Adios, Espana

After losing my third toenail and other continuing foot problems and melting in the Spanish sun, I have quit the camino in Avila.  Here are my thoughts on this camino and my experience.

First, it should not be considered a pilgrimage route.  You should think of it as a hiking trail, the GR-239. If I were to do it over (actually a possibility), I would camp along the way and ignore the "stages" set out by the guide. That way you could do between 15-18 miles a day instead of the way too long stages that are set up with the guide.

The trail between Xativa and Avila is beautiful and is the portion that I would do again.  It's probably a little less than 300 miles and could be done in 18-20 days making it a great backpacking trip.  The last part between Cebreros and Avila is maybe the most beautiful part of Spain that I have seen and should be divided into two days hiking with plenty of camping opportunities.
My equipment held up well.  I would still try to lose weight from my pack.  My shoes were an issue.  Even though they were the same model of Asics trail runners that I wore in France last year, they were not extra-wide size which makes a difference I think.

I would look at a smart phone GPS app.  Maybe rent a phone or something.  I would investigate camera options also.  The Olympus micro 4/3 was good but kind of clunky to use.  The ipod was a disaster with bad photos.  I wish it worked as it should but Apple products are just not good, at least for me.

I am going to rethink pilgrimage routes in general.  While I thought that it would be a great way to walk staying in hotels at night with places to eat, in reality it is not very satisfying and in Spain quite aggravating.  I think more wilderness hikes are better.  My next hike in Spain will probably be across the Pyrenees.  The long-distance trails of France and Spain are nice and beautiful to walk on but create too many issues to deal with.

I am in Perigueux, France now and will make my way north to catch a boat in Bremerhaven, Germany around June 29.  Plan on staying in Amsterdam for a week or so.  I hope to make a more extensive post on equipment and the logistics of the hike later on.

A couple of things to add.  I am taking back my endorsement of booking.com.  Not very reliable to say the least.  Also, I stopped in San Sebastian for a day.  While I am not a fan of tapas (and have been quite derisive of the tapas craze) the exception is in San Sebastian.  They actually do it right.  The way it is set out is that if you look down the river towards the sea, on the left is the Parte Vieja.  This is the hip, young, party area.  There are a few blocks that have the best tapas places and they are packed.  I actually did not eat there because it was crowded and intimidating for a single person that doesn't speak the language, but what I saw of the food, it looked great.  However, on the right side of the river is the Gros barrio.  This is a much more casual and less-crowded area and has just as good tapas and probably more economical.  Here again there are only a couple of blocks with the best places so easy to find a decent place.  So my suggestion is to ignore the tapas thing until you get to San Sebastian, which may be the neatest town I have ever been to.

Mucho Calor

San Marin de Valdeiglesias -->  Cebreros  17.2 km

Tried to leave San Martin early to get ahead of the heat but started out going the wrong way out of town so it was probably 8 before I actually got out of town.  The trail was more of a foot path for the most part.  Went by some interesting ruins and relics.  The first were some sculptures from sometime between the 4th century BC and 2nd century AD by Iberian Celts if I read the sign properly (not likely).  It was called the Toros Guisando.  Very modern looking to me.  It was weird to something that seemed from the past and the future at the same time.  The site also said that Isabel had been crowned queen at the same site.  If so, I would think it would be one of the most important sites in Spanish history.  But it was just a place on the side of the road with no one around.

Toros Guisando

Also, passed over several old Roman bridges in very good shape.

The Heat Is On

Escalona -->  San Martin de Valdeiglesias  26.8 km

The path out of Escalona was wooded and somewhat hilly.  The sun was pretty brutal early on.  Ended up getting way lost.  There were lots of intersections with no waymarks so I just continued on as straight as possible (so I thought).  After a while, I knew I was off track.  Came upon a village of some sort.  Climbed over a berm to get onto  a street in the town.  Dirt roads with single detached houses which are somewhat unusual in Spain.  The place seemed abandoned.  Started walking down the street then a painter came bounding around the corner.  I told him I thought I was lost and he insisted that I wasn't and started giving me directions even before I told him where I wanted to go.  When I told him I was headed to Almorox, he turned back toward the woods that I just climbed out of and I thought "Uh oh".  Then he turned back toward the village and gave me directions using the bars of the town as waymarks... "Go to Bar Pedro and go left, then go to Bar Varancil and go left..."  Very friendly guy with a great attitude. Turns out I was in the urbanization (don't know what this is) of Almorojuelo.  And if you are ever in the urbanization of Almorojuelo, please buy the guy a cerveza at Bar Pedro for me.  I have a feeling he'll be there.  I followed his directions (or what I thought he said where to go).  After a ways I came onto the Camino with waymarks.  I had gone way east.  The GPS app is a good idea I think.  The problem with not having boundless horizons is that you can't see where you should be going when you get lost.

