DAY 3 OF THE CAMINO WAY

Day 3 saw us heading up steep hills, with mist draped across the valleys below.  We were starting with an explore around O Cebreiro, on the border of Galicia, where it is freezing cold in the morning!!!  It has a charming stone Church, very simple in style, that claims to have the true grail of Christ!  The other distinctive thing about this village, are the pallozas. These homes have been lived in up until the 1960's, and are two storeyed; animals downstairs, humans upstairs!!  This area of Spain is Celtic.

The walk today took us on the road at times, but the paths OFF the main road, were spectacular. Beautiful wooded areas with crocuses coming up on the path edges, dry stone walls, views over green, lush farmland with cows grazing & at their necks the tinkling of bells, leading us to wonder whether we were in Spain or Switzerland! And when we weren't walking through this loveliness, we were ...

...making our way through quaint hamlets, where the few buildings were made of stone, as were the churches.

We were walking 9 km of the route to Samos & amidst the many forms of the scallop shell that serves as a marker for the Camino way, this was possibly the oldest & most charming!

Another hard but good day & miracle of miracles, at the end of a particularly gruelling upward climb, there was a café to mark the end of our day's walk. Coke never EVER tasted so good!!!!

DAY2 OF THE CAMINO WAY

Day 2 started just outside Ponferrada with an excursion to Las Medulas, the remains of a Roman gold mine from their occupation in this area in the first century AD.  We had a 'warm up walk' through the site, enjoying the abundance of beautiful old...

 ...sweet chestnut trees! The Roman's were the first to cultivate them here.

Our walk today took us along the road at first, before heading off amidst the vineyards!  It is harvest time & there were many a tempting bunch of grapes dangling on the edge of the path!  Yesterday was wet & windy, today was boiling hot sun! We had packed our raincoats, but needed hats & sunscreen!  Our goal was Villafranca Del Bierzo.

We knew we were on the home stretch when we came to the beautiful little stone Romanesque Iglesia de Santiago.  In this church, pilgrims could receive absolution from their sins, if they weren't able to continue on to Santiago de Compostela.

Another hard day, but with beautiful vistas over the vineyards (a grape introduced by the Romans all those years ago) & with a few charming villages to stroll through as well. Today we encountered other (more authentic) pilgrims & so were able to call out the traditional greeting "Bueno Camino"..."good walk"!

It had been a good walk, but we were certainly ready for a hotel with a bath tub!

DAY 1 OF CAMINO WAY TOUR

When our son was about to turn 1 year old, we left life in the UK & headed for Australia. En route we had planned to do the whole Camino Way by car, stopping at interesting places along the way. However, our GP suggested that it wasn't a good idea with such a small child as health care facilities weren't in abundance in this part of the world, so we cancelled that plan!  Never the less, it has been a pilgrimage of fascination for me over the years & I REALLY wanted to at least sample a little of the famous way of St James. This tour is supposedly easy walking (about 2 hours per day) with coach travel in between, & excursions to historic places of interest.

We started in Leon with a tour of the Leon cathedral & all it's wonderful leadlight.

This being the one that gets the first rays of light in the morning!

We also saw a building designed & built by Gaudi (of Barcelona fame) before heading to Astorga where we saw another Cathedral ...

...and  another building designed by Gaudi.  This one we were actually able to go inside & appreciate his influences from nature & the buildings he admired. This was designed to be a Bishops Palace, but alas, the Bishop it was designed for died before completion! It is now a museum relating the spiritual side of the Camino pilgrimage.  One of it's most precious treasures is a small iron cross, the replacement of which we were to encounter later in the day!!

Up until this point, we had had blue skies & sunshine, but as soon as we got out of the bus to begin our walk...it started pelting down! Within seconds what was not covered by our rain jackets, were drenched. Even our so-called waterproof walking boots were saturated! The rain was driving at us horizontally & threatening to become hail...and we had to walk uphill on loose rubble paths with no shelter from the storm. It was tough going & the whole time, I was very aware that we were doing this pilgrimage the EASY way. Most serious pilgrims walk 25 km per day from the start in the Pyrenees & carry everything on their backs. I tried to keep this perspective in mind when feeling a little woeful!!!!!

We had started at Rabanal del Camino, walked through Foncebadon (a little tumble-down hamlet that once was the site of a hospital for pilgrims) & on to Cruz de Ferro. That's what you can vaguely see in the background of the photo above.  This cross is special, because for centuries pilgrims have carried with them, to this point, a stone, representing their burdens which they lay at the base of the Cruz de Ferro.

I brought my stone with me from Australia. It was given to me as a symbol of hope & encouragement when I was having significant health issues last year & with the blessing of the giver & a group of friends, I brought it with me to place at the foot of the cross.  As you can imagine it was quite emotional & overwhelming to be here, especially after such a hard walk.

