We have been very lucky so far with the weather. At the beginning we had the one beautiful, sunny day to cross the Pyrenees – the weather was quite miserable before and after that day. Since then, we’ve had a bit of rain and a couple cold/windy days, but, overall, really good walking weather.
Today’s walk was about 16 km long, easy, flat walking. We crossed from Palencia into León, and to Sahagún.
It is also worth noting that we’re more than half-way done with our Camino, which only reminds me that we still have almost half left to walk. So I better go to sleep and rest up for another day on the Camino tomorrow.
The walk today was 23 kms. The first 17 were between Carrión de los Condes and Calzadilla de la Cueza. Then another 6 to the place where we’re staying, Albergue La Morena in the town of Ledigos. It is a comfortable albergue, with a good restaurant. We had a very good dinner in the company of two lovely (and lively) ladies from Scotland.
Today’s walk was mostly flat, mainly cool overcast to warmish, very little wind, one brief rain shower. It was almost perfect walking weather, through agricultural fields, with many many wildflowers, and the Camino way-signs.
It’s a weird life this walking from hostel to hostel day after day, no matter what the weather, no matter if you’d rather stay lounging around for a day or two. Very weird. And a bunch of other people from all over the world doing the same thing! Why???
Tomorrow it is on to Sahagún. We will be reaching the end of the Meseta soon.
I grew up eating flan for dessert. I love it! Flan is a custard dessert with a layer of clear caramel sauce. I hadn’t had a good flan for a long time, and hoped to get a good one while on the Camino. Today, for lunch at a cafe in Villalcázar de Sirga, I ordered one for dessert, and it was so good! It made my day.
Otherwise, it was a long, flat walk pretty much all the way along a secondary road, with wheat fields, a couple towns, sun and clouds, many other peregrinos from all over the world. Here are a few pictures from today:
My favourite thing from today (besides the flan) was a sculpture next to a bridge coming out of Frómista. I like to think of it as an Homage to the Nocturnal Peregrine.
May 11 and 12 we walked short distances, 11.3 and 13.9 k. We are “listening to our bodies” and they tell us to take it easy, to slow down and recover. So that’s what we are doing.
The walk from Castrojeriz to Itero de la Vega goes up about 200 metres right out of Castrojeriz, over a hump and into a different valley.
We crossed from the province of Burgos into Palencia. Both Burgos and Palencia are subdivisions of Castilla y León. We were told the province of Palencia was (is??) called “el granero de Europa – Europe’s breadbasket”. Field and fields of wheat!
It is beautiful to watch the wind play with the wheat in the fields, make them ripple like green waves!
In Itero de la Vega, a significant number of storks make their nests on the church’s roof. The parishioners take down the nests because they damage the roof, but the storks come back and rebuild their nests within days.
The storks make noises that sound like a motor:
The walk from Itero de la Vega to Frómista was uneventful. More wheat fields everywhere.
One difference is that many of the fields are irrigated. We walked for quite a while along the Canal de Castilla, a large canal made for irrigation purposes. There even is a tourist boat on the canal!
There were as usual quite a few wildflowers at the edges of the way. I do not get tired of them, especially the poppies!
In Frómista we had a lunch of lentil stew (delicious!) and a glass of Rioja. Jerry also had a bocadillo (sandwich) de jamón ibérico (also delicious).
This evening we’re going to a concert for peregrinos at the local church, San Pedro. Tomorrow it’s on to Carrión de los Condes.
This is the Meseta. I like it a lot so far! It is beautifully lonely and quiet, and, except for the mud, a pleasure for hiking.
When we left Hornillos this morning, it was fantastically foggy. Lovely! It cleared quite quickly, but everything was covered in dew.
We walked a fair bit in rain. And mud. So much mud in some places!
There weren’t many towns along the way, but Hontanas was one of the most beautiful small towns so far on the Camino.
We got to Castrojeriz a bit after 2. Castrojeriz is a bit bigger, and another beautiful place. It has a castle (abandoned?) high above the town. It is quite impressive.
We now are resting at our albergue, ready to march on tomorrow, rain or shine!
We started the long walk over the Meseta. The Meseta is the section between the cities of Burgos and Leon, 180 k distance. It is relatively flat, at fairly high elevation. The town we’re in is at 825 metres. It is a long distance of huge wheat fields, very few trees and small towns. It reminds me a fair bit of Manitoba.
It has been quite cool. The Meseta is known for either being quite cold or way too hot. If it were hot, I don’t know that I could do it. The absence of shade (and water in between towns) is harsh. The cold I can handle. It is quite pleasant to walk in cool weather.
Hornillos del Camino is a small town. It doesn’t take long to go from one end of town to the other:
We stayed at La Casa del Abuelo, a beautiful small hostel:
I had fun looking for architectural details in this town:
We ended the day with a good meal and a Scotch. Another good day on the Camino.
The landscape started to change after Santo Domingo. Almost no vineyards but instead rolling hills with mainly wheat fields.
A big portion of the trail on this sector is next to a highway. The traffic noise (many trucks) was loud.
We walked through a number of small towns: Grañon, Ermita de Carrasquedo, Redecilla del Camino, Castildelgado, Viloria de Rioja, Villamayor del Rio and finally Belorado:
On the way we crossed from Rioja into Castilla y León.
Next morning we took a bus to Burgos. There we stayed at the Albergue Municipal, very close to the huge Cathedral of Burgos.
Yesterday was a rest day. Today we start to walk the Meseta, which extends from Burgos to León. I hope the blisters improve soon!!!
Out of Ventosa we walked first to Nájera, through lots of vineyards:
And also a few sections that looked almost “wild”:
We walked through Nájera and up a hill on the far side of the river, in rain,
and through more vineyards to Santo Domingo de la Calzada:
Santo Domingo at first looked not too interesting. But, after we found our hostel and walked some around town, it turned out to be not only beautiful but quite interesting.
Here is a link to someone else’s blog where he talks about one of the marvellous stories from Santo Domingo:
These last two days have been easy walking except for the sore feet and the blisters. But I think the blisters are finally getting better.
The landscape has been a bit repetitive, the weather cool with a mix of sun, clouds and a bit of rain.
We have had some excellent food, tasty and varied.
The towns and cities are rather similar and yet quite different:
I think I am a bit overwhelmed right now. The different people and languages, the places and foods, it is all becoming a bit mixed up in my head. The walking every day, day after day, it is hard on the feet. I miss my husband and the Kootenays, and my home in the Slocan.
We left Viana fairly early, stopped by a cafe-bar to grab a café con leche,
and walked on to cross from Navarra into Rioja
and into the city of Logroño. This is the Puente de Piedra which crosses the Ebro River and took us into Logroño:
There we were met by a group of men welcoming peregrinos to the city, and to the Shrine of San Gregorio, an important saint for the people of Logroño. One of them took a picture of us and another preregrina (from France) together with some of the volunteers in their customes:
Logroño is a beautiful city! It reminded me a bit of parts of Buenos Aires in Argentina.
Here is a very appropriate mural in the city:
We visited the Concatedral de Santa Maria de la Redonda, a splendorous Catholic church that had, among other things, a small painting by Michelangelo.
We splurged for dinner and ate a sumptuous meal outdoors at one of the many restaurants in the area.
We had:
– Croquetas caseras de boletus (mushroom croquettes)
– Patatas bravas
– Espárragos blancos
– Ensalada de tomate
And Rioja wine (tasty!)
And for dessert we shared a piece of tarta de queso:
Ursula's Photos 