June 10-12 Prioro-Camporredondo-Cervera Pisguerga

Left Los Apartamentos in Prioro with a slam of the door.  Not that there was anyone to hear it, but it was a statement, in its own little way, nonetheless.  It was 35 degrees and soon after setting out, which, again took a bit of time because, well, it is often not easy to find your way out of these maze-like towns.  Soon after getting going, it started to rain.  Not the terrible English sleeting rain, but a cold, steady drizzle.  Not bad for walking, really, but it is always a pain to get out the rain gear and pack cover and don jacket and pants by the side of the road.  Back cover was put on inside out, but it did not seem to matter.  Hands were freezing, freezing, I tell you, even with wool gloves. Note to self:  next time, remember to put on waterproof mittens.  Anyway, very long climb at the beginning and another later on, and the walk was 16.5 miles, a lot of which was on track, which is hard on the feet.  Actually, I think the new boots, while awfully good looking, or at least they were to start with, are slightly inferior to the discontinued model they have replaced.  Soles seem just not quite as thick. Anyway, it was a tough day.

Apparently, I am not the only one who thought so:



Hostel in Camporredondo is very pleasant:  sunny room great view, and the  couple who run it could not be nicer.  While there is no grocery store in this townlet, one can buy ice cream at the bar.  Nothing is better than a Magnum—except maybe two—after a hard day's hike.  OK, most people would say "a cold beer" instead, but a double chocolate Magnum is pretty darn delicious.  And yes, a second, this time, almond, followed.  Those treats really perked up the bread, peanut butter, jam, and an apple.

View of the day:



Thought these might have been wild horses, but their bells quashed that notion:




This explains Assyrian art::



Next day, 20 miles, muscles that run along side calfs very sore.  Had it not been for that, it would have been a nice walk.  Oh, except that the GPS DIED.  Got a low battery warning, put in fresh fodder, device would not turn on.  Tried another set and a third.  Nada.  GPS so dead that it will not open when connected to the computer.  This is like England all over again except this time, had to make emergency request to Ilene to try to get me a new one and send it ASAP.  Not all bad, though.  Route today was not difficult to follow, View Ranger is definitely helpful, and I have an old GPS that did crank up, but it could D I E any second!!

View:

June 10 Salamón to Prioro

If it can go wrong, it will go wrong applies to today's logistics, but first, the walk.  14.5 miles.  About three quarters climbing and descending, but pretty.  Had one annoying navigational situation near the beginning, so spent about 15 minutes wandering about looking for a bridge. But a man, who came outside to toss his garbage, saved the day, and I was off.

An odd-looking tree?  Maybe, but behind it, also a bathroom:

A creature:

Apparently, you are not allowed to pick mushrooms here, and you could get shot if it is hunting season, but through the gate you go:

Today's view:

Two ferociously barking dogs en route, fortunately, chained up.  Not much other drama until arrival.  Get to the apartamentos where I have been booked since Nov. 21.  Not a soul around, no bell, nothing, and my phone does not work.  Next door is a grocery store, open for ten more minutes, so I buy a few things planning to come back when it reopens at 5:00, only it did not reopen at 5:00, which would have made me very sad since I have a stove and was hoping to cook a couple of eggs, but, not surprisingly, the  stove did not work nor did the frig, so I was annoyed about that and not so sad about the eggs. 

Asked grocer man if he knew lady who owns apartments, and, if so, would he phone her. He said he would not because they do not get along, therefore she would not pick up the phone if he called.  Three old men were sitting on a bench outside the grocer's. I explain my predicament and one, Pedro, the only one of the three who had teeth, and, by the way, a moustache, let me use his phone.  Reach lady who is in Leon or some such place and she claims to know nothing about my reservation.  She speaks a mile a minute and I am having trouble getting the gist, but I do get that she is very concerned about how much I owe her.  I tell her that I am using Pedro's phone, so could we please get on with it.  At last, making another call,  she summons a friend who lives nearby and she, the friend, works things out after much in the way of issues.  For example, she had a devil of a time getting the keys to work, and the lights would not go on, so she had to fiddle with the fuse box.  FINALLY, after two hours, I am IN.  I tell the lady, again using her friend's phone, that I had only wanted to book for one night, but that she had insisted on two, and owing to all the trouble, would she settle for one night's payment, although I would do what she asked.  No, two nights, in cash, and that was it.  Muy desagradable.  At least the wi-fi works.

