leaving Hornillos del Camino at 6:10, before “first light”
Today was a typical walk on the Meseta. We walked for 2 miles from our albergue in Hornillas back up to the Meseta, continued on the flat gravel path for a mile or so, then descended into San Bol, only to climb back up to the Meseta, walked another 2-3 miles then back down into the village of Hontanas.
walking out of Hornillos up to the Mesetanear the Meseta after a two mile walkfinally back on the Meseta.looking back at a typical sunrise on the Mesetaa huge field of sunflowers on the Meseta at sunrisedescending into San Bol, a primative albergue.zoom photo of San Bol alberguethis bird chirped at us as we were nearing the Meseta on the way out of San Bol, as if she wanted her photo taken, so we complied.back on the Mesetafirst sighting of Hontanas“main street” of Hontanas our breakfast stop
We called a taxi then had breakfast, chatting with other pilgrims, including several we had seen in days prior. As a result, the 90 minute wait for the taxi passed quickly. The 10 minute taxi ride, saved us an additional two hour walk, in the sun, along the same road. We were dropped off at Albergue Orion, our home for this afternoon and evening, in Castrojeriz.
Linda waiting for out taxi
As expected, the albergue didn’t open until noon, so we walked about a hundred yards to the Iglesia de Santa María Manzano to view the beautiful interior. We then walked across the path to a familiar bar/albergue where we stayed in 2014 and had drinks to fill the remaining wait time until checkin.
Iglesia de Santa María del Manzanodramatic Gothic structure of Santa María del ManzanoSantiago statue to the right of the altarhaving a break at the bar/albergue across from the Iglesia. Under new ownership since the pandemic… we stayed here in 2014.the bar has been redone by the new owners
The door to Orion was open when we returned at noon. We were the first pilgrims to checkin. We got into our room and went into chores routine then got a light lunch in the dining room then spent the remaining afternoon napping and blogging and reading.
Entrance to Albergue Orionnice garden area of Orion.view of Castile which defended the Roman gold convoys returning from Galícian mines. Occupied subsequently by Visigoths, Moors and Christians.the view from our room at Albergue Orion
Dinner was at 7:00 and consisted of Korean cuisine prepared by our Korean cook. It was very tasty.
Our dinner mates were two guys from the Loire Valley in France and a couple from northern Holland. The Holland couple were doing the Camino on bikes and camping frequently. They had earlier done a trip across the U.S. on bicycles. Conversation was interesting and Jim got to practice some French.
Here’s our taxi to pick us up at El Cid and take us to Tarjados
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.
Entering “Rabe”, about a mile beyond Tardajos.Rabé de las Calzadas: Convent off to the left and church in center of village.We stopped at La Fuente Bar/Albergue for a nice breakfast. Owner and wife were very friendly and gave us plenty of butter and jelly for our toast without being asked!
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.
wall art seen on buildings as we exited Rabéfinally back on the familiar gravel path of the Camino on our way out of Rabé de las Calzadas.A reassuring Guardia Civil vehicle passed us on the way up to the meseta.on our way up to the meseta we saw this field of “baby” sunflower” plantswe finally reached the meseta for the first time for Camino2023. Burgos off in the distance as we look backahead of us, the expanse of the meseta.
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.
the beautiful simplicity of the meseta.the warning sign for “Mule Killer” hill which goes down from the meseta into the village of Hornillos del Camino.Linda getting up her nerve to take on the descent of Mule Killer hillon the way down“main street”, the only street, through Hornillos del Camino ( pop.61 )
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).
Our self-catered lunch: Bocadillos of fresh bread, ham and cheese, olives, chips, gazpacho, Rioja crianza wine.
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.
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 Fagusleaving Bar Fagus and Agésmore wall art seen on the way out of Agésleaving 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 Catedralour hotel, Meson del CidJim waiting for our room to be readythe view from our room in Meson del Cidthe 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.
