Introduction

This is a blog of the Jazzbeaux walking tour in northern Spain in September 2014. We flew to Madrid and spent two night there, then rented a car and drove to Bilbao to tour the Basque country and begin the route of the Camino de Santiago from St-Jean-Pied-de-Port in France over the Pyrenees and across to León. There we met up with the Fresco Tours group and spent the next ten days hiking to Santiago de Compostela on the Atlantic.

During the trip, Jazzbelle kept detailed notes and I [Jazzbeau] took lots of pictures. After returning home, I revised the notes to remove names [to protect the guilty, as they say…] and put it in my voice to avoid confusion. Jazzbelle became “DW” in internet parlance [“Dear Wife”].

 

Sunday, Aug. 31–Monday, Sept. 1 – On the Road Again

We dodged the thunderstorms and left from JFK pretty much on time, arriving in Madrid at 8:30 am Monday morning their time. We had lots of leg room on the flight as we were in the exit row but almost froze to death because of cold air that leaks around the door. We had blankets thank God but it was still cold. We took commuter rail and taxi to the NH Paseo del Prado Hotel right across from the Prado. Lovely hotel and they gave us a beautiful corner room with a view of Neptune’s fountain. Since our room was ready, we went up and began to live like the Spanish—with a siesta!

After a refreshing nap we were ready to begin exploring Madrid. We walked down Paseo del Prado to see the living wall at the Caixa Forum, then explored the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia (free for los mayores, i.e., seniors) including Picasso’s Guernica. On the way back we strolled around the Jardin Botanico (also free for los mayores) and saw beautiful dahlias. We grabbed seafood tapas at Cerveceria Cervantes and crossed the street to Basilica de Jesús de Medinaceli (a Capuchin church where the statue of Jesus looks like Captain Jack Sparrow).

After a second quick nap, we ran over to the Prado (free at that hour) to see paintings by Velazquez, Raphael, Fra Angelico. Then we did a Paseo and walked to Puerto del Sol, Plaza Mayor, Mercado de San Miguel before having tapas for dinner at the Estado Puro restaurant in our hotel. The chef tries to put a modern spin on traditional Spanish recipes, e.g. XXIst Century Omelet is served in a martini glass with runny eggs. The chef’s reach may exceed his grasp… Had a very good tempranillo called Fos [which was only exceeded on the trip by a much more expensive Reserva]. We decided to take the plunge and eat salad and drink tap water—no ill effects!

Tuesday, Sept. 2 – Madrid

We started off with free breakfast at the hotel (what a selection!) and DW made herself a sandwich for later. We hit the streets again heading for Rick Steves’ Gran Via Walking Tour from Plaza de Cibeles to Plaza de España. We spent a lot of time in the Royal Palace taking in the Tiepolo frescoes and went across to the Cathedral de Nuestra Señora de la Almudena with its brightly painted dome, and modern stained glass windows and statues at the side altars. TEMPS TOPPEDW AT 101! It was wicked! But we took a break at the hotel and later returned to the Prado to see Goya, Rubens, Titian, Murillo and El Greco [free every evening].

We walked to a recommended seafood restaurant only to find they were closed, so we opted for Italian at Come Prima. DW had been using her primitive Spanish to good effect, but this waiter was either hard of hearing or didn’t speak Spanish or Italian or English. He did understand when asked for tap water but on first try didn’t get the request for “no ice” (after all, what American would ask for such a thing?). They were out of my first choice, and in the language confusion I ended up with mussels for both appetizer and main course! DW had lasagna which was described as using a béchamel sauce but was your Nona’s red gravy. Moral of the story: when in Spain, eat Spanish food. I wasn’t too confident after the meandering way we found the place, but DW was able to find our way straight back to the hotel.

Note on sightseeing costs: We were going to buy the Paseo del Arte card to save money and skip lines at the Prado, Thyssen-Bornemisza and Reina Sofia – but we went twice to the Prado during its free hours (no crowding), got a senior discount at the Reina Sofia, and couldn’t get to the T-B while it was open so we did much better without the card. We asked for the “mayores” discount everywhere, and not only saved quite a bit over the course of the trip but got several compliments from cashiers who didn’t think we qualified!

