A Preview of the Walk from Other Pilgrims

It's always nice to find someone else who has done a blog on the same stretch of Camino we're following.  Pam and Jeff walked the whole route and here are links to various postings on the section from Sarria to Santiago.  They also went in May like we are but most of the blog is photos rather than commentary.

Samos to Portomarin - Pat and Jeff stop for the night in Sarria where an average of 400 pilgrims a day set off for Santiago.  We will be among them...  Although pulpo is a famous dish in Melide, evidently Sarria and every other place in Galicia also offer octopus.

Portomarín to Arzúa - Pam and Jeff stopped at night in Palas de Rei and Melide.  It was foggy in the morning and there were lots of pilgrims on the trail with them.  When they left Palas de Rei they decided to leave a little later, at 8:30 am, and so avoided many of the pilgrims who had left earlier.  Since we have reservations for lodging and are not walking far, we can afford a late start as well.  They also noted that Sunday is chocolate con churros day, at least in Melide.

Arzúa to Santiago: Pam and Jeff walked 19 kilometers from Arzúa to Pedrouzo (Arco do Pino) before it started drizzling. The next day it rained and they walked the 20 kilometers to Santiago. We are going earlier in May so we should expect rain some time. We just hope it's not all the time.  And then after a rainy day in Santiago, they left for the 90K walk to Finisterre!  We'll save that for another time.  Pam and Jeff have walked multiple caminos in Spain and we'll make sure we check them out when we go on the Camino Portugues along the coastal route.

It would have been nice if Pam and Jeff had included more commentary but their photos let me discover new things, like Limonada Leonesa, a type of sangria (not lemonade) in Leon for which they even have a festival, with tapas of course.  It is made with red wine, lemons, sugar and cinnamon and is a typical beverage of Semana Santa.  When they say they are going to "matar judios" they mean that they are going to drink limonada.  You'd think that being on the Camino they would have said "matar moros".  Things can be very politically incorrect on the Camino but most pilgrims no longer think that way.  At least I don't think they do...

What else?  Well Botillo is a product of Bierzo, which is between Sarria and Leon so technically we aren't going there but hopefully we'll be able to find it in Sarria or Leon.  Fernando would love botillo because it is meat-stuffed pork intestine.  What's the difference between that and salami??   It's larger so maybe it is made from the large intestine?  or stomach?  Here's a youtube video about the Botillo de Bierzo.

Gaudi's episcopal palace

What else?  Astorga has cheese and chocolate (a combination dear to Fernando's heart) but again, it is between Leon and Sarria so we will miss it.  At the beginning of May they have a cheese festival -- maybe we should be going there instead of to Leon?  They also have an episcopal palace by Gaudi, that was never popular with the locals, him being from Barcelona, using Catalan workers.  Too bad we aren't walking to Santiago from Leon.  Maybe next time.

A bit more on grelos, those cruciferous greens that go into the Caldo Gallego and have variously been translated as broccoli raab and turnip tops.  The official Spanish food marketing site translates grelos as "parsnip tops" on their web page on Galician gastronomy.  They are probably something completely independent.  If you can read Spanish, here's an article entitled: Do you know what grelos are? in which the author says "Es una verdura de sabor muy fuerte y peculiar".

Although dating from the 1960s,
Portomarin is not without charm.

Here's another blog account of the last stage from Sarria to Santiago by Raul Pino.   As with all blogs, the latest post is first so you have to go to the bottom of the page to get to the first day from Sarria, and then read backwards.  His photos and commentary are quite good and give you an idea of the terrain and the variety of paths you will be walking on.  And as with all pilgrims, his mind is on food and he stops in Melide on the 4th day to try the pulpo.  He says that even if you are in the middle of nowhere, you are not too far away from an eatery.

To make it easier, here are his postings of the stages:

1. Sarria to Barbadelo
2. Barbadelo to Portomarin
3. Portomarin to Palas de Rei 
4. Palas de Rei to Boente
5. Boente to Salceda 
6. Salceda to Lavacolla
7. Lavacolla to Santiago

Did you lose weight on the Camino??

