By Michael

At a Glance:

Day 27: Barbadelo to Ventas de Narón (31.3 km)

Day 28: Ventas de Narón to Boente (32.3 km)

Day 29: Boente to Pedrouzo (28.1 km)

Day 30: Pedrouzo to Santiago (19.8 km)

Daily Highlights:

Day 27: Today we started in heavy fog in Barbadelo, which lasted through Portomarín (roughly half way through our day). The kept us from having any view of the surrounding hills, but it also kept us cool and it was beautiful in the fields and forests we walked through.

Just under two hours into our hike, we were approaching the 100 kilometers mark (left before reaching Santiago). The Church will only give a “Compostela” to pilgrims who walk over 100 km. And here in Galicia, they have installed new signs that say the precise distance to the cathedral in Santiago — down to three decimal points (equivalent to one meter). We were looking for the marker at 100 km — Elizabeth remembered it from her last walk — but after seeing 100.something, we saw 99.930 km. So the official 100 km mark was some 70 meters back and unsigned. To deal with the disappointment of missing her 100km photo, Elizabeth posed for an even more silly photo.

Not to be outdone, I paced back roughly 70 meters and took a photo. It turns out that the 100 km mark is in between a couple of buildings that I think a barns.

As we approached Portomarín, we met a mother and daughter from Santa Rosa, California — the mother had started in St. Jean, and had three children (all adults) meet her for different segments of the walk. She was doing awesome! After Portomarín, we continued on and the sun came out.  It was hot!

We finished walking today in Ventas de Narón, where we watched some sheep graze in a small pasture across from our albergue.

Day 28: There was no fog today — it might have been our warmest morning of the Camino so far so we knew it was going to be hot today.

We finished our first segment at a good pace, up to a hilltop and down to Palais de Rei, where we stopped for breakfast (toast and coffee for me, toast and hot chocolate for Elizabeth) at Cervezeria Obelix. A “Cervezeria” is literally a brewery though in Spain it does not mean they make beer there (everyone serves the same light beer). Obelix is a character in the French cartoon series Asterix. He looks like a chubby viking (I’ve been told he is a Gaul, but look for yourself: Viking.).

As we continued we saw more rolling hills and small forests, typical of Galicia. And it got hot, even in the shade.

When we left Melide, a town large enough to have a small grocery store where we could pick up fruit, we saw a sign for Albergue Boente, one of two accommodations in the town down the path where we figured we might stop for the day. The sign said they had a pool, which was news to us. There was even a picture of a paddle board in a pool — probably not their pool, but that was enough. This might have been the fastest 6 km I’ve walked on the Camino to make sure that we got to stay there.

Once we arrived, we each took a dip in the (tiny) pool.  Well worth it.  The rest of the afternoon was spent doing our daily chores, reading, and enjoying a typical pilgrim menu for dinner with wine and desert.  Today was a reminder of how much the Camino has changed now that we are in the last 100km.  We saw several large groups (including a rowdy group of middle-school-age kids) and there are a couple loud groups staying at our albergue that seem to be in party mode.  We are working on our patience.

Day 29: This morning we left Boente early to avoid much of the heat. We arrived in Arzúa (about 8km down the road) — a much larger city and suggested place to overnight in many of the guidebooks — just about at the time that many pilgrims were getting going for the morning. Everywhere along the way there were large groups of pilgrims, showing just how popular the Camino has become, especially in the last 100 km.

We also passed through groves of Eucalyptus trees. While perhaps not the same as medieval pilgrims would have experienced (when these trees were confined to their native Australia), they reminded us of Nipomo, California, where there are miles of Eucalyptus trees planted in rows.  They provided much needed shade.

Because of our early start and relatively short day, we arrived at our destination of Pedrouzo around lunch.  There was no point in going any further because it is less than 20 km to Santiago and there are no good accommodation options in the next 15 km or so.  After checking in, we had a three course pilgrim menu for lunch. Scrambled eggs with good mushrooms as first course was a highlight for me.

We both took needed naps in the afternoon. Tomorrow we leave early for Santiago!

Day 30: Today we made it to Santiago! We started early despite the short distance, hopeful that we could finish before the mid-day heat and most of the crowd. Well, the mid-day heat never happened and there was almost always at least some crowd, but it was still fun to walk through the forest in the dark.

Around one of the earlier cafes, we ran into a group of pilgrims we had met earlier on the Camino. The group included Cat from Australia and Will & Hannah from Seattle, and seemed to be growing. We saw them a few times during the day, and I stayed at their pace to chat for a while before taking off on my own.

After winding through the outskirts of Santiago, I walked through a covered passage (with a bagpiper) to the main square, looking up at the Cathedral and it’s (roughly) two floors of steps up to the entrance. It’s a pretty amazing moment, and difficult to describe. I was feeling excited and I wanted to run up the stairs. It turns out that the main door at the top of the stairs was closed due to a restoration project, but I decided to run up anyway.

[Elizabeth’s note: Entering Santiago today for the second time was understandably much less emotional for me than it was my first time.  I attribute this to the fact that I knew exactly what to expect, I am not in the same physical pain that I was on my first Camino (other than sore feet and a sore rib from coughing, I feel pretty good), and I know that I still have four more days of walking ahead of me so this isn’t the end of the journey.  Still, I’m proud of having walked all the way from France to get here!]

We went to the “11:00 a.m. mass” which it turns out didn’t exist. So we waited — meaning we had really fantastic seats for the noon pilgrim mass. It was in Spanish and Latin, so we didn’t understand much except that they announced the countries from which pilgrims finished the Camino yesterday and that you had to be Catholic to take communion. And then, unfortunately, they did not swing the giant incense burner (known as the Botafumeira).  That was a bit of a disappointment, since it’s supposed to be a highlight of finishing the Camino.  We understand that the Cathedral only does it one time per week for free, but that often groups pay the 300€ fee to have it done during other masses.  Luckily, the free Botafumeira mass was later this evening. Since Elizabeth had seen the Botafumeira a few times on her first Camino (her video of it swinging is here), I planned to go back alone for the 7:30pm mass.

