Anyway, we are actually eating very well. Usually we have to be a bit independent in the mornings as bars are not always open and most hostels don´t provide breakfast. A banana, bread and water is the normal start then we stop for coffee as soon as we find a bar -- maybe not for many miles. Lunch is a cheese and tomato sandwhich prepared the day before. Yesterday when we were frozen and wet and discovered the hostel we´d booked at was in fact closed, we had tortilla-- delicious! It gave us the energy and courage we needed to sort our problem out. We ended up in a lovely hostel, behind a 3 star hotel and run by the man who owned the hotel who wanted to give something back to pilgrims having done The Way himself when younger.
In the evenings we tend to eat The Pilgrim Menu, which is offered by many bars and restaurants in the towns and villages (not the cities, I think). It ranges from 9 to 12 euros. Sometimes you get a choice of dishes for the three courses, sometimes you get what you´re given. So it is veg.soup, or mixed salad, or pasta of some sort. This is followed by fish, pork, chicken, meatballs -- always with chips. This is followed by yoghurt, icecream, rice pudding, caramel cream, etc. Bread, red wine and water are all included (never white wine -- shame! Portions can be huge, so unlikely to be losing weight!
We haven´t yet experienced tapas or any other tradional foods; perhaps we will when we have our rest day at Burgos on Saturday. Oops, I forgot! Charlotte had a fish soup in Logrono - full of many sea creatures. She said it was delicious - I just had to believe her.
This was a very over-the-top starter in Bayonne, in France.
This is the typical mixed salad, very varied and tastey.
These were enormous bags of live snails being sold in a veg shop. So, if we get desperate, we can always scrounge along the hedgerows!
Our very simple breakfast.
Anyway, I think we can safely say the Maria´s reputation as cuocero bellissima is quite safe.
PS I nearly forgot! We have been walking now for over two weeks and have done over 160 miles! (H. will probably correct me on my additions!) Only one sore toe between us -- Charlotte´s , and that is only a little one.
Dear Jane and Charlotte,
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your first 160 miles, As always, I'm impressed. The food looks basic but calorific and tasty. How cannot it not, when you get chips with everything!
Good luck with your next two weeks. You're experienced pilgrims now. Love Mark XXXX
To my two dearest heroines, two weeks in and the reading your blog has been a real treat. At one level it’s about the facts of food/weather/terrain and hostel arrangements together with an account of the sights, sounds and scents of your walking and the people you meet and friendships that develop. But what also emerges is a gentle adaptation to the journey of a lifetime and acceptance of things very different, sometimes very challenging and sometimes a bit mystical. Huge ‘Well done’ on what you have achieved and for coping so well with all the many challenges thrown at you, both physical and mental. Enjoy your rest day In Burgos - and the dipping back into ‘normal life’, before you continue your journey over the Meseta where I hope you get a return to proper ‘Spanish weather’ ( How can it be colder and wetter in Spain than here ??) Maria and lots of people send their love and best wishes ( the first thing I am usually asked these days is ‘How are they doing ?‘) . All my love and thinking of you constantly. Henry xx
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