Camino de Santiago, Part 4. Burgos to Sahagun and the half-way point.

The Meseta

Leaving Burgos behind us, we now entered one of the more remote stretches of the Camino, through the Meseta, a broad open expanse, almost like badlands, with less extravagant agriculture and few large cities.

Shortly after passing the Burgos city limits, we met a "trail angel", Maria who kindly directed us through an approaching stretch which had been altered due to road construction. She also gave us a useful hint in navigating on the Camino; "when entering a town, should you lose your way, alway head for the church". This turned out to be a pretty useful rule of thumb! Maria was not taking donations, she was just out on the Camino helping the pilgrims.

Maria's advice proved correct and we saved ourselves at least a couple of kilometers. We made our way to Hornillos, calling it a day there after only 18 kilometers, our feet were sore and we needed a short day. We saw Shelia and Jim and played cards and had a few beers with them. Shelia was a crackup, always complaining but at the end of the day, she always seemed to make it through!

The next stage was another relatively easy one, just 18 kilometers to Castrojeriz. Uneventful but for the lovely ruins of San Anton where we stopped for lunch.

The ruins of San Anton

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Castrojeriz is an impressive looking place with an old castle, (dating from the 9th century), looming on a hilltop overlooking the town.

Castrojeriz and its hilltop castillo.

The next stage was a tougher one, 25 kilometers, with a sharp climb at the start leaving Castrojeriz. We were treated to a beautiful sunrise as we reached the summit which sort of made up for the long walk we had to do to get to breakfast at Itero de Vega (11 kilo's!).

Sunrise: looking back at Castrojeriz

The trail was good and easy to walk after the initial climb and we made pretty good time. The last 5 kilometers or so were along an old canal system and were perfectly flat, leading ultimately to the canal locks in Fromista, where we called it a day.

The canal locks at Fromista.

The next day was a flat and uneventful walk to Carrion de los Condes, where we stayed at a very nice albergue in a convent which featured a "couples" room! Due to a misunderstanding, a group of English speaking pilgrims who were not "couples" were also assigned to this room. They turned out to be a nice group of Americans, an Australian and an Irishman we have met before so it was good to meet them again. Actually, as it turned out, we would continue to cross paths with these guys for the rest of the Camino!

Next day was a long straight walk, starting on another old Roman road, Via Aquitana. We treated ourselves to a nice breakfast of ham and eggs in Carrion. Good thing too because we found no services for the next 17 kilometers! Lunched in Caldadilla de la Cueza, then on to the albergue in Ledigos. Here we played cards and drank some nice wine with Debbie and with Linda and Ed, a couple from New Mexico who frequently visit Spain. Debbie and David had split up for the stages before Leon, where they planned to meet up and spend a few days.

On the Via Aquitana.

Next day we headed for Sahagun, planning to spend the night there. But we arrived there before noon, so after having lunch in town, decided to push on to Bercianos. After Sahagun, we departed from our (English)guidebook's "recommended route in favor of a more level route on the "senda", a modern surface trail. Interestingly, other countries' guides do recommend this route, so we were with French, German and Korean pilgrims on this stretch. Somewhere past Sahagun we actually crossed the halfway mark!

The old city gate, Sahagun.

We stopped at a private albergue in Bercianos and opted for a private room instead of the regular dorm. It was a very nice room with very nice proprietors. We didn't encounter any other English-speaking people in this town. It wasn't a problem though, we found a place for dinner then retired to our cozy room. A good breakfast was included the next morning.

The room at Bercianos.

Camino de Santiago, Part 3. Naverrette to Burgos

The Cathedral at Burgos.

Our departure from Naverrette was delayed because Shelly's boots were missing! After a few frantic minutes of searching, a very sheepish looking Irishman came down the stairs and placed the shoes in the rack, he had picked them up by mistake. We were relieved to have Shelly's shoes back! We had to walk six kilometers to get breakfast at Ventosa, then continued on to Najera, a nice little town set against some cliffs. We lunched there then walked into the "Zona Natural" on the west side of town.

Leaving Najera via the Zona Natural.

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We continued to Azofra, a small "Camino town", whose main reason for existence is to support the pilgrims. A very nice albergue there, with 2-bed cubicles. Here, I went to the Saturday evening Mass at the local church. In a beautiful old chapel, the sparsely attended service was in Spanish of course, but easy to follow, it's format almost the same as our masses at home.

The next stage to Granon was a rather dreary one, cloudy and threatening rain but no real downpours. Lunched in the nice little city of Santo Domingo de la Calzada then up to Granon.

The albergue in Granon was a memorable one. It is a parish albergue, located in the upper floors of the annex to the local church, St. John the Baptist. We were led to a large room and told to find a spot on the floor! We were provided mats to sleep on. We were then invited to come to the communal dining room at a certain time to help prepare dinner.

The sleeping room at Granon.

So we all helped prepare the salad and spaghetti dinner and cleaned up afterwards, under the supervision of our energetic hosts. Later that evening, we were brought to a balcony in the church and had a sort of prayer/meditation meeting. It was a fun experience, and I really recommend staying at this albergue to anyone doing the Camino. 

Next day we were off in the dark, stopping for coffee and crescents at Redecilla, where we ran into David and Debbie from Maryland. We walked to Belorado then on to our planned destination at Tosantos. Although the albergue was open, the local cafe was closed for the week so we decided to push on the Villambistia.  Here we were able to get laundry done, have a few drinks and watch other pilgrims pass by. Saw David and Debbie pass by. Saw Shelia and Jim (from England), who we had met earlier and had taught a couple of card games to, so we played cards with them after dinner.

The next stage led us to the hill country past Villafranca, ascending into the clouds. The dirt path eventually became quite broad, really wide. We decided that it must be a logging road, although the trees in the region look a little scrawny to me. We eventually began to descend again, entering more open country which featured some lovely oak trees, not unlike the foothills of the Sierras back home.

On the way to San Juan de Ortega

San Juan had a really large albergue with a restaurant, but no beer! By this point, beer had become something of a necessity to ease the discomfort of our feet! It was still early so we continued through Ages to Atapuerca. This town is a UNESCO World Heritage site because the earliest human remains ever discovered in Europe were found here. We met up again with David and Debbie, Shelia and Jim, and we all had a nice dinner at a local bar. The proprietor was a bit of a character who has a collection of post cards from pilgrims from around the world. I'll be sending him one, too!

The next day it was on to Burgos! We followed a route that eventually took us to a riverside parkway that led into the heart of town. After stumbling around downtown for a while we came to the massive cathedral. Then we pushed on through to the far side of town and found a very nice little hotel near the university where we called it a day.

Yeah, we felt that way at the end of the day, too.

We had planned to go back into town and explore, but we were just too tired! We found a place that advertised hamburgers and that sounded good right then. Alas, what they served was not at all like the pictures on their menus! American hamburgers were difficult for the Spanish to replicate for some reason!

I should take a moment to describe our daily routine: We usually walked to about 2 or 2:30, then looked an albergue. After checking in, there was wash to do if you wanted a steady supply of clothes, often this was done in a sink and the clothes hung out. Then we would take our showers. That done, we would usually go and look for a cafe for a quick drink, maybe we would see some other pilgrims we knew and would chat or even play cards with them. We never cooked dinner, we would go find a "Pilgrim's Menu" or "Menu del Dia", which were usually quite reasonable. Back to the albergue to rest and write in our journals. Lights out was usually around 10 PM. Lights came on by 7:00 AM, sometimes the albergue had a light breakfast of coffee and toast, often we would get a breakfast at a cafe along our way. And so the routine started all over again.

Camino de Santiago, Part 2. Pamplona to Naverette.

Windmills in the mist.

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We continued through Pamplona (from our albergue in Villava) and pushed on through the southwestern suburbs and into the countryside. As we ascended some hills, the cloudy skies finally decided to start raining on us. Not a heavy downpour, but a steady rain which started to make the paths a little mucky. Some low-lying spots became quite muddy, and we tried to move around the worst of them. Eventually we came to a cloud-shrouded summit; we could just see the wind-power generators, we could actually hear them before we saw them, they're really pretty noisy! I've never been that close to one before.

Heading down the other side of the summit we hit some really muddy trails, our feet probably picked up pounds of mud as we plodded on! The rain finally quit and we reached Obanos where we stopped for the night. It was another long day, 8 hours, 24 kilometers. My left foot, which had been giving me problems even before the trip, was bothering me. Plantar Fasciitis, look it up, it's not pleasant, but it wan't bad enough to make me want to stop, either. Shelly was having issues too. There was only one place open for the Pilgrims' dinner so all the peregrinos came there. We shared the table with three Germans and four American girls. It was a nice time.

Puente la Reina

Left Obanos the next morning after the innkeeper ran our clothes through the drier, (for 2.00 Euros). Had breakfast at a hotel's cafe in Puente la Reina. Nice old bridge, (puente) here.We had planned to do a short day, but stretched it to another 24+ K day and made it to Estella. We were sore, but as always, glad to make it to where we did. Shelly was starting to get a shin splint, so we found a pharmacy and bought some tape. The next day was relatively short, 21 K. to Los Arcos. An interesting stop along the way was the Fuente de Vino, which dispenses free wine to the peregrinos passing by. It's a limited amount, by the way. I was able to get only a taste as it was almost empty, but it wasn't bad!

The first albergue we checked out in Los Arcos was full, so we panicked and took a pension for the night. It was nice having a room, but kind of pricy. The next morning we noticed a couple of other albergues further into town that were not full, so we could have gotten a bed after all. A lesson learned.

Along the was to Estella, notice the ruined castle on the upper right.

After Los Arcos, the next stop should have been Logrono, but we found a nice place called Viana a little before Logrono and decided to stop there. Here we enjoyed the first Sangrias of the trip!

Departing Vianna, we had to then push through Logrono, a large city. Indeed, by the time we were finally out of the city it was time for lunch!

Entering Logrono

We ended the day in Naverette, finding a nice albergue which was next to a cafe which had really excellent food. We had tapas (appetizers) with some local wine and we could tell this place had good quality food so we planned dinner there too and weren't disappointed! I has peppers stuffed with cheese and cooked in squid ink that was delicious!

We met several fellow pilgrims we had met before and it was always nice to chat with them. One American couple was quitting and another lady was having such trouble with her feet that she bought new boots on Logrono! The four American girls we had met in Obanos were also ending their Camino, they didn't have the time and only planned to do part of it anyway. One of them was having serious foot problems anyway. Several people had complained of loosing toenails! The difficulty of extended walking was taking its toll. We too had our problems. Mine was mainly that sore left foot and Shelly was having lots of blisters. It seemed that 20 K a day was our comfort limit, but we routinely pushed beyond that distance.

Our friend, Santiago.