We spent the afternoon visiting the pilgrim’s museum and standing in line to get our official Compostela. We also got a fun, optional certificate that attests that we walked 775km to get to Santiago!  When I returned to the Cathedral for the 7:30pm mass, I found that it was even more popular than the noon pilgrim’s mass and  I could not find a seat. But I did run into the same group of Australians and Americans that we’d run into earlier in the morning.  Watching the Botafumeira swinging was amazing — it ended up swinging much higher than I had expected.

We then left for dinner, where I enjoyed octopus, beer, and the beginning of the European Soccer tournament (France beat Romania 2-1). The proprietor of the bar where we ate was an older man who turned out to be tons of fun (and kept insisting that we drink and eat more).  Unfortunately, we knew that despite having reaching Santiago, tonight could not be a party night…

by Michael

At a Glance:

Day 23: Rabanal to Ponferrada (32.7 km, via original route into Ponferrada)

Day 24: Ponferrada to Trabadelo (34.9 km, via alternate high route out of Villafranca)

Day 25: Trabadelo to Fonfría (30.6 km)

Day 26: Fonfría to Barbadelo (31.1 km, via San Xil route)

Daily Highlights:

Day 23: We left our beautiful albergue in Rabanal early this morning to head up the hill toward Cruz de Ferro (a cross up the hill).  This is one of the bigger climbs on the Camino and we started walking while it was still dark. We could see the sun rising behind the town and the lights of Astorga in the distance as we climbed up. As the sun came out, we could also see the surrounding mountains. Much of the flat part of Spain that we have just passed through is pretty, but I needed my mountains, and this was my fix.

Many people look forward to reaching Cruz de Ferro because of the tradition of bringing a rock from home to be left at the cross.  The act of leaving the rock is supposed to symbolize leaving behind a burden on the Camino. We reached the cross and took pictures in the gray morning, watching as others left rocks, photos, and other trinkets. We both forgot to bring a rock from home to leave at the cross, so we made do with admiring the scenery and watching others (some of whom were very emotional).

We then made our way down the mountain — a mountain similar to many of the coastal hills in California, except much higher and steeper. At the bottom we reached the cute town of Molinaseca, where we put our feet in the cold river for a few minutes before continuing to Ponferrada. Today was the first time on the Camino that we were able to relax on a river bank with our feet in the water (something we did multiple times a day on the JMT to combat swelling feet) and it felt great!  It helped prepare our feet for what ended up being a hot road walk as we continued another 7km or so into Ponferrada.

On her first Camino, Elizabeth missed the open hours for the Ponferrada castle, so this was a priority. It was worth it — a Templar castle that has been restored and had interesting exhibits on display. We finished our day with wine on the square and dinner in a somewhat hip restaurant with Rosie the Riveter as the mascot on the sign outside.  For Elizabeth, the morning spent in the mountains made today was one of her favorite days on the Camino thus far.

Day 24: According to our guidebook, hiking from Ponferrada to Villafranca is supposed to be a nice, solid walking day. So today we hiked the suggested day, and then added 10 km with about 400 meters ascent and decent at the end.

The first half of the hike was in and out of small towns. At 9:00 a.m. we arrived at Vinos de Bierzo, where they offer wine and tapas in the winery. We decided that it was 5:00 p.m. somewhere, so we had a glass of wine each. Our hike continued from wine tasting to vineyards, up and down several hills on the way to Villafranca.  For the last few kilometers into Villafranca, we were treated to free entertainment in the form of a puppy out for a walk with way too much energy — it darted up and down the trail so much it likely traveled twice as far as we did.

We arrived in Villafranca just after noon. We were feeling good so we decided to hike an additional 10 km.  This decision was largely due to the fact that we wanted to be “off Brierley” so that we would stay in smaller towns that were not recommended end-points in the Brierley guidebook in hopes that finding available beds would be easier.  Before moving on though, we decided to have lunch first. We had a garlic shrimp pizza — it was a tasty meal and was filling for the afternoon hike, but it took about an hour from when we ordered to when the pizza arrived on our table. Lesson learned.

The final segment was an optional path — the official route follows along the road and stays much lower — but we wanted the challenge and Elizabeth had heard on her first Camino that the optional route was beautiful. The hike up was steep and hot, but the views were amazing. The “top” was elusive — twice we thought we reached the top but we then turned a corner around a hill and saw we had more climbing to do. The way down had more shade, but was very steep.

Once we arrived in the small town of Trabadelo we relaxed and found an interesting spot for dinner. Elizabeth had Korean kimchi with rice and noodle soup, and I had a burrito (actually quite good) with chips and salsa. We suspect that the restaurant was run by hippies, and we were thankful for it.

Day 25: Yesterday’s extra segment paid off today. We got our usual early start and, with Trabadelo in the bottom of a deep valley, we walked in the shade for a few hours. After a few towns and a stop for toast, we started our 900 meter climb to O’Cebreiro. The first segment was lush and green, almost like Hawaii. Then we passed a couple towns above the forest, and had great views of the mountains. It reminded me of the Cuesta Grade on the central coast of California.

Near the top of the mountain is the town of O’Cebriero, a pretty town of gray stone buildings. On her first Camino, Elizabeth arrived here and the Albergue had no rooms left. We arrived before 11:30, so we had planned to go on (to avoid what happened to Elizabeth last time), but we did stop for lunch and cider. Several peregrinos were already waiting for the albergue to open an hour later as we headed out of town.

We continued on another 12 km, with spectacular views of the hills of Galicia. We finished in the small town of Fonfría — a town with one albergue, a small inn, no shops, and several cows (that walked right past the albergue while I was doing our daily clothes washing).

