Mule Fashions

Of course the hat doesn't look so big on this fine mule. Mules are enormous. I should have put it on one of the skittish donkey babies.

Still in Avilés

I am still in Avilés for my day of rest and relaxation. I had breakfast with Irene and saw her off as she walked out of town. I´m going to print my boarding passes for tomorrow and then go to an actual hotel with actual towels and sheets. It will be great.
I failed to mention the highlight of yesterday. We walked through a village and happned upon what appeared to be some sort of donkey market. They were rounding up donkeys and, I guess, selling them. The best part was seeing the baby donkeys. They were quite cute. When I get home I will post some pictures.
Brian, make sure the washing machine is on stand by and that we have detergent. I will be washing everything I have with me immediately upon arrival.

Oviedo-Avilés

Yesterday, Sven and I tried to kill time until 7 p.m. by hanging out at cafés and using the internet and at around 5:30 headed over to the albergue which had opened early and was, in fact, full. There was, luckily, one bed left and a small couch. Sven, gallently gave me the bed and took the love seat which must have been awful to sleep on. I was finally able to take a shower (cold) and we had a drink with the rest of the group. Then Sven and I had dinner at one of the Sidra places. Sidra is cider and it is very popular here in Asturias. It is a sparkling apple cider with a pretty low alcohol content. The waiters pour it in a special way. They hold the glass in their left and down by their knee. They hold the bottle in their right hand up over their head and they pour it way down into the glass. They do it without looking so a substantial portion ends up on the street. It was pretty fun though. We got back a little bit late (maybe 10:30)and the Spanish couple who was sleeping on the floor in the entryway yelled at us telling us we should have been back by 8:30 p.m. which is, of course, absurd. I´ve seen said couple several times today but don´t know if they know that I'm the one who woke them up.
This morning we all got up and most of the group continued south on the Camino Primitivo but Irene and I headed back north to the Coastal route to Avilés. Irene, Sven and I found a place open for breakfast at the early hour of 7:30 and then Sven accompanied us a few blocks to our departure point to bid us farewell. It was really fun walking with him the last couple of days. He´s funny and he loves The Muppet Show and Mr. Ed.
Irene and I headed out on the lesser used route to Avilés and slogged through deep mud, got lost, found the route, etc. The last 10 of the 30+ km. was on the highway (it´s not a big highway but it isn´t fun to walk on as there sometimes isn´t much of a shoulder). We arrived at the Albergue after several long, and hot hours and now I'm milling bout Avilés. I believe I have been here once before but don´t remember it so much. It is quite a nice city. Oviedo was also really great and I'm glad I decided to make that detour. In a bit, I will go and look for a hotel or pension where I will stay tomorrow night and then Tuesday a.m. I will head to the airport and home. It´s been really quite fun and the scenery is beautiful. I think overall, this Northern route has more natural beauty than the route of last year. The other route though, I think had better villages and certainly I met people that I enjoyed more (I am glad that I met Sven at the end as he was my favorite person from this trip--Much like on the Portugal trip, we were glad to have met Doron as he was definitely the most fun person we met on that route).

Sebrayo--Vega de Sariego--Parasites!--Oviedo

I started out walking on my own but in the tradition of last year´s walk, when I got to the first cafe, Sven was there and the others soon followed. I walked most of the day with Sven, Aleix and Lucas. We walked up, and up, and up (it was similar to the first week). The trail got narrower and narrower and thorns scratched my legs. The views were quite spectacular though--green hills, farms, a beautiful monastery in the valley below. We got to the top of the hill, exhausted and sat in a small patch of grass. After about two minutes, Aleix alerted us that there were ticks. Yes, I had about 8-10 tiny, tiny ticks all about my socks and legs. I knocked them off and kept walking. About ten minutes later we got to a small village and I continued to pick off the ticks. we stopped and rested and I lifted my shirt a bit and found about 5 more. My crackerjack medical team, (A German policeman, a Catalan film student, and a French juggler--see photo) got to work sterilizing a needle and picking them off me. It was creepy but I really appreciated their help. We continued on to the small village of La Vega de Sariego where we had a nice evening as there was a shop AND a bar. It was great. My shower was great and I think I am parasite free. I spend most of my time now with Sven. He is great. He looks after me the way I look after the 79 year old woman. He makes sure I can make it up the hills. It is pretty funny. I guess, to him, it is like I am 79. Today we walked together to Oviedo which is the largest city in Asturias. Sven is a riot. He is 27 but loves Jerry Lewis and Columbo and 70s music. Sadly, tomorrow, he will continue South on the Primitive route towards Santiago, and I will head back north to Aviles to continue on the Coastal route. The older crowd should continue on this route with me as well. I´ll just walk a couple of more days and then return home on Tuesday. We arrived in Oviedo 3 hours ago at around 2 p.m but for some reason, the albergue doesn´t open until 7 p.m. which is a bust.

