Jimandi

Walked today: 5.3 mi. Camino’26: 127 mi.

We consider En El Camino among the best places to stay on the Camino Frances. It excels and never disappoints with regard to quality of facilities, food and overall experience. The staff is professional, welcoming, friendly and competent. It’s also among the least expensive of all the accommodations we have stayed-in spanning over 400 nights on the Camino Frances, making its overall value unmatched. Today was our 5th visit.

As soon as we arrived, Eduardo, the Hospitelier, recognized us and welcomed us back. He took our order for breakfast along with dozens of other pilgrims arriving at the same time.

When we asked if our room was ready, he gave us a key and said he’d check us in later when the crowd subsided keeping us from waiting unnecessarily.

While waiting for our transported backpacks to arrive, we had our main meal in the dining room, assisted by very helpful staff, whose English was far superior to our Spanish, and who patiently took our order and attended to us as needed during the 3 course meal.

Our backpacks arrived as we finished our meal and we retired to our spacious, spotless, modern room with well equipped electrical outlets and fully functioning bathroom and shower fixtures and got on with our daily chores.

I know it sounds like we’re making a big deal about En El Camino. Pilgrims in general become used to making the best of various hospitaliers and their offerings and shortcomings … some would suggest that it is part of being a pilgrim.

But when we see excellence on the part of Camino service providers, we celebrate it and share our appreciation with providers that go beyond the norm.

Walked today: 7.6 mi. Camino’26: 122 mi.

We began our walk at 6:00 a.m. to hopefully catch a pretty sunrise as we climbed Alto de Mostelares. We walked for a mile before leaving Castrojeriz and then began walking across ancient wetlands via a still functioning Roman causeway. At the end of the causeway were the ruins and reconstruction of a Roman bridge of the 1st century.

Immediately after crossing the bridge the path began a sharp rise upward to to the pinnacle of Alto de Mostelares.

We walked steadily with an occasional hesitation to catch a breath until we reached the top after a 700 ft climb.

Once at the top, we allowed ourselves a 2 minute bench break, then proceeded to walk along the mesa for a quarter-mile, before carefully descending down on longest and steepest slope of Camino 2026, so far.

Once at the bottom, injury-free, thankfully, we continued a normal walk for the next 5 miles.

Immediately after the Chapel was the Puenta del Fitero, commissioned by Alfonso VI in the 11th-century to unify the territories of Castile and Leon.

(Itero de la Vega was known as “Fitero” in the Middle Ages.)

The Puente del Fitero is considered one of the longest on the Camino Frances.

We faced nearly a 4-hour wait to check in, so we spent the time watching and greeting pilgrims that walked by or stopped for r&r before moving on. We chatted with pilgrim friends from Switzerland, South Korea, Alabama and England that we had met over the past week that were catching and passing us today… that we may or may not see again.

We had breakfast, assorted drinks and snacks. Linda sat with our day packs on the terrace, while Jim (growing more impatient) took a tour of this very limited facility village (pop. 177) looking for potential sources for food for our main meal. He returned after a 20 minute exhausted search, empty-handed.

The restaurant menu options of our albergue are few, including a skimpy pilgrim dinner at 7:00 p.m,, so as we watched the supply of ready made bocadillos began to dwindle, we purchased 3 different variants.

Some of the ingredients in our three bocadillos were: iberian ham, sliced cheese, cream cheese, smoked salmon, avocado, pulled pork, tomato and lettuce.

From this collection of sandwiches we created a main meal to eat immediately, while we waited and the rest to take for later consumption in our room, which was finally ready for check in at 1:25p.m.

Once we got into our room we began our routines and had a reasonably smooth afternoon and evening.

Reflecting on day Day 18, the difficult walk seemed less difficult than our memories from seven prior caminos. Perhaps an interesting trend is developing for walking the Camino Frances in your 80’s.

Walked today: 5.3 mi. Camino’26: 114 mi.

As we got ready to leave our room at 7:30, we were missing a set of trekking poles. We looked at each other and somewhat short of a panic, recounted our movements yesterday and guessed that we had left the poles at La Puntido while waiting to check in. Realizing that the La Pundito bar may be open, we walked (not ran) to the bar and were so relieved to find the poles where we apparently left them, now waiting anxiously to be reunited with us.

So, we could say, ” the Camino provides” but you already know that, so we’ll get on with our journal of today’s walk?

Walking out of Hontanas, a pilgrim has the two options shown in the photo.

At first glance, the traditional route is the path, but if you look closely at the photo, the path appears to climb back up the hill to the top of the meseta and presumably back down eventually into Castrojeriz.