leaving Belorado at 630.more wall art on a building on the highway just outside BeloradoThis is typical of our walk today: mostly flat, dirt path, winding through grain fields and lots if blooming sunflowers welcoming the rising sun.approaching the village of Villambistia where we stopped for breakfast, 4 miles from Belorado at Casa de los Deseos.The tiny church in Villambistia has never been open on previous Caminos, so we stopped to take a look.interior of church with no name in Villambistia.According to a local tradition, immersing your head in this fountain, will cure you of tiredness. As on 4 previous walk- bys, we decided not to… especially when noting the sign on the fountain saying the water was not drinkable!back on the path after passing through Espinosa del Camino (pop. 36)We observed this field of grain that had been partially cut. The tops of the plants were gone and the stalks were left piled in a row where the full plant had apparently been cut.we guessed that some kind of harvesting machine had removed and collected the oat-like tops and left the stalks to be baled later. There was no one around to ask, and not having such knowledge ourselves, we pondered on briefly..,.….. and then we observed a machine that looked like it could have done what we guessed had happened. Ah, the mysteries of the Camino!These sunflowers were all looking at us as we passedThese sunflowers, on the opposite side of the path, appeared to have turned their backs on us, but it was nothing personal. We just happened to be in the opposite direction of the bright sunshine. Guess that’s why they call them… sunflowers!the last half mile of the path leading into Villafranca Montes de Oca (the small village is hidden behind the clump of trees just to the right of the path.)walking along the busy intersection of a national highway that passes through Villfranca…. (pop. 164).Our hotel in background, 18th century Iglesia de Santiago on the left.the entrance to San Anton Abad, formerly the Hospital de la Reina that hosted up to 18,000 pilgrims per year during the 17th century.
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.
Jim and Francois
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.
We had an enjoyable, chatty dinner with Francisco from Puerto Rico/Orlando, and a nice couple from Australia.
After an enjoyable dinner with 3 other pilgrims, we bid our goodbyes and called it a day.
Leaving Cirueña with the emerging sunrisethe first 2.5 miles looked like thisthe sunrises so far have been less spectacular than in the past, but we still have the month of August to go, so we’ll keep watching.our first sighting of Santo Domingo de la Calzadathe not-so-attractive look of the walk into Santo Domingo de la Calzadaentering the old town the Catedral de Santo Domingo de la Calzada where St Dominic is buried… the 11th century “builder and caretaker” of the Camino in this area. He cleared the way, built roads and bridges.main entrance into the catedralA Parador Hotel, adjacent to the Catedral, is on the site of the original hospital built by St Dominic in the 11th century then converted to an inn in the 15th century, that served pilgrims until being converted to a state-owned luxury hotel in 1965.Linda found a comfortable seat in the lobby of Parador Hotel where we waited for Oscar, our taxi driver.
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€.
La Huella del Camino was our hotel in Belorado.a mural painted on the exposed wall of our hotelanother beautiful mural painted on the building wall next to our hotelstill another mural across the street from our hotel, depicting an historical medieval battle involving Belorado.
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.
The ruins of the Belorado Castillo (above and behind the Iglesia de Santa Maria) are right behind our hotel (note mural)the interior of the Iglesia de Santa Maria
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.
our double room with an ensuite bathroom
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€.
First Course- Linda: peas, ham, hard boiled egg, cherry tomatoes Jim: lettuce, carrots, olives, corn, red peppers, raisins, assorted nuts, tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, bacon bitsSecond course- Linda: “lemon” chicken, fried potatoes, padron pepper, tomato Second course- Jim: pork cheeks in brown sauce, fried potatoes, padrón pepper, tomato Dessert- Jim & Linda: homemade cheesecake with blueberry compote topped with walnut and flower design of dark chocolate and cherry
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.
that’s Linda this morning just topping the hill out of Nájera at first lightand a couple of minutes later walking down the same hill and on our waytypical scenery along our walk from Nájera to Azofrajust outside Azofra
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.
Calle Mayor (main street) in Azofraa mile past Azofraabout 6 miles into our walk, beginning a section of path adjacent to the expressway crossing a part of an interchange and moving away from the expressway into the grain fieldsbeginning a never-ending walk through the fieldswith 7 miles behind us, Linda pulled out her headset and began to sing and dance her way blissfully along the path through the expansive fieldsno longer dancing but still singing her way up the final steep 2 miles to the Rioja Alta GOLF COURSE!!! ( Probably not noticing the first sunflower fields of Camino2023)Jim looking back at where we came from today as Linda completes the 9th mile of our walk (still singing)enjoying a break at the 19th hole before completing the final mile into Cirueña.
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.
our room in Casa Victoria at Cirueña.. Jim hung a towel over the beam to warn him not to hit his head on the very low beam.
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.
supper: chicken paella for Linda and seafood paella for Jim with local Rioja wine.
Jimandi 