Mendocino > Camino de Santiago

Whew... If I never hear... "It's all downhill from here" again.. I'll be glad. Rolled into town at 4pm, threaded our way through traffic, pilgrims, tourists, and patient locals to the Santiago Cathedral, the finish line for the Camino. We got one of the pesky walkers that kept up with us to get our photo in front of cathedral, and then spent an hour finding our hotel...where I collapse into bed for my afernoon nap. It is not really a nap, more of comatose lapse. 42km today, up/down/up/down...not much more of the cowpie goo, and the weather has been pretty nice...ok, not raining is nice now. Tomorrow we go do the traditional pilgrim stuff, rub St. James's belly, see the pilgrims mass, and get our Compostela, the certificate from the church that states we finished the pilgrimage. It is supposed to absolve you of all past sins (I call it my 'Get out of hell free card) Pilgrim's Mass is actually quite cool. I suppose it would be better if I understood what the...

We get a very late start, bedtime was after midnight, and we have to clean the cowpie/sand slurry off the derailleurs, brakes, wheels, etc. We finally have a no-rain day, however...29km to a town on a hill, Palas de Rei. LOTS of walkers now, all you have to do is walk 100km for your compostela, a lot of wussie types fly into Santiago, taxi out to the 100km point, and walk in...it might be a coincidence, but we've seen many more Americans since we past that point. Now we are in an internet cafe in Arzua, checking email, sucking down Galician beers, and watching a Bond movie...en espanol. Today was a 31km day, up and down hills, the downs are fuuuuuun! Uphill sucks....I usually walk them. Brian got a nice nail, 3 holes, and on a downhill, so he broke a spoke by the time he could stop...he was right on my ass on that downhill, my luck holds again. Galicia is gorgeous, greens of every possible combination...Dad says no more cowpie trails, so they are now burro-pies..shhhhh. Great dinne...

Via Rio Cowpie Milkshake... Holy Crap...I mean, literally. We had a wonderful, sunfilled ride from Triacastela via Samos, although with a late start, we slept in until 8am! OhMyGawd! I'm sure! We ride own a river mostly, farms, trees, cool paths, a very lovely old mill, we took lots of photos, including another burro co-existing with a long horn. The burro would bug the longhorn until she whipped her head about, then use her horns for precise scratching opportunities. The burro was in the field at the monastery in Samos, a very old (6th century) monastery, that took both nuns and priests, and was run by a married couple of virgins. Hmmmm. Yearly checkups? It was very beautiful, located in the curve of the river..as we were watching, a nun came out with a flock of chickens, but we missed the photo opp. One thing about Spain, eggs are in almost every meal, but chicken is very rare to find in a dish. We got picnic stuff, our first sunny, warm, nice day, and stop at a peregrino picnic ...

We are over the top, and at the foot of O'Cebreiro again, but 30km into Galicia. While the others were having mad dentist dreams while napping in the Little Refugio of Horrors, Brian and Tom cycled up to check out the trail the guidebooks keep warning us about..Brian says.."Yes, it is muddy, yes there are rocks, but there is also a paved way, a narrow single track into the fog"...and so, after our coffee and bread breakfast, up we go. The single track is a bit longer, 9km instead of 7, and steep like the stairway to heaven..up,up,up. Dad disappears ahead, Tom passes me a little later, then Ann catches up. Brian goes the dirt path to make sure Tom didn't go that way, so Ann and I climb away, walking now. 0.2km, stop, breath, repeat. This goes on for three hours, through oak, gorse, heather, fog, rain, up. A mini Pyrenees...that climb went on for twice as long. Finally, we are there..not a lot to see, on the windy, misty crest; but a bit further is the actual town of O...

We are in Las Herreras, just at the beginning of the last tough climb of our Camino...plenty more little ones, yes...but nothing like this. 10% grade, for 7 kilometers. Yes...we have a rewarding 30km of downhill afterwards. From Villafranca we had a cold, soggy ride farther up the valley, but it is narrower now, and a fast flowing river gets closer and closer. I am pretty damn cold, if you wear too much, you sweat like crazy under the raingear, not enough, brrrr. Stopping for hot chocolate improves my opinion of the world somewhat and we press on. If you let Dad get on pavement he's a road monster, and since the camino is beside a by-passed highway, we ride on it, and he just flies off. I just pedal on, bicycling is different from motorcycling in many ways...on the bicycle, I keep my eyes just ahead of the front wheel or looking about, no need to get depressed about the hills ahead. On a motorcycle, you look as far ahead as possible. Oh, and that throttle thing is way groovy, man. ...

Ponferrada has a huge Templar castle overlooking the town, we go check it out in the morning while Ann gets some work done on her term paper..the castle is in great shape, built in the 1300's, and repaired/remodeled many times.. We leave at noon to Villafranca, a sunny (off & on) ride across this lovely green valley, small farms with neatly plowed rows of peppers, wheat, grapes, and fields upon fields of blood-red poppies. Dad and Ann fell back taking photos of an elderly burro, Tom and Brian got farther ahead...I was all alone on a single lane road surrounded by poppies. Stopping to take a photo of a field of them, a car driving by pulls over, out leaps an older guy who asks to let him take my picture...I'm thinking...sure, take my photo, then take my camera...but no, he knew his way around the Nikon and got a couple shots of me, gave the camera back, shook my hand, saying "Buen Camino!", dove back in his car, and sped off. This all took less than five minutes.....

What day is it? If it wasn't for my palmpilot, and the big parade in Astorga today...I sure wouldn't know. We made it to Rabanal del Camino today, 40k from Hospital de Orbigo. Pretty amazing considering we did two museum tours in Astorga,, one Roman, one the Camino museum in the Gaudi Palace, AND had a 86€ lunch in some....yes, tiny town. It was Cocida Margata, Ann said it was a stew, but it turned into a massive three course meal, plus desert. We knew we were in for something special when the plates came out...nice plates. An old woman across the street yelled at the bar and we got instant service, I will post her photo with these words. She had five dogs around her, and a very musically talented bird hanging in a cage in the second story window. One of the dogs I named Leon, because of the cathedral...his balls were so big the first thing I said was... "Oh My God"..just like the cathedral. Jesu Christe! Watching him walk reminded me of the bells in the cathedral tow...

Somehow, via the Camino forums, I knew this was a special place...no-one said anything in particular, but the name drew me...as did the entry to our aubergue for the evening. Walking through the ancient doors, the patio/gardens just pull you in. The host is lancing a walkers blisters, and I wait until he is finished. He stamps my Camino passport, and shows me the rooms..WC here, internet there, washing tubs and clotheslines over there, rooms full of bunks here, here, here, and here. We get a room to ourselves, but it soon has 5 walkers as well. We've a lot of respect for walkers, they travel a difficult path. Today was pretty easy, a late start, we change plans yet again and cycle out of Leon, not fun. Traffic, smog, beeping drivers, all conspire to keep us on our toes, with sensors on high. Finally, though...out in the fields again. 41k today, to Hospital de Orbigo. The longest bridge on the Camino is here, and a long story too. The church steeple has four storks nests, all fully ...