Day 2: A First Step
So I’m sitting here in my Albergue in a little town called Las Herrerias, 145.5km and 10 days from where I started in Leon. I guess that’s a bit of a spoiler for the story here. Ummmmmm… Surprise? I’m not dead and my watch says I’ve walked 93.2 miles. Its been crazy, hot, cold, awesome, amazing views, deep conversations, frustrating, painful, wet, full, funny, and even fun. But, this is way to far ahead. You know, too far ahead in my DAILY blog. That is still daily. No matter what you think. This blog is coming out on days. Of the week. Some of them even might be back to back. By the way, we’re using Ganymede as our day counter now. 7.1 earth days to a day on that moon of Jupiter. #TimelineJustified
Day 2, I woke up at 9:30. I had alarms set for 7am and 7:10am on my watch. Apparently I was tired after being up for almost 30 hours. Kevin and I cleaned up the room and made for the door. But I had to stop by the front desk and sign into the hotel, and then immediately sign back out. And buy a Credential del Pelegrino so I could Start my pilgrimage. You collect stamps in these at all the places you stop, and it marks you as a pilgrim and thus eligible for staying at ALL Albergues. You can do the Camino without one, but some places will charge you more for a room/bed and some will outright turn you away. (Not to worry, there is ALWAYS somewhere to stay).
The credential I got
The stamps I got over the first few days.
So, we’re up, I’m credentialed, bag is on my back and we’re headed for the trail. But first, a morning selfie at the Cathedral again.
A less tired and more daylight selfie. And one of my first steps along the trail.
Finding the Camino trail is easy. I mean, there’s an app that has a red line, and a GPS dot, and a box that tells you how far from the trail you are. So, like…. Not hard. But staring at ones phone all day is kinda lame. But in someones infinite wisdom they added markers to the REAL WORLD to follow. Some might call them markers, or signs. I found my first ones just off the Cathedral square, about 15 feet behind where I was taking photos last night.
An example of the Yellow Arrows that mark the way
The shell is the mascot for the Camino. Many paths, lines, meeting in Santiago, the base.
In this case it was a yellow spray painted arrow pointing the way. Followed by more arrows. Everywhere. Really, they are everywhere. I don’t have many pictures of them, but believe me, you are NEVER lost on the Camino. Ok, so my Grandmother would have been lost. But she thought my house changed sides of the street at random so maybe she’s not a fair example. Arrows, signs, markers, shells, other pilgrims, and a GPS app all point the way.
So, we’ve established that the way out of town and the trail itself was well marked. So off we went, trekking through town for a few km before we would be outside of a city. We got to walk over an old Roman bridge that did bridge things. Well, it let me across, and it let cars under, and a river under too. If it hadn’t accomplished these things I suppose it wouldn’t have been a bridge, more of a Dam, or pile of rocks, wall even. We passed the statue of a monk just chilling in the sun, I was less accomplished at the chilling. I also found my first non drinking fountain water dispenser. Things like this are all over the Camino, but not many are this fancy. I’ve made it a priority to drink from as many of these as I can on my walk. I’ve drunk from many, many, many of these, at least 25. Though most are simply a stone wall with a marked spigot coming out of it and are not this fancy, I probably have pictures of one from a later day.
Not a wall, or a pile of rocks. Bridge.
Monk chilling in the sun
Me not so much. Too much energy.
But I had places to be, I had my first kilometers to get under foot. Places to go. Caminos to ‘mino. And suspicious dogs to keep an eye out for.
On the way out of town we had a HUGE hill to go up. At least 200ft long and 30ft high. But in my extremely fit state I am proud to say that I only stopped 5 times to get up it. 1 was to take a picture of a Hobbit House. Ok, I have been reliably informed that there are signs clarifying that these are no Hobbit houses. Readers, I am here to tell you that those signs lie. Look at this. Just look and then you tell me that someone is not inside moaning about not “want(ing) any more visitors, well wishers, or distant relations!” And, well, I’m not a very old friend or a wizard so I didn’t knock. That same sign wants us reader, to believe that these are used to store things underground. Like a root cellar. I saw no roots. So after careful consideration, Hobbit Houses.
I know right? Signs are always wrong.
After the Little Chris That Could made it up that mountainous hill it was an excursion though the lesser known/seen/lived parts of Leon. Specifically an abandoned industrial road with decaying factories on both sides. It was not interesting. Unless you like tetanus, or broken TVs. No photos were taken, but conversation was good, we met a Frenchman from the Normandy area who had walked from there down to Saint Jean to start the French Way. The Camino in France has another name and I couldn’t pronounce it if I tried. Lovely fellow.
After leaving the industrial area Kevin and I found a little bar on the side of the road and had a lovely Whisky Infused Bacon burger. This was my first experience with a bar in Spain. Not like a bar in the USA. No carding you when you come in, they are more like a restaurant that has a bar area. Families are all over in these places. Good food. Good drinks.
Quite tasty, wish I was eating it again now.
There are Storks on every church tower in this country. I think it may be a requirement to be an old church. No stork and they will just tear it down. Pretty sure that’s true, not made up. Reader, come on, would I lie to you? This one is safe though, it has 3 storks doing stork things.
I did not climb the stairs.
Three years ago the town we walked to was the end of the line for 10 days for Kevin. His feet gave out on him, bad bad blisters that required a hospital stay. We walked past the Albergue he stayed at the first day that he figured out he had to stop. Kevin was quiet, took a few pictures, and then we pushed on. Our feet are good. Nothing to stop us.
In the end we did 12 miles and made it to our albergue in Villadangos Del Paramo by 5pm. It was a Donativo (Donation) Albergue that survives on donations for staying. Beds were bunkbeds but we had a 4 person room to ourselves. This was good because the beds were short and I didn’t sleep much. But, sleeping leads to Day 3. And this is the day 2 blog. How dare you look for day 3 info here. NO!
