Lugo

I made a special trip to Lugo which was about 30 km from Vilalba where I finished my walking. I wanted to see the famous Roman wall which completely surrounds the old town. It is the only complete roman wall still in existence and runs for over 2 kms at a height of between 8 and 12 metres and width of over 4 metres at the top. You can walk around old Lugo along the top of the wall.

I also visited the Cathedral where I was hijacked by an earnest and devout lady who took me on a guided tour. Like much to do with the Catholic Church, the details were many and complex and very few lodged in my brain. What I do recall is that it is one of a few cathedrals to permanently expose the Holy Sacrement (whatever that means) and that it has a piece of the lignam crucis or the actual cross that Jesus was crucified on. I was shown this exceedingly small splinter but in the poor light and with my eyesight, it was invisible.

Galicia

All of Northern Spain was green and pleasant but the two areas I enjoyed the most were the Basque Country where I commenced my walk and Galicia where I finished. Both are hilly and picturesque but whereas the Basque Country felt affluent, Galicia is quite poor.

Supposedly Galicia has Celtic roots and there is some evidence of this with the traditional dress and bagpipe type instruments. Also in the popular design motifs. I walked about 100 km or so through Galicia on this trip and also visited the cities of Lugo and A Coruna. The countryside is very Lord of the Rings with many deeply shaded paths sided with granite and cool clear streams crossing the path at regular intervals.

Santiago de Compostela lies within Galicia.

Eucalyptus

I have seen many Oaks, Chestnuts and Pines but by far the most common tree across northern Spain is the gum tree. Massive plantations of them but also clearly they have naturalised and spread throughout the countryside. They grow really straight and strong. Apparently at the best Albergue along the Northern route - Guemes - the priest there gave a talk to the pilgrims about the ecological threat they pose. Kind of obvious in hindsight. Nice hot weather but with greater rainfall and deeper soils than Australia. I haven't ever seen a healthier bunch of eucalypts. I'm not sure of the variety, perhaps blue gums given the colour of the new growth. It does

make me feel at home.

Albergues

Dotted along the Camino are special accommodations for pilgrims called Albergues. They most resemble youth hostels and vary massively in quality from congenial and restful to public health and safety hazard. Most fall into the latter category.

Ranging in price from 10 euros down to nothing, all you need to enter is a credential or Pilgrim Passport. In many ways, the spacings between Albergues frame the flow on the Camino because a Pension is a good deal more expensive.

Mostly the Albergues are acceptable to me but sometimes you get a perfect storm; squeaky bunks, cold showers and some lunatic who starts yelling in the night and turns the lights on at 3am. This on top of the usual cacophony of snoring and a concentration of carbon dioxide likely to give you permanent brain damage.

80% of Albergues would be shutdown over night if the operated in Australia. Spain seems far more relaxed in this regard and the benefit is affordable accomodation for pilgrims.

Bread, Eggs, Meat and Potatoes

And let's not forget coffee and beer. These are the staples of the Camino and of rural Spain. I generally start the day with coffee and Tortilla Patatas which is a slice of Spanish Omellette served with or in a roll.

During the day, I'll have another coffee or a beer and the same or a bocadilla which is a roll, usually with cured meat filling. If I time things right, I'll have a menu del dia which is an inexpensive three course meal served with bread and wine. Generally available at lunch until about 3. Dinner is often tapas/Pinxos  at a bar with beer or wine. The tapas and Pinxos can vary in quality and variety but are often bread, meat and..... potatoes.

The Good with the Bad

Without getting too deep, one thing I like about the Camino is that it includes sections that are prosaic, barren and often ugly. In this, it is a metaphor for our lives and contrasts with 'highlight' tourism which encourages superficiality.

We push on for hours through dormitory suburbs and hot dusty towns past heavy industry and finally into the countryside. Andre is reaching his limits and we stop in a private rural Albergue.

The signs say 400 metres off the path but it is closer to 1 km. We enter to the smell of cigarettes and the babble of daytime television. The Señora is parked on the couch giving directions. All very friendly and all too authentic. The showers are cold and the meal

very basic but the garden is gorgeous and the location tranquill. I spend a lovely afternoon reading in the sun. Andre falls in with a group of French speakers and is very content.

Travels with Andre

I was keen to meet up with Andre and continue my journey along the Camino. Seeing Andre after 3 years and the serious health problems he has experienced was amazing! He looked very well and had not aged at all. With the same sparkle in his eye and ready smile. Although we can barely communicate, there is a strong rapport and I enjoy his company and particularly his way with people which is engaging and unfailingly courteous. He always has time for a chat and to smell the flowers; literally.

Losing my Rhythm

I made the decision to spend some time in Santander waiting for Andre to arrive. In hindsight, it was a mistake because it threw my rhythm entirely. Santander didn't do much for me although it is a nice enough city with a beach or two. I was keen to be back on the road and have a mission. I also missed the Albergue accomodation although in many respects, they are appalling. I did get some reading done with an interesting Tom Wolfe book I found. And some paddling, not swimming, at the beach.

Skipping a step

Ideally, the Camino should be walked as a single unbroken journey. There are many reasons for this including cameraderie and a fuller immersion into the experience. For me, this was not possible and I needed to skip ahead from Bilbao to Santander.

 I stayed in a Pension in Bilbao which despite its relative luxury was a disconnecting experience. Although I am not yet walking again, I am tonight in an Albergue which feels much better.

One of the remarkable assets of Northern Spain is a narrow guage train line that runs from the French border all the way to Ferrol in the North west corner of Spain. It runs through just about every single village on the way allow people from the countryside to shop or work in the larger towns and cities. For about $13, I travelled for 3 hours from Bilbao to Santander stopping at about 30 places on the way. It was not really quick but it was clean and modern and the scenery was breathtaking. Unlike with roads, the line seemed to merge with the landscape creating a lovely sense of immersion like one gets walking through the countryside.

Gernika

Another day of beautiful weather through beautiful countryside. The Basque Country is amazingly fertile though seriously hilly making this another tough day. I was a little fuzzy headed after last night's session but paced things well arriving late but unstressed in Gernika. The town was carpet bombed by the Germans at the behest of Franco during the civil war. Only a few buildings were left standing. There is a museum and also a mosaic reproduction of Picasso's famous painting. There was some kind of Bolivian community event going on which was a bit of fun. Some excellent Pinxos too!

Serious Slogging

Today was always going to be a tough one! We had to buy our lunch in advance and be sure to eat well before we left. 24 kms, some big climbs and not a single town on the way. The start was softened somewhat when we came across a nice patch of AstroTurf and some deck chairs after 4 k's. Of course I lingered for a second coffee and some Pinxos. Today was a glorious day weather wise but extremely demanding. I staggered into town a little after 3. A nice cool refuge of some kind... Donativo. After a shower and cool down, it was off to the 'cafe' for a beer with Irish Brian. One thing led to another and soon we were drinking a fifth round with a Brazillian, and two sets of siblings from Taiwan and Hungarian. Huge fun but you pay big time for nights like this on the Camino.

Seaside Perfection

Today we walked to Deba through some seriously hilly country. Fortunately, the sun was shining and the pastures so green and starred with wild flowers. All this mingled with shady paths through the small forests and shelter belts which go to make this such a sane and sustainable landscape. The communal riches of the town of Deba were everywhere evident but the one most impressive to the weary traveller was a pair of public lifts making the huge vertical scale of this hillside town an easy matter. Tonight, for the princely sum of 5 euros, I slept in an old school with a commanding view of the town and the sea beyond. Lunch in the square and a nap on the beach made this a perfect day.

The Wet Day

So much of our lives are spent sheltered from the extremes of the weather. It's rare for a modern person to ever get seriously wet. Not so the pilgrim who must continue regardless. I took a punt on fine weather for this Camino, foregoing walking boots for lighter trainers. Much better on hard Tarmac but a potential disaster in heavy rain. Disaster as in completely wet shoes and socks leading to blisters. Today it rained fairly

consistently but I was lucky it was light and I managed to keep my feet dry though I used all my socks to do it. A tough day but really not so bad and happy to arrive intact. Had some good company , excellent Pinxos and topped the evening of with a generous glass of Armagnac which was sensational and completely dissolved the aches of the day.

San Sebastián

It's easy to forget how tough the Camino can be. Last night I was so exhausted that I couldn't face the walk into San Sebastián for dinner. I feel quite bad about that and I'm sure it would be quite a place late evening with money to burn. As we arrived, we meet some American travellers who invited us to join them for sushi. Given we smelt and felt like we'd been mucking out a piggery, we graciously declined. The life of the walker ( I still feel odd referring to myself as pilgrim) often doesn't  sit well with destination tourism. We must keep moving and establish a rhythm. Early mornings and exhaustion at night. I have lingered in a particularly beautiful town from time to time but when you do, your Camino family moves on and it feels like starting again. I guess my final reflection on the matter is that as attractive as San Sebastián is, there is that beach town factor that makes me feel I've seen it before.

Amsterdam

Kudos to the Dutch for creating Amsterdam; the place feels so free and wonderfully intelligent. Bikes whisper and tinkle past my window in the evening leaving snatches of conversation as they go. Thoughtful conversation. I can hear that without a word of Dutch. The peacefulness of the city is also impressive. It's the bikes. Old banged up things in plain colours for the most part. I could spend a month here but I only have a day.

Ready to go?!

This will be my third Camino but I still get

pretty nervous before I leave. I've done next to no physical preparation which means the first week should be pretty tough. I'm also without a guidebook this time which should be interesting.

On this trip, I walk along the Atlantic coast of Spain from Irun by the French border. Some beautiful towns, beaches and mountains await me on what is called the green coast of Spain... some rain too I expect.

I am packed (7 kgs) and ready for departure at 10.30 am on China Southern Airlines to Amsterdam. I have a heap of things to see there over two days. That's about as far ahead as I can think right now.