Then the suitcase,  It had not been not delivered.  It was still back in Salamón.  After several phone calls, made by lady's friend, Gregorio, el taxista, showed up with the bag about an hour later.  He claimed that since the booking had not been confirmed, he simply did not go to get the bag in the morning.

Movistar, the phone company is giving me grief. Hope I can work this out tomorrow. The Go is not an option for long calls, such as arguing over a reservation tend to be.

Well, so much for the planned afternoon of R and R, but in the end, it all worked out.

First real walk day. Taxi showed up at 6:30 as scheduled and drove me the half hour to Puerta de Tarna where I was left in the fog. 28 K does not = 20 miles, but 20 miles is what it was, and it was hard, though not classified as such.  There were two navigational difficulties,  One at the very beginning where I could not find the path and thought I was back in Scotland again amid the moors and the sinking ground and the wet and the mud and all of that.  But miraculously, I got straightened out even though that involved climbing over a pretty high gate.  Fortunately, the dog on the other side was casi muerto, if you know what I mean, and so did not bother me.  Another dog, later on, was uninterested as well.  They should all be like this:

The second difficulty pertained to a fenced off area where the GPS definitely said "Go this way."  I was thinking that maybe I should follow a fenced area instead, but had no idea if it would turn back towards the route or not, so I braved the barbed and electric wires, and trudged through a wet, muddy field, not quite as bad as in paragraph one.  

BTW, the GPS is doing its job well on the official path.  Gaia has become useless, and View Ranger is helpful.  It was worth the $20.00

 A black cow with curvy horns:

Speaking of animals, I learned today that horses wear cowbells, at least some do.  They looked a little silly, but the sound of many bells is quite lovely.   

There was a long climb, very long, but less long than ones to come, and steep downhills.  This is a two Ibuprofin night so that I can move tomorrow.  

After a long climb, one sees:

A cemetery.  (The flowers are not real):

Walking within the view:

The weather was cold then hot then cold then it hailed for about five minutes, then it was cool.  I really need a grocery store!  Guy at B and B very nice, though, and gave me bread, milk, which, here is most often sold in boxes, and a big bottle of water.  All enhanced my supplies, especially since I used a toaster even not knowing if that was permitted!  Sometimes not asking is best.

Campo de Caso June 7+8

Half hour taxi ride through lots of traffic, five hours in a bus, the first four and a half of which were as flat and dull as can be, and then, all of a sudden, the mountains, some still with snow, started to appear, another taxi ride of about 45 minutes, and voila you arrive in Campo de Caso, a tiny town with a less than bare bones grocery store, a small pharmacy, a panadería—the bread in Madrid was way better—an ATM, and a small store that sells cured meats.

I had planned to take a short, circular walk, but other than exploring around a bit, I just took care of business. That means making arrangements to get to the start of the walk on Sunday and cobbling together some sort of dinner.  Tomorrow I will take a real "training" walk in the mountains.  But, as for today, RINGS ON WATCH NOT ALL FILLED.

Actually, I am feeling quite disorganized.  I hope that soon, the daily packing and unpacking and meal making, such as it is, becomes faster because the way it is now will never do.  It's kind of like those scenes in the movies where the guy has to clean and load his gun REALLY FAST so has to keep practicing until the sergeant says, "All right, soldier!"  Only I am both soldier and sergeant.

