The African journey begins. KRUGER National Park!

Posted on January 25, 2016

By the time we boarded the plane for Jo-burg, we were completely exhausted. I struggled to stay awake for the meal but of course, got a second wind after and couldn’t fall asleep despite ingesting a couple of gravol. That meant about 3 hours sleep over the last two days. Fun stuff.

Yona picked us up from the Mufassa Back packers, we unloaded our stuff and headed off to town with her to find an adapter to work in South Africa (they MUST be different) and perhaps an ereader. We must have tried 10 stores, ended up with the wrong adapter, no e-reader but we got a bit of a tour and picked her son up from school.

Stephanie (a woman I met in Turkey) picked us up later and we went out for dinner. It was really nice to catch up and enjoy a wonderful meal together.

A bed has never felt so good. We crashed by 9 pm and slept through till 7 am. There. Jet lag done.

Our first full day was spent getting to know fellow travellers and a trip to the mall where I found a cheap ereader and we finally got adapters. I figure I’ll likely leave it here but it cost me the same as perhaps 2 books.

We arrived at the Nkambeni Camp in Kruger National Park and set to preparing lunch and setting up tents. Next was an evening game drive. We didn’t see a lot but it was fun driving about the park in a jeep. Dinner was an amazing chicken stewed meat over rice and beans with carrots.

January 21;

Our alarm got us up at 4:45 am. After breakfast of yogurt and granola we each prepared our lunch and headed off for another game drive. This one was MUCH more successful. We saw pretty much every animal out there besides the cats. A pride of lions was spotted but they were too far away to get a clear picture. Seeing a rhinoceros was a highlight especially since Kruger is having such a problem with poachers. Other than a couple of bathroom breaks and an hour lunch break, we spent the whole day in the jeep. By the time we arrived back at camp around 4:30 pm, my feet were swollen and I felt absolutely filthy.

More excitement was had in the shower. The back side of the shower and toilet block faces the barbed wire fence that encloses the people in the camp. Animals run free. People are caged in. After soaping up I turned to see a huge elephant watching me. Wow! Unfortunately I don’t take a camera to shower with me so after getting decent, I ran for the camera. By then he’d wandered off. He was still in the photo but the effect wasn’t the same.

Dinner was stewed beef over rice and greek salad. We’re not going hungry. That’s for sure!

Baby zebra

Yep, it’s an elephat.

He snuck up on us

Elephant family

White Rhinoceros

Snake eagle

baby warthog

Mama warthog

Pretty lizard

Male kudu

Maribu stork

Monkey business

Hello?

Even African starlings are beautiful

Baby zebra

The other jeep just booting around Kruger NP

Buffalo

Sunset over the hippos

Check out the size of that stick bug!

Elephants in Kruger NP

Hippos in the watering hold

A herd of elephants in a watering hole

London in a DAY!

Posted on January 18, 2016

Big Ben and the London Eye

“Nothing holds you back more than your own insecurities”

I can totally identify with that. Folks are surprised when I tell them I’m terrified the day or two before every trip. Just because I’ve done it many times, doesn’t mean it’s not scary. Leaving your comfort zone is ALWAYS scary! Every time you face them, it gets a little easier only because you know that most of your fears never come to fruition.

After a harrowing drive to the airport our flight was completely uneventful. We arrived at Heathrow at 1:30 am our time, 6:30 am in London and headed out to buy a tube pass for the day. After missing the Westminster stop we wanted we figured we’d just keep going and got off at the Tower stop where we wandered about seeing the London Tower and the Tower bridge. That was a nice extra.

Next we headed to Westminster where we connected with a guide (Steven) from London Walks. The next couple of hours were spent getting a great history lesson and viewing all the architecture of down town London.

When in London one MUST eat fish and chips so we found a restaurant called Garfunkels and enjoyed a huge meal. Our kind waitress gave us directions to the nearest tube stop and we were off again.

