Ok so I missed a day. September 28

Today, September 28 dawned unspectacularly while I had been on the road for over an hour. We left our beautiful convent albergue (where no alcohol is allowed so we took it to the the park)

and headed off on a 26k hike across the meseta. The meseta is basically rolling farmlands much like you would see in the American Midwest and, right now, being fall, there is nothing growing. Farmers are preparing the soil for Re-planting. You can see by the color of the earth how rich the soil is. Obviously, generations of Spaniards have taken good care of it. 

As we were leaving Carrion de Los condos there appeared another signpost along the Camino:

Here was a view of my path today.

One of the things that struck me as I walk along this path everyday is how little respect the pilgrims have for where they are. I understand having to pee while walking along but what the hell... who do they expect to pick up their soiled toilet paper? We are so used to packing it in and out — apparently some people haven’t gotten the message yet grrrrr😝😖

We walked 26 km today, 17 of which were unbroken except by a food stand 1/2 way in.  We are in an albergue tonight 4 of us in a room. One guy and 3 girls. Canada, USA and Israel. Feels like family. Tomorrow is Jewish New Year and the new moon. We will celebrate with one of our roomies Adie!  

Only planning 18 km tomorrow and we will pass the 1/2 way point!

Day 19, Itero to Poblacion de Campos

Any early start (7:03) and while I didn’t see the sunrise, I enjoyed this anticipation.

Our hike today was 17 km along pretty flat terrain. We stopped for cafe con leche at this really beautiful Albergue in Bodilla del Camino

There were several pieces of metal artwork there. Here is one of a pilgrim trying to deal with the never-ending plague of blisters

After a 30 minute rest we were all back on our feet and off again!

We arrived at our planned albergue in Poblacion de Campos after searching all over town. I think we added at least 2 km to our hike. It was worth it though because this is undeniably the best albergue so far. Each bed has its own curtained compartment with a light and a plug and a locker that can be locked. The showers and toilets are segregated by sex and everything appears brand new!! What a welcome oasis! We will have the pilgrim dinner tonight with our fellow pilgrims and together the bed and dinner costs 20€.

I took my shower, washed my clothes and now I will take a nap before dinner. Did I mention that I came down with a hideous cold and accompanying cough. Hope it is better tomorrow🙏

Day 18 of walking - Hontanas to Itero de Verga 21km

Our sunrise on Wednesday. Note the moon in the picture.

We left the albergue in Hontanas at 7 am in the dark. I really love seeing the night turn into day! The day was overcast and cool thankfully because there was no shade along the way. The high point of the day was literally, the high point 1050 meters which was the hill we had to traverse. I don’t have any idea why the original pilgrims just couldn’t have gone around this hill because shortly after summiting  it, we began a steep descent. Another observation along the way is the fact that switchbacks are an unknown here. There is only one way up and that is straight up.

               
On the way up!

  About to go down

The prize on the other side that made it worth it was this beautiful tree lined road which lead to a sweet little village called Castrojeriz. We were just passing through but got some photos. 

Made it to Itero de la Verga and were surprised to find that we were house guests and shared the house with 6 other people. We had semi-private rooms with doors we could lock. All 8 of us shared 2 bathrooms which was quite comfortable. The owners, Jose Maria and his wife cooked us dinner which was quite good. The room and dinner cost 22€. Other travelers in our house were 4 men from France. They spoke only French and therefore ignored myself and Marty. I’m pretty sure they knew English, just refused to try to speak it😬.  It’s all good. They were on a once a year vacation to hike together for 10 days. Their suitcases arrived by car and they took off this morning with tiny backpacks and enough water and, I suppose, money to make it to their next stop. 

Before the day ended we were made aware of the fact that we have crossed into Palencia the 4th of the 6 provinces in Spain we will be visiting.

Day 17 of walking Sept 24 Rabe to Hontanas

Walking was better today after I determined that it was the orthodics in my shoes that were to blame for my blisters. Since I don’t have an extra pair of soles I had the bright idea of putting the right insole into the left shoe and vice versa. Bingo! It worked. 21 km and no pressure on my blisters. When I get to Leon I will find a store that sells soles and fix this situation but for now this is going to work.

This morning we got on the road before 7 am. We passed these guys on the way out of town

and it was more that an hour before we were treated to this

You always have to keep looking over your shoulder to catch it because you are traveling forever west.

The meseta is a lonely place. Nothing really to see except rocks, cut wheat fields, rocks and piles of rocks. Rarely is there a tree so lucky for us it was a cloudy day.

 If you zoom in on this picture I hope you can see piles of rocks which have been gathered over centuries and stacked by farmers who are trying to get the best out of their land. Just amazing.

After 6 hours of hiking on relatively level land we arrived at our albergue in Hontanas.

Getting closer! For us that 296 miles from Santiago.

Day 16 Steady as she goes! Sept 23

I began my walk across the meseta on Monday after a day of rest in Burgos. This is really a long stretch of nothing with a few small villages interspersed. Glad to be out of the big city, there was time to appreciate the sunrise

And the flowers (who knows what these are?) 

