Sep 06

I woke up with a brain wave...I can write Spanish better than I can speak, so I filled up half a page and handed it to the lady at the bus station, and she understood exactly what we wanted so we were on the bus to Hospital de Orbigo with plans to see the beautiful Roman bridge and set off on our camino from there.

Well the plans changed and were all out of our control!!

We were expecting to arrive at a bus station, with a nice sign that said the name of the town...no, not quite! What we didn´t realise was we went way passed Hospital de Orbigo, (where we wanted to get off), and when the bus stopped (it WAS a bus to Hospital de Orbigo), we ended up in a place passed it! - no signs, nothing. So, after telling a lady in bar that we were lost (all in Spanish..getting better!) and wanted help she pointed us in a direction. I use the words 'a' direction. So we started walking in a direction that didn´t quite feel right, Kev decided to turn back to where we were and ask someone else, on the way we saw an old man outside his house and commenced a very long conversation using every single word and phrase I could remember from my course...alot of pointing, and drawing in the dirt was done, then he turned back to head inside the house (obviously out of frustration), but then Senora, the lady of the house started yelling at him. We gather she was saying something like 'walk them to the road', so here we were with old mate all of about 70 years old, for about 10 minutes until we reached a fork of the road and left us from there. There were plenty of Muchos Gracis Amigo etc, we were very appreciative, but unsure of where we were going and how far off we were from the Camino.

I must admit it was a lovely walk through the country side until we arrived in another town about 45 minutes later only to meet old mate number 2. We asked were the path to the Camino de Santiago was, Donde esta la senda Camino..and we spent a good 10 minutes talking with him, much of what we didnt´understand, however we gathered he´d been to Australia and thought it was beautiful. So he set us in the right direction, all very concerned we had enough 'agua' (water)and off we set. Then to number 3 old mate, another older Spanish gentleman, who wanted to know if we were going to Santiago, he pointed us to the path which was only just beside us, and there we were on the way at last!!! So we added a few extra kilometres to our first day, but have learnt lessons. First lesson to always check with the bus driver, Second lessons, there is still the kindness of strangers in this crazy world.

First Camino sign - I wanted to kiss it!

We arrived safely to our first destination, Astorga, found our alburgue, showered, washed clothes, and set off to get lunch. Most towns serve a Menu del Dia (menu of the day), which is always really good. Its normally about 10 Euros each and contains 2 courses, each course is huge, and includes a bottle of wine and usually dessert. We´ve been eating these around 3pm so it ties us over for dinner as well. Astorga has an impressive Gaudi Building, and huge cathedral and numerous Roman buildings. We are starting to become immune to gorgeous old historical stuff!! Anyway, now we are off to visit the Chocolate Museum and the Museum of the Camino.

Kev has just informed me while I was doing this he went and bought a door stop..all in the language of pointing and gestures. That would have been great to see!!

Well tomorrow we hike to Rabanal de Camino about 20 odd kilometres away. Until then, hasta luego.

OK - for those of you who left us in a false sense of security with the reassurance that alot of people speak English in Spain, well those people must have been on holiday today!!!

We packed up our backpacks, leaving our suitcases at Richards & Kevins place and set off with some directions to catch a train to one station, change to another line to the bus station. Well sounds easy enough but was a little struggle, anyway at arriving at the main bus station in Madrid, headed to the Information Desk, to ask about buying tickets to Leon. ¨Hablas Ingles, senor?¨ ... ¨NO¨. Oh dear, next try, at the ticket office, and the answer, ¨NO¨, ok, hear we go, broke out my dodgy Spainglish, and eventually got the tickets in the end!! That was quickly followed up by trying to order some breakfast, again, we got there in the end, with not exactly what we wanted, but it was nearly right. It was especially funny, trying to understand the lady trying to ask us if we wanted it take away¨, using her hand language. She looked a little exhausted after all that, so did we! But, when we were sitting on the right bus we were grinning at the adventure of it all!

The trip to Leon was lovely, golden honey coloured plains with fields of sunflowers, just as I´d imagined.

Leon is just beautiful, old brightly painted 3 storey buildings with endless flower boxes outside the windows, cobblestone narrow lanes lined by Tavernas and cafes. The Spanairds are a handsome bunch, all seem to dress up very nicely, and I must say the older gentlemen look quite slick, think George Hamilton.

Typical street in Leon

We were very impressed by the Cathedral in Leon, I´d seen photos of it before but both Kev & I agreed it was the most magnificent building we´d ever seen, absolutely breaktaking from the inside with its 50 odd massive stained glass windows.

