Month: March 2022

On just about every one of our Caminos I’ve had an opportunity to chat a little in Spanish with an elderly Galician. Today on our walk, we were walking by a house and a dog was barking at us loudly. We weren’t worried because he was behind a fence and just doing what dogs do. This man was walking towards us and started speaking to us, I think maybe in Gallego, the native language here, but I think he switched to Spanish because I understood him to comment about how noisy the dog was. I asked him if he lived in the village we were passing through and he said yes, “down below on the edge of the village”. He asked us about where we lived. After a little more conversation, I asked “Is it OK if I ask you how old you are”. He said 82. Charlie said “I’m 73,” I translated, and the man laughed. He then unbuttoned the top of his shirt to show us a scar and said he’d had heart surgery two years ago and he was out walking because his doctor “commanded” that he start walking. He looked quite healthy, I thought.

As we were saying adiós, I asked him if I could take his photo. He seemed quite happy for me to do so. I think he probably enjoyed telling his wife about that when he got home.

Actually we don’t know for sure either but we have a guess. We saw 30-40 of these along a paved pathway through a recreational area walking into Palas de Rei.

Way back in A Coruna I took this photo and wondered what game was played on these courts which looked a little like horseshoe courts. Eating lunch in Portomarin the TV was on, of course, and I saw the game.

I thought it was quite a coincidence, and I was surprised that they play the game on TV.

One version of this trip had us walking the Camino dos Faros (lighthouses). This is a new path along the Atlantic. It’s not considered a pilgrimage to Santiago. It goes along the coast starting about 40 miles west of A Coruna, goes to Muxia, then down to Finisterre. The people who laid it out tried to stay as close to the coast as possible at all times, usually within a few hundred feet. Since we were in Muxia we decided to start walking this camino from Muxia going east/north. It goes right by where we are staying. We wanted to get a taste of it so we can decide if we want to walk the whole thing another year.

We walked in crazy weather. It started out partly cloudy. We stopped and talked to an older man in a cluster of houses we passed. He was even older than we are, aged 82. He was carrying an umbrella. He was wise, five minutes later we felt drops, then more drops, we got out the rain coats. Then it rained even harder so we put on the rain skirts. Then it started sleeting. We pushed on and it got better and we stopped at a bar for coffee. They didn’t have food but we saw a restaurant Casa Carmela on the map in two miles and the Google rating was 4.6/5.0 stars. We called to see if it was open and Carmela said it was, so we set out for it. The weather was nicer and we took off the rain gear.

We imagined Casa Carmela would be a bigger place and we walked past it, not recognizing it as a restaurant. Carmela saw us and came out and led us back. A small place 4-5 tables, no one else there. No menu, you just pick seafood, fish, or meat and Carmela makes it for you. We choose a seafood mixture and fish. She took our order and then went back and started cooking. As you might guess, since we are telling the story, everything was extremely good.

We went on for another mile or so to the next lighthouse. Then we called a taxi it take us home.

Overall it was a great day, actually a typical camino day for us, we walked 6.7 miles, moving speed 2.5 mph, lots of breaks. The trail and views were great. The Camino dos Faros is definitely on our list now.

Tomorrow we plan to taxi to where we stopped today, walk another 6-7 miles and taxi home. On Saturday we are going to walk west on the Faros for 6-7 miles. So our “cafetería” camino is going to end with three days on the Faros.

A few days ago we stayed at a four star hotel, fancier than our usual. We reserved and the guy said it would cost 60 euro. When we got there we started the usual checkin process. You always have to give both passports. They normally copy out the information and it takes a couple of minutes for each one. This place had some kind of scanner which automated that. We mentioned it to each other and the young woman checking us in indicting something like ”pretty cool huh”.

After they enter the passport info they print a form for each of you to sign but this place (high tech) had a screen where you did it and the first odd thing happened. A form came up and I didn’t look at it carefully and signed with the stylus in the rough way you do with digital signing. Then a second form came up and Wynette noticed it had my name on it so she signed my name. Then a third form came up with Wynette’s name on it and she signed again.

Then the woman said it would be 65 euro. We asked about it and she said that was the rate. Oh well, it is not uncommon for the rates to change a bit. So then I held up my phone and said targeta to indicate a credit card payment, actually Apple Pay, which is actually a Mastercard. She said it was not possible because of festivo. What, a four star hotel can’t take credit cards on a Saturday? So we gave her 65 euro cash. Second odd thing.