We were bound for Rabe de las Calzadados but along the way we encountered a tiny town named Tarjados where it appears that if you own a home you need to identify it by displaying your coat of arms. 

We stopped after about 21km at a village called Rabe de las Caldazas where we settled in for the night in a small 24 person albergue where we ended up rooming with 2 darling, and giggling German girls. Well loo and behold, who showed up just after dinner but 2 handsome young German boys. Didn’t see hide nor hair of them until we left them sleeping at 6:30 the next morning. Oh what an awesome time in that little town they must have had!!  

The albergue provided a decent pilgrim dinner. There is one pilgrim here named Adi who is from Israel. She is not just vegetarian but all out vegan. I don’t know how she feeds herself here. 

After dinner we were encouraged to attend the Pilgrim’s blessing done by a local order of nuns. They were so sweet and although all of the prayers were in Spanish, I got the gist of the thing. Afterwards they presented us with a little medal to remember Mary and pray to her for our safety along the journey.

I forgot to mention, as I was walking along today I heard a couple reciting what sounded very familiar to me. He would recite something and she would respond with other words. As they drew nearer I looked over and noted that they were in their early to mid thirties and sure enough, there it was dangling from his hand, a rosary. Yes, they were praying the rosary together.

It was a tough but good day. 

Rest day in Burgos. Sunday 9/22

Woke up this morning at 5:30 am - just because I have the time to sleep in doesn’t mean I will. Out the door for an overpriced 6€ breakfast at my hotel but really all I needed was coffee. I made it to the cathedral for 9 am mass. I find it really difficult to get into the program when all of it is in a different language. I have said the Lord’s Prayer for 65 years but do you think I can remember the words when everyone else is saying it in Spanish?

After church I took a taxi to the Centro de Salud where I was hoping to talk a doctor into an injection of cortisone in my knee. The first obstacle I encountered was the inhospitable clerk at the reception desk. She could see I was not a citizen so she babbled something in Spanish and pointed to a sign in Spanish all of which made no sense to me. Seeing that she was getting nowhere with me (although I knew it had something to do with payment), she enlisted the help of an English speaking nurse named David. I did in fact finally get to see a doctor, Melissa, but not before I became the brunt of a joke between the clerk and another patient. Not sure what they said about me but I know it wasn’t nice 😢. In any event Dr. Melissa checked me out and said I didn’t need any shot and even if I did they don’t give them in the knee only in the butt??? So I left feeling confused and resigned to just dealing with the pain.

Visited the Cathedral in Burgos this afternoon. It is an amazing piece of art and a ridiculous expenditure of money IMHO. To think that the people who built this place were just trying to buy their way into heaven is amazing. On the other hand look at the awesome art they left us.

The place reminded me a bit of Notre Dame from the outside with all of the saints and important holy people lined up over the doorways and huge spires but inside it was like a city of smaller churches each with its own overly resplendent altar, dome, sculpture and paintings. I gotta say, it was dumbfounding.

By the way, bulls are big around here. I saw a few of them depicted in the artwork in the church and there was even a bronze one located at the entrance to the eating/drinking area of the old town:

One more sleep tonight then onto the meseta. 190 miles under my belt. 310 left!

Day 15, arrived in Burgos

Woke this morning to the sound of rain outside my window. It reminded me how lucky I am to have this room for 2 nights! Yesterday was a long trek — 22kms and some of it was nasty because of mud and stones. I have NEVER seen so many rocks in one place as along this Camino. At one point, I looked over into a plowed field. It actually looked like rocks were being grown there!

This cross was erected by God knows who but probably in celebration of reaching the top of a rock strewn trail. Look close at the top and you can see where someone has managed to toss their tennis shoes.

We entered the Burgos environs after 15 km  but were still 7 away from city center and our hotels. If I thought the rocks were bad, hiking alongside the highway was un-inspirational to say the least. A sign of hope:

 Finally found my hotel and checked into my tiny room (what do you want for 40 € a night?). I went in search of some blister stuff. After fulfilling my needs, the Pharmacist asked if I needed anything else so I asked if she had a soap dish. She sent me on my way, giving me directions to the “Chinese store.” 😮 Found the store. Amazing: dollar store to the 1000th degree. No soap dish. 

Dinner of tapas and wine as night fell in old Burgos. After dinner we were treated to a street show

This apparently is a bachelor party. The fellow dressed in red is the groom who is being pushed around and mocked by his amigos. Note towards the end the exposed butt cheeks.

Off to bed and perhaps a visit to the cathedral tomorrow.

Villafranca to Atapuerca - Day 14

This day the walk started gloomy for me. Yes this is untouched, just the way it was.

Obviously the day brightened up a bit. There were even spots of sun.

The project this morning was an uphill climb, through the fog and mostly by LED headlamp, my glasses were constantly fogged. 

It wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated however. And after 10 kms the road evened up.  We had another 10 to go before we reached our destination Atapuerca (which has recently been designated a World Heritage Site because they found the remains of the oldest Homo sapiens on the European continent. Unfortunately you have to arrange a tour and, well, I just don’t have time).

We arrived at the albergue of choice at 12:50 and managed to secure a bed.  After a shower we crossed the street to celebrate with a beer and lunch.  

