposed home of the largest known piece of the True Cross.  In 1994, my entire family kissed the fragment (or maybe one or two declined), but now they don´t allow that. In any event, Santo Toribio de Liébena has been my destination for the last few days.

Tuesday, a mere 28 kms, ALL on asphalt, and complicated by the fact that I was unable to leave my albergue until the late hour of 8:30.  The hospitalero (guy in charge) insisted that I serve as interpreter as he blabbed on and on about the next stretch of the Camino that everyone else but me was going to be walking that day.  So, with a late start and many kms of asphalt, I arrived at the albergue in La Fuente about 4 pm.  If it weren't for the asphalt, I'd be raving about the walk, the scenery was just spectacular:

 It´s a beautiful facility, tucked in a little mountain village in what used to be the school.  A great kitchen, firm beds, hot water, in short, pilgrim luxury.  Another peregrino showed up about 5, and I was happy not to be entirely alone for the night.

My feet were hurting on Wed, so I started out slow.  After a couple of pretty serious ascents, maybe each one about 1,000 ft, I arrived at the top and could see my next destination, a small village about 3 kms below.  But the camino had disappeared.  After a good hour of searching, I took a rest and tried to consider options.  From where I sat, I could see the high tension power line going down the mountain and saw that at the next post, the power line crossed what was definitely a path.  So I figured I´d just bushwhack my way down the mountain following the power lines over head.  Two hours later, I realized it was a very stupid way to go.  I had spent a lot of the time sliding on my butt, which had left my pants in shreds.

I had also spent a lot of time pushing my way through prickly overgrowth (my body is now front and back entirely peppered with red dots and scrapes) and coming upon the occasional large drop-off which meant backtracking and reorienting.  Finally, after about 3 1-2 hours, I had made it to my destination, and sure enough, there was the Camino!  Fortunately, I could change into my other pair of pants to regain a minimal amount of respectability.  But I had lost so much time, it was 3 pm by the time I arrived at that little town  that was only 3 kms down in the valley from where I had been at about 10:30.  And my hopes for visiting the lovely Santa Maria de Lebena church were dashed, unless I wanted to sit for an hour till they re-opened.

To make matters worse, I had lost both water bottles and my hat, so I was contemplating a 6  km walk in the sun with no water. But the bad luck didn´t stop there, I called the place 6 kms away  and he told me they were full with a group of young school kids, so no room at the inn.  That meant I would have 10 kms, mainly on the side of the road, to this lovely little town of Potes.

My luck got a little better -- a nice young man let me drink my fill of water in his garage and proceeded to give me a water bottle from a cycling race he had just competed in.  It had the aftertaste of aquarius (Spain´s response to Gatorade), but it was cold and I was very thankful.  The next few hours into Potes were absolutely beautiful, but a bit hairy on the side of a narrow mountain road, through a gorge alongside a river.  Finally, it must have been about 5:45, I arrived at the municipal office with 5 minutes to spare in order to get the albergue key.  Very nice albergue -- right next to the river, very well maintained, even if it is the old jail!

Not one of the camino´s more magical days.  It is now Thursday, the next day, and I´m back from the monastery but more on that later.

In Comillas

On a sunny Monday morning, and I finally found internet in a public library.  It´s time for a coffee in a coastal town that has become quite touristy because of a famous Gaudi building.  I am on my third day of walking, and the scenery is beautiful, but the pavement is killing my feet.  From Santander through Cobreces, maybe the first 30 miles, it was totally on asphalt.  This morning I finally got on some dirt paths, and I hope that´s a good sign.  My feet were just not made for asphalt. 

So, I´m back in the rhythm.  I arrived in Santander on Friday evening, and decided to go to the albergue to see if there was perhaps an open bed.  Turns out, the albergue was not even half full.  The hospitalera says there is no rationale, the crowds surge and fall with no apparent reason.  They were full 4 of the last 7 days, and less than half full the other three.  Anyway, after a nice look around Santander on Saturday morning, I headed out. 

I was HOPING to be able to cut 8 kms off my 20 km walk by scooting across the train tracks over the river as I did the last time I walked.  But the last time I walked, Dana and I were with a German with a good guide, and my guidebook didn´t tell me how to find the short cut.  So I wound up adding the 8 kms to go downriver to a bridge, cross it, and then come back up river.  Very frustrating.  On the way I went through a little subdivision where the public works guys had used yellow arrows to indicate where the water pipes were going, so I got totally lost.  When I found a young mom with a couple of kids, I asked the way.  Her 3 year old boy looked up at me and said ¿Eres abuela?  And for the first time I was able to say YES!!!  I showed him Oliver´s picture and we all agreed he was just as cute as Eduardo´s little sister in the stroller. 

I ended my first walking day on Saturday with a room in an inn along the way.  After looking for La Joyuca del Pas, and finding nothing (and no one who could help me), I gave up and went into a nice posada, a 17th century family home rehabilitated by father and son. 

There I met a couple of other peregrinos, and I walked with a German/French/Scottish woman yesterday. The views were pretty nice:

 Our first stop was to visit the beautiful church in Santillana del Mar.  Santillana is now a pretty touristy precious place, but the church is unbelieveable.

