Camino walking day 2

Fortunately there were no overnight thunder storms. The day began with low cloud blocking out much of the view.

We managed to get away shortly after 8:30 with our first stop being the square in front of the church at Portomarin. There were discovered a heap of places serving food and drink that we did not know about previously. The town was obviously a lot livelier than we had realised (a problem when you arrive in a place tired after a long walk).

Some things that I shold have mentioned from day 1.

Our notes warned us that we would encounter cattle as some of our walking was through farmland. There was very limited numbers of cattle on view anywhere. When some were fortunate enough to be outside, most were barned, they were contained by fences mostly of the electric kind.  we were not warned about the smell emanating from the barns!

Back to day 2.

The day promised a walk of 23km with an elevation gain of 340m and loss of less than 200m. Huh!!! The distance was pretty good but not the elevation gain and loss.

The fortress chuch on teh square in Portomarin was impressive. There are no low windows and what windows there are a small slits. Apparently the church contains some impressive sculpyres but alas it was closed when we were leaving.

The other buildings in the square were impressive, too.

The cloud was hanging low over the landscape as can be seen by the next two photos which was taken as we were leaving Portomarin.

At times during today we walked alongside roads. It is surprsing what seems to grow next to roads. There are the blackberries, of course, and these pop up all over the place. The photo below shows a small part of a fairly big fennel crop. Gosh that plant is difficult to get rid of once it is introduced to an area.

We came across quite a bith of heather growing along banks and tracks.

The surfaces we walked over varied considerably. Here Jennifer is walking up one of the grvally ones.

Once the cloud rose we had some lovely views across the countryside. There is quite a loot of forested areas in the region we were walking through. some contain ancient oak trees. Otheres have been harvested and replanted with pines or eucalyptus trees.

Yesterday and today we kept seeing these type of plants in numerousgardens. Some were a good 1.5m tall. The lowere leaves had been stripped of the plants. In the end I concluded that these were probably kale which was being repeatedly harvested.

Looking out through trees at the landscape is fine but doesn't make for good prhotos. It reminded me of comments by Michael when we had been out hiking where we commented more than once that the view would be great if it wasn't for the trees.

In settlements, and sometimew in the middle of nowhere, there were freestanding crosses such as the one below. each one probably has a story to tell. You are lucky that we did not manage to find out what the stories are.

As we had found on our first day, there were small cafes and bars scattered along the trail. This one wa of particular note as not only did it have a "Welcome" sign out front, it offered a toilet, water and hot drinks with just a dontation for the tea and coffee.

We came across quite a few old churches such as the one below. They have survived as many a village has died around them. The Camino and its pilgrims contribute to these ancient builds and the people who care for them.

 

Some of the days walking took us through shaded tracks. As the day warmed up the shade was most welcome.

Our target for the day was Palas De Rei and the sign at the entrance to the town was a welcome sight.

We were pleased to find the hotel where we were staying on the outskirts of the town.

After a shower and a cool drink we felt ready to consider another day of walking.

Distance for the day turned out to be around 24km. This is not accurate as I managed to miss resuming Runtastic following our last refreshment stop.

Elevation gain: 744m

Elevation loss: 541m (some loss was lost when I failed to resume runtastic).

Conclusion: expect much more elevation gain and loss than stated.

Camino walking day 1

I will cover the second stay in London and the trip to Spain and on to Sarria in a separate post. In the meantime, here is day 1 of the actual walk.

There were ttunderstorms and rain overnight but these cleared by the time we got up. While we packed all our wet weather gear we hoped that it would not be needed.

Breakfast was included in our package as was luggage transfer. After breakfast we delivered our cases down to the reception area by the 8:30 deadline and they were immediately whisked away.

Jen and I trundled off just on 9 o'clock.

Throughout the day we follwed yellow arrows and "mile posts", which came at much shorter distances than a mile. Here is the final one for the day:

The shell is the symbol for the trail, the arrove provides a direction and the distance to Santiago is given below the arrow. After 22.68kn we still have 92.231kms to go!

The initial part of the walk took us through Sarria. Firstly we climbed up a long staircase before trundling along narrow street past ancient churches and a miriad of established catering to pilgrims "doing the Camino".

Here are some of teh churches we came across:

We also crossed a medieval bridge on leaving Sarrai:

There were quite a few pildrims on the trail although a lot less than at the height of the season. While most were on foot there were also people on bikes.

The trail was well serviced by places were you could get food and drink.