The road appears to be flat and nicely shaded.

On our first Camino, we were walking in the dark and took the road by accident because we didn’t read the guide clearly. The next two Caminos, we were walking in the summer heat and a shaded, flat path seemed like a good idea. The first 3 Caminos after the pandemic, we walked to Hontanas, took a taxi to Castrojeriz, skipping the Hontanas to Castrojeriz segment altogether. However, in 2025, walking on a cool morning in daylight, we decided to try the path and quickly found that it did not go all the way to top, but leveled off after only a slight elevation above the road and stayed level with a nice view for most of the way to Castrojeriz.

Needless to say, today we took the path again and recommend it, with the only exception being, walking in the heat of the day, when the shady road route could provide some welcome relief on the way to Castrojeriz.

We rarely see wildlife on the Camino, other than birds, squirrels, snails and very infrequently, a small snake. Today we encountered a fox.

When we first saw him, he headed back into the grain field as another pilgrim or two walked past him. He came back out on the path again, about 50 yards ahead of us and began to walk, matching our pace. This continued for a quarter mile or so until the path ahead narrowed and we switched over to walk in the road, not wanting to creat a potential confrontation.

The Monastery of San Antón was founded in 1146 by King Alfonso VII as a hospital for pilgrims, particularly those suffering from St. Anthony’s Fire, a disease widespread in the Middle Ages. The ruins remaining today date back to the 14th century when the Monastery had become a significant architectural structure. St. Antón, an Egyptian hermit of the 3rd-century is the patron saint of animals.

Today, the convent ruins is a primative albergue with communal meals by candlelight, no electricity or hot water, a basic, special experience for some.

The Castillo de San Esteban was originally used by the Romans (said to be reinforced by Julius Caesar) to protect the roads to Galicia’s lucrative gold mines.

After arriving in Castrojeriz much too early to check in to Albergue Orion we stopped for a leisure breakfast at this delightful new bar.

Still too early for check in, we walked across the street from El Jardin and visited the Iglesia de Santa María del Manzano.

Legend has it that Mary appeared to St. James from an apple tree and he was so startled that his horse reared up and came down heavily, leaving hoofprints in the stone outside the entrance of this 13th-century church.

It was getting near to our check in time so we walked on and found a nice bench in the shade just outside of Albergue Orion.

The pilgrim dinner tonight was prepared by the Orion Korean cook. It was called BIB-N-BOP. It was a collection of different Korean vegetables, proteins and sauces presented in a bowl.

Our dinner conversation was mostly with two young men, a recently discharged South Korean soldier deciding what to do next and a young professional from Switzerland who was a controller for a large company. Both were planning to walk all the way to Santiago.

The BIB-N-BOP was tasty and filling, preparing us for an early bedtime for tomorrow’s walk.

Walked today: 6.8 mi. Camino’26: 109 mi.

We reached Hontanas at 10:30 and stopped at the first and only bar open in the village… for breakfast and to get off our feet.

Our room won’t be ready until 1:00, so we walked to and waited in the small square near Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Concepción.

We took possession of two chairs and a table and relaxed and enjoyed the warm sun as it gradually but comfortably raised temperature of the chilly breeze that made today’s walk a little bit easier than usual.

During our wait, we not only could see the front door of Villa Fontañas, but we were able to watch the arrival of the Correos transport van. Our eyes were focused, with anticipation, when the driver opened the rear door, removed two backpacks that were unmistakably ours and placed them inside the front door of the Villa.

Any anxiety we may have had about the potential for our bags getting lost due to the venue change in Hormillos, were quickly erased and we relaxed even further until finally entering our room at 12:45.

We selected La Pundito restaurant for our main meal at 2:00 p.m. It was only a few steps from the Villa and also served as the reception for checking in for Villa Fontañas. (We stayed at La Pundito albergue the first three times we walked the Camino Frances.)

The pilgrim’s menu of the day offered some appealing options.

Our tummies full, we headed back to the room and engaged in our routines and reflected on our feelings about today’s walk.

For a variety of reasons, the walk to Hontanas has always been one of the more difficult for us. Today it seemed to be somewhat easier. The cooler temperature helped. Maybe we’re getting used to it, after 8 tries?

Anyway, we’ll take it as an indication that walking the Camino Frances doesn’t necessarily have to become more difficult as you get older, even into your 80’s. We hope that’s true, ’cause we’re only a third of the way to Santiago!

Walked today: 7.2 mi. Camino’26: 102 mi.

