Day 4 - All about Amsterdam

 Final day on the bus, and it’s all about discovering more about the beautiful Netherlands.  We collected a few new tourists today, including a young family of mum, dad and a 3 year old and a 1 year old.  After a day of travel with the family, I was pleased to be finishing the tour.  I’m not sure that keeping kids crammed on a tour bus for extended periods is the most ideal option with very young children.

With my bag packed and stowed under the bus, we were soon at Zaanse Schans - what I would call a historical village, built around a lake, and filled with windmills, cheese factories and clog-making shops.  The buildings are all repurposed from their original locations, and put together as a tourist spot - my parent’s visited the same place on their trip to the Netherlands.

We were treated to a clog-making display, where the clog maker showed how clogs would be made traditionally (about 3 hours for each pair), and then the modern method with a “clone” lathe - where a pair of clogs can be made in just over 15 minutes.  They even helped us get fitted for a pair, keeping in mind the need for a finger’s width gap between the heel and the clog for comfort.  

In our free time we were encouraged to explore the village further and I discovered the cheese factory, complete with the cheese making demonstration and free tastings.  Unfortunately I couldn’t buy any cheese to take back to London, as there is currently an embargo on meat and milk-based products from Europe due to an outbreak of mad cow disease.  

After buying some samples of mustard and sauces, I walked the length of the lake to discover each of the windmills (they are all individually named) and indulged in freshly squeezed orange juice being sold of the back of a cargo bike by the “Bike Juice Guy”.

Daniel, our new tour guide was pretty awesome at the start of the day, advising us not to buy anything souvenir-wise here.  He guaranteed that anything we saw and wanted in the shops at Zaanse Schans would be available at our next stop would be just as available but cheaper at our next stop - Volendam Fishing Village.  Daniel gave us a comprehensive education on the history of Volendam and the construction of the lake and islands in the area.  We had a traditional Dutch meal in a local restaurant, and I had herring for the first time (as well as my first green vegetables in quite some time!)  Also enjoyed a glass of the local beer - yep, a pint of Heineken!

True to his word, the souvenirs were cheaper here, so I loaded up with wooden tulip bunches for my mum, and a range of quirky chocolates, lollies and biscuits for the family.  

Final stop for the day was Amsterdam.  We enjoyed a flat boat ride through the canals, with a commentary on the history of the city and an explanation of all of the things we were seeing.  The final stop before I got dropped at the Centraal Amsterdam train station was Royal Coster Diamonds.  We were treated to a demonstration of diamond polishing and given a presentation on the four C’s of diamonds, finishing with the chance to be locked in a secure room with some very expensive diamonds.  I even had the chance to have a 150,000 euro diamond on my hand - there were some nerves when handling that little sparkler!!!

Time to say farewell to my tour group, and I boarded the tram to my hotel for the night - the Generator Amsterdam, a pod hotel nestled on the edge of the Oosterpark.  But let’s leave that particular adventure until the next chapter!

Bus Tour Day 3 - Frankfurt Am Maim to Amsterdam

With a bit of travelling today we had an early breakfast and onto the bus by 7.  First stop Bonn, where we breezed by the Beethoven museum and admired the main square, which had been rebuilt to look like it had prior to the ravages of war.  The pièce de résistance in Bonn is the University of Bonn, which is based in the old royal palace, a building that takes up multiple city blocks. It is currently being restored and is potentially the nicest centre of learning I have seen!

Next stop Cologne, where there is once again a cathedral to admire and an “old town” market square to explore.  We had a little more time to explore this town, so I walked across the river on yet another love-lock bridge - this time with thousands and thousands of contributors.

We have a constant stream of people joining and leaving the tour as it runs in a circuit and joins the other tours offered by the company.   There’s a pair of  ladies from the Phillipines who are travelling together following the death of their husbands. Both lovely and friendly, but one has a selfie stick that is constantly in use and they have to stop to be photographed in everything.

There’s a Malaysian family with a mum and dad and teenage daughter - the mum and dad are very friendly and ask lots of questions about Australia, but I don’t think the daughter spoke in front of anyone the whole time we travelled together.  

