Las Medulas: Roman Strip Mining

We proceeded on, breaking camp on Friday the 16th, heading past Valenca across the river to Tui and Spain and then to old friend O Porrino, for groceries and recharging our Spanish simcards and mifi. And from there we drove further east, into the mountains, to Monforte de Lemos and its nice aire on the river. And from there, next day, we drove on to Las Medulas, yet another World Heritage site, one of many in Spain, and the largest of Rome's gold mining undertakings. The day was warm, then hot, but we persevered.

At the aire in Monforte de Lemos

Nice view

But too hot to visit

Las Medulas is an extensive site, as one might expect of strip mining operations

Yeah, the Camino Santiago (Frances) passes through here;
it will be days before we're off it; happily, not on foot anymore,
however

Nice life-sized dioramas in the museum; memo to self: whatever you do in the
next life, do not be a Roman slave; actually, don't be a slave, except possibly a
sex slave...

Artifacts

Helpful model: essentially it was placer mining...they tunneled into the soft rock,
flooded the tunnels until the mountain burst, then picked through the detritus;
"mountain ruining" they called it; the big achievement was the hydraulic
engineering, that is, getting the water into the tunnels; the Romans were good at
moving water

Sluices also a  major part of it

At the resto next to the museum; "hail, Caesar!" "hail, yes!" (favorite line from
junior high school; I played Cassius in the school play; no one would accuse me
now of having a lean and hungry look; OK, maybe hungry)

Major ruined mountain

For some reason, the camera again switched on to Etkachrome
mode

Ruined landcape

Exposed tunnels

More ruined landscape

Tunnel opening overlook

Click to enlarge and read Pliny the Elder's description of all this, which is
actually interesting

We might have gone on a tunnel tour, but it would have been an hour's wait
in the heat

So I got one for the road and we proceeded on; note the composition of the rock...
basically mud with nuggets of this and that, including, once, some gold

Vicki was particularly impressed with the overhanging buildings in one of the
villages, which caused us to swing wide on the 12% grade

We proceeded on, dreaming of shade

Camino Santiago Portuguese, 9: After-pix And After-thoughts

So we are four days off the Camino now, sitting in the aire de camping-cars in Leon, trying to beat the heat, finishing the Camino blogposts, and watching countless Caminantes amble through the city, which is on the more popular Frances route of the Camino. Hundreds of them. We are pleased to have done what we have done of the Camino Santiago. It is not without its defects, but they are well known, even the Portuguese version, and we would do it again. Of course, we were very lucky on the timing, the weather, the accommodations, our own health, planning, gear, and so on. For three days now, Vicki has been talking about doing the Frances Camino, or more. The whole enchilada, as it were. I maintain, somewhat uncharacteristically, that you don't have to drink the whole bottle to know it's a VSOP or a Grand Cru. If we were to do it again, maybe we'd do it earlier in the year, from Porto, the coastal Portuguese route up to where it merges with the central route. FWIW. Vicki will have more to say on these matters and on the practical aspects of the Camino on our website.

Few Caminantes do the whole pilgrim costume, in our experience, but most
everyone dangles the scallop shells--Coquilles St. Jacques-- off their back-packs;
here are our scaled-down versions, scaled- down in view of our backa-packa
concern with weight

My completed credencial; two stamps a day, plus Lisbon

My compostela; notice it's in Latin; with this I get half time
off in Purgatory, plus a free drink at the Vatican City Hard
Rock Cafe; so the guy said

The real reward: stickers, magnets, pins, book-marks, and
patches for our back-packs; certainly more than we've acquired
for any of our previous treks (all purchased, of course)

Camino Santiago Portuguese, 8: And Now, The Exciting Conclusion...Santiago Compustela!

By the time we were in Caldas, or even before, we knew we were going to make it. So the hike from A Picaruna was only sort of triumphant, if long and mostly dull, first in the outskirts, then the suburbs maybe (European cities have little in the way of suburbs), then the city itself. Somehow, we lost the trail for a bit, but the kind residents got us back on track. Our quest was at an end! Where's the ice machine?!