While we set out in pleasant conditions the weather deteriorated during the morning with lightning, thunder and then rain.

Jen's coat failed to keep her dry!

As we neared our target, Portomarin, the weather cleared and we even had some sunshine.


The approach to Portomarin included a long bridge over a dam

followed by a long set of steps. This was just what we needed at the end of a long days walking!

All up day we walked 22.68kms.This include an elevation gain of 732m (our information suggested that it would be 230m) with an elevation loss of 787m (conpared to the expected 300m). Those extra metres up and down take their toll!

Apart from fgelling weary and sporting the odd blister we were pretty pleased with ourselves particularly as a bunch of younens opted for a bus rahter tha walking when it started to rain.

Reading ... the one in Berkshire

I thought that I had better clarify the Reading otherwise some would think that perhaps I was referring to books.

On arrival in Reading I made the short walk to Friar's Walk where the Ibis was situated. I managed to walk right past the very discrete entrance as the sign was obscured by one of the huge hanging baskets of flowers found all over the entre of Reading.

The central part of Reading is both compact and full of old buildings, such as the George Hotel, where I ate dinner.

At one end of the town centre is the chuch of St Lawrence which plays a part in the history of segments o my family

while St Mary is situated on the other side and also manages to get a look in from the family history perspective.

The area around St Mary's is grassed and well used by the locals even if teh terrain is rendered uneven by graves and full of various monuments. This church also figures in my family history.

Here are some other examples of buildings in the central part of Reading:

The central part of the town seems well used and was buzzing with life well into the evening. Along a canal on the southern side of the town centre there are heaps of eateries which were busy every night I was there.

My first day at the Berkshire Records Office (BRO) yielded very little. I was no further advance in seeking information about the Glaville clan than when i left home.

Tuesday was my day to go to Windsor Castle. isn't that an enormous place. It covers a huge area within the walls without even mentioning the park.

The castle dominates the town and the town seems to live on the visitors coming to the castle. 

As well as being able to walk around the grounds within the wall it was possible to visit the chapel, the state rooms and an exhibition of the royal families toys. The chapel is the burial place of a number of the monachs and their spouses. I gave the toys a miss but did go through the state rooms. Just maintaining them in their splendor must cost a fortune for which the visitors to the castle contribute greatly.

The changing of the guard

Windsor Great Park

On returning to Reading I walk around part of the central area that I had not been to on the previous night. This included the Abbey area. Edward VIII has much to answer for in the eventual distruction of so many magnificent buildings.

Wednesday was a continuation of the same frustration at the BRO. I simply could not get a handle on my Glanvilles. Nothing seemed to add up.

At 12:30 I was collected by friends Sally and Robin and we headed north in search of a farm that was was in the hands of the Brangwins for about 100 years.

The first place we stopped for lunch was one that Sally and Robin had been to a number of times before. It sat on the edge of the River Thames. Unfortunately it was very busy and had a long wait for food so we gave them a miss and found another place. We stopped there for a drink on our way back to Reading.

Our target was in the Bartons - a series of villages named variously named Westcott Barton, Middle Barton and Steeple Barton. The farm was:

We walked through the farmyard and up onto a highpoint where we had a great view across the copped and brilliant green farmland. It was a public footpath so we were not trespassing.

When we got back to the farmyard we were debating if the house adjacenebt to the yard belonged to the farm and was the Bragwin residence. The wife of the farm manager popped out of her abode, not the house we were discussing, and told us that the brangwin house was actually in the village and how to get to the appropriate church.

Oh, we were also told that Whistlow Farm is now part of a much larger farm which covers six previous farms. Does this sound familar?

Off we went along some very narrow lanes and we eventually came to the church. Almost all the old tombstones were stacked up next to the fence with a few being used for paving. Sally and I thought that we did not have much hope of finding anything worthwhile.

we were surprised to find the church unlocked - an increasingly rare situation across England as so many churches have sucumbed to vandalism.

Baptismal Font at St Mary the Virgin, Steeple Barton

As we were looking around the church interior Sally spied a stone slab on the floor with Brangwin chiselled in it. In all, there were three stones within the church. A surprising find.

Next came the search for the house that was built by the Brangwins during the 1730s. From local intelligence this appears to be it albeit a little modified over the years.

 All up we had a wonderful afternoon out and about in Oxfordshire looking for family stuff.

