Returning home

We spent another three days in Finnesterre, relaxing, reading and just having a lazy time after our strenuous Camino. Moira was entirely happy about doing nothing but I still had to get some exercise and went out for a run each morning, on one occasion going all the way out to the lighthouse at the point and back. On 15 May, we caught the bus which left at 7:50am and got us to Santiago two hours later. We had a wander round the old town again before catching another bus out to the airport for the plane to Madrid.

Moira at the lighthouse on Cape Finnesterre

We were flying Ryan Air and we had to get rid of the gas container for our little cooker and the big knife Moira had for preparing our meals. Also to avoid baggage charges we had to reduce the size of our rucksacks by eating up all the food we had and strapping them up tightly in order for them to fit through the frame that gauges the size of anything that is taken as hand luggage. With a lot of trial and error we got them down to size and had no further problems. The flight to Madrid was only an hour and we were soon on a bus again heading for the city centre. The plan was to spend a day here sightseeing.

Somebody left their boots at Finnesterre!

The hotel we had booked into was cheap and in the city centre. We found the reason it was so cheap later that night, when the noise outside went on until about 3:00am. We hardly slept at all. Neither did we have any facilities to make a cup of coffee, the gas container had been ditched; we didn’t have anything to revive us. We did have breakfast at a café, but you get a thimble full of coffee and a piece of toast for E3. Madrid itself was a beautiful city with magnificent buildings, palaces and churches. To see everything we took one of the open topped bus tours that go round all the important spots and attractions with a commentary in English. The ticket lasted all day and we were able to jump on and off as often as we liked. We spent the morning touring with the bus then in the afternoon we walked around the route to get a closer look at things.

City Gate Madrid

I thought that I would be able to pick up a gas container for the cooker easily in the city but it turned out to be a mission. We asked at different shops and also the tourist information office, after a lot of searching we were eventually lucky at a mountaineering shop in a narrow side street. Now we were able to get some coffee when back at the hotel which got us back to life, this was followed with a nice Indian curry at a restaurant we discovered on our earlier wanderings.

After another noisy and sleepless night we packed up and headed for the railway station for the train to Sevilla. We had found out that if we purchased a seniors card for over ‘60’s’ at E5 each we would get 40% discount on the rail fare. This meant that we could get to Sevilla for E100, it was still more expensive than the bus but it only took two hours against six. The only problem we discovered with the train was that they were doing airline type security checks, and our bags had to go through a X-ray machine. They wouldn’t allow the gas canister and I had to hand it over, after all the trouble obtaining it. Strangely they didn’t query a knife we had bought yesterday and was in Moira’s bag ??

Real Madrid stadium

At Sevilla we settled at the bus station for an hour’s wait for our connection to Conil. We had prepared sandwiches and a flask of coffee before leaving this morning and sat on a bench to have them while waiting. A young guy sat beside us, he was English, and we got talking; he boasted that he had just completed a long distance walk up north, the Camino Frances to Santiago. We then proceeded to deflate his ego by telling him that we ‘oldies’ had done the much longer Via de la Plata’. When we reached Conil we had a walk to La Rosaleda campsite and it was now very warm. I was somewhat apprehensive about the campervan but it alright and even the batteries were still well charged. We decided to book in for an extra day here to recharge ‘our batteries’ after two sleepless nights, before driving home.

Plaza Mayor Madrid

At the nearby supermarket we restocked the ‘van with food to keep us going until we got to Cardiff. We had intended to take it easy for the drive back and spend the odd day or two at a few nice spots on the way north. This changed when after a lovely first day it began to rain, and it continued for three days. What made it worse was that they were experiencing a heat wave in Britain at the time and it was forecast to continue for some time. We decided to push on and get back as quickly as possible. We reached the port of Calais in four days where we parked overnight on the quay, ready to get on the ferry to Dover first thing in the morning.

We reached Cardiff on Thursday 24 May. Margaret was looking well and there is still at least 10 days before the baby is due. We spent the week-end with them but decided to go away for another long distance walk which was close by, the Cotswold Way, and come back closer to the time. If it decided to arrive earlier we weren’t far away and could get back in a few hours.

Olympic torch through Cardiff

Over the week-end in Cardiff the Olympic Torch relay passed through. It went along a street close to where Margaret and Justin live, so we strolled down to have a look. We waited with a large crowd spread along the pavements for about 45 minutes for the event. There were more police than anything else. They passed along in cars, vans, on bicycles and on horseback, I thought in these austere times they were making cuts to the police force, obviously not yet. When the guy did appear with the torch it was a bit of an anticlimax, he was there and gone in a matter of seconds, you had to be quick to get a photograph. After that all there was nothing left but to head home again. I think the description that springs to mind is ‘non event’. The next morning I was running the time trial at the park in Cardiff; while I was running Margaret got talking to one of the organisers and it turned out he had taken part in the torch relay. He had the torch in his car and Margaret got a photograph with him holding the torch. 

Margaret doing the Olympic relay?