Via Lemovicensis: the Long Walk into Burgos

A late start today. The plan was for a relatively short day ending in a hotel (such luxury!), and the municipal albergue didn’t even start breakfast until 7 AM. 

I woke to a text from my sister saying that my mother is in hospital. It does not appear to be life-threatening, but if you are the praying type, please spare a moment in your mercy for her.

By 7:05, breakfast was still not served. In fact, there appeared to be nobody here at all. Herve and I left the village five minutes later, cranky with no breakfast or coffee.

It was cold enough that I actually wore my fleece, though the sky was largely bare of clouds, so the afternoon would probably be pretty warm.

We were on asphalt for a while, and then the Camino briefly diverted off onto a lovely little gravel path through trees and fields before returning to the asphalt.

Of all of the symptoms of CJD, the most disturbing is almost certainly the hallucinations. For Francine, these were often accompanied by fear or terror. 

And what can you do? You can comfort her, tell her that things she sees aren’t real. But there comes a time when she couldn’t tell us what she saw. All we could see were her reactions, wide eyes and inarticulate screams.

If I’m honest, I’m angry that this disease first attacked the words of a writer, and then the fine motor skills of a crafter, and then the legs of a hiker. Anger I can deal with. We generally learn to manage anger as small children, and we continue to make a practice of it as adults.

But I am absolutely haunted by the terrors, and there’s no way to manage that.

We arrived in the village of Atapuerca just past 7:35. Humans have been living here for more than 800,000 years. The archaeological site here is also the oldest evidence of human cannibalism.

After a bit of looking around, we finally got our breakfast in a little corner shop here: instant coffee, yogurt, prepackaged croissant. 

By the time we finished, it was already too warm for the fleece.

After the village, it was back to the gravel road through the hills. We had one fairly large climb right after the village, but it was the last hurrah.

The path was dirt, but it was full of rocks and stones, most half buried, but some loose. In places, the path was simply bare rock. It was slow going.

The hills are already starting to flatten out in anticipation of the coming Meseta.

To a right was the growth of short, almost stunted trees, perhaps olives. To our left was a tangle of rusty barbed wire.

We finally arrived at the top at about 8:40. The top of the hill was a wide bare spot, surmounted by a wooden cross. The barbed wire area now had a sign indicating a prohibited military zone.

We crossed the little plateau, and we were rewarded with a panorama of the valley below. Through the trees, we could see the city of Burgos stretching off into the distance below. Even from this distance I could pick out the cathedral.

It was now about 8:45, and we began the downward trek on much the same kind of terrain as the upward, so much shorter.

The Camino joined a gravel road which took down into a shallow valley and the hamlet of Villalval. A steady breeze kept us cool, and the windmills on the hill above turned lazily.

We arrived in the village at about 9:10. A little church here is crumbling to a ruin, though it appears there are some efforts being made to shore it up and restore it.

After the village, we roadwalked on asphalt to the next village, Cardeñuela Riopico, where we arrived at about 9:30. Here we took a proper breakfast.

After this it was again roadwalking to the next village, the very tidy Orbaneja Riopico, where we arrived about 10:40 AM. I found a lot of unexpected whimsy here.

The road walking continued, and it even included a little dirt path leading to a narrow walkway on a bridge over a major highway. I did not enjoy this at all.

At just about 11 AM, we left the main Camino route for an alternate way into the city. In my memory, the turnoff was in an industrial park, but it actually appears to be a modern housing complex. Or possibly a prison.

We were on a gravel road now, they took us out into empty farmland and around the Burgos airport. There was no breeze now, and the temperature was climbing. I put my umbrella up at about 11:10.

Walking the airport fence at Burgos is not one of the more glamorous parts of the Camino.

After making it past the airport, the gravel road entered the town of Castañares. This is a fairly substantial town, and the Camino enters it past a junkyard and a water tower before going into a residential neighborhood.

Here, we prepared to resort to GPS. Three years ago, the alternate route we were taking was not very well marked through the town, and it took me a long time to find, not to mention the help of a friendly Vietnamese family. I don’t know what kind of guidebook they have in Vietnam, but it’s absolutely the best.

This time, there were a plethora of new signs, and very soon we were walking a dirt road through the trees towards the riverfront park. We crossed an old rusting footbridge over the Río Arlanzón and encountered our first dog walker.

After this, it was a tree-lined asphalt trail along the busy A-1 highway. We met numerous walkers along this way.

We passed under the highway on a bridge along the river at about noon. The path was now dirt with patches of grass and gravel. Sometimes this would deteriorate to simply a dirt foot path through the grass before widening out again.

Soon we were walking through a kind of forest preserve.

The river was a constant presence over the bushes and brambles to our right.

At about 12:10, the Camino merged onto an asphalt bike path. Walkers and bicyclists were a constant presence now. We took a little rest on a nearby park bench.

As we continued, we passed it appeared to be a walking club – everybody in the group was walking with sticks, though no packs. Memorably, one woman had a hat that read “zeppelin rental”.

At about 12:40, we started seeing buildings on the other side of the river, high rises even. The forest gradually disappeared in favor of open parkland with playgrounds. The path we were on was now primarily a pedestrian walkway, and there was a bike path immediately next to it.

This long promenade is a fascinating place to people watch.

At about 1 PM, Herve crossed one of the bridges to go to his hotel. I continued on through the park towards the old medieval center of the city.

At some point, I got off the promenade to walk the dirt path closer to the riverbank for a while.

By 1:20 PM, I was up on the sidewalk and I could clearly see the cathedral spires. Five minutes later, I was crossing the bridge into the old city. The old city gate never fails to impress.

Francine once told me that there were only two cities in Spain where she could live: Santiago and Burgos.

After passing through the gate I took a moment to admire the wonder that is the Catedral de Santa Maria de Burgos. I plan to visit properly tomorrow morning. For now, lunch was in order. Fortunately, I knew just the place, and a few minutes later I was having a cana and pinchos at Café-Bar Avatar. 

As I ate my morcilla and watched the people in the plaza, I realized again how much I missed Francine. This is one of the parts of the Camino that she loved: relaxing at an outdoor café and watching Spain unfold.

After I checked into my hotel and showered, I had a phone conversation with my parents and Sister. It was good, but we’ll know more tomorrow.

Then I spent some time exploring the city. I needed to get a new hiking shirt, as one of mine has developed some unfortunate holes. 

As I walked through Burgos, I was struck by how alive the city is. This is a Monday evening, and the streets were absolutely full. The cafés, restaurants, bars with their outdoor seating were packed with people. Many of the shops were open, and people were coming in and going out or just window shopping. 

Children walked the city streets with ice cream in their hands, or squealed and chased after each other in some version of tag.

I had dinner in a tapas place with Herve and Marcel from the Netherlands. I first met Marcel at Beilari in Saint-Jean, and we just keep running into each other.

Date: 01 June 2026

Place: Burgos 

Today started: Agés 

Today’s Photos!