Some photos from our 2 days in León where we are enjoying a rest day. We have said goodbye to some pilgrim friends that were moving on and regained other friends we had left behind.
In the next few days we’ll be heading back into the mountains and into Galicia and the final 2 weeks of our journey.
For now we’ve had a mini-vacation with a real bed, great showers and sightseeing.
Tonight we hope to attend a free organ concert in the cathedral.
Enjoying a Little Oasis
We’re 12 km out of Leon in a delightful albergue. Due to our extra walking yesterday we can relax this afternoon in the garden with free wifi and some drinks. Laundry is drying on the line.
Tomorrow and the next day we’ll be at a hotel (yay!!!!) in Leon and resting up. After Leon we’ll start climbing back into the hills and leave the Meseta behind. Looking forward to the last 13 stages.
I’m combining two posts in one because of wifi issues.
Friday Sept 22 in Terradillos
So the Meseta…
It’s really boring. As Rich said today it’s like we’re doing a Camino across Nebraska. However, we had a nice day anyway because the weather was sunny, cool and with gorgeous strong breezes. We left at 6:15, made really good time and and were lucky enough to snag prime lodging in the destination village.
Other pilgrims weren’t as lucky. With hundreds of pilgrims walking each stage everyday we are encountering situations where there aren’t enough beds available and those arriving even in the early afternoon have to walk on to the next town or further to try to find lodging. That could be 3, 7 or more kilometers on top of the 27 already walked.
We are have reached the halfway point of the Camino and are 3 days out from Leon where we plan to get a hotel and take a rest day.
Today is Tristan’s 19th birthday. Happy Birthday Tristo! Hope you have a fun with your friends.
Saturday Sept 23
We had a long day to El Burgo Ranero. We went an extra 7.4 km today to get to a bigger town with more lodging. It’s hot and will be hotter tomorrow.
We’ve been meeting up with some of the same pilgrims along the way and meeting new ones. Today we ended up sharing gin and tonics over lunch (see photo). Had a great lunch of beer, scrambled eggs, bacon and fries.
A Special Evening
Thursday night we spent at the Santa Maria parochial albergue in Carrion de Los Condes. This was our second experience with a church albergue and the nuns were very special. They greeted us at registration with hot tea and cookies.
At 5:30 there was Vespers in the church followed by a pilgrim meet-and-greet sing-a-long. Each of the 30 pilgrims being housed by the church that night was invited to tell their name, where they are from, and why they were walking the Camino. Some tales were very inspiring, others were rather heartbreaking.
After mass at 8 there was a pilgrim blessing and then a communal dinner which everyone contributed to and helped prepare.
We did another long walk today, so now we are 1 day ahead of the guidebook. It was a bit hard (17 miles) but the road was good and the weather was sunny and warm.
I think that’s enough of the extended days for me. I had to push my pace really hard and at times found myself chanting in my head “don’t think about your feet”. I have persistent blisters on my little toe, big toe and right heel of my right foot that just don’t seem to heal. They may be with me until the end of the Camino.
Anyway, based on the recommendation of a Polish pilgrim named Yaris, who we first met in Santo Domingo and have reconnected with recently, we are at a lovely pilgrim oasis tonight.
We left Burgos this morning at our usual time and made the guide book’s official stage destination before noon. The day was cool and sunny and the walking was good, so we continued on another 10 km for a total of about 31 km today. My Fitbit reads 19 miles.
The Meseta is one of the areas where we can combine stages or do 1.5 stages a day to gain time for later when we might want/need a rest day. This region is relatively flat, open and empty except for harvested grain fields and wind turbines. It can seem either hot and boring or a great place for contemplation depending on who you ask.
I’m not sure Rich was a fan of the 1.5 stages we did today so I’m not sure what we’ll do tomorrow. It seems we are averaging about 4 km an hour with stops.
Some topics on the dangers of the Camino that I’ve been thinking of writing about:
- Camino Wedgie- when your super expensive travel undies go rogue…
- Full-frontal, Camino-style – when the young female pilgrim doesn’t realize that the laundry room is co-located with the men’s shower…
Beautiful Cathedral
We’ve finished a third of the Camino and made it to the fabulous city of Burgos in Castille y Leon province.
For better or for worse we took the scenic route into the city via a park along the river. It was much nicer than tromping in through the suburbs but must have been a lot longer because we didn’t see a single other pilgrim along the way.
We’re in the municipal albergue which was remodeled so that it is very modern. It has the cubicle version of bunk beds- like you are sleeping in a box.
This afternoon we toured the gothic Burgos Cathedral. Words can’t describe it. It’s absolutely amazing in terms of art and architecture.
