Life in Lugo and the Roman baths

So, back in the 1st century, do you think they used soap or oils or something in the Roman baths? Either way, they still smell like sulfur.

Lugo is a great place to take a rest day. We walked into town yesterday and passed through the Puerta de San Pedro to go inside the fortress walls of Lugo. The wall was built in the 3rd and 4th centuries and completely encircles the center of the old city.... and there are stairs that lead up to the top of it, so you can take a walk on top of the entire circumference. Not a bad view. Dan thought we should have brought up water balloons to throw at the pilgrims coming in today. It was hot enough that they probably would have appreciated it.

Let´s see, since our last blog in Oviedo we´ve walked about 100 kilometers (about 65 miles) and over the tallest hills of our journey. We touched the ¨roof of the camino¨at 1200 meters (about 3600 feet) and then came down most of it, sometimes more steeply than others. We literally had our heads in the clouds for about three days in the rural mountainous region of Nothern Spain where the towns are few and far between and nearly all are sparsely populated. We´ve seen old ruins of churches and ¨hospitals¨(where pilgrims used to receive beds, water, salt, and care) back in the middle ages. Dan is wishing he had a gourd for his trekking pole instead of a camelback- he´s pretty sure he´d need fewer bathroom breaks and we´d get to Santiago faster.

At this point we´re over the big hills, have a couple of long days ahead of us, but it´s also the last week of our pilgrimmage, so there´s a sense of wanting to not rush through it as we come closer every day to where we´ll place our worn feet on the steps of the Cathedral in Santiago.

Here´s what we have to say for ourselves:



1. Sometimes, when you get up early and get going, you arrive in a place at just the right time-- that´s right, parade time! Like in Fonsongrada where we arrived in the town to find people lining the streets minutes before a parade of Folklorica dancers came through dancing and playing instruments. Later that night we enjoyed watching a few of the flamenco dancers on stage in the town.



2. Most of the time dogs on the camino are either harmless or tied up, but if there´s a dog that comes towards you and starts nipping at your trekking pole, probably it´s insisting you play fetch, but it helps if your husband is brave and tells it to skat.



3. Rocks in your shoes: if they´re bothering you, empty them. They usually don´t find their own way out.



4. Flies. Flies. Flies. Oh Spain has so many flies. And half of them seem to reside in the alburgue in Borres. Luckily, there was half of a fly swatter (pretty sure the other half of it had been worn out from use) and Dan is an excellent fly slayer. He went all around the dormitory room carefully executing each one until we finally had peace. We were a great team, him with the swatter and me with the broom and dustpan. All in a day´s work, good citizens!



5. We finally figured out what time people eat in Spain!!! It´s taken us a while, but we´re finally figuring out that you cannot expect to find an open grocery store if you are coming into a town between 2 and 4:30 because of siesta. They take it very seriously here, and even if you have not had anything to eat since desayuno (breakfast if you can call a couple slices of baguette breakfast), you can be out of luck. You might have to settle for a Menu del dia in a bar or cafe where the vegetarian option is eating the garbanzo beans out of a garbanzo bean and sausage soup and having a staredown with sardines. Actually, Dan´s been a little jealous of my plates lately-- I´m scoring big time with the fresh salmon in this region!



6. If you are really hungry and don´t have much money left in your daily budget, the Menu del Dia at the Chinese restaurant is a good way to go. You get three courses plus desert and coffee. Dan even left food on the table- unheard of! And for under 12 Euros together, thrifty travellers!

7. When we crossed over into Galacia, they changed the signs on us. For starters, the shells point a different direction now, which can be very confusing. Also, many of the posting now give the remaining distance, right down to the meter. So, you´re walking along and suddenly come to a post that says P.K. 142,507. In general, it´s great to see the kilometers clic away, and it´s heartening to know that we´ve already walked far more than that, but then you think a bit more about the math... Assuming that each step covers one meter (which is a pretty generous assumption), you realize that we still have over 100,000 steps to take...yikes.

8. We miss you. You´re never far from our thoughts, especially when we have long walks each day to talk and think about you.