We got to Little Venice just in time to meet another guide from London Walks. He took us through little side streets and led us around the canal system that was widely used for transporting goods right up until the 1960’s. Now it’s occupied mostly by pleasure boats. We walked along the horse path and listened to lots of great stories and more history and ended up in Camden. By then it was dark and time to head back to the airport so we headed for the nearest tube station. We knew we needed the Piccadilly line to get back so got off at the nearest stop that connected with that line. That’s when we found out the line was closed.

The station was packed and the announcer said to ask staff for help. Right. That was impossible to find in the crowd. Finally we found someone who gave us such complicated directions we both just stared at him in awe. He tried again. We still didn’t get it so we looked for someone else and found a policemen who suggested we walk to the next stop as it wouldn’t be so busy, then get off at Paddington and take the airport special. We’d have to pay extra for that as it wasn’t included in our ticket but by then, we didn’t care. We had a plane to catch!

Once there we lined up to buy a ticket. 22 lbs. Wow. Not cheap! The man said “why don’t you just take the airport express that comes with your ticket? It leaves in 6 minutes.” BONUS! That went to Terminal 3 so we transferred again and were finally in terminal 5. It turned out we had plenty of time as security was remarkably UNbusy. Nice! We sure got our 12.50 lbs worth out of that tube pass 🙂

The Australia gate in front of Buckingham Palace

Horse guard in front of the Prime Minister’s residence

As the ceremonial entrance from Trafalgar Square to The Mall, itself the ceremonial road leading up to Buckingham Palace, Admiralty Arch plays an important role on ceremonial occasions. Processions at royal weddings, funerals, coronations and other public processions

War monument

View of the London Eye and other side of Horse guards from St James Park. Buckingham palace is behind me.

Pelican in the park in front of Buckingham palace

The Canada gate in front of Buckingham palace

Westminster Abbey

Buckingham Palace

Closer view of Westminster Abbey

The sun dial on St Margaret’s church beside Westminster Abbey

London Tower Bridge

View of the London Eye and other side of Horse guards from St James Park. Buckingham palace is behind me.

The iconic red telephone booth

Boat coming up the canal under a bridge

Residential boats on the canal

Refections of a mansion and a mosque in a canal

Daffodils in January?

Canal in LIttle Venice

Madrid madness

Posted on November 14, 2015

Madrid’s train station is huge. Good thing Sue had communicated with the hostel and got directions on how to take the tube as we were baffled enough even armed with information. We figured out how to buy tickets, which train to take, now many stops and ended up in the right place the first time. Amazing!

After finding our hostel and doing a quick settle in we took off right away to see what we could of Madrid. Since we had mere hours to do so we decided to appease our hunger with McDonald’s. Even that was somewhat complicated. Madrid manages to class up McD’s with real plates and cutlery

Armed with a map we set out to see as much of the city in the few hours we had. I think we did pretty well. We ended up in the Mayor’s square where we were entertained by a funny mime and a few human statues. A protest was going on and there were riot police everywhere. Although noisy, there was no violence and people were asking the police for directions.

Our last dinner in Spain had to be red wine and tapas. and we found that close to our hostel. Madrid is beautiful but expensive. If you visit, get out of the city. There’s LOTS to see in the countryside!

Cathedral at night

Inside the crypt

In the Crypt

Pope Jean Paul

That’s some pipe organ!

Impressive door on the Cathedral

Other side of the cathedral

Cathedral

View of the palace

Police on horse back in the park

Downtown Madrid

Classy McDonalds

Protest.

That’s a real person hanging off that bike

Pamplona without bulls

Posted on November 12, 2015

A 2 hour bus ride got us to Pamplona. We got our bags, left the terminal and stood on the street having no clue where to go. So, back into the terminal we went to find the information booth to at least find out in which direction to walk. Turns out, it wasn’t that difficult. I guess we still looked lost as a nice young woman stopped us and asked if we needed help. She reaffirmed we were going in the right direction.

After meeting the hostel owner, we settled into our “pods”. They look like something from Ikea or those small space homes. It’s a room with about 20 beds complete with locker, light, shelf and comfy bed and you can pull a shutter down for privacy.