We aren't anticipating that.  We'll be lucky if we maintain our current over-weights since we chose the "easy walking" option of 9-16 kilometers a day (OK so the last day is 19) which will leave us plenty of time to ferret out sustenance on the road.  Let's just hope that the village bars on the Camino don't have too many delicious tapas.

Mercado de Abastos

Starting at our destination, here are some mentions of food and restaurants in Santiago.  First on the list is the Mercado de Abastos - that's according to CaminoWays, which says it is "the city’s second most visited attraction after the cathedral and a must-see for food lovers" and where we can find "all quintessential Galician products such as Padrón peppers, octopus, salted cod, goose neck barnacles, savoury pies (empanada) and more."  Unfortunately we are staying in a simple pension and not an apartment where we could cook those barnacles, although maybe it would be better to let someone who knows how to cook them.  Hopefully they will have food stands selling prepared dishes, like Cociña María.  There's a trendy place there: Abastos 2.0 with a fixed price lunch menu but I don't know if we'll have time for lunch. The mercado is open Monday to Saturday, from 7am until 3pm.

Rua do Franco

Rúa do Franco, south of the Cathedral, is called the "wine trail" and is knows for its bars and tapas.  One of its restaurants, El Pasaje, has a website where you can peruse their menu (with prices) for all the typical dishes.  And here's A Taberna do Bispo which looks like it has tapas as good as those in Pamplona, along with the tourists.  An article in the Irish Independent mentions a cafeteria called Café Casino for a bowl of Galician soup and they have other typical soups and tapas under their "entrantes and raciones".  And there's A Curtidoria with a Menu del Dia for 12 euros.  All these are from the Google map of Santiago so who knows how they will be but at least they will give us an idea of what is "on offer".

There's an older couple, Pam and Jeff, who took two months to do the Camino Aragones from Jaca near Barcelona to Santiago.  Naturally they walked longer days than we will (we're wimps) and ate a lot and have a page on Camino por Comida where we can check out all the specialties of each region.

Pam and Jeff having a bocadillo en el campo.

Food on the Camino

Menestra de Verduras

Now that we've signed up for the easy walking of the last section of the Camino Frances from Sarria to Santiago with CaminoWays, I can concentrate on the important stuff like food.  I don't expect cutting edge gourmet food on this trip but at least I hope it will be interesting, although by now I know to expect the Menestra de Verduras to be overcooked.

Tapas in Pamplona

I like to know the characteristic dishes of a region so that I can be on the lookout for them.  That's not to say I won't be disappointed, as I was with the suckling pig in Estella, whose crispy skin was like eating plastic.  I do remember that perhaps the most memorable meal was in the village of Uterga, a day's hike from Pamplona.  We stayed at a private hostel (there were no other commercial establishments in town) and the dinner was a delight -- or maybe we were just awfully hungry.

Bodegon Sarria in Pamplona

And of course there were those wonderful tapas at the bars in Pamplona and Logroño.  And those buttery grilled croissants for breakfast along with café con leche every morning that made up for the lack of a big breakfast buffet to get us going.

Tarta de Santiago

Most of the places along our route this time are very small except for León (131,680) and Santiago de Compostela (95,671).  The Camino goes through the remote hills of Galicia which are not very populated or prosperous.  They say many of the Gallegos emigrated to Buenos Aires to escape this hard-scrabble existence (that's how Argentina got their empanadas).  This means that the countryside will be picturesque but there won't be many mercados for me to visit.  If I'm lucky there will be a few supermarkets in the larger towns of Sarria (pop. 13,700), Portomarín (1,690), Palas de Rei (3,656), Melide (7,502), Arzúa (6,315) and A Rúa (4,695).

