Day 27: We made it to Santiago!

We finally made it to Santiago to Compostela! Jess and I were waylaid a for a few days at a town 20km from Santiago for health reasons, but we are recovered and we finally completed the first part of the pilgrimage to Santiago.

ALSO, we saw the botafumeiro, aka the massive incense burner! Someone paid for it to be swung today, either a group of Germans or the couple who celebrated their Diamond wedding anniversary at the mass.  It was amazing and I have to admit that I squealed with glee when the botafumeiro swung by my head and looked like it was going to hit the ceiling.

The entire mass of almost 1000 people (pilgrims plus tourists) applauded when the swinging came to an end. The priest scolded everyone by saying, that he hoped the applause was for the wonders of God and not for the incense burner which is not meant to be a spectacle but an act of prayer....

However, that massive swinging silver rocket full of burning coals and incense is most certainly a spectacle.

Jess and I are off tomorrow for our 75km walk to Finnisterre or the End of the World. We will come back to Santiago to spend 2 more nights here on June 10th and 11th. On that day we will get our Compostela and hug the stature of Santiago and light candles.

Wish us luck. The next time I post, Jess and I will have walked over 450 miles!

Many exclamation marks today because I am very happy!

Day 22 or something like that of the Camino de Santiago

Leaving O Cebreiro to go to Samos

It has been an intense few days of walking on the camino. Since we found out that the huge incense burner, the botafumeiro, swings on Sunday, we are racing to Santiago. Either 2 or 3 days ago we walked 32km from the mountain town of Cebreiro to Samos, which houses one of the largest monasteries in Western Europe. The last 5 miles of the walk to Samos was a path lined with an ancient stone wall, chestnut trees, and a river on our left side. The walk was hot, but pleasant with the sound of running water to accompany us. Sadly the monastery only houses 12 to 17 monks at the moment. Jess and I attended sung mass, the evening vespers, and then we celebrated a fellow peregrino's birthday.

The path to Samos

The Monastery

Jess in front of the church of the monastery

 Yesterday we walked 28.5km in the blazing sun, today we walked 33km to Melide. My legs are tired, my mind is tired, so I cannot promise much writing today. We are walking in Galicia which is beautiful and green, and I could take pictures every 2 minutes and not get tired of the view. It is foggy in the morning and has been incredibly hot in the afternoon. Jess and I look like twins on the camino because we bought matching off white long sleeve shirts to protect ourselves from the sun. 

Typical Galician farm town, where we did not find a cafe

Jess in front of a Galician cafe with the usual German Shepherd guard dog

This story to explains a typical day on the camino and attempts to demonstrate how deserted Galicia is. Our guide book marks the towns where pilgrims should be able to find a market, internet, coffee etc. Jess and I usually stop for coffee after we have walked for an hour.  The other morning, Jess and I felt motivated and walked 6 miles (2 hours) before stopping for coffee.  Our pilgrim's guide assured us that we would be able to find a cafe 10km into our walk. When we arrived to said town, we found...nothing. A barn, a dog, a few chickens, absolutely no cafe in sight. We consulted the guide book and ascertained that we would have to talk another 12km, or 10 plus miles to get coffee. We were feeling quite defeated. The day before this we had hiked up a mountain and our legs were still tired and needed coffee to fuel the muscles. After 3 minutes of feeling sorry for ourselves, we gave each other a pep talk that went something like this: We don´t need coffee. We can totally walk to the next cafe without caffeine. We are strong young women and tough pilgrims. And then we set off, or rather we trudged off. We walked another mile UP a LARGE hill, we really started to complain, and then miraculously we spotted a blue awning that promised a cafe! So our guide book was mistaken, but Galicia eventually produced a tiny cafe that served us 2 cortados (expresso with a touch of milk) and toast. 

The pilgrims after much needed coffee!

