Posts Tagged With: The Meseta
Morning
Categories: April 2015, Santiago de Compostela
Tags: Camino 3.0, Fromista, Romanesque Spanish Art, The Meseta, Walking the Camino
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Dark night of the Snore
After my pleasant dinner by myself in Fromista, I walked across the street at 10:00 to the Albergue and pulled open the heavy wooden door to the courtyard. Or I tried to. Locked! What? I’d seen a sign that said “quiet hours” after 9:30, but didn’t realize it meant the door was locked. Albergues usually close at 10:00. And usually, I’ve had dinner there and hung out, then gone to bed. This night was different because the Fiesta was on and the communal dinner was cancelled. I could hear and see the Techno concert going on at the other end of town. No doubt my Albergue guy, whom I’d met when I checked in, was down there.
I ran back across the street to the restaurant for help. The guy at the desk told me to talk to the hotel connected to the Albergue. I did that and there was no answer. I rang the doorbell over and over and an elderly woman opened the door. I explained my predicament and she was not amused. But after a few minutes her husband, who was standing in the background, said he would open the door. I walked back around the corner to wait for him, and no one showed up or opened the door. I wondered if I could scale the wall? I began to feel very foolish for even thinking that and for being in that position at all. It was like a flashback to my travels in college.
Just then, Mr Albergue walks up the street, smoking furiously. “Why are you out here? You should be asleep! You are Pilgrim!”
Thus ensued a huge argument between us in my bad, but loud Spanish and his bad, but loud English. Finally, he let me into the pitch dark Albergue and I found my bunk.
Unfortunately the woman sleeping next to me had what sounded like pneumonia and snored loudly and coughed throughout the night. My white noise app was only of partial assistance.
Fromista had a few more things to teach me.
Categories: April 2015, Return to Camino, Santiago de Compostela
Tags: Albergues, Camino3, Fromista, Return to the Camino, Snoring on the Camino, The Meseta
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Walking into Fromista
Itero to Fromista was 15k. I looked forward to walking into Fromista because it was one of the places I stayed on my “bus tour” of the Meseta after I hurt my ankle in 2013. I had an expectation that it would be meaningful to walk into town as opposed to getting off the bus, and perhaps it might even offer some insights.
From Itero, the Camino took me out into a long stretch of farmland. I met another French guy, Jean-Louis, on that stretch and we had a nice conversation, which made the time on the flat, straight path go faster. He was walking faster, and en route to Santiago, so we said Buen Camino after a stop for coffee. I saw a Rollo or monument there, and a remarkable door to the closed (!) church.
Then I walked along the Canal de Castilla, which was a short lived transportation breakthrough like the C&O Canal on the East Coast. Now I think it’s used for agriculture. I felt a beautiful sense of solitude.
Fromista was hosting their annual Fiesta of San Telmo, who was born there in 1184 and became the patron saint of sailors. There were carnival rides in the plazas and anticipation in the air, when I arrived on Saturday afternoon. I checked into a private Albergue, Estrella del Camino, did some laundry, and went out to explore the town.
I saw the places I remembered from my stay in 2013: the plaza where Gina, my Camino friend from the beginning in St. Jean, jumped up and down and yelled when she saw me. The hotel where I holed up, the restaurant where we ate dinner. The town looked so different now that I could walk. Little did I know that there was a health clinic on the same block as the hotel.
This time I stayed in a traditional Albergue with bunk beds and a nice sunny patio where pilgrims enjoyed the sun as their laundry dried.
The pride of Fromista is the Church of San Martin, constructed in 1066. It is considered to be one of the worlds’ best examples of Romanesque architecture!
Seeing it again was like visiting an old friend. The interior is clean and spare. It’s no longer a church, which is too bad. The carvings are pure Romanesque, and reminded me this time of the carvings at the Templar Church in the City of London.
The Crucifix, from the 11thC is exquisite. I sat for awhile savoring the experience of being there again, and said thanks for the blessing of healing, and for my life.
Back at the Albergue, I met Nancy, from New Brunswick, who was in the same position I was in 2013. She has plantar fasciatis, and a sore knee. She’s traveling with her husband and two friends from home, and she was taxiing from place to place. It felt good to give her the novel I’ve been carting around. The hours are long when you can’t move, and you’re staying in a foreign country. And it’s very frustrating.
I went out again and saw this parade go by, kind of like New Orleans.
The Mass and Novena to San Telmo was at 8:00 in another beautiful Romanesque church, San Pedro. The large statue of the Saint was standing in the sanctuary in a position of honor
The church was almost full of Fromistans for the service. After the Mass the priest led a litany for San Telmo and from the back of the church a great mass of baritone voices sang the song to San Telmo, and everyone joined in the chorus. It felt like a gathering of the clans. Afterwards everyone greeted each other with hugs and kisses.