Shellfish in Santiago

According to Trip Advisor, typical Galician dishes are Pulpo a la Feira (octopus), Salpicon de Mariscos (seafood salad), Caldo Gallego (like Caldo Verde with grelos which is broccoli raab), Empanada Gallega (stuffed with seafood or meat), Queso Tetilla (titty cheese), Tarta de Santiago (St. James Almond Cake), and Albariño white wine.  The town of Melide is also famous for its pulpo even though it is in the hills of Galicia and not on the coast (next time we will have to take the Portuguese coastal camino).  Hopefully we won't be too far away from Padrón (southwest of Santiago) to find their hot peppers on the tapas menus.  CaminoWays also has a list of the 10 Most Delicious Galician Dishes that we can check off as we eat them.

As for wine, there is the white Albariño from the coast and Mencia is a red wine that is grown in eastern Galicia towards Leon.  The region around Rua also produces white wines.  We'll just drink the table wine and hope it is local.  And then there is always cidra...

CaminoWays is supposed to be putting us up in casas rurales for the intermediate easy walking stops and they are known for their "exceptional food".  At the standard hotels I think we get the Pilgrim Menu, which can be of variable quality.  I will let you know how they turn out.

The Possible Scenario for the Camino

We are beginning to relent and let ourselves be pampered by having CaminoWays do all the reservations and luggage transport, especially if we want to stop midway between the stages.  Fernando says it's supposed to be a vacation, not a penance.

Day 1 (Thurs April 30): Flight to Madrid from Pittsburgh via Philadelphia
Day 2 (Fri May 1):   

• Arrive Madrid 8:20 am.  
• Take the Pink Metro Line 8 to Nuevos Ministerios; switch to the Blue Metro Line 10 towards the Charmartin Train Station (37 minutes total).  
• Take the 2:40 train to Leon or switch to an earlier train (10:30, 11:05) depending on when we land. 
• Check into Hotel El Rincón del Conde (118.80€ for 2 nights)  on a pedestrianized street in the Barrio Humedo in the city center with wifi and private bath.

Day 3 (Sat May 2): Leon
Day 4 (Sun May 3): Leave Leon and take the buses to Sarria.

Begin walking.  The hours are based on 30 min and 20 min miles.

Day 5 (Mon May 4):  Walk to Morgade (11 km/6.6 miles) (2.2-3.3 hours)
Day 6 (Tues May 5): Walk to PortoMarin (9 km/5.4 miles)
Day 7 (Wed May 6): Walk to Ventas de Naron (11 km/6.6 miles) (2.2-3.3 hours)
Day 8 (Thu. May 7): Walk to Palas de Rei (11 km/6.6 miles) (2.2-3.3 hours)
Day 9 (Fri. May 8): Walk to Melide (14 km/8.4 miles) (1.8-4.2 hours)
Day 10 (Sat. May 9): Walk to Arzua (14 km/8.4 miles) (1.8-4.2 hours)
Day 11 (Sun. May 10): Walk to Rua (16 km/9.6 miles) (3.2-4.8 hours)
Day 12 (Mon. May 11): Walk to Santiago (19 km/11.4 miles) (3.8-5.7 hours)

You can see that there is very little time spent walking so I'm wondering if we won't have a lot of time on our hands with nothing to do.  In 2007 we had one very short day from Uterga to Puente La Reina of 10.1 kilometers.  Fortunately we could explore the town but there is no town to explore in Morgade or Ventas de Naron.

Day 13 (Tues. May 12): Santiago. Check out of the CaminoWays hotel and check  into Pension Acibeche
Day 14 (Wed. May 13): Return to Madrid.  Check into Hotel Clement Barajas (62€)
Day 15 (Thurs. May 14): Flight to Charlotte 12:35 pm.  Arrive 3:51 pm.  Flight to Pittsburgh 10:09 pm.  Arrive 11:26 pm.

Designing our own itinerary for the Camino

Could we save a bundle by making our own reservations?  And by roughing it?  I was hoping to get an updated edition of John Brierley's A Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino de Santiago but the new 2015 edition doesn't come out until March 17th.  I ordered it but we'll have to make up our minds before then.

