Zamora - Day 20 - May 4, 2012

I am in a bit of a rush today, it takes a lot of time to upload photos and attach them to the blogs, and there were three to do today as it was our first wifi in a while. I need to go wake the others from siesta and drag them out for dinner. So only pictures and brief comments for today's blog.
It was a nasty 30 km walk on the side of the highway today. It poured for about 2 hours or so and after that we only got rained on for short periods now and again and we even got some sunshine for a while! The only consolation was that the shoulder of the highway was about 6 ft wide in most places and paved. I was happy to walk on the pavement rather than the muddy trail of the Via de la Plata for a day!

This sat by the roadside. We weren't able to discover what it was all about.

We passed a house decorated with gargoyles of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

 We stopped for a beer and everyone did their favorite stretches!

 Barb's injured face is turning awful colours.  :( Her feet  had been doctored by "Captain Highliner" and had a compead bandage on her blister. It was still sore but she could walk at least.

 Zamora has a very pretty approach via the 1.5 lane bridge!

A rare moment of blue sky as we cross the bridge into the city.

The Albergue is very nice 26 beds, modern and bright and tucked into the side of a church built into the hill. I will tell you more about it in my next blog. Got to run!

Zamora - Day 20 - Supplemental - May 4, 2012

 

According to wiki:   Zamora (Spanish pronunciation: [θamo'ɾa]) is a city in Castile and León, Spain, the capital of the province of Zamora. It lies on a rocky hill in the northwest, near the frontier with Portugal and crossed by the Duero river, which is some 50 km downstream as it reaches the Portuguese frontier. With its 24 characteristic Romanesque style churches of the 12th and 13th centuries it has been called a "museum of Romanesque art". Zamora is the city with the most Romanesque churches in all of Europe.

No surprise with 24 churches in town that the Albergue would be in a church.

El Cubo de Tierra del Vino - Day 19 - May 3, 2012

We were on the road early for our days trek and while it was raining there was promise of sun in the distance.

 We set out on the muddy farm track and the mud started to weigh us down so we switched to the road. The sun teased us out of our rain gear briefly, but we were back into our rain ponchos after 20 minutes as there was intermittent rain. It was a pretty boring walk but better on the pavement rather than the muddy trail. We reached El Cubo about noon after the 20 km trudge and adjourned to a cafe to consider doing another 15 km, however foot problems dictated otherwise, so we found the Albergue and it proved a good choice to stay there.

 We arrived at the Albergue at El Cubo before it opened. As you can see Barb's feet were causing problems - she now has blisters on her blisters - ouch! Municipal Albergues usually only accept Peregrinos with a "credential" and they are only allowed to stay one night. It was another 15 to the next Albergue, so we needed to line up to make sure we got a spot! Albergues usually close from 9:00 until 1 or 2 in the afternoon and so you just wait if you can't get in right away. The hospitalero arrived in short order and we settled into quite a nice little place. The 16 beds were soon all full and the overflow Peregrinos were sent to a vacant house without heat or water to sleep on mattresses. It started to rain in the early afternoon so there were not many folks who wanted to walk to the next albergue!

 We met a Québécois traveller with his Belgian friend. They wore the sashes of the French Canadienne "courier de bois".

The Hospitalaro was a funny guy. He hung out all day making sure that anyone who arrived was offered at least a mattress in the casa particular (vacant house). It was a Municipal Albergue which used to be the school teacher's house - it was attached to the local primary school. Three bedrooms with 4 bunks each, a dining room, kitchen and a terrace to sit outside and watch the laundry dry. There was also a washing machine and the Hositalero did a load of laundry for us for 2€. We all sat near the rads - moveable ones you might see at Canadian Tire - as it was really cold and damp.

I trucked out to the supermarcado down the road and got the makings for dinner - bread, eggs, cheese, ham, a potatoe, onion and tomatoe and the biggest treat - some butter! We had not seen any butter or margerine since leaving Canada! Every single restaurant we ate in served bread - dry! One might expect olive oil at least, but even when you ask for some aceite (oil) you are given an oil and vinegar salad oil set and have to drizzle rather than dip the bread. Even bocadillos are served meat or cheese on dry bread! Anyway, I digress. We had a nice meal fried up on a hot plate in the Albergue and went to bed with full tummies!
We had a great time at the Albergue, Barb was starting to feel less sore from her fall of a few days earlier, although her face had turned real shades of purple and she now sports 2 black eyes! Looks like she was beaten and she was - by a rock in the river she fell into! Only now her feet were really bothering her and so she was sitting with them elevated to help them heal.

Silly games Peregrinos play to pass the time!

The hospitalero offered us a homemade yellow drink which was the Spanish version of grappa.

 

Waiting for our laundry to dry - can you tell we were all cold? The wine stocked at the Albergue and available for 2€ helped to pass the time.
We were all tucked into our beds with lights out before the Hospitalero did bed check at 10 p. m. Tomorrow is a 30 km march into Zamora.
Hasta mañana amigos!

Calzada de Valdunciel - Day 18 - May 2, 2012

We have been a couple days without wifi (in Spain pronounced "wefee"), so I am posting now the offline blogs I have been writing with the posting date set to the date when written.