Then we headed out to do our usual walk about. We wandered through out the old city and followed the route for the running of the bulls. Next we walked the wall and most of the perimeter of the city. The old walls are intact complete with canon holes and you can see where the moat and drawbridge once were.

We didn’t really eat dinner but stopped a couple of times for pinxos and a glass of wine. For some strange reason the owner of the bar we stopped at twice started talking about fishing. Apparently he loves fishing. So, we told him to come to Canada and I gave him our business card. Ya never know. Maybe someday he’ll show up at Alpine. 🙂

The bulls run up this street

The sun dial on the right side of the church

The bull ring where the bulls end up after running through town

Some of the bulls we saw running.

Another portion of the wall

View of the new city from the wall around the old

Normal sized door within a door

Selfie attempt in Cafe Aruna where Ernest Hemingway wrote “The Sun Also Rises”

A sample of pinxos or tapas

More bulls we saw running

Inside the beautiful cathedral

The pipe organ

Alabaster statues

Tuesday we took our time messing about, wandered around town and went to see the Cathedral when it finally opened. Pilgrims get in for half price so we made sure to bring our credentials. It was a couple of hours well spent.

It’s been a few days since we actually ate a real meal so we headed back the Iruna cafe where Ernest Hemingway hung out and wrote “The Sun Also Rises” and “A Dangerous Summer”. The cafe apparently looks the same as it did back then. I guess why mess with a good thing? Our lunch was really good anyway. I love how they do a meal of the day. They give you a choice of 4 or 5 starters, 4 to 6 meals, a few desserts, wine, water and coffee all for one set price. I got to have little squid cooked in it’s own ink. Interesting.

Suitably stuffed we decided we missed the camino so followed it to the next town. That put another 12 km on our feet and wore us out for the day.

Eating our way through Bilbao

Posted on November 9, 2015

The over night bus to Bilbao was an experience and certainly not one of my favourite parts of travel. Oh well. You take the good with the bad.

We arrived at 5:30 am exhausted and too cheap to take a taxi as it’s only a 25 minute walk. Well. I’m sure it is when you know where you’re going. It wasn’t till later in the day that we figured out our difficulty with road names is not because we’re crazy. They ARE different on both sides of the road. One is in Spanish and the other is in Basque which is totally different. A young man in a restaurant actually left his friends to SHOW us where our hotel was. How’s that for helpful?!

Busy is best when you’re exhausted so after leaving our bags we went walking, and walking an walking some more. Bilbao is a much more beautiful city than we’d expected and there’s lots to see. We took a river boat tour that explained a lot about the area then walked some more.

The old city is fully of shops, restaurants and of course….churches. We stopped at a bar and enjoyed some pinxos after figuring out you can just point to what you want and you get charged per piece. After walking some more we sampled gelato and declared it delicious as well.

Our room had an interesting shower with jets in the wall so I thought I’d try it. After being attacked by cold water and making a soggy mess of the bathroom, it was quite enjoyable and nice on tired, aching muscles. Anita and Sue laughed at me but someone’s got to be the guinea pig.

Morning reflections on the river Nervion

Interesting transport system

“ferry” of cars

The transporter bridge carries people AND cars across the river by suspended cable.

Zubizuri bridge

Reflections in the ball thing outside the Guggenheim

Zubizuri bridge or “string bridge” as we called it

Sunday, November 8

Buying bus tickets for onward travel was a pain this morning. It’s been easy thus far so I don’t know what the issue is now. Oh well. We’ll think about that later.

We took our time this morning and wandered off to find breakfast, then the funicular which is supposed to be a highlight. It wasn’t terribly scenic but was a quick way to get up a very large hill. We wandered around up there a while then decided to walk back. There appeared to be a path off the road so we took that and just wandered some more. It turned out to be an organized trail with signs and everything. Cool.

The temperature reached 29 degrees today and we were hot. After taking a photo of the Guggenheim from every angle possible we worked up a hunger and found another gelato place. Yummy. I got dark chocolate and raspberry.

More wandering made us thirsty so we stopped for a glass of wine and beer with a shot of water then made it back to the room for a siesta. I managed to succeed in purchasing bus tickets and our host was gracious enough to print them. Nice!

