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Published: April 5th 2016
Well, we woke OK this morning. No intruders in the night.
The weather forecast for the day as we head further west again doesn’t look too promising to be sightseeing but there is not much we can do about that.
We had chosen the main route to Santiago for the pilgrims on the Camino Way from Ponferrada.This route included a road which on our atlas was the thinnest red road the atlas shows yet it also had the green dots denoting it was scenic. There were other highway options but not as short as the one we chose and we would be unlikely to see pilgrims on their walk west if we chose any other road.
Packed up and down to the Carrefour Supermarket we passed by last night on our way out to dinner. It is in a huge and relatively new shopping mall that looks out of place with the apartment blocks of the city.
As it is Sunday we have noticed that the supermarkets in our earlier stops in both Spain and France close at midday and as we would be arriving in Santiago well after that we needed to top up our supplies
including something for dinner tonight.
However, although the mall doors were open, all the shops were closed. Apparently the mall also contained a cinema and that was open on a Sunday. So we will have to think about what to have from our supplies already in hand for dinner.
Then we ran into the first drama of the day at the self service petrol station at the mall.
Unlike other self service pumps I have used previously on the BBA V3 this pump didn’t appear to have an English option when you put your card into the machine to start the process of pumping petrol and paying.
The card went into the slot too far for me to retrieve and as we couldn’t understand what the screen was telling us we didn’t know the next step.
Thankfully a van pulled in behind us and was waiting to use the pump and the driver could see we were having difficulty.
He didn’t appear to speak English but tried to retrieve our card by using his card to pull it back and out but only succeeded in pushing our card in further. This worked though as
the machine started to make noises and he tapped the instructions to give us the fill we needed. With the card authorised it popped back out and the pump started.
Without his help we weren’t sure what we would have done had the card not come out. With no one in the cashier’s office of the petrol station and everywhere in the mall except the cinemas closed for the day we probably would have had to wait until business resumed tomorrow.
With the time now approaching midday we took the A6 highway for the first 40kms to make up some time.
The road steadily climbed and the sky ahead darkened even further indicating rain which soon started to fall.
By the time we reached the turn off point at the small town of Pedrafita do Cebreiro for the pilgrim/scenic road it had stated to snow and then we realised we were at a summit of 1110 metres, the indication of which was partly hidden on the atlas page.
Taking the road towards Sarria we thought the 35km couldn’t have us climb any higher and that the snow was probably only falling just around the summit
on the A6.
The second drama for the day was about to unfold!
Up until now we had been on a highway and not where the pilgrims can walk.
However about 3kms on the N633 walking in the snow that was starting to get a little heavier were two pilgrims walking in the direction we were going. Had we had room in the back we could have picked them up although they probably would have refused as one of the objects of walking the Camino Way is find out about one’s self reliance in the world and that would not include taking a lift to help you get there, snow or no snow. By the distance they had travelled and the amount of fresh snow that had fallen they must have been aware of what was ahead when they left the summit town.
Carrying on I drove in the tracks of another vehicle that was either ahead of us or had come the other way, we couldn’t tell as there were no vehicles in sight in either direction. Our progress was a stately 40kph!
Then when a car did come towards us absolutely covered in
snow where it could hang onto and a warning light on the dashboard coming on and telling us that the automatic braking had failed, we decided not to be any more adventurous on this occasion and we found a place on the road, turned around and headed back to the last town where the snow had started.
On the return we passed the pilgrims still plodding on in the falling snow obviously hell bent on getting to wherever they had in mind. There was a small group of houses about 1km ahead for them so we assumed they would take shelter there if the snow didn’t stop.
Back in Pedrafita we parked Peggy and recovered our senses and then bought lunch from the panaderia that was open across the road from our parking space.
Then it was back to the A6 and as we rapidly dropped in altitude from the summit the snow stopped and the sky started to clear. Whether this was happening up on the N633 we were not sure but today we weren’t game to go back and find out.