Wednesday, Sept. 3 – Madrid to Bilbao

We checked out and headed for Avis and got upgraded from an Audi A4 to a BMW 5-series, which saved us the extra charge for GPS because it’s built in. Then we had to walk about 5 minutes [every time we got walking directions in Spain, it was always a “5 minute walk”] to find our car—yes, dragging our luggage. With me navigating, DW drove 400+ km to Bilbao seeing a zillion sunflowers, hay bales and windmills on the way. There were no animals till we were almost there—4 birds and a few scruffy horses. We did get hit for a big toll—21.5 Euros—but the smooth superhighway was worth it. The landscape ranged from California-like parched to richly forested hills and jagged mountains. We stayed at the Silken Gran Hotel Domine directly across from the Guggenheim, where we were again upgraded to a room with a nice view of the museum. The Guggenheim-Bilbao is the highlight of the town—not the art collection, but the design and architecture of the museum itself. Our favorite exhibit was Richard Serra’s The Matter of Time:

https://www.guggenheim-bilbao.eus/en/exhibitions/richard-serra-2/

We took the tram to the old town so we could see the Catedral de Santiago—very Vatican II with its small round altar, welcoming worship space and separate chapel of repose/adoration. One surprise was the Stations of the Cross: each was a Jerusalem Cross with the number, but no depiction of the event [the Cathedral in Santiago had the same thing.] Our favorite church so far. Dinner at El Deliciosa was not disappointing. I had cod pilpil salad and dorado with veggies and DW had goat cheese salad and sea bass. We returned via tram to see the Guggenheim at night.

Thursday, Sept. 4 – Bilbao to Pamplona

We left Bilbao and drove to St-Jean-Pied-de-Port in France which is the official start of the Camino. More tolls, and the French hit you up every few kms so we started to go through our supply of Euro coins; we preferred the Spanish way of one big toll that you could charge. We had our credencials stamped in the Pilgrim Office, but after seeing more of the peregrinos walking the entire arduous route we decided not to get any further stamps until we began the walking part of our trip in León.

After walking around a bit, we headed for Pamplona. It was a challenging drive on twisting roads over two sets of peaks of the Pyrenees, sometimes sharing the road with peregrinos on foot or bicycle. As usual, we encountered many traffic rotaries on the straight stretches once down from the mountains and saw lots of corn and cows. The Spanish now eat corn and don’t just give it to livestock. And still more tolls! [But today was the last for toll roads.]

I had planned a tune-up hike for this afternoon, but I forgot how mountain roads slow you down so there wasn’t enough time. Instead we drove straight to Pamplona, where we stayed at the Silken Gran Hotel La Perla. As our AC was broken, we got upgraded to a corner room with a view of the Plaza. We walked to the Catedral de Santa María la Real and toured it and the special Occidens Exhibit. Then we headed downhill to the bull corral on the river. This is the starting point for The Running of the Bulls on the feast of San Fermin. We followed the entire twisting route [Rick Steves’ The Walking of the Tourists] to the bull ring, and can only imagine the frenzy of animals charging through these narrow streets behind men and women who have lost their sense. We walked through noisy, crowded Calle de la Estafeta to the Church of San Saturnino. We returned to C/Estafeta for dinner at the recommended Bodegón Sarria restaurant. It was nutsy. Tiny place down some stairs. Filled to the gills. DW and I grabbed a table in the back where we shared chorizo in cider, salad and mixed tapas. The people-watching was amazing. We had a lot of laughs here. Turns out that on Thursday night drinks are half price and the university students party those evenings before heading home Friday afternoon. One side of our hotel is on C/Estafeta, but our room was on Plaza del Castillo so we weren’t bothered by the noise.

Friday, Sept. 5 – Pamplona to Burgos

We had breakfast at Cafe Iruña, which was Hemingway’s favorite hang out. There is a full size sculpture of him at a special bar. Just as every old house in America likes to claim “Washington slept here,” every bar in Pamplona claims that Hemingway drank here. The difference is that the Pamplona bars are right. He put Pamplona on the map, along with the bull running [he also drank it under the table…] Before checking out of the hotel we got a private tour of the Hemingway Room, which has been preserved pretty much as it was when he made it his base in Pamplona.

