Lost in Translation



Galicia is truly unique and trying very hard to stay that way. The language, Gallegos, is part Castilian Spanish, Portuguese and Gaelic. We have finally come to a part of Spain where we are finding it difficult to communicate in any language other than sign language. It might be called The English Way but little English is spoken here. In fact, one the strangest things we have seen is that they are attempting to remove the letter "j" from their signs and replace it with an "x" (more of those darn xs). We are still unclear as to the pronunciation. Towns too poor for new signs are just painting a large black X through the letter. Even the old monastery had the new spelling on the sign even though the original spelling was on the building. Our first challenge was to find the trail head at the port of Ferrol,

 supposedly where the early pilgrims stepped ashore. After that it was a wonderful day with the trail hugging the estuary for most of the way. It went past the Spanish Naval UDT Training Center which brought back memories for Jerry. All along the fence at the shipyards you would find where workers had hung their work coveralls in protest about the shutdown of the yards.