2023 WynChar Camino

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.

We know at least one reader enjoys seeing the menu del dia signs. We like them too. This was a place in San Cibrao which was closed on the Monday we were there so we could not eat there. It happens we had Easter dinner there when we were here four years ago. We had coffee there this morning for old times sake.

The menus del Dia are a great deal. Today in O Barqueiro they did not have one and we spent €38 on a lunch and got less than we would have gotten for €24 with a menu del dia. And it didn’t taste any better.

Here is Charlie removing the black electrical tape we put over the light intended to guide you to the door in case of a fire.

Here is the chair we placed in front of the only exit to our hotel room so that the drapes would not let in any light.

We passed this business in an industrial zone going into San Cibrao, a coastal town. Apparently they cremate the body and scatter the ashes in the sea. I can see that some people might be interested in this service.

Post by Wynette: I like posting photos of what we see out our hotel room windows. Here is our view from our small and plain but clean and comfortable hotel in San Cibrao. It was the only open hotel in town (we don’t count the scrawly outskirts) and we were the only people in the hotel. Charlie and I decided that we were probably the only tourists in town.

A few more photos:

One of the advantages of growing old is that people stop noticing you. It is kind of like our superpower. Just ask Miss Marple.

This is true here when we are in big towns like A Coruña but not so much in smaller places. It is not obvious that people are watching us but sometimes we notice signs that they are.

A great example of this is four years ago when we were walking into Porto Espasante, where, as it happens, we will be in three days. Anyway later in the day we were talking to some old guys, as we do, and one of the men pointed to Wynette and said “She is slower than you.” We wondered how he knew this and he said he had watched us walking into town several hours earlier.

On this trip Wynette called up a bar so see if they would be open the next day. (We are skeptical of Google’s open/close times.) The guy appeared to be mystified why we would want to know this but said yes. Apparently such questions are not common in small towns in Spain.

It is not uncommon for us to do things that seem unusual to the locals. Our feeling about this is that it is a good thing. We figure the people will go home and tell their spouse about the funny thing some Americans did that day. So we are providing entertainment for them.

Post by Wynette: We wrote yesterday that we planned to take the little Feve train today for the trip from San Cibrao to O Barqueiro. We got to the “station” (just a covered bench that looks like a bus stop with no personnel) and looked for the schedule to confirm what we had found on the internet. The not-too-large sign informed us that there would be no train but a bus would take us on the exact route and schedule instead. The Feve is not running from April 10 to 30 because of infrastructure repairs.

It was a little unclear where to go to find the bus but we finally figured out the map they had pinned up. It was all low key on their part and a bit stressful on our part, but it all worked out fine.

At one point at a stop about half way to our destination, I asked the bus driver if we needed to pay — he had not collected any money. He shrugged and spread his hands out. Nope, you don’t need to pay.

Post by Wynette: We have decided to take the little Feve train to get to O Barqueiro. So, we’ll get there tomorrow in about an hour instead of after two days of walking. We decided to do this because those days’ walks were each 15 miles or so with NO services where they’d be needed (places to use the bathroom and rest the feet and have a coffee or lunch). Some would say we are cheating a bit, but we feel good about our decision. We did do much of these walks in 2019 with the help of some taxiing. This time, we are Feveing the whole way. We’ll write more about the Feve later. It’s a wonderful little train that follows the northern coast of Spain. It is dear to the hearts of many.

Post by Wynette: We are in the tiny town of San Cibrao. We ate lunch at A Bodega, the only place open serving a full lunch. The other restaurant is closed on Mondays.

For first course, we chose the xudias (green beans flavored with ham), and ensalada de pasta (pasta salad). For second course we had costilla (pork ribs) and pechuga de pollo (chicken breast). For desert we had tarta de abuela (grandma cake — a chocolate cream cake) and whiskey cake (turned out to be ice cream!).

We shared everything, as always. The ribs were tender and flavorful and had some yummy carrots and caramelized onions (not nearly enough) plus French fries (way too many and we tried to ignore them).

The green beans and chicken were quite good, too. We weren’t too crazy about the pasta salad.

Bread and bottled water and coffee also came with the 12 euro meal. The coffee was not good. Very watery.