San Esteban--Sebrayo

I walked this day with a spring in my step as I was so excited to be able to follow the signs--it seemed so easy and I felt I really owed a lot to Sven. I walked much of this day on my own but some of it with Ettore. When I arrived at Sebrayo (another very small place with an albergue, but no restaurant), Ettore continued on and I couldn´t believe my eyes when I saw Isabel and Renato from my old crowd. Yes, my two worlds had collided and my new young crowd (Sven, Aleix, Lucas) had caught my old crowd (Renato, Isabel, Irene, and Giuseppe). It was kind of great. We had all bought food before as we knew there wouldn´t be any but two vans came along and stopped in the "village" to sell food so we ended up with quite a spread.

Poo-San Esteban

I left Poo and enjoyed the sea views. I walked quite a bit with Ettore who has a penchant for walking right in the middle of the road while reading his guidebook. I moved on ahead and finally got to the town of Ribadesella. It is a nice little city and a big outdoor market was in full swing. I was delighted as I was, and am, in Asturias, the big cheese region. I sampled a number of local cheeses and then bought a big hunk of a goat´s cheese. I bought a few other items and walked about 3 more miles up a big hill to San Esteban--where there is an albergue, but no town, restaurant, etc. All day, I had been completely befuddled by the sign posting/waymarking. Ina, Christian, Sang Kyoung and Catherine know that on last year´s route, the shell symbol features the fanned out part of the shell pointing the direction towards Santiago. This whole day I was perplexed as there were tons of shell markers but seemed to be plastered up in any old direction. I was often lost and flummoxed. A few minutes before arriving at the albergue, I met up with, Sven, young German policeman. He explained that in Asturias, it was the base of the shell that pointed the way. This proved to be a godsend the following day. At the albergue some of this new and younger crowd also arrived. I had toyed with the idea of taking a bus ahead a day to catch up with my old crowd, but I was rather enjoying the new crowd so I kept walking.

San Vicente de la Barquera to Poo! (really)

So, I haven´t written forever and I don't even remember which day I walked this leg but it was very long (that whole 27 miles in a day--never again--rule has fallen by the wayside). San V. turned out to be a great albergue and we had a great group dinner with about 25. I worked in the kitchen with Luis and his wife, Sofi, a retired couple from Santander who run the place. We had a ball. I started meeting a new crowd, to include Simona from Slovenia, and Daniel from Germany. Whereas in my old crowd, I was the youngest, I am decidedly the oldest in the new group (apart from Ettore, the slow walking but kind Italian man--Pia, you can jump in on this, or maybe Gepetto, but I´m guessing that Ettore might translate as Hector??). The following day I decided to walk about 40 km. and started out with a bit of rain but it soon cleared and I found myself walking the crest of some foothills between the Cantabrian Sea and the Picos de Europa mountains. For about an hour or so, I had the best views imaginable. I walked on a narrow farm road with the beautiful mountains to my left and looking down to my right I could see the gorgeous, green hills, small villages and deep blue sea. It was great. It was even great when I found myself at a dead end and had to double back and lost about 5 miles. It was, the prettiest stretch that I have walked. I got back on the right trail and chose the coastal route which was longer but (yes, VJVN, in the words of Frank D.) stunning. I continued to the town of Llanes on the coast but got word via a French guy that the albergue was full so I walked on to Poo--another mile or two and felt so lucky to find a bed at the albergue. I had ended up walking somewhere between 25-30 miles and I was worn out. There I met more of the young crowd to include, Aleix, from Barcelona and Lucas from France.

Maybe it´s just the Salmantinos

Back when I lived in Salamanca, nearly 20 years ago, I really suffered at the hands of the Salmantinos (the people of Salamanca). Daily I would hear some comment as to how bad my Spanish was ("you´ve been here 6 months, wow, your Spanish is really bad"). It always came as quite a blow. I mean, let´s face it, I know my Spanish is pretty bad. I also knew that I gained 5 kilos over the holidays, and that I had a pimple on my chin but I didn´t really need the Spaniards to point it out to me. On this trip, however, I have met lovely people from all over Spain. Several of them, from the Basque Country, Santander, Madrid, and Mallorca, have told me that my Spanish is quite good. (I know it is not, but they can understand me so it´s good enough). The other morning I was walking and met up with a Spanish woman. We started talking and I was so excited to hear that she was from Salamanca. I told her all about how I had lived there, loved it, etc. Within minutes she said something along the lines of "Well, I can tell it´s been years since you have lived in Salamanca as I can tell that you are really struggling with Spanish". And then it dawned on me, maybe it is just the Salmantinos. Maybe if I had lived somewhere else and didn´t have people telling me daily that my Spanish was so bad, I wouldn´t have reduced the amount of Spanish spoken on a daily basis in order to have some relief from the criticism. LAM--what do you think?

