Month: March 2022

We love our rain skirts. They are lighter and quicker on and off than rain pants. Plus we look very stylish in them 😉 We ran into someone on an earlier Camino who made hers from a big black garbage bag. We purchased ours.

Just before Astorga, near the end of our 11.1 mile walk that day, pilgrims (many of whom walked much further than us) encounter what some call the “green giant” and others call the “pilgrim torture bridge”. It seems to be the only way to get across the train tracks since a fence prevents crossing by foot. It would be fun if we weren’t so ready to be done walking at that point! Wynette was not thrilled to have to spend the 5 minutes it took zigzagging across this crazy contraption. It seems excessively high, but at least we were glad we weren’t electrocuted on the overhead electric train rail.

Right after this we had to climb several hundred very steep feet into Astorga’s center. More pilgrim torture. (But at least our hotel had an elevator.)

All the guidebooks about Astorga talk about how you have to try their famous stew Cocida Maragaro. The thing about it is that they make the stew but serve it in three courses. First the meat is served. Usually there are at least seven kinds of meat. Some are mostly or all fat.

Then the vegetables, garbanzos and cabbage and a potato.

Finally a soup with the broth and fidelo. No photo. It tasted very fatty from all the meat.

I hate to be a spoilsport but I didn’t like it very much. But everyone else raves about it. Astorga has two restaurants that specialize in it and only serve a few other things a la carte.

We had a previous post about special washers for pet garments. Here they are not allowed.

There is some kind of issue between the province of Leon and the region of Castilla y Leon. For a long stretch every Camino sign had ”Castilla y” blacked out or whited out. They missed a few. Here is one whited out and one as they are originally.

A bit of ”long lonesome highway” feel here but we still enjoyed the walking.

There is an old story that a popular Silicon Valley engineer interview question is ”Why are manhole covers round?” My answer is that they aren’t on the Camino. Maybe a case of form not following function or style over function.

We woke up this morning to sunshine! It was a beautiful day and we even took our coats off around mid-morning. So lucky to have this good day. Cacabelos was shining in the sun when we headed out. What a charming town. Wish we could have stayed there longer. The walk was beautiful through hills covered with vineyards. This is the El Bierzo region famous for its wine we are told – – perhaps you have heard of the El Bierzo wine? We went through a small village with many derelict houses but very charming. Then we came to vibrant Villafranca del Bierzo where we are staying tonight in the Hotel Posada Plaza Mayor. Every town has a Plaza Mayor which means “Main Plaza”. So we are right on the main square in the thick of things. The weather was so nice, we were able to walk around and explore the town.

We decided to skip walking a section because of weather and logistics. This was the beautiful section across a mountain range between Astorga and Ponferrada in which we would pass the Cruz de Ferro – – the highest point on the Camino – – about a mile high. The weather forecast for the places in the foothills of this mountain range was for rain and near-freezing weather. We couldn’t get a good forecast for the mountain towns (they are too small) but we expected it might be snowing. In any case, we didn’t like the idea of walking through that area on wet gray days. Some of it treacherous downhill even in good weather (we remember it well from previous caminos – – very challenging).

One thing I’ve always loved about doing a Camino is that you don’t let the weather stop you. At home, if it’s raining or windy or snowing, I seldom carry through with doing my usually-daily walk. But on the Camino, if it’s rainy or windy or snowy, we just put on our best protective clothing and head out. Well, that’s been true for us up till this Camino. We couldn’t face that track through the mountains in this weather. There turned out to be great bus service from Astorga to Ponferrada and we made the trip across the mountains in 70 minutes in a warm comfortable bus instead of walking 5 or 6 days in cold rainy weather.

From Ponferrada we took a taxi part way out of town and then walked into the wonderful town of Cacabelos. (Don’t you just love that name?) In the rain. We were so cold we just checked into our sweet little hotel and then found lunch and then went back to the hotel and hunkered down trying to get warm.

We have already seen dozens of storks on our walk. I guess this is the right time of year and the right place for them. They are still building their nests. We saw one bringing a stick for the nest and placing it. They will be laying eggs soon. One source said you start seeing the young ones in mid May. We see them over the fields in the morning. I suppose they are finding food there and fattening themselves so they can take care of the young ones. We will add some of our photos and videos after this.