Castrojeriz - another 21km easy day

Today was loaded with new and different experiences.

First, back to our little laundry room. Here's a photo of the gathering weather last evening - the dark gray clouds were beautiful and threatening, but no rain. The children of our innkeepers were playing outdoors happily.


The cots were the softest, most comfortable beds we've slept on so far - I was out by 9:00 and slept right to the alarm at 6:30. We got up and packed, then toddled over to the kitchen we'd been shown the day before. It had been totally overrun by French speaking gentlemen who were impatient with the coffee machine but were all intent on standing in the small kitchen to wait for the coffee. We grabbed a roll, a jam packet, and a piece of white bread each and escaped to the dining table, where we added a banana and water to round out our "first breakfast". After writing a very simple note of thanks to "el Abuelo", we left at about 10 minutes to 8:00.
It was a very Pacific Northwest sort of morning, cloudy and breezy, occasionally sprinkling here and there,
but quite pleasant walking conditions.
We soon got onto some really soft mud tracks, the stuff loaded up under the arch of my boot 'til I felt I was walking on tennis balls :-). Where we could, we walked a little to the side of the path where footing was a bit less slippery.








You can see a few fellow peregrinos strung out ahead on the path -
A little more than two hours walk brought us to Hontanas and a beautiful new small bar and albergue just opened last year. The young men behind the bar were friendly and helpful, we loaded up on second breakfast and a delicious cafe con leche. I should have taken a photo - sorry.
Restored in stomach and spirit, we made for Castrojeriz. In the Castrojeriz area there is a lot of ancient pilgrim history. We came by this ruin of a convent that took care of peregrinos.






"Siglo" means century, so, built in the 1400's, but the general idea of the place dated from 11something.
Shortly after we passed this church, Castrojeriz came into view in the distance. There is a substantial ruin on the top of the hill next to the town, and the view of the two was quite impressive. I thought about a photo, but told myself to hold off until we were a little closer. I didn't see the squall coming, but B noticed it and we pulled over to put on his rain pants.
Now, I have a difficulty with rain pants at home. I feel I get wetter with sweat inside them than it's worth being protected from rain outside. In this case, however, we were soon robbed of any view of the town by a downpour that drenched my pants, which I didn't mind as it wasn't cold, BUT it also caused water to run down and soak my socks and the inside of my boots. Extremely bad idea........
We trucked on for about 45 minutes through the rain and passed several small hotels and the municipal albergue, looking for a particular albergue we'd read about. Couldn't find it. Got to the end of town and I, in utter discomfort and frustration, stepped into the last albergue and said "I don't care what this place has or doesn't have, I'm done for today".
We're 30 in one room, shared bath/shower room, breakfast will be available by donation. Everyones hanging out on their bunks as it is still pouring outside.


So, B is a little antsy, we've been "relaxing" for about an hour and a half, no laundry as it would never dry in this humid room. Somebody just started playing a flute or pan pipe of some sort. Should be an interesting afternoon/evening. I'll leave you with this funny that B just forwarded from yesterday in the University district in Burgos -


Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A relatively short day -

I was so proud of myself today! As we went into a bar cafe at about 11:00 I asked, in Spanish, whether the kitchen was available to fix eggs and ham for almuerzo, or second breakfast. Yes!!
We had lovely eggs with the brightest orange yolks you've ever seen, with paper thin slices of Iberian ham, a basket of bread and orange juice. Ok, this is starting to sound like the Anthony Bourdain blog, so I'll quit talking about food!!

Anyway, here's another picture of the major arch on the way to the cathedral at Burgos - better light than yesterday.


Here's the bar where we got second breakfast - it was popular with peregrinos and locals alike! A good midday break and rest the feet out of boots.