To my delight there was another rainbow placed at the foot of the cross, so it seemed right to put mine with it. In doing so I said a prayer for those I know are going through similar health issues at the moment & took a time to comprehend the place itself.

Whilst there were plain stones, there were also those with a single name written on them, some with prayers & hopes adorning them.  Then there were the other reminders that this is a place of hope & renewal, the T-Shirt commemorating a young boy who lost his life to some illness, photos of loved ones now departed, & the scallop shells, symbol of those who have followed St James on this pilgrims journey.

Not the prettiest of crosses, but very powerful & moving. It also made sense as to why the original simple iron cross is such a treasure in Astorga's museum.
 

This walk had had a lot of climbing up hill...NOT my thing, so I had a great sense of achievement to have made it to the cross & laid down my little burden!  Then to top the day off, enroute to our hotel was the most amazing, full arch rainbow in the sky!  I felt blessed indeed!

THE ULTIMATE SPANISH CUISINE TOUR

Today we had the most amazing walking tour of Madrid.  It was particularly good because it was a FOOD tour!  Our meeting point was Plaza Mayor, which we reached much sooner than we had anticipated so we had a look around.

It was built during the 17th century when the ruling Philip of the time decided to move the capital from Toledo to Madrid, which wasn't much more than a village at the time. It has seen bull fights, parties, fires & the unpleasantness of the inquisition. It is currently going through a massive upgrade, which meant that the sounds we heard were predominantly jack hammers!

Our tour was led by Paula & there were 9 in the group, representing the USA, Israel & of course...Australia & New Zealand! Our first stop was breakfast & consequently a drooling gaze through the window at all the possibilities.

Our gaze was drawn away for a moment to look down at our feet, to see the special plaque awarded to food selling shops who have been in business for a very long time, this one, since 1897!  We sampled two types of pastry rolls filled with custard & the other chocolate. Jeff & I had thought we'd just have half & take left overs back to finish later.  The first mouthful cancelled that stupid idea!

Next stop was at a Covent. Beyond these doors are an order of cloistered Nuns. To keep a little money coming in, these women bake cookies! To buy them, one has to ring the bell & wait.....

...eventually the door clicks open & we walk to a hatch with a large old lazy-susan in it. The purchaser calls out to ask what is available today, the answer is given with the options rotated around so a choice can be made. Money is placed on the lazy-susan & rotated back to them! We chose Almond cookies which were small, soft & delicious. Not too sweet & sugary like the biscuits we are used to in Australia.

Walking further around it was time to sample something savoury & Mercado de San Miguel was our destination. Let me just say that this was definitely my kind of market! I want to go back & look at everything! Today, however, we had two taste sensations to try. The first was olive skewers! Forget your usual kebabs...these were to die for! Robust olives with a variety of accompaniments all happily compiled on a stick! Mine consisted of quails egg, fresh sardine, olives & pimento peppers. YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

This was washed down with another discovery for us...vermouth.  It is a popular aperitif here, so much so that they have it available on tap!

We're not big day-time drinkers, but this was delicious... it was red from a caramel syrup added to it. We certainly felt the alcohol content as we went merrily swaying off to the next stop!

Which was a tiny little family run place across from the market.  No fancy signage out the front, but oh my.....the BEST tortilla inside! It is a egg & potato dish, a little like frittata/omelette. This particularly melted in the mouth.

This morsel was washed down with local cidre & to get a little effervescence into the glass, it is poured from a height! It was a VERY dry cidre & I was grateful to be given only a small quantity!



The Despensary of Carmen (Carmen's kitchen!) was where we were introduced to these delicious little empanadas filled with tuna, boiled egg & a creamy tomatoe sauce.  The most impressive thing about these was the pastry...definitely not supermarket variety! It was thin & a mix of short & flaky. So delicious!

La Bola is a very historic restaurant here & has fed a lot of important & famous people over the years. The current owner (granddaughter of the original owner) declares Richard Gere to be the nicest celebrity she has served! Why do they come....for the traditional Madrid Stew!

We were given the unique opportunity to actually squeeze into the tiny hot kitchen & see, not only all the clay stew pots cooking away, but a demonstration on how it is made.  The ingredients include ham on the bone, lard, chicken, spicy sausage, blood sausage, potato, chickpeas & water.  It cooks for about 4 hours & I am SOOOO sorry that this blog doesn't provide you with a means of smelling just how GOOD it smells.  We had the stew broth with some noodles & the flavour was very meaty, but very good.

The next stop was an eatery that hasn't been around for a long time, but is becoming a very popular eating spot with locals. It was here that we had a lesson in olive oils & tasted a few, followed by shrimp & prawn croquettes, & washed down with a glass of apple sherry. Bottles of this sherry lined the walls, which looked amazing. Cant say I enjoyed this drink though, it was a bit too dry for my taste.

