Madrid Sightseeing - June 30 & July 1st

My trip from Santiago, by the fast ALVI train was flawless and I arrived at the Chamartin RENFRE train station early in the afternoon. The train was absolutely full. I was very pleased to hear an announcement as we pulled into the station that the long distance ticket was also good for transfer to a local train. After enquiring at the information booth upon arrival I discovered that one of the local trains went to the city centre, the Plaza Sol, very near my hotel.

The hotel was quite adequate but a bit of a workout at 3 floors up from ground level. I guess I can't really complain though, it is clean and comfortable and even a tiny balcony to the street below- a pedestrian walkway. The area is really in the centre of everything. I enjoyed the many mines and street artists, particularly the Michael Jackson tribute artist who was performing below my balcony last night.

I was able to get out and do a bit of sightseeing on Tuesday and took a ride on one of the the hop on hop off buses, which for 25 EUR I think a good deal. For the money I got 2 days of transportation and a narrative describing sights over two routes, one 80 min long and the other 65 min long. I tend to do this sort of tour whenever it is available, to give me a good overview of the sights to be seen before I set out to see anything in more detail.

During my evening tour the bus had to divert as there was a massive demonstration going on, which had closed some very major roads as the demonstrators marched through the centre of the city. In fact the demonstrators chad marched over to the Plaza Sol by the end of the evening. I read afterwards that the demonstration was against a new law taking effect July 1st. This law would outlaw any public protests conducted around government buildings unless the organizers had previously received permission for the gathering/demonstration. I guess liberty and freedoms at in jeopardy everywhere these days, not just in Canada.

I spent the next morning doing the tour of the 2nd route and in that tour discovered that there was a building by the Neptune fountain, across from the Prada Museum, which had a special clock display at 12:00 noon. After the bus tour finished I headed over there to see (and hear) the action. It was pretty neat, after the bells range in the noon hour they played a little tune while figures came out on the balcony and danced around. After that, I headed for the Prada Museum, where they had a special Picasso exhibit. It was good to be in th A/c in the afternoon as temperatures again were peaking around 38 in the shade.

Plaza Mayor

The prettiest side of Plaza Mayor

Palacio Real

The Building with the special clock

Figures dancing at noon

The Prada

In a lot of ways Madrid reminds me of a Havana, but of course Havana has let all it's wonderful buildings deteriorate where Madrid has kept theirs restored and refurbished. Havana has a Prada street also, with a wide pedestrian walkway between the opposing lanes of traffic.

The Prada Museum

I spent a few hours wandering through the gallery admiring the art works.

Parque de el Retiro

Next I headed over to the large park which lies on the east side of the city centre. It was nice to be able to sit under the trees and admire the gardens. Everything was well manicured. No wild areas and every section of grass was surrounded by a small hedge, giving the effect of a great many rooms.

Even the trees were well manicured.

There was a large cement pond and boat rentals, under the watchful eyes of a statue of Alfonso XII.

Lots of water attractions, but no swimming.

You can see Puerto De Alcala just beyond the park. None of the city walls have been kept in Madrid, but all of the gates are still where they originally stood.

Palacio Cibeles

I am off home tomorrow morning. Thanks to the great transit system here I can get to the airport easily on the subway. I am off to bed now - I have stayed up much later than I normally do just to get this blog done. Once I am back to reality, there will be a dog to fetch and friends and family to visit and so it will be a few days before I blog again. But within a few days I will resume my Toronto blog, which has been sorely neglected for far too long.

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Day 12 Padron to Santiago - Finished! June 29

The Albergue at Pedron was a nice stone and wood stucture. The dorm room was a loft on the 2nd floor and it was a very hot day, so I was glad to see big windows on all sides, The bunk beds were pushed together tight, but they were built in such a way that there was a separation between the bunks so it didn't feel as close. Given that we were 1 or at most 2 days from Santiago and a mere 25 kilometres, there was an excitement in the air.

I woke at 5:00 to the sound of the morning rustling from the very early risers. Since I had gone to sleep fairly early last night I felt rested and ready to get up and get going. By 6:00 I was on the road, but it was still dark and I could't see the arrows so I decided to go into the cafe where I saw some other pilgrims, have a coffee and perhaps follow the others out of town. With my recent experience of missing arrows and getting lost I was reluctant to go through with that again.

None the less, somehow I did manage to leave on my own and take a wrong turn. This time I turned around and back tracked as soon as I saw there were no arrows, and then found another pilgrim who seemed to know the way. So I was good.

