It was very good to be walking again! It was an easy level 10K, about 6 miles. When we started out, in this Mediterranean climate (which Chris has pointed out is more northerly than Boston) the temperature on the thermo meter read 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Did I tell you about Victor? We met him in Sto. Domingo the evening we had decided to take the bus to Burgos. We were at the bus kiosk trying to find information about a bus the next morning. He was looking for the same info. He lives in Holland but speaks fluent Spanish. He was very helpful. We chatted for while and we talked about how cold we were. When we saw him the next morning for the bus he said he’d told his wife about us and she said, “Tell them if the want to be warm they should get on a plane to the Canary Islands and lie in the sun!”
We saw this as we left Fromista.
The Meseta is a region of high plains the extends from Burgos to Leon. It is very flat with open fields and little shade. It is also know for being very warm, and in the 9th in late June – August. That was the reason we decided to walk in the Spring and also for the wild flowers.
We found a small park with benches out side of one town and joined some other pilgrims for lunch of our salami, cheese & bread from the open market yesterday. Some other scenes along the way:
This town had 2 places to stay listed on the guide, Castille Dona Petra, casa rural, like B & B or an albergue where you could get a bunk for €6, a teepee for €5 or a hammock for €3.
I don’t think the donkey in the background is included with the hammock! We went with Dona Petra, a double Room With Our own bath, no Top bunk!
Month: May 2014
Fromista cont’d
Several other treats in Fromista, besides the clean laundry.
First the sun was shining! It was windy, but the sun felt really good. This town was not built on a hill and the lay out now seems more modern with wider street in the center of town, but they are probably more narrow in another part of town. My guide book mentioned that Friday was market day and luckily we stumbled on it near the church plaza.
We found Tony and Martin who sell cheese and meat like sausage and ham. The were happy to cut smaller size pieces for us to take for lunch tomorrow. They travel from town to town on different market days. Tony has walked the Camino twice, speaks English really well and would love to go go California if he can sell enough cheese!!
D as D bought an apple and some cherries and we headed back to the albergue. It ha some lovely gardens and sitting areas but the bunk bed room is colder than outside and no amount of begging would get us both bottom bunks.
Tomorrow we are back on the trail again for a flat six miles.
Unexpected Pleasures – Fromista , May 30
After we decided to take the bus to Castrojeriz we realized we should have gone on to Fromista instead as there was a steep climb and even steeper descent between them with all kinds if warnings. The only bus from Castrojeriz to Fromista was at 6 pm which meant hanging around all day waiting for the bus. We had a lot of laundry to do & they had a place to do it at Fromista. SO We very guiltily took a taxi to Fromista. However, that brought us a lot of unexpected treats. The first was Jesus our driver who was a delight. He spoke no English but it’s amazing how we are able to understand more Spanish & communicate. He told us that the cold weather we were having was very unusual. He pointed out special towns & historical sites, stopped for me to take pictures of the famous Canal built in 1779 for irrigation.
As we were leaving a town he saw a pilgrim heading the wrong way so waved him down & redirected him much to appreciation of the lost pilgrim. (He was Korean, one of many young Koreans doing the Camino. The taxi driver noted this also.)
Since the albuergue didn’t open til 1 pm we had time to wander around town & see two of the churches. The first was San Pedro, a ‘newer’one from the 15th century.
The real treat was Saint Martin which Jesus told us to be sure to see. It was commissioned by the widow of Sancho III & built beginning in 1066!!! It is reputedly one of the finest examples of pure Romanesque architecture in Spain was subsequently restored but the main part was there.
The Christ figure above is from the 13th century. The statue of St. James (Santiago) is from the 14th century. Note his traditional scallop shell, staff, cape. (No high tech clothes like the current pilgrims! )
I don’t know about this statue of the Virgin & child, but I liked it.
I’m going to post this before I loose it and will add some things later.
Castrojeriz – May 30th
A fascinating bus ride from Burgos to Castrojeriz. Big comfortable inter city bus that left the city the on to the main highway, But Not Long After That we went off onto small single lane roads, one not much more than a dirt road.
This service connects isolated rural villages that are hundreds of years old and not designed to for a big modern bus, maybe an oX cart! I wasn’t fast enough with my camera to get a picture of the bus going through a town with maybe 2 inches on each side, but imagine a bus going through this street.
Bye Bye Burgos
Some pictures from our hotel window & scenes around Burgos. First, all the farmacia have green neon cross signs with the time, temp & messages about controlling your cholesterol etc. When we went out at noon I caught this across from the hotel.
