Sep 06

The bus trip to Malaga was a bit hairy, the driver did well to swerve on the highway to avoid a stopped vehicle..but we got here unscathed. Booked into a nice 3 star hotel and ventured out to the sound of continuous car horns, traffic, heat and tourists. Thank god for siesta I say, you can really tell the difference, the roads become quite, and people disappear, we love it.

Malaga is a port city with a beach about 2km away, so we decided to head in that direction. Although the beach is brown, it was nice to sit and look out at the ocean for a change. This section is called Malagetta, and is more residential, with some pretty huge ritzy joints on the hill behind. We went looking for a pensiona, and found a nice one called Hotel California and booked it for 2 nights. Its beautiful, and fully renovated, away from the tourists and plan to spend a couple of days chilling out here. We wanted to ask the owner if 'we could check out but never leave`, but weren´t sure if he´d get it.

Did a bit of organising today, booked flights to Barcelona on the internet, managed to get a 10 euro ticket plus taxes of course, but totally both came to 77 euros, not bad considering other tickets were over 100 euros each. Booked accommodation on the phone in Barcelona, and another cheap pensiona for Malaga for 1 night, so we´re getting a bit better these days. Not like before, rock up and figure it out.

Anyway, today we´ve bought bus tickets to go to Ronda, a white washed village in the hills. Have been looking forward to visiting Ronda since we started researching the trip.

It seems the whole of Spain is under construction. Kev & Richard mentioned there was an election coming up, maybe that´s why, but to quote Ange from Gosford, it seems sometimes that Spain is a bit ABC..Another Bloody Cathedral...Another Bloody Crane!!

Seville was nice, but had to walk around construction workers, who are no different anywhere, and avoid all the tour groups. It reminded me of Cordoba but a city around the pretty cobblestone streets and colourful terrace houses. We visited the Alcazar, a moorish mosque of gardens and beautiful islamic architecure, it was huge and just kept going and going. The cathedral was gorgeous, but the line up was too long in the heat, so we were happy just to admire it from the outside.

We bought tickets to a Flamenco show, which was really enjoyable. It was backed by 2 guitarist, and 2 men singing (and clapping). Then there were probably about 15 flamenco dancers, and changed several times into different dresses. They were all very beautiful, but disappointed they didn´t dance the Pasa Doble.

Flamenco in Seville

We ate tapas all day today, looking forward to having some vegetables for a change.

We did Seville in a day and were eager to check out of the hovel and jumped on a bus to Malaga.

Arrived into Seville after a long 2.5 hour bus trip at about 8pm. Today we learnt a valuable lesson, to book when visiting a large city...especially if the festival of Flamenco is on! The lonely planet recommended pensionas were booked up and on the 5th place finally had a room vacant. Unfortunately this place is a no star pensiona and for 40 euros per night I think we are ripped off. There is a smell in the room that I don´t want to investigate the source of, the sheets don´t look clean so we are sleeping on our sleeping bags, and Kevin can´t fit between the walls of the toilet!! Stupidly we paid upfront, (well its hard when our Spanish is bad), and they are asking for it, and we paid for 2 nights...so we plan to redeem this experience with a better hotel, pre booked in Malaga in a couple of days. Anyway, met up with our new friends Ange, and Cheryl for paella, and today plan to organise to see a Flamenco show, and visit the Alcazar and the Cathedral

Caught a cab into town after arriving from the brilliant AVE train. We tipped our driver as the roads in Cordoba are so narrow they only fit 1 car, and the pedestrians have to breath in as a car goes passed, so he did very well.

We found a hotel from the Lonely Planet, and was quite expensive compared to what we wanted to pay, but the streets are all cobblestone, and it was 7.30pm, and the thought of dragging the suitcases up and down looking for a cheaper place was not going to happen.

