Really, there are times when you just do the view. So, without comment, this is the country as you ascend from Ruitelán, enter Galicia, and arrive in the mountain village of O Cebreiro. If it’s a clear, still winter’s day, you won’t ever forget it. Don’t call it lazy [...]
Archive for May, 2011
O CEBREIRO: THE ASCENT
Posted in Q. INTO GALICIA, Uncategorized on May 31, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
DINNER WITH RAFAEL NADAL
Posted in P. TO AND THROUGH EL BIERZO, Uncategorized on May 30, 2011 | 2 Comments »
That got your attention. More about Nadal later. We head out of Villafranca over a generously engineered bridge where millions of pilgrims have trod and stopped to gape at the torrent of the Valcarce below. As we approach the mountains, we find a land of torrents big and small. The western side of the Bierzo [...]
THE LITTLE COMPOSTELA
Posted in P. TO AND THROUGH EL BIERZO, Uncategorized on May 30, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Or the Spanish Conques? Nicknames with a smidgin of substance. Villafranca del Bierzo does have a special status, not shared with other towns along the Camino. Here pilgrims, suffering disease or injury, could be granted jubileo, an absolution from their pilgrim vows and entitlement to all benefits of a completed pilgrimage. This was done after [...]
POSTCARDS FROM THE BIERZO
Posted in P. TO AND THROUGH EL BIERZO, Uncategorized on May 28, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
I spent some days muddling and loafing in cheap but nice accommodation in Ponferrada and then in Cacabelos, not far distant. There’s a guy who patrols the track after Ponferrada giving out pamphlets for an albergue in Villafranca, which he says is just the best, the others stink, and if you don’t believe him, see [...]
PONFERRADA: JUST FOR US
Posted in P. TO AND THROUGH EL BIERZO, Uncategorized on May 27, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Not much happened here before medieval times, as far as is known. Then there were lots of pilgrims, and a tricky river crossing near the village of Compostilla. In the eleventh century, pilgrimage suited everyone, so the powerful bishop of Astorga ordered a better bridge to be constructed over the Sil River at a different [...]
EASY TO PONFERRADA
Posted in P. TO AND THROUGH EL BIERZO, Uncategorized on May 26, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Downhill walking can be hazardous if your shoes are tight in the toes, or your socks are humid. But I’d made good footwear choices on this hike, so the descent into the valley went well. The weather had threatened… But the morning was radiant, and gave me a soft downhill glide. Molinaseca, on the Meruelo [...]
THE BIERZO VIA IRON CROSS
Posted in P. TO AND THROUGH EL BIERZO, Uncategorized on May 25, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Today we ascend to the Camino’s highest point between the middle of France and the Atlantic Ocean. But don’t get excited. The meseta, while offering no perspective, is at over eight hundred metres; the country after Astorga, between nine hundred and a thousand. So the climb from Rabanal to Iron Cross is only about five [...]
MARAGATO VESPERS
Posted in P. TO AND THROUGH EL BIERZO, Uncategorized on May 25, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Remember, as a kid, lying in sun with eyes closed and watching bacteria float behind your lids? The interesting ones always seemed to be off the centre of vision. So you’d roll your eyes toward them…and they’d roll out of sight. Certain things brush one’s consciousness but elude the steady stare of intellect. It applies [...]
ASTORGA THE ROMAN
Posted in P. TO AND THROUGH EL BIERZO, Uncategorized on May 24, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Still winter, and still no sign of other pilgrims. After the weeks of meseta, the land rolls up, there is comfortable perspective again. A first view of the Teleno, highest mountain of the region. It was sacred to the original Asturians, and made sacred to Romans by a dedication to Mars, a war god like [...]
END OF THE MESETA
Posted in O. MESETA, Uncategorized on May 23, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Leaving León, the pilgrim notes small changes in the landscape. The mountains across the flats are closer, there are scatterings of trees, more shape to the land. The first towns out of León have some of the most attractive names. Virgen del Camino conjures a touch of medieval romance. Though the legend of an apparition [...]
