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Covid Camino 2021

September - October 2021
A 35-day adventure by Laurie Read more
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  • Laurie ReynoldsCovid Camino 2021
    1
    Day 22

    Camino arrows everywhere

    September 27, 2021 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Today is my last day in Spain, at least for this Camino. My one unchangeable ritual is to pack up as many liters of olive oil as I can realistically fit— in my backpack, as well as in the duffel bag that I sent up to Santiago empty at the start of the camino. This is a tradition that dates back about 10 years, and I don’t think the Berkeley gang has had to buy any olive oil at all since I started.

    I was able to take a little stroll in the morning, before buying my olive oil. Everywhere I looked, I saw camino arrows. A branch of the Camino de Madrid, called the Camino Mendocino, comes through Soto, but very few people walk it. Except for you, Nuala! When you’re a Camino addict, and when you can’t walk, and when you are constantly seeing Camino arrows, it is like waving red flags in front of a bull.

    I am glad I have my PT appointment set up in Champaign, because I would still describe walking as slightly painful. That is actually a little comforting, because it has reassured me that I made the right decision to stop walking.

    Tomorrow I’ll be at the airport bright and early for my flight. With two bags to check and the Covid ritual, I think erring on the side of arriving early is a good one. For anyone contemplating a trip to Europe in the near future, I can recommend the Binax NOW Covid tests that you bring with you in a box. Then you perform the test online with a proctor. No need for an appointment in a lab, and you can do it at whatever time works best for you in the three day window.    Read more

  • Laurie ReynoldsCovid Camino 2021
    Day 21

    Sunday in Soto

    September 26, 2021 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Today was family day with my friends in Soto del Real, with the unexpected bonus that the two (now teenaged) kids came with us for a long lunch outdoors in a local restaurant. As a newly appointed EU prosecutor in a unit dedicated to intra-EU fiscal fraud team, my amiga had many fascinating stories about the first few months of her appointment. She really feels like she is doing something worthwhile and for the greater good. And Paco, as always, had many fascinating local government law issues to discuss. Maybe a limited audience, but it is exactly up my alley and we finally stopped talking at 10:30 to turn on the news to see what was happening in Germany.

    Usually when I visit, we are able to take some beautiful long walks in the mountains that start about four minutes from their house. But today it was just a few baby steps to soak up the sun and see the views.

    I have a good friend who arrives in Madrid tomorrow morning to start the Camino de Madrid. We will probably connect in WhatsApp. I feel like I am passing the baton but am still a bit bummed at how it all turned out. But as many of my Camino friends have already told me, the thing to do is to start planning my next Camino!    Read more

  • Laurie ReynoldsCovid Camino 2021
    1
    111
    Day 20

    From Santiago to Madrid

    September 25, 2021 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    I woke up in O Pino and wasn’t sure exactly what to do. But that muscle or nerve or whatever it is was not happy, so I decided to take a taxi into Santiago. Lest you think it was a wasted day, I was able to see two good friends, Faith and Bostjan. One of them lives in Santiago and the other, from Slovenia, was walking, a different camino but had an injury and had had to stop.

    It was a really weird feeling, being in Santiago, but not really being one of the “in crowd.” I was kind of an interloper, a cheater, not a “real pilgrim.”

    My first order of business was to pick up the duffel bag I had sent up from Leon, which was waiting for my October arrival into Santiago. Unfortunately, I will never have an October arrival into Santiago. Next, time to take my online Covid test. It was very stressful, and took several hours, but finally the magic of Faith and the Pilgrim House made it happen.

    From there, I met Bostjan, and we had a quick reunion, but then I had to get to the airport. Taxis were nowhere to be found, and finally a taxi driver going off his shift took pity on me and drove me to the airport in his private car. The fixed fare is €20 and I tried to give him €30 for his generosity, which I thought should be repaid, but he absolutely refused it. The generosity of people is just astonishing to me.

    I am heading to Madrid, and will spend two days there with my dear dear friends. I have a flight home on Tuesday, and have pretty much made my peace with the end of this Camino.    Read more

  • Laurie ReynoldsCovid Camino 2021
    Day 19

    End of camino

    September 24, 2021 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    I walked about 16 km, making it into Arzua where the Norte joins the Frances. And in about 5 minutes I saw more pilgrims than I had seen in total from the whole Salvador and Primitivo. And then I decided that my body was just not cooperating. My self-diagnosis (along with the online help of a few friends) leads me to conclude that it’s piriformis syndrome.

    So after two or three days of occasional bad pain, I decided it was foolish to continue. I am right outside Santiago, but my main goal was to get there and then go south to Braga in northern Portugal to walk a new (for me) route —the Geira. Walking into Santiago on the Camino Frances is always fun but it was not my primary purpose.

