Month: July 2023

Walked today: 7.1 mi Camino 2023: 129 mi

The 15 minute taxi ride through the not-so-Camino like residential areas of Burgos and crossing several major highway interchanges, took us to an Albergue at the entrance of Tardajos, where we have stayed before. We were expecting a nice breakfast to begin our walk. However, it was closed at 6:30 with no signs if opening any time soon, so we continued on.

The walk through the village of Tardajos is always amazing, because it is literally a maze. If you are not careful looking for insidiously placed Camino arrows, you may never find your way through the town. We did it once, in the dark, and almost never made it to the end!

This morning we made it without any deviations … Linda, leading the way, could possibly have been a factor. It was also broad daylight, not dark, at 6:30 a.m.

At breakfast we chatted briefly with a couple from Hong Kong. They had walked several different Caminos before and had done the Camino Frances before in 29 days. They were doing it for the second time but in 41 days instead. They weren’t walking especially fast, as they didn’t pass us all the way to Hornillos and we saw them pass through the village some 30 minutes after us. They apparently didn’t walk faster, just longer, each day.

Once on the meseta, we saw several hundred wind powered turbines while walking the initial 3 miles, taking advantage of the terrain to generate power for the area.

Meeting Point Albergue was not open when we arrived at around 10 a.m. so we got fresh squeezed orange juice at the only open bar in the village and killed a couple of hours chatting with passing by pilgrims and partaking of the restroom facilities, while we waited.

Finally at 11:45, the door opened at the albergue and we were the first to check in. Once in our room, we grabbed our basque shopping bag and headed for the small, but fruitful market a few steps from Meeting Point and shopped, with the help of the friendly proprietor of the market, for our lunch. (this albergue and most albergues serve only dinner and breakfast, if that).

After a delicious, satisfying lunch, we performed our afternoon chores, then blogged and read and napped the rest of the afternoon until the 7:00 pilgrims dinner.

Fourteen pilgrims attended the dinner tonight, featuring the albergue’s traditional menu of paella, green salad, local wine and a lemon yogurt for dessert. Most of our conversation was with nearby pilgrims: a couple from California doing their first Camino after postponing it due to the pandemic, a young lady from Germany who originally planned to walk the Camino to contemplate her future after graduating from college, but received a job offer in June and accepted it contingent on her being able to walk the Camino first (her new employer agreed), and a gentleman of 80 years from Leon, France who is on his first Camino, which he began in La Puy en Velay, France, making his Camino nearly 1000 miles when he gets to Santiago.

As with all our Caminos, we meet interesting people from all over the planet and share stories and experiences and motivations for being here. Pilgrim dinners are an excellent forum to do this and tonight was no exception.

Walked today: 5.3 mi Camino2023: 122 mi

At 7:00 a taxi met us at the hotel entrance and took us to the hamlet of San Juan de Ortega, where we began our walk for the day.

San Juan de Ortega, or Juan Velásquez, was a young priest and disciple of Santo Domingo. Juan was born near Burgos. San Juan helped Santo Domingo in the construction of bridges in Logroño, Santo Domingo and Nájera. After Domingo’s death, Juan went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. On the journey, he was caught up in a shipwreck and prayed to San Nicolás de Bari to save him. When he survived, he returned to the Burgos area determined to serve pilgrims in the notoriously dangerous and difficult Oca mountains. He is attributed with developing the road from Villafranca to Burgos (from which he took his name de Ortega, “of the nettles”) as well as a hospice and monastery in the wilderness. Along with being considered the patron saint of innkeepers, San Juan also became known as the saint of fertility. Legend says that when his tomb was opened, the air was fragrant and a swarm of white bees flew out. Queen Isabel la Católica was perhaps the most famous barren woman to pray at his tomb. She visited twice and conceived two children, named Juan and Juana. San Juan de Ortega is buried in the church with his name.

We stopped for breakfast in Agés at Bar/Alberge Fagus, a familiar breakfast stop. We also stayed here in 2014.

We stopped at a bar in Atapuerca (pop. 206) and called a taxi to give us a lift to Burgos… our destination for the day.

We finished our main meal at 2:00 just before checking into the hotel. The rest of the afternoon was devoted to chores, naps and blog. We also had a great view in and out of our room of groups of revelers from Costa Rica among others.

Jim had a short reunion/drink later in the day with our friend, Francois who is spending the next couple of days in Burgos. They were joined by Vincent, a nurse from Strasburg, France, who is working along the French Camino. They chatted about just about everything. We may meet up with Francois again, as we are moving ahead of him tomorrow and may cross paths again on the meseta.

Walked today: 7.6 mi Camino2023: 117 mi

We arrived early, and could not checkin until 1:00 pm. We decided to have lunch in the hotel bar while we waited for our room.

We met Francois, a young French lawyer from Paris, walking his first Camino, starting from La Puy, France, adding nearly 500 extra miles to his trek to Santiago. He stopped for lunch on his way to Burgos today. We asked him to join us and we shared Camino experiences and photos and chatted until he finished eating and had to get on with his walk.

