Santo Domingo de la Calzada towards Burgos

82 year old Frenchman

The walk to Santo Domingo was 20 km, about 12 miles;  the weather was breezy, cool, and sunny.  I walked for a while with an 82 year old man from Paris; he left me in the dust.  There were a couple of long hills, but not bad. I checked into a hostal, (hotel) where I have a private room. 

The church is magnificent, as was their museum. It is focused on the life of their saint. There was a very cute and large scale life of the saint using plastic characters.

One of the saint's miracles included having cooked chicken crow, so a chicken is a common symbol for the saint. There are even live chickens above a side altar. The saint was very devoted to helping pilgrims to Santiago. This is the 1000th anniversary of the birth of the saint; this is a jubilee year here. 

 I went to a Vatican choir concert, which I was lucky enough to see.  I had dinner with a German guy; we talked about life, and why we were on camino. 

Santo Domingo is very nice and very tidy, lots of activity on the streets. 

On Saturday, I walked 12km to Castildelgado. I had planned to stay there, but I was disconcerted to learn the only bar was closed on Saturday, and the tiny store closes at 2 pm. However, I waited for the very nice refugio to open, and learned that they cook dinner.   The refugio Bideluxe has a very nice garden area; they washed my clothes, one of the reasons that I chose it.   This was the nicest refugio yet.  

On Sunday, I was first out the door, at dawn, to find a 9 AM mass in Belorado.  When I arrived, I kept asking where the mass was, and finally found the monastery of the Santa Clarissa cloistered nuns. Their singing was quite beautiful. The nuns were behind a metal grill, which they opened for mass, and closed after. The photo showed the closing. I was with Anneta, the Danish kindergarten teacher, who was quite moved by the singing. 

I continued to Villafranca Montes de Oco, where I took a room in a 13th century monastery, now converted to a hotel and refugio. I walked 22km;  I plan to walk 18 km tomorrow, hoping to get to Burgos Tuesday afternoon. 

The camino is a bit of a moving village. You tend to see and have dinner with the same people, day after day, such as the couple from Toronto, Alan and Paula from New Zealand, Patricia the German lady, the Dutch lady, the French group, etc. 

One surprise is that I am speaking more French than Spanish; there are few Spanish pilgrims, unlike in 2002. Amazingly, a couple of people have said that my French was good!

Monday I was on the trail early to Atapuerca, 18 km.  The climb immediately turned very steep, but flattened out later. 

Marker for mass grave

One somber note was the marker for the mass grave from 1936, from the Spanish Civil War; Franco forces executed 300 people. 

There is a UNESCO world heritage site in Atapuerca, a paleontology digging site, but unfortunately it is closed on Monday.

I am staying in a private room at a bar Palomar. 

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Feeling good - Los Arcos to Najera

Los Arcos to Najera

Tuesday I walked most of the day  with a couple from Brazil, São Paulo, very nice. This helped me make it as far as Viana, 18km. It felt good to be walking and feeling OK. I was somewhat tired and sore for the last hour or so. The weather was overcast, with spitting  rain.

Since I had not slept well the previous night, I decided to check into a hotel in Viana, the Hostal San Pedro.  I had a nice lunch, unexpectedly, with a German pilgrim, and her German Kurd  boyfriend. They met Tango dancing.  I went to the pilgrim mass in Viana, and attended a Jesus meditation at a pilgrim gathering center.

Wednesday I walked most of the morning with Karina, a Dutch Social worker. In Logroño, it felt too early in the day to quit, so I pressed on.  In the afternoon, I walked with Lejandro. He is an engineer from South Paulo who is taking a year off, to travel the world.   Total distance today, 22km. 

I have entered La Rioja, the premier wine region in Spain. 

I am so happy that I feel good and that I can walk more than a few km. I am also seeing again certain people that I had seen before, including my Irishman from Derry. 

Hitting my stride, I think. 

I stayed in a refugio In Navarrete with a private room, and a bath down the hall, 20€. There were only three of us in the whole place. 

Thursday, the walk to Najera was 16 km, over the small pass, El Alto de San Anton. Vineyards dominate the landscape. It had rained overnight, but in the morning it was cool, sunny and windy;  we could see fresh snow on the distant peaks. 

In Najera I visited the very good Monastery museum, with the tomb of kings and queens, and another amazing altarpiece. 

I stayed in a regular refugio, the Puerta de Najera, so bunk beds, 8 to a room. It was full; A private room tomorrow sounds good.   I attended the 8 pm pilgrim mass, where the priest invited each of us to go up on the altar, and ring the bell.

