When you are walking the Camino there is a lot of thinking time.
Making a camino quilt was in my thoughts.
What blocks could I make? What colours could I use?
Lots of abandoned ideas. Lots of fun thinking time.

It took us about 250 hours to walk the Camino Frances.
It took over 300 hours to hand piece and hand sew the quilt.

Hi

The Camino Quilt is coming along. The top is almost finished. Just some pieces needed to complete the border.

The designwork is all done and we now have a three arch bridge, a castle with flags, a church bell tower with three bells, candles, poppies, chestnut trees, milky way stars, yellow arrows, a St James cross, a Knights Templar cross, a San Anton cross and a San Juan de Ortega cross.

When the border is complete then let the quilting begin!

Buen Camino

I am a quilt maker.

While walking the Camino Frances I thought of making a Camino quilt containing some of the things we remember, for example the St James Cross, other crosses, poppies, scallop shells, yellow arrows etc.

This is a work in progress with bell towers, castles, candles and a bridge still to come.

Completion will be in about nine months, so watch this space.

Barbara

Basically there don’t seem to be any public conveniences in Spain, at least not on the camino. We saw two in 800kms. It does seem to be acceptable to use the facilities in cafes, bars etc. Only in the last 100km from Sarria did we see signs saying toilets were for customers only, and then there was often a €1 fee for non customers. We used cafes but always bought something, a coffee, some fruit, chocolate bar etc. It makes it easier if you can train your bladder and bowels to use the facilities at your overnight accommodation.

Obviously people get caught short and so you have to go in the bushes. Easier for the guys. The path and picnic areas etc are often littered with toilet paper/tissue which is not a good look. Either bury it or carry it out. Swot up on the book “How to shit in the woods” before starting the Camino. Be prepared also for different cultures having different levels of privacy accepted for relieving yourself.

There is also a surprising amount of litter on the path. Plastic bottles, wrappers, juice packets etc. There are very few rubbish bins provided so you have to carry your litter out. Some pilgrims (usually Canadians) pick up litter as they go. In the villages, towns and cities there is no house to house refuse collection. Each street will have large plastic rubbish containers for waste and recycling and people bring their household rubbish /waste to these. It is so easy to use these to dispose of your rubbish.

Infrastructure
Walking the Camino is not tramping in the wilderness. It is a walk through rural and urban Spain. Spain is a sophisticated European nation and so all the infrastructure you would expect is available pretty much all the time. Every village will have a pharmacy, towns will have medical centres, doctors and dentists. Large towns and cities have hospitals. They are experienced in all the ailments that afflict pilgrims and are well used to people walking in off the street and saying “I have a problem”. You don’t have to carry vast supplies of plasters, knee bandages, antiinflams, creams, etc. You can restock as you go.

Outfitter shops are available in large villages and towns. Shoes, boots, sandals, socks, back packs, day packs, everything you could want. They have the most hi-tec socks I have ever seen and a very popular super soft soled sandal that some of our friends with blisters bought. Sim cards, batteries, chargers, new phones, cameras etc all readily purchasable.

Transport is also available, either buses or taxis. There seems to be good bus services between towns and around cities. Taxis are available everywhere. Just go into any cafe, bar, albergue, hotel and ask. The rate seemed to be €1 per kilometre. We knew people who were injured but their partner was still walking so they used a taxi so they could meet up each night. Another guy did the same with a rental car. Some people use the local bus to get in and out of the large cities. People with knee problems might use a taxi to get over the steepest hills, or walk half a day and then taxi.

There are companies everywhere that will transfer packs, bags etc. If you are carrying all your own gear but get injured or tired it is easy to arrange transfers at hotels or albergues. The state owned post office (Correos) also have a good, well used service.

Internet coverage is excellent, wifi (pronounced weefee) is free and available in pretty much all cafes, bars, hotels, albergues etc. We had only one hotel in a remote location that had no wifi. About 3 hotels where the service was weak or intermittent. Sometimes it is only usable in public areas of a hotel.

Weather
Everyone who researches the Camino Frances will hear stories of snow and sleet on the Pyrenees, nine days of forty degree temperatures on the meseta, thirteen days of continuous rain and cold in Galicia. Well, that was not for us. We had 34 days walking in a lovely Spanish spring. Four days on which we used our ponchos. Only for about an hour or two in light drizzle each time. One day with a strong cold wind for a couple of hours. Five days when it got a bit hot for us after midday. Otherwise it was ideal weather for walking. Nice crisp mornings, very little wind and sunny days. The only really wet day was down in Finisterre after we had finished.