Thursday saw me back at the BRO and I started crawling through Wills. I came across one relating to my 5xgreat grandfather which solved some of my mysteries but left me scratching my head about others. The Will was very long, the writing beautiful but the ink faded which made reading it hard work.

Giving up for the day shortly after 5pm I went and utilised the laundromat that I had spied earlier in the day.

On Friday morning I was back at the BRO and actually got to read the original of the Will I had looked at on film the previous day. This was the actual document signed by John Granvill way back when. I was fortunate to be able to look at the original as normally this does not happen when the document is available on film.

So, after lots of rustration this has been a worthwhile research visit.

After collecting my luggage from the Ibis it was back to London.

 

Off to London

Trevor has really put me to shame with his daily posts of his Indochina trip so I figured that I needed to pull my finger out and get blogging.

The first week of the trip has been very busy with swimming, catching up with people, some research activites and a bit of playing the tourist.

Nic and Soren collected me just before 2pm and delivered me to a very unbusy airport. It took not much more than 5 minutes to check in and pass through security. Then came the wait for my flight to Sydney and promised felays due to industrial action being taken by the folk from Border Protection.

A very quiet Canberra Airport

While my luggage had been checked through to Heathrow from Canberra I had to pick up my boarding passes in Sydney for the Qatar sections of the trip. This was actually the slowest bit of the outbound trip.

I caught up with big sister Jen in Doha where we had a quick cup of coffee before she headed for her gate and her flight on to Athens.

Oh, so this is a walking blog? There is a lot of walking through airports when you fly!

On to London. As we were approaching Heathrow we banked to the right and had a great view of the meandering Thames. Unfortunately it took a bit of time grabbing the camera so I missed the best view.

Once through immigration at Heathrow, a think that I managed to walking about a k through the area as I snaked my way towards the entrance, the rest of the entry was quickly completed and I was on my way into central London on the tube. Alighting at Calendonian Road it was a short walk to my hotel.

After checking in it was off to Leicester Square to pick up my London Pass.

I though that I should throw in a food photo. I stopped for dinner at a restaurant opposite Kings Cross station - paasta and a garlic bread.

Kings Cross Station was a mere 2km from where I was staying and I did this walk a number of times during my stay. It passes over the Regents Canal which is dotted with gardens alongside it, has good walk and cycle paths and loads of canal boats.

On Sunday I headed out to do at least one touristy thing before meeting Margaret and David Brangwyn for lunch.

Meandering along the Thames in the quiet of the morning was very pleasant. It provided a great opportunity to look at the architecure with a staggering area of strange looking modern buildings. I'll include photos of some of these later.

My tousity thing for the day was a visit to the Globe Theatre. This has been constructed as close as possible to the specifications of the original complex in which William Shakespear plied his trade.

The Globe Theatre

I had booked a train to Chelmsford which was leaving from Victoria station just after 11 o'clock. I should have had plenty of time to get there from the Globe. Firstly, i crossed the Thames and proceded to a tube station. No problem. It should have been straightforward except that it was not obvious that a section of the Cicle Line was closed. The board listing next trains kept on showing a training arriving shortly. By the time I, and a number of other frustrated travellers working out that there was no Circle Line train heading where we wanted to go I have managed to miss my train to Chelmsford. Even more frustrating was that I could have probably made the train if I had walked from the Globe to the station rather than using teh tube!

I managed to get the train leaving just on 11:30 and only arrive half an hour late.

It was great catching up with Margaret and David and the afternoon flew. Before I knew it I was on my way back into London feeling a little weary.

On Monday I had planned to spend some time at the London Metropolitan Archives. I wanted to get information about my 5xgreat grandfather who appeared to have  been apprenticed as as Thames Waterman. It was a pleasant walk across to the archives and a frustrating time there as I didn't manage to find out anything additional to what I already had.

Leaving the LMA I headed back to my hotel to collect my bags before heading out to Reading. Crossing the canal I figured that I would take the opportunity to walk back along the canal side path. It was a lovely warm, sunny day and a very pleasant walk.

Londones enjoying the sunshine on a grassed terrace beside the canal

london is seeing a huge amount of urban renewal. Old buildings and structures are getting makeovers and being turned into modern buildings. Below is an example of the reuse of gas storage facilities. They now are very attractive looking apartment blocks next to the canal. Certainly a case of the ugly duckling turning into a swan.

Leaving london behind for my sojourn in Reading was relatively straightforward.

In my next post I will cover the four days I spent in Reading.