Day: July 30, 2023

Villafranca Montes de Oca to Burgos

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.

The Iglesia de San Juan de Ortega

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.

the path between San Juan …. and Agés was mostly like this … a walk through the forest.
leaving the forest and heading down into the hamlet of Agés ( pop 65).

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

finishing with breakfast at Bar Fagus
leaving Bar Fagus and Agés
more wall art seen on the way out of Agés
leaving Agés and walking toward Atapuerca
more sunflowers (looking for the sun this overcast morning)
walking past the entrance of the park where the remains of early humans, some 800,000 years old have been found in caves where excavations have been ongoing for over 30 years.

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.

Our taxi dropped us off near the Catedral de Santa María on the center of Burgos. Here we are crossing the bridge then through the magnificent arch leading into the Catedral Plaza.
the extraordinary Burgos Catedral
the entrance to the Catedral
our hotel, Meson del Cid
Jim waiting for our room to be ready
the view from our room in Meson del Cid
the Iglesia de San Nicolas de Bari is adjacent to our hotel

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.