While walking along the VDLP and visiting some of the big cities en route, it is hard not to forget some of the differences we have noticed in Spain. Many are particular to Spain and its people, some maybe just European which is quite a novelty for Australians visitng. In no particular order.........
1. The Bars. In villages,outdoor chairs, tables and brollies usually advertise the local brew, Estrella, Mahou, Cruzcampo to name a few. Occasionally the brollies advertise coke or fanta.
2. The Buses. Even if you are not using them, it is impossible not to notice their transit through small towns and villages and a lifeline for many........is it ALSA, MONBUS, VESQUES or PESA?
3.Allotments. Most country people grow their own fruit and vegetables, and we see them all at work as we walk by, especially memorable in Banos de Montemayor, where Chris and I watched mesmerised while one elderly chap channelled water through his vege patch via a series of little dams.
4. Long Life Milk. There are plenty of cows to produce milk but we didn´t see fresh milk sold in supermercados.
5.Oficina de Turismo. The pilgrim´s best friend in any town! How many times each day did they produce a mapa and circle the must see monuments. And how often did they ask ¨and what country are you from¨?
6.The supermercados.....well stocked. DIA, FROIZ, EROSKI and CARREFOUR. Very well stocked and service generally good, but elderly ladies slowed up the deli counter as they took their time to decide on quesos and carnes.
7. Wind power.
8.REPSOL and other fuel suppliers. These sometimes held the albergue key if nearby, always gave directions and in isolated spots near motorway crossovers, provided a much needed coffee.
9. TVs Blaring in every bar. Some bars had three sets, so no excuse to miss the soccer.
10.Big Bins in streets....shared by householders.
11.Cafe con leche grande for thirsty pilgrims!
12.Lots of sockets for recharging. In one albergue, an ingenious pilgrim pulled out the plug to the hand drier and left his phone on the drier all night.
13.Free wifi in many cafes and restaurants and in some casas. In future, pilgrims will use this facility as more guide books go online.
14. Women wearing the checked pinafore.....to run their casas, to clean, to cook and to garden.
15.Vines in many gardens.
16.Ourense took first prize for the best Estacion de Autobuses.
17.Big Cities. Paseos and ladies who lunch looking ever so smart, ditto babies in smart prams.
18.Isolated communities and basic farming methods. Cows and goats hered into ground floor of houses overnight, right in the middle of a village.
19. Favourite pilgrim picnic. At Oseira Monastery. Sitting outside the albegue after evening vespers with the monks. Sun still shining at 9pm as we enjoy fresh pan with queso and membrillo (quince paste).
20. Favourite conversation with a local tending his fruit and vegetables. It was a conversation about his walnut and quince trees and he was hoping for a good crop this year.
21.Favourite SOUNDS. Cow and goat bells. Ave Maria at dusk at Oseira Monastery church bells. Chanting at vespers Oseira. Seagulls at Finisterre. Very gentle chanting at Santiago as botofumeiro is starting to swing.
Frogs croaking loudly. Water falling.
22. Favourite SIGHTS. Roman Aqueduct at dawn...Merida. Salamanca Plaza Mayor. Ventas near Campobecerras (high on ridge), abundant wildflowers especially lavender and poppies, early morning light, sunrise at Finisterre, sunset at Muxia at the little church on the granite headland.
23. Favourite SMELLS. Wild mint, thyme and lavender, cistus bushes, food smells especially pan y pescada, cut hay, the sea, the sardine grill at Finisterre.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Santiago de Compostella
Santiago de Compostella
However you view it Santiago will always be a challenge. It is of course
a marvellous, bustling and attractive city blessed with so many significant
architectural treasures. But it is also the end point of the various 'caminos'.
These are by definition pilgrim routes that require planning, perseverance and
above all strong feet! So it is a challenge to get here and then after days or weeks
on the road alone or in limited company out in the country, it is a challenge to retain focus amidst the crowds of sightseers, tourists, locals and fellow
pilgrims, who, now freed from the routine discipline of the road, are keen to
seize the day and the night as soon as they arrive!
In the seven weeks that we have taken to make our way from Seville, we
have learned to value the cool, stillness of the early morning. Sunrise and
filtered, soft early morning sunlight have created some of our most special
memories. The ´Milagros Aqueduct` in Merida is recommended for a sunset
photo, but at sunrise with its reflection among the reeds of the Rio Albarregas it is simply spellbinding. So it was that we began each of our final days from
Orense to Santiago in predawn darkness. We had the best of walking conditions,
albeit sometimes along the road, the delight of early morning birdsong, in which
the chaffinches stood out, the clarity of the various shades of green from the
oaks, birches, bracken and brambles, all set off against the purple foxgloves and
remaining yellow daisies. These last 110 kms in four days still meant time on the
´road`, for no day ends until you get there, however much you long for the early
mark! Even with an early start the heat is already building before your seven
hours walking are done; so when new road building upsets the camino markers,
you need all the memories of the early morning to support you through those
extra unexpected, if not infuriating, kms of a detour. Santiago is never an easy
place to reach on foot.
