2022 Camino Frances

We had lots of these photos on our first Camino but this was the first morning for a while on this Camino when the sun was out. FYI sunrise is about 7:40 this time of year in Spain.

We had a lovely walk on this last day before our pause, probably the best walk of this trip. Lots of sun. We took a long cut through an old village and through hectares (no acres here) of vineyards. This is the Bierzo area which has its own distinctive wines. Bierzo is a”designation”, kind of like a trademark, and like “champagne” in France.

The whole week before Easter is celebrated in Spain. We timed our trip to miss Easter since it makes traveling hard because everything is full. Each town makes a poster for it. Here are two that we have seen so far. We will post other ones as we find them.

We are taking a week off from the Camino! A few days ago the forecast was for day after day of unrelenting cold, cloudy, rainy weather. In a moment of weakness, we started looking at the forecast for Southern Spain (Málaga). It was about 10 degrees warmer there but still rainy. And a 9 hour train ride. We’ve always wanted to see A Coruña in northwest Spain on the Atlantic coast. Its highs were 5 degrees warmer than where we were on the Camino and its lows were 15 degrees warmer. And it was a 2.5 hour bus ride away. Hmmmm. We decided to head for A Coruña, hoping that in a week or so, weather on the Camino won’t be quite so uncomfortable. We reserved an Airbnb for a week in the historic district of A Coruña and caught the bus here yesterday morning (Monday). We spent yesterday getting settled into our charming B&B, going grocery shopping, and exploring the city a bit. Today we had a breakfast that couldn’t be beat in our kitchen, then went shopping for some warm fuzzies to wear around in our rather chilly, but still charming, Airbnb. And then had some yummy tapas for lunch.

Right now, the weather forecast is looking quite a bit better on the Camino than it was looking a few days ago. Weather here in this part of Spain changes so quickly and we’ve noticed that forecasts even for the same day end up being incorrect.

We are thinking we’ll probably return to where we left off (Villafranca del Bierzo) and start walking from there again in a week or so. But, who knows. We’ve even considered walking a different camino: the Camino Inglés which starts in A Coruña and ends in Santiago. Or, we might go back and walk some of the Ruta Cantábrica which we walked in 2019. Or maybe we’ll end up in Málaga!!

I have so much respect for the ancient engineers and workmen who designed and built these old machines using basic tools. A simple but effective labor saving device. The most complicated part is the screw, an inclined plane.

This made me think of the classic I Love Lucy episode where she is crushing grapes by stomping on them with her bare feet.

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.