It’s dark by 7 pm but the streets fill up with people. They were everywhere. The parks were full of kids. People were walking, biking, roller blading…everywhere. We finally settled on pinxos for dinner with a glass of wine. Pinxos are kind of like hors d’oeurves and every bar has their own and a variety to choose from. It’s a fun way to sample different things.

Sunday flower market

View from the top of the mountain

Strange phone booth on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere

I think it was a porcupine.

Another view of the Guggenheim.

This green cat is actually made of pansies.

Natural gelato yumminess

Mural under a bridge

Old city of Bilbao at night

View of the river at night

Wandering Santiago de Compostela

Posted on November 7, 2015

Cheese and meat anyone? YUM!

It was a treat not having to pack up and go anywhere. So we got up and went walking. First was the market which was just opening up and treated ourselves to a freshly squeezed clementine juice as we wandered. Breakfast was an interesting tomato spread and proscuito with cafe con leche and fresh orange juice.

After going back to the room long enough to check out, we stored our bags and headed out again. We made it just in time for the pilgrim’s mass at the San Juan Cathedral. It was impressive even if you don’t understand a word.

The rest of the day was spent wandering through shops, having a wine, gelato, coffee, sangria, etc and enjoying the snacks (tapas or pinxos) the cafes provide with a drink. It’s kind of nice to just keep drinking and they feed you.

Making delicious clementine juice

Cathedral at night

Spices in the market

The pilgrims mass in the Cathedral.

Interesting busker looks like he’s playing a didgery do?

The thinker in the university courtyard

Another view of the Cathedral

The Benedictine Monastery

Yet another church

The road to Santiago

Posted on November 6, 2015

Today’s journey started with some rain and a lovely path through a eucalyptus forest. Have I mentioned how wonderfully refreshing that smells?

There were a lot more pilgrims on the road today and we met a few we hadn’t seen in a few days. Some of the Belgian kids were limping and suffering nasty blisters. We caught up to Rita and David who were on their last day of over a month and 900 kilometres. They were feeling tired and ready to go home.

The rain let up for a few hours and the walk was pleasant with a nice cool temperature and a bit of a breeze. The wind picked up but still it was pleasant as we had a few good hills to climb. Just outside Santiago we were investing some interesting rock creations through a locked gate when a man came and let us in. We walked around for a bit, took some photos, thanked him and carried on.

Upon entering the city of Santiago we got excited, thinking the end was near ….but it went on and on and on. Santiago de Compostela is huge. Finally we entered the old city and the rain started again. We covered in ponchos and carried on. It was nice to have the Belgian teachers there greeting the students as we felt welcomed as well. 🙂

The church is massive and we had no idea where to go to get our compostela or certificate of completion so we asked, wandered and eventually found the pilgrim’s office. Then to find our hotel in the mass confusion of steps, streets and alleyways that is the old city of Santiago. There are still “portes” which were once gates in the wall that surrounded the 11th century city. When we finally found our hotel we were pleasantly surprised by the size of our “apartment” on 2 floors and we each get our own room. Like everything in the old city, it had 2′ thick stone walls, shutters on the windows, heavy doors and wood ceilings.

After settling in, we met with Wiktoria of Camino travels. She wanted our feedback and was happy we’d thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We went out together and enjoyed an empanada, Spanish tortilla and of course, red wine. By the time we got back we were thoroughly exhausted and ready for bed.

Entering Santiago….but still 5 km or so to go.

Strange plant in someone’s garden

Chickens on the bottom. Grain on the top.

Eucalyptus forest

Statue for pilgrims on the hill before entering Santiago

Odd sculptures created out of granite

We can see the Cathedral! Almost there….