Then there’s Abood and his wife (I forget her name).  He is an ENT surgeon in Bahrain and is familiar with PA hospital as he has worked there!

We were joined today by a family from India (who I enjoyed talking cricket with) and there have been some other solo travellers who have kept to themselves.  Everyone is friendly and it has been nice to chat and learn more about how they learned English, as it was a second language for all of them.

We finished the night in our Amsterdam digs, ready for the next day’s exploration of the Netherlands.

Bus Tour Day 2 - Luxembourg to Frankfurt am Maim

Not to early start for day 2 and a great hotel breakfast to begin the day. The one thing I forgot to mention with yesterday’s room was that the mini-bar was completely complimentary! Two different flavoured waters, a bottle of sparkling water and a bottle of still. No alcohol, but still, free anything in a hotel is unheard of!

Our first whirlwind stop today was Trier, a German town with an old church (go figure) but also the remains of an old Roman walled fortification, known as the Porta Negra and home before his expulsion, to Karl Marx.  A lot of the towns we will be visiting suffered heavy bombing in the Second World War, and while they look old, they have been rebuilt to look the way they previously had.  Many of the German towns we visited also had Holocaust monuments erected - the German people seem to have a lot of shame in that regard and do a lot to acknowledge their part and the importance of owning it and learning from it.

From Trier we drove to Koblenz, where we enjoyed a traditional German meal of pork knuckle, tomato soup, and ice cream, before catching the cable cars across the Rhine to the fortifications of an old castle.  Back across the river you can see where the Moselle and Rhine combine (hence the town name - Koblenz) with a giant statue of Kaiser Wilhelm looking out across the blending rivers.  Just behind his statue is an art installation commemorating the Berlin Wall and the history behind its rise and fall.  I also tried a soft drink only available in Germany, Austria and Belgium - Mezzo Mix. It’s a blend of Coke and Fanta. While I didn’t mind the flavour, I’m not upset we can’t get it at home - it was ok, but not Jaffa-like enough without a chocolate taste in the mix.

Final stop for the day - Frankfurt am Maim - where I discovered the first of my lovelock bridges - with thousands of padlocks paying tribute to relationships that won’t be broken!  A beautiful old church or two (St Martin’s was my preference this time), and an old town square that again had been through a pretty big rebuild. 

Interesting that we were there on a Sunday, which is typically a day that most shops and stores would close.  They had warned us a fair bit, but I did think it was funny that the places that were open were pretty much the tourist traps - and they were effectively full!

No dinner options near the hotel tonight so they stopped the bus at a truck stop and we had a choice of KFC or Maccas.  Now in Australia those two are considered fast food. My KFC order took 20 minutes to process as there was one person taking and fulfilling all orders while one was cooking.  Thankfully I ordered first - some of our group waited 40 minutes for their meals.

Nice enough hotel again, although as this was an official airport hotel,  it was huge and my room was right at the back - it was a five minute walk from the elevator landing to my door!

Tomorrow we are off to Bonn, Cologne and finishing in Amsterdam - all new towns for me and I can’t wait.

Bus Tour Day 1 - Paris to Luxembourg

What a way to start the day - checked out of the hostel and walked to a local boulangerie for breakfast - orange juice and a pain suisse - a delectable morsel and a sugar hit to get the blood pumping.  I took my breakfast to go as I was walking to our meeting point and there was a park nearby that I could sit and eat. Just as I was finishing off my sweet bread, I heard a rustling in the bush behind me and turned to see not a bird or a dog, but a human foot emerging from the hedge. Needless to say I got up and got out of there quickly!

Found my tour group and our guide Aleks, loaded my pack onto the bus and we were off to our first stop in Reims, France.

To give an idea of how the tour worked, each place we stopped had a short orientation walking tour (usually 15-20 minutes) followed by an hour or two of free time, so of course each night I was checking the next day’s itinerary to mark the things to see in the towns we visited.

Reims is home to Notre Dame de Reims - yep your girl has only just realised that the full name of the church in Paris is Notre Dame de Paris - the Notre Dame is French for Our Lady.  We found many more Notre Dames throughout our tour!