Dinner was family style with everyone in one large room — a round stone building with a pointed roof (no photo of this building, but I promise a picture of a similar building later). After dinner, a group of peregrinos were (self) appointed to finish the bottles of wine that were left on the table.  We may have been part of that group 😉

Day 26: As we packed our bags in Fonfría this morning, we heard the sound of raindrops. While it wasn’t much today, it was a warning that Galicia has more rain than anywhere else in Spain. In the light rain we made our way down the mountain to Triacastela, a city named for three castles, none of which exist today. So we got some toast with butter and jam instead, and moved on.

The hills here are lush and green, the “towns” often have gray stone buildings, and there are stone walls separating pastures that look as if they have been there for centuries (some of them probably have). Elizabeth crossed paths with some cows and their farmer — one of the cows decided to lick her hiking pole to find out if it was edible (it was not), and a tap from the farmer told the cow to move along.

We made our way to Sarria, which is the starting point for most of the shorter distance hikers. To earn a “Compatella” (the certificate of completion) a pilgrim must walk at least 100 kilometers. Sarria is the last city before the 100 km marker, so the last group of people to join the walk join here — or so we thought.

After a brief stop at a cafe, we continued to Barbadelo. It’s not much of a town (small collection of buildings?), but one of the albergues has a swimming pool. Of course, when we arrived they were already full. But then they gave us a flyer for a different albergue, and offered that we could return to order dinner and use the pool. So we did (it was HOT).

The pool was great. It was cold enough to feel good, but not so cold to make you get out. We even put our feet back in after we dried off. After chatting with a fellow pilgrim from Manhattan, we had dinner on the patio overlooking the Camino (a country road at this point) and the pastures. Then we saw taxis arrive, ferrying pilgrims who wanted to walk the minimum 100 km but get a start past Sarria (since Barbadelo is technically outside of 100 km, I guess it counts). They rolled their suitcases up the path — clearly they have booked luggage service (where they transport your luggage for you to the next town so that you just carry a small daypack). So if you think you can’t do the Camino, think again!

by Elizabeth

At a Glance:

Day 17: Sahagún to Religios (32.3km, via alternate Roman road through Calzadilla)

Day 18: Religios to León (24.3km)

Day 19: León (0km)

Day 20: León to Vilar de Mazarife (21.8km, via alternate route)

Day 21: Vilar de Mazarife to Astorga (31.1km, via alternate route)

Day 22: Astorga to Rabanal (20.6km)

Daily Highlights:

Day 17: I slept like a rock last night — I was exhausted from our 40km day yesterday!  In most albergues, I am constantly waking up due to people snoring, getting up during the night, or simply in expectation of our early start times.  I forgot to mention in yesterday’s summary, but the albergue that we stayed at in Sahagún was really cool.  It was on the second floor of a converted cathedral with super high ceilings.  Of course, it was a little weird to lie in bed listening as a graduation ceremony take place in the intact portion of the building in the evening. 

Today’s walk was somewhat boring.  In order to avoid a full day of walking on the senda (path along a national highway route) we elected to walk the vast majority of the day on an alternate route along an old Roman road.  While that sounded interesting in theory, in reality it was an all day road walk.  The first portion was paved and had some traffic, the second half was a very rocky road with no traffic.  Unfortunately, yesterday’s long walk left me with blisters and hot spots, so the rocky road did not make my feet happy.  I also generally felt very tired and slow today — I wonder why?  The most eventful part of today’s walk was watching the storm clouds heading towards us and then being poured on!  The rain didn’t last long, but we were soaked.

We cut back to the main route in the town of Reliegos, where we spent part of the afternoon hanging out in Bar Elivis.  The walls were covered in “graffiti” and the proprietor was blaring Elvis songs and singing/dancing along for most of the time we were there.  Highlight of the day.

[Michael’s Supplement: Today was the final of the UEFA Champions League — for those unaware this is the European soccer equivalent of the Super Bowl.  The tournament has teams from across Europe (and apparently Europe now includes Israel and Kazakhstan — who knew?) but the final was two teams from Madrid.  I watched with two Spaniards and an Italian, and we worked through teaching me some vocabulary in Spanish (flopper, offside, etc.).]

Day 18: We’ve made it to León!  I’ve always thought of the Camino as being separated into three sections — with the first section ending in Burgos, the second section ending in León, and then the Camino ending in Santiago.  Arriving in León today means that we are in the final third of the trail.  I’d been looking forward to today’s walk because it was supposed to be a much shorter day than we’ve been walking lately (only 24km).  In anticipation of the shorter walking day and the fact that we intend to stay in Leon for two nights, we slept in a bit and didn’t start walking until around 8am.  Unfortunately, the walk didn’t quite go as planned.  My blister was hurting even more today than it did yesterday and I ended up walking very slowly today as a result. To make matters worse, the rain that we thought wouldn’t start until 3pm came early and we ended up walking for about an hour in the rain.  The route itself was somewhat uneventful.  We walked largely on paths along the road, passing through many small suburbs as we entered the city.  It honestly wasn’t the horrible industrial area that I’d been led to believe the approach would be, but I wasn’t really in the mood for enjoying today’s walk.

León itself was very nice.  As we entered the old town, there appeared to be a festival of some sort going on and a band was marching down the street playing really dramatic music.  We splurged and are staying two nights in a four star hotel (not much of a splurge at 60 euro per night though!).  This means that we weren’t in a rush to get out and see the city’s sights as soon as arriving.  We were starving when we arrived in town though and got very excited upon finding a Mexican restaurant.  We miss our burritos and spicy food!  While Michael enjoyed his chips and guac with four salsas, my “tacos” fell far short — they were just cooked meet (without spices) and melted cheese rolled up in flour tortillas.  Oh well, the search for Mexican food continues.

Day 19: We got to sleep in today!!  Only slept until about 8am or so, but it was glorious.  We spent our morning getting laundry done (finding an awesome laundromat that took less than an hour for the full washer/dryer cycle) and then checking out León’s cathedral.  When I walked the last portion of the Camino in 2012 I walked away feeling that León’s cathedral was one of the best that I’d ever seen.  The light wasn’t as good for today’s visit, but I still think that the cathedral here is amazing.  There is so much more space filled with stained glass than most other cathedrals that it feels much less heavy. 