Food
Although we missed our oatmeal the food in northern Spain is delicious. It is a very fertile area so there is always plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit. And of course it is world renowned for its wine. The food, like pretty much everything else, is cheap compared to NZ. Wine is from €1.95 a bottle. The standard evening meal is the “Peregrino Menu” which is available at every cafe, restaurant, hotel, and costs from €8.90 to €14. It consists of a starter, main course, dessert, bottle of wine, water, bread and sometimes coffee. The starter, main and dessert will each have about six options and vary a bit depending on the specialities of different regions.

Starters could be: mixed salad, russian salad, pasta salad, lasagne, lentil soup, galician broth, gazpacho, spaghetti bolognaise.
Mains could be: roast chicken, grilled veal, beef or pork, pork chop, paella, regional casserole, whole grilled fish (hake or trout), octopus. All with chips – no salad or vegetables with the main course.
Desserts could be: flan, rice pudding, yoghurt, ice cream, fruit (one piece eg kiwi fruit or orange), santiago cake (made with ground almonds).

It can be as fast or as slow as you like. Done and dusted in three quarters of an hour, or spread over two or three hours Spanish style. If you don’t want the peregrino menu there is usually an a la carte menu with a much larger selection of many speciality dishes.

Breakfast can be as basic as coffee, juice, bread and jam. Most places will also have cold ham and cheese and yoghurt. Bigger hotels will have croissants, fruit, cakes and occasionally scrambled eggs and bacon.

Lunch can be bocadillo (sandwich with cheese/ham), tortilla (potato and egg omelette), or empanada (bread type pastry with meat/ vegetable/fish filling). Every village also has a supermarket with everything you would expect. Chocolate is incredibly cheap, €1 for a large cake. You could live very cheaply on wine and chocolate. But not lose much weight.

Accommodation
I wrote about albergues in an early post so won’t say much about these. There are hundreds of them, varying widely in size, facilities, rules, etc. We only saw a few that were “completo”, full. In the summer the popular ones fill quickly.

We used a softer option. Prebooked, prepaid, three star hotels. These were booked by Caminoways who also arranged bag transfer each day. The hotels were excellent with a wide variety ranging from family run country cottages, intimate little hotels in small towns and villages, luxury rooms in monasteries, typical chain hotels in large cities. All had great facilities, most had breakfast, dinner and good free wifi available. Spain does hospitality very well.

Language
The language of the Camino Frances is English. It is possible to walk the entire 800km without using a single word of Spanish or French. But that’s not much fun and not very polite. The Spanish are very friendly and helpful, even more so when you make an effort to use their language. When in Rome do as the Romans and all that. At least learn some basic conversational phrases to order food etc and the best communication is always a smile. Attempt to speak some Spanish and two things may happen. First they will respond in English. They are just as keen to practice their English as you are your Spanish. An interesting conversation is you speaking basic Spanish and they speaking basic English. The second is they will respond in a torrent of high speed Spanish. You will stare at them like a stunned mullet. They will realise you know less Spanish than their two year old child and change to English or speak in slow simple Spanish with hand gestures. You will usually be with your new pilgrim friends and by combining knowledge you get by. Other pilgrims who can speak several languages will gladly help you out. If you do know some Spanish and love languages you will have a ball. Every day you can practice and improve. There are heaps of fellow pilgrims to talk with if you know some Italian, German, French etc.

We are home. At least the body is. The head space missed a connection and is stuck in a transfer lounge in some timeless airport cathedral. It will get here eventually.

Flying is a great way to go somewhere but a lousy way to come home. 36 hours, 3 bus rides, 1 train ride, 5 flights, 7 movies which merged to became one huge long complicated plot. How can you savour all the memories of a wonderful experience while going through all that. I should have started walking from Santiago and just come home slowly. Barbara always can’t wait to get home, me not so much.

We were proceeded by an angel. There was fresh milk in the fridge, the hot water had been turned on, there was a welcome home sign. We saw hundreds of images and statues of angels in Spain. I know a real one right here.

The battery charger is hooked up to the van, the first load of washing is on, there still seems to be enough money for the insurance and the rates. Home.

We went round to our local cafe and Trevor had forgotten our regular order. He always used to know two long blacks and brioche. He and Vivienne want to do the Camino next year so we talked about our experience but I just didn’t know how to explain it. Barry joined us. He walked the Camino last year and talked non stop about his journey. I didn’t understand much of what he said.

Barbara wanted to go to the beach, her happy place. So we walked down there. The tide was in and the waves were smashing against the sea wall so we didn’t actually go onto the beach. I thought this is where we should burn our boots and walking clothes. Not the lighthouse at Cape Finisterre. This is where our camino ended. There was a sign “Light no fires”.

