Day 19 (10/7) - Hornillos del Camino to Castrojeriz (19.8km)

Sleeping last night in bunkbed filled room, atlhough "only" 6 beds and 12 people was a change from our private room in Burgos and I don't think we got great night's sleep. Early morning was cool and foggy and the walk was quite nice.


Again, a vew quite like eastern Washington.

The path into Hontanas where we saw a Polish couple that we met on our first day and have seen fairly often on the camino.


At San Anton there was ruins of a convent.

Castrojeriz is a very "long" narrow town with ruins of a castle on the hilltop.

Castrojeriz wraps around the lower part of the hill with castle ruins at the top.

There are quite a few albergues, casa rurals, etc. and we found a nice casa rural named El Veredero with double room for 35 euros. A private bath, double bed and real towels is a luxury and the place seems like new.

Location:Castrojeriz,Spain

Day 18 (10/6) - Burgos to Hornillos del Camino (22.4km)

Left Hotel Jacobeo and stopped at the bar across from the municipal albergue for a quick breakfast and then headed out of town. The way out of Burgos is much easier to follow than when arriving and we enjoyed the walk through quiet neighborhoods. Finally reached the countryside and we are now walking through the famous (or infamous) meseta that we will be walking across for the next week or so. Stopped for second breakfast and spilt a bocadillo tortilla queso (cheese omelette in a baguette - yummy) and continued onwards. The route climbed up to the meseta and it reminded us of eastern Washington around the palouse and near Cindy's home. Arrived in Hornillos del Camino around 1:30 and were lucky to get beds in a private albergue there. Just bunks and we both are in top beds but still a nice little place.



Rabe de las Calzadas, 13km west of Burgos



Typical pathway today in the meseta




View as we descend into today's destination. Looks much like wheat farming country in eastern Washington state where Cindy grew up.



We were fortunate to find bunks in this small private albergue,
El Alfar de Hornillos. Dinner included paella.

Location:Hornillos del Camino, Spain

Day 17 (10/5) - Burgos "rest day"

No hiking today but we did walk 12km around town sightseeing. We toured the huge cathedral this morning and that included a rather nice "audio guide" so we learned quite a bit. Then lunch and checked into a nice little hotel (Jacobeo. They run a pension and a hotel and we were originally supposed to be in the budget pension but when we checked in they discovered that the previous night's guest was still in our room and quite drunk. So, they gave us a room in the hotel at the same price. We saw a parade related to the El Cid festival, toured a monastery and then hit 4 tapas bars for dinner. All in all a great day!
Burgos Cathedral Tour.



Looking up at beautiful "ceiling"


El Cid statue and festival pix below




Tapas,

Lambretta scooter with sidecar!

Tapas bar scene at night

Location:Burgo, Spain

Day 16 (10/4) - Cardenuela to Burgos (15.5km)

We left our albergue in Cardenuela and walked with Jane & Shelley from Victoria, BC area. It rained on us but not too heavily. Taking the best route into Burgos can be confusing and we missed our first intersection but only went 400M past. There are several signposted routes and most of them follow highways but we wanted to follow the river route from Castanares and finding where that branched off the main route was not well marked. The path along the rio Arlanzon was quite nice and as we entered the city it we followed it until just across from the big cathedral. We ran into Cam and Susan (fellow pilgrims we've seen in several cities) in the square near the cathedral and they helped us get oriented. We learned that there is an El Cid festival in town this weekend (today is Friday). We want to spend two nights here, taking a rest day, but can only stay one night in the pilgrims' albergue (as per common restrictions) so we booked a room in a nearby hostal for tomorrow night. After getting settled in to the large municipal albergue (5 euro each!) near the cathedral, we went tapas bar hopping for a late lunch. Dinner was in city square area. They shut the front doors to the pilgrims' albergue at 10pm so we cannot stay out late.



Pathway along the river leading into Burgos


Old city gate leading into the cathedral area


In front of the Cathedral de Burgos


Nice tapa bar - wine or tapas around $2 each.


Lady selling olives at street fair.

