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.
Local bus we took from Lugo to A Fonsagrado. It was a cross between a van and a big regular bus.Our packs in the “trunk” of the bus. (We were the only ones who had luggage.)On the busTraditional Spanish bar in A FonsagradaToday’s lunch. Together, we had everything they listed except the cheese cake.
Our new friend who we chatted with before boarding the bus and on the bus. I asked if I could take her photo. I wish I had asked her name. And wish I had a photo of her older sister.
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.
She was taking photos of the scenery as well
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.
Our taxi driver, with Charlie, after we handed over 30 euros for a 30 minute taxi ride. Cash only.
View from the bus stop in Caldas de Reis. It’s a neat town. I wish we could have spent more time there.
Up to now, we’ve been walking the Camino Portugués de la Costa. That Camino starts in Porto and ends in Santiago. We started in Porto but ended in Caldas de Reis, about two stages early. (Or 4 of our short stages.) This was our plan all along. Today we took a bus into Santiago and then another bus to Lugo.
Lugo is on the Camino Primitivo. (So named because it is the first camino.) Tomorrow we’ll take a bus and then a taxi to Grandas de Salime. We’ll walk from there to Melide. That should take us about 8 walking days. We are starting kind of in the middle of the Primitivo. The first half of the Primitivo is too difficult for us to contemplate. Long distances between towns. Huge elevation changes. But this later part is doable and we are excited to get to experience it.
Our expectations: The Camino Primitivo will feel very different than the Portugués. It will be more rural, through lots of small towns that might no longer have inhabitants if it weren’t for this Camino passing through. We’ll probably see lots of pilgrims but not as many as before. Certainly, there will be more ups and downs, and, of course, we won’t be walking along the ocean. We hope to find lots of fabada beans to eat.
The weather forecast is good! Not a lot of rain. Quite a bit warmer. You’ll probably hear us complaining about getting over-heated again. (Sorry.)
Melide will be the end of our walking. That’s where the Primitivo meets the “main” Camino Frances. We won’t continue on to Santiago from there. (We walked that distance on our first Camino in 2013. ) Instead we will catch a bus to Vigo and spend a week there before heading home to New Mexico. Charlie’s grandnephew Noah is in Spain right now doing a semester abroad. He is going to spend some time with us in Vigo. We are looking forward to that.
View from the bus on the way to Lugo. Galicia is so green, especially after all this rain.
Travel day: Caldas de Reis to Lugo. We finished the Camino Portuguese at Caldas. We didn’t want to do the final legs into Santiago since we had done them in 2016. Tomorrow we will start walking on the Camino Primitivo, called that not because it is primitive but because it is considered to be the first Camino.
We left our spacious apartment and walked to the bus stop. Going out of our building we let in the Correos pack transfer guy who picked up two bags from people staying in the same building.
We had coffee at a pastry shop across the street from the place the bus was going to stop. Wynette ordered a large coffee for me and a regular for her. The waitress converted that into a regular and a small. See photo for the sizes we got.
We took the bus to Santiago, 90 minutes. It was late and we missed the 11:00 bus to Lugo so we took the one at 1:45. We had lunch at a cute little Chinese snack bar, very good. The name of the place was literally “Snack Bar”, in English. Then a bus to Lugo.
Right now we are blogging at a deli/bar inside a grocery store. It has a small deli selection and it also offers coffee and drinks like a normal bar. We have not seen anything like this before.
Miles walked today so far per Wynette’s watch: 4.22. But we may walk around Lugo a bit more.
The Correos guy transferring somebody’s luggage. He had to park way at the end of the street because they were sitting up an outdoor market in the street.Large and small coffees. They threw in a bunch of pastries.Waiting for a busBack in Santiago once again. We zipped into the train station (right next to the bus station) because they have a better cafe.View while blogging: Grocery store cafe/bar/deli. You can see the huge grocery store in the back. They call these stores.”hipermercados”.
I included a similar photo in a previous year’s blog. We pay almost everything with cards on this trip and I’m glad to see the church keeping up with the times. But I am including this photo because of the photo I did not take and so cannot show. After I took this I looked to the right and saw a “No photos” sign. I was tempted to take a photo of it but I like to respect rules like that, their church, their rules, only fair. I wouldn’t have taken the first photo if I had seen the sign.
The graffiti people did a number on this sign. We were noting that Spanish stop signs are in English. Is this an international word like taxi and hotel? Also the Spanish stop signs seem slightly different than American ones but I can’t put my finger on exactly what is different.