We spent the rest of the day walking around Leon’s old town and enjoying a bottle of wine with tapas at the Parador.  There are a bunch of Parador hotels in Spain that were originally built as pilgrim hospitals and they tend to be amazing old buildings (and thus, expensive hotels).

It was great to have a day of no “official” walking (we did walk quite a bit, but at least I got to wear sandals).  I’m hopeful that my blister will feel much better tomorrow.

Day 20: We eased back into walking today with a short day knowing that we want to spend tomorrow night in Astorga so there was no need to put in a big day.  My feet are feeling so much better!  The walk out of Leon was uneventful — just a lot of sidewalk walking past shops and houses.  We again planned on taking an alternate route that we would actually spend the night on.  Since Leon is a popular starting point, this helped to minimize the crowds of pilgrims that we had to deal with today.  We had a slight mishap finding the turnoff for the alternate route (taking a lovely detour when we turned too early…), but once we found it the path was smooth sailing.  Most of the alternate today was along dirt country road through rolling hills.  It was hot today and we had little shade along the route.  Luckily, we got into town (Villar de Mazarife) at about 1pm, so we were able to spend much of the afternoon relaxing in the shade (and doing our afternoon chores of showing, laundry, cooking, etc.). 

Day 21: We got out early this morning in an attempt to avoid the heat.  The first part of the day was a long roadwalk along a largely straight, flat road.  During our usual morning coffee break (typically Cola-Cao for us, the Spanish equivalent of Nestle hot chocolate but somehow better) we ran into Amy from SoCal again.  It was fun running into part of the old crew as we haven’t seen many people we know since we pulled our 40km day and then spent a full day in León.  As we were getting set to head out again, our path was blocked by a huge herd of sheep and goats.  There must have ben hundreds!  Our video of them passing by (here) is a full three minutes long!

We walked off and on for a bit with Amy, passing through the adorable town of Hospital de Orbigo.  The town was the perfect backdrop for a Renaissance festival and appeared to be set up to host one as we passed through. 

It’s another hot day with more rolling hills and dirt road walking today.  We joined back up with the main route just before Hospital de Orbigo and there are a bunch of people on the trail today.  Just as we approached Astorga, there was a railroad track crossing that they’ve constructed a large pedestrian bridge to cross.  The bridge had several switchbacks, so you could see everyone in front of and behind you even if they had been too far away to see previously. 

We spent the afternoon exploring Astorga — something that I regretted not being able to do on my prior visit.  We enjoyed drinking beers on a bench in the main square, walking through the old town, and visiting the Palacio Episcopal designed by Gaudí (and now housing a museum on the Camino).  We’ve run into more of the old crew in Astorga, including the Dutch couple that we seem to be following (or are they following us?).  We’re also starting to see many new faces from the crowd that started in León or pilgrims that started earlier but walked more slowly than us.

Day 22: Today was my first repeat day with my first Camino (in September 2012).  Walking out of Astorga, it was fun to think back on my experience four years ago and the places that I stopped and people that I met that first day.  The day was beautiful — the weather was great and the hills were green with lots of wildflowers and trees (that weren’t in straight lines as most of the trees that we’ve been seeing have been!). 

We split up for much of the day’s walk, although ended up within 5 minutes of each other for most of the day.  As single walkers, we each spent time walking both alone and with other peregrinos for chats.  Although we arrived in Rabanal before 11:30am, we had decided ahead of time to stop here because I had a very positive experience at the donation-based albergue in town on my first Camino and wanted to come back again.  The albergue lived up to its hype (in my opinion).  After waiting in the shade eating and drinking, we were warmly greeted by the hospiteleros (volunteers running the albergue).  We spent much of the afternoon walking though the (tiny) town and enjoying the albergue’s huge garden out back. 

In the evening, we attended vespers (traditional gregorian chanting) in the small, stone church next to the albergue.  It reminded me of when I did the same thing four years ago! 

I know I’ll have to try to avoid pointing out every little thing to Michael that reminds me of my prior Camino, but it’s been fun to walk (both literally and figuratively) down memory lane.

By Elizabeth

At a Glance:

Day 12: Burgos to Hornillos del Camino (21.0km)

Day 13: Hornillos del Camino to Itero de la Vega (30.7km)

Day 14: Itero de la Vega to Frómista (14.3 km)

Day 15: Frómista to Carrión de los Condes (20.2km, including alternate path through Villovieco)

Day 16: Carrión de los Condes to Sahagún (40km, including alternate paths into Ledigos, Terradillos de los Templarios, and past San Nicolas del Real Camino)

Daily Highlights:

Day 12: Despite our prediction that staying in a private hotel room would mean that we’d get out faster in the morning (because we wouldn’t be forced to pack silently in the dark), we got a slow start this morning and left at about 8am.  My ankle is still acting up, making walking somewhat painful.  I spent the morning focused on maintaining a normal stride so that I do not develop any additional issues by compensating for the injury. 

Today we officially entered the “meseta.”  This portion of the Camino is often referred to with dread — the land is very flat and there is little shade.  Based on the descriptions that I had heard, I’d imagined the meseta as being similar to walking along California’s I-5 during the summer.  The weather today was warm and we quickly learned that one of the side effects of the flat land is that you can see further along the path.  This emphasized just how many peregrinos are in on the Camino — a number that seems to have grown as we exit Burgos since it is a popular starting point (a large group of college students is staying in our albergue, having just finished their first day).  That said, what I’ve seen of the meseta is not quite how I expected it to be.  The land is very green and fertile with wildflowers along the path, not the brown land of California summers.