We began our walk at 7:30 from La Fabrica wearing jackets in the 44F temperature air and passed through the town of Tardajos (originally a Roman city, Augustóbriga)

We arrived at Hornillos del Camino at 10:30 and stopped at a small grocery store. We were disappointed to see that the former owner, whom we had developed a friendship over the past 5 caminos had retired. We bought some yogurt to unite with our local honey purchased in Lorca and some nuts for a snack as we had done before, but we were saddened by the absence of our friend.

At 11:30, we walked a few steps to Meeting Place to check in, only to find that the innkeeper had failed to hold a room for us after confirming it in February on their website. All double rooms were booked and the alternatives she offered were not acceptable.

With the help of the innkeeper, we were able to find a double room with ensuite bathroom a few steps further into the village and were able to book it instead. The Meeting Place innkeeper contacted Correos for us to insure that our backpacks are picked up at the new place tomorrow morning instead of where they left them today at Meeting Point. Hopefully our backpacks will be delivered to our reserved room in Hontanas tomorrow after being picked up at the new place.

Realizing we were fortunate to find an alternative place to stay in this small village, helped us to look beyond the screw-up and make the best of the situation.

The new place had limited facilities for washing and drying clothes and no paella pilgrim dinner, a feature of staying at Meeting Point. So we put off the clothes related chores to the next stop and we had our main meal at a nearby restaurant which only offered a lunch menu, but both changes will suffice until we get back on plan, tomorrow.

Many, maybe most pilgrims don’t book ahead, so they have fewer expectations for places to stay and eat. Our pilgrim experience has evolved to a more structured and pre-planned one for the most part, so arriving at a location at the end of a walk without a plan would be normal for most pilgrims and potentially unsettling for us.

But after seven, going on eight caminos, we still firmly believe that the “Camino provides”.

Walked today: 3.7 mi. Camino’26: 95 mi.

We almost never have breakfast before walking on the Camino. It’s a habit we reached early on to get ahead of the sun. Leaving in the dark, before most breakfast servers were awake made breakfast a non-option. Later on, it seemed that walking on an empty stomach, extending our fast from our last food the day before was a more healthy idea, so we stayed with it.

Many of the places we stay have offered a take-out breakfast the night before, but we declined (even though it was frequently included with the room price), thinking our later breakfast stop would also serve as a nice break after a couple hours of walking in the dark or in daylight.

Today’s plan is to catch the 8:52 bus to Burgos, skipping a walk of 23 miles (3 days walking, for us) and end up in Tardajos, just on the other side of Burgos. It was drizzling when we left the hotel to walk the 200 yards to the bus stop.

The half-hour bus ride got us to the Burgos bus station at 9:30, where we searched for and quickly found a guy with a big “i” on the back of his jacket.

He helpfully informed us there was a bus to Tardajos at 1:15 p.m. He also told us to be there at 1:00. He said we couldn’t buy a ticket in advance… we would pay the driver when we boarded. To add “exceptionalness” to his level of help, he pointed to the bay where the bus would be waiting, pronounced the name of the bus company and confirmed the color of the bus for us. These two untested, bus traveling pilgrims became instantly charged with confidence in being able to execute the “bus to Tardajos” task!

We now had 3 hours to kill in one of our favorite cities. What to do? What to do?We began by walking a half-block to an ATM to augment our EURO cash stash, which went so well, we gave each other a high five.

Over the span of 8 caminos, we have gotten to Burgos by bus, by taxi and by walking around the airport and through an industrial area on the way into the city. We have never walked in via the alternate Camino path along the Rió Arlanzón river. So we decided to use some of our “waiting time” to see what it was like by walking from the Catedral along the river about a mile and a half, then returning along the same path, imagining what it would be like walking into Burgos this way.

Conclusion: The next time we walk jnto Burgos we will definitely take the river path.

We still had 90 minutes of wait time when we returned to the Catedral area.

We walked and reminisced around some of the areas where we have stayed on previous caminos, stopped at a small bar for a ColaCao and restroom break, took some photos of the exterior of our favorite Catedral, made a short visit to Iglesia de San Nicólas de Bari (St. Nicolas aka. Santa Claus) and then worked our way back to the bus station where we waited the final few minutes for our bus.

The 20 minute bus ride to Tardajos was uneventful. We checked in to La Fabrica, took our waiting backpacks to our room and returned to the hostal restaurant for a 3:00 main meal.

The food was ok and the ambience was not the same as our previous visit on our first camino in 2014. We returned to our room, followed our normal routine and looked forward to our walk tomorrow and another day on the Camino Frances.