The common room at the alburgue was hot and stuffy but I got a pretty good nights sleep. We got up at about 7:15 AM and had breakfast at 8:00.
Croissant 🥐 and orange juice for breakfast.Rocky road just west of Miraz.It was cloudy and breezy all morning. This made for a very pleasant walk.Second breakfast. Orange juice and a tuna empanada. The first time I ever had a tuna empanada was in 2018 on the Camino Frances. It is an understatement to say that tuna empanadas are not my favorite breakfast food. An empanada is basically a Hot Pocket. I like Hot Pockets. I do not like tuna empanadas.
If I don’t like tuna empanadas why am I having one for breakfast? The owner of the little cafe where we stopped for breakfast asked us what we wanted to eat and drink. I said I would like a tortilla, basically a Spanish quiche. With a smile on her face she said: “No.” I then asked for a chocolate croissant. With a smile on her face she said: “No.” I then asked for a ham and cheese sandwich, a bocadillo, and she said no. After five minutes of this, with me asking for twenty Spanish foods, and her saying:”No” after each request, I gave up and asked her what she had that I could eat. She said that the only thing she had in the kitchen was a tuna empanada. I was hungry so I gave up and ordered a tuna empanada, ate it and thanked her profusely for the truly awful tuna empanada. I had to use the restroom at the cafe to brush my teeth and try to get the godawful taste of that tuna empanada out of my mouth.
Lunch. A delicious tortilla and a Radler.We walked with Marie, a young woman from Paris, for most of the morning. It was such a treat to discuss the current state of affairs in France with her. She is doing the full Camino Del Note. That is about 500 miles and she is carrying a tent and spends most nights camping. Marie is one tough cookie.This gardener is very proud of his zucchini.This cow escaped from a pasture and was running down the Camino towards us with the farmer chasing after her. The cow shit all over the Way to slow down the farmer’s pursuit.Beautiful lake on the outskirts of Sobrado.We have arrived at out final destination.This is the monastery at Sobrado.This is our beautiful private room at the Pension Villa Sacra in Sobrado Dos Monxes.Beautiful monastery at Sobrado.Inside the church at the monastery.We have been meeting up with this group for the past three days for dinner. This photo was taken by a monk at the monastery while we were relaxing on the lawn.Group at dinner.For dinner we stuffed ourselves with pulpo 🐙.And everyone needs a prayer.
We walked 35,000 steps, 28 kilometers and climbed the equivalent of 25 flights of stairs.
I hope you are having a good day whenever you are. God night from Sobrado Dos Moxes, Lugo, Galacia, Spain.
The forecast was for rain all day, but the clouds cleared early in the morning and we had a beautiful day to take a taxi from Vilalba to Baamonde. That cuts the first 20 kilometers off this very long stage..
Just west of Baamonde we found the official marker to let us know that we are 100 kilometers away from Santiago. The first 5 kilometers of the walk today was on the shoulder of this road.As we walked by this roadside cross I said a prayer for everyone.We walked on this tranquil trail once we exited the highway.A herd of cows walking on the Camino.This guy had a house and workshop on the side of the Camino. He had a propane torch to heat up a red wax stick and then he dropped wax on your credential and applied a metal stamp to the blob of hot wax to form a stamp. It was a very interesting stamp.Beautiful red stamp.This is the tower of the old castle in Miraz.This is the alburgue where we will be staying tonight. The bar/restaurant is in the foreground and the alburgue is in the background.
Four days ago Marco called this alburgue and reserved a private room for two people. When we checked in they told us that we did not reserve a private room and that we would be sleeping in the big room with 30 other pilgrims. That is very unfortunate. We have been staying in private rooms once we left Santander and Marco’s snoring is bound to make it difficult for people to sleep in the big room. It should be an interesting evening. Marco got in a heated shouting match with the owner of the alburgue. Marco is not happy with this situation and the owner of the alburgue is very unhappy with us.
