Homer's Travels: Camino De Santiago - Palas De Rei To Arzúa

Monday, October 17, 2011

Camino De Santiago - Palas De Rei To Arzúa

Note:  Arzúa turned out to be similar to Estella for me ... It didn't make much of an impression on me.  When I was thinking about this post I couldn't remember anything about the city.  I had to ask GV to remind me about the place.

The walk this day was long but went fairly well.  I got my second daily stamp in the albergue of Casanova Mato.  In this part of Galicia the Camino passed through eucalyptus forests.  The smell was a welcome change from the dairy cattle smells in most of the small towns.

I passed a lot of people carrying day packs.  This would characterize the typical pilgrim after Sarria.  These pilgrims, who sent their big bags ahead by taxi, walked with a light pack with food and drink mostly.  They wore clean, well fitting clothes, and their shoes were practically free of Camino dust.  While I was always nice to them, wishing them a buen Camino, I was always irritated by them.  My shoes were properly dirty.  My clothes were ill fitting and looked slept in.  My pack was heavy.  I was a proper pilgrim.  'Day Packer' became a derogatory term.  Day Packers irritated me the most when they complained about how hard it was - Boo Hoo.  Carry my pack for 12 miles and then tell me how tough it is ... sheesh!.  Instead of the Camino making me all Zen, it was turning me into a curmudgeon - not an improvement, I would say.

I didn't stop much on this stage.  I just passed day packers like they were standing still.  I stopped at a small church in Furelos and got another stamp.  I only stopped for a rest once and that was for an ice cream break.  I stopped at the entrance to Arzúa to wait for GV.

Arzúa was just an average little town.  Like Palas de Rei, it didn't have very much character.  We checked into a private albergue (Via Lactea - Milky Way), did our chores.  We went out and found a place to eat.  I ordered a hamburger - I missed a good hamburger, not having had one since Logroño.  What I  got was a plate with two beef patties and some fries.  Not a sandwich as I was expecting.  Not the best meal I'd had on the Camino.

We went back to the Albergue and I settled into an afternoon nap as I waited for the laundry to get done.  I can't remember what I had for dinner.  Gmade something for herself and I think I made myself a sandwich or something.

Day thirty-three was a nice walking day that ended in a rather ordinary town.  I wrote very little in my journal about Arzúa and I took no pictures in the town.  A weary footnote of my adventure.

Total Distance: 17.23 Miles (27.73 km)
Total Time: 5 hours 50 minutes
Total Elevation Up: 3,242 ft ( 988.16 m)
Total Elevation Down: 3,763 ft (1,146.96 m)

[Click on map for a larger version]

2 comments:

  1. Yeah...it wasn't the most impressive of towns....tiny little villages with only a dozen houses seemed more interesting! Spent actually a fair bit of time there finding the post office with the girls from Sweden. And then trying to find our way out! Made it to .. St. Irene. If memory serves...?

    ReplyDelete
  2. KSam: Totally agree. The tiny places were so much more interesting. I remember St Irene - same name as my Grandmother.

    ReplyDelete