PICTURES AND CACABELOS

I dont want to write too much tonight so I'm going to put a few captions to the selected pikies from various parts of the trip. At present sitting in rather noisy card playing cafe. They shout a lot but never seem to break into a fight.

Wine country scenery has returned here in Cacaboles.


Found this superb wine drinking cellar which not so much a bar but more of a social meeting place.


On the way to Estella on a very hot day.


Some old shutters in Cacabelos


On the road to Santa Domingo


The graceful Romanesque bridge in Puente la Reina


Pampalona. running with the bulls


Knight Templars Castle in Ponferrada.


The monastery in Najera


A moment for reflection in Cacabelos


Friends met and gone. There are a lot of Koreans on the trail.


My host in Torres Del Rio, Chris Hadfield, demonstrating the art of drinking wine.


Donkey work on the trail.


Remains of Roman Fort walls high above Cacabelos.


Even the statues in the garden of Gaudi's Palace in Astorga have a touch of fantasy.


The bunks room in the Roncevaux albergue resemble a scene from a WW1 military hospital. Maybe!

So thats it. Hope you liked the pix. D

ASTORGA, AND THE ROMANS

29/7 I’m in Astorga now and its been another leap (50km) by bus. I think if I do another jump tomorrow to a place called Ponferrada, and then I’ll start walking again with a chance of reaching Santiago on foot. About 200 km. The bus ride of about 40km cost me just over 3 euros. Unfortunately, I had to lose the company of Earnest Hemmingway (Lyle) this morning because he’s gone to Sarria which is exactly 100km from Santiago. As I mentioned in the last blog, pilgrims have to do the last 100km to get a certificate which Lyle wants to show when he gets back home to the states. A local newspaper will do a feature about his trip. BTW He started walking way back in France on the Camino about 6 weeks ago.

The Gaudi Palace 

Astorga is a very pleasant little town of about 12,000 people and doesn’t seem to be as touristy as the recent places I’ve been in. The cathedral and Gaudi palace (late 19th century) are very impressive. One look at the palace and you can see Gaudi written all over it – so to speak. You might have noticed how blue the skies are in many photos. This is not a trick of the camera but due to the dryness of the air in these parts.




As usual the search for wifi almost turned into a major expedition and I only hope I can find the bar again tomorrow. The hostel is really nice but a little more expensive than most. (8 euros) It’s a far cry from that cattle shed I slept in last night. But as I have probably said before – what more can one expect for so little when the very cheapest hotels are 30 euros and whats more this hostel is about 100 mt from the historical centre.

Roman mosaic floor

Just been for a stroll around the city wall on a warm pleasant evening. Lots of rolling hills with some higher ones on the horizon where I think I will probably be walking soon. And I also stumbled on an archeological site where the remains of a Roman villa has been uncovered. Quite a large expanse of almost perfectly preserved mosaic floor is seen. Apparently Astorga was an important hub used for shipments of gold that was found in the hills nearby. I saw that bar with the wifi again. How can I forget it, its an Irish bar. They get everywhere, don’t they – the Romans too.

ONE HUGE LEAP

28/7 One small step in normal life. A giant leap for Emson. Yes, that’s right, I have done a massive number of kilometres – about 160 to be exact. The seismic shift to the west has made it much more feasible to walk to Compostela which is still a tantalizing 300 km away. Considering I only covered 250 km by foot before I rocketed nearer the Heap, it’s likely I’ll need another boost. It will for sure be at the point where the path starts rising later on.
From now on, as I perceive it, it will become more and more like a conveyor belt of pilgrims moving westwards one way or another. The Camino certificate that many are after is given to anyone who completes the last 100 km which means the trail will become hugely crowded. I hear that the hostel at the start of those vital kilometres is always packed to capacity with people sleeping on the floor. Unfortunately, this trail seems to have become more and more of a commercial enterprise with obviously inflated prices of food in the villages and small towns where the pilgrims pass every day.
I meet various kinds of people, some of whom are very strange individuals who are looking for something (that doesn’t exist) But there are some real people who have seen and done some pretty interesting things like Earnest Hemingway in the picture who is writing a sequel For Whom the Nell Calls. In fact he’s a 78 year old American who has spent the last 50 years doing long distance walks. I loved his story of how he started smoking at the age of 21 while in the marines in the Korean war. It was when he was transferring shells to a tank and he had to carry three of these large shells, one over each shoulder and the other somehow balanced on his neck. Anther soldier put a lit cigarette in his mouth out of kindness. It stuck to his lip and he got his first nicotine high. He gave the weed up 10 years later.

Earnest Hemingway

Then there was the bike I spotted by one of the cafes in Leon. It was designed as a replica of one of the earliest BMW motor bikes from around 1923. The guy who owned it was sitting nearby and told us that he had it made from lots of parts and had the frame built specially. It was amazingly comfortable to ride and the old fashioned style of front suspension worked perfectly. There was a pair of chrome handcuffs hanging from the spring on saddle which he used for locking it up.
The hostel in Leon was huge with around 150 beds. The building is rather uninspiring and run like a boot camp. In the morning a nun came along and gleefully emptied the money from the many automats. Cant help thinking the Camino has become nothing but a tourist business. However, Leon is a very nice place to hang out as you can see from the shot of a bar outside the hostel in the evening. D

BOLOS

Couldn't resist doing another short blog about a strange game I came across tonight outside the church. Am now at a place called Villafranca Montes de Oca and just opposite lies the church where a bunch of middle aged and some old women were getting pretty excited over this odd skittle game. They bowled first from directly behind the main bunch of skittles with a not so round wooden ball. Once through them it continued, hopefully knocking down a lone skittle some 8 metres further on. They then have a second crack at the skittles from the position of the single skittle. Seen nothing like it before.