Into Every Life...

some rain must fall. So, I have had beautiful (albeit sometimes too hot) weather since I began so I shouldn´t, and won´t complain...had a bit of misting rain today. It wasn´t bad..very light and actually kind of cool temperatures even. One of the days, while I was in 100 degree Valladolid, it evidently poured here so I am still feeling pretty lucky with the weather. After another wonderful stay in Valladolid, I took the train to Torrelavega (which is not on the Camino) and walked only about 5 miles (on a road with a sidewalk) to Santillana del Mar where I stayed last night. It is a gorgeous, gorgeous town full of old stone buildings, old stone streets, etc. It is incredibly well preserved. It is also incredibly well touristed and as it was a Sunday there were tons of Spanish day trippers there...that and the many souvenir shops, made it a little less charming than it would otherwise be but it is still a really lovely place. I felt a little bit lonesome--missing my friends from Valladolid, missing the camino friends that I had met (who are a few days ahead of me now)and not enjoying so much the new camino people that I met.
This morning I walked about 20 miles to San Vicente de la Barquera, yet another really pretty seaside town. I am in Cantabria which is quite beautiful with lots of rolling green hills and seaside views. There are tons of small scale dairy farms where the cows actually graze on grass. I expect to see more of this in Asturias which I will enter tomorrow--I am eager to try some of the cheeses here as they are well known in Spain and, maybe, beyond. In Santillana del Mar, it is typical to have a snack of a small cake, or cheese tart and to have a glass of milk. It was funny as there were these sort of walk-up places where you could by a glass of milk and a sweet snack.
I walked part of the day with a nice Italian man. He walked a bit slower than I did and it is hard for me to not walk at my pace. I eventually left him behind on the trail but he must have continued onward as he is not at the albergue. It is a pretty good place and they even made lunch for us which was great as I was quite hungry upon arrival. I will have dinner there as well.
I have heard from Irene (from my old crowd) they are a couple of days ahead of me so I doubt that I will catch them. But, if the weather remains cool, I may do a pretty long day tomorrow (40 km.?) as well.
I always feel awkward knowing that you all are reading these hastily thrown together posts, but now I feel even more foolish as my favorite student of all time, Miguel, is now following this blog. He is the best writer that I have ever known and this is based on his writing at age 14 or 15. (Valerie, you are the co-best/funniest writer). Yikes. I hope everyone had a Happy 4th. The paella was great!
CCW--I´m developing quite a farmer´s tan--not a Massachusetts Farmer´s Tan but a rest-of-the-USA farmer's tan. I´m sure it will be all the rage on The Cape.

Nothing Says the 4th of July Like Paella

Thursday afternoon I took the train down to Valladolid to spend a few days with my friends, Maite, Maria Jose and their families. It is a really wonderful break. Like last year, when I did this, it seems so luxurious to have my own, quiet bedroom, a nice clean bathroom, a huge bath towel, use of a washing machine, and wonderful meals. Yesterday was MªJose´s daughter, Julia´s 4th birthday party. We all went to a park in the evening for a big party and picnic. There were probably about 50 people there. It was fun to see some old friends again. Today we will go to MªJose´s for lunch--Paella. Tomorrow I will take the train back up to resume my walk. I may get off the train before reaching Santander and skip some of the city walking. I think I have it all mapped out. I hope everyone as a fun and safe 4th.

Güemes-Santander-Valladolid

This morning after waking up late--almost 7--I had breakfast with some of the group and said my goodbyes and then headed off on my own. The scenery over the last few days has been nice. I left the Basque Country several days ago and am now in Cantabria with rolling green hills and rocky coastlines. It´s lovely but maybe not as dramatically beautiful as the first week. The last couple of days have featured green hills dotted with small farms, villages, etc. but also dotted with housing developments as we are closer to Santander (a big city). It was a very short walk today as I walked a couple of hours and arrived at Somo to take the ferry over to Santander. I was delighted to see Manolo and Juan and their guide at the dock and we rode over on the boat together. On previous caminos they have had a guide for the whole route to help them but on this trip they have guides working in shifts. Juan has some sight so is able to fix meals at the albergues, etc. and help Manolo as needed. So, now I am in Santander and will, like last year, take the train to Valladolid to visit my friends, Maite and Maria Jose and their families. I´m looking forward to it. I will probably stay two or three days with them. I will then return to Santander and resume walking. Sadly, I´ll have fallen a few days behind the group but I guess it will be an opportunity to meet other interesting folks.