The walk was all on pavement, to the monastery in Cobreces, with its 15 bed basic albergue (basic means beds, hot water, and toilets but not much else).  There we were joined by about 9 or 10 others, Spaniards and Flemish, the usual.  There are about 15 priests in a monastery that looks to have about 100 rooms.  The 80+ priest who checked us in told us he cleans the albergue every day.  Knowing that helped to lower our expectations. 

It turned out that it took us about 25 minutes to pay our 5€ fee at the albergue.  The priest let us in to the albergue office, where we both took out our money to pay.  I had a 5€ bill, Geraldine had a 20€ bill, and the priest had a 10€ bill.  I gave him my 5, Geraldine gave him her 20, and she waited for him to give her the 15 change.  He gave it to her, then thought something was wrong.  So we all took back our original bills and went through this process about ten times.  He couldn´t figure it out.  Finally, I decided to give Geraldine my 5€ and told the priest that she was going to pay for both of us.  Then when she gave the priest her 20, he readily gave her back his 10 (since I emphasized that she was paying for both of us), and we were paid up. 

Though my feet were killing me, an extra 1 km walk took us to a beautiful beach, and the only place in town serving food.  The views were much better than the food, a huge sandy cove beach with rocky crags on both sides. I am not complaining about the food, though, since it was my only real meal of the day.

 For some reason, though I was really tired, I didn´t sleep much at all, the good hours were the ones I don´t remember hearing the bells chime, but for most of the night I was tossing and turning.  No bedbugs, not too much snoring, so I´m not sure what the problem was. 

Today I have walked a little less than half of my planned route. Comillas is also a touristy town, but not overly prettified.

 I hope to be in San Vicente de la Barquera by 3 this afternoon.

The hospitalero there is an expert on the turn-off camino I plan to take tomorrow.  I will have to be on good behavior, because the last time we stayed in this albergue, he was very rude to us.  I think he was insulted that we didn´t want to eat a communal meal, and once we declined, he decided we were rude Americans -- I remember lots of talk about hegemonía and other anti-US rhetoric.  I will be careful this afternoon because I need his expert advice on the Camino through the Picos de Europa. 

Not sure when I will find another computer, but all is well and the weather is absolutely beautiful. I hope it holds for the mountains tomorrow!

Ready to go

Well, my backpack is packed, I'm ready to hit the road.  I hope to arrive in Madrid early in the morning on Friday.  From there I will get the train to Santander and spend a night there.  I remember Santander as a beautiful city when I walked the Camino del Norte with Danagrina, so my plans are to spend most of Saturday seeing the town and then walking in late afternoon a short 12 km to a Casa Rural La Joyuca del Pas, in Mogro.  This place is but a stone's throw from the cafe where one of our German friends got locked in the bathroom of a bar and had to crawl out through the window, right after we had bravely crossed the river on a train track, hoping that no train would come.  Just thinking of that time makes me smile.

My approximate stages are here, but I've given myself several rest days so things will undoubtedly change.  This year I've put together a string of Caminos that connect and eventually get me to Santiago if all goes well.  First a few days on the Camino del Norte, then through the mountains called the Picos de Europa on the Camino Vadiniense, then joining the Frances to Leon.  In Leon, I will walk on the Camino del Salvador, 4 or 5 days up to Oviedo, where the Primitivo starts.  And from there, the Primitivo takes me almost all the way into Santiago, with just a few days merged on the heavily trafficked Camino Frances.


May 25 -- BBB Hostel in Santander 942-22-78-17
May 26 -- La Joyuca del Pas 942-57-66
May 27 -- albergue in Santillana
May 28 -- albergue in San Vicente de la Barquera
May 29 -- albergue in La Fuente 942-72-79-58
May 30 -- alergue in Cabanes, El Hayal, 942-744-211
May 31 -- albergue in Potes 942-738 126
June 1 -- Fuente De
June 2 -- albergue in Portilla 649-21-91-08
June 3 -- albergue in Riano 616 348 317
June 4 -- Venta de Valdeon, possibly Hostal Ventasierra 987 711 029
June 5 -- Cistierna, albergue 987 702 065
June 6 -- Gradafes, albergue 987 333 153
June 7 -- Mansilla de las Mulas, probably albergue
June 8 -- Leon, Pension Blanca, 987 251 991
June 9 -- also in Leon
June 10 -- La Robla
June 11 -- Poladura
June 12 -- Campomanes
June 13 -- Mieres
June 14 -- Oviedo, Hostal Los Arcos
June 15 -- rest day in Oviedo
June 16 -- La Doriga, Albergue Ca Pacita 684 61 38 61
June 17 -- Bodenaya
June 18 -- Campiello
June 19 -- Berducedo
June 20 -- Castro
June 21 -- Fonsagrada, Pension Cantabrico, 982 350 035
June 22 -- Cadavo
June 23 -- Lugo
June 24 -- rest day in Lugo
June 25 -- Ponte Ferreira, private albergue, 696 631 743
June 26 -- Boente, albergue 981 501 853
June 27 -- Arca
June 28 -- Santiago, Albergue San Martin Pinario, 981 560 282
June 29 -- Vilaserio, private albergue
June 30 --  Dumbria albergue
JHuly1  -- Muxia
July 2 -- Fisterra
July 3 -- Santiago
July 4 -- on the trenhotel in a litera to Madrid
July 5 -- Madrid, Hotel Praktik, Montera 47
July 6 -- home.