Day: April 22, 2025

• Camino walking: Grandas de Salime to Grandas de Salime, 3.7 miles in 2:46 hours, moving 1:30
• Elevation: up 302 feet, down 302
• Mainly a traveling day to get to the start of the Camino Primitivo. We started in Lugo taking a cute little (by bus standards) bus to A Fonsagrada (where we will spend tomorrow night) and then a taxi to Grandas de Salime.
• In A Fonsagrada we stopped at a traditional Spanish bar, had coffee and free tapas and planned the rest of the day. One of the reasons we love Spain is going to little bars like this one.
• In Grandas we checked into our room, very nice, roomy, and had the menu del dia in the bar attached to the hotel. Then we walked backwards on the Camino for 1.85 miles and then looped back, just to get in a little walking.
• We were fresh and not carrying much weight but Grandas is the end of a stage so we met many tired pilgrims while going backwards. One guy was so beat he looked like a zombie and didn’t respond to our “Hola” but just kept trudging on. I have great respect for these 15-20 mile a day pilgrims but I am glad we only go 7-8 miles, or in today’s case, 3.7 miles.
• Speaking of long days, tomorrow’s stage is 15 miles. You just can’t do short stages on most of the Primitivo as there is no place to stay between the main stages. That is why we arranged for a taxi to take us the first 8 miles tomorrow and then we will walk 7 into A Fonsagrada.

This morning in Lugo, we weren’t sure where our bus would be parked in the bus station so we made our best guess and I asked a woman in line if this was the bus to A Fonsagrada. She said yes and was very friendly so we talked while we were waiting, about 15 minutes. She was so nice and cheerful in the reserved Spanish way of being friendly.

I learned she lives in Madrid but grew up in a small village near A Fonsgrada. She was in Lugo visiting her older sister, who was with her. Her sister was a sweetheart as well. They were on their way to visit their childhood home.

They asked about our Camino and we told them of our plans to start in Grandas de Salime. They were telling us how beautiful the country is that we’ll be walking through. When we got on the bus, the woman pointed to a seat and told us to sit there to so we could see all the pretty scenery from the bus.

After we got to A Fonsagrada and had a mandatory cup of coffee, we got a taxi to take us to Grandas de Salime. The driver pointed for Charlie to get in the back seat and for me to get in the front seat. (This is not unusual.) And he was a talker. He apologized he didn’t speak Spanish very well since his primary language is Gallego (Galician). Of course, he spoke great Spanish as far as I could tell. As I’ve experience before, I can understand Galicians speaking Spanish easier than some because they are speaking their second language so perhaps use a simpler version, like me. He talked a lot and fast. I could understand maybe 60% of what he said. Enough to get the gist of what he was saying. (It was a bit exhausting trying to concentrate and understand him for that 30 minute taxi ride.)

He grew up in tiny village near A Fonsagrada. They lived a very simple life. Didn’t get electricity at the house he grew up in until the 1990s. He went to boarding school in A Fonsagrada.

We crossed the border between Galicia and Asturias on the taxi ride. (We are in Asturias!) He talked about how Asturias and Galicia are different autonomous regions in Spain. Different health systems, for example. Talked about how the Asturians speak Castellano (regular Spanish) although they have a lot of vocabulary unique to them. He mentioned that there are four languages spoken in Spain: Catalan, Basque, Galician, and Castellano. He also let me take his photo.