The Road from Santiago

  We are following the road which may be less travelled, unless you have the sort of satnav that wants to put the challenge back into travel.  We are dropping about 250m and what I really like is the glimpses of Mondonedo cathedral we get from time to time. We came to Mondonedo for reasons that will be made clear tomorrow.  There is a sense of constantly descending into the centre of the palm of a hand. It is somewhere I really want to go back to and stay awhile - I wou ldn’t be the first.  One of the most remarkable and unreported stories is the flight of 5th century Britons from the Anglo-Saxon invaders.  Some came to Asturias and Galacia and some settled here and established a bishopric. Naturally the enclave was slowly incorporated into the Iberian community but a 1233 document mentions an estate that belonged to  "to those men called Bretons or Biortos, and whose women were called chavellas." Mondonedo is first mentioned as such in 858 during the rule ...

  Ok, so I got confused.  Mondonedo is tomorrow, not today. I have actually down this road and it was a windy, treery and rocky as it appears.  At some point we leave San Vincente.  I am not sure when we entered it. Let’s Rock! Iberian style.  We are on the border of the Canatabrian zone and the Central Iberian zone - which is mostly in central Iberia but has decided to reach out and have a dip in the Bay of Biscay.   The Central Iberian Zone covers the middle part of the west side of the peninsula, including north and central Portugal. The top north west corner has been replaced with the Galicia-Tras-Os-Montes Zone. The constituent rocks are metamorphosed sediments. The oldest rocks are Proterozoic, metamorphosed sediments. They have been deformed by the Cadomian Orogeny. There are volcanics and further sediments from the end of the Ediacaran and Cambrian periods.  The Cantabrian Zone consists of Carboniferous and older Paleozoic unmetamorphosed ...

 You know, I think we have to know each other by now...... well, you know me and I don't know you. I wonder of you have seen this on Facebook, because that is where it all started. In an age of long distance travel I love the very subversive idea that you could begin a long journey by just walking out of the front door.  If you wonder why it begins in mid-Spain, that is because I realised a treasured friend was not on social media and may be mildy amused by a world of google reviews and parish churches.  They may not be reading it all.  Either way it is an excuse to look at the byways and highways without leaving the bands of my native parish - with a few exceptions. We are in for another day of reasonable A Road plodding, without much in the way to disturb us, other than the prospect of being over 180km from Oviedo.  Here is a field, there a deserted house.  We don;t even get to see the Iglesia de San Lorenszo de Sasdongas - which is just below us in the v...

  It is in the nature of these things that we don’t get a village for days and two pop up at once.  I presume the mightiness of the river Arillo was needed to separate these two communes, alike in dignity.  First, to Abadin.  Wiki helpfully tells me the municipality covers 196km2, which is 0.66% of Galacia, 1.99% of the province of Lugo and over a wapping 1o% of the Tierra Llana region.  About 2300 people live in the wider settlement, about a third of the number here in 1950. The ‘city council’ website https://www.abadin.es/ has some nice pictures, but even they rarely find a sunny one. I was going to go to the bakery but then I noticed a watch shop.  https://jcgrelojeria.com/ They hope to lure women in with their ‘simple and elegant’ offerings. Men have to do with ‘New and Classic.’  I am dithering a bit with all this choice.  I think we will go to the Restaurante Niza.  https://www.restaurantenizaabadin.es/   They have a blog, but, a...

Back to the joy of the National Roads. The way is marked by separated farm houses and green fields.   We will be passing two churches and why not. The Iglesia de San Pedro de Candia.  PRR gave it four stars and recommended it as a picnic spot. I can find nothing else out about it. A bit further on we get to see the Iglesia de Santa Maria de Abadin.   ARS is very taken with it. ‘ Beautiful place. We have not been able to enter the church, but we have had a picnic in the front garden, which has been landscaped and has two stone tables and a fountain (no water at this time). Beautiful church in a wonderful setting.’   Jose is also  impressed ‘We visited the Church of Santa María (Abadín, Lugo). This is one of the pleasant monumental surprises that you find on the Camino de Santiago del Norte, specifically as you pass through Abadín. It is located a few kilometers from the urban center, as you pass through Terra Chá. It is a 12th century construction with an in...

  We are descending into the route to the coast. It is the point of all this wandering.  It is a bit British in terms of small lanes and odd turns,  We are on one of many of the camino routes for a bit of this.  We will pass one of the many tiny bus shelters on these lanes. I think I got a clue as to the weather when walking into a cafe in Gijon and noticed an umbrella stand.  Gijon gets 955mm of rain a year.  Santiago gets 1855mm.  London only gets 557mm. We will pass nearby Iglesia de San Juan de Castromaior.   I honour Pablo Pardo Lamela who gives it five stars for the reason ‘ Because I live here’.  The church was built in the 16th century on the site of an old fort. It has an 18th century baroque altarpiece.  We are now in Lugo province.  Apparently these devout Christians remember the Celtic god Lugh in this name. The place has about a third of a million people living here.  The population peaked in 1940 with over 540,000...

Trees.  You like trees don’t you.  Trees ad small lanes wandering in between occasional cottages and farm houses without any other feature.  Well, we have a treat for you today! So, as I am in a holiday mood lets talk holidays in 2024 in Galaica.  Here is a list 1st January - New Year’s Day. 6th January - Epiphany 28th March - Maundy Thursday 29th March - Good Friday 1st May - Labour Day 17th Galacian Literature Day 25th July - Saint James’ day / National Day of Galicia 15th August - Assumption of the Virgin Mary 12th October - Fiesta Nacional de España 1st November - All Saints 6th December - Constitution Day 25th December - Christmas Day Many of these are national or almost national days.  The feast of the Assuming Mary caught us out - Ikea in Oviedo was not open and we were late to the beach so had to put up with a below high tide place.  That beach presented an interesting sociology. The keen had established well placed situations early. The tardy were ...