Gallop around the Globe

✨️Day 1 on the Camino San Salvador: León to La Robla✨️

Day 1 on the Camino San Salvador started with a crack of lightning and a loud rumble of thunder ⚡️⛈️

I should've known that, as I'd been so lucky with the weather on the Camino Portugués back in March, my luck would surely run out on this one.

But, have to admit, I'd gotten a bit complacent after months of sunny weather back home. My main concerns prior to arriving were of forest fires and not being able to carry as much water as i needed in the heat, when in reality, it's water-logged trails, sodden shoes and being struck by lightning that I should have been worried about 😆

However, on a positive note, there were some beautiful moments of sunshine in between the storms 🌞

Today was fairly easy walking and time passed pretty quickly.

The only downside (apart from the weather 😆) was the flies. I appreciate that i'm walking a fairly quiet trail through the mountains on my own, but having an army of flies constantly surrounding me was not the kind of protection I had in mind, especially when they decided to dive bomb my eye balls everytime I stopped to take a photo 🙃

It hasn't stopped raining since I arrived in La Robla so I'm holed up in my (very nice) room eating snacks I picked up from the supermarket 😁

Pictured:

🔸️Monument to the Pilgrim, Plaza de San Marcos, León
🔸️The first shell I found on the streets of Léon, after setting off from the city's cathedral.
🔸️The first sign of sunshine after the thunderstorm.
🔸️I love hiking Spain at this time of year as all the grapes are ripe on the vine.
🔸️It was absolutely hurling it down at this point, so finding these cute little figures carved into the tree put a smile on my face.
🔸️I saw lots of damsons growing in the trees too.
🔸️Rather than the shells you'll see in Asturias, these are the kind of trail markers (along with yellow arrows) that you'll find in Castile y Leòn.
🔸️There was actually a whole series of these crocheted tree decorations in one particular part of woodland I walked through.
🔸️Views from the bridge that lead from the trail over to the village of La Seca de Alba.
🔸️La Robla's street art offerings were on point 👌

✨️Scenes from León✨️

I factored in a zero day in Léon before starting the Camino San Salvador and I'm so glad I did 😀

Despite being home to around 125,000 people, León feels like a really manageable size when you're exploring on foot, and it's possible to see a large chunk of its attractions in just one day. I racked up over 35,000 steps while just 'having a wander around' - that's over 17 miles!! A good warm up for my upcoming hike through the mountains 😀

Pictured:

🔸️Fachado del antiguo Palacio de Renedo Valdetuéjar o de Los Prado - once a palace, now a hospital. Stumbled upon by accident on my early morning wander along the remaining sections of the old city walls.
🔸️Museo Casa Botines - one of only three Gaudi-designed buildings outside of Barcelona. Now a museum and art gallery. I particularly loved the Dali exhibition on the top floor.
🔸️Monasterio de San Marcos. The majority of this place has now been converted into a luxurious Parador hotel, but you can still visit the small musem and wander the cloisters free of charge.
🔸️The exterior of the Monasterio de San Marcos and grand entrance to the Parador.
🔸️MUSAC. This is León's museum of contemporary art and is an absolute must for art lovers! I loved the colourful design of the exterior just as much as I loved the exhibits inside.
🔸️I've no idea what this stunning building is but it's located on Plaza de San Marcelo.
🔸️Love that this guy is just happily sitting here reading his book whilst the buzz of life in Plaza de San Marcelo happens around him.
🔸️One of the many back streets offering views of the cathedral. This one is Calle Dámaso Merino.

When Gloria and I went in search of the Cathédrale Saint-Nicolas in Nice (it was on one of the must-see lists we'd quickly scanned over prior to our visit), we did not expect to find ourselves standing in front of a very grand Russian Orthodox Church!

We felt like we'd turned a corner in the lesser-visited and suburbs of the city and inadvertently walked through a portal to Moscow or St. Petersberg!

Nice's St. Nicholas Cathedral is actually the largest Eastern Orthodox cathedral in Western Europe.

In the mid 19th century, Nice became a popular winter retreat for Russian nobility - much like it was for English aristocracy. The cathedral was built between 1903 and 1912 on the grounds of the former Vila Bermond, where the heir to the Russian throne, Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich died in 1865.

The cathedral served the growing Russian community on the Côte d'Azur and remains an active place of worship today.

It's definitely worth a visit while you're in Nice, even though it does feel very out of place in the city!

✨️Mont Boron✨️

On the opposite side of Nice's port to Castle Hill, you'll find access to Mont Boron.

Getting up here requires a bit more effort (Mont Boron rises nearly 200 metres above the city, compared to 92-metre-high Castle Hill), but as a result, you'll see far fewer people around. And, of course, the views are just as spectacular, if not even more so.

Up on Mont Boron, you'll find:

🔸️Parc de Mont Boron - a hilltop forest that features 11km of hiking trails, picnic areas and recreational spaces. I saw locals up here playing games of pétanique.
🔸️Fort de Mont Alban - a well-preserved 16th century fortress that was built by order of the Duke of Savoy in response to the Siege of Nice.
🔸️Some prestigious residential areas. The area is known for its Belle Epoque villas and luxury apartments.

I couldn't say I preferred either Castle Hill or Mont Boron as they've both got quite a different vibe, so, if you get the chance, make sure you check out both 😊

✨️Castle Hill✨️

Castle Hill ('Colline du Château' in French) is a 92-metre-high park in Nice, offering some incredible panoramic views of the city, the Promenade des Anglais, and the Mediterranean Sea.

