El Camino de Santiago - 2017

Day 7: Atapuerca to Burgos

Michelle wrote:
13 Sept.   Wednesday

Leaving Albergue El Peregrino, in
Atapuerca after a good nights rest.

We left Atapuerca around 8:00 am and began our climb of about 100m on a very rocky road.  It wasn’t too bad and we got our first look at Burgos in the distance from the top of the hill.  It was a nice walk to Cardenuela Riopico where we stopped for a snack.  Then on to Orbaneja, which was a nice village with some nice homes and gardens.  We even saw a black pig wandering around a yard!  There is a definite difference in the villages when you get close to a big city.  More money = nicer homes.  

We continued walking and passed the Burgos Airport, which is not very big or very busy, at least at 11:00 am.  Then we took a route that took us through a forest area near the river Arlanzon.  The water was clear and cold.  Curtis waded across the river and I soaked my feet for a few minutes.  It was refreshing!  The way marks were a little difficult to find as we walked through the woods.  The guidebook warned us of this and said that as long as we kept the river on our left we would be just fine.  It was correct!  The river walk became nicer as we got in to Burgos.  There were a lot of people walking and biking on the trail.  We even saw several groups/classes of school children walking somewhere with their teachers.  It was shaded and flat and long, but very nice.  My feet were sore and I was anxious to stop for the day, but Curtis reminded me that we were lucky to be in the shade on a nice pavement.  Yes indeed!  

We crossed the river and entered the busy streets of Burgos.  We walked across the city and found our hotel, Meson del Cid, right next to the Catedral de Santa Maria (13th Century).  The hotel is famous because some movies have been made there.  It is nice and comfortable, but the best part about it is the location: next to the cathedral and in the “old town”, with plazas, quaint streets, shops and close to the river esplanade.  


We took a little siesta, showered and went exploring.  We found a laundromat on the other side of the river.  The hotel offered to do our 1 load of laundry for 40 euros, but we did it ourselves at the laundromat for 6 euros.  We also got massages and a nearby clinic for 19 euros each - the special pilgrim price for a 25 minute massage!  That was nice!  

We finally stopped for a light dinner at a cafe on the plaza where we sat outside and looked up at the beautiful cathedral.  As it got dark, some lights began to light up the cathedral.  It was nice very pretty and, of course, we were required to take even more pictures!  I liked Burgos more than I thought I would.  It is more impressive and clean than some of the other cities I’ve been in - at least the area around the cathedral.

View to the north east from the Sierra Atapuerca

The approach to Cruz de Matagrande
at the top of Sierra de Atapuerca

At the top of the mountain,
the sunrise makes for tall
pilgrim shadows.

From Curtis:  The climb out of Atapuerca was more gradual and shorter than the previous morning coming out of Villafranca Montes de Oca.  The scrub oak trees predominated on this section of the trail, but you could not look up very often because the trail was pretty rocky and rough.  It was rough because of erosion; it was eroded because so many of us pilgrims walked on it and nobody maintains it.  There are sections of the Appalachian Trail that get a lot of traffic, and the erosion makes for hard walking - but the trail gets maintained regularly and the erosion is minimized.  On the Camino forums there are long discussions on the pros and cons of trail maintenance.  Of course nobody wants to pay for it, and the purists believe nature should take its course, but on the other side of the argument, the historical purpose of the Camino is to facilitate people walking to Santiago and the road has been going through cycles of decay and improvement for 100's of years.

The view of Burgos from the top of the mountain had us wondering where the Camino would take us into town.  It turns out that we walked relatively close to the plume of steam near the left of the image below.  The low resolution of a cell phone camera does not do the scene justice.

View of Burgos from the west flank of Sierra Atapuerca.  Click on the picture to see it full screen.

On the outskirts of town
this sign caught my attention.

For the pilgrim, the introduction to Burgos is through a few blocks of the industrial east side of town.  Fortunately, it's relatively well maintained, and the discomfort of walking past factories is well offset by the sweet pleasure of walking through the wooded river bottoms most of the way through town.  

Crossing the Rio Arlanzon like the original pilgrims did: barefoot.
Click HERE to see this spot in Google Maps

As we enter Burgos we cross the river Arlanzòn. I could not resist taking my shoes off and waiting across. It was a beautiful clear stream. Michelle cooled her feet in the water too.

