Costa del Sol

The area of Spain called the Costa del Sol, or Coast of the Sun, runs along the Mediterranean Sea in the South of the country. It is a very lovely part of Spain, with little towns, seaside vistas, good food, and lots of history. We were only able to spend a few days in this area, and only really visited the cities of Malaga and Fuengirola. 

Our group was only able to stay in Malaga for about two and a half hours, but we visited Pablo Picasso's birthplace and the Picasso museum. My parents and I have always been huge fans of Picasso, and I grew up learning about him and his works, so it was great to see where he lived. We got a photo with a statue of Mr. Picasso, which I will be adding here shortly.

We also visited the Cathedral in town, which had some of the highest ceilings that I have ever seen! There was also time for us to treat ourselves to gelato and we stopped to watch an opera singer, showing off his talents just outside. 

After Malaga, we went to Fuengirola, a seaside city that caters to tourists. We spent two nights here within view of the Mediterranean.

After walking around the beach, which was rocky but still beautiful, we wandered to the town square in search of some tapas, and found a place with probably 4,000 mopeds outside of it; a good sign.

If you are searching for a beach-town in the Costa del Sol, I would probably look around a bit more before choosing Fuengirola. It was a nice little town with beautiful views, but the beach was not my favorite. We passed by another beachy town called Marbella, which seemed nicer but also a bit more up-scale.

A stay at the Alhambra (Granada)

Disclaimer: I have seen an incredible amount of awe inspiring things in the past few days, yet have not been able to post due to spotty wifi... therefore, I will be mass-posting for a short while. 

My family and I arrived in Granada on Wednesday night, however, I was unable to really explore the town. The next day, however, we were able to visit the Alhambra, which was a palace and fortress built on a hill in the town of Granada. 

The most interesting part of the Alhambra is its decor. I have never really seen such intricate decorations in the arab style. Since it is against Muslim belief to use picture representation of people or God, everything is decorated with holy words, or geometric shapes. Every single wall carving was done by hand, and every room has unique patterns.

Here you can see the script that I talked about before:

The gardens of the Alhambra are magnificent. They are so lush and green, which was exactly what the sultan would have wanted in the dry, arid climate.

A few days in Madrid and on to Toledo

I have been playing catch up for the past few days, blog-wise, since I was not able to keep up with my days while on the Camino. My family and I had some downtime while we visited Madrid, and the day after we drove back from Santiago, we slept for about 12 hours, waking up at about 11:30 am... Which is very unlike us. Usually, our motto while on trips such as this one is "we can sleep while we're dead," but we really needed a few days of recovery after our busy week of walking several kilometers and changing hotels every day. 

While in Madrid, we stayed at a hotel near Parque de la Arganzuela, which was a beautiful park that the Manzanares River runs through. There are tons of biking, walking, and rollerblading paths through the park, as well as many playsets for children and a fountain/water play section which provides a beachy atmosphere. My favorite part of the entire park was that it was entirely decorated with lavender, my favorite flower and scent. It is the perfect plant for the dry environment and really made the park look lovely.  

I ate "churros con chocolate," a Spanish late night snack, for the first time, and found it delicious. 

Above is the Church of the Jeronimos, which we visited after spending time at both the Thyssen-Bornemisza and Prado museums. Unlike museums in London, I learned that visitors usually have to pay to get into these museums, however, the Thyssen is open from 12-4pm on Mondays for free, and the Prado from 6-8pm every day of the week. By waiting in a long line for a free ticket into the Prado, we saved ourselves €14 a piece. 

The first photo in this post is of me with a Hopper painting that was in the Thyssen. I loved both museums, though they are both very different, and hope to visit them again while I'm in Madrid in July.

My parents and I began a tour of southern Spain, and we spent the morning in the city of Toledo, just about 45 minutes outside of Madrid. I had visited Toledo once before, but I did not remember much about it until we arrived in the walled city and began walking around.