When we got to the big room with all the bunk beds Marco staked a claim to a lower bunk and so did I. The owner told me that I was required to sleep in the upper bunk above Marco. This makes no sense but I think the owner is mad at Marco and he is taking it out on me. So now I am in the top bunk. Like I said, it should be an interesting night.
A Radler at the end of the day in the alburgue bar.
Today we walked 20,000 steps, 15 kilometers and climbed the equivalent of 8 flights of stairs.
I hope you had a good day wherever you are. Good night from Miraz, Lugo, Galicia.
This was our alburgue last night.This was our room in the alburgue last night. Take note of the two windows.
When we got to our room in the alburgue in Abadin yesterday afternoon we noticed it was a little stuffy. Good thing we had two big windows. We opened the two big windows and a cool breeze wafted in and the temperature in the room almost instantly became very comfortable.
We left the windows open and when we went to sleep at about 10:00 PM we were looking forward to a good nights rest. At about 11:00 PM a swarm of mosquitoes came in through the open windows and attacked us. I got some sleep, but spent most of the night swatting mosquitoes. At about 3:00 AM Marco gave up and went down to the lobby and tried to sleep on a couch in the lobby. When I came down to the lobby at 7:30 AM. His face and arms were covered with angry red welts where the mosquitoes had been feasting on him.
After a quick breakfast we both decided we were in no shape to walk the 20 kilometers from Abadin to Vilalba so we called a cab. At about 11:00 AM we checked into Hotel Casa Seijo and took a nice long nap in our mosquito free room.
Street scenes from Vilalba
After nap time was over we spent a couple of hours walking around Vilalba.Vilalba is a nice little town.The remains of an old castle.Sign in a grocery store. It generally says, for the benefit of everyone don’t touch the fruit with your hands. You are supposed to use a plastic glove to put the fruit in a plastic bag and then have the person at the fruit counter weigh it and put a price tag on it. As Marco explained it, people have dirty hands and you wouldn’t want their dirty hands touching your fruit. I guess that makes sense.A donner kebob for lunch.The ham display at the grocery store. They are serious about their ham in Spain.Diner group. Sahand, a Ph.D medical engineer from London, Marco, Teresa, who works for the Spanish Ministry of Tourism in Madrid, Tarek, a financial analyst from London and Irene, a financial analyst from London.I had a deluxe hamburger for dinner. It wasn’t great but it was very OK.That says it all.
I hope you are having a good day wherever you are. That’s it from Vilalba, Lugo, Galicia, Spain.
This morning we decided to ship our bags from Lourenza to our final destination for the day, Abadin. It is going to be a 28 kilometer day with some severe elevation changes and a chance of rain. This will be our first day of walking without out 20 pound backpacks. I think we are going to like it.
The misty uphill road out of Lourenza.A nice greenhouse for growing tomatoes. Makes me hungry for one of Jan’s bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches.This is a typical Galician hórreo spanning the Way.We spent a good part of the day walking on these beautiful woodland trails.They harvest the eucalyptus trees and then turn them into wood chips and sawdust for a paper factory. The cathedral at our first and only stop for the day, Mondonedo. I stopped and said a prayer for everyone.Breakfast in the cathedral square in Mondonedo. I love the tortillas español. And I washed it down with a Radler.This is a backward look at Mondonedo as we take the Way out of town.This was probably the most scenic day of this Camino.How nice is that. A farmer set up a donitivo breakfast stop for pilgrims.This is where a pilgrim can sit and enjoy a donativo breakfast.Do you see the little waterfall? All day long as we walked you could hear the melodic sounds of streams and little waterfalls.I have no idea why this University of Virginia sweater is hanging from a barbed wire fence on the Camino. There is a Cavalier on the Camino missing a sweater. Nice pumpkins.We had to climb up a very long and very steep hill to get this view of the valley below.At about 3:30 we finally arrived at our final destination for the day, Alburgue Casa Goes in Abadin.Nice room but a hideous orange accent wall.