Refreshing Rio Arlanzon

It was fun to watch the duck use this water slide.  Next time I'll have a video to share.

This is the first week of school.  It seems like the entire school is walking, each class following there teacher. 
Yes, school kids are the same in Spain as where I grew up.

 Most of the rest of our walk to the hotel was along this walkway bordering the river. We started the week with a walk through the park in Logroño and we ended much the same way with a walk in the park in Burgos.

LOVE this.  Walking through Burgos was the BEST. 

Several Facebook friends commented on Burgos too:

Enrique Escamilla The Cathedral brings back a lot of memories:) I was there for 7 months

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1

 · September 13 at 5:15pm

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Kevin AndSheri Schmidt The Burgos paseo is my favorite!

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1

 · September 14 at 3:30pm

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Mary Marshall We loved Burgos. I wish we were with you. How did I miss that you were there? I know, I haven't been on FB in a while. Enjoy!!

Reflection of the Cathedral from
the hotel lobby window.

The official Camino de Santiago goes through the town, not along the river.  By this, I am confessing that my perfectionist side was overwhelmed by my realist side for much of this walk into town.  Nevertheless, you should know that there was some internal conflict.  This dissension from following yellow arrows and the conchas (shell signs) made me a little nervous.  I think at this point I still did not have the app that showed the trail on Google Maps.  With the app I would have seen that the river walk takes you within a couple 100 yards of the Cathedral and our hotel.  Eventually, the concern about passing our hotel overwhelmed the pleasantness of the river walk and we crossed a bridge into town and found the yellow arrows indicating the Camino.  At this point we met a girl from Canada who was looking for a specific albergue.  She didn't speak much Spanish, so I offered to help.  We stopped a friendly looking man, and it turns out he was a gold mine of information.   He told us where to find her albergue, and also some of the better albergues in town.  We told  him we were staying at Hotel Meson El Cid.  "Ah" he said, "A 3-star hotel with 4-star prices".  (We found that to be accurate.  It's main advantage is being on the same plaza as the cathedral.)  

Michelle near the entrance
to the Cathedral

The first thing every Pilgrim does at the end of the day is to take a shower and do the laundry. The shower in the hotel was luxurious. But the laundry cost 40 euros. We could have replaced the clothes that needed to be washed for that cost.

While looking for a store that would sell a hat that would replace Michelle's (which doesn't work) we came across the bus station.  This is important because if something should come up that would keep us from hiking the Camino, we would need to come here (or the train station).

Walking through the bus station we came across the laundromat.  This was a big relief.

Maybe I'm biased because in the laundromat we found an advertisement for a massage. Remember the sign for Clinica Vitalfisio that caught my attention coming into town?  They were right around the corner!

4 Euros for a normal load (6 Euros for really dirty clothes): sweet deal.
It includes soap and fabric softener.

The huge dryer did a capital job.
Hands down: this is the best laundry on the Camino.

We spent 6 euros to wash and dry our clothes and 19 Euros each for a 25 min. massage by a physical therapist with a 4 year degree trained to work out specific problems for trekkers like us.  

Ya gotta love Burgos.

Dinner was in the plaza south of the cathedral.

My dinner was spaghetti 'Bolognesa' and Michelle had the ensalada mixta

 Looking up from dinner, the lights startet coming on at the cathedral.

Dining adjacent the Catedral de Burgos

El Camino de Santiago - 2017

Day 6: Villafranca Montes de Oca to Atapuerca

Michelle wrote:
12 Sept.   Tuesday

Early morning selfie in the
garden of Albergue
San Anton Abad

Matt and Darcy kept me updated on the weather/hurricane situation at home. There was a power outage and small limbs were blown down, but no damage at our house or Clarissa’s. Thank goodness the storm was weaker than expected in Atlanta. 

We woke up later than planned, 7:00 am, and left the albergue at 8:00 am. It was a tough 200m climb right off! We walked through 12 km of oak and pine forests in cool, sunny weather. It was very nice once we were at the top of the hill/mountain. Then a gentle slope down to San Juan de Ortega – a small village with an active monastery. We finally saw some cows, very peacefully resting with their calves at the top of the hill. The views were beautiful! The walk continued to Ages, which was a pretty little village and seemed like a happy place to live. We went on to Atapuerca, where we stopped for the night. 

