Day 9 on the meseta

Not a very interesting day today but we enjoyed ourselves none the less. From Mansilla de las Mulas the path was straight out of town and was adjacent a busy road. A constant flow of traffic. Most of the time the path was separate from the road but occasionally we had to walk on the shoulder.

Early on we saw some unusual geological formations off to our right. Large mounds of earth that had been pushed up from the plateau. At our coffee stop we enquired and found out they are colinas – hills. I vaguely remember hills from the distant past. I may have cycled some at home. Apparently we will cross a few more today, and in the coming days, and they will get bigger and be called montanas , mountains.

It is actually a relief to get off the plateau and go over some undulating ground. The legs seem to work better when there is some variation going up and downhill. The unchanging regular stride on flat ground is just so tiring. I may regret saying this in a few days.

The approach to Leon is like any city. Winding in through the detritus of electricity pylons and sub stations, motorway flyovers, petrol stations, wreckers yards, used car yards, hectares of boring warehouses, truck stops. It seems to go on forever. No more wild flowers, even they don’t like being here. Maybe just a few thistles and lupins. An ever increasing drone of noise. Vehicles, machinery, sirens, horns and hammering. The meseta was so beautiful and peaceful.

We know people (they will not be named, what happens on the Camino stays on the Camino) who got a cab today. And we saw others getting on the bus. Their souls will be examined and their weakness bared for all to see at the gates of Santiago de Compostela. A few times today we thought it was a good idea.

You wouldn’t believe it, after crossing the last flyover and entering the city proper there was a large hospital alongside the path, and part of it was an asylum. I imagined the yellow arrows leading right in to Admittance. Plenty of room in the albergue from which you can never leave.

Trudging through the residential suburbs we ran out of oomph. Emotionally as much as physically and took refuge in Restaurante Scorpio. Refuelled with a scorpio burger and freshly squeezed orange juice, a sit down with the shoes off for a while, and a trip to the servicos. All the time we were there a woman stood at the only poker machine and fed it coins.

Finding your hotel in a city is always a bewildering experience. Like walking through a maze with continuous distractions of sights, sounds and smells. In towns and cities we have taken to not immediately trying to find the hotel as soon as we hit town. It is amazing how poor your decision making is with low sugar levels. We now find a cafe or park and have something to eat, get our bearings and usually do much better. We are also not supposed to check in before 2pm so if we are early it helps to fill in the time.

We are now in Leon and have our third and final rest day here tomorrow before a thirteen day push to Santiago. Leon is also the third cathedral city we visit (others: Pamplona and Burgos), the fourth will be Santiago.

Leon was a Roman military garrison and base for its VIIth Legion, hence the name – Leon from Legion.

Because people have slightly different itineraries due to how far they walk each day, we have got out of step with some of our friends. However most people are in Leon tonight so we have been in contact by email and will try and meet for dinner tonight.

Ipod theme tune for today: Hotel California by the Eagles

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
“Relax” said the night man,
We are programmed to receive,
You can check out any time you like,
But you can never leave.

Day 8 of the meseta madness – aargh!!!

The directions for today were just as “straightforward”  as yesterday.

After 80 minutes we came to the first highlight of the day. The path actually veered slightly to the left! Veer is probably too strong, it was a long gentle curve. This caused some excitement and we had to consult the guide book and map. Sure enough the path moved slightly from the straight and narrow.

After another hour we encountered the mid morning rush hour. 3 cars passed in quick succession, ie within 5 minutes of each other. They were all taxis. I think some people were cheating today.

Along the path, about every kilometre there was a concrete bench. On every one of them someone had sprayed “podemos”  which translates to “we can”.

We walked on our own. Not a person visible ahead or behind. You feel quite an invasion of privacy when someone slowly catches up to you. At one stage we felt hemmed in, one person 50 metres ahead and another 50 metres behind.

Then three things happened at once. The path turned right. It dipped down. And it passed under a subway. This was way too much information to process for a brain that had long gone into hibernation. The roading engineers should have made this three separate actions, about 15 minutes apart.

Tomorrow afternoon we will reach Leon and I am sure the largest building in the city will be a hospice for those traumatised from walking nine days across the meseta.

And then, from out of nowhere, a cafe had found us, soothing our thirst as we leaned on the bar. They had foot long chocolate eclairs filled with custard instead of cream. Oh yes! This little village had an Elvis bar. Very popular, specially in the evenings.

We did have trains for company today. About 2 kilometres off to our left was the track for the AVE, Alta Velocidad Espanola, the Spanish high speed train. This train moves like a bullet and from coming over the horizon in front to disappearing behind takes about 15 seconds. It makes no sound. About 2 kilometres off to our right was another track that took freight trains. These trains are extremely long, move just slightly faster than us, and rumble. They seem to be used mainly for transporting cars.