The Camino was a beautiful paved trail through some nice wheatfields.  But very open and sunny (read: hot).  By the time I got into Almorox I was dead and still had 18 or 19 kms to go to San Martin.  Decided to get a bus up to San Martin.   Turns out the bus doesn't stop in San Martin but only goes on to Madrid.  I saw a sign advertising a taxi.  When a man crossed the road from a cabinet-making shop I asked him if he knew if this taxi existed.  He said to wait and returned to his carpentry shop.  A little bit later he walked back over and said that he would get the number when he returned.  A few minutes later he walked back by,  went over to his shop and his secretary walked out talking on the phone with phone book in hand.  Turns out they were trying to track down a taxi for me.  Then the secretary told me she had found a taxi and they would be there shortly.  Would I like some water or soda?  She even spoke some English.  Really great people.  After a few minutes the taxi showed up.  Turns out the taxi driver and I had seen each other in El Mirador the night before.  Anyway, I was glad I opted not to try to walk the rest of the way.  As I was trying to find my hotel in San Martin, some police pulled over and asked if I needed the key to the albergue.  I told them the name of the hotel I was looking for and they gave me directions (the opposite way than where I was walking of course).  As I was walking down the street following their directions, the police came by and honked and pointed me to the right street.  At this point,  I was thinking that there must be some sort of phone tree going on in Spain that said "Look out for the idiot American getting lost all over Spain".  But actually I think that I just happened to run into the nicest Spaniards all in one day.

The Camino into Almorox

Torrijos --> Escalona

Got a late start out of Torrijos.  Went to the Mercadona which was in the opposite way than I was supposed to leave town.  Ended up being about 11 am before I got out of town.  The trail to Maqueda was OK but after Maqueda the trail was really beautiful.  Very much the Spanish landscape to me.  The mountains that are always in the distance seem to become more predominate.  Also names of towns that I recognized from the Via de la Plata started showing up.  Seems to be a more familiar landscape.

Got a room in Escalona at the Hostal El Mirador.  Pretty much your room over the bar except that it had AC, plenty of  room, and actually lived up to its name, beautiful view from my room.  Still, 30 euros is a lot to pay for a room that didn't have a light that worked.  The lady that showed me the room said that she would exchange the bulb "mas tarde".  I guess the emphasis was on the mas as she never returned.

Escalona could be beautiful, nice old castle in ruins and nice views everywhere.  But it's run-down and pretty redneck.  People were nice though.

Goodbye, Toledo

Toledo -->  Torrijos  33.8 km  8.5 hrs

Glad to be out of  Toledo.  Beautiful town with lots of  history.  But not real nice people though.  Had a horrible experience with the post office there.  Both picking up and sending my packages.  So if you are thinking of   using post restante  to send your jump boxes on the Camino Levante, I would highly recommend looking at other towns.  I heard that the people of Toledo are notorious throughout Spain as being rude.  One of the boxes I was mailing was to home and I heard that actually FedEx is better and cheaper than the post office sending things back home.

The walk today was OK.  Got lost somehow though.  The GR 113 was combined with the GR 239 (the camino) and it confused me I guess.  Ended up in some little town and was headed out of town when I asked a man for directions to Torrijos.  He pointed me down the road the opposite way I was going and said it was 10.5 kms that way.  So I started out walking down the road, which was a nice new road with little traffic.  I was pretty worried that the guy had given me bogus directions, but I realized that I was headed north which made sense and after about 7 kms came to a roundabout that had  a sign for Torrijos.  After 10.5 kms I walked into Torrijos.

I really think that it's idiotic to not have a smart phone with a GPS app.  It would make life much easier.

Overall, a good walk today.  Actually was the nicest landscape was along the road walk.