Went out exploring, which is great when the sun goes down late in the day, and enjoyed this little town. Cordoba was founded in about 150 BC, and is famous for its Mezquita, which is an Islamic mosque with a catholic cathedral built right in the centre. Figure that out!! Anyway, its also known for its internal courtyards or patios. So, the cafes are actually inside houses, in these open air squares, walls all white washed and covered in wall hanging pot plants, and plates, and usually with in fountain in the centre. So every chance i got when I saw an open door, I rushed over and took photos, they are all very pretty!

That night while having some tapas we met up with 2 Aussies, Ange and Cheryl from NSW, we shared tapas and exchanged number so we could meet up in Seville, so they could show us how to eat backpacker style in the park with chorizo,cheese,and sangria!

The following day we head off early to the Mezquita. Lucky for us today was the official tourism day in Cordoba and therefore free entry! It was just the most amazing building that both of us had ever experienced seeing. Over 800 arch ways painted in maroon and white, and this massive catholic cathedral in the centre. As we were leaving the bus loads of tourists starting to come down the street, lucky to get there when we did.

After that we had read that you must have a traditional Arabian bath, so we ventured down there lucky to get a spot. This was also an amazing experience. The building of course was ancient and consisted of a series of baths, freezing cold, really hot and all centred around a large warm bath. They limited the numbers so there was only about 10 of us. So in swim suit and shower cap we dunked ourselves from freezing to warm to hot to warm to freezing. The centre warm bath was lit up by star shapes cut into the dome roof so the sun streamed through, the other rooms were lit by candle light, but the decoration inside was beautiful. Intricate carved designs in marble lined the walls, with water pouring into the baths through the walls from ceramic pots. Part of the package was an arometherapy massage which was exactly what we needed after the hike to Santiago. We left the Arabian baths floating.

Caught a cab to the bus station and set off to Seville.

Typical internal courtyard in Cordoba, all houses have them, had to sneak this photo through an open door

Mezquita, the ancient Moorish mosque, housing over 800 of these columns

Arrived into Madrid at midnight, caught the Metro into Kevin & Richards place..who were staying up to greet us with tired eyes.

The following morning after filling up 3 clothes lines of washing, Kevin took us to his local market to buy fresh meat and veges. Here the typical Coles/Woolies isn´t the way of life, its markets with specialty shops, chicken shop, ham shop, cheese shop etc.

Later, we set off to see the sights starting with the Palacio Real, (The Palace). A lot prettier than Buckingham, and the grounds surrounding it a more stunning, but unfortunately it was closed for official business, so couldn´t see inside. There was definately a visit of some sort as the Police and security around the city were out in force. We moved on to see the Plaza Mayor, then wandered along Madrids huge leavy boulevards passing statues, gardens, colourful terrace houses until we got to the Post Office. This building would have to be my favourite in Madrid, set on a round about that has a statue and water feature in the centre, its just awesome. The Ritz and The Palace, 5 star hotels are also near, so this part of the city is pretty impressive. We walked up to the Retiro Park, which, when you look on the map, is just enormous. There were artists in the park, painting, and people in row boats on the lake, but the trees here in the park are so old and well established, its like a forest, and filled with more statues!

We met up with Kevin & Richards for tapas, and went to several bars, trying all sorts of spanish delights, fried black sausage, crumbed marinated fish pieces, garlic prawns..till pretty late.

The following day we set off on the Metro and visited Madrids famous Bull Ring, and bought a tour for 5 euros. It was pretty interesting, especially the museum, and alot of times the picadors and matadors end up second best!! Met a lovely older couple from Canberra, and it was nice to share tourist tips with each other.

Back on the Metro to the Prado Museum. This massive gallery hosts art dating back to 1400, and is just room after room of Goya, Reubens, El Greco, a little Rembrandt, and some other spanish artists I can´t remember how to spell. We also saw an exhibition of work where they have found a way of xraying the piece of art and can see under the paint to the artists original charcoal sketch of the picture. It was really interesting as sometimes the artist had a different plan to the end result.

After that we purchased tickets on the AVE, the Spanish speed train, that goes up to 280km an hour, to travel to Cordoba.

We were most greatful of Kevin & Richards hospitality, they were so kind and helpful, and Kevin even came out to the Renfe station with us to help. Two wonderful people we were lucky to meet.

Telecommunications Buildings (Post Office)

Apartment Building near the Palace

A lake in one of the many parks

We decided to sleep in as only a short day today, 21km, and leave in the day light for a change. Today seemed to go so quickly, though we really felt the weight of our packs today. Walked through alot of rain, and caught up with Ralph half way. For the first time the path seemed very busy, and the cyclist were all covered in mud, (none of the bikes had mud guards).

It was such a good walk today,and such a relief to hit Santiago, although it took an extra hour to reach the centre. Santiago is a beautiful city, we love it. A bit touristy, but the cathedral is just the most magnificent thing we´ve ever seen. It was built between 1012-1200, it is just massive. In the plaza square in front of the cathedral most peregrinos gathered, alot were crying, I guess for a religious pilgrimage it would be quite emotional. I forgot to mention earlier that we came across lots of people walking in the other direction. People actually walk back!! We met a guy walking back and he said he was walking to Rome and then to Jeruselum, he said he thinks it might take him 2 years. That´s the 3 religious pilgrimages in one go!

Anyway, we found a lovely pensiona, 66 euros including breakfast, a bit steep, but close to the cathedral. We lined up for a compostella, a very pretty certificate with our names written in latin, and have been recorded on the database as 2 extra Aussies having arrived in Santiago on the camino. We go to midday mass for the pilgrams tomorrow where our names are read out and they do this incense ceremony on a huge pulley systems done by a team in the Santiago cathedral.

We made it!

Booked a flight to Madrid Sunday night and are staying at Kevin and Richards place, to finally use a washing machine as opposed to the corrogated boards in a tub. Currently in the grooviest cafe with flat screen monitors set into the wall for internet, drinking vino and free nibbles (olives, potato quiche, tuna sandwich, chorizo and bread)..don´t need to order dinner with this great custom..and they´ve got Pearl Jam playing, fantastico!!

In the meantime, plan to do a lot of sitting down and buying souvenirs tomorrow. Adios chicos.

Set off at 6.45am in the dark again, nearly missed an arrow marker in the bush so could have been an interesting morning. Raining again, and feeling not so perky.

William and Kev..marker made by pilgrims from rocks

Stopped in Arzua for breakfast of churros, coffee and croissants. Have never eaten so much bread in all our lives. Bought some chorizo sausage from an old man in the market on the way out of town.

Today, the guide book says ´relatively flat day´. We think that this crazy dude must have had a serious hangover today, as we haven´t climbed so many hills on the camino as we did today. Today was the most mentally and physically tough day that we´ve had, we had alot of problems staying positive, and we both agreed yesterday was much more enjoyable even though we´d done 44km. The 35km we walked today was very hard, and when we did finally arrive in Arca we hadn´t read the guide book correctly and missed that you had to turn into town, instead we were walking onto to Santiago!! Then Kev fell and hurt his sore knee, and then the storm hit us!! Everything felt like it was going wrong, we couldn´t find a pensiona, and refuses to stay another night in the alburgue, Kev was talking about getting a taxi to Santiago as we were only 21km away..so I was praying..please please find us a hotel... and there it was. Finally, a pensiona, it was the 2nd last room left in town, the lady was nice, and we bumped into 2 Germans that we met in Tricastella who took the last room!

We agreed to have dinner together downstairs, and after a shower and feeling 100% better, we enjoyed dinner together. Daniel was from a town I can´t recall the name of, and Ralph from Hamburg. I remember Daniel well, as I´d nicknamed him the Machine, he looked a bit like Arnold Schwarznegger (spelling not right), ie. The Terminator. No blisters, no pain, built like a robot, spoke like a robot, walks 8km an hour, walked from France, not human. We reckon he was a test tube baby, produced by Hitlers army. Anyway, Ralph was lovely too, and after too many cervazas and wine, I was singing them my German song ´Draculas, Rock around the Clock´that I learnt in grade 5 german class. I woke up feeling very embarrassed about that.

