London

The NZ memorial and air memorial at the Wellington gate. Had time for a quick trip into the city between flights and three phone calls to Britt. Thanks to Rhyl for the SIM :)

Madrid

Point zero in Madrid. The city is in the centre of Spain.
Footsie shirts in a store.
The poshest hotel.

Madrid Walking Tour

Walking Sticks

These vary from branches found along the way, smooth poles bought along the way - some with metal tips or crooks or gourds or decoration, to fancy telescopic or shock proof poles. The big shock is that EXACTLY the same poles we buy at home for $150 are €12. What's with that?

Food Glorious Food

Spanish omelette for dinner. Fabulous waiter in a tiny student restaurant - Santiago is a university city. The ten of us couldn't quite finish it. Photos of the morning market.

Compostela

The main facade is being renovated but the Compostella was still impressive. The incense burner weighs 61kg.

Approach to Santiago

A relaxed day for our final walk. Only 19 km plenty of sunshine. Crosses on the fence by the airport left by peregrinos. Photos at the Pope Jean Paul II monument looking out over Santiago.

Camino Essentials

Light trail shoes -2 pairs

Layers of quick dry and merino clothing ( our group are walking advertisements for Kathmandu Icebreaker and Macpac)

Waterproof jacket and poncho

Comfy backpack with cover

Plenty of 'hola' 'Buen Camino' smiles and sign language

Bag of change for the stalls, churches and cafe con leche each day. 

Sunhat and beanie

Wet wet wet

Four weeks of great weather and a day of rain. These are early in the day before the ponchos went on.
Practising walking backwards( which apparently prolongs life) and then forwards ( to avoid tripping over).

Hidden Treasures

Our manor house- plain on the outside wow on the inside.
One of the prettiest villages Ribadiso de Baixo.
A Romanesque bridge.

More senses

There is a lot of bird life along the Camino. The more it rains the more the birds sing. Sparrows and all kinds of finches greet us along the way. Every day we also hear the cuckoo but we haven't seen one yet. Larger birds including magpies and some kind of falcon swoop around. On the water there are ducks, in the fields- chatty geese and even an ostrich and in the farmyards clucky chickens with very proud roosters strutting about and showing off their voices. The first couple of days we heard and saw canaries in cages but none recently.

The cows are Charolais as in France, Friesian and the red Spanish with horns. Lots of them have bells which must drive them crazy tinkling all the time. Dogs are nearly all German Shepherds or another large dog that's similar but a mystery breed. They seem very docile. Cats come in all colours and hang about in groups/ packs/ prides??

Paso de Sedor

A beautiful Spanish Manor turned into a hotel. The view is from our bedroom.
Each stop we have different rooms which is always fun: double bed or twins, bath or shower, balcony or not, window or skylight, radiator or underfloor heating. (Very important for drying the washing).
I am really looking forward to using my washing machine when I get home. Bring on a sunny day in Lower Hutt.

Bridges

Three days of rainy mornings and sunny afternoons. Rustic bridges.

Sensory Overload

A few interesting sights to see today. Of course it rained most of the morning just when we decided to have a picnic lunch. Warm though.
Very smelly past the fertilised fields and piggeries too.
Cute sculptures and drinking fountains too.

100km

Today we passed the 100km marker- halfway to Santiago.

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Rain and Shine

Fine weather everyday on our holiday. We have used our coats a couple of times for mist and wind but today was supposed to be quite wet. Just a little drizzle and a lovely evening. Many peregrinos wear ponchos.
The wee building is for drying corn. Turtles at a cafe.

Galician stew

We went with the local delicacy for dinner tonight. Hmmmm. Wasn't quite what we expected but it was delicious.

Corredoira

The name for the narrow bush tracks that we are walking on on this section of trail. Plenty of tiny hamlets with picturesque doors.

Scenes from day 3

The highest point.
A very old loom in a cafe.
Wooden door, stone walls.
Pasture. Spring planting hasn't quite started here.

Triacastella

Travelled over the top 1370ish and down to Triacastella thru mist and freezing rain. Staying in a hotel/ albergue - as close as we come to slumming it.
Met heaps of peregrinos from all over Europe. We are connecting up with many of them each day. Fabulous paella for tea.

Milking time

The girls off to the milking shed. The horns were impressive up close :/

Climbing

Wednesday we climbed to about 1200m to the mountain village of O Cebreiro. A beautiful sunny day with fabulous views down the valley. The walk was 28km but we had plenty of breaks and the day went quickly.
We have heard a few canaries and tracked them down. A typical statue with staff and gourd. Beautiful colours on the hills- probably heather.