Author: Charlie

Spain has a network of paradors which are fancy hotels run by the Spanish government. Portugal has a similar system. Originally they were historic buildings that were updated to be a luxury hotel. If you have seen the Camino movie The Way there is a scene where they stay in the parador in Leon. Recently they have expanded to just putting fancy hotels in tourists spots, the parador in Muxia is an example.

It is build on a hill and has six levels. We visited it today by walking up from the beach below. We entered and saw they had an ”elevator” which was really a funicular.

There actually is a second one above and parallel to this one. I guess it is a freight funicular.

The floor numbers were quite confusing until we figured out that the lowest level is 5 and the go up to 0 which is the top level with the main lobby of the hotel. All the rooms have a view of the beach and bay below.

Bars in Spain are an interesting institution that we have written about in the blogs of previous trips. First, a “bar” is really a coffee house/social club/restaurant that happens to serve alcoholic beverages. We go into bars frequently as we walk the Camino. We always have cafe con leche (similar to the Italian cafe latte or French café au lait) but they have all manner of coffee drinks. They are pretty cheap, we usually pay 1.30 euro ($1.45) although this year they are often 1.50 euro and just today in a fancy Spanish government hotel (a parador) we paid a hefty 2.20.

There are always locals hanging around socializing. In small towns in Spain we often saw older men (presumably retired) who appear to hang out there all day, sometimes playing cards or dominoes. But just about everyone goes to the bars, young and old, children, men and women.

You can almost always get some food, like a bocadilla (sandwich) or tortilla (potato and onion omelette) but many bars are also full restaurants. You go in and it seems like any other bar but if you ask for comida (lunch) they usher you to an often large back room which is a restaurant.

There are, as far as we know, no bar franchises, each one is unique. Part of the fun of walking is going into a bar and discovering what it is like. Often there are interesting, themed decorations. You never know what you will run into. Many seem to be run by husband and wife teams. Even if they don’t have a restaurant they will often make fried eggs and toast for you, and it is almost always well-cooked and excellent.

There is a bar in almost all little towns and on just about every block in cities.

Yes, they do serve alcohol, mostly beer and wine but the Spanish are not all weird about alcohol like in the US. People bring their kids into bars and no one thinks anything about it. It is considered in bad taste to get drunk in Spain.

Bars serve a unique social function in Spain and I wish we had the same institution in the US. British pubs are similar but don’t have the same feel to me. We walked the Vía Francigena in Italy a few years ago and they had some bars but not nearly as many as we find in Spain.

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.

Another insightful comment by our stalwart commenter Henry got me to thinking about ways to walk the Camino. This is a follow up to an early post about the Camino.

The usual style of Camino walking is to walk about 15+ miles a day. When everyone does about the same distance each day you keep up with a group of people and see a lot of the same people each evening at the albergue. This promotes friendships and finding walking partners. People often talk about having a “Camino family”. This works well for people who can walk 15-20 miles a day and most people can do this so it remains the Camino standard.

But some people can’t walk that far, or don’t want to, or are walking with someone who doesn’t want to, or just want to take it slower. Wynette and I are in this group. On our first Camino we tried to walk the longer distances and Wynette came home with a stress fracture.

To avoid foot problems we have been walking radically shorter days than other pilgrims, more like 5-7 miles a day. We did three 10+ miles a day early on and that (and the cold weather) lead to our week hiatus. So we have the practice and now I am starting to see the theory behind our short-day style.

If you walk three five mile days you see the same things you see in one 15 mile day. And you notice more things because you are taking your time. And you get to stay in three towns instead of one and you have time and energy to look around the towns. We like to have our big meal in the middle of the day and short walking days allows that. We also like to get private rooms so we have a place to hang out and blog and read and do a lot of the things we like to do at home, except the next day we get to walk through wonderful Spanish countryside and eat Spanish food and stop frequently for our beloved cafe con leche.

This style only works for some people. You have to have more time. It costs more because of the extra days. But mainly you are not going to be part of the social life of the Camino. But for us it works and we are very happy with it.