Leon to Vega de Valcarce

• Lindalequesne's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Vega de Valcarce

Trip Start May 14, 2008 Previous
Entry Trip End May 30, 2008 Next
Entry

  Vega de Valcarce, Galicia, Spain
Wednesday, May 21, 2008

The second part of our journey has begun - first a week along the northern coast of Spain, just Jim and I, and now a week with "Team Canada" on the Camino de Santiago!

We met Brad, John & Julia for breakfast in Leon, then walked over to the Old Towne to see Plaza Mayor teeming with people at the weekly Wednesday market.  Jim, in his neon-coloured tie-dyed t-shirt, blended in well with the colourful fruits, vegetables, spices, meats, cheeses, shoes, bras & underwear that were for sale. We then checked out of our hotel in Leon and took a cab to meet the rest of our Spanish Steps group.  Let me introduce them....

Judy (owner of Spanish Steps & team leader)
Martha (pronounced 'Marta' - Judy's assistant and second-in-command)
Pepe (driver - doesn't speak a word of English but has the most wonderful personality and sweetest smile)
John & Julia (friends from Shawnigan Lake)
Nancy, Lynne, Sandi (friends from West Vancouver/Vancouver)
Brad (friend from Ontario)
Tina (the 9th member of our group - a 50 year-old ex-Emergency Room nurse originally from Texas, now living in Washington, who is a paralegal and is also a Commander in the Army Reserves; she's gone to war twice in Iraq and once in Afghanistan

The market in Leon

.  An interesting character, full of stories)
Jim & I (if you're reading this blog, you know who we are!)

We piled into the mini-bus and drove for half an hour, stopping in Astorga - a walled city - to see the cathedral, Palacio de Gaudi (one of Gaudi's masterpieces, full of Roman artefacts and religious relics), and to have a drink in a bar.  Walking the Camino is basically like bar-hopping across northern Spain!  A man was sitting on the steps of the Gaudi museum enthusiastically playing his guitar, so Nancy whipped out her videocamera and proceeded to capture his singing and the twirling of his guitar on film.  He immediately changed the words of his song and sang an "Ode to Nancy", and was tipped generously for his creativity!  Unfortunately the Chocolate Museum was closed so we had to give it a miss.....sigh.....

From there we drove to Castrillo de Los Polvazares, an amazing 17th century hamlet along the Camino.  It was now time to do a test walk!  We walked 2.5 km at varying paces, through the village and surrounding countryside.... steadily uphill all the way.  Judy explained that people apply for grants and, if approved, the government gives them 100,000 euros for renovations, on the condition that they offer rooms to pilgrims for a minimum of two years and employ two people, and/or other stipulations

Astorga's Cathedral entrance archway

.  As a result, refugios, albergues and bars are springing up all along the Camino, strengthening the economy and improving the communities.

We met up with Pepe and were transported to our next stop, La Cruz de Ferro, at 1504 meters above sea level.  We were basically in the clouds at this point, and it was raining.  This place is seemingly in the middle of nowhere, but its' claim to fame is a huge iron cross situated amidst a huge pile of stones.  Pilgrims from around the world leave a stone here, which supposedly cleanses them of their sins.  In addition to stones, we saw seashells, crucifixes, hand-written messages, a pair of ladies' undies, pictures, and a brick - I guess that person had a lot of sins that needed forgiving!  I left the stone that I brought from home, saying a quick prayer for all my loved ones while I placed it gently with the others.

Our next stop was the Knights Templar Castle in Ponferrada.  It was built in the 13th century and looks like something out of a fairy tale.  We toured the inside, but it was a bit of a letdown as it's neglected and forlorn.  Apparently 40-50 years ago, the ruler of the town ordered the castle to be filled with sand in order to make a stadium/soccer field.  Thousands of tonnes of sand were brought in, but fortunately the townspeople saw the error of their ways and now the sand has been removed and the castle is being restored

Palacio de Gaudi, Astorga

.  Unfortunately, a modern building has been attached which totally destroys the character of this historical edifice.

Our last stop is our home for the night - the Paraiso de Bierzo in Vega de Valcarce, a casa rurales (restored farmhouse) in a deep green valley next to a river.  As it was 9:30 pm, we immediately went for dinner.  I had mixed salad and trout, and my trout were four small fish (the size of bait), complete with head and tail, but tasty.  Judy gave us our Camino passports (to be stamped in Churches/bars along the Camino), a Camino shell (to be worn on our daypack to signify that we're doing 'the walk'), a baseball cap with the Spanish Steps logo embroided on it, our "locker" - a cloth bag to keep on the mini-bus where we can store things that we might need during the day and, finally, a detailed map and itinerary outlining tomorrow's hike.

Images from the day include wind turbines, red poppies, huge fields of purple and white heather, yellow broom, grape vines and misty vistas.  We walked about 10 km today.

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Starting the Camino walk	Our group in Castrillo de Los Polvazares	The cross at La Cruz de Ferro	Knights Templar Castle in Ponferrada

Slideshow Print this entry Share

Previous Entry Next Entry