We got into our room at 1:00 and began our afternoon chores, napping and blogging. We signed up for the evening pilgrim’s dinner at 7:00.

After an enjoyable dinner with 3 other pilgrims, we bid our goodbyes and called it a day.

Walked today: 5.7 mi Camino2023: 109 mi

As prearranged yesterday afternoon, a taxi met us in front of the Parador at 9:00 to take us to Belorado, our destination for the day. When making our reservations for Camino 2023, we were unable to book a place to stay between Santo Domingo and Belorado… a distance of 23 km (14 miles). The only reasonable solution for us was to plan to skip this section (having already walked in it 2014, 2017 and 2019) as opposed to walking the 14 miles in one day.

Also, we are aware that there is only one taxi service with only one driver that covers the area from Cirueña to Belorado. There is also one bus that goes through Santo Domingo to Belorado beginning at 12:40 daily. We met Oscar, the taxi driver, last year and were able to piggyback with another rider to make the same deviation we made today. That’s why we had our host in Cirueña contact him yesterday when we arrived and booked him for the only time he had available for today. The fee for the 20 minute ride was 35€.

Our room would not be ready until noon so we filled the time by re-familiarizing ourselves with this town of 2100 inhabitants on this 5th visit since 2014. We also recharged our supply of euros at one of the three ATM’s in the town square.

Belorado has been settled since Roman occupation and was granted a charter in 1116 that allowed for an annual fair, the first such charter granted in Spain. We arrived in Belorado in 2014 on the day they we’re celebrating this annual fair. We were at first surprised, then overwhelmed and finally joined in on the festivities, which has been one of the fondest memories of our Caminos.

We checked-in to our room at noon, as promised and began our daily chores and rested until 2:30, when we walked downstairs for our main meal of the day in the hotel restaurant.

We ordered from the “Menu Dia” or menu of the day… a two course meal with dessert and bottle of wine or water for 13.50€.

Our dinners were well prepared and tasty and the service was excellent. Another memorable culinary experience for Camino 2023.

We retired to our room for the day, napped, read and blogged until bedtime.

Walked today:10.3 mi Camino2023: 103 mi

After 4.5 miles, we reached the small village of Azofra, (pop 209) and stopped for a breakfast/rest break. It is the only place during today’s walk with services.

We seldom walk 8-10 miles per day on our Caminos, unlike the way we did 8-9 years ago. Instead, we only do so occasionally when the logistics require it and to blow out the carbon from our bodily pistons to boost our subsequent walk power. We also do an occasional walk like today because we can and to help us appreciate the typical 5-7 mile walks more.

After our break at the golf course, Linda considered trying to distract the club pro while Jim attempted to borrow a golf cart to carry us the final mile or so to our hotel rural. But rather than create an international incident, we opted instead to walk the final distance, arriving at our destination at 11:00, where we were welcomed by our hosts for the 5th time.

We had our meals today at the Bar Jacobeo, just a few steps from Casa Victoria on the village square: pizza for lunch and paella for supper.

It was a good day for us on Camino2023.

Walked today: 6.7 mi Camino2023: 93.1 mi

Our walk this morning was almost totally surrounded by vineyards. Other than the relatively short, rocky ascent to Alto de San Anton, the walk was not a challenge for us.

According to legend, the large open field between Nájera and the nearby village of Alesón is the location where the French knight, Roldán and the Syrian giant (9ft tall, 440 lbs) Ferragut did battle to decide whether the Christians or the Moors would rule this part of Spain. It also allowed the French army under Charlemagne to move on to Santiago. Roland prevailed by stabbing the giant in belly button, his legendary weak spot, and went on to become known as the best warrior of Christianity.

We stopped for breakfast on the way into Nájera about 9:30 and texted the apartment we had reserved and were told we could not check-in before noon.

When making our reservations back in April, most of the previous places we had stayed in Nájera were all booked. None of them were that appealing anyway, so we opted for an apartment instead. It turns out that this morning we were eating breakfast only two blocks from the apartment.

To make use of our wait time, we scouted out the immediate area, searching for a grocery store. We found one and did a walk through, planning our lunch, dinner and snack requirements for the day, anticipating that the apartment would have a fully equipped kitchen.

We finally were admitted to the apartment at noon and after a quick inspection of kitchen equipment and any other supplies available, Jim walked to the nearby supermarket with our shopping list. He was also equipped with his prized purchase from Biarritz, over 2 weeks ago, a heavy duty shopping bag.

The shopping bag has already served us well so far on Camino2023, whenever we made purchases that were too awkward to carry in hands or arms, or pockets, like wine, bottled water, multiple small items for snacks, etc.

Jim returned shortly with a full shopping bag and we were all set with fixings for lunch, dinner and a snack sandwich for the walk tomorrow.

The rest of the day was spent napping and cooking and eating.

Tomorrow will be a long walk, so we’ll get to sleep early.