Author: charlie

Not to sound like a broken record (do millennials understand that reference?) but this Camino is amazingly beautiful. The ocean views continue to impress us. One blog we read had a “quote”: “I’m getting tired of these ocean views” — said nobody, ever.

We have taken over 2000 photos already. We just can’t stop. Of course they are free except for the upload time. My phone has two camera lenses so I often take one photo with the regular lens and then the same one with the telephoto lens.

In Asturias we have been enjoying the countryside away from the ocean as well. It is pastoral and lovely. I think we would be disappointed on another Camino. Luckily next year we are walking the second half of the Norte.

Digital maps on phones are a godsend for travelers. Last year we had special apps for following GPX tracks of our path. This year we just load the tracks into a google “my map” and it works great, easy to find bars, see what you are walking by, see how far you have to go, etc.

But we have noticed a number of glitches. Sometimes things are misplaced. Often they are directly north or west of where they should be by 50 feet to a mile or more. I know they record locations a latitude and longitude expressed to six decimal places, enough for an accuracy to a few feet. If the recorded position for a bar has an incorrect digit in one of the decimal positions of, say the longitude, it would be shown exactly west or east of its real position.

We have also noticed a strong filtering effect. Wynette and I see different things on our maps, often radically different.

And then there is its inscrutable algorithm for showing different things as you expand in and out. Some hotels show up at certain scales and not others. You have to scale in and out to see everything. This happens with place names also, especially the tiny villages we walk through.

One of the joys of walking the Camino is stopping at bars for coffee, and fried eggs and toast if it is 10-11 in the morning and we have just finished 3-5 miles. On the Camino Frances these were often “pilgrims bars” where most of the clientele were pilgrims. We prefer the little local bars where the town people gather. We stopped at one yesterday that had the most amazing jelly with the toast. Usually we get little packets of butter and jelly. This place we got a slab of Asturian butter and a bowl of jelly to die for, as good as any I have ever had. The thing we like about these little bars is that you never know what to expect. (More below photo.)

Addendum by Wynette: Yesterday when we stopped in this bar I asked our usual question “Is it possible to order fried eggs?”, in Spanish. He, the man in the photo, said “noooooo” (a really drawn out and friendly “no”). My heart sank and then he asked “how many? ” We guess he didn’t understand my Spanish. Maybe he heard “Is it a problem to order fried eggs?” We get such a kick how people tell us “yes” when we ask for something they can grant. “Siiiiiiiii”. All drawn out, going low and then ending high. He did “no” the same way.

We use credit cards in hotels but often use cash in small casa rurals. They seem pleased and often don’t offer a receipt. Clearly we are accessories to tax avoidance and bear some moral responsibility.

In Spain a “menu” means “menu del dia”. I think there might be some regulations requiring restaurants to have them because they all do. Two or more first course choices (salad, soup, beans, pasta), two or more second course choices (meat, fish), plus drink (water or wine), bread, and dessert. All for 9 to 15 euros. Ordering a la carte is normally at least twice as much. We like the menus because it makes deciding so much easier. A la carte can be overwhelming when everything is so unfamiliar.

On the Camino Frances the menus were usually called “pilgrims menus” but we rarely see that here except at albergues. The Camino is not nearly such a big thing here. The north coast of Spain is more of a big tourist area and that is where they get their income.

Addendum by Wynette: We ate twice at the restaurant with the above menu. Today’s choices were totally different than yesterday’s. Today we had (1) risotto with mushrooms and shrimp, (2) salad with cheese and beef prepared like Iberian ham, (3) grilled beef, (4) dorada (mahi mahi) with melt-in-your mouth roasted potatoes. Charlie had sidra to drink. I had water. Then, at the end, the waiter (owner?) brought us two glasses of cava (sparkling wine), on the house. He said today is Mother’s Day in España.

We first encountered sidra, cider, in Basque Country but it is big all along the north coast of Spain. It is carbonated and the tradition is to pour it from on high.

We learned that you only pour as much as you will drink in a few minutes, at most one inch, at a time. It is pretty sour, not sweet like some ciders. I didn’t like it when I first tried it a few years ago but this trip I have acquired a taste for it. Wynette doesn’t like it, more for me, except you often have to buy a whole liter bottle which is four times what I drink.

Travel is so much easier now with ATMs. I remember signing dozens of $10 travelers checks for my first trip to Europe in 1969. Things were cheaper then. But with banking comes fees. We got Capital One ATM and credit cards because they had no fees. Then came the conversion scams where when you get cash they offer to convert euros and dollars for you at a convenient exchange rate, only 5% above what you would get from your own bank. They do the same thing with credit cards. Sometimes we catch it and sometimes the person handling it just takes the conversion. This trip they have a new thing which is fees for using the ATM, also common in the USA. It has been a flat five euros but we found one bank that doesn’t charge. But as you see it requires you to agree to the 0,00 fee before it will continue with the transaction. Note that in European numbers the period and comma meanings are reversed. Capital One does the conversion for free and makes its money on the spread between exchange rates: buy euros for 1.20 and sell them for 1.21.

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Post by Wynette: That’s what the coffee cup says that I’m drinking out of right now in the bar across from our hotel where we decided to stay another day. Before we ordered breakfast in this bar we asked if they had good wifi and got a yes. So we ordered our fried eggs and got the wifi password. Of course, we didn’t expect the wifi to be all that good but … we had luck! We uploaded our 400 photos (that we hadn’t been able to upload for days) in five minutes!