Today was a short day at only 15 km. The day was great, cool but mostly sunny and no rain. The road was straight and flat and passed through cultivated fields.

There was an interesting gate, topped with dice, but other than that not much else but fields during our whole walk today!

 We settled into a municipal Albergue that sleeps 8 priced at just 5 € and after a quick run to the local supermarcado (grocery store), we passed a quiet afternoon with food, wine, chat and siesta. It is a cute little stone cottage with a bedroom with 4 bunk beds and a living room with a couple of couches and table. It was very cozy.

 Room for just 8 of us - 4 bunks shoehorned into the bedroom.

 It would have been really great if we could have lit a fire in the fireplace but sadly it was only to look at.

 There is a small kitchen and 2 bathrooms with showers and a place to hang laundry. Everything a Peregrino needs - except Internet. LOL

The town was tiny but really cute. There was a nice plaza. FYI: a "plaza" in Spain is not someplace you shop but rather a spot to gather and hang out, usually beside a church.  Every villiage and town has at least one plaza.

We decided to buy some food and cook, or more precisely, warm stuff in the microwave as there was no fridge. It was an early night.

There was no sign of the hospitalero but he did pop in while we were out at the shop getting something to nuke and collected our 5€ and stamped our "credential". There are different types of Albergues and this one, being a municipal one in a very small village, was manned part time, no doubt, by a local volunteer from the community. The person who greets the peregrinos at the Albergues and stamps the credential as proof that you have come through the town is called a hospitalero/hospitalera (masculine/feminine). We were told that on the VDLP Camino route they seldom had full Albergues and there are usually no Peregrinos except in the spring months. So some of the smaller Albergues are left pretty much without an attendant. The larger Albergues are manned by volunteers, people who have walked the Camino and who offer their services to the organizing body for the Way of Saint John.
Here is a picture of my "credential".

We took the last 3 spots at the Albergue and it was only 12:30! Other Peregrinos arriving after us would be forced to go to the hostal (local inn) which this town happened to have or to go to the next Albergue 15 km down the road, as happened to us a few days ago.

It seems this year is the exception in both volume of Peregrinos and in the weather. We were expecting beautiful weather with sunny days and highs of 20. Sadly, that is not what we have. It is unseasonably cold and wet. Not only have we had rain and cloud almost every day since "Day 3", the temperatures in the morning when we set out has been 7 - 10 degrees and every day we've needed our coats, hats and gloves as well as rainwear as the high has been only about 15.
It started to rain after dinner, so I tucked into my bunk to blog and read until bedtime. I think ER were all snoring by about 9 p.m.!
Adios amigos!

Salamanca Rest Day - Day 17 - May 1, 2012

We spent the day sightseeing in Salamanca. It is a really neat city of nearly 200,000 people, Over 30,000 of which are students. The city contains the oldest University in Spain and the 3rd oldest in western Europe. The old part of the city is spectacular, with several Cathedrals. The streets are lined with bars, shops and restaurants and the city is quite busy and vibrant with interesting people. According to wiki Salamanca is at the top of lists of cities with the highest bar per inhabitant ratios in Europe, in other words a great student town. :)

According to About.com

In the assembly of the Culture Secretaries of the European Union which took place in Brussels on the 28th of May 1998, it was officially decided the designation of Salamanca as a European City of Culture 2002 after having taken into consideration its qualities as a university town, open and hospitable as well as its historic and artistic richness which made the UNESCO declare this city as Heritage of Humanity.
The old part of this town of encounters and wise men, great thinkers on science and humanities make up an exceptional mosaic and network of cathedrals with the Palaces of Monterrey and Fonseca, the "Shell house", the Clavero tower, the Plaza Mayor and the convents of San Esteban and Dueñas. All this heritage is enriched by the university nature of the town with the oldest university in Spain

Today is the  Labour day holiday - May 1st in Europe-  and there were speeches and throngs of flag and banner waving folks in the main area of the city - Plaza Major. Yesterday's blog showed some pictures from this huge plaza, which was completed in 1755 and originally used for bullfighting. It is features 88 arches raised on pillars and decorated by sculptures of notable people. Yesterday's blog included a picture of the empty square surrounded by arches.

This is a picture of Plaza Major with all the May Day activity going on.

It is a pretty special city.

We toured the "new" Cathedral, which was completed in 1733 and was a century under construction.

We also toured the "old" Cathedral, which is Romanesque in style and built in the12th century.

We climbed the 250 odd steps up the bell tower of the Pontifical University of Salamanca.

We also took a walk down to the Tormes River and took the picture that heads this blog as well as the Roman bridge and statue of a bull.

We also toured the Museum of Nouveau and Art Deco. The only place we could take pictures was in the Cafe. It was pretty neat.

Tomorrow, presuming that it isn't pouring rain when we wake up, we will re-start our trek. Our next destination is about 17 km distant. The next major city, that might take us 5 or 6 days to reach, is Zamora. You can check it out on the map below. We are at 509 km now and just shy of 500 more to go to get to Santiago de Compostela. Of course we have skipped some distance and I would guess that we have walked maybe 300 of the 509 so far. Let's see how the next section goes, but I think we are well positioned to be able cover the remaining distance if we all stay in good health.