Due to the heat, later start, and concerns about my ankle, we decided to put in a short day and only walk the Brieley stage of 21km to Hornillos del Camino.  We’re staying at a private albergue instead of the municipal one because the private one sounded like it would have better facilities.  Turns out that the facility itself is nice, but not very functional.  The nice kitchen has almost no pots or utensils — our plan to cook an omelette for a late lunch morphed into scrambled eggs when we discovered that there were no spatulas — and the albergue forbids outside beverages (especially weird in Spain since there are no restrictions on open containers more generally — which we took advantage of).  The Brierley stages for the next few days are pretty short, so we’re hoping to put in a longer day tomorrow in order to skip ahead a bit.

Day 13: I woke up this morning with a very sore throat, making it difficult to talk and painful to swallow.  Luckily, after about 5km or so, my ankle started to feel a bit better.  We were treated to a gorgeous sunrise as a reward for our early start. 

The morning’s walk was pleasant — we passed through the small village of Hontanas and past the ruins of the San Antón convent.  I’m guessing that the ruins were featured in the movie The Way (starring Martin Sheen about the Camino) based on the vendors/tour buses.  We arrived in Castrojeriz after about 20km and ran into a nice older Dutch couple that we’ve repeatedly crossed paths with.  They were able to direct us to the town’s pharmacy, were I picked up some throat lozenges and vitamin packets.  Since I was feeling fine other than my throat (and that isn’t really affected by hiking), we decided to walk on another 10km to Itero de la Vega. 

The municipal albergue here is basically a spare room across from the church that they’ve put beds in (single beds, not bunk beds!).  There isn’t a full-time attendant, instead you find a spare bad, make yourself at home, and a woman stopped by in the evening to collect the town’s 5 euro a piece!  We’ve once again run into familiar faces at the albergue (Pete, an Aussie we first met in Tosantos and Kat, who we met in Atapuerca).

Day 14: Ugh.  This morning I woke up feeling even worse.  Swallowing was incredibly painful and I was feeling feverish.  I’m worried that I might have strep.  Given the lack of facilities in Itero de la Vega, however, there really wasn’t an option other than walking on.  After a couple kilometers, I knew that there was no way that I could put in a full day of walking (let alone the extra distance that we’d planned).  I couldn’t get warm, despite wearing my down jacket (which I normally can’t wear while hiking because I overheat).  We stopped in a cafe about 8.5km down the road for our morning hot coco and to rest.  Perhaps sensing that I wasn’t feeling well, a cat jumped into my lap to curl up for a nap!  After some hot water, honey, and country music (Michael noticed that the cafe was playing Garth Brooks), we decided to walk another 6km to Frómista (which promised to have a pharmacy), where we would look for a private room and stop for the day. 

I felt pretty dead by the time we got there and was grateful that we were able to quickly find a private room.  After a nap, we headed over to the pharmacy, where, upon hearing my symptoms, the pharmacist gave me a three-dose pack of antibiotics and advised that I continue using the “vitamin” packets that I’d received the day before (which apparently actually have an active ingredient because he said it would help with my fever).  We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and napping, before quickly exploring the town and grabbing dinner.  I’m already feeling somewhat better and hopeful that I’ll be feeling even better in the morning and able to walk.

Day 15: What a difference a day makes!  I woke up feeling so much better — my throat is still sore, but not in the same extremely painful way it was the last couple of mornings.  Even my ankle feels as good as new!  Today was a fairly easy 20km walk to Carrión de los Condes.  For much of the day we walked on an alternate route that paralleled the main route in order to avoid walking on the pilgrim “senda” (path along the highway that our guide refers to as the pilgrim “autopista,” or highway).  This alternate path was even shaded for part of the way!  A great relief on another hot day. 

On our way onto the alternate route we had a random little encounter with a man who appeared to be a local on his way to work (nice pants, collared shirt, nice shoes, carrying a light jacket and nothing else).  We said good morning as he came out of a building and then he passed in front of us and started walking down the alternate Camino path that goes through no towns for about 12km.  He wasn’t carrying water or anything else, just looked like he stood up from his desk and decided to walk the Camino. He kept on for quite a while, though we lost track of him during the first road crossing.

Today we also celebrated walking further than we walked on the John Muir Trail last summer! [Note: we later discovered that our math was wrong and that this likely occurred on Day 14.]  In Carrión de los Condes we ran into most of the usual suspects again (Dutch couple, Kat, Amy from S. Cal., Seattle couple etc.) at our albergue (which was run by a group of hard working nuns).  We stumbled upon a farmer’s market (correct placement of the apostrophe, there was one farmer), purchased a giant head of lettuce plus some other veggies, and made a huge salad for dinner.  It was a nice change from the three-course pilgrim meals that we’ve been having.  A woman at the albergue even asked to take a picture of our salads, they were great!

Day 16: We woke up this morning feeling really good and ready to push for a big hiking day (day three on an antibiotics regime is the time to walk far, right?).  We sped through the morning kilometers — the path was flat and the walking was easy.  We took a couple short alternate routes to get us away from the road and also passed the half-way mark to Santiago! 

We arrived in Terradillos de los Templarios at around noon, the end of the Brierley stage at about 27km.  As the name suggests, the town used to be a stronghold of the Knights Templar, which played a significant role in protecting pilgrims on the Camino and had a strong influence on many of the small towns that we have been passing through.  We decided that since we were both feeling pretty good (minus that I’ve started coughing, always stage two after a sore throat for me), we would continue on for the day.  At a village a few kilometers down the road we encountered a number of hobbit holes!  Turns out that they are storage units built into the ground — perfect for storing vino!

After a 40km day, we finally reached Sahagún at around 3:30.  We are both exhausted!  It also appears that blisters may be a side effect of long hiking days — I have one (and a half) that popped up during the second part of the day and needed to be threaded.  I guess I should consider myself lucky to be dealing with my first blister on day 16 (we’ve seen some nasty ones on other people), but I had been hoping to escape them entirely!  Despite being tired, we took a walk around town as Sahagún is known for it’s great churches and abbeys.  Michael even found an Irish pub that had Guinness on tap (for him . . . Coke zero for the girl finishing out her antibiotics). 

