Today we had an early start which works best for us. Chris is walking with us and will be rooming at the same hotel as us. Everything is booked up so we were fortunate to get a room reserved ahead of time.
We continue walking through the Meseta which are endless crops of wheat, barley and oats as far as the eye can see. I thought it was going to be barren but once again it is quite lush. As we get closer to Castrojerez the terrain changes to have more trees and a dirt trail that wound around a hill. Today's wildlife of the day are butterflies of all kinds of colors .
After a brief rest at St Anton ruins before the final entry into Castrojerez with a castle on a hill and a church and town nestled below. Even though it was a short day I was really glad to land at our hotel and have some time to wash clothes, blog and rest my rebellious appendages.
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Saturday, May 9, 2015
May 9, 2015 Day 14 - Hornillos --> Castrojeriz 21K
May 9, 2015 Day 14 - Hornillos --> Castrojeriz 21K
Breakfast of toast and café con leche at the mill house at 7:00 am. Then we were driven back to Hornillos, and started walking the Camino at 7:45 am. Cool, clear day ahead.
The day began with dirt paths along rocky fields. More like rolling hills, rather than mountainous terrain. Wind turbines in the distance. We stopped every hour or so for a waster break and just to sit a minute. Donna said that her suspected shin splint felt better after icing the night before, and she seemed to be walking more normal.
At around 11:00 am, we stopped in Hontanas for coffee and a light snack. There we met Peter from Australia, and had a nice visit. Hontanas was a fairly small town. But what struck me was how clean it was, and the number of nice looking little albergues. Chris is mentally preparing us to stop shortly before or shortly after the main towns to avoid some of the crowding issues. This is the same strategy that my friend LaDonna told me she and her Camino family adopted. Hontanas is the perfect example of such a town.
After Hontanas, the path took us into and alongside small hills. At times, the path was a little rocky, which is hard on the feet. Still, we plodded on. Saw a few pilgrims in what I call the second group - many of the first group we started with have taken rest days and so we are now seeing a different group of recurring faces.
One of the highlights of the day was seeing blue butterflies. Also, the windflowers lining the path were gorgeous - yellow, blues, red poppies, lavender...
We stopped briefly at the ruins of an old church in San Anton, before making the final push to Castrojeriz. As we headed into town, old ruins at the top of the hill, and a cathedral at the entrance to the town stood out. My feet were starting to get that end of the day achy feeling, and I could tell Donna was ready to stop as well.
We found our hotel around 1:30 pm, a quaint and charming place situated on the side of a hill. Turns out they put Donna, Chris and me in what is essentially a 2 bedroom apartment with private shower. Very spacious and comfortable. After settling in, we headed for the ATM and grocery store. Ran into Peter from Australia again. Then had the whole afternoon to relax and visit. I worked on the blog. We met Gwen, also from Holland, and Sheila from Scotland/Great Britain, who joined us for dinner. Sheila has done several cross country bicycle rides across the U.S., including the Southern Tier which went through Austin. It was a fun evening with a delightful group of women, and we laughed a lot as we shared our Camino stories.
Donna and Chris plotted tomorrow's hike to Fromista - a little longer than today. Rather than book ahead, we have agreed to Chris' approach of proceeding in faith that we will find the place we are to stay.
Buen Camino!
Kim
May 8, 2015 Day 13 Burgos --> Hornillos del Camino - 21K
May 8, 2015 Day 13 - Burgos --> Hornillos del Camino - 21K
Left Steve and Leon after a sad goodbye and headed uphill on the Camino. It wasn't more than a few steps uphill before we came upon an albergue where pilgrims were sitting outside eating breakfast. There beaming and waving at us was Lotta, from Denmark, who was flying home today after her 2 week "experimental" Camino - I have no doubt she will return. We walked with her yesterday. Also saw Patrick from Australia that we walked with for a while last week.
A few more steps and we came to the famous cathedral. Gorgeous. Unusual in the sense that you would expect a large plaza or courtyard out front, but just a small area and the cathedral itself was closely surrounded by other buildings.
