The Stone Site

Today we made the famous climbing up to O Cebreiro. It started out well with a black out at the hostel – so lamp lights on, even to get up from the bed. And it was dark and upwards walking, however quite much road walking. So in the end it was not that bad, we have done much worse!

Due to weather the view was a bit limited, but it should be great!

How about getting all the answers to the important questions in life while walking? Well, to be honest the questions are more where to stop, which way to choose, what’s that stone about and what to eat? It’s quite a peaceful life, we do what we are supposed to do (walk) and when that’s over it’s just to relax! Nothing to think about actually….

Today has been a long walk on asphalt and my knees and legs absolutely hate that, and they are not late to tell that! Ouch! And tomorrow is the big vertical clump up to O Cebrerio! Let’s see how that will work!

The thing to see here in Vega is the castle, just an hour walk from the city. Will I do that? No! I’m just staying in bed trying to calm my feet down!

So besides walking I have been looking at a lot of potential renovation project. We have a couple things we need to do back home to our house in Sweden. But looking at the things you need to do here, the things at home is absolutely minor ones. So, where to start with a house like this one? Or should you keep it shabby chic – you could always use your poncho if it should start to rain!

I have told about my little evil morning activities? Well, this is how you do it! When walking in the dark you may think that everyone is sleeping … but you can’t be more wrong about that! There are plenty of dogs that people have in their gardens, balconies or wherever they can stuff them in. And the dogs can hear you! The first time I got shit scared when a dog suddenly start to bark loudly close to me. But now I just need to slightly turn towards them showing some light. And if I’m lucky, that makes most of them completely mad, barking like h..ll! And then the next door dog wakes up and starts to bark and then the next and the next. Hi hi! It’s so funny!! I call it “morning prelude in C Major for badly tempered dogs!” – concerts given mornings around five!

Had a hard start this morning knowing that we had to do some more walking, and that we have already had quite a lot of. Therefore we decided to be sure that we also enjoy this day! And that we have!

Have you heard if Mencia wine and the Bierzo area? We haven’t and little did we know until we realised that there where a lot of wine plants around us while walking. So to cut the story short. First in middle of nowhere and exactly along the Camino we found a very fine wine museum.

It looked like some kind of administrative state building and really closed, but it wasn’t! We where the only visitors and we had a great chance to learn something that’s called Mencia wine district and machines used in wine making.

Then walking around in the city Cacabelos we found a Bodega Cuatro Pasos and had a very, very fine guided tour in English by a girl called Shiela. She had some wine yards by herself and explained everything about the process, the village and the people in a very engaging and understandable way.

It’s no point to repeat everything here, but as in every production there is so much knowledge, thoughts and engagement. And that’s creates such an energy as listener and beholder(?).

Lessons learned, don’t run the Camino in express speed only focusing on the road. There is plenty of time to look around and learn! And if you wonder what these “cuatro pasos” comes from, I know it now!

As usual we are on our way before the sun, the birds and the rooster. And we are completely alone – no one starts walking at five in the morning (besides us). Going in the light of our lamp we try to be as observant as possible. Therefore we often spots all these graves along the Camino – hopefully(?) they all died of other reasons than accidents walking in the dark.

Today was also a cold, windy day. Normally the early mornings are refreshing and energetic, today was no exception just much more. Standing outside in an ice cold shower describe it quite well I think.

Walking, cold and hungry in heavy fog and semi darkness we reached Foncebadon. And what should I say? If you have seen movies like “Mad Max” or other movies showing the life after civilisation has collapsed you know what kind of places we are talking about. So reaching this town we saw a door, could it be some kind of coffee bar? We pushed an old, heavy wooden door …

.. having some issues opening the door we more or less felt inside. AND it was full of young pilgrims around 25(?) eating breakfast at three or four very long tables. A true Albergue breakfast and full of activity, eating and talking! So we got a very fine cup of coffee and toast for a very descent price. Next time when we are 20 or 25 again, we will absolutely go there and join in!

Then walking an hour or two it was time to “plant the stone”. The stone I picked months ago at home. A stone that I have carried with me all along the Camino without loosing it!! Now was the time to leave it to live it’s own life among the other stones.

And it will not be alone – so many stones are gathered here ! Biggest of them all was a stone from South Tyrol, WHO carry such a stone?

Then we walked for another four hours and since we are having a pic collage orgy here; these are all the trails, roads or whatever path we walked. All of them killing your feet, knees and legs. But I must say that the look good as pictures, or?

Walking flat in the Meseta the landscape is now changing. Instead of fields with crops the wood is coming back and it’s starting to be a bit hilly.

There is also much more pilgrims out walking. We are so used to closed coffee bars in the morning and if there is one open we are almost the only ones there. Now’s the opposite, they are open but filled with people. This morning it took 35 minutes just to order and get a coffee and a bocadillo! It was people all over the place!

There is also a lot more places to stay – and shops are even open on Sundays! In Pamplona, Logroño and Burgos it was really hard to buy fruits and water on a Sunday. Here in the pre-mountain area it’s not a big issue to get this even though it’s Sunday!

In addition to our weakness for a cold KAS Naranja we may have got a new one – chocolate!

Astorga has a chocolate factory and the city is full of shops selling different kinds of chocolate. But you need to eat it fast before it melts! Walking for such a long time without candy we got hooked up only after just a few chocolate bars. So today we bought some chocolate made in León when stopping for a break. Lets see how this turns out – perhaps our weight curve as the elevation profile will turn upwards too!