 Atapuerca is an important archeological site for evidence of early homosapiens. It is a fairly recent discovery. We stopped at a small museum in the village and enjoyed the exhibits there. Almost everything was in Spanish and I didn’t understand a lot of it, but I still enjoyed looking at what they had displayed. 

Curtis and I walked up the hill to the church and had a beautiful view of the area. The skies were blue, the air warm with a cool breeze. Perfect for hanging out the laundry! 

 The albergue was very nice. We stayed in a private double room (habitacion doble). It was in a separate building that had 6 double rooms with private bathrooms – quite a luxury! We shared a kitchen, large table, TV, library, couch and wood burning stove. It was very comfortable. The other pilgrims were very friendly and it was easy to share the space with them. That is one of the many great things about the camino. Almost everyone is very considerate and friendly and happy to share the same space. One of the couples was from California and the woman’s name was Michelle. I can’t remember her husband’s name. It wasn’t Curtis! They were carrying a letter from their church in California to give to one of the priests at the cathedral in Santiago. They are sister churches and share the same name and they are very proud of that fact. 

 There is only one store in the village and it has a very limited offering, but we were able to get some bread, milk (boxed), tortilla, yogurts, eggs and juice. That sufficed for our dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow. That totaled less than the cost of one pilgrim dinner – 10 Euros. The stores and most of the bars/cafes close between 2:30 and 5:00, so you have to get your shopping done early or wait until 5:00. Dinner isn’t served until 7:00 or 7:30 pm. I have a hard time falling asleep after eating that late, so we are trying to do something different. We have a 20 km walk to Burgos tomorrow.

Looking back at our albergue and N-120 coming into Villafranca from Logroño.
The bell tower on the right was in the last picture in the post for the day before this one.

The first step out of our albergue this day was up hill, and the next step too, and so forth for a couple of hours.  But it was nice to be hiking through the trees.  Thinking back, there were very few sections before this where we were hiking through trees.  Mostly it's been through open fields.  Next year, as we work our way through Galicia, there will be more forests.

We did not know it at the time, but this was our penultimate day hiking through trees.  The day after tomorrow we will be on the meseta (the flat plain).  This hill coming out of the albergue was not fun for Michelle.
Even without a pack, hills stress her lungs.

As the sun came over the horizon
we took this picture.

So we took  it easy, not rushing.  We had reserved a private room in the albergue at the next town, Atapuerca.  We had a nice, cool and dry breeze that day.  It reminded me of hiking in the mountains of Utah.  Because of the variety of the terrain, I think this is one of my favorite sections of the trail to date.

The scrub oak gave way to planted pines.  We never came across any sections where the planted trees had been harvested.  Then, as we gradually descended the mountain, the pines gave way to scrub oak again and then fields.

One of the first fields we came across had cows resting on the ground near the trail.  Apparently they had seen so many pilgrims that our presence made no difference to them.

I particularly liked this calf sleeping in his mom's shadow.

 We stopped at the first village that we came to as we came down the mountain, San Juan de Ortega.  There we bought some drinks and a snack, and used the restrooms.  I took time to take off my shoes and socks and give my feet a good rub down with a foot cream made in Germany that was highly recommended by experienced hikers we met last year.  Problems were developing on my left foot.  It seems that the little toe was getting jammed under its neighbor.  A blister was developing between the two and the toe nail of the little toe was getting stressed somehow.  I could not figure out what was causing the problem.

Agés is on the left.  On the right and further away is our destination this day: Atapuerca

From the hamlet of San Juan de Ortega, we walked through low hills to the charming town of Agés.
You really should check it out at This Link in Google Maps

This is definitly a 'pilgrim-friendly' village.

The tomatos and flowerrs are happy.

Fun idea: provide chalk and a place to leave a message.  The message on the right of
the top board is: "When someone judges your Camino, lend them your shoes."