The Cathedral

Inside the incredible Cathedral

A Journey to the End of the World: Finisterre Experiences

Posted on November 5, 2015

It felt strange not to pack up and get walking right away. We were thankful we weren’t as it was pouring rain. Our guide for the day picked us up in his van and we headed off to Finisterre, what the ancient Romans once thought was the end of the world. Rueben was an excellent guide who taught us much about Spain along the way. With us was a woman from Florida and a Spanish couple with no English. It was fun trying to communicate. We thoroughly enjoyed the day trip in spite of the wet, foggy weather but found our feet hurt more from NOT walking then they did from the long walks. Sue and I asked for a toilet stop on the way home so Rueben found a bar in a village and we got an interesting surprise…a squat toilet. It’s been a while but we’d both done it before so we did our business, thanked the proprietor and left. Rueben asked if the toilets were nice (for future reference when tourists are in need) and we laughed. Sure, for a squattie it was great. Apparently they’re not common in Spain and he was quite horrified. Too funny.

A late lunch meant we weren’t hungry for dinner so we decided to explore a bit more of the old city, then back to the apartment. After a tea, some relaxation and internet time we went out to find a tapas bar and finally succeeded. It was through a cheese store and into a small, narrow room with napkin and toilet paper notes on the wall. Cute. We ordered a glass of wine each and she brought us a plate of tapas which was basically assorted meats and cheeses on bread.

A man we’d seen on the trail walked in so we greeted him and he sat beside me. . I enjoyed an interesting conversation with him as he spoke about how it keeps him young. He stared walking the camino at 65 and had done 25 of them since. He works in a Benedictine monastery albergue so gets to use the 5 or 6 languages he speaks and living simply keeps him humble. The tapas was his dinner so he obviously knows how to live very frugally. Tomorrow, he said, he’s going to a monastery to hear the nuns sing.

Apple tree bridge

Granary

Granary inside. They don’t store grain anymore but other perishables as it’s the perfect environment

The climb was worth this view!

Kilometre zero at the end of the world. You can’t see for the fog but it’s a VERY big cliff

Arzua to Pedrouzo

Posted on November 5, 2015

Eucalyptus forest….smells divine!

We got out a little earlier today knowing we had 20 km ahead of us. It was raining so we finally got to wear those ponchos we’ve been carrying with us all the way since it “always rains” in Galicia. It didn’t rain hard and was pretty much done in a couple of hours. It was cooler today which was actually more pleasant for walking. I don’t know how people do it in the summer.

The road was less hilly and we crossed the highway 547 over, under and across several times. The countryside was beautiful. Roads were lined with holly bushes, olive trees, ivies,fushia and lots of dahlias. Towards the end of the day we walked through a forest of eucalyptus trees. What a fresh, wonderful smell that is!

We stopped to chat with sheep, a family of pigs and admired some pretty chickens. We missed some of the pilgrims we’d met before but ended up with a group of young people from Belgium. Apparently this is the school’s 6th year doing this trip with kids graduating from what we would call high school. It’s like a “March break” trip for them. Great idea!

This time we stopped for lunch in Pedrouzo before finding our accommodation. Other days it’s been 3 or 4 before we got lunch so dinner just never happened. We just picked from the meal of the day which for 10 eu includes an appetizer, meal, dessert, wine and coffee.

The friendly fellow at the desk of the Pension Arca showed us around and said he’d show us where to go in Santiago after a shower. I guess that meant we stunk so we did as we were told. There weren’t any tapas bars open (being low season has it’s down side) so we decided a glass of wine (including a very strange conversation with a drunk Spaniard) and a bag of chips was dinner.

A unique cafe with traveller’s tee shirts hanging from the ceiling

We’re not sure what they’re doing with this cow but it has something to do with cheese.

Arzua is famous for cheese

Leaving Arzua on a drizzly morning.

Melide to Arzua on a magnificent day!

Posted on November 3, 2015

Today was a great workout for the gluteus maximus. There were few flat paths. All was either uphill or downhill which isn’t a bad thing as the views were spectacular. There were few people on the trail today and we were often alone as we walked through cool forests, small farms and the odd meadow. It was a beautiful, sunny day and in no time we were down to tee shirts.

We caught up with Rita and David again today but didn’t see mushroom girls. I’m hoping they didn’t make any mistakes in their mushroom harvest. A local couple were set up along the trail with their donkeys. Solomon had “buen camino” written on his flank and didn’t seem too impressed by it. His owner played the pan flute. The sound was beautiful and fit right in with the woods, stream and spiritual nature of the camino. While there we met an 80 year old man walking with his son. They’d come a lot farther than we had.

