top of page
Search

Day38 Santiago to Muxía

Writer's picture: Robin RudwickRobin Rudwick

29/06/22 Wednesday

So it's off to Muxía on a bus at 0900. We leave the hotel at 0730ish. Its about a 20 minute walk across town. The air is cool rather than cold. We raid Santander for some money. They charge 7€ to give us some money. The cost varies from bank to bank. And they give us 50€ notes. It's like an ATM giving you £50 notes in the UK - no good to man nor beast. Some ATMs will offer a choice of notes, but don't often have useful ones like 10€. We should have checked before we left. In general, all banks are B**tards, when it comes to foreign currency exchange.

Anyway, we get to the Bus station and bump into Marianne again. She is going to Finisterre, that strange name on the Shipping Forecast, and the 'real end of the Camino' if you've seen the film. She has a real problem working out where to get her bus. We go for coffee and watch all the Pilgrims coming in to get buses to wherever.


This is Marianne, a lovely German lady, who walked her own Camino and crossed paths with us many times. We'll probably never see her again but she is part of our journey.


The coach trip was 3 hours long, wearing masks. The coach went via Finnisterre, so Marianne was on the same bus. She was downstairs but we were up front at the top, like 5 year old kids. There was a Hungarian girl on the bus who spoke good English, because she said, nobody speaks Hungarian. She said she spent a two days walking the trail with a guy, both speaking English, which is the common language on the Camino. Later, after they parted ways, someone else asked how she'd got on speaking Hungarian again, as the guy had been Hungarian. There was an Albergue in Finisterre called Albergue Hungarian. But it had a notice saying you didn't have to be Hungarian to stay there.

We could see the Camino markers as it crisscrossed the highway. The track seemed to follow the road closely and was very much uppy-downy and was full of Pilgrims. We might have seen a beret wearing French man thst we crossed paths with earlier. But that was it. The bus was slow and boring. Time for sleeping. I noticed, when I woke up, that the grain stores were being made of stone, with some having toadstool bases.



Toadstool bases were common under Old English grain stores. The one below is at Cowdray House, Midhurst, Sussex, UK.



The bus took rather a convoluted route to Muxía. It first went to Finisterre, then back tracked a long way, then headed to off to Muxía. By then it had taken on board a lot of people from Finisterre. I always remember the name from the BBC Radio 4 'Shipping Forecast', which detailed the weather conditions in the various sea areas around the UK. We left the bus at Muxía and found a bar. Just after we sat down we saw a commotion on the path we had just walked. A man was lying on the path, with the local police helping. More people arrived from bars nearby.



After a few minutes, a paramedic arrived, brought by taxi. He administered aid. 20 minutes later an ambulance arrived. They fussed about, took the patient into the ambulance and drove a long way down the road and parked. Next to arrive was the air ambulance, landing just by the ambulance. It was on the ground for a good half hour and then took off. The ambulance hung around for another half hour then disappeared. The patient was a local, judging by the reaction of some of the people around

It all felt rather strange. We had walked the path where the man had collapsed just a few minutes before as we headed to the bar. It was a strange disconnect as we sat there drinking, while a man was fighting for his life. There was nothing we could do to help. It was rather like watching the opening scenes of a programme like 'Casualty', but on iMax.

We don't know if he survived or not.


Muxía is a small fishing port, trying to turn into a seaside holiday place. They have put it on the Camino trails, maybe to generate local income. But it's nice enough.

I think I'm feeling a let down after the high of completing the journey to Santiago. I remember looking at all the people passing me by there. Some were local, many were Pilgrims. But many were just tourists. It seemed to me that they hadn't earned the right to be there. And it was so busy - too many people.

Back to Muxía. There we were, in the bar. The drama was over, at least for us. And it was lunch time. I had a steak and chips. Amazingly it came



with fried courgettes and aubergine. The steak was a bit chewy but very nice. The cut of beef is called Picaňa, I think and is top rump in the UK. It is originally a Brazilian meat cut. Its good for bbq.

Ruth had a burger, with lettuce and tomato on it. I think I was the winner. Two meals with vegetables - wonders never cease.

The room we have got is very nice. Of course, we didn't take a picture. We just wrecked it by spreading all our gear everywhere.

My leg is feeling better. Probably the lazy day and the 400mg ibuprofen I had this morning. I'm sure that's double the UK dosage per tablet.

So it's a walk to the lighthouse for us. There is only one road in or out of this town, which causes havoc for the coaches. So we walked out of town. There were Pilgrims and bus loads of tourists near the lighthouse.


It was a very nice walk...


But, to be honest, it could be the Isle of Wight, apart from the churches.


Then it was back to the bar for more drinks and some food.


Hallelujah! A seafood salad the size of a small island... And a plate of non combustible Padrón peppers. We haven't had a hot one in Spain ever! I always thought they exported low capsaicin peppers to the UK. But no, they are all non volatile. Ruth had chicken zorza. This is supposedly the same mixture used in chorizo, but more roughly chopped, marinated for 2-3 days, then stir fried. I wasn't sure about the multi-day marination of this dish. But it tasted OK-ish. I was the winner. But we didn't manage to finish any dish completely. And I was totally vegetable'd out.

Then it was a walk down to another bar for beer for me and for Ruth, a very nice Albariño wine in a dirty glass. We've come across many chipped and cracked glasses plus a few dirty ones along this journey.


19 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Back to Spin Classes

I've just started back at spinning classes. I've completed two and they were hard. They last for 45 minutes and are intense. At the end...

Practical Things I learned on the Camino

This journey is a marathon and not a sprint. Rest days are important! It's a Pilgrimage, not a route march. Take care of blisters as soon...

Comments


Post: Blog2_Post

Follow

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

©2022 by Robin's Blog. Proudly created with Wix.com

bottom of page