Now it is time for a late lunch/early dinner at the bar/restaurant attached to the alburgue.
First course was a charcuterie plate.A nice bottle of red wine and a big cold bottle of water were included in the fixed price menu of the day. All for $11.00!Second course was rabbit and chips. The rabbit was delicious!Chicken noodle soup for dinner. I left my jacket on the back of the chair as we were leaving. The very nice waitress caught my mistake and ran after me with the jacket. I thanked her profusely I have been very careful to check the area before I leave to make sure I don’t leave anything behind. I guess I let my guard down this one time. Lesson learned. I am going to be extra vigilant about this.I think that pretty much sums up what I am doing on the Way.
Today we walked 37, 000 steps, 28 kilometers and climbed the equivalent of 36 flights of stairs.
I hope everyone had a good day wherever you are. Good night from Abadin, Lugo, Galicia, Spain.
This is the taxi that drove us the 19 kilometers from Ribadeo to Villamartin Grande.
We woke up this morning in Ribadeo and it was raining. We checked the profile of the walk to Lourenza. The first 10 kilometers west of Ribadeo are up and down. From kilometer 10 to Villamartin Grande at kilometer 19 it is one long steep ascending grade. We decided that this would not be a good idea or a safe thing to do in the pouring rain. So we caught a taxi to Villamartin Grande and walked the 12 remaining rollercoaster kilometers from Villamartin Grande to our final destination, Lourenza.Breakfast in Ribadeo before we caught the taxi.This trail marker greeted us as we got out of the taxi in Villamartin Grande. By the way, there was nothing grand about Villamartin Grande. It was just a crossroad and a couple of abandoned buildings.
Galicia does such a nice job marking the Camino with these stone monuments. As an FYI, Spain is divided into regions that are like states and provinces that are like counties. We are now in the region of Galicia and the province of Lugo.
This homeowner seems to really like his/her chickens..For the first hour or so of our walk it was foggy and there was a lite drizzle.After an hour or so the fog lifted a little and the drizzle dissipated. We arranged this walk so that it was mostly downhill.Second breakfast after about an hour of walking.The sun is struggling to break out of the clouds and fog.It is so green in Galicia. That means it rains a lot here. The forecast is for rain the next five days.Green Galicia.Our final destination for day. Lourenza.We are staying at the Alburgue Savior. It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but inside it is decorated with a bunch of American Picker type nicknacks. And it has a washer and dryer so now I have clean clothes. I like having clean clothes!Decorations at the alburgue.What a great room. Just a little more expensive than two bunk beds. What a great deal.After we checked in we went out for a Radler and a pinxto.This is the monastery of San Salvador. They are spending a lot of time and money to renovate it. I stopped here and said a prayer for everyone.First course for our late lunch. Salted and roasted peppers. Pimientos de Padrón.Second course was lasagna. I think it was frozen and the cafe popped it in the microwave. Not bad but not great.Some days on the Camino are a challenge and I feel old on the inside and the outside.
Today we walked 16,000 steps, 12 kilometers and climbed the equivalent of 28 floors of steps.
I think I’ll sign off for now. I hope you are having a good day wherever you are. Goodnight from Lourenza, Lugo, Galicia, Spain.
This morning we got a late start out the alburgue. A few kilometers west of La Caridad we were greeted by this guy.