It was 9:00 so sat down for a pilgrim dinner, and enjoyed people watching. It was a good day in Fromista. I did feel a sense of completion by seeing it again, on foot.
Categories: April 2015, Santiago de Compostela
Tags: Camino 3.0, Fromista, The Meseta, Walking the Camino
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Hontanas to Itero de Vega
I didn’t intend to walk very far today. I left Hontanas and thought I’d walk 10k to Castrojerez and stay there for the night. The ruins of the 12th century Monastery of San Anton
were along the way, and I looked forward to spending some time exploring them. But when I got there, the ruins were all locked up. During the summer, volunteers run a primitive Albergue with no electricity , and I wanted to see it. Oh well. It began to lightly rain. So on to Castrojerez.
When I got there I had a cafe con leche in the first establishment in town to get out of the rain, and regroup. The 13th C Church of Maria de la Manzana was across from it.
But like the ruins, it was also locked up until the summer Pilgrim season. So disappointing. Met several American guys my age who are walking together, and, attempted some conversation with the proprietor and his wife, and then the rain let up. When I walked through the rest of town it was rather deserted and I didn’t feel like staying there. All the other churches were locked up, too, which was sad, because there were so many of them, one after another along the length of the town.
So I kept going. Little did I realize how far or how demanding the route would be! There are not many places to stop along the Meseta.
Just outside Castrojerez is this 900 meter butte. For some reason, I didn’t study the map. Wow!!
All I could think was, “let’s do this thing!,” It had to be less steep than the Pyrennes out of St. Jean, right?” Hmmm. I was thankful for my training the last few weeks with Janet. And a little chocolate also helped.
Here’s the view from the top:
The Meseta!
Then the sky opened and it rained for the next hour to Itero de Vega. Thank God for Gore-tex! It was a really long 5k stretch towards the end, and I broke out the iPhone and headphones, singing along to “Sound of Music.”
Right before Itero de Vega the Camino crosses an ancient bridge into Palencia. Turns out that Itero means boundary marker.
I checked into the first place in town, and splurged on a private room. I wanted a radiator to dry out my pack. The bar was a real gathering place for the village.
There was a funeral and I caught a glimpse of the priest walking by in his chausable.
The proprietor was very patient with my Spanish. There was a 12c Church in the center of town, which I wanted to see, naturally, but he told me it was closed permanently because of termites. Thwarted again.
They served a community dinner, and I ate with a group of older guys who had met each other while walking. The proprietors wife came by with their adorable six month old son. It was a fun evening.
In the morning, I came down at 7:30 looking for coffee and found the proprietor in his bathrobe behind the bar. He told me there’s no breakfast until 8 and, “go back to your room.” OK. He said the whole town was closed until 8. I’m normally a night owl, but walking the Camino puts me in bed early. In my next life I’d like to live in night owl heaven: Spain.
Categories: April 2015, Santiago de Compostela
Tags: Camino 3.0, Return to the Camino, The Meseta
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Hontanas
I had a lazy afternoon in Hontanas at Albergue Santa Birgida. I hand washed clothes and hung them up to dry, but transferred to the radiators as it was abou 55degrees and drizzling. The hostel was a sensitively restored stone building with three dormitory rooms. 8€ for my bunk bed, 10€ for dinner & wine, 2€ for breakfast. Beautiful up to the minute tiled private showers, in two shared shower rooms, but just two, also very new, beautiful toilets downstairs. It’s interesting to see how there’s flexibility in the building code that wouldn’t happen in CA. For one thing, shared baths aren’t done culturally, except at camp sites or gyms. But in a place that sleeps 30 would there be just two toilets?
The two brothers that own the place are there from April to Zoctober and then they go to Cuba in the off season. Not clear on what they do there, but I found it interesting.
I was the only one there until 5 when Alan took another bunk. He was about 50, from Rouen, and spoke no English. But he had one those little brick shaped French/English dictionaries and we passed it back and forth over dinner and had a very fun time talking about the Camino and different types of wine, Californian and French, and how he thought French wine was vastly superior to Spanish wine.
It occurred to me that at home it would not be done to share accommodations with a strange man and would be perceived as dangerous, and for many reasons, rightly so. But it wasn’t awkward. It’s nice to know that a certain innocence, respect, and safety still prevails, on the Camino.
Categories: April 2015, Santiago de Compostela
Tags: Albergues, Camino 3.0, Return to the Camino, The Meseta
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Burgos to Hornillos
Yesterday I walked 20k, from Burgos to Hornillos. I considered taking a taxi out to the outskirts of Burgos like I did when I left Leon in October, but the purist in me won out. After settling up my hotel bill, I crossed the plaza to touch the Cathedral and say a prayer, and then stepped onto the Camino.