Today, that being not yesterday any longer, the plan was an eleven mile walk, but I couldn't find the trail (there are no markers) or it was so overgrown that it wasn't worth pushing through, so I decided to do a much shorter circular walk, the one I did not do yesterday, only I did it four times, once in one direction, three times in the other direction and once with a stupid detour.  It added up to fourteen miles. The uphill was significant.  Watch gave credit for 300 flights of stairs, and it might have shorted me as it does with miles when you use poles.

This walk allowed me to compare map apps and the GPS.  The GPS performed miserably, partly because the topo map of Spain in beyond inadequate.  Fortunately two phone apps:  Gaia and View Ranger, both having different good features, were useful supports.

It all begins at the Puente Romano:




Cows on the road.  All the Bossies wear, would you believe, cow bells?




They are well mannered, moving aside for you:




Yes, you are very beautiful:

 After much hillage, there is a reward:

Returned to B and B ready to scavenge for this evening's repast only to discover, that, this being Saturday, shops close at 1:30 not to reopen again until Monday. I was so happy that I had forgotten to eat the last few little tomatoes last night since they really did liven up the tuna even though I had meant to open the sardines, which go even better with tomatoes.  Oh, well.

Madrid June 5+6, 2019

Excellent flight, slept almost the whole time, arrived at hotel at about 9:30 a.m., asked if it would be possible to check in, thinking that it would not be, since it hardly ever is, but guess what?  Not only did el señor allow me access to the room, but even upgraded me to a gorgeous suite.  It has glass doors, not windows, doors that open up onto a wee balcony on which you cannot sit, but you can look up and down the street.  Quite delightful.  This is a section of the ceiling in the "living room" and there is one just as elaborate in the bedroom:

For this luxury, the hotel did not charge a penny extra even though I offered to pay a day fee.  It was really nice to have time to reorganize backpack and suitcase from travel to hiking mode.  Day one, though, no matter how OK you think you feel, is pretty much a waste since you are a zombie.

June 6, woke up astonishingly late: 8:45 a.m., but still managed a productive day.  Headed off to El Retiro, Madrid's counterpart to Central Park.  It has a more formal feel, however.  For example, many of the walkways, most of which tend to be wide, straight and paved, are lined with hedges:

It has a pond with ducks and boats:

And there was this completamente loco tipo:

 reciting, the way many clergy tend to recite—loudly, but with a limited vocal range so that every sentence ends in mid pitch—from a little book that could have been his own poetry since it did not sound biblical but it had a rhythm and that "The end of days is coming so be prepared" kind of sound to it. No one seemed to be paying attention, but he seemed to be enjoying himself thoroughly. Muy raro.

The park has a few museums.  One exhibit, works of Tetsuya Ishida (never heard of him, but that doesn't mean anything) was utterly bizarre.  This painting reminded me of driving a bulldozer in Las Vegas.  Fortunately, the Vegas experience was quite different:

Believe it or not, radiator guy, all plugged in (this is a painting not an installation) was one of the less depressing works:

 

On the other hand, there was this gorgeous glass building (the crystal palace?) which allows you to see the sculptures as if they are among the trees.  I think the lady taking a picture from the other side was missing the point or else she simply preferred the back view:

The high point of the park was its peacocks:

This is his other side:

And here is the cock of the walk:

A section of the park is a rose garden, but the roses were past their peak except, maybe, for this one:

One is not allowed to take pictures in the Prado.  And the botanical garden was was more academic than beautiful, so no pix there.  After the Retiro, museums, and gardens, I took a self guided tour that I had found online, which was quite pleasant.  A small disappointment was that the tour promised an ice cream shop en route, but said shop no longer exists.  One can stop in various small fruit and vegetable stores, patisseries, and a variety of other tiny commercial establishments.  There are lots and lots of cafes where people enjoy leisurely lunches or something to drink.  The streets are full and buzzing.  Madrid is a charming city.