In front of a chestnut tree 

Tim and Jess resting at a albergue outside of Sarria

Overlooking the river at Pontomarin

Pilgrim torture: the stairs you have to climb to enter Portomarin...but check out those muscular legs

Enjoying Lays, Receta Campesina chips at lunch

Gothic cross-roads marker

Detail of the road marker: Virgin Mary holding Christ

Galician granary in the background

Day 20 and others of the Camino

Lunch in a grove of trees

 We are on day 20 of the Camino. It has been an intense few days of walking after Astorga because we entered the mountains. Jess and I are obviously girls who have lived too long on a flat, flat island with no elevation and vegetation. The first few days of the Spanish plains we were in awe of the green fields and wild flowers.When we entered the mountains it was like two guajiras (ie hicks) entering a city. As we ascended we kept oohhing and ahhing and pointing out to each other the green and purple covered peaks and towns tucked into the mountains. We also took way too many pictures of ourselves with either a mountain background or with wild bushes and flowers. Our mountain walk was arduous, especially with our heavy packs full of food but it was possibly the most pleasant walk I have ever taken. The scenery was beautiful, the weather was crisp with fresh mountain air scented by mountain rosemary and these bushes with white flowers that line the whole path. 

New Friends eating lunch

The first day we walked from Astorga toFoncebadon, an abandoned town on the top of a mountain. From there we walked to a large city in the mountains called Ponferrada. Yesterday, in an attempt to cut off 7km from today's walk which included walking up a mountain,  we trudged 30km to a tiny town called Pereje, where the albergue only slept 30 people and the house was built a few centuries ago, as evidenced by the original stone walls. 

Today was even harder than the last few days, but we climbed a mountain with an elevation of 900m and entered  the state of Galicia. 

Tim the South African and Jess

More important than the walking, Jess and I wanted to prove on the blog that we talk to other people on the camino and have made friends. We have walked for the last two days with a very clever and funny South African called Tim. A great part of the camino is talking in depth with people from different countries and cultures. We have been lucky to be walking at the same pace as many interesting people and finally we have pictures to prove 

it. 

Our wounds have healed for the most part. We are healthy and happy and will be in Santiago de Compostela on Sunday June 3rd. We are not sure what we are doing after that, but we will find a way to spend our time and pictures will be posted. 

For the entomologist

Hens in the city

First mountain view

Mountain rosemary

Spanish Suburbs outside of Astorga

Stork nest in Villafranca

Jess and Tim navigating out of Villafranca

View of Villafranca

Cows blocking the path in Galicia

Forest path

Day 14 and 15 on the Camino

Leon at 8am

Yesterday, Jess and I hung around Leon until 9am so we could go to mass and get into the cathedral for free and look at the famous painted glass windows in the ''purely Gothic'' cathedral. Because of our late start and various stops in Leon on the way out of the city,  we had to walk the last 10km during the hottest part of the day. At 3pm we made it to the next stop, a city whose name escapes me, but we stayed in the Albergue de Jesus. Despite the holy name, the albergue was a hopping place for both pilgrims and locals. This is the first albergue where we have stayed that actually had the same amount of locals and pilgrims in the bar. The group at the albergue was quite social and our afternoon included some guitar  and ukulele playing as well as a 5pm stretch session for tired pilgrims.

A German from Cologne playing Spanish guitar

Strectching pilgrims

The last evening activity before heading to Astorga: ripping our books in half so we don´t have to carry the half we have already read...

Today we walked 32km to Astorga, a beautiful Spanish city, where I wish I could spend a few more days. The walk to Astorga was long and hot and mostly covered a landscape that looked very similar to Texas down to the fact that there was very, very little shade.

A funny sign seen before our bee encounter

We stopped at 12pm in Villavante for lunch. We couldn´t find any benches in the shade, so Jess and I stopped in the shadow of the church to eat our tomato and chorizo sandwiches. Our location next to the church somehow disturbed an angry black bee that first buzzed around Jess´s head. She gently swatted it away and it left. It returned a few minutes later and buzzed over to me and tried to land in my hair. I, in my panic, did the opposite of what a human should do when attacked by a bee. I tried to swat it away, this made the bee more angry, I tried to get up quickly and run away but I tripped trying to stand up, scraped my barefoot and while I was trying to swat the bee away from my face, it stung me on the hand and then continued to buzz around my head. I ran down the street and around the corner yelling English curse words until the bee gave up following me. I must have made quite the commotion because an old Spanish woman opened her door and asked what was wrong. The bee, or its relatives, had a grudge against Jess and myself because we were harassed by bees until we left the city. I spent the rest of the afternoon dodging every buzzing black insect the flew my way. 

The pilgrims' rest stop on the hill

After the angry bee incident, 7km away from Astorga, we climbed a hill and at the top we encountered an unusual pilgrim rest top. It was a dilapidated house on a hill inhabited by a Spanish budhist. When I asked him if the house was his, he answered: ''my'' is suffering, this is everyone's house.  He was a man of his word; in front of his abode he had a cart loaded with cold water, fruit juices, crackers, cookies, dried figs, cracked hazelnuts, and fresh fruit. He also offered us homemade vegetable curry and yellow rice. When we asked what it costs, he answered ''donativos, si quieres.''  He called his rest stop, La Casa de los Dioses. It is difficult to explain how strange this oasis on a hill seemed at the time. When we came across it we had just walked about 5km up a deserted, brushy path and at the top of the hill we were greeted by a smiling, extremely tanned man in tiny black shorts offering us food and yelling at passing pilgrims: Que te illumines. Todo de esto es el tuyo. He told us he had been offering rest and food to pilgrims for three years. 

J&J after enjoying a bit of shade and food

Jess resting on the grass after a typical bathroom break

Day 10 through 13 of the Camino of Santiago

Entering Leon

This Wednesday will mark two weeks of walking for these two peregrinas. 

Jess and I have made it to Leon, the next major city after Burgos. We have walked 6 days over the plains of Spain and now we feel like professional pilgrims. Most of our blisters have ghealed and our backpacks no longer feel like leaden weights.

Looking out on the meseta

Iglesia de la Trinidad converted to an albergue

We have had a few notable experiences in the last week. We stayed at a convent in Carrion de los Condes where we were greeted and escorted around the place by very enthusiastic nuns. Two days later in Sahagùn, we stayed in a church that was converted to an albergue .

Jess occupying herself with the ukulele at the albergue on a rainy day

So far on the camino, we have experienced two acts of kindness. On our way to Carrion, Jess and I were suffering serious hunger pangs when an old man stopped us on the street to tell us not to take the modern pilgrims' path along the road, but to take the ancient, shaded one along the river. The old man was kind enough to give us a piece of candy, some crackers, and two handfuls of almonds in their shells. Both Jess and I temporarily thought of the age old lesson of not accepting candy from strangers, but then we thought, who would want to poison 2 lovely girls on the camino. So we ate the candy, crackers, and saved the almonds for lunch because we had to use a rock to crack the shells. 

A few almonds from the old Spaniard

The second act of kindness happened yesterday. We lost our opinel pocket knife at the albergue in Sahagùn. The pocket knife is the only utensil we carry, and without it, the usually peaceful lunch of cheese and chorizo sandwiches would be reduced to passing back and forth the cheese, chorizo, and bread to tear off hunks with our teeth. Yesterday we had a long, cold, windy 32km walk. I think this description will explain the extent of the cold: Even though Jess and I were already dressed in ALL our clothing, we put wool socks on our hands, and even then we were still freezing. There are no pictures of sockhands, but it´s the only way to explain that we were freezing even after walking 10km at a brisk pace. 

 After 14km we stopped at the only cafe along the way to warm up and drink cafe con leche. While I was paying for our coffee I asked the owner if he knew where we could buy a pocket knife. He responded that the closest place was Leon, 50km away. I must have looked concerned because he gave me my change and walked over to a drawer, dug around and pulled out a pocket knife. He simply handed it to me and said that we needed it more than him. 

Many storks in northen Spain

The storks only nest on church rooftops

The main door of the cathedral in Leon