We walked to Hornillos del Camino, a small village of about 50 persons with a long Camino history. For the first time today, we saw weekend Camino walkers (locals just out for a stroll along The Way with family and friends) and what we call Camino light groups - a bus pulls up to a nice hotel, everyone comes out and puts their luggage in the bus, hops on the bus, rides out to the more pastoral edges of Burgos, lets the walkers out of the bus, picks them up about 2 km later, ferries them to a bar for lunch, they walk a few more km in the afternoon, then are taken by bus to the next town with a hotel big enough to hold the bus group.
Well, everyone's Camino is their own, 'nuff said.
Here's a glimpse of two storks nests on the top of the church tower as we left



So now to today's "the Camino will provide" story -
We pulled into Hornillos, I had called ahead and found that the first private albergue was already full, the second didn't take reservations and opened at noon, there was no way we'd make it there by noon. We asked at a casa rural, (a bit more expensive rooming house) they were also fully booked, then the family grandpa motioned to Brian "sleep"?? Brian said "si", and we were led to the laundry/storage room full of towels, stacks of toilet paper, etc, and two cots. Grandpa asked if that would be OK and we said "si". He made up the beds with sheets and everything! We have access to a shower and toilet, the kitchen is ours to use in the AM with coffee and bread provided. We're truly comfy and so blessed to have this spot!

Of course - then there's laundry





So, we'll be off to hunt up some dinner soon, an early peregrino meal that gets us to bed by 9:00!


Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Arrived in Burgos!

We left the albergue of San Juan de Ortega this morning at the stroke of 7:30. The evenings dinner the night before was simple and filling, and we had good conversation with a couple of Britons and a gal from North Carolina.
As this was a large parochial albergue, there were three rooms housing a total of 70 people. Two of the rooms were heated, B and I opted for the furthest, unheated room. There is nothing more unpleasant than trying to get back to sleep in a stifling room after you've been awakened by someone snoring or flushing the WC.
I slept wonderfully well, we were blessed that no one stirred until 5:30, we finally exited our sleeping bags about 6:30. No
breakfast or coffee available, so we humped down the road about 4km to get cafe con leche, a banana, and a chocolate filled croissant- yum bunnies!!
This is the bar cafe-


This is kind of funny- the one place in the albergue where wifi could be grabbed, and everyone's checking up on something!


We stopped after about another two hours walking through a forested area that was posted as a military training ground, we could hear the occasional staccato of a weapons range in use.
Here's B on the road less traveled, and once again with our first glimpse of Burgos in the distance left -





We entered the outskirts of Burgos about 11am, but didn't get to the cathedral and central area until 2:00, it was a long slog on croissant and coffee, so we opted for comida, the big Spanish midday meal. 12 euro each got us salad as first course, I had braised lamb and fries, B had a white fish in a cayenne flavored sauce and fries, and I had queso fresco with honey and walnuts, B had something similar to a small glass of eggnog with a cookie floating on top, all with bread, bottled water and a glass of wine. Needless to say, our attitudes were immensely improved after such a lunch!


This is the salad course

Here are a few photos of Burgos


A large fountain just as you cross from industrial area to the city proper





Yes, it rained this afternoon, but we were rewarded with a beautiful rainbow-


We went back to the cathedral area this evening for tapas and a cerveza for B and a piece of cheesecake and cafe con leche for me. An evening view of the cathedral decorations and the bridge going toward the cathedral -





Good night from the lovely small hostel hotel Evolucion, Burgos!


Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A 30 kilometer day!

Thanks everyone for your wonderful comments and good wishes along the way! It has been another beautiful, sunny day with fresh squeezed orange juice, way too much bread, and lots of interactions with fellow peregrinos from many countries.

Yesterday afternoon I posted from a beautiful restaurant near the wonderful little albergue where we stayed. This restaurant was over the top - linens, glassware, beautifully set tables, and it was in this tiny village miles from anywhere! We got a little info from the young man who was sweeping up, he said the property had been in the family since 1817, and about 16 years ago the current generation had inherited and built this restaurant and shop selling artisanal cheeses, meats, chocolate, preserves and etc., it's called Casa de Leon in Villamayor del Rio.


The albergue was a small, family run place, plain but very comfortable, food was good and plentiful, price was fabulous at 32 euro for us both with dinner and breakfast. Camino walkers will appreciate this - everyone had a bunk set, the bottom one for sleeping and the top one just a shelf with no mattress to spread out all your "stuff".
We set out at 7:45 this morning - headed toward those windmills.





I saw many old things on my way - some of them were beautiful, some were handsome, some ancient.








This last photo is a memorial to the Spanish Civil War, dated 1936. It marks a spot where mass executions occurred, very sad.
We reached San Juan de Ortega at about 4:00, checked in to the large church albergue, showered, skipped laundry because it wouldn't have time to dry, went to 6:00 mass, pilgrim meal at 6:30 meeting friends from the road old and new.






On to Burgos, with a major cathedral, tomorrow!

