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Neil Armstrong's Travels
Ferrol has been a major naval shipbuilding centre from the 18th century, being the capital of the Spanish Navy's Maritime Department of the North since the time of the early Bourbons. Today, the city is also known as the home of the shipbuilding yards of Navantia which we would walk out past towards Neda.
The route map actually took in the towns of Neda, Naron, Fene, Cabanas and eventually Pontedeume which sits beautifully on the river 'eume'.
We woke a tad late for the first days walk (9.15am), chucked our bags on and quietly slipped into the busy Calle Real, the ensuing 'hangover' already threatening. The plan was to arrive early on the Saturday and knock off 11k from Ferrol but due to flight times, bus changeovers and a tipple or three we already felt a bit behind, so heads raised we searched out the first waymark and moved on.
Quickly we found the first waymark of the day and off we went. Leaving the Industrial city we passed a strange section where boiler suits were hanging from iron fencing...we wondered if these were the suits of workers who had lost their jobs during a tough economical time in Spain...or worse??? See photos attached.
Craig had brought a guide from this website which proved useful along the way though to be honest I enoyed searching out the next waymark as we went along. The link is here and our post was titled 'First time peregrinos doing El Camino Ingles'
http://www.caminodesantiago.me
Having stopped for lunch in Naron we pushed on into the last 14k of today's walk with spirits high. We had eventually left the concrete behind and found the open road and countryside with a few hills to negotiate along the way. The guide was excellent for warning us how far we had between water stops and we managed all day on a small plastic bottle each, such were the frequency of the stops. One such stop was at a 'Lavadero', a place where locals would wash clothes and fill up on water many years ago. To our great surprise the 'Lavadero' we stopped at was still quite popular with locals who took on water from the natural spring. One local lady, while allowing her washing to dry while trying to sort out a tangled fishing reel, hummed 'Danny Boy' which was a bit surreal.
One section of the guide as we continued had to be, in our opinions, completely wrong...we took an hour and a half to walk a solitary 2.5k and though it was mainly uphill it seemed to us that a remeasure is required. We were then intrigued by what we later found out are 'Horreos'. (See photo of Craig in dodgy hat standing under one of these). As we laughed our way along the open road, here are a few suggestions of what we thought they might be used for...<a place to keep chickens>, <a smoking house for meat and fish>, <a house to chuck misbehaving kids into>...ALL wrong of course and had we applied logical thinking and opened our eyes we would have seen that we were surrounded by Corn Fields...Yes, that's right, the Horreos are used for storing corn!
Slightly knackered we were welcomed into Pontedeume by what can only be described as Pontedeume Pink Drummers - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH5eu2Jl sFs&feature=share&list=ULZH5eu2 JlsFs
After finding the Albergue where we would stay, we were greeted by an Englishman smoking a joint and downing a bottle of San Miguel at the door. Hmm...anyway he opened up and explained his story that he had been cycling from Alicante but his bike needed repair and as the town was on two days of 'Fiestas' he was stuck here until the Tuesday when the repair shop would reopen...Hang on! Did he just say 'Fiesta'???
A quick shower and a change of clothes and we set out for dinner and a beer. As we headed home for an early night we decided to search for some water...and stumbled straight into two (2) concerts with beer being sold for just over a Euro! Doh!!!
You will be able to see the attached photos of what happened next...and for those of you that know us, you don't need to bother with the photos/videos!
http://www.youtube.com/embed/dV-C02f0mL 4 -
http://www.youtube.com/embed/_itiar9e_7 s?list=UUXns7KQgweqfChrnD1xviVA& ;hl=en_GB
Meeting Jacobo and Pepe was great craic and I would advise you to listen to one of the most popular Galician Bands called 'Luar na Lubre'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_itiar9e _7s&feature=share&list=UUXns7KQ gweqfChrnD1xviVA
Their music and its Celtic influence reminded us of home (we'd only been away one day) and we stumbled home around 3.30am to see if the Englishman had just got stoned or had made off with our smelly underwear!!!
As it turned out neither happened and we were awakened early the next morning as he wished us 'Buen Camino' before leaving us to get prepared for Hangover Number TWO!!! It's at this stage that we reckoned that this Blog might be called...'Stumbling along the Camino Ingles' or 'Steaming the Camino Ingles' !!! Ole!!!