We haven’t decided yet if we’re staying another day in Burgos. I think we’re leaning towards moving on. The Camino calls even if the feet are reluctant.
We had a gorgeous day weather-wise today. It started out very, very cold. I had 3 layers on my head, 4 layers on my torso and gloves, but the sun came up and it turned sunny, although still quite cool. Our path took us uphill into oak and pine forests for most of the day. We made the target destination of San Juan around 1pm but continued on another 4.6km to the next village Ages which has more albergues and will give us a head start for our stage tomorrow into the big city of Burgos.
Our albergue tonight has a bar with very good Sangria, which I have already enjoyed as I wait for the laundry. 😉
Last night we went to mass. I didn’t understand any of it but the priest was very animated and charismatic. After the mass he made a special pilgrim blessing which we attended. It was a pretty cool gathering of international pilgrims, with prayers, blessings and songs all shared in everyone’s native languages. Afterwards we saw the priest in our albergue helping wash dishes in the kitchen.
Also in yesterday’s town we explored the ruin of a 9th century castle and some structures built into caves in the cliff behind the church.
Note: I’m publishing this a day late because our wifi last night was awful. I got connected at 1:30 am and messaged with Tristan and Genevieve and got the previous day’s post out but then went back to sleep.
A Pilgrim’s Day
We had a very pleasant day for walking. Very cool, but sunny. We had flat dirt and gravel roads so we made very good time. Today I thought I’d just write about our daily routine.
Each morning we are up between 5:30 and 6:00 a.m. We put on our clothes and start to pack up by the light of our headlamps. By 6 a.m. it is permitted to turn on the overhead lights. We double check for belongings, claim our “boots” and trekking poles and set off. We either find a bar serving breakfast before we leave town or walk in to the next town to find breakfast.
Our favorite foods for the morning are some sort of egg sandwich or egg quiche, cafe con leche, fresh orange juice, and a shared chocolate croissant.
We hit the Camino, using our headlamps to find the way markers which are either yellow arrows or the Camino shell symbol. It’s very pleasing to head out in the pre-dawn and start getting the kilometers behind us. Dawn comes from behind us since we are heading west but if we turn around the view is beautiful. Around 8 a.m. my Fitbit will tell me I hit my daily goal (In Austin) of 9000 steps. It has recorded 35,319 steps so far today.
We walk on until we hit a village where we might eat breakfast or find a bathroom. Then we keep going, with occasional breaks for water or to peel off some clothing layers, until we reach our destination town.
Once we reach town we pick an albergue for the night and get in line to register and pay for a bed.
First order of business at the albergue is to shower and change into our clean outfit. Second order of business is washing clothes, either by hand or waiting for a turn with the washing machine if there is one. Then we need to pin the clothes up on the clothesline for drying and hope for sunny weather. Today we had to pull all the clothes in and hang them from our bunk because of intermittent showers
Yay, the chores are done. Time for food – either lunch if we haven’t picnicked on the way, or drink and snack. The bars stop serving food from 4:30-7:00 so we need to get out before asap.
After lunch we can rest, check on the laundry or go sightseeing/shopping. Frequent destinations are the pharmacy, grocery, and churches. We also just hang out at the albergue. Some of them have beer in the vending machines and patios or courtyards for communal gathering.
Then it’s time for dinner and perhaps a church service. Tonight I think we will go for a pilgrim blessing before dinner. Bedtime is before 10 because the albergues lock the doors and lights are out. Put in the ear plugs and put on the eye mask and hope for a good night’s sleep!
We got a great start out this morning after breakfast in town. A little later than we had been trending, but today’s distance was only 20 km.
The terrain gradually changed from vineyards to plowed red clay fields. We passed (or were passed by) a number of tractors pulling small trailers, headed out for grape harvesting. There were a few hops fields and a solar panel field.
We arrived shortly after noon and considered moving on to another town, but it didn’t seem to buy us anything and I have caught a cold and needed a rest. We have ensconced ourselves at an albergue run by Cistercian nuns and housed in a monastery. It doesn’t quite have the mid-cons of some of the other albergues we’ve stayed at but it does have a beautiful gathering room with fireplace and exposed wooden beam ceiling.
We had a big lunch, followed by a nap and then Vespers church service next door. For dinner we went to a supermarket and bought soup and salad which we cooked up in the albergue kitchen. Dinner probably cost 4 euros.
The weather has turned quite cold. I’m not sure we hit 60F today. With most of my layers on I am still cold walking around town. Fortunately, when trekking the camino we stay quite warm through exertion.
We’re still a few days out from Burgos where we are planning a rest day (in a hotel!!!!). Of course, a rest day means we’ll have to walk a double day later on because we didn’t think of adding rest days in when booking our return flight.
That’s all for now. Time to enjoy the fire.
