You can walk on the Camino talking to others. You can walk while hearing lectures or having books read to you. You can walk while listening to music. Or you can just walk by yourself daydreaming. Today was a day for daydreaming. Continue reading
Boredom creeps into the Camino. It can’t seem to be avoided. The towns and villages, and churches, begin to blur in memory and become indistinguishable. Each new place is experienced as a déjà vu. Continue reading
I left our Burgos hotel at 6:00 a.m., leaving Lee to sleep. Pilgrims were already gathering outside of a café across from an albergue, just 100 meters up the street. I got some coffee and yogurt. Then seeing two young people setting off, I decided to follow them, lessening the mystery of finding the right route out of town. Continue reading
Burgos is only 50 km from Belorado. About 30 miles. I certainly could have walked it in two days. However, the best itinerary for lodging would have had me walk 18 miles that first day. That seemed too much given the steep ascent into the Oca Mountains. Continue reading
It has been 10 months since I left the Camino to return home to Washington, DC, to be with my wife. Lee, who was to have cardiac bypass surgery. That surgery was successful, and she has completely recovered. So, I have now returned to the Camino to finish what I started. This time, Lee is with me. Not to walk. She’s not up to that yet. But to meet me at each town and share the pilgrim experience that surrounds the walking. Below is a continuation of the account of, now, our journey.
The Camino is not easy to get to from the United States. When I started in St. Jean last August, it required planes, buses, trains, and automobiles. This time, our destination was Logroño, a city near where I had left off. We flew from Washington-Dulles airport to Madrid, via Paris, but because of flight delays, missed our Paris connection. So instead of getting to Logroño in our rental car at the decent hour of 6:00 p.m., we straggled into the hotel at 11:00 p.m. Continue reading
It was cold when we started out the next morning. After I devoured a carb-loaded breakfast, the hotel van took me and a Spanish family to a place where we picked up the Camino going out of town. I had not been walking long before we came abruptly to another Camino icon, the Monasterio de Irache, which includes a winery, the Bodegas Irache. The community of monks is long gone now, a victim of the failure of its community to attract novices, but the wine remains. It is dispensed from a spigot like water. Continue reading
I had read that the best way to prepare for the rigors of walking the Camino is to walk the first week of the Camino. I am beginning to feel the effects of that preparation. The way to Estella promised to be about as pleasant as it gets, smooth and flat dirt roads passing through pleasant farms and vineyards, to pretty little villages with schoolchildren happy to give you a “Hola” and “Buen Camino” as you pass them by. I woke up this morning really looking forward to walking! And I wasn’t disappointed. Continue reading
Getting out of Pamplona early Sunday morning, I took a cue from one of the many Camino blogs I had read in preparation for this trip. I ordered a taxi for a 10-minute ride to get me past the hard-paved streets of Pamplona’s suburbs. This landed me in Zariquiagui, a small village that got me instantly back into Camino mode. Continue reading
My fourth day of walking would take me into Pamplona and I was looking forward to it. I was more confident after the previous day and was starting to develop a rhythm. The trick is to start walking early to ensure that you get to the next destination no later than 2:30 p.m. without feeling in a rush. This minimizes the time walking in the hottest sun, while getting in in time for the Spanish midday meal. Continue reading
The walk to Zubiri would be my first at a more typical daily distance, about 22 km. Up until this point, I had not walked more than 12 km, so I was a little apprehensive. Yet, my Brierley, which by now I was consuming — every graph, map, word — promised a pleasant and easy day. And it was right, mainly dirt paths, wooded and shaded, and a gradual descent into the Erro and Arga river valleys. Continue reading
My 2017-2019 Camino 