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Starting to walk

On Friday I walked to the bus station to catch the  early bus to Estella.  But there was no early bus due to the holiday. I met an Aussi going to the same town.  We waited for the ticket office to open, and got on the 10 am bus.  

I was really dragging when I started walking in Estella. When I sat down, someone stopped and asked if I was OK, so I must have looked bad. I ended up calling and getting a reservation at a nice private refugio in Azqueta, La Perla Negra. I slept until dinner. Dinner at the refugio was the United Nations, Croatia, Brazil, Ireland, Argentina, and more. The crowd was mostly young people, although the nice Irish  lady was 71.  The conversations tended to be in English; the guy from Argentina felt excluded until I asked him in Spanish where he was from. 

Sandi was worried about me, since I was having a hard time. My concern was that there was a bar and refugio at 2 km, in Villamayor de Monjardin, and then nothing for the next 12 km. I resolved to walk the 2 km and decide then. There was a solid climb to the town, and I was dragging. I laid down at the top of the hill. It was obvious that I should stop. I waited for Oasis Trails, the Christian refugio, to open; I was the first pilgrim, and was greeted warmly.  I chatted with other pilgrims while waiting, especially the Irish pilgrim from Derry.   I slept in the afternoon; someone woke me up for dinner.  The dinner was another United Nations.   One of the pilgrims was a 91 year old Frenchman!  His advice was to profit from everything, but not too much of anything.

This refugio is run by a Christian  nondenominational community. I went to their Christian meditation;  I told a couple of the hosts that I was struggling, and they suggested that I stay another night, which is not normally allowed. They also prayed for me. 

I decided that I would stay another night; this will also let me go to the afternoon Easter mass in the village. I hope to be well enough to resume walking on Monday. 

After a day of rest, I felt much better. I also appreciated the emotional and spiritual support of the group.

 I got on the trail Monday morning at dawn. It was a quiet morning with light fog and overcast, but cleared out with the sun. I arrived in Los Arcos after three hours of walking; It felt good to be walking without struggling. I walked 12 km today;  I will walk no further today, since I am recovering. 

The church in Los Arcos is pretty amazing inside, over the top, in a mix of styles. 

I am staying in the Casa de Abuela private refugio, sharing a room with folks from Holland and Toronto. 

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A rough start

The trip started, like many trips. with a middle of the night alarm, a bus ride to the Dever airport in the dark, and some anxiety. 

As as the plane loaded, I saw backbacks with scallop shells shoved into overhead bins.  The family was headed to Geneva Switzerland to start on the way to Santiago. They admitted that they might take a bus at times. 

I had a long layover in the United Club in the Newark airport. The terminal looked shiny and new, but there were no maps of the terminal anywhere!  A work in progress. 

When I headed for the gate, I chatted with Don, also going on Camino. He will start in Pamplona, near where I will start. I may see him on the trail. 

The person in the seat next to me was a university student in Infomatica (computers), from the Canary Islands. The Canary Islands are near Africa but part of Spain. She was on her way back to school, after a vacation in Cuba   

I watched TV programs that I had never seen, including my first episode of Game of Thrones, and a documentary on Meow Wolf. 

I enjoyed a visit to the archaeological myseum. The rock art shown is similar that of the US Southwest. 

I took a nap in the afternoon, but later got sick, and hardly slept. As a consequence, I overslept and missed my train. There were no train tickets to be had, but I was able to get a bus ticket. I just felt trashed.   When I got to Pamplona, I checked into a single room in the Hotel Eslava, and slept most of the afternoon. I decided to stay a second night, try to recover. 

The photo is of the busy streets of the old city. 

I slept most of Thursday, and went to a very high Holy Thursday mass, with washing of the feet. The church was standing room only.   I start walking Friday. 

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Leaving to walk the Camino in Spain

I will leave on April 15th for the Camino a Santiago in Spain.   This is a 1000 year old pilgrimage route.

I will be on the French route, which goes across northern Spain.  (There are/were many routes, from places like Paris or England).

In 2002, I walked 300 km (200 miles) from Leon, Spain to Santiago de Compostella. 

In 2015, I walked 200 km (125 miles) from southern France, across the Pyrenees, to the town of Estella, west of Pamplona Spain.

I have about 330 km left to complete in the middle, from Estella to Leon.  The blue route is what I plan to do.  I will take a train from Madrid to Pamplona, and then a bus to Estella.  I plan to take a train from Burgos to Madrid.

I have decided that 330 km is too much for one trip, given that I am now a senior citizen.   I plan to walk to approximately Burgos, roughly 165 km, or perhaps a little further. 

I plan to post every couple of days or so.  Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers.

Richard