We left Pamplona and drove to Puente de la Reina, a pretty town where we visited the simple Church of the Crucifixion and the ornate Church of Santiago. [If the Spanish had invested all the gold used in these churches, they would be in a very good financial situation today.] We then crossed the famous Bridge of the Queen [= name of the town] before driving on to Cirauqui. We couldn’t figure out how to drive up to the top of this quaint village, so we parked on the side of the road outside town and hiked across a very well preserved Roman road and bridge to the summit.

Back to the car and onto two monasteries. The first one—Iranzu—was a mistake [following signs to a monastery without checking the spelling…] but turned out to be a scenic drive and an interesting, if deserted, place. The second one—Irache [see, pretty close…]—is famous for having two spigots, one for wine and one water, which are free if you have a glass. [We knew ahead of time and came prepared.] The church and museum were closed, but the water and wine were flowing. You all know which one of us was at which spigot!

We drove on to Santo Domingo de la Calzada to see the cathedral and museum. The huge, ornate gold reredos was repositioned at the side of the sanctuary when the worship space was updated according to Vatican II. It makes an interesting juxtaposition between the old rococo and stark modern styles. The church contains not only the tomb of Santo Domingo, but an elevated hen house containing a live rooster and his two ladies as a reminder of a miracle attributed to Santo Domingo. This cathedral has wonderful, modern stained glass windows depicting Vatican II documents and virtues, e.g. Dei Verbum, Comunidad, Libertad, Pax, etc.

We drove past many vineyards, solar panels, stork nests. A funny thing is that Spanish STOP signs actually say STOP. And they work—Spanish drivers are very courteous. We were very aware at this point of the pilgrims and the Camino with all the scallop shell and yellow arrow signage.

We arrived in Burgos and stayed at the Hotel Silken Gran Teatro Burgos and dined at Rincon de España. I had white asparagus [very popular in Spain] then wood fire cooked lamb; DW had a mixte salad[(very common throughout our trip—you can’t get a plain tossed salad, they always load it up with tuna, hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes, and cheese] and cod in red pepper sauce; we both had leche frita for dessert. Then we walked along the river past the Museo d’Evolucion back to the hotel. I noticed on the elevator that we were riding in Schindler’s Lift [not the List though… sorry, I couldn’t help myself]

Saturday, Sept. 6 – Burgos to León

In the morning before we left Burgos, we toured their Cathedral with its amazing ceilings and domes with lights. I had meant to look for Parama de Guzman cheese (made famous in the book The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and the World’s Greatest Piece of Cheese, by Michael Paterniti) but forgot. Once we left Burgos everybody only wanted to tell us about the local cheese of their area, so I never did find it.

It was another sunny day but temps stayed pretty much in the 80s outside Madrid. On the road we listened to KISS FM on the radio [Spanish DJs but American rock and roll]. We made no stops till we got to our hotel in León. The Hotel Real Colegiata is quaint. No AC. Basic room. Our first room was on the back street with lots of traffic noise [no AC = open windows], so we were transferred to a room on the interior courtyard. Be careful what you pray for: the courtyard has a fountain that runs all night, and the hotel restaurant that opens onto the courtyard had a chanteuse and accordionist who performed till well after midnight—we considered calling room service for cheese cubes to put in our ears, but she wasn’t quite as bad as Madame Edith of ‘Allo, ‘Allo…

We walked around the neighborhood exploring, and ate dinner at Parrilla Louzao. The chef/owner was an earnest young man but the cod pilpil was overly fishy and salty. I enjoyed my “Foie Gras” appetizer, even though it was actually Paté. After dinner we caught an amazing sound and light show at the Basilica of San Isidoro [attached to our hotel, which is in the old monastery]—we didn’t know enough Spanish language or Spanish history to catch all the inferences, but even to a couple of Gringos it was clear that around here Napoleon is the bad guy…

Sunday, Sept. 7 – León

We headed to the Church of Santa Marina for what masstimes.org promised would be a Mass in English, but it was en Español. Not more than 20 in attendance. We were going to use our last day with the car to drive to Astorga and Pieros for a final tune-up hike, but the forecast was for rain all day so we decided to explore León instead. So we ended up taking none of the tune-up hikes I had planned, and decided to hope that our NY training would still help us when the serious hiking began!