Last night we bumped into the couple from Rio who informed us that a cyclone was about to hit the coast near Santiago at 8am in the morning and to expect alot of heavy wind and rain.

We got what we paid for in the alburgue, ie. free...it was very very ordinary. We got to bed at 9pm and after all the talking, playing games on mobiles phones and the last of the peregrinos coming in from dinner we probably got to sleep at midnight. I conjured up my courage and spanish and told old mate beside me ´Domir hora, ruido telefono´(sleep time, noisy phone) !!

So at about 5am in the morning we woke to people starting to pack up and decided now was a good time to get out of this smelly crappy alburgue. We agreed that its pensionas from here on!

We left the alburgue at about 5.45pm with headlight and torch, walked straight into dense forest and uphill for about 2 hours. The wind was insane, and actually a bit scary through the pine forests as some sticks and small branches were coming down. We stopped outside a lone cafe/bar at Gonzar that was closed and waited there for shelter. Finally it opened at 8am and washed our faces as they were covered in dirt. Had nice coffee made by an old unfriendly man and ordered takeaway chorizo and cheese bocadillas. The rain started around 8.30am, and stayed raining and windy for hours. We ate while we walked, and finally stopped at Palas de Rai at 11.45am after 27km. It was early and the town was pretty ordinary and didn´t want to hang out here for the rest of the day, so we stopped at a barcafe for coffee, ate our other bocadilla, massaged our feet, replaced bandaids etc, and powered onto Melide. It was beautiful countryside, walking through back lanes of farms. Apple and pear trees just grow wildly on the road side and so do the chestnut trees, in some spots we just crunch over fallen apples that fill the roads. Finally the rain eased up a fair bit, and the path was flat and nice to walk on.

Stopped again in a tiny village, to have a little drink in a cafebar run by a very young couple who spoke a bit of English, a pleasant suprise. There, we run into Hombre and dog, who we met in Tricastella. Hombre is about 16 years old and is from Paris. He walked from Paris and found the dog in a Spanish town called Burgos. It was so funny watching him curse at the dog in French, when the dog was Spanish. He purchased an Ostrich Egg at the bar, for some reason there were some for sale. So, Hombre, and dog, set off also to Melide, carrying an Ostrich Egg.

Hombre and dog

Arrived into Melide at about 4.30pm after walking a mamoth 44km through the edge of a hurricane. Suprisingly, apart from feet that felt like stepping on razor blades, we seemed ok.

Found a pensiona, for 40 euros, brand spanking new appliances, very nice. Enjoyed a glass of wine at their trendy bar with a plate of tapas. Slept like babies.

Woke to our alarm, with mind ready but body screaming, are you crazy!

Set off at around 7.15pm. Bumped into William in the dark, after climbing a huge amount of steps. We walked together, with William setting the pace very quickly which was good. It was all uphill today, apart from the old ticker racing from the incline, wasn´t as hard on the knees. Stopped for a great cafe con leche grande, for only 1 euros each, (latte).

View of sunrise heading to Portomarin from Sarria

Arrived into Portomarin around 1.30pm and checked into the municipal alburgue which is free. Washed ourselves, our clothes (becoming a real ritual), set off for menu del dia. Lucky to get a bed actually. This part of the camino, you only need to do the last 100km to get your compostella from Santiago, so most people start in Sarria, therefore, the alburgues fill up pretty quickly. The mentality changes a bit too, souvenir shops start to arise in the towns, you start to see people with tiny packs who are part of organised group who carry their gear, and it feels a little like a race. I really dislike these people with tiny packs who have got the gimiky scallop shells draped around their necks carrying gimiky walking staffs with scallop shells tied to them. I guess each for their own.

