Toledo - Day 15 and El Fin (for this year)
El Toboso: the Tourist Office confirmed that Hospederia Convento Madres Trinitarias do take 'peregrinos'. I'm disappointed to have missed out as the convent seems to be as much on the tourist map here as Dulcinea/Don Quijote/Cervantes. El Pequeño Escorial de la Mancha, no less.
The Casa de Dulcinea is certainly worth a brief visit. It was the home of Doña Ana Martinez Zarco the inspiration for Dulcinea (Dulce Ana) and is furnished with contemporary, if not original, pieces. The dovecote is particularly impressive.
The Cervantes Museum is quite extraordinary. A museum devoted to just one book - the Quijote. But there are 600 of them, in all different shapes and sizes and from different periods and in 73 different languages. Sadly only a facsimile of the first edition. There's a collection of Quijotes that have been signed by the great and good of Spain and the rest of the world - some by the not so great and some by people, who could not by any stretch of the imagination be termed good. Nelson Mandela's copy in Xhosa, Fidel Castro's, Benito Musolini's, Franco's, François Mitterand's rather regally signed just Mitterand. The two audio-visual display are rather well done, too.
Campo de la Criptsna: has ten windmills on the ridge overlooking the town. Very impressive. If you follow the Ruta Don Quijote to Alcazar de San Juan you will see a further four windmills on the Cerro de San Anton.
Alcazar de San Juan, as the name implies, is a town founded by the Knights of St John. It now brands itself as the 'cradle of Cervantes'. It's certainly an interesting town and there are statues of Don Quijote and Sancho Panza in the main square and a statue of Cervantes by the imposing Torreon.
At Alcazar de San Juan the Ruta Don Quijote heads back north to Tembleque. To carry on to Puerto Lapice I had 3 options:
1) walk along a busy carretera for near enough 25km (I could find no path)
2) hitch
3) take the one daily bus
I bit the bullet and took the later. Unfortunately, this meant arriving in Puerto Lapice well before daylight and a couple of hours before anything, other than bars, was open. From Puerto Lapice you can pick up a Ruta Don Quijote back up to Tembleque via Consuegra.
Puerto Lapice, as those who have read the Quijote will know, is where Don Quijote held his night vigil in an inn, mistaking it for a castle, and had himself knighted by the inn-keeper under the impression that the later was a noble. La Venta Don Quijote, which purports to be that inn, is all set up to sell you all kinds of Don Quijote trinkets, food and drink but access is free to the courtyard with the well and there are three rooms with exhibitions which are rather good.
Consuegra: had 11 (?) windmills AND a castillo above the town. As picturesque as it gets. The other side of the Consuegra coin is that it is a big agro-alimentary town. You need a strong stomach as you enter and leave the place. The smell of battery farmed chickens, pig pens, grape already fermenting, the stench of other farming détritus rotting in the sun, barnyard smells on an industrial scale is frankly overpowering. As you enter from Puerto Lapice you walk past the slaughter house and can hear the pigs shrieking. Right opposite is a restaurant. I'm not particularly squeamish but I couldn't help wondering who might eat there. I suppose abattoir workers need to eat too.
Is the detour to Campo de la Criptana, Alcazar de San Juan, Puerto Lapice and Consuegra worth it? Well, those doing the Camino in one hit certainly won't welcome the extra kilometres nor the extra cost (there are no acogidas) and for those with only a passing interest in Don Quijote, El Toboso and the windmills along the Camino may well suffice. The walking itself isn't that very different - olive groves, vineyards and, at this time of year, empty fields (of already harvested wheat?). On the other hand, those four places are pretty significant spots on the Don Quijote map. Even as a Cervantes novice I found the detour compelling.
