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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