By the time we reached Arzua we were pretty tired and very hungry. We’d been talking about Arzua being famous for cheese which made us all crave pizza. So….we searched for pizza. The town was deserted so it wasn’t easy to find but we did and it was good. To celebrate we had a maxibon ice cream for dessert.

Apparently All Saints Day is a national holiday in Spain so there’s not much going on. We ended up back in our room and, still full from pizza, didn’t bother with dinner. We’re just pooped. With 28,000 steps and 20 km logged, it was the shortest day yet. Oh well. Maybe the effects were cumulative?

11 th century baptismal font

Pretty little church just outside Melide with a very friendly priest.

Bread deliveries on one side and mail on the other.

Solomon the donkey. He’s better than a Walmart greeter!

Sue, are you going to make it?

Tranquil scene in the woods with Solomon

Just in case you can’t read, this is what the dog will do to you should you choose to enter.

The first granary we’d seen with actual grain in it.

Another little church in a village along the way. Most of them are closed so today we just got lucky

Must watch out for tractors too

Cows can read signs (unlike deer) and know where to cross the road as is evidenced by their trail.

Photographing a couple of weird tourists photographing sheep

One of many incredible views along the Camino

Another pretty mushroom

Just outside a former hospital for pilgrims of the old days

Arzua is famous for cheese

We’re not sure what they’re doing with this cow but it has something to do with cheese.

Palas de Rai to Melide, a mere 15 km

Posted on November 2, 2015

Breakfast today was typical Spanish fare. We enjoyed a large, fresh croissant, fresh squeezed orange juice and cafe con leche. We dawdled over a second coffee and didn’t hit the road until after 9 am. It was only supposed to be 15 km which by now seems like a walk in the park.

The weather was amazing and I wore sandals and a tank top. Along the way we passed a few more farms, more small villages, forests, crossed some bridges and saw lots of cows. We met some travellers we’d seen before and some new ones. A 70 year old woman from Japan said this was her 3rd Camino. Last year she did 500 km and crossed the Pyrenees! Another couple turned out to be from Perth and knew my cousin who also lives there. It’s really such a small world.

We got to Melide around 1 pm and easily found our hotel. That’s a first. We usually end up asking directions. At check in we discovered our bags were missing. Uh oh. Apparently the driver decided we should be walking to Azura as Melide isn’t far enough. Oh well. He promised to bring them back.

So off we went and explored the city. We found a Turkish restaurant and enjoyed some delicious burgers. Mine was lamb and it sure was good. Sue and Anita really enjoyed theirs as well.

Beautiful flowers in a cemetary

The shell is a symbol of the Camino. Some are hard to find. This one sure isn’t.

Boogie on

Which way?

Since it was Sunday, nothing was open but there were lots of people around which we hadn’t really seen anywhere else. Strangely enough even the churches were closed. I guess we’re not meant to see what they look like inside.

After a rest and finding our bags, we went out again to try to find tapas. We went to a place recommended on Trip Advisor but they didn’t appear to offer any so we kept looking. Even asking some people didn’t help. Finally we just headed back to the hotel and had a sangria and empanada. It was pretty good. One day we’ll get some infamous pinxos or tapas!

Our “easy” day turned into 35,000 steps and about 21 km

Waterfall upon entering Melide

More than half way through our walk and embracing my age 🙂

One of many bridges on the Camino

San Pedro Iglesia in Melide

One of many different kinds of road. Yes, we occasionally meet a car or two.

That’s a tree growing out of the cement in the balcony.

Portomarin to Palas de Rai

Posted on November 1, 2015

Although warned ahead of time that Spaniards don’t do big breakfasts and we’d likely just get continental fare at our hotels, we’ve been pleasantly surprised. Today we though the bun with cream cheese and jam and the cafe con leche was it. Then she brought out the ham, cheese, yogurt and fruit. Needless to say that was plenty to keep us going for a while.