Location:Burgos, Spain

Day 15 (10/3) - Villafranca Montes de Oca to Cardenuela (24.7km)

We started a bit later as we were warned that there was a steep, rocky, uneven path but that was only for a few hundred yards and then we were on a gravel road for most of the day - although quite steep for the first few miles. The guide book had shown a very difficult profile but it was actually quite pleasant.





We got to San Juan de Ortega in pretty good time and had lunch at a bar there and continued onwards and deciding how far to go for the day.







Ages seemed quite nice as well as Atapuerca where we stopped for a cerveza con limon but we met two canadian women and they mentioned an albergue another 6km onwards so we called, made a reservation and stopped in Cardenuela at a nice private albergue where we got a double room with private bath plus dinner and breakfast for 41 euros! It had washer and drier at reasonable pricing so we did laundry in style, rather than hand washing a few things as usual. Dinner was great as well.

Location:Cardenuela Riopico, Spain

Day 14 (10/2) - Belorado to Villafranca Montes de Oca (13km)

Had a leisurely "wakeup", listening to the heavy rain on the skylights and then nice light breakfast at albergue and hit the trail at 8am in full rain gear. It had stopped raining by then and simply threatened most of the morning but did not rain on us. There are "footprints" and "handprints" cast into the stones of the streets in front. I first noticed those of Miguel Indurain and then saw Emilio Estevez's. Martin Sheen's is apparently nearby as well.






Although our decision/dream of walking the Camino was already a reality, "The Way" did influence many Americans to walk the Camino. We will need to re-view the movie after we return to the USA. The path seemed much easier today and we stopped for "2nd breakfast" at a bar and continued to Villafranca Montes do Oca with an eye on continuing on over the range of big hills.



Sunflower field.


Note the "faces" that passing pilgrims have created on the sunflowers.



However, common sense prevailed and we decided to have a short day of 13km. Continuing would have been fairly strenuous and another 12km to a small monastery and we decided it made more sense to stop here and put in a long day tomorrow. We found an albergue that's attached to the rather nice Hotel San Anton Abad and settled in for a relaxing afternoon.


Albergue is attached & behind a nice hotel.


These bunkbeds above were 5 euro each and probably 20 bunks in one room. Pilgrims are somewhat notorious snorers!


We opted for the single beds, not exactly private since they are only separated from adjacent by a low partition but still a bit nicer -- 10 euros apiece. Unlike many places, the men and women do not share a bathroom here.

Not too much to do here other than relax and drink wine -- as if that's a bad thing! We just had two glasses of "Crianza" (aged red wine - Rioja in this case) and the woman also brought us each a small cup of garlic soup (sopa de ajo) - 3 euro for the 2 glasses of wine. We had a very nice "pilgrim's menu" dinner here in the hotel with three other pilgrims from the USA that we have seen often.

Location:Villafranca Montes de Oca, Spain

Day 13 (10/1) - Granon to Belorado (19km)

It looked like our albergue host did not get up to fix us breakfast so we decided to hit the trail. The route out of town seemed obvious and there was one signpost, and it was still a bit dark. Anyway, the direct and obvious route was WRONG. We were 2.5km out of town and entered a village that did not seem correct. Cindy talked to an old man and we were indeed on the wrong road. He gave some directions that Cindy understood and Google Maps confirmed. We were up the wrong valley so continued a bit and then crossed the ridge on a dirt road (pix below) and reached a town on the camino -- and it even had a bar with breakfast!



Then it was windy and a bit rainy most of the way to Belorado. It was a fairly short day of 19km but still found myself dragging at the end. We found a nice albergue (Cuatro Cantones) and are in a room with "only" 3 bunk beds and its own bath. After cleaning up we went to a bar on the town square for tapas and wine and ran into Paul and Ellen again so had a nice visit. Also saw Cam, Susan and Bennie again. Now, back in albergue in the common room drinking wine and catching up on our blogs. The pilgrim dinner was one of the best we've had at albergues - Albergue Cuatro Cantones (4 Cantones -- family members).

Location:Belorado, Spain