13.5 C = ~56 F. Our guide book keeps telling us we’ve now entered a Mediterranean climate. Really?? We met some people at the Evolution Muse (checking out the Atapuerca exhibit). The were from Penn. & we talked about their cold winter. They said it was warmer there now than here. The dad had lived in Ocean Beach & PB.
View of the cathedral from the museum. Dad with handkerchief.
Our hotel & pictures from our room.
Burgos – May 29
There was a lovely sunrise this morning, but alas it didn’t last long and now it’s raining again with temps in the low 50s. We are both anxious to get back on the road again & had planned to walk 6 miles today. Unfortunately numerous calls to the only albergue in town went unanswered. We decided it was to chancy to arrive there, possibly drenched with no place to sleep. So the plan is to bus to the tow after that then start walking again. That will get us up to only one day behind schedule. Yesterday afternoon we went to see the cathedral. It is overwhelming! It’s huge! There actually about 20 some separate chapels all around it, all incredible! Unfortunately the battery on my camera ran out so I only got a few pictures. But before we went in I had to take a picture just for Seeger of the tourist trolley parked in the plaza. I was wishing you were here Seeger so we could take a ride together!
The cathedral is a UNESCO world heritage site. I really want to read more about it. It is well organized. With our pilgrim credential we got in for 1/2 price. €3.5 You get a device like a telephone that tells you to push a number for a description of each chapel, built by some wealthy person. It was interesting how some of them were tombs for themselves, or full of busts of their family members while others were totally dedicated to a saint e.g. Saint Anne.
These of course don’t do it justice. I wish I knew how to put in a link. Our bus doesn’t leave til 5:30, but we have to check out in a few minutes & I’ll loose the hotel wifi. My Orange sim card is used up for this month until 6/3. I kept putting more € but it turns out that was for phone & text which I haven’t been using. That’s what happens when you aren’t a techie & can’t read all the messages in Spanish they send me! Til later.
Burgos & Sun (for a day)
While eating a pizza in Santo Domingo (we didn’t get the hot dog) we decided to take the bus to Burgos. I used helpful Trip Advisor to find a great hotel close to the bus station and the cathedral.
We had seen on the news there was a town that had gotten 6 inches of hail and from the bus we saw mountains not far away with snow on them. But when we got to Burgo…There was sun!
A long nap after checking in, then lunch. Their restaurant is only for breakfast otherwise you get room service. We got lovely salads. I’m embarrassed to show the picture as it shows the lovely French windows looking out on the park & river! I suggested that we could stay here for the next month & I’d make up stories for the blog.
In the afternoon we took a stroll along the park.
We learned there was a Carmelite convent not far away. Since Brian’s sister Cathy, Sister Mercedes, is a Carmelite nun in Concord, NH, we decided to visit and bring a nice box of chocolates. We were greeted at the turn (greeting window For orders that are not open to the public) by Sister Rosa. We stumbled along trying to explain about Sr. Mercedes, but it turns out Sr. Rosa was Korean! Unfortunately, I totally forgot to take the picture of her I intended, just go the outside. I know Sr. Mercedes & the NH Carmels are reading this, so we are thinking about along the way. Brian left your address so you might hear from them.
The good news is that Brian seems to be feeling much better. Amazing what having warm digs for a couple days can do to your health & spirit! The not so great news is that it was pouring this morning. Even this little dog had his own rain coat!
The sun seems to be trying to come out this afternoon, so hopefully tomorrow we can change from touristas back to peregrinos. We are off to visit the cathedral now.