The first load of washing was done. After the beach I even felt good about that. Until I discovered a red paper tissue had been left in a pocket and was now in a zillion pieces on every item of clothing. Welcome home. 

Tomorrow I will open the shed. Get the bikes out. Go for a little ride up to Peka Peka. We haven’t been on a bike for 8 weeks. We live on bikes. It will be strange at first but after a couple of kilometres it will again seem like the bike is part of your body. Welcome home.

When we awoke and looked out the window this morning the mist level had risen from about our knees up to just over our heads. We thought about having a quick breakfast, being mountain goats again, and going back up to the lighthouse in the hope of the views being better. About two seconds later we decided, nah. 

A long leisurely breakfast, at least by our standards, and the day was getting clearer with no rain. We could have caught an early bus but decided to stay and wander around the village until lunchtime. Finisterre is a delightful village. A large working fishing fleet, snorkelling, kayaking, nice sandy beaches and a popular holiday destination. The village and boat harbour are on the protected inland side of a peninsular with some wild surf beaches on the exposed Atlantic Ocean side. We easily filled in a couple of hours before coffee and going to the bus terminus.

The bus we came down on was an “express” and had taken two hours. The return bus was a regular hop on, hop off bus and took just over three hours. That was okay because it was a flash new double decker bus. Some very non-saintly use of the elbows and a bit of foot tripping by Barbara saw us in front row seats on the top level. It felt like we should be actually driving the bus.

About half the distance back to Santiago is along the coast and is very picturesque. Lots of seaside towns full of marinas, hotels, acres of umbrellas and tables. I would say they are very popular for weekends, holidays or a place for a holiday house for people from Santiago. Very much for the locals as this area is not part of the camino highway.

The bus drivers are amazing. I don’t know how they fit the huge buses through narrow winding streets, dodging cars, pedestrians, dogs. Never missing a beat. Yesterday in the rain we weren’t enjoying Finisterre much but after this morning’s lovely walk and an exhilarating dodgem ride this afternoon we were much happier.

We are back in the same monastery/hotel for our last night before flying home. The hotel kept our bags here so we could travel light going down to Finisterre. Went out and bought the obligatory tee shirt this afternoon, although I wondered why. The tattoo will be a reminder of our camino far longer than any tee shirt.

We will go out shortly for our last peregrino meal and bottle of vino tinto.

On the way home I will try and put together a few thoughts on our camino.

Finisterre, for the Romans, finis terrae, the end of the world. For them the most western point in Europe and beyond, nothing. It’s not strictly true. There is a cape in Portugal and another in Spain that are slightly more to the west.

Finisterre is on the Atlantic coast about 100km from Santiago. You can walk from Santiago in about four days and some do continue their journey. We took the bus – 2hours.

There are some rituals relating to Finisterre. Pilgrims wash themselves in the ocean and burn their boots /walking clothes. We never saw an ocean. Maybe there was one. The rain and mist made lighting fires impossible.

Getting the bus was a bit stressful. Seats are not able to be pre-bought or reserved, strictly first come first served. On Sundays there are four buses, the first at 9am,and we didn’t know how many would want to go out there. The bus depot was a twenty minute walk from the hotel which we turned into a forty minute walk by missing a street turning. We got to the ticket counter (for some reason up on the second floor!) a couple of minutes before nine. The ticket seller told us rapido, rapido, so we ran for the bus and just got on. Only two empty seats on a sixty seat coach.

Finisterre was rainy and totally shrouded in mist. We retreated to a cafe for coffee and santiago cake while trying to get our bearings and find our hotel. We had lousy directions and hadn’t done any research and it was Sunday morning so the place was deserted and everything closed. When asked, the Spanish always feel obliged to give you directions, even if they haven’t a clue. So they are not always helpful, although we usually can’t understand what they say anyway. Eventually we stumbled across our hotel and of course they weren’t ready for us. It would be at least an hour. The helpful man at reception suggested we go and look at the faro, lighthouse, on the headland, and the “traditional”  route started from the hotel and was only 2km, shorter than going up the road. Yeah right!

The track was traditional for goats, narrow, twisting, muddy, no directions. Eventually it changed into a dirt road and passed through something dark which may have been a forest. In the mist we couldn’t see a thing and after an hour were sure we were lost. Some parked camper vans emerged from the mist and we stumbled across a road and then a coach and car parking area. We searched about for a bit, may or may not have seen a building, a cross, a brass boot, some burnt clothes. A stranger appeared, took our photo for us and disappeared. I never ever saw his or her face. There are stunning views and fabulous sunsets here. Who knows?