More about albergues: understandably they try to make the best use of space but tonight I sat in the smallest toilet enclosure I have ever been in. 2X3 and you had to be a contortionist to get to the toilet paper.  I get it. These places are a cheap bed (9€ tonight) and they are solely for those of us who are pilgrims on the way to Santiago. What an awesome opportunity they provide for everyone!

Here’s some awesome pilgrims!

Lucky 13! Belarado to Villafranca!

Last night I had dinner with 2 Irish ladies. They are traveling together and will finish by doing a bit of a bike ride. Anne was the talker while Bernie was the quiet one. Charming women.

Here is a picture of old town Belarado.

10 or so km today, trying to rest up my body before hitting the hill tomorrow. Alta de la Pedraja which is the next challenge between me and Santiago. Then on to San Juan de Prtega.

I walked with Marty today who is from Canada. She walks at my speed and is pleasant. Many youngsters were racing on ahead of us, planning to combine our two day hike into their one quick one. It was nice to take this day at an easy pace, stopping for cafe con leche and chocolate croissant and lingering over it, visiting with fellow pilgrims.

I didn’t leave the Albergue until 8am so no sunrise photo but here are a few I took along the way.

Gotta say something about life in an Albergue. You are bunked out with anywhere from 8 to 150 a room. You have, in this case 3 showers and 3 toilets to cover about 50 women and 1 sink to wash your clothes. In this case there are the same amount of facilities for the same amount of men. Here the facilities are separated by sex, in the last one they weren’t. There is some pretty weird stuff you see here. This morning a fellow couldn’t find space in one of the 2 toilets so he just entered the shower and relieved himself there 😩😩.   Albergues also have a communal room which serves as a lounge/kitchen.  Well equipped kitchens have a microwave, refrigerator, vending machine that serves beer as well as other things and a coffee machine that serves all manner of coffee including con leche, cappuccino, espresso and cafe americano. Some kitchens are better equipped than others. More about albergues later.

Day 12 of walking Santo Domingo to Belarado

September 18th. I miss home. Up at 5 and outta the albergue at 7. Almost got lost a couple of times in the dark. Here is the sunrise and Alpenglow:

The countryside is just turning into rolling farmland hills. At one point I passed a field of sunflowers as far as the eye could see.

Here’s a picture of yours truly standing at the border between the La Rioga and Burgos provinces. Note the arrow alongside of me -- most common directional sign.

And finally before arriving at this really nice albergue, here is another example of how the way is marked:

Tomorrow I press on towards Burgos. It will take me 2 days. I’m going to see if I can book a hotel for 2 nights so I can rest up and explore the town. Let you know how that works.

Now off to the pharmacy for some Aleve.

Day 11 walking Nájera to Santo Domingo

Made it to town by 1:30pm after beginning my walk at 7 am.

Along the way we encountered that horrible sticky clay that when you walk in it gloms onto your shoes and besides threatening to suck you down it makes you feel really heavy.

Here’s a couple of photos of the countryside and this long, interminable hill we had to climb. Fortunately at the top there were some volunteers passing out drinks, fruits and trinkets. All for sale of course. There was also a water fountain for filling your bottles. I proceeded to douse my head in the water. Talk about bringing down your body temperature😮

As you can see the vineyards have given way to farmland. Sunflowers and wheat. On and on and on.

After getting booked into the albergue I did a walkabout. Didn’t have time to get inside the cathedral

Checked out the vegetable store and then found some friends to enjoy dinner with:

Slow day 15km Navarette to Najera

I better hurry and post something the places are flying by! As I left town dawn broke and I passed an ancient cemetery. I love the detail work on the exterior of the masonry wall as well as the entrance gate. Can you imagine how long it took?

Ran into this guy along the way. Reminded me of Russ and Ceilidh. Still a few shepherds and their dogs in this area.



We have entered the wine grape growing area called La Rioja. We walk along the borders of carefully tended vineyards. I grabbed a couple grapes and proclaim them to be the sweetest ever!

A lot of times you are surprised to find something after a hard climb or just around the corner like this fellow who was playing for the Pilgrims. For me he sang Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold.”  After taking this picture I noticed he looks alot like Russ’ brother who passed away last year. He liked to play the guitar too. Same smile, huh? Could be.....

Arrived in Nájera by 11:30 and although I was looking for a particular Albergue, a local woman insisted that I go to the “donotivo.” I didn’t see any point in arguing so I made my way over to find a large (145 bed) dormitory style, all in one room place which was manned by volunteers Ruth and Mike from Colorado. They were very gracious and lucky for me I was able to secure a bottom bunk real close to the bathrooms.

Got my stuff set up and took a walk around town trying to find a grocery store and/or pharmacy. It seems like Friday through Monday was a long holiday weekend here. In honor of some saint — never did figure out whom. I swear NOTHING but the restaurants and the bars were open for 4 days!! One of the girls was trying to find tampons. Fortunately for her she hadn’t quite hit the end of her stash.

Here’s another marking that indicates the way:

Tomorrow going to attempt another 20k day. Onto Santo Domingo!