Tomorrow begins the city's biggest celebration of Corpus Christi, so the main streets were decorated and people hung banners and tapestries from their balconies. I wish we could have spent the night there to see the celebration.

I noticed that there were a ton of birds all over the city...I didn't ask why, but now I wish that I had...

Toledo is known for Damasquino jewelry, like the medallion below, and also for beautifully decorated swords. In fact, some of the swords in The Lord of the Rings movies (my favorites) were made in Toledo.

At the End of the World

Finisterre is the western most point of Spain, and before the New World was discovered, people believed that it was the end of the world, since the horizon just goes on and on until it eventually blends in with the Atlantic Ocean. 

Before we got to the town of Finisterre, we stopped at a very windy point on the top of a mountain. There was a very long row of windmills that were hard at work, and I nearly lost my hat! 

The small port town of Muros was lovely to visit. We only stopped to get a cappuccino and take a few photos. It was nice to see the ocean again and hear seagulls.

We then drove a little bit more to get to a waterfall. Since I've visited Niagara Falls so often, these falls did not impress me too much, but they were nice to look at. 

 I also got to meet a troupe of attractive Spaniards in wetsuits.... They were getting ready to go rafting and canyoning near the waterfall for a bachelor party. 

I wanted to go with them!

When we got to Finisterre, we found the 0.00 km marker from El Camino, since some pilgrims choose to continue walking for about three or four more days after they get to Santiago de Compostela. Here, pilgrims also burn their hiking shoes out of tradition and sometimes leave clothing and stones that they have been carrying throughout their pilgrimage.

Our group stopped at this lighthouse for a few minutes, so my dad and I explored the rocks and climbed closer and closer to the ocean until it was time to go. 

When we stopped for lunch at a small fishing village, we decided to indulge in Galician favorites, empanadas with tuna and grilled sardines.

My week walking The Way of St. James: day 5

On Friday the 13th of June, we started the final leg of our pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Our tour group walked together, for the most part, and we went about 18.5 kilometers in total. 

It was a very hot and sunny day to be outside, but we and all the other pilgrims that we passed could taste that we were nearly there. The bikers who passed us were speeding down the path and shouted "buen Camino" at us as they rode past. 

We spent a lot of time on paved roads, so it was not very picturesque, but the people that we met really made our day.

The poem above was written on the wall of a tunnel that we passed through, just a few kilometers away from the city. I thought it was really beautiful and had a lot of meaning for every pilgrim who passed by it, so close to the end of the pilgrimage.

Above is me celebrating at the Monte do Gozo, or the Mount of Joy. In medieval times, pilgrims were able to see the city and the spires of the Cathedral, and were overjoyed; hence, the name of the mountain. I certainly felt glad to be there, especially because of the vistas and nice breeze.

Whether it was your 5th day on the Camino, or your 45th day, every pilgrim gets the same feeling of relief as he or she crosses into the city limits.

The city of Santiago is a place that I would really love to visit again. It seemed like a mix between Prague and Mont St. Michele (don't mind me, being a travel snob), and definitely deserves a few days of exploration. It is a city full of tourists, but they're the right kind of tourists, if you know what I mean. Essentially, everyone there has shared in the experience of the Camino. 

When we got to the main square, every pilgrim gave a synchronized sigh of relief. The most beautiful thing that I saw were the bikers and pilgrims laying on the cobblestones out of joy for having made it to the city. 

We then went into the Cathedral and got our seats in the front row in one of the side aisles for the Pilgrims' Mass, where the Bota Fumeiro would be swinging above our heads with incense. Above is the priest blessing the gigantic censer and the six men holding the rope to swing it.

This is the Bota Fumeiro, swinging high above our heads. It looked like it would crash down on us, but I trusted the centuries of experience that it has had, going back and forth above pilgrims. 

And here we are with our Compostela certificates with our names on them in Latin: Angelam, Mariam, and Joel.

We also got special certificates that commemorated when St. Francis of Assisi walked the Camino, 800 years ago. 