We’re both a bit sore, so hopefully a good night’s rest is in order before tomorrow’s walk.  Only a couple more days before we get to León!

By Elizabeth

At a Glance:

Day 7:Logroño to Nájera (28.9km)

Day 8: Nájera to Santo Domingo de la Calzada (21.3km)

Day 9: Santo Domingo de la Calzada to Tosantos (27.6km, including alternate route into Granon)

Day 10: Tosantos to Atapuerca (25.5km)

Day 11: Atapuerca to Burgos (19.7km, including alternate routes south of airport and through riverside park)

Daily Highlights:

Day Seven: While weaving our way through city streets to exit Logroño in the morning, I noticed that Michael was lagging and looking unwell.  When I asked how he was doing, he responded that he was feeling tired and feverish.  We stopped for him to rest and eat a couple of times early in the morning with plans to reassess how he was feeling when we got to the first town, Navarette, at around 13km.  Much of the first 10km was through a park and around a lake bordering Logroño. 

After a hot chocolate and pastry in Navarette, Michael was feeling better and we decided to continue on.  The second half of the day passed through farm land and vineyards before a couple short climbs on the way into Nájera.  On our way into Nájera, Michael started feeling tired and unwell again.  We briefly searched for a hotel with a private room, but with no luck we continued on to an albergue.  The main albergue in Nájera is run on a donation basis (although they request that you give a minimum of 5 euro) and is attended by volunteers who were especially welcoming and helpful.  While Michael slept for the entire afternoon, I walked back to the town’s large grocery store (purchasing a bit much as I was super hungry) and cooked dinner in the albergue.  Unfortunately, the town’s cathedral was closed by the time we finished dinner and Michael felt well enough to walk about.

Day Eight:  Michael felt a bit feverish again in the morning, but quickly started to feel better as we tackled our first incline.  Today we passed through a couple small towns that have recently had declining populations and which now exist largely due to the Camino.  Perhaps because of this, in one of the towns (Cirueña), the local golf shop had finally opened its doors to peregrinos interested in a meal or drink.  According to our guidebook, the population of Cirueña is now 100, although there were easily that many townhouses in town (many of which appeared deserted).  Such a strange feeling. 

We had a relatively short day today and ended after about 21km in Santo Domingo de Calzada.  We stayed at a great albergue run by nuns, with a huge fireplace in the kitchen (with a wood fire!) and a lovely back yard.  The town is named after Santo Domingo, who became a hermit in the 11th century after being rejected from the local monastery and subsequently dedicated his life to serving pilgrims.  The cathedral in Santo Domingo is unique in one important respect.  One of the miracles ascribed to Santo Domingo involves a family traveling on the Camino that stopped at a tavern in what is now the town of Santo Domingo de Calzada.  The innkeeper’s daughter, apparently upset that the family’s son had rejected her advances, hid a silver goblet in the son’s bag and then accused him of theft.  After being discovered, the son was hung as a thief and his parents continued to Santiago without him.  On their return, the parents found their son still hanging and miraculously alive.  They rushed to the sheriff’s house to ask that their son be cut down.  The sheriff responded that their son was as alive as the cooked rooster that he was about to eat — at which point, the rooster stood up on his plate and crowed.  In honor of this miracle, the cathedral in Santo Domingo has special dispensation to permanently house a chicken and rooster inside!  For dinner, we joined a few other peregrinos from Slovenia and Canada who had found that they had cooked too much — so we added wine and ice cream to the mix and had a lovely meal.

Day Nine: Much of today’s walk was on pathways directly next to busy highways.  We were able to escape a bit of it by taking an alternate, unmarked “green” route described in our book as we headed into Grañón.  The route was peaceful and unmarred by the pilgrim masses that we’ve been seeing, but unfortunately it was only a small part of our day.  During today’s walk we passed from the Rioja region (like the wine) to the region of Castilla y Leon, in which we will spend the majority of the Camino. 

The end of today’s stage (according to our Brierley book) was supposed to be after 22km in Beldorado — and we had heard that two of the albergues in town even had pools!  Despite the pools’ great attraction (it was really hot today), we continued on another 5km or so to Tosantos because I had read that the parish albergue there was known for its warm welcome and communal meal.  I had hoped that this would be a nice change from the larger, less personal albergues that we had been staying in.  So we passed up the pools.  When we arrived in Tosantos, we were (not warmly) greeted at the albergue and were told all of the albergue’s rules before we registered.  Amongst the normal rules (curfew, etc.) we were told that pilgrims were not permitted to leave before 7am in the morning.  We had been leaving at around 6:30am most mornings and had already decided that we wanted to leave even earlier the next morning in hope of escaping the mid-day heat.  This meant that 7am was a problem.  Additionally, it appeared that the communal meal also involved extensive communal preparation — which was a problem, because I woke up this morning sneezing like crazy (I’ll blame Michael,  who now feels fine, even though he never sneezed).  So we ended up going to the other (private) albergue in (the very, very small) town instead.  The facilities there ended up being great and we enjoyed good company hanging out on the front patio area.  I did discover my first mini-blister on my big toe — it’s tiny and I only found it based on visual inspection.  Hopefully it doesn’t develop into anything further.

Day Ten: We made it out of the albergue a bit earlier than usual this morning (around 6am) and enjoyed walking for a short while prior to dawn.  We’ll take waking up early to walk in the cool morning over the hot afternoons any day!  We stopped briefly to eat our breakfast in the small town of Villafranca Montes de Oca.  We had also hoped that because the town was along the road and is frequented by truckers we would be able to find an ATM, but no luck.  We were told that the next ATM on the Camino is in Burgos (about 40km down the road, and we didn’t see an ATM along the Camino yesterday either) — which meant that unless we could find a place that accepted credit cards, we’d have to be very careful about our food purchases until then.