Notes from Paris

Some thoughts from my Paris sojourn:

- Today's French Open is not your grandfather's French Open.  I'm not sure what I expected, but reality was different.  Very crowded.  Was thinking I would be watching matches out on the outer courts but they were packed.  Mainly stayed in my seat in Lenglen (1st day) and Chartier (2nd day) and watched the players that you see on TV all the time have easy matches.  Somehow my anticipation for seeing moonballing clay-court specialist like Guillermo Vilas  or someone covered in red from the clay with outrageously bad bounces from the divots in the clay didn't happen.  Everybody is a power baseliner these days and the clay is finer and well-tended.  Actually, not great tennis.

- Made it to the Musee D'Orsay.  My first trip to a museum in Paris (I'm embarrassed to admit).  Very crowded (there seems to be a pattern here).  Beautiful museum with incredible Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings.  Many I recognized.  The neat thing for me was that you got to see many works of artists throughout their lives.  So the paintings that we think of as the quintessential works are just a small part of their entire oeuvre (as they say in France).

- Found a hiking supply store, Au Vieux Campeur in Paris.  Not really one store but in typical French efficiency many stores spread around in an area between the Pantheon and Notre Dame.  So you go to one store to buy shoes, then you have to go to another store to buy socks, then to another store...
Fairly expensive but they have everything.

-Don't take the overnight train between Paris and Madrid.  That was a mistake.  Maybe my first real bad experience on a train in Europe.  When I leave Spain, I will try to make my way to Hendaye and take a French train from there.

The French Evolution

My first time in Paris was 35 or so years ago.  I was doing the (what was deemed back then) obligatory backpack through Europe after college.  On the bus from Calais to Paris, I met a Canadian doctor who lived in Paris.  He said that he knew of a pension-type hotel (more of a boarding house) that was run by an old lady.  The old lady was picky about whom she let stay there (particularly didn't cater to Americans) but that he could speak to her (being from Montreal he was fluent in French) and get me a room.  The room was great.  Big old bed with a beautiful wood bed frame.  It had a little balcony with a view over some Parisian rooftops. The WC was down the hall, but that was OK.   The real Paris I  thought.  And extremely cheap.  After running around Italy I came back to Paris and stayed there again.  I had found "my" place to stay in Paris and it was the "real" Paris.  Up around the Parc Chaumont-Buttes, long before Lonely Planet or Time Out had done any articles about this hidden gem of the "real" Paris.  At the time I thought that I would be returning to Europe every 3-5 years for sure so this was a great find.

But it was 9 years before I returned to Europe and Paris.  Then with the dollar at almost 8 francs and traveling with a wife that might not have been so intrigued with the real Paris, a four star hotel on the Champs-Elysee was a better choice.

Then it was another 21 years before I returned to Europe.  On this trip, once again Paris was the hub of my travels.  I ended up staying in a hotel in the NE part of Paris near where the old rooming house was.  Not a bad place, but the attitude there was not good and the neighborhood lacked the same feel.   The bed was small and the street noise was apparent (maybe not loud, but it was there).   While there, whereever I went I looked for the old hotel to no avail.

Two years later I was back in Europe.  Again, Paris was the hub of my travels.  This time I searched the internet sites to find a neat little "Parisian" hotel for my stay in "authentic" Paris.  I stayed in what was called a "boutique" hotel in the trendy Oberkampf area.  Boutique obviously is French for small, cramped, noisy and expensive.  While not in the pricey range for Paris hotels, what you got for 75 euros was not worth it.  While roaming the NE part of Paris one day I found my old "gem".  Incredibly run down.  Probably the cheapest room in Paris at 30 euros w/o bath but it looked like a very uninviting place.  And Parc Chaumont-Buttes was trashy and full of "real" Parisians.

So this time I tried a new strategy.  Forget the "real" Paris.  The left bank may be more touristy but I thought it really more Parisian also.  So this time, I went on Priceline and bid on the left bank hotels listed there that cater to the tourist crowd.  So here I am in the Marriott Rive Gauche.  $135/night ( I may bid lower next time).  Big air-conditioned room with a king-size bed and view of the city (or at least the Pantheon, St. Sulpice, and in the distance the spire of Notre Dame).  This is obviously the way to go.  Everyone speaks English and at least "acts" like they don't have disdain for Americans.  Internet is outrageously expensive.  Maybe in the future getting  a prepaid USB modem from SFR would be a smart thing if you were going to stay here 3 or more days.

So this is what I have evolved into, the American tourist.  I would have never thought it but for a little more than the trendy but terribly uncomfortable boutique hotels, you can get a great room in Paris.  While I have tasted the "real" Paris, I doubt I'll ever return.