España 2019 Getting Ready

Essentials

Do not be misled.  The brand is not also the destination: 

 Rojita, as I am calling her—because what if she does not roll right on over when I need her?— won out over an alluring, flat, long, neon green bag, whose name, Big Agnes (for real), was proudly splashed on the top in orange.  Color was key—and both were terrific—fifty taxis will be transporting this heavier-than-it looks suitcase to fifty different bed and breakfasts in northern Spain, not your everyday occurrence in those parts.  Considering the circumstances, something bold and hopefully unforgettable seemed a smart idea.  See the zipper?  Inside that pocket will be a tracker por si acaso mi Rojita goes astray.

Inside are hardly any clothes.  But there is a lot of food: peanut butter, crackers, dried peaches and raisins, nuts, instant lattes and instant Starbucks, couscous that cooks in five minutes and some condiments, candy, an immersion heater coil and a back up immersion heater coil, utensils, and even dishes, such as a plate, cup, cutlery, and a can opener, stuff like that.  Why?  Because stores there will not be for several days and when there are, their hours are, shall we say, limited.  

Then there are the chargers for:  phone, watch, Macbook, Iridium Go—the Satellite Hot Spot that will deliver a wi-fi signal to the phone in case of emergency—tracker, camera, adaptors for both C and E/F electrical outlets, power strip, and adaptors for Macbook, which has only a USBC port, and back-up battery for phone, and of course a GPS cable in case I need to transfer any tracks that didn't make it like they were supposed to.

The amount of electronic support is in inverse proportion to the remoteness of the walk.

Next, the backpack:

Much less jazzy than the suitcase, and not my favourite.  But it won out over my preferred Arcteryx because it is extremely light and  it has an adjustable arc that allows it to ride surprisingly comfortably, which, at the end of the day, literally and figuratively, is what counts. Loaded, it will weigh about 12 pounds, maybe more if the weather is hot and the day is long.  Water weighs 2.2 pounds a litre.

Boots! 

 I love these boots!  I have been wearing Zamberlan boots for years and tried getting an earlier model resoled, only to discover that that was a useless effort, and not so cheap, besides. So here is a new pair of quite lightweight, just over the ankle boots that will be a joy to wear if I can figure out the sock situation.  Besides, aren't they a great colour?

Poles:

 Love them!  They set your stride, help push you up hills, stabilize you on steep downhills, act as balancers when you are navigating a stream or jumping over ditch or something.  They fold up and stow away very nicely when not needed.  Sadly, only one has an extra rubber tip, pero bueno.  No importa.

Of course, there are many other essentials, but this is enough to talk about for now, and maybe forever.  

Sept. 5+6 Edinburgh

At Edinburgh Airport—a zoo if ever there was one—flight delayed, tired, will be a lot more tired before the day is over, but time for a review of life off the trail, post Richmond.  

Arrived in Edinburgh by train at the conveniently located station about ten minutes a pied from hotel, after you figure out which of about ten exits to take, on a rare sunny and cool day. ¡Qué suerte!

Off to Palace of the Holyrood, an obligatory stop at the foot of the Royal Mile. (The other must see is the castle at the top of said street.  Of that, more below.) As you can see, it looks like many other Important British and Scottish Structures:

The palace was so memorable that I am not quite sure what I saw other than lots of portraits and dark wood.  Then went to museum where the display of shoes rivalled that in a Neiman Marcus for creativity.  One pair in particular was made of shiny copper coils, and, like most of the others, had a platform that would lift the wearer several inches off the ground and require feats of balance  to stay on one’s feet. So much fun! 





Surrounding the shoes were fashions from different eras.  It is terrifically interesting to see how people decorate, display, hide, and otherwise treat the body fashion-wise, is it not?  There was display of masks, which was impressive, and a whole variety of other things, but the shoes, clothes and masks grabbed my attention most.

At yet another museum, saw a Rembrandt exhibit.  That was pretty wonderful.  I am not sure I quite get the greatness of, say, the Mona Lisa, but I do get the greatness of Rembrandt.  (That may not be a valid comparison, but anyway....) 