The way out of Burgos took awhile, through city streets, past the University, and through a gate and a alley of trees that looked familiar. I think it was one of the locations used in The Way. When Martin Sheen leaves Burgos, the Dad of the young thief makes him carry Martin Sheen’s pack down a long alley of trees until they get to a gate at the edge of town. This looked like the place.
Then the Camino passed the penitentiary, and what’s known at home as the “corporation yard,” alongside the highway, the railway, and the autopista. As I was trying to find my way through several unmarked intersections, I ran into my first pilgrim. Gabby had just taken a 25 hour bus ride from Germany. We walked together the rest of the day.
By kilometer 10 we reached the village of Tarjadas and had lunch at the neighborhood bar aka pub. The energetic woman behind the bar was cook and bartender, and the place was filled with locals. My Ensalada Mixta was freshly made, and they had interesting tapas made with quail eggs.
After taking off my boots and letting my feet breath, I was relieved to find that there were no hot spots. (I’ve become very protective of my feet.) Onward! Another 10k took us out into the countryside and up onto the Meseta. Looking back, towards the East, we saw a mountain range fringed with snow.
Everything was green and bursting with new life. Gabby shared with me the names of the birds in German.
Finally, we made it to Hornillos, and checked into Albergue Alzar. I like all sorts of accommodations on the Camino, but I have a fondness for the private Albergues. They’re usually run by a family or couple, and offer a communal meal.
After a restorative shower, the six pilgrims in residence gathered for dinner. Our hosts served paella, salad, wine, and dessert. There were two women from Valencia, a couple from Belgium who started their Camino at home and continue to walk several weeks a year, Gabby, and me.
One of the many things that I love about the Camino is this: it brings people together from many countries to share a communal experience. And last night the owners of the albergue were very involved in the dinner conversation, and it was fun to wade in in Spanish. Between us there were four languages spoken, but we had a lovely dinner party talking about our travels and sharing photos we’d taken as we walked.
I’m finding myself more interested this time in Spanish culture, and what it’s like to live along the Camino.
With jet lag and 20k under my belt, curling up in my sleeping bag on the lower bunk was wonderful. And my new white noise app and headphones, made even the more challenging aspects of communal sleeping easier this time.
Categories: April 2015, Santiago de Compostela
Tags: Albergues, Burgos, Camino 3.0, Returning to the Camino, The Meseta, Walking the Camino
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Spring Break on the Meseta
I’m excited. A little panicked. Excited. But mostly excited.
I’m beginning Camino 3.0. on Easter Monday! I’ll be walking from Burgos to Leon, a distance of 112 Miles, or 181 Kilometers. I have mapped out about 12 days of walking plus getting to and from Madrid.
Why Burgos to Leon? When I walked in June of 2013, my ankle gave out shortly before Burgos. Then I bussed across the Meseta, staying in Fromista, Carrion de los Condes, and finally Leon. My good-bye photo was by the statue of the tired pilgrim at the San Marcos Parador in Leon.
When I went back on my second Camino in October of 2013, I started in Leon, at the same statue in front of the Parador, and walked to Santiago. It was a marvelous feeling to walk out of Leon. This time, I’m going to have the pleasure of walking into Leon.
That segment across the middle of Spain has been calling to me. With its wide open spaces, and big skies, it’s known as the third of the Camino for the mind. I’m sure it will be. Along with being for the mind, I see this trip as an Eastertide Retreat, a time to walk and meditate, and pray. And an opportunity to feel that mind/body/spirit alignment again as a Pilgrim.
Since the Meseta is very hot during the summer, walking it in the springtime sounded more and more appealing. It will be green and there should be wildflowers!
I’ll be flying into Madrid and taking a bus from the airport to Burgos, where I’ll spend the night. I’m taking a jet lag day in Burgos and then heading out on the Camino the next morning. Burgos is a beautiful city, and I am looking forward to seeing the Cathedral again, and heading out onto the Meseta!
In the meantime, I’m training! I’m working out with the trainer at the gym, and I’ve been walking around Lake Merritt in downtown Oakland with my full pack on, which is fun. I can make it around the 5.5 K lake in an hour with no blisters and minimal fatigue.
Halfway around the Lake today someone stopped me and said, “are you getting ready for the Camino?” Turns out she had walked it twice.
It was great to hear someone say, “Buen Camino!” again.
Categories: April 2015, Return to Camino
Tags: Burgos, Camino 3.0, Camino Preparation, Pilgrimage, Spring on the Meseta, The Meseta, Walking the Camino
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One Footestep at a Time 