Tonight we are in a gorgeous little hotel (only has 4 rooms) in the beautiful little town of Mansilla de las Mulas. The name is derived from Mano en Silla – hand on the saddle. The addition of de las Mulas (of the mules) refers to the town’s earlier prominence as a livestock market. It has a 12th century fortified wall that today protects it from invading modernity. There is a large bus station here and some people get the bus to Leon to avoid a long tedious walk through its outskirts.

Five of us arrived at the hotel together and we were welcomed  by a lovely man who checked us in and intimated that our bags hadn’t arrived and that sometimes they got lost. He ushered us into the cute little hotel bar and made us coffee, poured some white wine and provided a cheese and ham sandwich. After consuming this he took us to our rooms where of course our bags were waiting for us.

For only the second time we were able to look inside a cemetery. Again it was a few kilometres outside a village and surrounded by high walls.

The soil here is very fertile looking and red. It must require a lot of water though as there are irrigation ditches everywhere. We crossed a large brand new concrete canal that has not yet carried any water. Someone had scratched 19 Mayo 2016 into the last batch of concrete.

Ipod theme song for the day: We gotta get out of this place by The Animals.

We gotta get out of this place, if it’s the last thing we ever do
We gotta get out of this place, there’s a better life
Don’t you know, don’t you know

Day 7 of the meseta.

Easy instructions today. Leave Sahagun under the Arco San Benito gate, cross the Puente Romano bridge, and you are on the path. Straight ahead for 17 kilometres. There is a quiet sealed road on your right, approx 1 vehicle per hour. There is a line of poplars on your left, equally spaced every 10 metres, for 17 kilometres. There are seats and tables among the poplars every kilometre. Enjoy.

On no account are you to start counting the poplars, as if you lose where you are up to, then you have to go back to the beginning and start again.

Up until the 80s this path was said to have quite a mystical effect. There was no road, the poplars hadn’t been planted and the path had not been formed. You just walked across fields. With no points of reference or distinguishing geographic features it was regarded as desolate and for those inclined, mystic. Today the path has been bulldozed and the road and trees give it a very strong perspective. These “improvements”  make it impossible to lose perspective and the mystic effect has been lost.

The Puente Romano is a five arch Roman bridge but it was reconstructed in the 11the and 16th centuries so we couldn’t tell what was original. Just beyond the bridge was a woodland named Charlemagne’s Field of Lances. Charlemagne was pursuing the Moors in an effort to make the road safe for pilgrims. The night before the battle some Christians stuck their lances into the ground, straight up, in front of the camp. At dawn those men who were to die in the coming battle found their lances had grown bark and sprouted leafy branches. Astonished and attributing the miracle to God’s divine power, they cut them off at ground level. From the buried roots of the lances was born the woodland. 40,000 Christians died in losing the battle.

I love all the legends on the Camino. Everyday there is something to think about.

We both enjoyed today. The walking was “straightforward” and we had a spring in our step. Last night we happened to meet Victoria and Craig (from Arizona) and ate with them in the very good hotel restaurant. They are very friendly and generous people and Craig has a sardonic sense of humour and our spirits were raised hugely. We ate the basic peregrino menu but they really love their food and had a great time picking specialities from the a la carte menu.

Today was our nineteenth day of walking and I think for the first time we approached a village without seeing a massive church bell tower. At about 5 villages per day that’s 95 villages. When right in the village we did see a very skinny, skeletal tower. Sort of a Twiggy tower. We were not sure if it was a bell tower or a tower at the fire station for hanging up the hoses. There weren’t any storks nests, so probably the latter.

Ipod theme song of the day: Magical Mystery Tour, The Beatles

Roll up, roll up for the magical mystery tour
.. . . . . . .
The magical mystery tour is waiting to take you away
Waiting to take you away

Day 6 on the meseta and maybe the meseta is messing with us.

A funny sort of day. A plodding day. We weren’t tired just a bit lethargic. Everything seemed heavy. It was certainly more humid than the last few days and quite warm. Maybe it was just a reaction to a very enjoyable day yesterday and having passed the halfway mark we were a bit flat – just like the meseta.

We were just as keen to get on the road and had a scrumptious buffet breakfast, the hotel family excelled themselves. One of the few things we miss from home is our oatmeal breakfast with yoghurt, nuts and berries. Oatmeal seems to be unheard of here. Sometimes the breakfast is coffee, yoghurt, juice, bread and jam.

The other thing we miss of course is our family and friends. Actually we don’t. We have decided we will only miss those who make comments on the blog or send emails. The rest of you don’t exist. No candles being lit for you. Just kidding.

Yesterday and today we are in an area that has no suitable stone for construction. Buildings and walls are brick for the more substantial structures and adobe for the others. The better adobe ones are rendered with plaster but many houses, walls and farm buildings are left unrendered. The straw mixed into the mud is clearly visible. The adobe doesn’t weather well and many buildings are very dilapidated.

Some fields today with large arrays of photovoltaic cells generating solar power. Always wind turbines on the horizon as well. Somebody told us that farmers in France and Spain can make more money from power generation than from traditional farming. Perhaps an urban myth? Or a rural myth.

Again we came across “Bodegas”. Not hobbit houses but little caves dug into banks and hillsides and were used for storing food and wine making since Roman times. When each family made their own wine the caves contained wine presses, barrels, bottling vats and clay vessels. Legend says they were dug in wintertime as a pastime for children who could keep warm and occupied scooping out the soft clay. Once exposed to air the clay hardened to a stoney finish, strong enough to support the waste earth that was raised in buckets through the chimney ventilation shaft and dumped out on the roof.

Mid morning we stopped at a humble little village that once had been a stronghold of the Knights Templar, Terradillos de los Templarios. Nothing physically remains of the noble Order but the cafe was named after Jacques de Molay, the last grand master of the Order. We had cafe americano and muffin – in Spanish same spelling but pronounced moof fin.

There is an Irish Pub just along the road and they have Guinness O’clock. I wonder if they do bangers and mash or guiness pie?

Ipod theme tune for today: The Rolling Stones

No you can’t always get what you want
aaahhwaw
But if you try sometime, you just might find
You get what you need

Day 5 on the Meseta

Not in a physical sense, but many people find this the most difficult day. Flat is one word that springs to mind on this stretch of the path. Treeless is another and monotonous is a third.

A short 17km on a vehicleless country road. Wheat fields stretching out to the horizon on both sides. But there is plenty to discover here. We counted up to 25 different species of wild flowers and heard several different strains of birdsong. The things to look for are just a bit more subtle.

There is an old saying “the landscape of Castilla is in her sky”. And it is a huge sky. Today the sky was a very pale blue as there was a very thin layer of cloud so while everything was bright the colours in the fields were subtle and the shadows were muted.

It started out about 3 degrees and reached about 18, but this could be a very hot place in the summer, up to 40 degrees. There were no villages for the 17km and no water fountains. At about the 12km mark there was a keenly anticipated food truck we had heard about. By coincidence we met Carolyn and John, Trish, Janie, Victoria and Craig there, so it was quite a little party.

Our destination today was Calzadilla de la Cueza. Several local towns are named Calzada or Calzadilla, meaning road, ie the Roman or pilgrim road. We joined a section of the original Roman road, Calzada Romana, the Via Aquitana. Still intact and used after 2000 years but with a new gravel topping. The road is in an area of wetland devoid of any stone for construction so they reckon 100,000 tons of rock came from elsewhere to provide a basecouse and raise the road above the flood level.

The town we are in has a permanent population of 60 but many times that when the pilgrims hit town. There are two large albergues and our hotel. The hotel has about 20 rooms and is run by one family. They front at reception, serve at the bar, service the rooms, do your laundry, prepare all the meals, serve in the restaurant, and all the time very friendly and accommodating. Before dinner we went for a walk round town. That took all of about 5 minutes.

Dinner can become quite rowdy affairs as the wine flows and everyone relaxes after the effort of the day. We were with Janie, Roger and Bryony (from the Hutt) and Karen and Alexis from the tablelands out of Cairns. Karen and Alexis like a beer, and not a small one. Unfortunately Karen has injured her foot so she and Alexis reduce their walking each day and get a cab. Getting a cab is easy. Walk into any bar or cafe and someone will have a cousin, or son in law, or uncle who has a cab. The going rate is one euro per kilometre.

Today was a milestone day. We have completed half our camino, 17 of 34 days walking, and somewhere today passed the halfway point in distance to Santiago . Our credentials are now half full.

Paul can’t believe the time has flashed by so quickly and we have come so far. He feels the time is going far too fast.

Barbara feels it has taken a long time to get this far and that means we have a long time to go.

A summation at the halfway mark:

It is more fun than we thought.
We are enjoying the journey and not thinking of the destination.
The comraderie, the food and coffee are wonderful.
The walking has been very pleasant.
We are healthy and uninjured, most bits are still working.
We are going at our pace in lovely conditions, great villages, great scenery, great weather, great trail.

Spoiler alert. The next photos will contain pictures of feet. Parental guidance is recommended.

Ipod theme song for today: The Wanderer by Dion

I’m the type of guy who likes to roam around
I’m never in one place, I roam from town to town