This rhino, whose horn was not made from endangered materials,  did not escape from a museum, but there was no good place to put him, so here he is:

Back to the Royal Mile and all its shoppees selling cashmere and non-cashmere memorabilia, so many shops selling the same things, but I popped into one that was a bit different and espied boxes of the fabulous melt-in-your-mouth tea cakes that James back at the Ashton in Lancaster had in a jar for guests to take, and so I did tell the lady that I would be back the next day to purchase some.  And indeed I did do that. 

Piggy with eyelashes y todo!  The nether part of piggy has become sandwich meat:

His and hers wedding attire:

After more wandering about and a stop and Marks and Spencer to pick up some dinner returned to hotel to settle in.  Discovered that there are circular walks one can take in the city that have directions and gpx support, so chose two to do the next day.  Best idea yet, especially since rain was forecast but not until mid-afternoon.

7:00 a.m. set out to walk along the Water of Leith.  How beautiful the sky was and the city, still asleep. Passed through lovely upscale neighbourhoods, and the park wherein is the Museum of Modern Art, which is huge.  Was sad, though, that I was too early to gain access to museum, so missed the Nolde exhibit.  At least there were some sculptures outside.  

Not The Thinker.  Maybe The Doer?

This guy reminded me of that fantastic sculpture of partially buried cars in the Hamden Plaza parking lot:

The walking instructions instructed one to "Turn left at the Henry Moore," so I did:

Had a ticket to visit the Castle:



so after the Water of Leith walk, headed on over.  Oy!  What does one see at the Castle aside from the Order of the Thistle (which I swear I saw yesterday at the Palace of the Holyrood) and the Order of the Garter?  Why swarms of people!  That is what one sees.  After taking in the view:

and the genuine impressiveness of the structure, but bypassing the whiskey tasting, I left with no regrets for having spent maybe thirty minutes there.

Back at hotel, grabbed a snack from my supply of bread, cheese and fruit before taking off on the second walk that went through the delightful town (suburb?) of Stockbridge and the Botanic Gardens.  Did not spend enough time in the gardens, but this was as gorgeous a walk as that of the morning.  More museuming, another stop at M&S for dinner supplies, and return to shop to pick up the teacakes.  Alas, that was all there was time for.  The time has come to pack up and go home, as it inevitably does.

September 04 Richmond

Bittersweet last day of the walk.  Nervous about how well I had configured the route.  There are so many paths that intersect, and sometimes it is hard to tell wether one path connects with another farther on or does not.  But since I arrived in Richmond, I clearly did not do too badly!

The day started out grey and wet with a long climb through desolate moors.  Fortunately, did not have to consult devices very often on this section, and, after yesterday's icy cold experience,  made sure to put on sufficient garments, as in everything (wind shirt, rain jacket, rain pants, gaiters, wool gloves and waterproof mittens), and thus attired I found the walk was quite bracing and enjoyable out there in the middle of nowhere.

This looked so like the end of the world, I cannot tell you!

Oh, look!  Fall is falling!

Even I have trouble squeezing through some of these passages:

Now I have to tell you something about cows.  They do not say Moo!  The sound they make comes from the way bottom of their seventh stomach and it is very loud, bellowy, and a little bit scary!  This nice bossy, however, did not vocalise (at me):

Met up with a couple of men from the U.S., who were doing the Coast to Coast, so walked with them for a while.  Why is it than men—not all, but not so few—just assume that they are worldly and knowledgable and that you need everything explained to you?  Anyway, after doing a section of the  C2C with them, sacrificing some of my hard earned way-points to do so, I decided I had had enough of their vapid pontificating, so bid them adieu and left to go down to the Swale and follow the river into Richmond, which seemed like the fitting way to enter the city.  It was a beautiful finale:

Nine hundred and forty miles.  Es mucho.  Wonder if there will be an encore.....