We continued to wind around and down the streets of Burgos, through lovely parks and eventually reached the outskirts of town, where we then transferred into dirt and gravel paths. It was quite cool and overcast, although it did not appear that any rain was in sight. Just after leaving the immediate Burgos area, we came upon a bridge crossing a highway where a woman named Maria stopped us to help point out how to navigate upcoming construction. Having hiked the Camino 16 years ago, she now considers it her "nourishment" to assist present-day pilgrims. She asked where we were from, and when I said Austin, Texas, she grinned broadly and said, "Ah..the capital of Texas."
Shortly after we left Maria, a woman walking quite briskly and efficiently caught up with us and said Maria told her to follow us as to the upcoming route. My immediate impression was that this woman was quickly leaving us in her dust, and we would not see her again any time soon. However, she started walking with me, and we had a very compatible walking speed. When it bacame apparent that we would be walking together for a while, we introduced ourselves. Her name was Chris, and she is from Holland. Same age as me, and we seem to have a lot in common. She left her job with the government about a year ago and is starting her own type of personal training / life coach business. She even attended 1 1/2 years of law school at one time. Chris started the Camino at about the same time we started, then ran into some major blister problems. She ended up taking the bus from Estella to Najera to give her feet a break. Now on the mend, she is moving along quite nicely in my estimation. She is also blogging her trip, and raising funds for an organization doing research to treat and cure certain blindnesses.
By now, we had all settled into a certain gait for the day, and it appeared that Chris was walking with us. We stopped mid-morning for coffee and a snack in Tarjados. Chris took a picture of Donna and me in front of a map that showed the route we are on, and Donna and I pointed to our location with our trekking poles.
On we hiked through what is called the Meseta. I think this considered a sort of desert portion of the Camino. More rocky terrain and views, although still plenty of green and wild flowers.
Our destination for the evening was Hornillos del Camino. When we called ahead from Burgos, we learned that all the albergues were booked. However, Donna spoke with this very helpful gentleman who said there was a place we could stay about 7 K from Hornillos. They would send a shuttle to pick us up and return us the next morning to resume the walk. Donna went ahead and reserved 2 beds, although we had no idea what this meant, or how Spartan, or whether food was available, or...anything.
Walking into Hornillos was yet another of those stunning views that take your breath away, with an added bonus. I was walking just behind 4 men - 3 Irishmen and 1 Scot - they started excitedly looking up and pointing at this bird. I thought it was probably a hawk of some sort, but when I asked one of the gentlemen told me it was an Imperial Eagle - the largest eagle in this part of Spain. For the next 5-10 minutes we all watched as several of the eagles floated and soared above us before heading off to what appeared a nesting area. It was awesome. I tried to take a couple of pictures, but they were just too high up and too far to get a good one.
Thus exhilarated, we traipsed the remaining K or so into town and found the gentleman who was to call our ride to the place we were staying. Chris asked if there was room for one more and decided to go with us. On the way out, I asked Donna how much it would cost, since I did not know whether they would take a credit card or if we would have to pay cash. She said she didn't ask - she had done good just communicating in enough Spanish on the phone to get the reservation. (I have to give Donna cudos for the way she been able to communicate in Spanish and arrange for places to stay, food, etc). In any event, I was praying for a nice place to stay - but not too nice in case we didn't have enough money. What we came to was nothing short of a mirage-like experience. Case Rural Min..A rustic old mill house out in the country that was nothing short of awesome. Gorgeous, with a huge lush lawn out back, a roaring fire in the entrance, a large dining table, and a nicely appointed room with our own bathroom. Chris and Donna and I had a nice afternoon tea/wine and cheese break. Dinner was a traditional Spanish meal (I think) and a little challenging for Donna and I. However, I did venture out and try the Burgos Black Pudding - told Chris I did not want to know what was in it.
Turned in fairly early. Donna's blisters appear to be healing and doing better. But what we think may be shin splints was causing a lot of pain. She was able to get some ice from the mill house people, and hopefully that will help. Tomorrow is another relatively short 21k/ 13 miles to Castrojeriz. Donna continues to forward her backpack to take some of the stress off her feet and legs. We went ahead and booked a hotel room for tomorrow night because, once again, albergues and other accommodations are hard to find right now because of May festivals, etc. I told Chris we had found fairly reasonable rooms and she went ahead and booked a room as well. If Chris continues to walk with us, we are going to try the "faith" approach and not book ahead, in hopes of finding something better than the monastery, but more reasonable than hotels. Chris is determined to help Donna learn to let go and "experience" life a little more without planning. To Donna's credit, she has been more and more willing to be open to different ways of doing things. Really listening to these Camino Angels who seemed to have been strategically placed to assist and encourage her on this journey. It has been fun to watch, and I am really proud of her.