    Since I only have 10 days to walk the Geira route, it seemed silly to spend a few days resting on the hope I could walk at least some of it. So, hard as it is to do, I am cutting it short. I have had to do this once before, in 2008 I think it was, and I know it is going to leave me deflated and bummed out. But if this means I can count on 12 more years of caminos till the next problem, I’m all in favor!

    I know one person who will be happy about my decision, 😄 though I’m sure he’s not glad about the circumstances.

    So now I have to cancel many reservations, figure out how to get to Madrid (trains are all full for days and the bus is not much fun), spend a couple of days with my BFFs in Madrid, and change my flight. I am assuming I’ll be home on Wednesday or Thursday.

    I do know that I need to pay more attention to the fact that I’m no spring chicken and that I have to cut back the distances of my walking days. No more 40 km days for me next time!    Read more

  • Laurie ReynoldsCovid Camino 2021
    Day 18

    Second day on the Camiño Verde

    September 23, 2021 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Wow the second day bore no resemblance as our transition from the Primitivo was completed in Sobrado dos Monxes.

    Yesterday in Friol I met a nice Dutch woman who had walked the obviously much better Verde route from Lugo to Friol. We had dinner together and I was fascinated to learn all about her job as a card dealer in a big casino. You just can’t stop meeting interesting people on the Camino!

    We started out together this morning, and the walk went from one lovely green tunnel to a lovely pine forest back to another green tunnel and then through some Meadows. It was just gorgeous. We arrived at Sobrado dos Monxes, which has an Albergue in a very old monastery. I wanted to continue on a few more kilometers and wound up in heaven. The Abeira da Loba was built on the ruins of the house of the owners’ grandparents. Super modern, super echo, just absolutely a wonderful place. There’s a very nice albergue upstairs but I’m in one of the oh so comfy private rooms.

    I am going to go out and lie in a hammock, but not until I finish the weirdest post-walking task I have ever undertaken. I am sitting on about five ice cubes. For the last few days I’ve had a bad pain in some muscle that must be in the middle of my butt, but runs down through my leg. And when I stumble on or kick a stone (not infrequently,unfortunately) the pain shoots up. Yesterday with some ice and anti-inflammatory cream, things got much better. So I’m hoping for some equal improvement today.

    Wonderful day of 32 kms and about 400 m elevation. My sweet spot is a few kms and a few hundred meters lower than last camino, but I’m still chugging along!    Read more

  • Laurie ReynoldsCovid Camino 2021
    Day 17

    The long way to Friol

    September 22, 2021 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Since the Camino Primitivo joins up with the Frances in a few days, many pilgrims look for alternative routes to keep them off the Frances and its crowds while still getting them closer to Santiago. The Camiño Verde is one of those, end it goes over to Sobrado de los Monxes,, where it joins the Camino Del Norte.

    I have the GPS tracks, so what could go wrong, right? The first thing that happened was that I didn’t turn the track on and missed the turn off. So I found myself still on the Primitivo. That was actually quite all right, because I wanted to go to see a third century Roman crypt or bathhouse or sanitarium (no one knows exactly what it is), and it is accessible from either the Primitivo or the Verde. It was nice, because I walked with a couple of people I had met before.

    Santa Eulalia is an amazing site, with unrestored paintings of all different sorts of birds and floral motifs on the walls. Really wonderful.

    Taking my GPS tracks for the Camiño Verde, I followed them quite well till they took me off the road and into a grassy field where no real track was visible. To make things more interesting, a big German Shepherd started running towards me and barking. So I quickly backtracked and went out onto the road. Taking the road rather than this track would add about 6 km to the day, but I did not fancy encounters with dogs and overgrown tracks. As I started forward on the road, which Google Maps showed would take me into Friol, two more huge dogs started bounding towards me. I turned around and saw a shepherd, obviously the owner of the first dog, with his goats. I went up and asked him about how to best get to Friol, and he told me the path was not in very good condition. Lots of overgrowth, some sharp descents. I quickly made up my mind to do the roundabout road route. And luckily those other dogs belonged to an elderly couple out on a walk.

    I hadn’t exactly counted on 30 km of road walking, but I’m here and in good shape and really loved that Roman/pagan building.    Read more

  • Laurie ReynoldsCovid Camino 2021
    Day 16

    Afternoon in Lugo

    September 21, 2021 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Well there was a lot for me to do. First I walked the Roman walls and occasionally felt like I was intruding into someone’s private space as their windows opened onto the path.