My week walking The Way of St. James: days 3 and 4

Wednesday, June 11th was one of the longest days of my life, as well as our longest walk on the Camino. We left Palas de Rei quite early and headed off into the morning fog. My dad and I went about 30 kilometers along highways, through little towns, and in the woods. We were passed by many bikers with their packs strapped to the sides of their bikes, as well as a group of merry men from the Basque Country who were singing their way along the Camino. 

It got hotter and hotter throughout the day, so my dad and I were so ready to stop and rest in the busy town of Melide. We ate pulpo, octopus, at a local pulperia and got to stamp our Camino passports with the restaurant's stamp, which also had an octopus on it. I split a spanish tortilla with my dad as well, then we applied more sunscreen and continued on our way. 

Although today was the longest day, it was also a really great day because of all the fantastic people that we got to meet. I never thought that a nine year old Australian girl in a lemur costume, jamming out to Katy Perry's song, 'Roar,' would be my hero, but I found that out soon after I found her chugging along, alone behind us. We began chatting and she told me the story of how she got there and that her older brother (11 years old) had completed the entire Camino about two years before with their father. She also told us that her mother and brother were "way back behind us" and that they were on day 40-something of their pilgrimage and they were walking to honor their father who had unfortunately passed away in September. I did not catch that girl's name, but she was doing so well and had such a great attitude. She really inspired me through the things she told us and we could tell that this trip on The Way really meant a lot to her. She was not bitter, and she was so open to befriend us. Her mother and brother and her were all going to continue traveling around the world for as long as they could and the children were being homeschooled by their mother. Honestly, what could be a better education than traveling around the world at a young age?

I also met a fellow Sherlock fan and writer while walking through the woods. We talked for a while and shared some of our Camino experiences, which really made the time go by quickly. Shout out to Ella! 

A little while later, we were walking through some deep woods with lots of shade, which we were thankful for. We crossed this lovely stone bridge (above) (Literally, stones... like huge stones) and found a saucy Spaniard sitting next to a table full of t-shirts and souvenirs. He offered us "special stamps," so we waited while he melted red wax over our Compostela passports and stamped them with a seal with two feet on it, which was a nice touch. I noticed that he had a prosthetic leg, and while we were waiting for the wax to dry, a group of bikers were trying to cross the stone bridge and the guy in front was having a hard time maneuvering along the narrow bridge while rolling his bike. My dad remarked on how heavy the bikes looked with all the bikers' gear on them, and the Spaniard shook his head. He called to the guy in Spanish and told him to just carry the bike, but the biker said that it weighed like 300 kilos... Then the Spaniard sassed him and told him that his bike weighs double that amount and that he only has one leg. The whole conversation was something great to witness... and I later found out that the guy sells the shirts to raise money for Paralympic athletes. 

We eventually made it into the town of Arzua, after following the bronze shells to our hotel. The town is known for its cheese, which we got to try in a sandwich. The town was adorable and I would have liked to do more exploring, but the heat really took a lot out of us. 

Thursday, June 12th: Arzua to Pedrouzo 

The photo above is from the church in Arzua. We visited in the early morning and got a lovely stamp for our passports. 

We saw plenty of cows and farms along the day's walk. The little towns that we passed through seemed not to have been touched by the passing of time. Every house is made of stone and wood, and the roofs have ceramic tiles. The people who live there are small and tan. Even if we were the 118th pilgrim that they have seen throughout the day, they still greeted us with a smile and a "buen Camino." 

This day was very hot, but filled with beauty. We met some really nice people and saw lovely gardens and wildflowers. We got a little lost while looking for a place to rest and eat, but we were eventually on our way again, heading towards Pedrouzo. After passing through a forest of eucalyptus trees, we got to the town. 

After celebrating mass at the local church, we met up with some great friends that we had met on the Camino on Tuesday. We had dinner and some great dessert with them and talked of meeting up again in the future, either in the US or in Spain.