Santoña--Guemes

Yesterday I walked this route and it wasn´t hard but I felt very tired--due the previous day's long walk. It started out with an early morning climb over a large hill jutting out into the ocean. It was a difficult climb as it went up a rocky little path with lots of prickly plants --very steep, and just as steep going down the otherside. On the other side was a very wide, very long (2 miles?), very beautiful beach. As I decended, I saw an older, heavyset man walking down the beach carrying a bucket. He was buck naked (he was quite far away) and walked towards the many rock formations on the beach and stood among them doing exercises. I think he was pretty sure that there was nobody else around. I averted my eyes and carried on across the lovely beach.
Arriving at the very special albergue, I was delighted to find Manolo and Juan. I don´t know if I have mentioned them before. They are two blind fellows from Mallorca. They have walked many caminos before. They both work for ONCE(this is Spain's national organization for the blind. As employment, many blind people in Spain work for this organization and sell national lottery tickets. The lottery is very popular here and has been for years). They are fun and I hadn't seen them for a few days. They are also in a group of blind people that performs plays all over Spain. They are nice and funny and it was great to catch up with them again.
The albergue in the small hamlet of Guemes is lovely and they feed you dinner, breakfast, and lunch, and provide a room and you provide a donation of any amount. The whole operation is run by Don Ernesto--a local priest who looks like Santa Claus (white hair and beard) but dresses like Father Guinesse (hippy like). Last night at this place, way up in the hills among the cows, there was a concert with a group from Catalunia. A young chorale group and orchestra--they were great. A large tent was errected on the grounds and one or two hundred people came in from the neighboring villages to see the show. They were very talented group and it was fun to have an activity. Don Ernesto made special mention of Jeanine, the 79 year old French woman.
There was a party of sorts afterwards where we had loads of tapas and some beers. I said farewell to the group (as I will be heading off to visit friends for a couple of days). We all went to bed very late at 11:30 p.m. which was about 2 hours later than usual. It was the first time since I've been here that I went to bed when it was dark.

Pretty Hot (85), Pretty Long (22 mi.) Pretty View (craggy coastline, green hills, mountains): Castro Urdiales to Santoña

I spent the afternoon in the really charming fishing town of Castro Urdiales. While sitting in a tiny park, an elderly woman dressed in a suit and with a beauty parlor worthy hair do, walked by and commented to me about the weather, etc. She told me that her doctor told her that she was supposed to go out and walk every day. She hiked up her skirt just a hair to show me her knees to explain that they were not in great shape and showed me the elastic knee braces. She continued on her walk and later joined me on the bench and commented on one and all that walked by, ("Ah, today´s youth", etc.). Another older woman sat across from us --fortunately she was listening to music and couldn't hear the comments of my new friend. She said, with disdain, "Look at her legs", "look at that jewelry she has on". She asked if I smoked and pulled out a pack of Pall Malls. I told her no and she claimed that she did not either and put the cigarettes away. Towards the end of our 30 or 40 minutes together on the bench, she asked me to guess how old she was. I told her I couldn´t guess but imagined she was well into her 80s. She is 96. The clincher was, that I cannot utter one syllable in Spanish without people asking where I am from, due to my atrocious accent. She, never once, asked. It was rather refreshing. I'm sure it is due to the fact that she was hard of hearing.
The following day I walked alone on a very long, hot day to the town of Laredo and took the small boat across the inlet over to Santoña. Brian, surely you know of Santoña as the birthplace of Juan de la Cosa.
I've fallen in with a group of others...some of whom I have mentioned but mainly consisting of: Isabel (Spanish--she looks somewhat like a younger, more feminine version of Dame Edna); Irene (Italian/Belgian/Luxembourgian) who is very nice and an excellent interpreter with her wealth of languages; Renato (very nice, quiet Italian man); Giuseppe (very funny older Italian man from Sardinia; Juan Carlos (Spanish policeman); Jose (Spanish fireman) and a couple of others. They are nice, and fun, but it is not such a close connection as I had last time with Ina, Sang Kyoung, Christian, Carlos and Catherine...that maybe can´t be matched.