    Then a real splurge for lunch at a place called Paprica. I got the menu del dia but even so it cost more than my hotel room. But my hotel room is very cheap. 😁 I have walked in Galicia many many times, but I have never really tried all the seafood specialties. So I am making up for lost time.

    In the afternoon my main objective was to find a new shirt to replace my dear blue shirt, whose right shoulder has been ripped open by the backpack strap. Not surprising after ten or twelve caminos. But I went from store to store and found nothing. So I called it quits and went to a few Roman sites in town.

    Lugo is a beautiful city with a lot of life. I was talking to Joe from a cafe in the plaza Mayor and he could hardly hear me.

    Weather looks good!    Read more

  • Laurie ReynoldsCovid Camino 2021
    1
    Day 16

    A short day into Lugo

    September 21, 2021 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    By 1:00 I was in my hotel and washing clothes. I will have all afternoon to enjoy this beautiful city. The walk was much nicer than I remember it, and I am assuming they have taken huge chunks off the road and put them on gorgeous little green tunnel paths.

    At about 12 km along the way, I came to a point where the arrows offered a choice to take on an extra kilometer and visit the church at Soutomerille. I had done that once before, long before there was any announcement of the option, and when I got there the whole church was covered in overgrowth. So I decided that this fancy little sign must indicate that someone had bothered to cut away the brush so the church would be visible.

    What a great decision, with several ancient chestnut trees as a bonus. One, according to a plaque, is at least 400 years old. And the church has a window that has been dated to the pre-Roman times. So it all was definitely a worthwhile detour.

    Lots of people walking these days and the weather is super. Sunny and 66 degrees in Lugo.

    I am off to walk the Roman walls before lunch. It’s about 2 km around and the walls are in tact. The guy who checked me into my hotel said they are the only fully intact Roman walls in the world. And the only ones that have free access 24/7 and no charge.    Read more

  • Laurie ReynoldsCovid Camino 2021
    1
    Day 15

    Up and down in Galicia

    September 20, 2021 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    This was a beautiful walk, except for a few kms in a logging forest, and with a lot more elevation than I remembered. Wikiloc tells me it was 34 km and 920 m up. Five years ago that was a walk in the park —this year I was dragging when I finally got to my destination. I deliberately went an extra 8 km beyond the “normal” stage so that I would have a short day into Lugo tomorrow.

    I have yet to come to that promised “end of huge elevation gains”, but I just take it slow and steady and enjoy the beautiful scenery. This morning on one particularly steep ascent, I came across an old man who was walking slowly up the hill. I tried to talk with him a bit, but I don’t know whether it was his lack of teeth (I only saw two) or his very thick Gallego accent, but my comprehension was limited. Every now and then I heard the word Camino or Santiago, but that was about it. When I finally got up to the town at the top, I asked the woman in the bar about this elderly gentleman. She told me he makes the 3 km walk up and 3 km down every day, rain or shine. In his rubber boots and holding a big stick for support. And there I was in my fancy trail runners with my expensive hiking poles, huffing and puffing as much as he was, or more!

    I’m staying in a real hotel tomorrow in Lugo, and I am very much looking forward to a shower that is bigger than 2 or 3 square feet! Not a complaint mind you, since I am already at the pilgrim luxury level of having my own private room and bath.    Read more

  • Laurie ReynoldsCovid Camino 2021
    Day 14

    Short day to A Fonsagrada

    September 19, 2021 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C

    This was just about as perfect a Camino day as you could design. Nearly all off road, through a few picturesque hamlets, two serious ascents (with only one slightly steep descent), blue sky with puffy clouds. Maybe a little short but all in all it was A-ok. 21 km, 650 m elevation. (I guess I wasn’t paying attention when I said there would be no more big elevation days, but this wasn’t so bad). The only slightly frustrating part is that you can see the town, strung out along a high ridge, from about 15 kms away. And you never seem to get any closer.

    I arrived pretty early, which was not planned. But the nice meson, where I had hoped to take a long rest with a snack, did not open until an hour after I was there. So I just kept walking.

    I am in the region of Galicia, which seems to get all the buzz about being green and beautiful. But for my money, Asturias is much prettier. Since it is more prosperous, the little villages are prettier and better maintained. But more than that, there are way fewer eucalyptus trees. I won’t start on my anti-Eucalyptus rant, but I do not like those trees!

    There are two very well-known pulperías here, so I will go and have some pulpo (octopus). I do like it a lot, but only for about five or six bites. I must be quite the connoisseur because I’ve been told that my assessment of good and bad is spot on. It has to do with the texture — there is a perfect sweet spot between not too mushy and not too chewy.    Read more

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