We’re already getting lazy and it was almost 9 am before we hit the road. Mind you, the sun doesn’t come up till about 8:30 so there’s no point in going early. Today’s hike was to total about 25 km and the the first 15 km was all uphill. There were a few steep grades but for the most part it was just a gradual incline.

Again we were blessed with beautiful weather. It started to drizzle at one point enough that I got out my poncho but it didn’t last long. The sun even peeked out a few times. I rolled my pants up and removed layers till I was down to a tank top. Not bad for halloween!

Leaving Potomarin, the view from the other side of the river. There aren’t many lawns but lots of gardens.

La vista es magnifico!

Which way?

Just hanging around

Every village has a church

Pretty steps

Not many travellers this time of year

Often the trail was beside a major highway but it wasn’t busy so the road noise wasn’t that bad. We passed through a lot of farms and small villages and the air was filled with various odours of “fresh” country air. There seemed to be one cow that went a long way with a bad case of diarrhoea. Passing the processing plant was really smelly.

Again we met lots of different people of varying ages and nationalities. We admired some mushrooms and a couple of young ladies joined us and showed the bag of mushrooms they’d been collecting for dinner. They even had some porcini mushrooms! Yum! Locals often greeted us with a “buen Camino”. There were also many times we were totally alone on the trail. The walk was altogether a relaxing, pleasant and physically tiring trek.

We took a few detours here and there when something appeared interesting like a grave yard, church, funny looking truck or a mushroom or two.

Around 4 pm we finally arrived in Palas de Rai, a small town that we still managed to get lost in. Again we asked a local where the Pension Paradellas was and found we were mere steps away. The man at the desk was very friendly and took us to the 3rd floor. Our room was the only one. It had 3 beds in a row and a wall of windows to a balcony. Beautiful! A little while later he came back and showed me his cell phone. It said “teach them where to find breakfast”. Awesome. Through our limited Spanish and his sparse English we managed to converse and even joke around.

We settled in, took a wonderfully refreshing shower and relaxed until 7ish which is a reasonable time for a Spanish person to eat dinner. I had researched dinner options and came up with a pulperia (pulpa is octopus) as Galicia is famous for octopus so we must eat it. It was only supposed to be a 2 minute walk but of course we got lost. You have to see these streets to understand why. There’s no rhyme or reason. Nothing’s straight. So, again we asked a local “donde pulperia?” and managed to understand his Spanish enough to get there. Yay US!

Our waiter didn’t speak English and was very amusing. Sue wanted steak and he warned her it was a lot of meat. Anita got the octopus and I got clams. We all decided we needed veggies so got a simple salad. It was simple but HUGE. Even though we helped, Sue couldn’t finish the steak. Our waiter acted disgusted. We finished the carafe of wine and Sue wanted another glass. When she was adamant she didn’t want another carafe, or even half a carafe, JUST a glass. Again he was disgusted. When we said no to dessert he acted fed up. Too funny!

Sue had brought some funky light up halloween pins that we then gave to a couple of kids at a table nearby. They were thrilled and their mother had them say thank you in English. Very cute 🙂

We staggered back to the hotel. Well, I staggered. 2 glasses of wine is a lot for me. Besides, it was a long day. My garmin said I walked over 41,000 steps and 30 km. 😀

Yummy octopus (pulpa)

Yummy clams

The “simple” salad

Funny looking tractors

Pretty mushrooms!

Sunset view from our room in Palas de Rai

Doesn’t that look like a fishing bobber on the water tower?

68 km to Santiago de Compostela. The stick says go that way….

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Where in the world is Jodi?

Adventure travel for the young at heart. I haven't been everywhere but it's on my list!

Author Archives: Jodi

The African journey begins. KRUGER National Park!

London in a DAY!

Madrid madness

Pamplona without bulls

Eating our way through Bilbao

Wandering Santiago de Compostela

The road to Santiago

A Journey to the End of the World: Finisterre Experiences

Arzua to Pedrouzo

Melide to Arzua on a magnificent day!

Palas de Rai to Melide, a mere 15 km

Portomarin to Palas de Rai

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