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Pics for day 11, May 4th

I hope this pano shows properly, it was an incredibly uplifting view. You"ll want to enlarge it to get a good view.


One door of the cathedral of Santo Domingo



And B's pic of the cathedral tower



Today we left La Rioja region (and it's funny, there's not a grapevine to be found anywhere) and are now in Castilla y Leon, surrounded by wheat fields, potatoes, field peas, and a little oilseed rape here and there.



-Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Wow, walked quickly today!

Or maybe we didn't really do 25km.......
Sometimes it is hard to tell because the road signs say one thing, the trail signs sometimes say distance, sometimes not, and my little wrist counter, well, I'm not at all sure of its accuracy.

We are in Villamayor del Rio, just short of Belorado. We came through the very famous Camino town of Santo Domingo de la Calzada about mid morning. There is a major amount of Camino history here, it was a bishop's seat and there was a monastery and convent, I think, along with palaces of some very wealthy families. Santo Domingo was the first place we have seen a Parador, the government sponsored luxury hotels, and there were two of them!
Santo Domingo was a real person, born in 1019, who supported pilgrims and built a hostel and a small church, which eventually grew to the present cathedral.
There is a later medieval legend that Santo Domingo miraculously intervened to spare the life of a boy hanged for stealing, involves chickens - Google it!
I must confess, our Camino is going along much too quickly and B and I feel
pressured to finish in the time we have.
Folks we've met who have walked The Way before have given us lots of encouragement and assured us we are not "behind schedule" to get to Santiago by May 31, but we just don't seem to be making the distances we need to. The blisters on his feet are much better, but they are still worrisome. Folks have said we'll make up time later as the body "hardens" to the walking - it reminds me of when your kids are little and older people say "they grow up so fast", and as a young parent you roll your eyes and wonder if childhood will EVER end!
Part of our difficulty is having seen so many albergues (and even pensiones in Logrono) fill up and turn people away, so we hustle down the road and stop early. I need to leave this fear by the wayside!
Anyway, we are ever hopeful of completing our trek but are carrying guilt that we are not stopping for history or art or beautiful cathedrals.

A few photos follow in next post -

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

About 25km to Ciruena today

We were the first folks to this albergue today, arrived about 2:30, and were offered the double room with private bath. We took it happily, mostly because of the bath, and yippee I don't have to climb up on the top bunk!








The top photo is a mountain we seem to be paralleling, losing snowpack daily. The one of B is pointing to sturdy grapevines that do not have supports above them, the pic of me shows vines with wire supports. We asked a dinner about the difference and our hostess explained that the grapes grown on the supports are varieties that are harvested by machine, the unsupported ones are harvested by hand.

These next two show a typical modern Camino marker with pilgrim, and a medieval Camino marker. Amazing that we are sharing a millennium of Camino experience!






Our muy bueno double room, at the Albergue Victoria in Ciruenia and the guests assembled for dinner - 6 American, one Spanish, one formerly E. German, and two French folks.






Thank you all for your comments on the blog and other communications! Good night!


Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

On the road again

Seems there's a song in that title.........
Anyway, thank you all for your prayers and positive thoughts for healing for B's feet! Today we walked a short (19km) way to the village of Ventosa, and are staying at a lovely albergue with a fabulous garden! Wash is everywhere!
Brian noted that back in the 1900s when he flew F111s today's trip would have lasted less than 90 seconds, today about 5 hours.


Paella and salad at a local bar for dinner, again accompanied by a bottle of Rioja. We could totally get used to this - they just regroup the partially used bottles as needed, no charging by the glass or the bottle!



Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Photos first today -

Just outside of Logrono you go through a big park with a fishing lake, then come to a rise where you can look back on the city. There is a fence behind us that is filled with crosses made of branches of whatever one can find nearby, mostly scrubby bushes.



Lovely little town of Navarrete


Ruins of a pilgrim hostel from the 12th century!!



Taking a break in Navarrete to check condition of feet in new boots - all good so far!


Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Pictures for Sunday, May 1

Old boots, new boots


Pilgrims as art at La Rioja Museum


Santa Maria la Redonda church altar

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Rest day in Logrono

Well, I have the time this afternoon to tell you a bit about the daily routine of the Camino, at least as we've experienced it so far.
We've discovered that it is a very popular time to be walking, which is totally NOT what we were led to expect. We have seen pilgrims turned away from several of the albergues we've stayed in, there were no beds left. This is really hard to watch when you see folks coming in late in the day and they are just not up to going the distance to the next accommodation! A couple of the places we've stayed have found more room by putting mats in the floor in a common area, and some have phoned around to find space in bed and breakfast (casa rural) homes. Anyway, we do feel pressure to get to the place we want to stop early enough that we find space. Admittedly, some of the private albergues will accept phone reservations, but our Spanish is really challenged by a telephone conversation that doesn't have the added advantages of expression, hands, feet, etc. to get the point across. (Sorry, Alison - we're doing our best!)
Anyway - so, once we have checked in to an alburgue our first order of business is organizing our bunks and getting set for showers, change of clothes to tomorrow's walking stuff, then actually showering (very minimal and quick, everybody wants a little bit of warm-ish water) and collecting the sweaty shirts and under layers to wash for tomorrow's change of clothes. Wash is generally done in a sink and we use our shower towels to wring as much water out of the clothing as possible, then hang it on a communal line or on our own little clothesline (thank you, Ann T.!!) If I had it to do over, I have enough room in my pack that I would have a small quick-dry towel to dry myself and another larger one to wring out the clothing, it makes a huge difference to the drying time!

So, on to today's post -

We had decided yesterday that today, Sunday, we would take a day off to rest Brian's toes and hopefully let them heal a bit before continuing. Great idea!
Leaving the municipal alburgue this morning was a bit of an adventure. We were aware that we needed to be out of the place by 8:00am, and were amazed when people started preparing to leave at 4:30am. We kind of stuck to our bunks waiting for the furor to die down a bit after 6:30 or so, and were the last ones in our dorm room of about 20 bunks when a hospitalera (volunteer host) came in and threw our packs off our bunks, exclaiming "camas! camas!" Apparently, there is a rule about putting packs on the beds that we didn't get the memo about! Well, live and learn, but it was not a pleasant way to start a day that we didn't know quite how to proceed with in the first place.
Our next adventure was finding a place to stay for the night (oh, forgot to mention, unless you're extremely ill you cannot stay in any albergue for a second night). B booked a really lovely hotel room for us through Expedia, then found in the confirmation of the reservation that it was for Sunday, May 8 instead of May 1, non changeable and non refundable! Aaaggghhhh!
So, hiked over to the hotel to see what could be done. The hotel was empathetic, but it's Expedia's problem. And Oops! Guess what? It's May Day (Labor holiday) AND Mother's Day weekend in Spain; it's crazy busy and the hotel rate tonight is quite different than next week's! Panicked phone calls to Expedia customer service (who were excellent, by the way) ensued, accommodation arranged for the night, we could drop off our backpacks and keep ourselves occupied until 1:00pm check-in time.
We found breakfast in a local cafe, then waited for the local museum of LaRioja to open at 10:00. The museum was free, and WONDERFUL! We appreciated art and history, some pretty amazing stuff. A gentleman with the museum staff gave us directions to the ONE pharmacy that's open on this holiday Sunday, we got some Epsom salts for a foot soak and arnica cream for muscle massage, I also found a little shop to get packaging tape and a marker to post B's old boots to the ending point in Santiago.
About 12:45 we toddled back over to the hotel and waited for our room to become available. After checking in, showering, and washing clothes we asked Elisa at the front desk about where to find our midday meal. (Google "meal times in Spain" for a clue about finding meals in Spain, quite a difference from ours!!)
She directed us to the very famous tapas neighborhood of Laurel Street, which was PACKED with Spanish families celebrating the holiday weekend with a family day out. I was feeling quite intimidated, but B saved the day by snagging a rare table at one of the little restaurants. Our meal turned out to be one of the most wonderful experiences on this trip so far! We had a choice of about a dozen dishes for the first course, then the choice of another dozen dishes for the second course, with bread, wine (a bottle of Rioja placed on the table with my glass) and a beer for B. We guessed at our dinner choices, recognizing just a few words, and were pleasantly surprised with paella, a phyllo dough filled with mushrooms and a light sauce, poached salmon with potato slices and steak with fries. Incredible! All the while being entertained by watching the restauranteur and his family work one of the year's busiest days! What a joyous contrast to the frustrating morning!
We are always thinking of friends at home and around the globe, and wishing everyone well.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone