sept. 15 Santiago

Random Notes
was reading Bicicle diaries by David Byrne which I picked up at the hostel in London. finished it and gave it to Chris from Colorado.
was walking down a quiet and beautiful wooded path with Luz in front of me holding her phone in the air recording birdsong (something Maggie might do)
walking down a trail and find seveeral of my spanish companions excitedly taking a picture of a squirrel. obviously less common in Spain than Canada.
Pictures - I am taking many pictures but they won´t be truly representative of the Camino as they are of beuatiful trailside scenes and of my companions. Underrepresented are pictures of us walking along the road or holding tight to the side of the road as cars whiz by or walking through suburbs or industrial parks. Lots of pictures to go through when I get home and then I will post a link to them.
took the bus from Lugo to Ferrol and the Camino Inglise (English) . End upin Neda and find an albergue. poor dinner with sullen server but then we walk in the growing darkness to a local festival we have been told of. Carnival rides and cheesy carnival midway with bright silly plush toys for prizes. A band is plying to hundreds of people of all ages. Music is latin of some kind and the band has a good horn player and some good looking youg guys and girls. Lots of people having fun. We walk home to our albergue in the darkness. The Belgians we share the albergue with are long asleep.
Random Note - no more distances given as no one agrees as to what they are - guides, local etc.
<Mino, and are told we have walked closer to 30 k than the 23 k we understood we had walked. Still must find a way to keep our stages shorter and that is difficlt as this camino has fewer albergues. Young hospitalera says we can call town ahead and if they don´t have an albergue they will find somewhere to put us up.
Feeling good. I walked 23 - 30 k and after taking off boots and pack and having shower I feel fine. Don´t want to wlk any further today but next day is fine. >Feels good that I can still do fairly strenous activities without kiling myself.
The Belgians started arriving bout 3 hours after us and we couldn´t figure out why but I talked to >Chris, the yank, with them, and it turns out they stopped about 3 more times than we did.
Sat 9, 11 get up and leave before the belgians. the plan is to wlk to a town where we will be put up in a sports hall. stop at a town about 10-12 k and there is some kind of festival happening and there is art from many different artists in many styles hanging from balconies all over town. later in aftrnoon getting hot and tired and are unclear about where we are going. we lave camino at Cos and walf 2-6 k to town with sports hall. it is hot and it is 6 k. too few places to refill water along the way. reach sports hall and it is wondrful. we sleep in a large room on gym mats and have showers and the plce to ourselvs. there is a pool which the women use. I shower and get a cold drink and relax poolside. we walked close to 30 k and Random Note walking through groves and plantations of eucalyptus trees in Galicia.
Sunday sept 12 started wlking knowing generally where we are reconnecting with camino in village of Presedo. would have wlked right by cnnection to camino which wasn´t marked except for the woman we stopped to alk to. we wlk to Bruma which is about 20 k and there is an albergue. stopped at a roadside barcafe and had cafe con leche grande. next k was steep and getting hot. rural spanish roads can be very steep. after a couple of hours met a woman who was very helpful and friendly and refilled our water bottles. must be strange to have hundreds and thousnds of strangers walk pst our backyard. walkedon and saw a sign saying albergue 1 k. we are vry happy. got there and happir. a nice clean well set up albergue but about 2 k from town. a good 3 course meal is delivered for 10 euro each. we are happy. next stage is about 27 k. Alicia´s foot has been botheriing her so she takes the bus and we walk. We go for bocadillas for dinnr and I hear that Luz and Begonia are getting more tired and do not like this camino as much as the camino primitivo becuse the scenery isn´t as impressive and we have lost companions so our group is not as rich and diverse. I hadn´t thought about it but agree. I get to Santiago and walk around as tourist withouta pack. Trekking in the Atlas mountains i carry only the days stuff and a muleteer carries the res. sounds good to me.
Monday 9-13 Bruna to Siguero esy 27 k but the last 5-6 k is down a gravel road in the forest which is straight, has litle shade or interest. we get to the sports hall. we will be sleeping on mattresses in the room the tble tennis tem is using now. we get in at 9 and put out stuff down and go for dinner. before then luz and lici go for a swim and we drink and chat with other peregrinos. I go for the shortest hairct I have ever had. the barber finlly understands and puts away the scissors for the clippers. My friends rub my head and say it feels soft and fuzzy.
Manana Santiago.
met pilgrim who was with the spanish navy and he told me that he enjoyed st Johns newfoundland.
WED sept 15 it is 8:15 and i am sitting with a machine made cafe con leche watching the city go by. I have several things to do and lots of time to do them. Our group of friends will start to disburse today and I am a bit sad. We went our for a good dinner last night. We went to the old city and met Jan'Bptiste and a friend of his who hd met earlier. The friend was about my age and from Paris. We found a restaurant in a narrow street in he old city and shared a fine meal of peppers from Padrone and pulpo etc. it was 9 - 11 in the evening but the cafe and street was full of people. after dinner around 11:30 we went for a walk down to the cathedral square which was alive still with people. A group of young peope, 30?, was signing loudly and I have no idea wht they were singing. I wandered around the corner to the sound of pipes. A goup of 4 young women who sounded great but were just finishing unfortunately.
The cathedral is lit up at night and spectacular. I wish I had the ability to dequately describe it. It is huge and massibe and breath taking and at the same time live with detail and images. There are statues and images all over it and i believe that the statues and images all have meaning(s) but I don´t have the educational or religious background to understand the meanings of the images. Still incredably amazing and I cn think of nothing I have seen in NA that has the same combination of beauty, grandeur, history and meaning.
Eventually we wndr away. I don´t know where we are going and it doesn´t matter. We end up, w/3 others we had met before, sitting and lying on a grassy hillside looking over some low rise buildings at the well lit cathedral. amazing view. we sit there relaxing and chatting until we spring up because the automatic sprinklers come on. we walk on to the taxis and home to our lbergue.

this could have been a much differen trip but I met a very wondrful group of people early on nd travelled with them and it has been great.