Despite the name, there is, unfortunately, no longer a caatle up here - it was destroyed in 1706 by command of King Louis XIV.

When you need to escape the crowds of Old Nice, this is one of the closest and easiest places to get to that will make you feel like you're a million miles from city life 😊

✨️Museums of Nice✨️

Although the one museum I was most excited about visiting (MAMAC - the city's modern art museum) was closed for refurbishment for the entire duration of our stay in Nice, my friend Gloria and I still made full use of our €15 4-day Museum Pass.

Pictured are the following:

🔸️Musée Masséna, located along the Promenade des Anglais (photo 1)
🔸️Musée des Beaux-Arts Jules Chéret (photo 2)
🔸️Musée de la Photographie Charles N***e, located in Old Nice (photos 3 and 4)
🔸️Palais Lascaris, also in Old Nice (photos 5, 6, and 7)
🔸️Musée d'Art Naïf Anatole Jakovsky (Naïve Art Museum), located between Nice and the airport, so is a good one to visit when heading home (photos 8 and 9)
🔸️Musée Matisse, located around 3 kilometres north of Old Nice (photo 10)

My favourites were the photography museum and the museum of naïve art, with Lascaris Palace coming a close second 🙂

Have you visited ? Which museum was your favourite?

✨️Day 10 on the Camino Portugués✨️

➡️Padrón to Santiago de Compostela (25.6 kilometres)

I made it to the cathedral 🥳🥳

Not the most interesting day on the trail and there were too many pilgrims around for my liking! So, I just powered on through and made it to Santiago around 1:30, pleasantly surprised to discover that i'd literally just received a message from my hostel to say my room was ready 🙌

I didn't have anything specific on the itinerary this afternoon, because I just wanted to wander around, soaking up the vibe and the sunshine 🌞

Doing this made me realise just how much of the city I've already seen and photographed (I really must get that guide written soon!)

Total Camino stats:

➡️ Actual distance walked: 300.50 kilometres (186.72 miles)
➡️ Days of walking: 10
➡️ Average daily distance: 30.1 kilometres (19 miles)
➡️ Blisters gained: 5 (this is a personal record; was zero up until now. Top tip: don't wear old shoes!)
➡️ Number of days it rained: 0
➡️ Number of days the sun shone: 10 (unfortunately, i didn't keep a record of the temperature, but on several days it was still 23 degrees in the shade at 7pm!)
➡️ Favourite day on the trail: Ponte de Lima to Tui. This was also the longest, but that is most definitely not the reason why it was my favourite 😂

✨️Day 9 on the Camino Portugués✨️

➡️Vila Nova de Arousa to Padrón (36.1 kilometres)

Today's stage is an interesting one: most people get the boat.

This boat journey replicates the one taken by the disciples of St. James (the Patron Saint of Spain), to transfer his body from Vila Nova de Arousa to the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, so pilgrims are not required to walk this section in order to obtain their compostela.

However, firstly, I've never been one to do what most people do. And, secondly, as a personal challenge, I wanted to be able to say that I'd walked all the way from Porto to Santiago.

So, I walked...

Clearly, not many other people do so as the path was quite badly maintained and overgrown in parts, and I saw a total of two other pilgrims (two Spanish girls who I spoke to briefly at a cafe in Vilar) throughout the entire day.

The stage gets quite bad press online, but I found that, apart from the beginning and end bits (the former follows main roads through the suburbs of Vila Nova de Arousa and Vila Nova de Garcia, and the latter follows the railway tracks for what seems like forever!), it was actually quite a lovely, peaceful section of the Camino.

✨️Day 7 on the Camino Portugués✨️

➡️Pontevedra to A Armenteira (21 kilometres)

There were so many people at the start of today's hike - it was like being back on the Frances! Fortunately, though, as soon as I reached the turn off for the Spiritual Variant, most of them disappeared!

The rest of today's walk was lovely and peaceful, with highlights being the Monastery of San Xoán de Poio and the fishing village of Combarro.

After leaving Combarro, the path steadily climbs, in varying degrees of steepness, for the next 7 or 8 kilometres until the descent into A Armenteira. This could potentially have been a bit relentless (even though it was through beautiful forest), but a few British guys (Dan, Henry and Joe) caught up with me while I was photographing wild horses, and I walked with them for the rest of the way 🚶‍♀️🚶‍♂️🚶🚶‍♂️

A Armenteira is a beautiful little village that's famous for its monastery, but there's not a lot else to do here and the only restaurant serving decent food (according to my host! There is also a bar though) closes at 5pm.

So, once I'd eaten a very early dinner, I sat out in the sunshine in my hostel garden, reading my book 📖 🌞 It's a hard life! 😆

✨️Day 6 on the Camino Portugués✨️

➡️Redondela to Pontevedra (21 kilometres)

I cannot tell you how relieved I was to see an official stage distance of under 20 kilometres today! (yes, it ended up being a bit more than this, but isn't it always! 😆)

Redondela is the point at which the Coastal and Central routes merge, so I saw a lot more hikers on the trail today...in fact, I don't remember there being any point when i couldn't see at least one in front of me.

On the plus side though, the infrastructure was set up for it, so I had multiple opportunities to get my credential stamped. I even got a fancy wax one 😃

I arrived into Pontevedra at around 2ish. It was so nice to have a decent amount of time to explore. Thank you to for your recommendations on what to see and do and where to eat (I had dinner at Casa Verdun 😋)