Sarria:
CaminoWays Hotel: Alfonso IX
Are we up for an albergue for one night?  How about Albergue Monasterio de La Magdalena?  Check out the photos.  We can make reservations online.  $11 apiece.

Morgade:
CaminoWays: Casa O Foilebar, a casa rural in Paradela which is 8 km south of Portomarin and that we have to take a taxi to get to.
Casa Morgade Tel: 982.53.12.50

Portomarin:
Concello de Portomarin:  List of accommodations (more than 20)
Albergue Ferramenteiro.  Bunks in huge dorm.  Reservations online.
Albergue-Pension Ultreia.  Private rooms or bunks in small rooms. Phone: 0034 982 545 067.  email: info@ultreiaportomarin.com
CaminoWays: Pousada de Portomarin

Ventas de Naron:
CaminoWays: Pazo de Ludeiro Turismo Rural This casa rural also appears to be well off the Camino so I'll have to ask how we get there.

Palas de Rei:
CaminoWays: Complejo la Cabana  (69€) Looks interesting.
There don't seem to be as many lodging options in Palas de Rei as in Portomarin.

Melide:
CaminoWays: Hotel Carlos 96

Arzua (Ribadiso):
CaminoWays: Casa Teodora Pension  This is on the Camino and looks nice.

Rua:
CaminoWays: O Acivro, Casa Rural

Lavacolla:
CaminoWays: Ruta Jacobeo  I'm afraid there is nothing charming about this hotel near the airport.  $80.

Santiago de Compostela:
CaminoWays: Hospedería San Martín Pinario 300€ (ouch!) No wonder CaminoWays is expensive.
Hostal Suso 40-49€  Ok.  It's not in an historic building but it is inexpensive.
Seminario Menor (albergue) online reservations.  It has single beds in dorms rather than bunks.
Hostel Via Lucia  offers double rooms with bathrooms.  But the rate of 175 euros doesn't make any sense.

Luggage Transfer Service:
When we walked from Estella to Los Arcos in 2007 we used JacoTrans luggage service, which offers services along the entire Camino Frances, including from Sarria to Santiago.  They have a guide to lodging that they service from Leon to Santiago and they charge 7€ per bag.  The Road To Santiago has a list of other luggage transfer services but JacoTrans seems to fit the bill for our route.

Camino Ways

Camino Ways is an Irish company that books hotels for you and carries your luggage on the Camino.  I asked for a quote for our trip (since it is the High Season in May) and they sent me the schedule for the 10 night easy walk version.  That might take too much time out of our 13 nights in Spain if we wanted to spend some time in Leon and Santiago de Compostela.

In	Out	Nights	Pax	Twin	Stage	Meals	Luggage Transfer	Comment	Km	Accommodation First choice depending on availability.
03-May	04-May	1	2	1	Sarria	B	No	Check-in		Alfonso IX 3*
04-May	05-May	1	2	1	Morgade	BD	Yes	Walking	11	O'Foilebar GH
05-May	06-May	1	2	1	Portomarin	BD	Yes	Walking	9	Pousada de Portomarin 3*
06-May	07-May	1	2	1	Ventas de Naron	BD	Yes	Walking	11	Pazo de ludeiro GH
07-May	08-May	1	2	1	Palas do Rei	BD	Yes	Walking	11	Complejo la Cabana 3*
08-May	09-May	1	2	1	Melide	BD	Yes	Walking	14	Carlos 96
09-May	10-May	1	2	1	Arzua	BD	Yes	Walking	14	Teodora
10-May	11-May	1	2	1	Rua	BD	Yes	Walking	16	Casa de Acivro GH
11-May	12-May	1	2	1	Lavacolla	BD	Yes	Walking	10	Ruta Jacobea 3*
12-May	13-May	1	2	1	Santiago de C.	B	Yes	Walking	9	Hospederia San Martin Pinario 3*

Nine kilometers is only 5 1/2 miles or a couple of hours walking so maybe this is too easy for us.  We might get bored with nothing to do in a small village, and we found in 2007 that there often is nothing in these small towns, not even stores, although at this stage of the Camino there should be more.  I don't like the idea of 3* hotels -- 2* are more in keeping with my plebeian spirit and even that should shame us when the rest of the pilgrims are in dormitory bunks.  However, I do like a good night's sleep, clean sheets and our own bathroom, not to mention the security of knowing we've got a place to sleep at night, especially since we will be among the slower walkers and will arrive later than most pilgrims.