After another early departure...student artwork outside an elementary school

Truly scary crow

Through the morning mist, first sight of the city, maybe the cathedral

In the suburbs

Oh no, a fork in the trail; we went for the shortest route

Now in the city, which, I imagine, has its Glastonbury moments

At last, the cathedral

Us, there

The famous Parador; or maybe something else

Tour bus lecture

But first, our room at the nice Plaza Quintana hotel

And a shower; and a nap

Proper view of the cathedral

And then off to the center for peregrino accreditation

After walking all those miles, you still have to stand in line; by 2PM, the day we
arrived, some 600 pilgrims had already gotten their compostelas (check the
website for a count)

Later, at the Pilgrims' Mass at the cathedral

Closer up, featuring the more than life-sized statue of St. James
that tourists walk by and hug, even during mass

In one of the chapels

In another hole-in-the-wall restaurant, El Gato Negro, recommended for fresh
seafood; I really wanted the Coquilles St. Jacques, but it's not fresh this time of
year, so I  settled for the mussels; Vicki had the Iberian jamon plate

Only the sign of the black cat would tell you this is the place

Street scene Santiago

Next morning, leaving town, en pied, for the bus station

Couldn't find the Via Profana

More pilgrims arriving, in droves

Santiago bus station; after a transfer in Vigo, we were back in Portugal and Vila
Nova de Cerveira, where Gea picked us up and took us back to the campground

Estuary at Vigo; most marine farming I have ever seen

Camino Santiago Portuguese, 7: Padron To A Picarana

The penultimate day was a somewhat shorter hike, to within 10 miles of Santiago, to the hostel Glorioso in the village of A Picarana...

Smelling the roses as we leave Padron

A village lavandaria (washateria); every village had one, sometimes
two, towns would have several or many; all still functional, that is,
water running in and out and generally quite sanitary; but no one using
them; not surprisingly

The only detour we encountered

As I said, everything made of granite

And here is one of the many places we saw where such things are fabricated...
marble or granite

Note they're all sitting...uncharacteristically

Easily within 30k of Santiago, here is the first we've seen of the Rules of the
Camino

"Put papers in the trash bins, stay on the trail, speak quietly,
take  photos, say hello; don't pick the plants, no fires"; in
Portugal,  it was "Bom Camino," in Spain, "Buen Camino";
I had a trail name all picked out...PortuGeezer...but no one
ever asked; Vicki did not like PortuCrone

Relatively speaking, we enjoyed great weather on our Camino; temps in the 70s,
then lower 80s, rain only on this penultimate day; by the time we returned to Vila
Nova de Cerveira, the temps were reaching the 90s...and beyond

Interesting old church near A Picarana

Table mat map at the Glorioso restaurant, all the Caminos
converging on Santiago

And the Camino Portuguese, all the places we have been
in the past 7 days

The one really awful meal we had on the Camino was at a place called Milagrosa,
in A Picarana; the salad was OK, but the frites were fried in rancid oil and the
advertised pork loin was Spam

Vicki's hamburguesa was even worse; she put it down without a bite and left;
as the grill artiste in Bucharest said, "some dog, some cat, some garlic, some
rat"; TripAdvisor will hear of this; I will readily concede, however, not many
people do the Camino for the food; if you do, maybe best to eat in the larger
towns and cities; methinks

The accused

Down the highway (which the Camino follows), the Glorioso on the right, and its
hostel on the left; actually pretty nice double room, en suite, 40E; and the salade
Nicoise for lunch was decent (although they didn't call it that)

Prostitution is legal in Spain, and all along the Camino I had been wondering
to myself whether we'd see a prostitute on the trail (you see them on secondary
roads all over the country, at intersections, sitting in lawn chairs under
umbrellas); I wondered also whether they would stamp your credencial ("Rosa
Prostituta, June 14, 2017, Gracias por su visita"); and whether the cathedral
authority in Santiago accepts such stamps toward the compostela? Between the
two Glorioso properties was La Dama Del Lago, a dance club of sorts from
which no music was emitted and whose patrons tended to park behind the
building out of sight... sadly, I forgot to knock on the door and ask about
stamping my credencial...many mysteries will remain from our Camino