Nearly there (Santiago)!

We bumped into Hombre with his dog, who we met in Tricastela, he told us in his broken english that he plans to arrive in Santiago Saturday. We are all starting to plan Santiago, its Wednesday today and plan to arrive on Sunday. Only 4 days of walking to go as of tomorrow!!

Met a guy called Kim from Brisbane! First person from Brissy. He´s living in the mediterranean looking after and sailing yachts for English & Germans with more money than sense. Riding his bike on the camino to think about how he wants to spend the next stage of his life.

Off to Palais del Ray tomorrow, a huge climb. Bought some anti inflammetory tablets from the Farmacia, for our knees, William was our translator..again. Alburgue is full, will be an interesting sleep. Weather forecast is raining for tomorrow, but it has been forecasting that for days and have seen endless blue sky.

We set off in the dark with Jeffs head light & torch at about 7am. We walked by the highway for about an hour. But it was so beautiful walking in the dark. The sound of the water rushing through the river was so loud and the fresh smell of the water and the trees was lovely. Sunrise was about 8.15am or so today, just in time for the path to leave the highway and into the forest.

Yesterday we descended the mountain and today we hiked through the valley.

Zen, from Silk Road in Wickham street, who sold us our boots, suggested to us that the choice of routes to take from Tricestala should be the Samos route, so we decided to follow his suggestions. It was an extra 6km but definately worth it. We followed the beautiful river, and the landscape was flurocent green grass overgrown forest, big trees, flowers, tiny villages, and no peregrinos! We came across one lady early on, then the next person we met was Jasenso from Peru about 2 hours later. Not many people took this way but we were glad of it. It would have been more enjoyable had the pain in our knees not been so bad. The map suggested a flat day but there were still plenty of hills and the downhill we were walking on the side as the pain was pretty bad.

Samos, the town that was about half way, was so beautiful, built on a river, in a valley, and hosted one of the oldest Benedictine Monestries in Spain, rather impressive, but there was too many stairs to go inside!!

Along the river from Samos

We arrived into Sarria, pretty crap town really, I think because it was larger and lacked any kind of prettiness. We wanted to try Galicia´s octopus, (Pulpo) and made a mistake by choicing the cafe we did. You should always follow instinct, when something doesn´t feel right, go with the gut feeling. Well the octopus was bad and there was a reason why we were the only people there, and were way overcharged for it, cost us 18 euros, and we didn´t eat hardly any. If I could speak the language, we would have said, this is shit I´m not paying for it. Anyway, we had to go somewhere else to eat and the old bread, cheese and vino did the trick. Stayed in a pension, run by a guy called Jose, really nice bloke, had our own room, and slept well, apart from the door slammers.

We decided that our knees are way to precious and took the bus through the massive hills to O´Cebreiro which cut out a 30 plus km day with huge climbs. We met Bud from Quebec and Jorn from German also doing the same thing. However the bus stopped 4 km from O´Ceibrero so around 9.40am Jorn, Kev & I ploughed on together up the mountain to O´Ceibrero where Jorn was staying over due to being quite ill.

We have now crossed a state border having arrived in O´Cebreiro and we are now in Galicia. It has a Celtic background, and the info shop was playing celtic music and the symbols were on alot of the souvenirs, they also don´t Speak spanish, they speak Galician.

This day was extremely beautiful, we were high up in the mountains and the view from all angles was just breathtaking. We might have missed a difficult day but this day wasn´t exactly a walk in the park. Lots of climbs and at one stage we could touch the path with our hands as we hiked up the side of a mountain, however, this wasn´t as hard as the 2 hour descent into Tricanstela, we both found this very painful on our knees and it ended up being baby steps at the end. Nurafen gel works for a while, but I think we´ve done some permanent damage!

