Walking the Camino de Santiago
Today is only my second rest day of this Camino, and I’m spending it in Burgos, one of my two favorite cities in Spain. Despite my best efforts to sleep in, I was awake promptly at 5:30. I did my very best to get back to sleep. I finally wandered down for breakfast after 7:30. Then it was the 3L’s: […]
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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 […]
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This morning was a good news/bad news kind of situation. The good news is that the heat wave may finally have broken. Today was supposed to be much cooler than yesterday. The bad news is that the municipal albergue in today’s destination, San Juan de Ortega, was almost certainly closed. As I understand it, the company that’s run it for […]
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Somehow, Herve and I left right about 6 AM. The air was cool, and the sun had not yet risen. Herve and I walked together and talked together for most of the day. Behind us as we left the city, the cathedral bell tower was clothed in mist. About 6:15 we crossed the bridge over the Río Oro. The original […]
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Throughout this pilgrimage, I have several times had to adjust my schedule to Plan B for various stages. Today is the first time I’m going to Plan C. My original plan for today was to take a variant to visit San Millán de la Cogolla. Unfortunately, this would require a 30 km day tomorrow, almost entirely on an asphalt road […]
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Last night my roommates were Herve, Tom, and Mattie. This morning at breakfast, I talked with one of the hospitaleras, and she let me pin one of Francine’s cards to the hospitalero message board in the kitchen. Tom and Mattie left slightly before us, but Herve and I were out the door at about 6:20. It was already warm outside. […]
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This morning I slightly overslept, and Herve and I left about 6:30 – half an hour after I wanted to leave. The morning air was cold, but there was no cloud in the sky and the day I promised heat. We walked through the old town gate, through the newer part of the village, and passed the cemetery. The Camino […]
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Tom left first, at 6:05 AM. Herve and I were just a few minutes behind him. Of course, half the albergue had emptied out before then. It was cool in the dimly-lit streets of Estella, but the forecast called for the heat wave to continue at least through the end of the week. We soon passed through the gate out […]
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By 5 AM the pilgrims were everywhere stirring in the albergue, and within half an hour, many of them were already packed and getting ready to go. by 5:45 AM, many had already hit the road.The sun wouldn’t rise for another half hour. The heat had made early morning converts of us all.While I had no intention of leaving until […]
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Somehow Herve and I were actually up and out 6:05. We walked out of the old town and into the more modern sections of Pamplona. Even where there were towering modern apartment blocks, in the distance I could hear a rooster crow. Four times I’ve walked out of Pamplona. I have never failed to get lost at least briefly. At […]
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