The first challenge is to arrive, to complete your journey; the second is to
adapt to the throng of others more or less dusty, limping more or limping less,
but all keen to seek a 'compostella' and to celebrate. In a flash a personal journey
becomes a public one. The change is so sudden that you can feel lost and time on
the road seems to have been more meaningful that the arrival. Our night at
Oseira with a monastery tour and the opportunity to attend vespers with twelve
of the remaining fourteen monks made an impression more lasting than our
feelings on reaching the Plaza del Obradoiro and gazing on the Portico de la
Gloria amidst the tour groups, the traders, the travellers and the exhausted. At
that moment it was a challenge not to see Santiago as just another tourist
destination and a very popular one. That was until a pilgrim mass that
culminated in the swinging of the ´Botafumeiro´, courtesy of pilgrims from
Santander, perfumed the world and clarified our thoughts and in doing so
reconfirmed the city of St James as the goal and focus of our journey along the
Via de la Plata and the Camino Sanabrese.
Hospitaleras, Heather & Hydrangeas, Hamlets and Horreós
Hospitaleras, Heather and Hydrangeas, Hamlets and Horreós
Galicia is different. It is green and rocky; it is incised valleys and upland meadows; it is historical and hospitable; it is fishing ports and sandy beaches; it is the end of all 'caminos' as it holds the shrine of Saint James. With its oaks and chestnuts, muddy lanes and windswept moorland, trickling streams and flowing rivers, lush gardens and barren hillsides Galicia presents many faces to the traveller, and to the weary and footsore they are all refreshing faces. Among these it is the 'Hospitaleras', the heather and hydrangeas, the hamlets and the 'horreós' that stand out most clearly.
The 'albergues' of the ´Camino Sanabrese' were clean and modern. Some were glass walled, several had complex electronic lighting systems and one had an almost unfathomable automatic electric cooker. Often they were popular and full as they lay at the end of recognised stages, but always there was a 'hospitalera' ready to record details. Then for a princely 5 euros she would issue a disposable sheet and pillowcase that ensured the modern mattresses were respected and of course clean. These were cheerful ladies happy to contribute advice and local directions but determined also to fulfil a sometimes thankless task when late arrivals became extra demanding. They are certainly a significant part of the 'camino' in Galicia.
Between the mountain pass of 'A Canda' and the wooden crosses above Portocambo and on Monte Talariño, crosses set up to mark the route travelled by Galician reapers on their way to work the cornfields of Castille, wild flowers made way for heather. Here were puddles of pinkish purple where exposed rocks left little shelter, taller stems of deeper purple where conditions supported growth and finally straggly stands of blown flowers where better soil had favoured early blossoms, now bleached and dried by sun and wind. In all they offered colour enough to ease even the harsher moments and brighten the long ridge walk betweeen the 'Ventas' of the 'Sierra Seca' that marks the route between A Gudiña and Campocerros de Santiago. When further on the 'camino' moved into lower ground, wild hydrangeas appeared. First they were white, then blue and finally nearer the coast more luxuriant purples and pinks arrived. Their bright banks of colour decorated walls and paths and then reappeared in gardens. Where spindly heather had battled to survive and in doing so had offered a background 'colour wash', these leafy hydrangeas simply stole the scene by splashing their colours freely to create another face of Galicia.
If the 'Ventas' of the 'Sierra Seca' were now abandoned by all by the most hardy of their elderly residents, the villages and hamlets in other parts still add life and colour to the 'camino'. These are places largely untouched by modern road building and where the concrete main street still threads its narrow way between what were once finely dressed stone walls, outside stone steps and timber balconies, all now reflecting the crumbling dated elegance of former years. But they are still places to sit and watch the residents at work, at home, in the street or in their nearby vegetable patch; here the cows and sheep still amble past, for the street is the focus of village life. These are then communities built close together for shelter from both heat and chill, where stone and tile reflect techniques now disappearing as technology and convenience demand more modern solutions. But here at least the traditions of of the countryside can still be seen and this most obviously in the preference for 'horreós' to store the winter maize.These are tiled, stone framed sheds set up on overhanging stone feet to deny access to foraging rats and mice. Decked appropriately with a cross at one end of the roof, some had slatted wooden sides, others gapped stone sides; some were short, some longer, some single tiered and a few double storied. They come as singles, in pairs and occasionally in clusters of three or more. Like the 'Hospitaleras', the heather and hydrangeas, and the hamlets, the 'horreós' belong to Galicia and remain a splendid icon of rural life.
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