The route map actually took in the towns of Neda, Naron, Fene, Cabanas and eventually Pontedeume which sits beautifully on the river 'eume'.
We woke a tad late for the first days walk (9.15am), chucked our bags on and quietly slipped into the busy Calle Real, the ensuing 'hangover' already threatening. The plan was to arrive early on the Saturday and knock off 11k from Ferrol but due to flight times, bus changeovers and a tipple or three we already felt a bit behind, so heads raised we searched out the first waymark and moved on.
Quickly we found the first waymark of the day and off we went. Leaving the Industrial city we passed a strange section where boiler suits were hanging from iron fencing...we wondered if these were the suits of workers who had lost their jobs during a tough economical time in Spain...or worse??? See photos attached.
Craig had brought a guide from this website which proved useful along the way though to be honest I enoyed searching out the next waymark as we went along. The link is here and our post was titled 'First time peregrinos doing El Camino Ingles'
http://www.caminodesantiago.me
Having stopped for lunch in Naron we pushed on into the last 14k of today's walk with spirits high. We had eventually left the concrete behind and found the open road and countryside with a few hills to negotiate along the way. The guide was excellent for warning us how far we had between water stops and we managed all day on a small plastic bottle each, such were the frequency of the stops. One such stop was at a 'Lavadero', a place where locals would wash clothes and fill up on water many years ago. To our great surprise the 'Lavadero' we stopped at was still quite popular with locals who took on water from the natural spring. One local lady, while allowing her washing to dry while trying to sort out a tangled fishing reel, hummed 'Danny Boy' which was a bit surreal.
One section of the guide as we continued had to be, in our opinions, completely wrong...we took an hour and a half to walk a solitary 2.5k and though it was mainly uphill it seemed to us that a remeasure is required. We were then intrigued by what we later found out are 'Horreos'. (See photo of Craig in dodgy hat standing under one of these). As we laughed our way along the open road, here are a few suggestions of what we thought they might be used for...<a place to keep chickens>, <a smoking house for meat and fish>, <a house to chuck misbehaving kids into>...ALL wrong of course and had we applied logical thinking and opened our eyes we would have seen that we were surrounded by Corn Fields...Yes, that's right, the Horreos are used for storing corn!
Slightly knackered we were welcomed into Pontedeume by what can only be described as Pontedeume Pink Drummers - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH5eu2Jl sFs&feature=share&list=ULZH5eu2 JlsFs
After finding the Albergue where we would stay, we were greeted by an Englishman smoking a joint and downing a bottle of San Miguel at the door. Hmm...anyway he opened up and explained his story that he had been cycling from Alicante but his bike needed repair and as the town was on two days of 'Fiestas' he was stuck here until the Tuesday when the repair shop would reopen...Hang on! Did he just say 'Fiesta'???
A quick shower and a change of clothes and we set out for dinner and a beer. As we headed home for an early night we decided to search for some water...and stumbled straight into two (2) concerts with beer being sold for just over a Euro! Doh!!!
You will be able to see the attached photos of what happened next...and for those of you that know us, you don't need to bother with the photos/videos!
http://www.youtube.com/embed/dV-C02f0mL 4 -
http://www.youtube.com/embed/_itiar9e_7 s?list=UUXns7KQgweqfChrnD1xviVA& ;hl=en_GB
Meeting Jacobo and Pepe was great craic and I would advise you to listen to one of the most popular Galician Bands called 'Luar na Lubre'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_itiar9e _7s&feature=share&list=UUXns7KQ gweqfChrnD1xviVA
Their music and its Celtic influence reminded us of home (we'd only been away one day) and we stumbled home around 3.30am to see if the Englishman had just got stoned or had made off with our smelly underwear!!!
As it turned out neither happened and we were awakened early the next morning as he wished us 'Buen Camino' before leaving us to get prepared for Hangover Number TWO!!! It's at this stage that we reckoned that this Blog might be called...'Stumbling along the Camino Ingles' or 'Steaming the Camino Ingles' !!! Ole!!!
- comments
bigusredus I'm sure the oul doll at the lavadero wasn't the only thing that was humming!!!!