Somewhere around Turleque I walked briefly on the Camino Lorca, another one to add to the list (Sureste, Levante, La Lana, Santa Cruz). From Turleque there are three options. A Ruta Don Quijote runs to Mora via the Ermita San Cristo Del Valle and the Embalse Finisterre, this looked like a great walk over the hills and it would have been nice to see water. A second Ruta Don Quijote runs straight to Tembleque. More by chance than by choice, I did both and neither, following the former to the Ermita and then the road back to Tembleque. A full 10 kilometre detour. I absolutely had to see the Plaza Mayor.
I'd heard somewhere on the grapevine that there was an albergue on the square itself in Tembleque. If there was, there isn't now. One corner of the square is under reconstruction, perhaps it was there? The Casa Rural El Balcon de la Mancha is a very good option to stay in and just a stone's throw from the square. Fully equipped kitchen and washing machine. Rooms cost €20.00. The restaurant El Mirador de la Mancha, downstairs, does a menu for €9.00.
From Tembleque you have the choice of Sureste and Levante once more. A few kilometres after Villanueva de Bogas (Sureste) the Camino splits again with the option of carrying on to Mora or circumventing Mora and pushing on to Almonacid de Toledo. This may sound tempting, especially as it will get you that much closer to Toledo. From Almonacid you can get to Toledo in plenty of time to have most of the day there. However. I heard, when in Toledo, from a 'peregrina' with many Caminos' experience that the albergue in Almonacid is quite the dirtiest and most depressing albergue she has ever seen. She was of a mind to volunteer to clean it up. She reckoned it would take her - a whole week!
Mora: there is no albergue here either. Hostal Toledano (€17.00) is the cheapest option in town, single rooms with shower and WC. Two other hotels - Los Conejos and Agripino.
On my map there are two Caminos that emerge from Almonacid leading to Toledo. One that goes via Burguillos de Toledo, the other via Nambroca. After Nambroca, and even more so after Las Nieves, this route becomes distinctly unpleasant. It's all along the road to Las Nieves and shortly afterwards the road leads into the autovia. For 3km you are walking along the motorway. OK, there's a crash barrier between you and the speeding cars, but this is no way to enter Toledo. Admittedly after Nambroca the markings became fewer and fewer and even those were very faint but I did ask three separate people, all of whom told me I could walk into Toledo this way. One even said that he'd taken his 'caballo'! Maybe so, but presumably before the road became a motorway. I dithered around for some time, going backwards and forwards before taking the plunge. It's not particularly dangerous, as long as you keep your wits about you, but why spoil a good walk? The Burguillos route is a bit longer but I bet it's a whole lot nicer. If you have set off from Almonacid on the wrong branch, don't worry. You can switch over to the Burguillos option at Nambroca. Just don't go any further.
I must have disturbed the karmic wheel today. Arriving late into Toledo, due to the above, I dropped my backpack off at Los Pascualinos Youth Hostel and shot off to have a quick look around town before it got dark. But thirst thinks thirst, a beer. I found a nice table in the late afternoon sun, ordered a 'pinta' and started to write up these notes. Toledo is on a hill and everything in Toledo is on a slope. I hadn't paid due attention to the tilt on the table. Poltergeist-like the beer made its way down the ever so slightly sloping table straight into my lap and over my camera and passport. No harm done there, luckily. Except to my pride. I had to make my way back through the crowds to the hostel stinking like a brewery and looking like I'd wet myself. What do these peregrinos get up to? Later that evening after I'd showered myself down, a bird shat on me. Later still I got the dorm with the snorer from hell. He'd build it up with 30 second crescendi then wake himself up to start all over again. I ended up on the sofa downstairs. How quickly we become intolerant to others after just two weeks our own!
Toledo is a wonderful city but my what a mindblower after the tranquility of the Camino. It was the weekend but how much of your soul do you need to sell to tourism? Ever so disappointing to see those Catholic Kings of Burger getting pride of place in the main square. Symbolic of something.
Well that's my Camino over for this year. I've loved walking on my own but one of the downsides has been not being able to share experiences in the evening. This forum has alleviate that to a certain extent, so thanks to Ivar for getting it going and to all of you that contribute and to those of you that just read.
Hasta lluego.