After Mass we walked around the Roman wall that still wraps around this end of town and then it began to pour so we rushed back to the hotel for our rain coats. The rain continued and temps stayed in 60s. But we did get to see the Museum (with its vivid frescoes) and Basilica of San Isidoro, and then the Catedral de Santa Maria de León. After Chartres, it has the most stained glass windows of any church in the world. Amazing color and light! However, in the 17th C. it all started to cave in on itself and finally in the late 19th C. it was taken apart and rebuilt. A truly major effort! We toured its museum and cloister (more frescoes), but the exhibit about the restoration has ended.

We wandered about the area some more looking for a place for lunch, but we were now into siesta period so all the restaurants were closed. I finally found a bakery and had a nice glazed donut and a Coke (made me feel like home). We went back to the hotel for a rest before dinner at the Boccalino restaurant near the hotel. I had squid, lasagna, and natillas [custard]; DW had endive salad, veal marsala and fries. We chatted with a couple from Melbourne [earlier we had a nice talk with some Channel Islanders—our travels have included a virtual tour of the British Empire!]

Monday, Sept. 8 – León

After a cool, foggy start this morning, the sun popped out with warmer temps as well. We dropped our dirty laundry at the lavanderia first thing [they close at noon on Saturday and don’t reopen until Monday—it seemed expensive, but they delivered the clean laundry to our hotel that afternoon so the service was worth it] and returned the BMW to Avis. We then walked to San Marcos Monastery (now a swanky hotel) and crossed the Pilgrim Bridge.

We met up with our tour group at the hotel around 1 pm. The ten were bussed up from Madrid by Fresco Tours along with our guides Roberto and Raul and our driver Jesús. There were 4 Kiwis (New Zealanders) who belong to the Anglican Church, a Catholic Australian and 5 Miami chicas who are all Catholic. Agewise, we were pretty much in the middle of the pack—50s thru 70s. Our guides were in their 30s. [We were very pleased with the religious make-up of the group. I had feared that a pampered Camino like this would attract people who would act more like tourists than pilgrims, but we and the chicas were definitely on a pilgrimage and that helped us keep our focus.]

We had lunch together at our hotel (salmon), had an orientation meeting at which we were given our pilgrim shells and other Fresco items, a tour of the historic sections of the hotel and monastery, and then a guided tour of León with Lourdes. She was a wonderful source of information about the Cathedral, the Gaudi building and San Isidoro Church. We all attended a Pilgrim Mass at the latter and received a special blessing afterwards before heading to a local restaurant for dinner at a restaurant near the Cathedral [thankfully the old city of León is compact]. We got to sample all the local specialties as appetizers, and then had a choice of main course besides [I had Dorado; DW had pork]. This was the first hint that we would dine well throughout this tour. Vegetables seemed to be lacking [in general on this trip] so DW ordered a salad which she shared with our new table mates. We not only dined well but drank well: lunch and dinner were always accompanied by free-flowing wine and beer.

Tuesday, Sept. 9 – León to Sarria

Tuesday we took off in our comfortable bus for Galicia. We had expected an easy 3 mile breaking-in hike the first day. Instead it was an arduous steep climb of about 4 miles—totally exposed to the sun and high 80s—from the village of La Faba to the mountaintop town of O Cebreiro where there was a festival in full swing. On our ascent, we saw pallozas which are circular stone buildings with conical thatched roofs. And we met an ostrich on our way. Unfortunately, we also saw too much graffiti including the altar of a tiny wayside chapel. We then walked down another couple of miles to our bus in Linares and were driven to a local eatery where we had cabbage and white bean soup, chicken drumsticks, salad, and tarte de Santiago among other things.

We stayed for two nights in Sarria at Pazo Torre do Barrio. Our accommodations were quaint. DW felt she hadn’t walked enough [despite the complaint above!] so she joined the chicas for a mile stroll along the country roads. They discovered “sea urchins” growing on trees—turns out that’s what chestnuts look like. They oohed and aahed over sheep and bountiful, huge hydrangeas. They talked to dogs—most here are German shepherds. As many of you know, DW speaks to animals [including earless snakes], flowers [especially our iris and orchids] and inanimate objects; I will start to worry if she reports they are answering… That evening we feasted on potato soup, lamb and rabbit.