Also found time to get to the Porte de Mars - the remains of the widest Roman Arch and discovered a local food market where I got myself a classic pate baguette for lunch. Note: I do not like classic pate as it’s not the smooth, savoury treat I spread on my toast back home - this was more like brawn and did not have the flavour I expected.  

After Reims we moved to Luxembourg and Luxembourg City, where we found another Notre Dame , aquaducts, ruined fortresses and the best ice cream I’ve ever had!

The only drawback of the tour is that all of the hotel stays are around the airports, so if you want to enjoy a bit of nightlife in the city, you have to cab or uber to go back in. Probably would have done that if I had a buddy with me, but because I didn’t, I just stayed in my room and sleeted myself for the next day.

I really liked Luxembourg and would definitely return and spend a couple of days exploring the old city. I even practiced my French (amazing how quickly that came back compared to my Spanish!)

Our guide is lovely, although we only have him for two days as he is going off on another tour. The company runs these circular tours where you just get on in a city and can choose how long you stay or if you want a full circle, then they connect with other tours as well. One of the families is doing four of the tours all interconnected across Europe. I think I’ll wait before deciding if that’s the life for Bren and I when we do Europe.

Less than 24 hours in Paris

Flying into Paris with only a singular plan - secure Vincens Torrens nougat.  Can you believe I was on the hunt for the only store in Paris that sold Spanish confectionery after being in Spain for a fortnight? 

I discovered this brand when I was in Madrid in 2023 and it’s only sold in a number of stores outside of Madrid - one of which was in Paris. So after dropping my backpack at the hostel I walked through the 13th seeking sweet goodness!

The shopkeeper was quite taken aback when I told him I was from Australia and they I had deliberately sought out his store. He was so happy with the money I spent that I even got a free bag with my purchase. It has been a challenge over the last five days not to crack them open - but I’m saving them to share with the family so I’ve been strong.

With my one Parisian purpose fulfilled I decided to do a Seine walk and just walk the bridges back and forth across the Seine. So. Many. Bridges!

I paid my respects to Our Lady of Paris (Notre Dame) and was more than a little excited to see her rising proudly once again into the skyline.  Hayden and I visited her in 2018 just before the fire that destroyed the old structure, and she was well on her way back to glory when I was there in 2023.  Now they are doing a lot of work around her as well, so I can’t wait to see what she looks like when I’m back there again in a few years (just putting that out into the universe!)

I walked about 12k following the Seine and finally called time just before the Eiffel Tower - I was close to the bus stop I needed and my knee was starting to ache so I hopped a number 83 which dropped me right at the door of my hostel where I had a private room booked.  Bonus - it was air conditioned.

The neighbourhood I was in even had a mini-mart so I was able to grab some snacks for lunch and then went in search of dinner. I settled on a delicious Thai meal from a non-tourist street and enjoyed a pad Thai at a table for one. I ordered a fresh coconut juice and was pleasantly surprised when a whole shucked coconut was presented with a straw to get the water from inside - it was so refreshing and cool and perfectly complemented the meal.

Back to my hostel and I sat out on my balcony for a bit just listening to the sounds of the city before settling into my bunk bed for the night. Weirdest bathroom ever - it had a blue light, an item I’m not sure is really needed in a bathroom, but you get what you get as they say!

Tomorrow I jump on my first bus tour to see a little more of Europe.  Just enough time in each space for a taste of the area before moving onto the next.   

Farewell to the Camino

My last two days on the Camino were relatively uneventful, with a bus and train day from Caldas de Reí to Padron, and the next day onto Santiago de Compostela.  In contrast to the earlier days, the closer you get to the finish, the more commercially driven everything becomes, with multiple souvenir shops and more industrialised towns.   Padron was nice with its obligatory churches and con vents, and I was excited to find two sequoia trees in their botanical gardens.  Had the weirdest tacos in town (just meet and taco shell, no salsa or salad) and a comfy three floor walk up apartment for our final night on the trail.

Easy train ride to Santiago and I was surprised by how much it was still so familiar, given it was three years ago I was here last.  Still not terribly impressed with the city, but that may be because I have never treated my visits there as any sort of pilgrimage - religion is really not my thing unless we are talking history! Also amazing to think it only has a population of 100k - 20k of which are students at the university and then a lot of tourists!