Following Villafranca Montes de Oca (not to be confused with the other “Villafranca” later on the Camino), we started our ascent for the day.  As we climbed, I heard the familiar sounds of a cockoo clock coming from the surrounding forrest.  I never realized how accurately the clock captured the sound of the birds (who, incidentally, don’t stop after 12 cockoos)!  At the top of the climb, we passed the Monumento de los Caidos, which marks the shallow graves of unidentified individuals executed during the Spanish civil war.  Over the next few kilometers, we were assaulted by a huge mass of flying black bugs that looked like a cross between a giant mosquito and wasp.  They were so bad that we couldn’t talk or otherwise open our mouths for fear that they would fly in! 

Later, as we passed through San Juan de Ortega, we caught our first glimpse of a dog walking along the Camino.  We decided that the dog was a “perrogrino” — a combo between “perogrino” (for pilgrim) and “perro” (for dog).  We caught up with the dog and owner a bit further down the road and learned that they were indeed planning on walking all the way to Santiago, but are taking it slowly.  Because we started early and didn’t stop much during the day, we arrived in our destination of Atapuerca before noon and had to wait for the albergue to open.  During this time, I solved our cash shortage by finding a bar/restaurant nearby that accepted credit cards (so what if we ended up with frozen pizzas, it was a nice change of pace) — it’s crazy what a cash economy the Camino is!

Day Eleven:  Today we had a short(ish) walk into Burgos.  Last night, we booked a hotel in Burgos for tonight in order to avoid standing in line for the municipal albergue (since we’d likely arrive before it opened) and because of predictions of rain.  And rain it did.  At first lightly and then it poured as we passed the airport on an alternate route into the city.  Our shoes and shorts were quickly soaked (we only have rain jackets and pack covers).  The heavy rain continued as we took a second alternate route through a riverside park in order to avoid walking through the city outskirts.  This park was much less groomed and more wild/natural than the park approach into Pamplona, although was still popular amongst runners and local bike groups (even in the rain).  Luckily, the rain let up and the sun even came out by the time we entered the historic center of Burgos.  We were largely dry by the time that we got to our hotel and parted ways with the Seattle couple and Aussie that we’d been walking and chatting with off and on throughout the day.  First stop in Burgos was a cafe with amazing hot chocolate (the super thick kind you eat with a spoon) before heading toward the cathedral.  We were greeted at the cathedral by speakers blaring “I Will Survive” — apparently the plaza was being used in connection with the race that we’d seen while entering the city.  There’s nothing quite like walking past a race and having the runners yell “buen camino” at you!  The cathedral itself was beautiful, but was unfortunately accompanied by the most boring audioguide that went into extraneous and honestly uninteresting details about the origins of each side chapel. 

Later in the afternoon, we visited the Evolution Museum (where we got a discount for being a pilgrim — don’t think too hard about that one!).  The museum houses many of the important artifacts found at an archeological site near Atapuerca (where we stayed last night).  These human remains and artifacts have been used to place homo sapiens in Europe much earlier than originally predicted.  The portion of the museum addressing these local sites was very interesting and well displayed.  Unfortunately, by the end of the visit, my ankle was acting up and all of a sudden walking became extremely painful for no apparent reason (just what I do not need to accompany my cold).  Fingers crossed that it will feel much better in the morning!

At a Glance:

Day 4: Pamplona (Iruna) to Cirauqui (Zirauki) (34.7 km, including detour to Eunate)

Day 5: Cirauqui (Zirauki) to Los Arcos (35.1 km, including alternate scenic route via Luquin)

Day 6: Los Arcos to Logrono (27.8 km)

Daily Highlights:

Day Four: We headed out of Pamplona early with the intention of putting in a big day.  We started by walking through Pamplona’s suburbs before climbing almost 1000 feet.  At the top of the mountains, we were greeted by a series of windmills (and the corresponding wind).  A wrought iron monument shows medieval pilgrims battling the wind on the way to Santiago with the inscription: “Donde se cruza el camino del viento con el de las estrellas” (“Where the way of the wind crosses the way of the stars.”). 

Back down in the valley floor, we opted to detour to the Church of Santa Maria de Eunate.  The 12th Century church is linked with the Knights Templar and has a simple, but beautifully calm interior and a surrounding porch.  There were several non-pilgrims inside praying and a separate group outside preparing what appeared to be a tasty feast!

Once we were back on the Camino, we stopped for tapas in Puente la Reina.  The town is designated as the end of “Stage 4” by Brierley, but it was still relatively early and we decided to push on another 8 km or so to Cirauqui (for a total of about 21.5 miles).  Like many of the towns that we pass through on the Camino, Cirauqui is best described as a small, seemingly abandoned village on a hill.  We stayed at the sole albergue in town and joined the group dinner run by the albergue.  Unlike some of the pilgrim meals, where wine is included but limited, our host continued to check on our pitcher of wine at dinner to make sure that we were getting enough to drink (and encouraging us to eat more salad and pasta as well).  Once again, there was a family connection between the albergue and the winemaker!

Day Five: We planned another long day and passed quickly through the first couple of towns until we arrived in the small city of Estella (about 14km down the road).  In Estella, we stopped in a bar/restaurant for breakfast and marveled at the number of locals enjoying their (presumably) first glass of red wine at 9:30am.  Just a bit further down the road, we passed through the town of Irache, best known for its fountain.  Now, many of the small towns have public fountains with drinking water for pilgrims, but Irache’s famous fountain has one handle for water and a second handle for wine! It is sponsored by a local winery and was good (at least that’s what we thought while hiking).  Quite the morning treat!

We spent much of the remaining day on an alternate “green” route that went up through the hills on dirt tracks instead of following along the road.  It provided a peaceful alternative to the masses of pilgrims that we encounter each day on the Camino — over a couple of hours we only saw two other couples (and a horse) instead of dozens of people.  We ended the day in Los Arcos (the end of Brierly’s “Stage 6,” meaning that we did three stages in two days) and stayed at an Austrian-run albergue with lovely gardens and common areas (and a friendly black lab).