A teenage mutant ninja turtle pilgrim.The people of Spain generally drive very nice luxury cars. They take very good care of their cars. I have never seen a car that was dirty or dented. The cars are always clean and spit shined. This Spaniard color coordinated the color of his/her car to match the flowering bush next to the driveway.A series of pictures of the rocky coast on the approach to our first stop of the day, Tapia de Casariego.Tapia de Casariego.Tapia de CasariegoTapia de Casariego.Lunch in Tapia de Casariego. The cake was delicious.The swimming and surfing beach at Tapia de Casariego.These signs are notoriously inaccurate. My guidebook says that we are 200 kilometers from Santiago. We spent 3 hours walking through corn fields as we walked west out of Tapia de Casariego.This is the ruin of an old windmill. Sails or blades were installed on top of the round building you can still see. Inside the round stone building was a wind powered gristmill. Based on the trees growing out of it I assume it hasn’t been used for quite some time. The Spaniards oftentimes reclaim these old windmills and turn them into summer homes.As we were walking along the coast a few kilometers east of Figueras we ran across this little hippy dippy bar and restaurant. Much to our surprise Irene, Tarek and Sahand were hanging out there, eating tapas and drinking cider. We met these three young people as were were walking along the Way a couple of days ago. Irene and Tarek are financial analysts in London and Sahand is a Ph.D medical engineer. We spent a very interesting hour drinking cider with them and discussing what it was like to live and work in London.The mouth of the estuary leading into the harbor at our final destination, Ribadeo.The coast east of the Bridge of Saints that we crossed to get over the estuary and into Ribadeo.Once we crossed the bridge we left Asturias and now we are in Galicia. It will be very hilly on our walk in Galicia.Our alburgue for the night. We checked in at the bar and then had to trudge up three flights of stairs to get to our room. Dinner is two hours away so I am going to have a big dish of Oreo gelato.Salted and roasted peppers as an appetizer.Pulpo 🐙 or squid as the main course.
Today we walked 35,000 steps, 30 kilometers and climbed the equivalent of 25 flights of stairs.
I hope you are having a good day wherever you are.
The Way for 50 kilometers west of Soto de Luina is a rugged up and down trail fit only for mountain goats and for young and in shape Euros, not old and out of shape pilgrims like me and Marco. We decided to catch the westbound train this morning at Soto de Luina and ride it for about 50 kilometers to avoid this mountain goat mess of a Camino.
Morning at Soto de Luiña Train at Soto de Luiña.
As you can see there is a track on the left and a track on the right. As most of you know I spent 35 years in and around the Union Pacific Railroad, so I know a thing or two about railroads. The track on the left is a passing track and the track on the right is the mainline. The passing track is rusty, weeds are growing up in the middle of the passing track and the ties are falling apart. On the mainline track, no rust, no weeds and the ties are in good shape. Our train is obviously going to come in on the mainline and we are going to board on the platform to the right of the mainline.
There was a German couple that was convinced I was wrong and that the train was going to come into the station on the passing track. It took me forever to convince them to join us on the mainline platform.
About 15 minutes before the train was scheduled to arrive a couple of guys pulled up to the train station and proceeded to set up big cameras to take pictures of the train coming out of the tunnel just east of the train station. They were obviously train enthusiasts, or as we call them, foamers. I walked over to them and asked them to confirm that the train was going to come into the station on the mainline. They confirmed what I already knew. In order to establish my railroad bona fides I showed them this picture.
Jan and Mark in front of the Big Boy.
The instant they saw this picture their eyes lit up, big smiles appeared on their faces and they both exclaimed: “Big Boy!” The Big Boy is the largest fully operational steam locomotive in the world. Train enthusiasts world wide know about the Big Boy.
The train finally arrived and we were off on our one hour journey through the tall mountains and deep valleys of Northern Spain.
I tried to take some pictures of the scenery from the train but we spent most of our time in tunnels.
Mark on the train in a tunnel.
After an hour we got off the train at the station in Villapedre.
This is the train station at Villapedre. The sheep is the stationmaster.Breakfast about 4 kilometers west of Villapedre. An Aquarius hydration drink and a ham sandwich.Sign denoting the gentleman’s bathroom at the bar where we had breakfast. I guess they prefer you wear a tux when you use the bathroom.I stopped at this church and said a prayer for everyone.This is an hórreo. It is pronounced like the cookie. They use it to store grain. It is raised off the ground to keep the varmits out of the stored grain.Beautiful view of this pasture and the ocean in the distance.Unfortunately, most of the churches along this Camino are closed and locked. I still said a prayer for everyone as I passed by.Lunch in Navia. A Spanish egg and potato tortilla and a Radler.View from the bridge crossing the Navia River, looking out to the sea.On the walk from Navia to La Caridad.We have arrived in La Caridad.This is our alburgue for the evening.Marco and I have a private room as opposed to a bed in the open dormitory. Late dinner. A huge deluxe mixed salad.