Spent an enjoyable morning riding the tourist train, walking up and down the familiar streets trying to avoid buying tourist stuff, and then settled into the square to wait for my travel buddy to arrive.  It really is fun to watch people filter in - the solo walker who falls to their knees in front of the cathedral, the groups hugging and cheering their final day, the school groups singing and dancing as their 100km slog is done.  It’s like an airport lounge and my favourite ones are the unexpected family waiting to greet their pilgrim.  Then there are the Instagrammers getting the perfect jump photo or draping themselves over the architecture to get the perfect pose. And sometimes you will see the poor folk who think there will be a reception waiting for them with 76 trombones, only to realise that the achievement and recognition comes from within.

Welcomed Jyai into the square and then found my way back to my hotel room, which was waiting for me - a welcome, air conditioned room out of the sun and in a quiet pocket just off the square. The reception staff were lovely and had already transported my bag upstairs to me room.

Final meal with my travel buddy in a pilgrim’s bar and that is the end of my second Camino - pretty safe to say there will not be a third! But each journey has brought new towns, new sights and sounds and new food to try (although the pulpo has been smashed more than anything else).

Tomorrow morning I jump on a plane to Paris for a quick overnighter before a four day bus tour.  I only have a week left of holidays - I can’t believe how fast it has gone, but still so much to see and do.

Adventure in a tiny town

It’s 10.48am and I’ve just finished a 6km hike out to a waterfall outside of Caldas De Reís.  I’m sitting in the Botanical Gardens, beside the slow-flowing Rio Umia. The sky is blue overhead, there is a gentle breeze cooling me down after my walk and I’ve only been in town for two and a half hours.  There is a multitude of birdsong and many locals taking their daily constitutionals.  The only disturbing thing in this whole scene is the lingering of cigarette smoke because I swear that everyone smokes in this damn country!

My rest day in Pontevedra was truly a day of rest with just under 10k in the legs.  I started the day quietly writing yesterday’s blog in the local park, then decided to walk across a number of bridges in the town (there are plenty) and visit a local shopping centre for some supplies (translation I went shopping and bought empanadas at the local bakery) and then hit a few more bridges. 

Back to the hotel after lunch for a rest (and a sneaky nap), and before you know it I was walking to Burger King for dinner. Yep, it was a night for Western comfort food, and while the burgers were familiar, the fries, and dessert was not - but always nice to try a different country’s take on things.

Woken early by inconsiderate pilgrims dropping their crap and making a general racket chattering and packing, so I figured I’d hop the early bus and find a little more out of the way - although because we are staying at a private home, there’s no drop off of gear, so everything must come with me.

After a bit of a “not sure if this is a comedy or a drama” moment trying to find my bus stop, I found the right place and hopped aboard.  Even managed the correct money when asked so that’s a win in my books!

On arrival into town I stocked my bag with a croissant con jamón y queso (ham and cheese) and set off around town to spot the landmarks I’d set myself to explore. A couple of churches, the most of interest to me is the Igrexa de San Tomé Becket - a Catholic Church dedicated to Thomas A Becket. 

Now those who know my nerdish leanings will know I love English history and this man was a major player during the reign of Henry II - anointed as the Archbishop of Canterbury by Henry, but loyal to the church, Thomas was not the malleable pawn Henry thought he would be.  After one particularly annoying disagreement, Henry is said to have uttered “who will rid me of this turbulent priest”. Heard by four of his guard, this was interpreted as a sign to kill the archbishop and he was murdered, in his own church as he sought sanctuary.  His martyrdom was pretty much guaranteed after that.  Anyway…this is the only church dedicated to St Thomas in Galicia.

After giving directions to a lovely French woman and having a bit of a chat about the Camino (she finds the last 100km boring because she can walk in vineyards at home in the south of France), I started my walk to the promised waterfall. My only hope was that it actually was a waterfall and not a seasonal one that is empty after the snow melts.