Day Six: With two long days behind us, we decided to take it easy and stick with the designated 27.8 km stage into Logrono.  Our morning was filled with a series of hilltop villages before we stopped to breakfast in Viana.  We were greeted in Viana’s cathedral by a hilariously talkative volunteer and also enjoyed the nearby ruins of the Church of San Pedro. 

A couple hours later, we were similarly “greeted” as we approached Logrono by the daughter of a legendary gatekeeper of the Camino.  We had been led to expect that there would be a stand with figs and water to accompany her pilgrim credential stamp that reads “higos, agua y amor” (“figs, water and love”).  Alas, there were no figs, no water, and she spent the entire time that I was getting my stamp in what seemed to be a heated argument with her husband!  A memorable stop nonetheless.  Logrono proved to be a fairly sizable town, and we enjoyed tapas, beer, and ice cream along the main square.

After six days on the Camino, our feet are still blister free (but tired).  We’ve noticed that the Camino seems particularly busy (as least compared to my 2012 experience). This means that we can’t walk late into the afternoon (as we did on the JMT) without risking showing up in town and finding that all of the accommodations are already full.  To deal with this, we’ve been waking up early each morning so that we can comfortably fit in our miles by 1pm or so.  In the future, we may book ahead to allow us to walk further into the day, but on the whole we prefer the accommodations that are first-come-first-serve.

by Elizabeth

At a Glance:

Day 0: Madrid —> Pamplona (train); Pamplona —> St. Jean Pied de Port (taxi)

Day 1: St. Jean Pied de Port —> Roncesvalles (25.1 km)

Day 2: Roncesvalles —> Larrasoana (27.2 km)

Day 3: Larrasoana —> Pamplona (16.8 km, including alternate park route into Pamplona)

Daily Highlights:

Day Zero: We lucked out on our way to St. Jean Pied de Port (the unofficial, but popular, starting point of the Camino) when we found another traveller (Sam, from Minnesota) willing to share a taxi from the Pamplona train station.  Although it ended up costing a few euro more than taking the bus, we got into St. Jean about four hours earlier because we didn’t have to wait for the bus.  Our first stop was the Pilgrim’s office (which likely would have been closed for the day had we waited for the bus).  Everyone who walks the Camino is referred to as a Pilgrim (or “Peregrino” in Spanish) and is greeted over and over again during the day with the greeting “buen camino.”  At the Pilgrim’s office we registered and received our Pilgrim’s credential.  The credential is stamped at various establishments, is required to stay in many of the albergues (hostels for Pilgrims), and entitles Pilgrims to certain discounts at various cathedrals and sights along the way.  The rest of the day was spent exploring St. Jean and finding provisions for the next day’s walk.

Day One: We were up bright and early (5:45am), although we not the first ones up in the albergue.  Breakfast at the albergue was simple (bread and jam), but enjoyable if only for the stern (but very lovable) woman who ruled over the kitchen and wished everyone a “buen camino” on their way out the door.  The first day of the camino is known for its climb through the Pyrenees mountains.  We felt right at home as we climbed up the mountain (easier than the Sierras!) and were treated to amazing views (and only light rain)!

We ended the day in Roncevalles, in part because it was the end of the stage in the Brierley guide to the Camino (which most English-speakers use) and because it is a historic stop on the Camino.  The stop ended up having a very weird feel to it.  We arrived before the albergue officially opened at 2pm and the administration of the albergue felt very bureaucratic compared to my prior experience on the Camino in 2012 (and the cold showers did not help matters — apparently the hot water was off until about 5pm).  The albergue also felt very isolated, although when we discovered the bar at a nearby hotel (that the albergue failed to mention existed), we happily enjoyed a bottle of wine to pass the time before our 7pm group dinner.  Following dinner, we enjoyed mass at the on-site church (but were confused to find that communion included no wine! As non-Catholics, luckily no communion papers were requested 😉 ).

Day Two: After the climb on day one, our second day started out reasonably flat before descending into Zubiri.  Much of the day was through forested land with good, dirt trails.  We stopped for tea and grocery shopping in the small town of Viskarret before tackling a small ascent in preparation for the big descent of the day.  A food truck and a short downpour greeted us at the top, meaning that the descent was a bit slippery at times (we passed one bicycler who had opted to walk with her bike and witnessed another completely wipe out on another slick turn).  We ended the day in Larrasoana at the municipal albergue, which was further than the recommended stop in the Brierley guide, but we wanted a short day three leading into Pamplona to maximize our time in the city.   The highlight of Larrasoana was a happy shop owner offering free samples of his family’s wine (and sampling himself), so of course we had to buy a bottle (for a whole 4 euro!). Michael also enjoyed the four barn cats who visited the back patio of the albergue, one of which knew how to open the door.

Day Three: The highlights of our short hiking day into Pamplona were the pen of miniature horses (so cute!!) that we passed and our decision to take an alternate route into Pamplona through one of the parks instead of via city streets. 

We ended up getting into Pamplona by about 10:30am to find that all of the private albergues were already full due to the convergence of a triathlon, local festival, and food festival that day.  This meant waiting until the municipal (first come, first serve) albergue opened at noon.  While waiting, we were treated to performances by the gigantes (giant, um, just look at the picture below) celebrating the local festival — what a treat!  Check out our short video of the dancing gigantes here.  We spent the afternoon visiting the Navarra Museum and Pamplona Cathedral before getting a group together to watch a major soccer match at a local bar.  Dinner consisted of amazing tapas from an award-winning tapas joint (my favorite was the foie) and chocolate con churros (yum!).  Pamplona ended up being a great spot to spend the day, especially given the many festivities going on in town.

Overall, after three days on the Camino we are feeling pretty good.  Our feet are tired and we are a little sore, but no major issues thus far!