The message about 'judging your Camino' is appropriate.  As you research hiking the Camino de Santiago, you will learn from the forums and the guide books that everyone hikes their own Camino.  None of us can say that my way is better because, for example, I carry all my gear with me every day and I never ship my pack ahead; or I always stay in a pilgrim albergue - never a hotel; or I walked all of it without ever taking any other kind of transportation.  These behaviors only have meaning for the walker.  In fact, because each of us are different, we will each learn something different from our experience following the Camino, following The Way.  Just as following the Way, the Truth and the Light must also be done in a uniquely personal way.  Who can tell what burdens our fellow pilgrims in life are carrying?  Who knows the blisters that shoot pain in every step of a long cleansing process of repentence?  Do we recognize the burning pain in the lungs of the overburdened neighbor who is trying to keep up and not get left behind?  Not me.  So I find myself to be much happier when I don't judge.  Sure, I will point out the beautiful things on the Camino and in life to my fellow pilgrims, but I don't want to hold it against them if they choose to go flying by in a bus.

Coming in to Atapuerca we see the Church on the hill and our albergue, the yellow building on the left. 
In fact, our window is the one closest to the street.

Albergue El Peregrino, as seen from the Camino.

Michelle at the entrance

Highly recommended by me is Albergue El Peregrino in Atapuerca.  Notice the spacious lawn where you can take off your shoes and stretch out on the grass.  On the left you can see part of the ample clothes line.  The wash room had a nice modern washer and a dryer, as well as 2 sinks for hand washing.  For us, this was the most relaxing albergue on the Camino since beginning at Saint Jean Pied de Port.  Did I say something similar yesterday?  Certainly our room at San Anton Abad in Villafranca was nice, but there were so many people there - it was too busy.  Before this trip, when talking with other couples, (you know who you are) many would say "We could not sleep in a bunk room with so many other people."  Now I know you can walk the Camino without having to stay in a bunk room.  You might have to take a taxi some evenings but most of the time you'll be able to find private rooms.

We shared a kitchen with several other couples, (each having their own private room) but apparently all of us were feeling shy because it seemed like nobody came out of their rooms while another couple was preparing there meal and eating in the dinning room.  Now I sort of regret this shyness.  In the morning we met a couple from California that were fun to talk with.  And we could have enjoyed dinner with them the night before, but we chose to stay in our room.  Further down the trail we met them again and again.

Why would we stay in our own room?  I think part of it is simply because of the pain in my left foot.  When I hurt, I want to be miserable in private.  Certainly there is a challenge there for me: "How to be gregarious while in pain".  It can be done.  I've seen it before, in others.  But I'm not there yet.

This is the wild life in Atapuerca: 8 cats in one picture

The view from the top of the hill near the Church

The Church at the top of the hill

Atapuerca is famous for the discoveries of Homo Antecessor who lived 1.2 million to 600,000 years ago.  According to Wikipedia, "The genus name Homo is the Latin word for "human" whereas the species name antecessor is a Latin word meaning "explorer", "pioneer" or "early settler", assigned to emphasize the belief that these people belonged to the earliest migratory waves as yet known from the European continent."

In the photo above, the museum can be seen as a gray building down the road to the left of the church.  Had we not walked from Villafranca, we would have had enough energy to walk to the museum and check it out.  As it was, we limited ourselves to the much smaller museum down the street from our albergue.

From the top of the hill by the Church, looking north west,  you can see the trail leaving town and going over the mountain.
The excavation site for the Homo antecessor is further to the left, on the other side of this same hill.

El Camino de Santiago - 2017

Day 5: Viloria de Rioja to Villafranca Montes de Oca

Michelle wrote:
11 Sept.   Monday

Leaving Acacio and Orietta's place

We left Viloria de Rioja around 8:00 am and walked almost 20 km through gently rolling hills with big fields separated by trees or bushes.  It was overcast and cool, but we were walking into the wind, which was tiring.  
 We saw 2 deer or antelope gracefully leaping through a field, the first wild animals we have seen on the camino this year.  

The villages we walked through were not very memorable, sadly.  But the vistas made up for that.  There are more forest covered hills in this area than we’ve seen since leaving the Pyrenees.  We passed some interesting looking caves up on the rocky hillsides.  Curtis made up a story that sounded very much like a Louis L’Amour book.  It was a fun way to pass the time.  