It was time for a lesson on ham (jamon)! After standing agog in this amazing shop with jamon hanging everywhere, we sampled 3 different types.

Both Jeff & I liked the Iberico de Bellota best, a black pig fed on acorns, free range & then cured for 3 years. Just look at the price per kilo!!!!!!!

Amusingly, we went from meat sampling to an area where tickets for bull fights can be bought & is also where bull fighters like to come & party after they've fought!  The little eatery we went into, another family run treat, had old bull fighting prints adorning the walls. Here we dined on a lunch of Tapas, including calamari, peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, aubergine & potato bravas with 2 sauces.  This was washed down with a deliciously refreshing drop, a kind of wine spritzer called something like Tinto de Viana! The meal was further topped off with a another sherry tasting (this one more enjoyable). By now you're wondering what the photo above is & why it doesn't look like tapas? Sorry folks...we were too busy eating to take photos!!!!!

The final destination was to a gorgeous little sweet shop that sold these variations of Turrens. A kind of soft nougat made with almonds & hazelnuts.  It is the oldest recipe of all that we tasted today as it stems back to the Moors, who brought their almond trees to Spain.

As if that wasn't enough, our final slurp was a glass of Madrilinos (spelling possibly a bit off here!), a liquer made from the fruit...

...of the Madrilinos tree which lines the street of Madrid & appears on the coat of arms, alongside a clearly hungry bear!!!

What an amazing day! We have been eating & drinking for 5 hours & have covered 8.32km! A terrific way to explore the older parts of Madrid!

(Apologies for spelling & grammer mistakes, I'm understandably, a bit tipsy & really cant be bothered editing! )

HELLO MADRID!

We arrived in Madrid via train & walked from the station to our Hotel, which was as easy as it looked on the map...thank goodness!

Once unloaded we set out for our first destination, the Reina Sofia modern art museum.  It was here that I wanted to see works by Miro, but mainly, I wanted to see...

...Picasso's Guernica. (We weren't allowed to take photos, so I shot this one of the postcard!!) This painting is about the terror & trauma of war.  Picasso painted it in response to Franco's employing of the Nazis to bomb a small town in the north of Spain.  It is a riveting, sobering, important painting. And...if I may be so bold...just as relevant TODAY as it was during the Spanish civil war. A lot has been written about it, so google if you want more factual info. The things that stood out for me were;
*the choice to have such a minimal colour palette, when we think of Picasso's work, we tend to think of lots of colour. This is just black, white & grey
*the terror on the horse's face
*the bold linear 'lifelines' on the palms of the dying & the dead
*the contrast between the gentle light of the old fashioned candle & the glaring new electric light of 'enlightenment'
*the texture on the horse
*the terrified eyes of the people all over the place!

The other thing that moved me deeply, was the privilege of seeing it live.  I cannot express strongly enough how to see this painting in it's full live size, is to see a painting that refuses to remain in 2D, the way Picasso has used the lighter colours to draw further light to them, lifts the characters off the canvas.

Such a sobering piece of work, especially after we had seen magnificent yet harrowing war photos by Robert Capa beforehand.

I wonder if our governments would be so quick to send their men & women off to war-like situations if they had a life-size copy of this in their offices! Food for thought!

PATIOS & GARDENS OF CORDOBA

Our day in Cordoba wasn't JUST about the Mezquita!  We also wanted to visit a few places we hadn't seen before.  With this is mind...we wandered!  First to the Alcazar, a fortified building which isn't a patch on the one in Seville!  It's best feature was it's gardens, which included lots of water!

I don't remember the proper name for the flower above...I call its cock's comb, but whatever it is...it has been mass planted here & looks AMAZING!

And the lowest end of the garden sported a row of these cleverly cut topiaries!

Following this we wandered through the old Jewish quarter, marked out by these signs on the footpath.  After visiting the remains of the old 14th century Synagogue, & contemplating that here was yet another place where....at one time...Jews, Christians & Muslims lived side by side without problem, until some power-monger comes along....!

Some of the people of this area very generously open up their patios for people to visit.  All of these homes are built around a central courtyard patio.  It is the only space they have for plants & as you can see, the walls become their gardens.  In May when all the geraniums are in bloom there is a competition amongst them all for the best patio.

They each add their own decorative features like plates on walls, old machinery etc.  It is a cool & refreshing oasis in these cheek-by-jowl homes.  Just imagine how spectacular they would look in bloom!!

Later we went to Palacio de Viana, not to see the house...but to see the many patios.

These were generally more formal, but totally enjoyable to walk through.

And as we were walking back to our Casa, we spotted this house, who made sure their walls are covered with flowers all year round!