I guess we should go on a trial 20 kilometer (12 mile) walk to see how hard it really is for us.  I had no problems in 2007 but that was 8 years ago.  Fortunately if they carry our luggage for us we don't have to worry about heavy backpacks.

Getting to Sarria

We arrive in Madrid on May 1st (why do we always choose International Labor Day to begin our travels?).  In 2007 we took a very pleasant train ride from Madrid to Pamplona.  We hope to do the same to Leon this time and then we'll take a bus to Sarria, which is proving to be more complicated (sort of like the one bus a day - at 5 pm - from Pamplona to Roncesvalles). 

Renfe offers Alvia and Intercity trains from Madrid's Charmartin station to Leon that take about 3 hours.  The Alvia costs 45.30€ and the Intercity 37€.  We are scheduled to arrive in Madrid at 8:20 am but it is on US Airways so that could mean 11:20 am.  We'll have to get from the Barajas airport to the Charmartin train station so that might be another hour.  There are trains at: 10:30, 11:05, 14:40, 17:05, 19:00, 20:30.  Needless to say, we should have a hotel reservation in Leon since it is a holiday.  And we better make train reservations as well, perhaps on RailEurope.com.

Then to get to Sarria, it appears we will have to take a bus from Leon to Lugo on ALSA, and then take a different bus company, MonBus, from Lugo to Sarria.  There are two nonstop buses from Leon to Lugo that appear to run every day:  10:15 am (arriving at 13:30) and 16:30 pm (arriving at 20:15pm).  Obviously we would take the morning bus.  The fare is 17.54€ apiece.

The trip from Lugo to Sarria is much shorter, only 35 minutes, and there are 13 buses a day on weekdays.  There are buses at 13:45, 14:45, 15:20, 17:30, 18:35 (I might as well get used to that 24 hour clock).  So if everything ran on schedule, we could take the 10:15 bus from Leon to Lugo and then the 13:45 bus to Sarria, and if we missed that there's the 14:45 bus.  However, if we went on Sunday, there are fewer buses: if we missed the 13:45 bus, we'd have to wait until 18:35 for the next one.  The fare is 3.70€ apiece.  Monbus doesn't seem to service Leon, although it goes to Madrid, Barcelona, Burgos and many other cities.

How much did we plan ahead in 2007?  I know we bought our train tickets online and then were able to change them to an earlier train at the station.  But that wasn't May 1st.

Camino here we come!

We bit the bullet this morning and used our AAdvantage miles to book the trip to Madrid.  We'll be walking the first two weeks of May like we did in 2007 but we won't start walking on May 1st.  Instead we'll make sure that we have hotel accommodations for May 1st.  Now we have to decide whether we are going to book the accommodations on our own or go the easier and more expensive way of having a company, like Camino Ways, do it for us.  And we will pray fervently that it doesn't rain in rainy Galicia the two weeks we are there.  No, the rain in Spain does not fall mainly on the plains but on the hills of Galicia.

Although we won't be starting in Leon, we'd like to spend some time there before the trip.  Then we can take the bus to Sarria for the last 100 km that we need to walk for our "compostela".  That should take six days if we follow this itinerary from Camino Ways:

1. Sarria to Portomarín - 22km (13.2 miles) 
2. Portomarín to Palas de Rei - 22 km (13.2 miles)
3. Palas de Rei to Melide - 15 km (9 miles)
4. Melide to Arzúa - 13 km (7.8 miles)
5. Arzúa to Amenal - 23 km (13.8 miles)
6. Amenal to Santiago - 14 km (8.4 miles)