We got the digital key and were about to go up to the room and Wynette says we would like receipt since we paid in cash. The woman looked a little flustered and punched some keys on her terminal and came up with a receipt but, guess what, it really is only 60 so she gives us 5 euro back. Third odd thing.

A few hours later we had lunch at their restaurant and paid with Apple Pay with no problem. Fourth odd thing.

We have found Spanish people to be unfailingly honest and straightforward so this incident surprised and puzzled us. It seems possible, even likely that she was trying some kind of scam but I wonder exactly what it was. Maybe she was just trying to skim off the five euro but that seems unlikely to me. Why go through an elaborate process and jeopardize your job for five euro? It might be worth it if she could pocket the whole 65 euro but I don’t see how she could manage that. We had a room. Our passports were in the system, surely the hotel has some minimal accounting cross checking that would catch that. So maybe it was all some kind of misunderstanding.

It’s fun and interesting to see the differences between a travel destination and home. Charlie and I thought we’d try to make a list and discuss some of the differences we have noticed here in Spain. We’ll start with differences in rooms we stay in, whether in a hotel, hostel, Airbnb, etc. Note that we’ve also noticed some of these things in other European countries such as Italy and Portugal.

Blinds: Most rooms have excellent blinds that seal tightly around windows and almost perfectly block out light and noise. I’ve never seen blinds like these in the US but they are ubiquitous here.

Washcloths: I don’t think we’ve ever been provided a washcloth here whereas in the US, hotels always provide a washcloth. I’m not sure what people do here if they just want to wash their face or do a quick sponge bath. I guess what I’ve been doing: use the hand towel.

Lights over doors: Hotel rooms almost universally have little lights above the door used to exit the room. They often have these over the bathroom exit as well. While they are useful for finding the bathroom in the middle of the night in a strange room, I’d prefer to sleep in a fully dark room. Sort of a contradiction that they have perfect light-blocking blinds and then they insist you have a light in the room that the occupant cannot control. Charlie and I’ve been known to stand on chairs and tape things like empty cereal boxes over the lights. We are guessing that once, many years ago, someone couldn’t find their way out of a hotel room in a fire and a law was passed to prevent this from ever happening again.

Pillows and pillow cases: Spanish bed pillows are very strange. They are usually the same width as the bed and narrower than US pillows. If the bed is a double bed, the pillow is the full width of the double bed. Which means that if a couple is sleeping together in the bed, they both share the same pillow. The pillow cases are usually open at both ends.

Showers: Spanish showers are great. They always have a sprayer that you can either hang above you for a regular shower or take down and spray directly where needed. Makes it very easy to get all the soap off.

Spoons: We’ve noticed this in the Airbnbs. There are two sizes of spoons. Very very large (larger than US soup spoon size) and very very small (coffee spoon size). There are seldom spoons the size of regular spoons in the US.

Square toilets: Charlie said he remembers the first time we saw square toilet seats in Italy. He said we were amazed by them. I don’t remember that, but we have noticed now that all the toilet seats are squarish.

Beds: I love the beds here. They are usually quite firm and on a solid platform. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a box spring here. Often double beds are two single beds side by side, which means if one person moves in their sleep a lot, the other is not disturbed. (See beds in photo at top.)

Sheets: This isn’t universal here but it’s not uncommon to have a comforter instead of a top sheet. The comforter cover serves as the sheet and, of course, is washed between guests. We have seen this occasionally in the US as well. Something we really enjoy.

Floors: Here, the first (aka “ground”) floor is Floor 0. So the second floor is Floor 1, etc. So, math problem, our current Airbnb is on Floor 4. What floor is that in the US?

Reservations: We have been calling a day ahead for reservations on this trip. When it is ascertained that a room is available they always ask for my name. I use my first name “Dorothy” instead of my middle name “Wynette” because everyone seems to know the name “Dorothy”. I don’t even have to spell it. I think that is probably because of The Wizard of Oz. They seldom ask for my last name. We’ve rarely been asked to give anything else such as a phone number or credit card number. They are just going to hold the room for someone named “Dorothy.” (The Spanish people are so trusting.) Another reason I use “Dorothy” is because that is the first name on my passport and when you arrive at a place to check in, they immediately ask for each of our passports and carefully (often slowly) write down all the information from each of them. We are always happy when someone just takes a photo. And a couple of places have had a scanner that actually adds the information to their database.

Once again, here were some unrelated photos from the past two days that I liked and wanted to share.