Finisterre looks like it is a lovely little fishing village. If the rain and mist clear I will go and have a look this evening or tomorrow morning. We are back in the hotel and have dried off a bit. Not much to do so I might have to watch TV.

Every single cafe, bar and restaurant in Spain has a large screen tv in the corner and the volume is turned up LOUD. There are only two things on Spanish tv: sport and game shows. The sport is 90% football and maybe a bit of motorcycle racing.

The game shows are the same as everywhere else in the world. But in Spain, no matter what crazy, inane action is going on, there is always one common ingredient. Outrageously attractive young women in tight skirts perched on high stools. They are a permanent fixture on every set. The really creative thing is how the producers have made them an integral part of any and every show.

It’s still raining and the tv is on. I’m not much interested in football so will just change channels. A ha.

Sorry, I got a bit distracted there, lost my thread.

Barbara is asleep so I’ll put the tv on mute. The sound is pretty irrelevant to these game shows anyway.

Catch you later.

A very relaxed, laid back sort of a day. It was nice to wake up and not have to Vaseline the feet, carefully put on the toe socks, lace up the shoes, load the daily needs into the pack, swot up on what we will see today and remember to take the directions to, and name of, the hotel we are heading to.

A slow breakfast and a wander round some of the squares and narrow streets. I like it when they are empty, the street cleaning trucks have left the cobblestones wet, only a few earlybird cafes are open and it is so quiet. A few souls go into the churches for the early mass. The 500 pilgrims who arrived yesterday are still in bed sleeping off last night’s celebrations. It is far too early for the 500 new pilgrims who will arrive today.

At 10 o’clock we were waiting outside the information centre to check out the buses to Finisterre which we will use tomorrow. Then we settled into a table in a strategic cafe on the Camino path to watch the pilgrims come by. In the warm morning sun, over coffee and chocolate cake, we wished them buen camino as they navigated the last few streets. Some were bright eyed and eager, almost skipping along. Others limped, slightly stooped under their loads, doggedly putting one foot in front of the other. Everyone has their own personal camino.

At 11.30 am we were at the Sagrado Corazon tattoo and piercing parlour. Not for a piercing, but a tattoo. We had decided before we left NZ that if we completed our camino we would follow one of its ” modern” traditions and get a tattoo. Just a small one, in a discreet location. A lovely young Frenchman, with a steady hand, did the deed. We now each have a stylised scallop shell on our leg, just above the ankle. We chose the leg because for the last five weeks the legs have done all the hard yards. The Camino may not have changed us in any profound way, but now part of it will always be with us, we can never forget it.

Last night we went to mass in the cathedral to see the swinging of the Botafumeiro (“smoke-belcher”), a giant incense burner that hangs on a thick rope from high in the dome. The ritual requires half a dozen attendants, tiraboleiros, to get it swinging. Originally it was used to fumigate the sweaty and possibly disease ridden pilgrims. This is a large cathedral and seats 1,000. We arrived an hour early and already every seat was taken. At least another 1,000 of us were standing and eventually the doors were closed to stop even more from entering. It was a full mass and communion with a lot of singing. The singing was lead by a nun who had an amazing voice and with the organ it was magic.

The swinging of the Botafumeiro was started with an almighty blast on the organ. Straight out of The Phantom of the Opera. At the beginning of the service they said there was to be no photography but as soon as the swinging started a thousand iphones, tablets and cameras came out, all popping off their flashes. We were not in a good location so didn’t get a good view due to the large crowd.

Our hotel here, the San Martin Pinario was a huge monastery (20,000 sqm) built mainly in the 17th century and is now a hotel, church, museum, hostel and seminary. As with most of our accommodation it is beautiful, a mixture of the old and the modern. It has three cloisters and is on the south side of a plaza, facing the north side the cathedral. This plaza is one of the sunniest and so attracts a lot of buskers and street performers.

All day people arrive in the square in front of the cathedral. The tradition is for walkers to lie prone on the flag stones, and cyclists to hold their cycles above their heads. Early this morning a group of horsemen rode in dressed in ceremonial costume. They were Cavaleiros de Paz from Brazil. They performed some form of ritual that involved kneeling and a sword being placed on their head. A bit like being knighted by the queen. We heard reports these guys drank an awful lot of beer on the way to Santiago and it was only because the horses were sober and knew the way that they got here. Two other guys on beautiful small horses also arrived. We had seen them yesterday on Monte del Gozo.

Tonight we met up with a bunch of our friends Helen, Carolyn, John, Jackie, Peter, Alison, Vee, Evelyn and two other Aussies for a celebration drink. Everyone was pretty happy to have made it. I had my first Spanish beer. I have been drinking vino tinto all the way and had decided I would wait until I reached Santiago before a nice cold beer.