Ruta del Cantábrico, Camino do Mar, Camino Inglés
It is a common sight to see guys in their 50s and 60s taking their mothers around. We see them most often on the street supporting them with their arm. At a restaurant recently we were next to a guy with his mother. She looked about 85-90 and she had some health problems. He would come around the table and cut up her food for her.
Clearly this is an important value in Spanish culture and it is a good thing.
Every bar you go into has a few old guys sitting at the bar chatting. And by “old guys” I mean guys who are younger than we are but still qualify as old, almost certainly retired. Bars are a big social outlet and gathering place. And by “guys” I do mean that it is always guys, never women. I don’t know where the older women gather to socialize.
Post by Wynette:
Yesterday we saw a potato truck outside the restaurant of our hotel. A delivery truck just for potatoes!
If you have studied Spanish in the US, you probably learned the word for potatoes is papas. But here in Spain they are called patatas. Pronounced pah-TAH-tahs.
When you smile for a photo in Spain they tell you to say patata. Can you say that without smiling?
They seem to be important in the diet here, at least in northern Spain. It’s rare to get a second course dish that doesn’t have potatoes on the side. Usually French fries but sometimes cooked other ways. They always seem to be cooked perfectly. We try to remember to ask for a salad to be substituted for French fries and sometimes we remember. When we get French fries we try to control ourselves. And we both agree ketchup would be nice. But they don’t serve them with ketchup.
We’ve mentioned the famous tortilla de patatas that is served in pretty much every Spanish bar. It’s eggs, potatoes, and onions. A nice hearty snack and actually makes a great sandwich filling. I’ve become, after many trips to Spain, quite fond of them. Charlie is not a fan. Our friend Holly, who has been here on Camino, is a great fan.
Post by Wynette:
If you’ve read any of the menu board photos that we’ve posted, you probably see lots of unrecognizable food. Even after many trips to Spain, we still have to look up most items. We discovered a nice trick at some point on a past trip: look up things in Google Images. It’s good to translate as well but often that doesn’t help much. For example, today we had Merluza a la Gallega. Merluza translates to Hake. But looking up Merluza a la Gallega on Google and then clicking on Images (just under the search bar) brings up photos and you get a pretty good idea of what you will be getting.
Another hint: The other day a menu had lorios and when I translated it got lilies (the flower). So I changed it to lorios comer (“comer” means “to eat”) and searched on Google Images and found it was little fish of some kind. I’d have to do more research to know exactly what kind of fish but at that point I decided I wasn’t interested.
We did order the Merluza today. When the server asked us later if we liked it and we said we did she said it was “tipica”. People mention that a lot about their food. It means “typical” and it’s their way of saying they are very proud of their local food. “A la Gallega” means, essentially, “from Galicia” or “of Galicia”.
Today we walked from our hotel in O Barqueiro to Bares, a little town up north near a lighthouse that is the northernmost spot in Spain. On a normal Camino all you need to do is follow the yellow arrows which mark the path every 100 yards or so. It is easy. For walks like the one today which is not on the Camino or on the Ruta, we use an app called Wikiloc which records walks taken by lots of people all over the world. We found several paths we could take and chose one that did not have too much up and down.
By “path” we mean a GPX track that someone records using the GPS on their phone. Wikiloc loads the track and you see it on the map along with your current location. You just follow the track. If you get off the track Wikiloc beeps at you. It is pretty much impossible to get lost.
O Barqueiro is build on a hill so the first thing we did was climb up and up and up to the top of the town,
We started on a road and is was easy walking. This is a cinch. The track said it was only four and a half miles to Bares. We continued along the road through a few forks.
Oops, Wikiloc is beeping at us. I check the app and a red banner says “you are leaving the trail”. We backtrack and realize we should have taken an overgrown logging road that was hard to see.
Beep, beep. You’re off the trail again. This is the turn we missed. Take the right one. It hardly looks like a trail at all.
Then it got even worse. We were walking through nettles and it became impassable. We turned back but after 30 yards we realized we were about ten feet off the trail. Not far enough to get buzzed by Wikiloc and within GPS variability. The right trail was not much better but we made it to a forest road that was easier to walk.
Post by Wynette:
Once again we find ourselves in a room with a view. The thing is, we are usually the only ones in these hotels and, of course, they give us the best room. We are in O Porto de Bares. A very tiny town only 1.3 miles from a lighthouse that marks the northernmost point in Spain. We are in the only hotel in town. It is costing us 35 euros. And it’s a charming, sunny, spotless room. And, the hotel restaurant has good food and the BEST coffee.
Post by Wynette:
We’ve found our favorite so far. We are in a tiny town, O Porto de Bares. We had lunch in our hotel restaurant, a simple small-town place. We both couldn’t believe how good our after-lunch coffee was. Usually I like a lot of milk in my coffee because I’m not a fan of bitter. This coffee was rich and strong but not bitter. It had less milk than usual.
Brand was Siboney. Again, was it the coffee itself or the specific roast? Was it the espresso machine used to make it (Gaggia)? Was it the barista? I told her how much we liked it and she said it was the milk and pointed to a carton of boxed milk on the counter. I’m sure that the right kind of milk helps but can’t believe that was everything that made it good.
We both agreed it was the best coffee we’ve ever had in Spain and maybe in Italy as well.