View on way down mountain - of Tricastela

We arrived into Tricanstela at about 4pm, and who do we bump into .. William! He was one day ahead of us because of our day off in Ponferrada, so we caught up because of our bus trip. Three alburgues were full when we arrived, but managed to get a couple of beds in what seems to be a new alburgue. Instead of a large open area, there are rooms and ours has 3 bunk beds a single, and are sharing with 2 other Italians ladies.

What we´ve found so far is the average age of a peregrino is around 50-55 years old. So sharing dormintaries isn´t like anywhere else, no loud crazy parties going on, its just purely get clean, wash clothes, sleep.

Well speaking of that, all that is done except sleep, oh and will have to try a Galician wine I think, so we´ll be off for our Menu del Dia shortly. Tomorrow we travel to Sarria (I think). So far we´ve been walking for 5 day plus one rest day, and have 6 more to go, we expect to arrive in Santiago on Sunday at this rate.

Again, problems with the photos, they won´t allow me to plug my camera in here, will get there eventually.

....

Enjoyed our menu del dia, lovely paella 1st course, chicken for second, Kev had macarone, then lamb, with a bottle of vino. We decided to go looking for William in his alburgue and we bumped into each other on the road, he was doing the same, looking for us. We enjoyed a beer at the bar together and laughed for ages about the day. We met a nice couple from Rio, Brazil who were telling us about a drink they have in spain which is beer mixed with lime fanta.

On way home we were stopped in a lane way taking a photo and heard a funny rumbling noise, we turned around to find a heard of sheep galloping up the lane way, we had to move aside, it was bizarre! There was nothing chasing them, they were all heading in a direction up the lane and took at sharp right, very funny!

We got back to the alburgue and discovered a room with no one in it, so we moved our stuff in there, and spread out it was great, a room to ourselves.

We set off in the dark around 7am with a little rain, enough to wear our ponchos. Sun came up around 8am and was very well marked out of town, so didn´t need a flash light today. We walked through a couple of little towns on the outskirts, but after we passed through them we started to enter the vineyards. We stopped for breakfast at a town called Cacabelos for coffee and toast, for about 1 hour as I tried the internet there, but had to leave as I reckon everyone smokes in Spain and it was getting too much inside the bar.

We arrived in Villafranca at 1pm, and had spent the last 4 hours following tractor road through vineyards, up and down hills through farming villages, farms, passing dozens of tractors carrying grapes and saw lots of people harvesting the vines. The majority of the grapes vines aren´t vines here they seem to leave them grow on their own tree. This area is called El Bierzo and is reknown for its wine. I tried some El Bierzo wine in Ponferrada and its very flavoursome, kind of sweet. The region is also known for its capsicums (pimientos) which they serve in a tapas style marinated in olive oil and something sweet. Anyway, todays walk was very pleasant. We checked into the Alburgue, its name is Alburgue Fenix, it read very well in guide book, buts its very old and a bit dodgy, but its just a shower & bed. Washed a heap of clothes using the old fashioned corregated board to scrub them.

Walked passed plenty of vineyards to Villafranca

View from back of alburgue - castle

Found the only internet cafe in town, which is an old computer in the attic of a bar, so its a bit too slow for adding photos on unfortunately. We are planning to catch the bus for 45 minutes tomorrow to Ocebreiro, to save our knees.

We returned to the alburgue which is run by a family who are reknown for their hospitality to the peregrinos doing the camino. Lunch was being served which was the largest pan of paella I´ve ever seen, actually it was a kind of paella called (Richard & Kevin have told me the correct name but have forgotten) I think its Rijos or something like that, instead of seafood in the rice its vegetables. Anyway, everyone staying here was served up this beautiful dish with a big rib of lamb. We sat in the sun watching our clothes dry (very happy about this) and met a lovely lady called Paolo from Venice, Italy we chatted for ages it was nice meeting someone who could speak English. We got on so well we now have a place to stay in Venice! Also a very funny thing happened while we were in the common area of the albergue where you 'check in', an English lady was trying to tell the person working here that some Canadians took her bed, an she looked at me as if asking to translate, so i did, how funny!! I translated for her!! Kevin laughed so hard he nearly injured himself, as my Spanish is so bad, but still managed to be a translater, I can´t wait to tell Richard and Kevin about this!!