After that I was in good walking form, the early morning was nice and cool and I made good time. I stopped for coffee at the village of Teo, which is where I may have otherwise decided to stay the night - but it was only 10:30 when I got there and certainly enough time to go to Santiago.

The sun was just coming up

Anyway, I am not going to bore you with a bunch of pictures that could have been taken anywhere along the camino. The route was pretty ordinary, rural with small villages for the most part even until we were almost into Santiago. It was pretty much uphill, mostly gently sloping upward hills, not bad at all.

There was a family group who were walking the route. There were 3 adults and 6 children - a sweet looking girl who looked to be about 6 years old, a couple others who were certainly under 10 and one or two who were teen or pre teens. What an adventure for the kids but what a lot of work for the adults. I saw them later in Santiago at the Pilgrim's Office collecting their Compostela, so they must have walked at least from Tui.

I was a approaching Santiago from a different direction than when I was last there and it surprised me how rural it was even 4 km from the end point. It is a nice alternative to the usual urban or worse yet industrial area that one can have to go through to get to the core of a larger city.

I took my time getting into the core of the City. It was 36 degrees Celsius in the shade so it was important not to push it, I stopped for a beer at a cafe and found the very first place with air conditioning I have encountered. I have gotten used to the heat, but today the A/C was welcome.

I made my grand entrance and walked through the old city to the Cathedral and then it was on to the Pilgrim's Office to collect my reward, a certificate known as a Compostela. It is inscribed with my name, in Latin and attests to my having travelled at least 100 km of Pilgrimage to Santiago. It has been redesigned from the last I came, now the design is more artistic and colourful. I also opted to also purchase a "Certificate of Distance for 3 EURs which documents the starting point, route taken and distance travelled (360 km from Porto).

I didn't bother taking a lot of pictures of Santiago or wandering about the town, as I have lots of pictures from my last trip when I spent quite a few days here sightseeing. I was happy to collect my compostela and head on to Madrid to see the sights.

I had booked a room in the "Roots and Boots Hostel, at 16.50 EUR for a bed in a dorm room for 4" and when I arrived, I discovered that it was the same room that Barb and I shared when in Santiago in 2013. This time though I had 2 young (20s) German boys as roomies, not perigrinos and not too friendly. My transition to the real world has begun.

Next I had to collect my parcel of stuff from the post office. I mailed my touristy stuff to Santiago so as to lighten my carrying load (still I think I was carrying about 10 or 12 kilos when water and food was added to my pack). Easy peasy, post office pickup complete then it was on to the train station to get my ticket to Madrid.

On the way I met a pilgrim from Scotland who told me about the "Tarjeta Dorado". You need one of the tickets to access the over 60 seniors discounts. The discount is significant, usually about 30% for train fares. As it happened the tourist class for the next morning's high speed train to Madrid was full so I did have to go 1st class if I wanted to maximize my time there. The regular price of 1st Class was 73 EUR but I was able to get it for 43 EUR with the discount. I was much happier going by train than plane anyway and if I had counted the cost of an airport transfers it would have cost me way more than even the Ryan Air bargain price. I think with the discount a tourist class train ticket would have been just under 20 EUR. Travel is quite a bargain in Spain.

Ticket secured, I wandered back to the hostel to change into some touristy clothes and set out to shop for souvenirs and find some dinner. Who did I run into but my Japanese Pilgrim friend Aoki, who I last saw at Viana do Castilo. He was booking a reservation for the next night when he would get back from a day trip to Muxia. If I had 3 days left I may have done something similar instead of heading to Madrid. Oh well, next time. We caught up with each other and traded stories of our different routes. Aoki was going to also take a 2 day trip to Zamora, based on my telling him about the town. I hope he enjoys it. He was flying back to Japan on the 7th.

I managed to find some small gifts for those at home and a meal of bacon and eggs. The Spanish don't eat a big meal at breakfast and you can often find fried eggs offered in the evening. I must admit, I will enjoy going back to my Canadian food, particularly breakfast. I am just going to have to remember to keep my portions small because I don't want to gain back all the weight I have lost on this trip.

So it was early to bed and early to rise to catch my 9 a.m. train. Not too early, fortunately, but I don't like to rush on a travel morning and planned to get up at 6:30 and wander over to the train station to find breakfast at about 7:30ish. I was exhausted from my long hot walk and while I started this blog before bed, I was too tired to finish it. No matter, I have 5.5 hours on the train tomorrow so can finish it then and upload it when I get to my Hostal.