Google maps had given me directions, but with 50m to go it directing me down a private road that had a very definite sign excluding anyone but “residentes”. So after a bit of investigation I found a separate path that lead me to the top of the falls (and a tunnel under the falls that looked muddy and wet, so I opted not to risk my sneakers).  Not only were they were flowing, they were rumbling.  Not only were there signposts showing me the way to the bottom, but also the surprise of the ruins of the old electricity factory (hydroelectric maybe) at the bottom. I don’t know how I missed that stack as I hiked in!

Many signs talking about the factory that I’ll need to translate but what a find, along with the waterfall, tunnel and a Roman bridge that was so overgrown it was difficult to spot.

All in all not a bad morning so far with 8km under the belt before 11!  Although as I was hiking in the middle of nowhere I did think what a stupid thing I’d done going off and telling no one of my plans. I didn’t see anyone else on my travels and made sure to be very sure footed when I was walking because I couldn’t even remember the emergency number!  Chalk that one up to experience and I’ll make sure I tell someone next time I go off script!

Only two more sleeps til I’m back in Santiago and then only one more and I’ll be back in Paris.  The anticipation is growing!

A few more Spanish days

Since our stop in Vigo, we have made our way closer to Santiago by two more towns and cities.

The first of those was a charming little town called Arcade. While there is an albergue in town, I think it is probably one of those places that people pass through but perhaps don’t stop in, which is a shame because it is a pretty town.

Early for check-in so after a Lomo (seasoned pork) bocata for lunch, I took myself off to explore the town. The bridge out of Arcade that pilgrims take was built during the medieval period and that of course needed to be seen.

It’s a single-lane bridge with just enough room for a car to squeeze past walkers - but of course some pilgrims are absolutely unaware of everything around them, so as a car approached to pass, I slowed to ensure I could safely walk as they went by me. The walker behind me promptly stepped into the middle of the road to take photos and proceeded to block traffic! The drivers here are much more patient than at home and didn’t even beep her - they merely waited and then drove by once she was done. I really hope she never visits Australia because someone will burst that little ignorant bubble for her in the worst of ways!

Our apartment for the night is a gorgeous newish build - with an elevator - yes an elevator (that’s how you recognise the new build!). It has been set up with bread and condiments and cereal and milk and coffee, all those things that make it feel like home for a night.

Next stop - Pontevedra and the 8 minute train ride was worth it just for the view. Pontevedra is another city with medieval roots and after arriving at my hotel and practising my Spanish (yo tengo una reserva para esta noche. Puedo dejar mi mochila aquí hasta check-in) I dropped my bag and began a long exploration of the city.

There are so many churches in these towns and cities.  I think I visited five yesterday, all resplendent in their own way.  I was also lucky enough to be in town for the opening hours of the ruins of the San Domingo church and monastery which dates back to the 14th century.  While most people came in, looked and left, in all my nerdish glory I read every sign and explored every nook and cranny of the site, learning a little more Spanish history as I went.  

From there I visited a number of churches before finding the Puente Burgos with its scallop shell markings showing pilgrims the way out of the city.  A little note on Google then suggested a side quest - the Illa de Esculturas - the Isle of Sculptures - a 70000 square metre park that has a sculpture trail set up with sculpture by 12 artists.  Accepting the side quest means I hit a 15km mark for walking today - so although I’m not walking the Camino routes, I am still hitting step goals in the cities I’m visiting. I think Arcade was my lowest count - I only did 12000 steps which is about 9kish I think for me.

After the sculpture walk I settled into a little panadería for a bocadillo (baguette) and a hot chocolate.  Here’s what was in the pre-made roll - ham, cheese, lettuce, tuna and boiled egg - how’s that for a protein filled roll.  Weird combo but surprisingly flavourful. And the hot chocolate - like a thick chocolate syrup - mmmm-mmmm.

Full and a little tired I checked into my hotel room - very modest by yesterday’s standard - and had a quick freshen up before meeting my travel buddy for drinks and a dinner of curry at a local restaurant.

Tomorrow is due to be a rest day and while I was originally planning a day trip to A Coruńa, I think it might just as easily be a sleep in, lazy brunch and sitting in the park with a book. After all, I am on holiday!