Parador in Leon (a very nice hotel)

We located the alburgue to where we obtained our Passport Credential for our camino, so we are officially registered and have the passport to show it. I was most chuffed with myself this time as I ordered it all in Spanish and seemed to be understood, looks like I´ll have to be getting used to that now. Tomorrow will be the ultimate test though..we purchased a bus ticket to Hospital de Orbigo (again in my dodgy Spanish), and have realised that its for Thursday instead of Wednesday and we want to travel at an earlier time, so that´s going to be an interesting conversation tomorrow! I think when I said Manyana por la Manyana, (tomorrow morning), it must have come out with two too many Manyanas...oh dear!!

Well I´ve taken heaps of great photos so far with every intention to get them on the website now, but it doesn´t seem to be working and I´m a little exhausted to try and explain that to the lady, so I will try again next stop, which should be Astorga.

OK, adios chicos!

Arrived into Madrid at the new airport which is an amazing artistic structure to be greeted by new friends, Richard & Kevin (Kevin is a relative of a family member). Anyway, their hospitality was above and beyond and introduced us to some Madrid culture by a little taverna hop around their suburb. Kev (my Kev) instantly fell in love with Spain when they started bringing out the free nibblies with every drink you order, and not just chippies, we´re talking fried chorizo sausage, mussels with topping, capers..after a quick shower we were on the bus into the centre to head out for dinner. We had dinner at Kevin & Richards favourite restaurant, a place you´d never find if you tried. We asked the owner (a friend of their´s) to order for us. The first dish was a cold cherry soup served in a small sherry glass with a teaspoon of passionfruit ice-cream .. this is an entree! It was a taste sensation, it was followed by many other tasty delights including Spains famous Jamon (ham) which is a really good quality proscuitto. Kevin & Richard told us they buy a Jamon for winter, it costs over 100 Euros per kilo, I wonder if i could get some through customs.

We didn´t get a good look at Madrid, only its Plaza Mayor, a massive square in the centre of city, and a few nice buildings on the way to the restuarant, but we´ll be back here in a couple of weeks to check out the Palacio Real and a few other sites. I hear the Spanish palace is alot nicer than Buckingham, can´t wait!! Anyway, early start tomorrow for the next part of our adventure.

I've been told many times how beautiful London is, but this weekend with the weather warm with not a single cloud in the sky (I kid you not), this city is sensational! The only way to describe London to those who haven't yet been here (and you absolutely must!) - This place is like Melbourne on steroids. I can't believe we left it this long to get here.

Anyway, after just over 30 hours of travelling we finally arrived on Saturday morning, with some clever trick lighting by British Airways, managed to sleep a fair bit(and thanks to my Nans sleeping tablets she gave us) so was pretty perky by the time we got to our accommodation in West Kensington. The suburb we are staying in is very quiet and upmarket, 3 storey terrace houses line both sides of the streets with BMWs & Mercs parked on the side of the road (no space for garaging around here!). We set off to Notting Hill and walked through Hyde Park to Buckingham Palace. From the maps it was pretty clear Hyde Park was large, but it is HUGE. Girls riding their ponies around, squirrels running through the grass, deck chairs out on the lawns, people rowing boats on the lake, even apple trees...its like a forest in the centre of town, just fabulous! Well Lizzy mustn't have got my text as apparently the royals are on holiday at the moment..was really looking forward to my cup of tea and cucumber sandwich..but what she did do was open up 19 of her 660 rooms in the palace for all and sundry to enjoy. 6 weeks of the year this happens, the rooms are opened up, so it was great timing for us, so we bought tickets and checked it out. It was amazing, there's nothing you could possibly compare it to, just dripping with art and gold, very pretty. I loved the ballroom, and another room called the White Drawing Room which had a massive mirror and wall unit attached and this was a hidden door where the Queen enters into the room (not sure why, maybe just to freak the guests out?)

We have used the underground train system the whole weekend (the Tube), and it is a great system, we have found our way here & there & everywhere so easily, so between that, walking, and a 3 hour Hop on Hop off Bus Tour have seen most of the sites. Westminster Abbey, Parliament House - which was amazing to view from the Westminster bridge - we had no idea how massive this building was, Big Ben - how wonderful to see it first hand (pardon the pun...its getting late), Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus (it was a bit of a circus actually - so many tourists!), Regent Street - loved just walking this street, London Tower - worth the money plus we managed a get on a free tower - tour guide was very dramatic & funny..we saw the crown jewels including the 550 carat orb which were just gorgeous, Tower Bridge - it is very pretty close up, Leicester Square - so many places to eat!, had a warm beer at the Three Greyhounds in Soho and enjoyed walking around Soho, South Bank - with all the buskers, St Pauls - the biggest church we've ever laid our eyes on, Millenium Eye (which was Kevs highlight)- a massive ferris wheel on the River Thames, if you haven't seen it you must google it, it was great, and walked back via the Jubilee Bridge! Feeling a little weary now though!

Millenium Eye

Tower Bridge