It seems like we are getting more and more into our daily rhythm. My legs and feet are getting more and more used to the walking, although my feet do still hurt at the end of the day. The good news is that each morning everything usually feels near normal to start, and I am encouraged.
Buen Camino!
Kim
Donna - May 8, 2015 Burgos --> Hornillos - 21K
After an early morning and sad departure from Leon and Steve, Kim and I struck out on our next stage, We passed the magnificent Burgos cathedral, It was quite impressive but strangely had the neighborhood right next to the church with no grand courtyard that you would expect for this icon,
Our trail wound itself through parks and past Medieval structures and statues eventually leading out to the country trails. Along the way we encountered Maria who was an ex pilgrim 16 years ago and voluntarily stood at a crossroad to guide pilgrims around some new construction,
We took a break at Tardajos which was a small town with a map of the camino route and where we had arrived - it looked like we were about halfway.
After an early arrival in Hornillos, we stopped at Hostal de sol a sol to retrieve my pack that had been forwarded. Samuel the owner and I had spoken via phone the previous night and he graciously arranged for us to be transported 7km to another hostel and had already sent my bag there for me. Apparently some of "The Way" film crew stayed both with Samuel and at the overflow Hostal that we sent to because they had personally signed posters from Emilio Estevez and Martin Sheen with a scene from the movie
Rodrigo who was originally from Brazil transported us to an old mill house that was a real oasis. The whole family made our stay a real pleasure. It was nice to hear Portuguese spoken again.
We have linked up now with Chris from Holland who is a life coach in Holland, She is working on making me more faith based and less planning in my approach. I told her I would try to evolve more once my shin splint got a bit better and I wasn't hurting so much at the end of the day. Last thing I need right now is to add mileage wandering around looking for shelter for the night. She said that the blisters and shin splint was my bodies way of forcing me to slow down - mission accomplished!
During the group dinner with folks from all over the planet we had a great conversation with Brian from Ireland who was 78 years old and was on his 6th camino, I asked what got him interested in doing the camino initially and he said he lost his wife and the kids were smothering him (trying to protect him) so he struck out to get away on his own.
I was very inspired by his zest for life - not sure it will manifest it in another camino however!
Tomorrow another short day thank goodness to Castrojerez
Sent from my iPhone
Our trail wound itself through parks and past Medieval structures and statues eventually leading out to the country trails. Along the way we encountered Maria who was an ex pilgrim 16 years ago and voluntarily stood at a crossroad to guide pilgrims around some new construction,
We took a break at Tardajos which was a small town with a map of the camino route and where we had arrived - it looked like we were about halfway.
After an early arrival in Hornillos, we stopped at Hostal de sol a sol to retrieve my pack that had been forwarded. Samuel the owner and I had spoken via phone the previous night and he graciously arranged for us to be transported 7km to another hostel and had already sent my bag there for me. Apparently some of "The Way" film crew stayed both with Samuel and at the overflow Hostal that we sent to because they had personally signed posters from Emilio Estevez and Martin Sheen with a scene from the movie
Rodrigo who was originally from Brazil transported us to an old mill house that was a real oasis. The whole family made our stay a real pleasure. It was nice to hear Portuguese spoken again.
We have linked up now with Chris from Holland who is a life coach in Holland, She is working on making me more faith based and less planning in my approach. I told her I would try to evolve more once my shin splint got a bit better and I wasn't hurting so much at the end of the day. Last thing I need right now is to add mileage wandering around looking for shelter for the night. She said that the blisters and shin splint was my bodies way of forcing me to slow down - mission accomplished!
During the group dinner with folks from all over the planet we had a great conversation with Brian from Ireland who was 78 years old and was on his 6th camino, I asked what got him interested in doing the camino initially and he said he lost his wife and the kids were smothering him (trying to protect him) so he struck out to get away on his own.
I was very inspired by his zest for life - not sure it will manifest it in another camino however!
Tomorrow another short day thank goodness to Castrojerez
Sent from my iPhone
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