Ups and Downs on the Camino
And we don’t mean the hills! When we decided to do this tripI put together an elaborate spreadsheet planning on doing about 8 miles a day. I sent it to John Harrison who said it was very nice but wondered how long it would last. Well Jon it last 2 days, if you don’t count the ride from the bomberos! However, we were pleased to be able to do the 7.7 miles to Navarette on Sunday. But either the miles or the weather or both took there toll. Brian ‘ s cold came back with a vengeance and he was feeling pretty bad. We went out in the rain & cold to the one open restaurant and had a very welcome bowl o f hot soup and some pinxos. We found the church & attended the mass that was going on. Brian was able to receive communion. We soon realized it was a funeral mass. I was no able to take pictures, sadly, as it was a spectacular church, whole front & altar was gold all the way to the ceiling. We headed back to the albergue, to our double room w shared bath. Brian still felt really crummy, the that night I got a bad case of diarrhea. The next morning we were in no shape to walk, wanted to get out of the cold alberque. The area has been going thru a cold spell for about a week. Lows in the 40s & highs in 50s. The houses are not heated so you can really never get warm and that was really getting us down, then feeling sick. The mama of the house Senora Victoria invited us into her kitchen for hot tea, ‘bisquits’ with home made jam. Her husband Senor Martin offered to give us a ride to Santo Domingo for a lot less than the taxi. We took him up on that gratefuly. At the hostal Rey Pedro I we both immediately crawled under a warm blanket & slept. I woke up on an hour but Brian slept for 2 more hours. Found a supermarcardo to buy a couple things then Brian slept some more. He now felt like he was running a temp so we went to the farmacia across the street to buy a thermometer & more cold meds. We were beginning to worry about the possibility of Brian getting pneumonia which he has always had a propensity for. If that happened we wanted to be in a city that had a hospital. We also desperately wanted to get warm. So decided we’d head for Burgos the next day by bus.
So obviously we are way behind schedule. We plan to be in Sarria on June 19 to meet Brian ‘ s Irish cousins. So we are going to need to some busing in order to catch up.
We actually found sun in Burgos!!! Things sre already looking up. More tomorrow.
Logrono to Navarette – May 25
It was really hard to leave the best shower on the Camino at the hotel Marquis de Vallejo in addition to their fantastic breakfast buffet. Especially since we were heading out in the rain! However we were up early so skipp
ed the breakfast for a coffee con Leche a little further on. As we went Through the now empty plaza early Sunday morning there were guys out in the rain using big power hoses to wash down the mess left by the revelers from the night before. Brian had stayed awake to watch the big game, but fell asleep about 10 minutes from the end with Real Madrid leading 1-0. We learned at checkout the Athletica Madrid had come back to tie, but on OT Real h ad scored 3 more points, so he missed the most exciting part of the game.
The first part of the walk was through city streets, Brian still sniffling & appreciating hi favorite handkerchief.
For about the next 2.5 miles we had lovely walking through several parks that were connect. The first was a lovely grass park with play areas benches, pond with swans. For early on a Sunday morning there were a number of walkers, runners & bikers. We went underpass in a tunnel with some interesting art, some of it cleverly changing the underlying grafitti into pictures.
We then entered a wetlands park with an easy level trail through it waymarked with stylized pilgrim shells. That lead to a huge park with a lake for fishing, play grounds, picnic tables, BBQ areas.But best of all a restaurant & a WC! We had the usual jam on & quest Bocdillo (sandwich on a small roll) & a Colacau hot chocolate to take the chill off. This is obviously a popular place to bring the family. A couple of kids were trying to fly kites. And we m eft a funny peregrino from Haina hiking with two Korean girls.
After the park we walked for a couple of miles through hillsides of grapes. La Rioja is a major grape growing area with many bodegas (wineries). We e climb a long hill and came up to a path parallel in the highway. Passing pilgrims weave crosses into the fence.
Along came a man on a horse. The sun finally came out & we could see Navarette ahead.
This was the longest day we’ve had since the Pyrenees – 7.8 miles. They weren’t hard miles, but that last mile was really hard on the feet, and the up hill climb to the albergue was tough. As we were getting close to town we passed the ruins of an old pilgrim hostel, built around
As we got closer we saw a peregrino & his perro crawling into hi sleeping bag for a nap. Not sure where he was going for the night as rain was again approaching. 
That’s all for now.
A Happenin’ Plaza
Last Sat. as we were leaving Estella, I think, we ran into a band. This morning we also heard a band in the plaza. When we went to explore all kinds of things were happening. There was a loud but good drum band dancers.
There was a blow up place for the kids to play & group raising money for a kids by selling paella & a drink for 2€.
The paella was really good.As we ate ours we were joined by 2 pilgrims from Slovenia, Marco & Moishe. The spoke excellent English as well as several other languages.
Later we were back at the plaza looking for supper, but too early as usual. However it was really active. Tonight is the big game between Real Madrid & Athletica Madrid. There was a crazy athmosphere with people dressed in costumes,one group all dressed up as Conquistadors singing dancing and bombing each other on the head. I didn’t get my camera out in time, but there were groups all dressed up for something.
We actually stayed over another night at a very enjoyable hotel, as Brian was battling a cold, but are going to have to get back on the road tomorrow in spite of the rain that’s predicted for the next few days. Finally a picture from a sunny time yesterday of a rose garden in another plaza.
Brian & Donna on the Camino 