Today we travelled 50 kilometers by train and then walked 27,000 steps, 20 kilometers and climbed the equivalent of 27 floors.
That’s it from La Caridad, Spain. I hope you had a good day wherever you are.
We got an early start out of the alburgue in Muros de Nalon. It was so early that the café across the square was not open for breakfast. We trudged out of town assuming that as we walked we would soon find an open cafe for breakfast.
View from the Way looking out to the ocean in the distance. No breakfast yet.
We continued to trudge through the forest until we came upon a charming little town that unfortunately did not have any place to have breakfast.
Nice map of the Way.This is an art museum. The grounds and the building were stunning. I asume this was a rich guy’s estate that died and wanted it turned into an art museum. He should have left it to the town to run as an alburgue and café for weary, hungry and thirsty pilgrims. Still no breakfast.This is Marco and Jose at the Hotel Luna cafeteria.
As we were ambling out of town, this old guy, Jose, was out for a walk and as he passed us we asked him if he knew where a couple of hungry pilgrims could get a bite to eat. He told us to follow him. We walked about half a kilometer off the Camino and he took us to his favorite breakfast spot, the cafeteria at the Hotel Luna. Jose is 80 years old and has walked all the Spanish Caminos. He said he recently walked the Primitivo and didn’t think it was that hard. He said I was a mere adolescent at 67 and I should not complain about how hard the Norte is.
What a great breakfast. A ham and egg pintxo and a chocolate donut 🍩. Yum.
After breakfast we hit the road again and started to climb. We were rewarded with this stunning view.
We are on the top of a hill and of course we need to walk down a steep road to continue on our Way.As we were walking down the road I noticed this candy jar. Isn’t that nice.
The Spanish road authority built a coastal road along the north coast of Spain. When they hit a valley, and there are plenty of steep valleys along the north coast of Spain, this is what they did.
Very impressive piece of road building.
When we got to the bottom of the hill we walked along the beach until the Way took a left and started climbing up a very steep hill.
Beautiful creek flowing out of the hills and into the ocean.Our final destination. Soto de Luina.
We had to spend an hour walking down a very steep and rocky woodland path to get to the paved road leading to Soto de Luina. I was very careful coming down this steep slope using my poles and cautiously choosing every step of this descent.
We finally got to the hard road and walked about a kilometer to the edge of town.We have arrived at our alburgue.
It was a little before 2:00 PM when we arrived at the Alburgue Vieja del Sastre. We decided to have a late lunch and boy were we in for a surprise. We had the best meal so far on this Camino.
The glasses contain sparkling cider with a little bit of whiskey to accompany our first course, salmon croquettes.The next course was a leek and halibut soup with a dash of paprika. The main course was hake, which is a flaky white fish, with a prawn sauce.I snapped this picture of our table as we were leaving. What a magical setting and what a memorable lunch.This sign is in the lobby of the alburgue. Coors is everywhere.
We walked 25,000 steps, 18 kilometers and climbed the equivalent of 40 flights of stairs.
Today I am very grateful to have the opportunity to walk the Way again and share it with you.
I hope you are having a good day wherever you are. Good night from Soto de Luina.
The stage between Gijon and Avilés is a long 25 kilometer stretch of ugly factories. It is part of the Camino Del Norte but we decided to skip this stage and start in Avilés.
We got up early at the alburgue and finished breakfast by 7:00 AM. We then hustled down to the bus station and caught the 7:20 bus. Twenty minutes later we exited the bus at the Avilés bus station. As we travelled between Gijon and Avilés we were able to look out the window and see the stage of the Camino that we were skipping. It looked like what Pittsburgh must have looked like at its worst. Taking the bus was technically cheating but I think it was a wise choice.
It took us about 30 minutes to walk out of Avilés and get into the countryside. We spent a lot of time on trails and not paved roads. The recent rains made it a little difficult to navigate parts of the muddy trail.
What a beautiful trail.Second breakfast a couple of kilometers west of Aviles. A steak sandwich.The Camino Del Norte is not as well marked as the Camino Frances. On the left side of this photo is a new Camino marker. This section of the trail is well marked.A fork on the Camino that is not well marked. Good thing Marco has an app that told us to go left and not right.Most of the day was overcast but the sun came out for this photo of Marco on the trail.A tidal marsh and the ocean in the distance .We need to walk down to this bridge and then cross the bridge and walk up a steep hill to get to our final destination for the day Muros de Nalon, which you can see in the upper left hand corner of this picture.It looks like there is a significant rise and fall of the tide in this tidal estuary.Beautiful picture of the tidal estuary and the sea.The Alburgue Camino De La Costa. Our home for the night. Our spacious room for tonight.I think this guy founded the town of Muros de Nalon. He looks like a Viking.At the church next to the alburgue lighting a candle and saying a prayer for everyone.A huge flank steak stuffed with goat cheese and ham for dinner. Marco and I split this.
Today I walked 32,000 steps, 23 kilometers, and climbed the equivalent of 72 flights of steps.
I hope you had a good day wherever you are. Good night from Muros de Nalon, Spain.
Breakfast at the alburgue started at 7:00 AM and the van was scheduled to take us to Casa Pepito on the Camino at 7:30. We woke up at 6:30 and it was raining as hard as the Noah’s Ark biblical flood. We packed and had toast for breakfast and got completely soaked in the 30 seconds it took for us to run from the alburgue to the van and throw our backpacks into the back of the van.
We got down to Casa Pepito and the little old lady who owns the alburgue opened the back hatch of the van, watched us unload our packs, gave us a big hug and a Buen Camino and drove away. We scampered under a little overhang to get out of the rain and assess our situation. Then the rain stopped and we saw a little patch of blue sky. We decided we should start walking and hope the rain would hold off for a couple of hours while we climbed the mountain to the next town, Deva. We got about a mile outside Peon, and our starting point for the day, Casa Pepito, when big black thunderheads come rolling over the mountain and the skies opened up, pouring a firehose rain on us. We were close to a barn and ran into it to take shelter. When we got into the barn we realized that there was a goat and a farmer in the barn. The goat was bleating like it was the end of the world and the farmer was not at all happy that we were in his barn.
This is a huge cider barrel outside the barn where we took shelter from the storm. They make a lot of apple cider in Peon.View of the Peon valley when the storm finally abated.
We stayed in the barn for about 30 minutes and the deluge finally abated. The skies still looked very threatening so we decided to backtrack to Peon and call a cab to take us to Gijon. Two hours later a cab appeared and by 12:40 we were at the alburgue in Gijon. We have a 10 by 10 foot room with a bunk bed, a desk and our own bathroom.
This is our alburgue.
After we checked into the alburgue we decided to walk around Gijón.
I believe this is a monument to a Spanish explorer. It is located at the waterfront and he is looking out to sea. Check out the black storm clouds in the background.Burger King seems to be popular in Spain.It started to rain again so we decided to duck into a coffee shop. Marco had a cup of coffee and I had an order of churros and a cup of thick churro dipping hot chocolate.
We continued to wander around Gijon until it was time for lunch.
Fajitas for lunch. Good but not as good as the fajitas back home in Denver.
After lunch it started to rain again so we went back to the alburgue and watched the movie Rain Man on Marco’s phone.
Mark in Gijon.A gyro for dinner.
I hope you are having a great day wherever you are. Good night from Gijon, Spain.
AbeAndMarkontheCamino 