I was going to cheap out, and could have found a pension (private room, shared bath), for about 20 EUR a night, instead I decided to spend a bit more (32.50 EUR) and get a single room with a private bath. It is located in the centre of Madrid, near all the sights, so I am quite looking forward to it. Particularly when I had a night last night with inconsiderate dorm mates. I woke up at 1:30 am quite disoriented. The guys were rustling around the room and I hadn't a clue what time it was and was thrown off by the bright street light which was blaring into the open window. For a moment I thought it was morning. I found my sleep mask and eventually the guys left the room and joined the party I heard going on upstairs (I guess) and I went back to sleep. I had no guilt in the morning as I rustled my things when packing.

Calle Arenal where my hostal is located

I am on Madrid now and settled into my hotel, quite near the Plaza de Sol and Plaza Mayor - in the centre of all the action. I will write my next and final trip blog tomorrow night after I have done my tour of Madrid and am getting ready for my flight on Thursday.

In the meantime I am going to get out and enjoy the heat and some sangria and the sights of the city, in that order. I understand that Ontario has a cool spell going, so I should enjoy the heat while I have it.

 

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Day 11 Vilanova de Arousa to Padron - June 28

Today started with a real treat - a sleep in and slow start! Since I was not walking this morning and I had a late night last night, it was great that I didn't have to get up and get at 'em at 6:30 am!

Last night as I was starting to think about winding it down for the night my Albergue mates invited me to join them for dinner. They had decided to cook dinner at the Albergue, and as these Europeans are late diners at 9:00 they were in the middle of a cooking frenzie. Not to be impolite, I abandoned my plans for an early night and spent the evening with these folks. The group consisted of 5 Portugese (a brother and sister and three other women) who lived in Vilanova do Castelo and one Italian who was a new friend they "picked up along the way". They started at Pontevedra on the Friday and only 2 of them are taking the boat tomorrow. The others are heading by train to Santiago today and then heading home to Portugal at the wnd of the day. They have to be back at work on Monday! We had a great evening of good food (fried padron peppers, fresh tomatoes and pasta) and good conversation, albeit with my broken Spanish and their broken English. Fortunately, two of the women spoke reasonably good English. I have one word of Portuguese: obrigado (thank you) it is a good word to have, but doesn't further the conversation much. We ended up with a sing song and Roberto, the Italian man sang opera and quite beautifully! When it came time for some Canadian songs we sang some Leonard Cohen tunes. It was nearly midnight when I got to bed. The latest I have been up in a very long while.

Across from the Albergue, low tide

The morning was overcast, but the weather forecast (yes, this Albergue has Wifi!) was a promise of sun and a high of 28 today. I spent the first part of the morning sitting in a cafe with my cup of Joe, watching the folks wander by and the beautiful view of the sea.

This odd statue was on the route to the Albergue

 

After I was adequately fuelled with coffee I set out to find a nearby beach to work on my suntan. It seems the back of my legs are tanned but not so much the front and of course I have a bit of a farmer's tan going on my arms. My top front is white as are my leg tops and of course I have a tan only to the top of my hiking boots. I have an odd look.

At 12:30 I headed back to the Albergue and found that my 2 Albergue mates, who were to join me on the boat, had made lunch and invited me to join. It seems I am doing well as far as mooching food is concerned. After eating we started getting ready to head off to catch the boat for 2:00. At 1:30 a man arrived to tell us the boat was leaving early and we should rush. Off we went to catch the boat.

All set to sail

The captain gave us a great amount of information about the area and things of interest - in Spanish.

We viewed the mussel farming platforms on the estuary.

The boat ride was wonderful. The weather was hot enough that the wind was cooling rather than cold and I enjoyed the hour ride in the open boat a lot. The boat crosses the Arousa Estuary and then heads upstream on the Rio Ulla. The significance of this route is that according to legend the remains of St John the Apostle was carried upstream in a stone boat before being taken overland to present day Santiago where the remains were buried.

Roman bridge at Pontecesures

 

Once I got to Pontecesures it was a short 3 km walk to Padron where I secured one of the last spots at the Albergue. Having said goodbye to my Portuguese friends I did a tour of the town and found a place to eat. Sadly, wifi was not very available. So I have written this blog offline and will post when I am able. Postscript: I found a bar with wifi where I finished the blog over a glass of vino. :)

My two Portuguese Friends - saying goodbye

I have also found out that I cannot buy a train ticket at the Pradron train station and will need to get my ticket in Santiago. Now I am a bit concerned about getting a ticket for the next day, if I arrive on the 30th as planned. I may push forward tomorrow all the way to Santiago - 24 km. We shall see.

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