By now Gretchen had plotted another route to take us from the A6
back onto the N633 which she calculated would be at a lower altitude than where we had tried earlier and with the sky now cleared there would at least be no falling snow.
Her plan worked well and after driving through another of those typical Spanish hillside towns with houses clustered close together and narrow cobbled streets we were back in the countryside and joined the N633 short of the sizable town of Sarria.
Now we did start to come across pilgrims heading west striding it out with their ponchos protecting them and their backpacks from the earlier rain, flowing out behind them.
We are not sure whether the ponchos are a help or a hindrance although they must at least be keeping them dry.
The pilgrims seemed to be of all ages from teenagers upwards. One couple we passed had just the one pack between them which the male was hulking along. Perhaps it would be his female partners turn later?
Often there were sizeable groups together and at one point at least a dozen or so young people who didn’t seem to be carrying anything but day packs. About 5km further on in
a small town we passed a large bus which was stopped. It had the luggage doors open under the bus and there were larger packs and the odd suitcase and we guessed it was waiting for the group of young people we had seen with just the day packs. We had heard that it is possible to do stages of the Camino Way during the day and then get taken to a larger own by bus for the night and then delivered back the next day to carry on walking. We are not sure this is quite what is meant by participating to get this experience but it is probably making a good living for the bus company and accommodations off the Camino Way itself.
The path upon which pilgrims walk was well defined and although it is necessary for the walkers to cross the road every now and then, the crossing points were well noticed and in any case the road was very quiet as far as traffic was concerned.
Before the road took us away from the walker’s path we estimated that we had seen over 100 pilgrims today including the two up in the snow. And here we were just about to arrive in the city of Santiago and yet many of those that we passed, if they are true pilgrims and walk all the way, won’t arrive in the city until Tuesday or Wednesday.
Very soon after leaving the walkers path we drove into the city and we were very pleased that it was Sunday and the traffic was light in volume.
This was because the third drama for the BBA V3 was about to happen. Not as significant as the first two earlier today but frustrating in itself.
Like all of the Spanish towns we have been into, Santiago had the same narrow cobbled streets, all running in a haphazard way, remembering that the towns are a lot older than the invention of the motor vehicle and the streets weren’t designed to handle them.
We had checked the apparent path that we expected Gina to take us to our Air BnB apartment before we started out this morning and it looked relatively straight forward.
That idea was thrown in chaos when a vital connecting road, as we were to find out, was closed.
We did virtually the same circuit up and down and around narrow streets looking for the one we wanted but all the time frustrated by the fact that most of the streets didn’t have names on them.
The apartment website stated that there was a view of the cathedral from the front door. We were looking for views of the cathedral thinking that the apartment might then be identified. This turned out to be incorrect!
Finally after 45 minutes we parked the car knowing that according to the GPS we were 400 metres from the apartment street address. Gretchen connected her cell phone to ‘the lovely American speaking lady up there ‘and with her aid we walked to the Barrio the apartment was located in and met up with Manuel, our host. After showing us around the newly decorated apartment we walked back to move the car to the apartment.
We now understand what the Barrio is all about and this one was more about alleyways rather than streets as the number of the apartment could not have been seen from the narrow street as it was located down an alleyway.
While emptying the car, a police car parked behind us and the two officers got out and walked down a path to look at something that we couldn’t see from our car. It was only the next morning that we discovered what they were checking out!
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KJ
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Siesta to go with plan to shorten working day
Coincidentally saw the above headline in the Dom yesterday after reading the blog about times in Spain. Apparently Spain adopted Berlin time back in 1943 when Franco was supporting the Nazis rather than being on Greenwich meantime. The current caretaker leader is saying he would like to change to the right time zone as well as do away with the long lunch breaks ( siestas) that Spain is known for and shorten the current working day to make them more productive....interesting to hear about in light of your travels and comments about sunrise and sunset times.