Dave's Travel Blog

I didn’t blog yesterday because there was not one thing I wanted to remember about yesterday.  A complete throw away day.  It could have been because it was one long straight 16 mile walk with little in between or maybe it was the awful Jaques de Molay albergue we stayed in last night.  Awful because we were told that dinner started at 7 PM and we arrived at 6:55 and it looked like folks were already 1/3 through the meal.  The lady serving looked at us and told us to wait a bit and thirty minutes later, didn’t even acknowledge us.  Ruth asked her again and was told to wait again and nothing…I had already gone back to the room as I had no confidence in the place.  Unfortunately, there is absolutely nothing else in this town for food options. If anyone stumbles upon this blog that plans to walk the Camino, I would strongly recommend that you don’t go to the Jaques de Molay hostel.  Instead, walk another 3 km to the town of Moratinos as there are plenty of much better options there. But I didn’t know what beforehand. 

Today’s walk started great and I was feeling as good as I’ve felt in a while.  However, by the 20km we were all dragging…maybe because we didn’t have dinner last night.  I did have two breakfasts this morning to make up for it, but that didn’t seem to help.

We made it to the halfway point when we reached the town of Sahagun and we received a halfway certificate at the Santuario de la Virgen Peregrina church.  We then high tailed it out of town and slowly made our way to the town of Bercianos where we are staying at the hostel Rivero, which is really nice.  I hope we get dinner tonight.

Just an observation: I remember reading before I started this about the spiritual nature of the trip and the friends you will make along the way.  There are moments of that and we have met some good people.  But what doesn’t seem to be mentioned much is that it can be crowded…too crowded. And to be honest, you get tired of seeing the same people and hearing the same voices. Particularly annoying are the kids.  You just know that their parents gave them a boatload of money to get rid of them for the summer and they all seemed to have headed to Spain…lucky is.  I hate them. I guess not the best thing to admit on a walk like this…lol. 

Oh, well. We keep moving forward and look forward to our rest day in Leon. We also may finally ship our packs to our next destination tomorrow and walk with daypacks. I hope we are able to.

Some pics from today (none from yesterday’s throw away day):

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Because we had an 18 mile walk yesterday and were ahead of schedule, we only had a 10 mile walk to Carrion de los Condes today.  However, I think yesterday’s walk took it out of us as this walk felt like it was 18 miles.  My hip and feet felt awful most of the way.  We will reach the large city of Leon on Monday where we will spend two days, including our first rest day.  It can’t come soon enough.

Not much notable about today’s walk.  We took the “scenic” route near the river, but I don’t recall anything particularly scenic about it. A long 4 mile straight path over uneven ground followed by another long uneven dirt path through the woods.  It killed my feet and almost killed my will to go on.

There were a few scenic sections.  I think I mentioned this before, but sometimes you reach a landscape where it’s almost like you were dropped in the middle of the technicolor Land of Oz.  The colors just jump out at you.  

But still, despite the challenges and pain, we persevere and keep moving forward. We are staying in a nice place today with private rooms.  It is run by the Phillipian Sister of Carrion.

Some pics of today:

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Steep decent on our way to Poblacion de Campos

Since we had some relatively short days lately, we decided to push ourselves today and walk a little further than normal.  We planned to walk past Frómista, where most folks stay and settle in the town of Poblacion de Campos. It was a great idea in theory, but a bit of a struggle in practice.  The day started with a 3km walk out of Castrojeriz, then a very step  half mile 12 degree climb back to the Meseta, followed by an equally steep decent into one of the most wide open plains I have even seen. 

The rest of the day, was along seemingly never ending straight dirt roads that disappeared into the distance.  Making it worse was the constant headwind that we had to walk in…all 30 km to Poblacion de Campos.  It was both mentally and physically draining. Once again, not many places to stop for food.

The hotel had a nice hot shower and I made sure that I took enough ibuprofen to deal with all of the aches and pains. My feet were a nice shade of purple after all of this.  

As a reward for the extra effort today, we only have to walk 15 km tomorrow…a little over 9 miles. 

Pics for the day:

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Yesterday’s stay in Hornillos was nice and we had a great time at dinner with some of the friends we have made, but the sleeping situation with 12 people in a room was not great. Not as bad as the aubergue we stayed in when we first started, but there was no air circulation at all.

I have not been 100% the last few days…coughing and mild flu symptoms. This morning, though, it took me a while to get going. Having to walk 10 kilometers before we could find a place with food didn’t help.

Then we hit a stretch of mud from yesterday’s rain storms and it sucked more of the life out of me. Thankfully, the last part of the hike into the town of Castrojeriz was spectacularly beautiful with wildflowers everywhere. The place we are staying is also top notch with a quiet room for three.

Some pics from today:

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The photo above reminds me of the Wizard of Oz…follow the yellow brick road. This is the day we enter the Spanish Meseta. We left Burgos around 7:30 am after having a fairly decent hotel breakfast. Sine Burgos is so big, it took us almost an hour of walking before we left the city.

Today was a nice walk with great scenery as we entered the Maseta, a high Spanish plain that we will be walking across for the next week as we make our way toward Leon. will will be staying two days in Leon and it will be the first time we use one of our two planned rest days.

Today’s walk was relatively easy except for the beginning and end. Right knee pain to start and to end. The entrance into the town we are staying in tonight, Hornillos de Camino, included a very steep decent about two kilometers from the town. My right knee was screaming. On flat ground and hills, I am perfectly fine. We were able to find accommodations easily at the Meeting House. We are usually ahead of the walking pack and it makes finding a place easier.

We got a loaf of bread today from a tiny bakery in a tiny town along the way.  The whole purchase reminded me of the “Soup Nazi” episode from Seinfeld.  The lady proprietor was very strict with the entire process, including the way she wanted to be paid.  She did not want to be handed the money directly.  The money had to be placed in a small wicker tray or “no bread for you!”

We have a hotel reservation for tomorrow, so there is no rush to get to our next destination  

Some pics from today:

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