We explored this lovely town which was full of stairs and old churches, all in stone of course, we missed their fiesta by one day unfortunately. We sat in the main plaza in town with about 200 other people drinking coffee watching a school orchestra play. This was an especially wonderful experience for me as they played a song from another life of mine. During the 10 years I was a ballroom dancer we danced a dance called the Pasa Doble, a Spanish dance which was mainly done to only one song. They played this song, and hearing it in Spain was really great.

Alburgue Felix where we are staying offered an evening meal for 5 euros each for all the peregrinos, so we reserved a seat for that. It was so nice to be seated with everyone sharing a meal, kind of being forced to meet new people is good - which would normally not happen if you were just in a cafe. We met Tassie Rob, finally another Aussie!! And Sydney Glen, woohoo they are coming out of the woodwork! Tassie Rob (from Hobart) had walked 50km today to try and catch up with his mate, who ended up leaving to do another 15km, Rob arrived in about 8pm sweaty but still full of beans. We also met a couple from Italy who live near the border of Austria and speak German to each other, I found that interesting. Anyway about 30 of us were served up a beautiful vegetable & noodle soup, a potato omlete cake thing and roasted eggplant, bread and wine. We slept very well, hardly any snorers and most people made an effort to be quiet, so it was nice.

We enquired with the receptionist about staying a second night in Ponferrada, she told us that the whole hotel is booked out as the weddings were on Saturday night. Not long after that we received a phone call from the receptionist telling us there´d been a cancellation and we could stay. This was fate, our clothes were still wet, Kev was feeling a bit fluey, our knees were giving us heaps and blisters needed airing out.

Today (Saturday) was forecasted rain, but you wouldn´t believe the sky when we woke, picture perfect blue sky, the complete opposite of yesterday. We couldn´t believe it, we could actually see the mountains, too think how different the weather was the day before. Anyway, today we had a lovely day, wandering around town, bought some chorizo, cheese, bread and sat in the park for a while, spent some time in the terrace drinking the local wine and eating tapas in the sun, just relaxing.

This evening the weddings were being celebrated in town, so we congregated to the church to watch. Normally we have found the Spaniards dress up, but when there´s a wedding on, its like the Logies!! Full suits, some in tails, the woman all in different coloured ball gowns with their hair on the side, & roses & flowers in their hair, wearing typical Spanish shawls. You´d think they were in the wedding party, but these were just the guests!! It was enjoyable to watch, however our hotel room was on the main plaza and so were the celebrations and the lonely bag piper trying to make some money..until about 1am. So not much sleep tonight!

Well today was the opposite of yesterday, not as much fun!

We woke early and left the Alburgue at 7.20am, getting packed in the dark trying not to wake people is difficult. It was freezing and we were not equiped for this kind of weather. We set off in the dark again and it started to rain then the wind picked up which was really, really cold!

We ascended uphill in these conditions for 4 hours, climbing to 1500m above sea level. It was hard going and the altitude was making it a little difficult to breath, plus Kev wasn´t feeling very well. If it wasn´t windy it wouldn´t have been so bad. We stopped at 12pm in a town called Acebo for Cafe con Leche caliente (2 white coffees), where we met up with William. After Acebo it was downhill, and the weather finally eased up. We felt much better to see some sun, so we chatted and sang Ricky Martin songs on the descent. However, it was quite painful on our knees but we were just happy to see a little bit of blue sky. We stopped in Molinseca to take off our boots and relax for 15 minutes.

