Sarria to Mercadoiro

 

Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

Day 2

8 May 2015

We were up at 0645 with everyone else.  Lights automatically came on at 0700.  We were on our way by 0745.  It rained last night and everything this morning is cool, damp and green.

I only wanted to walk 13km to Ferrerios today but Sally wanted to walk further.

There are a lot of pilgrims who start their Camino from Sarria (about 25%). Starting here qualifies a pilgrim for their Compostela.  A certificate that states the pilgrim has walked (the minimum) 100 Kms. of the Camino.

Above we came across a pilgrim who is traveling by mule and camping out.

Today, we broke out ALL of our clothing.  It was windy so we got out the wind breakers, it started to lightly rain so we got our rain ponchos, and we had to strip down to short sleeve shirts because it got hot and sunny.  The trail was muddy in places and there were many people walking the trail.  The birds were an orchestra of songs that persisted all day.  We came across two young girls who were deaf and dumb and were asking pilgrims for donations and to sign a list stating where they were from.  We donated but later heard this was a scam.??

We also came across this man "Busking" along the trail.  

I wanted to leave my stone at the 100 Km marker.  This marker was just shy of the real 100 Km marker but I did not know this and so this is where I left my stone and prayed a Hail Mary and thanked God for my health, Sally and the opportunity to walk the Camino.

Along the trail we saw what looked like collard greens in every garden we passed, but some of these were growing up to 5-7 foot tall.  I asked a dairy farmer about this, as he was also growing them, and he confirmed they were “Coles” (collards).

We would pass many old churches and gardens along the Camino.

We did a total of 17km today and made it to Mercadoiro where we would stay at the Albergue Mercadoiro (10€ each).  It had free WiFi or WeFe as they pronounce it, washer and dryer (3€ and 2€), a bar and restaurant.  Met Jamie from England again but she was headed on to Portomarin, another 6kms.

At the albergue, we met a woman from Texas.  She had retired from working as a dispatcher for BNSF in Montana.  She had started her Camino a few years back but had to stop when she developed a severe case of tendonitis in the heel of her foot.  So this year she came back to finish her journey on the Camino.

It was too early for dinner (about 5:00 pm) so we sat down and ordered glasses of wine from the bar.  The host/bartender also brought us some snacks to try (left overs from today’s lunch).  In the mean time I went to do our laundry.  I could not get the washer to accept my coins, only to learn from our host, that you could not do a wash and dry clothes at the same time as this would over load the circuit breaker.  When the dryer finished I washed our clothes and hung them out on the clothes line to dry.

Madrid to Sarria

2Sassytravelers

Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

Day 1

6-7 May 2015

For our first night in Spain we booked the Hostel (Hotel) El Cruce because of its proximity to the airport and it offered a free shuttle service to and from the airport.  Our flight got us into Madrid about midnight and we needed to be back at the airport at 0900 the next day.  Although our lodging is called Hostel El Cruce, it is really a hotel.  In Spain smaller hotels are called Hostels.  Hostels as we know them are called “Youth Hostels”.

El Cruce was a nice place to stay, quiet and it offered a simple continental breakfast.

Up at 0700  on the 7^th.  Our first order of business is to get back to the airport and mail the duffel bag we had brought over on the flight to our hotel in Santiago.

We used this duffel bag to fly over items we could not carry on the plane like Sally’s hiking poles and the Swiss Army knife.  We also used it to pack the extra clothes we would be using on our travels through Spain and Portugal after we finish our pilgrimage.  It will also be used to carry home the souvenirs we pick up along the way.

Our online research told us that there were post offices in terminals 4 and 1 at Madrid’s Barajas Airport.  As we needed to catch the train from terminal 4 to Madrid’s Chamartin train station, mailing this package and getting off to the train station would work out great.  The hotel shuttle got us to terminal 4 just before 0900 and we quickly learned that the ONLY post office in Barajas airport was located in terminal 1.  Luckily for us there is a free airport shuttle that will ferry you to and from all the terminals.  We made it to the post office in terminal 1 about 0915, where we met a woman from Mexico, who helped us translate that we needed to mail our duffel bag to Santiago.  The bag weighed about 10.3 kilos and cost us 21.90€ to mail to Santiago.  It would arrive in four days.  It turns out that this woman will be starting her Camino in about three days with her husband.  We thanked her and wished her “Buen Camino”.  We caught the shuttle back to terminal 4 to catch the train to Chamartin station.