Wide open fields as we leave Viloria de Rioja

Arriving at San Anton Abad albergue/hotel at 1:58pm.

We made it to the pretty little town of Villafranca Montes de Oca and stayed in a nice albergue that is part of a very nice hotel, San Anton Abad, set up on the side of a hill.  The church is across the road.  The streets are narrow in this town and the semi trucks come whizzing by without slowing down.  There is no sidewalk either.  It makes for an exciting walk around town!  

We ate a nice dinner at the restaurant in the hotel.  I think I make a better flan, but their rice pudding (arroz con leche) beats mine by a long shot! We got a private double room with a private bathroom.  It was great to have some privacy – but it comes at a higher price!  We slept well in our private room and didn’t even hear the church bell ring every ½ hour!
We heard about Hurricane Irma heading towards Atlanta but were not too worried about the affect it would have on Atlanta.  Having access to news via the internet helped a lot with the worrying and being able to contact Matt and Clarissa.  

At one time, all these hills were forested.  I was glad to be able to get a picture of one of the last trees.

Our destination, Villafranca Montes de Oca is on the left in this picture.
Link to this spot in Google Maps

Curtis writes:
The cloud cover on this day was much appreciated.  The Camino is well maintained in this section, meaning the gravel road is better to walk on than the trails where the soil has eroded away leaving only rounded stones that give tender feet much grief.

Michelle was not much impressed with the towns and villages we passed through this day, but you must forgive her for writing her journal when she was tired.  True: the parts of town that we walked through may not have been the most interesting.  But I've gone back to Belorado where we stopped had ate a small snack at Bar Eterno, using Google, and I noticed that Google Maps has much better memories than I do.  I particularly like the town square in Belorado, which, sadly we did not walk through.  Check out the street view at this point.  Belorado Town Square

I think next time we go through this part, maybe I'll stay in Belorado.

Leaving town we were passed by a three-some from Japan.  I don't remember coming across anyone else from Japan.  Thinking about where people come from to walk the Camino, we met people from  Europe and North & South America, from the Pacific rim countries of S. Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, but nobody from India, China, Mongolia, Russia, the Middle East (including Israel), or Africa.  It would really be surprising to see a Moslem on this trail because the history of the trail is heavily entertwined with the removal of the Moors from Spain.  Acacio, our host the night before, was looking forward to the day when Moslems would enjoy hiking the trail too, but his perspective was that the trail existed long before Christianity reached Spain.

The highway, N-120 goes right through Villafranca Montes de Oca without a single stop light.  The only thing that slows the trucks down as they zip through town, is a sharp corner at the entrance.  My pictures did not do it justice, so I give credit to Google Maps for these:

Entrance to Villafranca Montes de Oca

The narrow space between the buildings is shared by N-120 and the
Camino de Santiago as evidenced by the blue sign with the yellow arrow and shell icon.

Once you get away from the highway, the town is relatively nice.  I like how people find way to add color and life to the stone walls and cobbled streets.

Having a private bathroom with 2 sinks, we decided to wash our clothes without using a machine.  The clothes line at this albergue was substantial - but not enough.  There were a lot of rooms with a lot of bunks.  This is the first occasion I was glad we brought a short section of line to hang our clothes on.  We also brought our own clips.  I picked up some compact clips at Hobby Lobby the day before we left Atlanta.  We used those every night.

After doing the laundry, we went searching for a store where we could buy snack to hold is over until dinner and also snacks for the trail the next day.  Our search was in vain because everything is closed from 2:00 to 5:00.  So at 5:00 the store that was 5 steps from N-120 opened and we joined a plethora of pilgrims looking for food.  At 7:00 (not a minute before) the Hotel Restaurant opened.  We enjoyed a nice meal there with a fine dessert (not yogurt).  After dinner, we gathered our clothes off the line, and collected our section of line and clips.  Then it was time to write in Facebook, in Whatsup and send an email to my mother and youngest brother.  And just like tonight, I end up writing slower (or longer) than I should and I get a short night or late start tomorrow. 

View from our window looking northeast

View from our window looking West
Yes, the bell was used regularly