Molinseca was absolutely beautiful, however I haven´t yet mentioned siesta in Spain. It really exists. You do not see anyone or any open shops from about 2pm until 5pm. Some bars are open but very few. So we got to Molinseca in siesta, it was rather quite, just saw some dogs & cats and some lovely streets that we walked through. On the way out of town we started to see the vineyards, this is the beginning of the El Bierzo region for wine, which means one thing .. vino in Ponferrada!

So we continued on another 8km to the town of Ponferrada. William set off to the Alburgue and we headed to the Tourist Office to find accommodation in a hotel WITH A BATH!! We found Hotel Bierzo with an English speaking reception, such a treat!

The bath helped to ease the weary legs and feet and we made a decision to have tomorrow off to wash all the clothes, buy some jackets (wind breakers), new thongs for Kev (they broke), look around town, and give our knees a break. The following day we´ll walk to Villafranca (only a 20km walk), stay the night in the Alburgue and catch a bus to O´Ceibrero. The hike to O´Ceibrero is 30 plus km and the ascent is from 600m above sea level to 1300km above sea level, the downhill run drops quite rapidly back to 600m and the weather forecast is rain, so we´ll catch the bus, then walk on to Tricastela which is about 25km.

We set off from the Alburgue at 6.30am with minimal sleep due to some very noisy Germans. It was pitch dark with stars in the sky and glad Jeff had given me a head light so that came in handy along with a torch to find the yellow markers on the road. We got a bit stuck out of town when the street lights ran out and stood there for about 5 minutes searching for an arrow. It was then that we met William, a Japanese Brazillian from San Paulo. Together we walked the next 4.5 hours to Rabanal, chatting and laughing, it was a nice way to pass the time. We didn´t see too many other peregrinos today but come across a group of road workers..one of the hombres stood up on top of his tractor singing something about the camino, William translated it to say he was telling us to sing all the way to Santiago. Kev responded with his version of La Cucaracha - the only song he knows in Spanish, and the hombre replied with what William translated to be ´very bad words´about La Cucaracha .. well it is a Mexican song!!

Rabanal - well normally it would be just another small Spanish village will cobblestone roads and stone houses, but today we were extremely lucky!! We checked into the Alburgue at 11.30am and told that the town will be closing today due to the Annual Maragato Festival and we were welcome to attend the festivities!!

We showered and changed, and joined the local village people at the church where many were in traditional Maragato costume, (pictures soon) and the rest were playing canastas and drums. They carried a statue of Virgin Mary and large flags down through the street to another church. We walked with the village people, I think there was about 100 people in total. So we joined the church service, which was beautiful. Afterwards, the owner of the largest pub there put on the feast for the village. In the small town square about 4 long tables were full of tapas style food, cheese, bread, hams, chorizos, prawns, tuna sandwiches, potato omlettes and bottles & bottles of red wine. Then they started to dance to the drums and canastas!!

We were having the time of our lives, experiencing all this! We met a few people including Brother Greg, who was a negro German priest!! He was here for the annual festival. Brother Greg was up dancing with the locals and as Kev was way too in love with the free chorizo and Mahou (the local beer here), I dragged William to the dancing line. The dance was kind of 2 hops to one side, 2 hops to the other and wave your arms in the opposite direction. Just fabulous!! I also met an English lady called Judy who I understood was there co-ordinating the church congregation, anyway Judy was lovely and pointed out the owner of the bar who put the food on. He was a very short stout man dressed in a suit including vest, smoking a large large cigar overlooking the festivities. With a couple of vinos under my belt I thought it would be a great idea to thank him for all the lovely food. So Judy accompanied to meet him and I thanked him with muchos gracias por el bueno comida, it must have made sense as he just nodded.

Maragato village people in costume for their annual fiesta

That night we slept well in the room with about 30 other people, the man sleeping in the bunk beside me was very ill and coughed and snored most of the night, but still managed to sleep ok. In the morning I asked how we was and he must have been french as he replied ´La Shit´ !!