Now, I had read some place online that if you present your RENFE train tickets to the RENFE ticket office in the airport they will issue you a free pass to take the train to Chamartin station.  We did this and were issued our free tickets.

At Chamartin station I did notice another post office.  I didn’t know if you could mail packages from this post office or not, but I don’t see why you couldn’t.  Looking for our train to Sarria we learned that they don’t post the platform the trains are leaving from until 20 minutes before their departure.

You may want to bring along your own snacks and drinks on the train as just one can of Fanta Orange Soda cost us 2.50€ (Ouch).

On our train ride to Sarria we watched the terrain change 

                                                                                                       

from flat,












                                             To hilly,

      And then to mountainous.

We arrived in Sarria on time, about 1900 (7:00p). We walked up the hill to our albergue, the Mosteiro da Madalena, which is an old monastery.  On our way up to the albergue we passed the Camino distance marker 111.

The front desk at the albergue was staffed by a volunteer who gave us a quick tour of the facilities and explained the house rules, such as "Lights out at 10:00 pm".

Facilities at the albergue included a kitchen with pots/pans and utensils, vending machines that sold food items like drinks and hot coffee, and canned food items mac & cheese.  There were 3 computer stations that cost 1€ per 1/2 hour.  They also provided paper mattress covers, pillow covers and blankets if you wanted them.  They had a locker system where you inserted a Euro and locked your things up and when you returned the key to the locker to retrieved your stuff you got your Euro Back. 

We ate dinner at an Italian restaurant close by where we joined 2 other pilgrims, Mary from England and Jaimie from Italy.  We ordered the “Meal of the day” where we selected a mixed salad plate (lettuce, pickled eggplant, tomatoes and carrots),pasta with tomato and meat sauce, pannacotta for desert and 2 glasses of sangria (14€).

Back at the albergue we showered and hand washed our laundry and laid it out to dry. Sally was in the shower when the lights went out at 10:00.

 

TrainTickets From RENFE (the Spanish Train System)

Not being a Spanish speaker (my problem), trying to book our train tickets with RENFE from Madrid to Sarria  was a learning experience. RENFE's web site was hard to navigate, even with their English version. But with the help of a Portuguese friend I figured it out.  I then learned about  a booking agency called Loco2 ( https://loco2.com/ ) whose English web site was very straight forward.

Next, the issue of actually booking our tickets to travel on May 7, 2015.     Even at 60 days out, RENFE had not posted a schedule for our travel date.  I contacted the people at Loco 2 who told me that they have seen RENFE post schedule as late as 2 weeks prior departure dates. The good folks at Loco2 assured me that they would contact me as soon as the schedule was posted for my travel date. Which they did!!  So Muchas Gracias Loco2.  RENFE finally posted the schedule for our May 7  travel date on April 17, 2015.

Working with Loco2 and RENFE reminded me that “When in Rome, do as the Romans".  Or, Don't expect things to operate like they do in your home country.  Expect them to operate like they do in the country you are visiting.

Preparing For Our Camino-Poncho vs Rain Coat

2sassytravelers

Preparing for the El Camino De Santiago

01/31/2015

Rain Coats vs Rain Ponchos

We decided to go the rain poncho route and I will get into why we made this decision at the end of this posting. 

The poncho we found is really an oversized rain coat that covers you and your backpack like a poncho.

This particular rain poncho/coat is from BlueField and we purchased it on line from DHgate.com for $15.29 and this price included FREE shipping. 

Again, this poncho is more like a one piece, oversized, pullover rain coat.  It is not open along the sides like a traditional poncho and it has large sleeves for your arms.  It comes in 4 colors, Orange (more like a florescent orange), Yellow (more of an orange color), Dark Blue and Blue.  It is made of a Polyester material that feels strong enough that it will not rip in high wends.  There is a short zipper in the front of your chest that you can open to help vent body heat.  The attached hood has a bill, but you may want to wear a baseball cap to keep the bill from falling in your face.  A zipper on the back permits you to zip away the part of the poncho that covers your back pack.  There is a snap at the bottom where you can attach the front and back of the poncho between your legs.  A stuff sack comes with the poncho. The weight, including the stuff sack is 11.8 oz (334.5g).

We chose the "poncho" over the "rain coat + backpack rain cover".  With the combination rain coat/backpack rain cover, there is still a space between your backpack and rain coat where rain can fall in and soak your pack and the items in your pack. The benefits of a poncho is that it is roomy, cooler than a rain coat and covers everything.  The down side of the poncho is it can act like a sail in windy conditions.    

We will report on how this product functions for us on our Camino.