June 25 –  Back on the train this morning for a two hour ride east around Spain’s rocky northern coast, which landed us in Ferrol.  This little town is where, back in the day, the English would land by boat to start their Camino Ingles.  The Ingles only takes about one week to walk, so Jim thought we should see the town.  Some English hikers we met in Santiago said it was very pretty.

Sure enough, Jim found the first shell marker, and we walked the Camino through town.

This is not a beach resort, but more of a working harbor like Norfolk.  Lots of cranes and military ships.

A pretty marina too.

It is Sunday, so absolutely no shops are open, but we had a delicious Turkish doner lunch and a walk around town.  

Lots of flowers in the Praza España.

The municipal palace:

A pink church:

A spotted car and a spotted dog:

The fortress around the port:

Ferrol has the distinction of being the birthplace of the Spanish dictator Franco.  We are only here for one night, and enjoyed seeing this pretty little town.
June 26 – the breakfast buffet at our hotel was truly grand, including two kinds of eggs, exotic fresh fruit, and lots of decadent breads and pastries.  At some point very soon, we’re going to have to convince our bodies that we are no longer hiking, and return to a sensible calorie count.  Today was not that day.

Walked back to the train station and purchased tickets to our next destination, Ribadeo.  This was advertised as a quaint ride on a small gauge modern train, along the beautiful rocky northern coast.  The train was indeed modern, but the track ran alternately through mountain tunnels and deep forest, so that all we could see out the windows was either the pure black of a tunnel or densely green boughs growing so close to the tracks that they scratched the windows and roof throughout our ride.  So, no stunning pix of the coast – sorry!

The view did open up for the last hour of our three hour ride, but the day turned gray and rainy.  Glad we’re not walking!

Ribadeo is a town on the Camino El Norte.  As soon as we got off the train we saw the yellow arrows, and followed them past the chapel of Lazarus.  Inside was a statue that looks like San Roche eating an ice cream.  Hmmmm.

We’re staying in a quaint hotel with no wifi or air con.  However, the hotel has a stable of bicycles for guests to ride!  Although the skies were overcast, we took some bikes out for a spin around town, and only got a little wet.  

Some interesting wall art:

Here’s this little guy again.  I wonder who he is?

I have no explanation for these very tall folks either…

It’s true what they say – it’s like riding a bicycle:  you never forget!  Lexi and Emma, there’s a bike in Gramma’s future!