THE MESETA

OLD FRIENDS, NEW FRIENDS AND FUTURE FUTURE FRIENDS ALONG THE WAY

It’s mesmerizing in some ways, the Meseta, with it’s straight roads and vivid green fields.  Time seems to slow down as you pass through the towns and villages that the road passes through.  On some days the villages pop up every few miles, offering a place to sit and rest the feet.  Other times, the breaks are fewer and further apart.  Today was a tad over 10 miles with just the fields and the straightness of the road.  You are not alone, far from it, as the Camino seems to be crowed.

A few of the towns have been full at night with no beds available, forcing pilgrims to continue walking to the next town in hopes of finding a bed there.  For me, I continue to reserve a room in advance and have had no problems thus far finding a room.  For some it is the pilgrim way, just to arrive in town and find a bed, but it creates another problem as it becomes a race for beds.  It is said that once we pass Leon, the bed situation Improves with more albergues and other lodging choices.  I will continue to reserve ahead though as I like knowing in advance where I’m staying.

Today is Sunday and it’s a holiday weekend in Spain.  I hasn’t really affected the Camino as cafes, and other establishments catering to pilgrims remain open.  Some are saying that the holiday adds Spanish pilgrims to the Camino with some just walking a few days.

Also today, April 29th I crossed the 200 mile mark.  Not halfway yet but getting closer.  My feet feel pretty good especially after two long days of 15 and 13 miles.  Tomorrow I’ll take it easy and keep it around 10.

Still going slower than most, but in the towns I’m meeting up with other slow people.  Sometimes every night and at other times after several days without seeing them.  I’ll mention some of them here.

Right now across the table from me in the albergue bar is Jack.  A young man from New England who just graduated from high school and is starting college in the next semester.  I sat next to Jack several nights ago at a communal dinner and he related to me his experience with the snorers in the albergues.  As many tend to travel the same speed, one often sleeps in the same bunk room with the same people from night to night.  He told me he can now recognize pilgrims by their snoring.  “Oh, that’s Samuel from Italy just a few bunks away”.

Jeff and Deb, from Connecticut, who I met early on and we’ve shared dinner a couple of times.  They are writing a blog about their Camino.   Steph, from Iowa, who spent the last six years in Cambodia as a Missionary and is deciding what her next calling will be.  Then there’s Linda from Tennessee who is walking across Spain to her Wedding.  At the end of the Camino, she and her fiance have rented a beach front home to be married in.  There is a service here that will move your luggage ahead each day, and that’s what she’s doing with her wedding dress.  Brian and Elizabeth, a retired British couple who divide their home between England and Spain.  They are on a schedule as Brian’s favorite football team is in the finals and they must be home in time for the big game.  As I continue along I will include others who I have met.

Deb and Jeff’s Blog

This is Eduardo one of the hospitaleros at an albergue.  It’s breakfast and he’s serving coffee and hot milk, filling our huge coffee cups.  He’s a blur as he’s moving so fast.

Tomorrow I’ll take a short day, only 10 miles.  One must slow down and let the feet recover after 28 miles the past two days.

A TOWN, A CITY, THE PLAINS

Everywhere is within walking distance if you have time

First thing out the door when leaving Villafranca Montes de Oca, is a hill.  Not too bad as hills go, but no one wants their first steps to be up hill.  Once at the top it levels out on a broad mesa forested with oaks and pines.  It is foggy so I can’t tell if there are pilgrims ahead of me.  The path becomes broad, a fire break I think, and the walking is easy.  The cool weather helps.  The only stop on this mesa is a small oasis where a woman provides drinks and snacks for a donation.  On this visit I was either to early or she took the day off.  What was there was the art work painted on logs, and the tall sign post pointing the way to various locals around the world.

For some of this time I have been walking with Renee from Texas.  I am sure she is able to walk faster than me, but she slows down and keeps me company for a while.  She is a retired counselor, but continues to provide services to military personnel around the world on a contract basis.  She tells me that once she gets to Burgos the next day, she will be renting a bike and riding across the  Meseta to Leon.  She will do in 4 days what will take me 10.

I stayed in a really nice and kinda funky pension in the village of Atapuerca.  It is here that the remains of early humans have been discovered, some as old as 800,000 years.  There is a museum, but I opted for a boccodillo and a glass of vinto instead.  So I am upstairs in a room with a shared bathroom.  There is no one else to share the bathroom with, so it’s mine.  The place, Pensión El Palomar, is run by Magulana and her husband, who’s name I missed.  Magulana is from Equador and although a great hostess, we all the guests sensed some sadness, as she was missing her family.  They have a bar and a restaurant with the tables all set in fine china.  For dinner the husband dons his chef uniform and retreats to the kitchen.  All the guests on this night are pilgrims and we are treated to a great meal with the wine flowing.  The next morning, Magulana makes us all scrambled eggs and sausage, a rarity for pilgrims.

The next day is Burgos, the Capitol of this region and a city of about 180,000.  Most of the walk on this day is uninteresting.  Starting out, another hill, in the fog, so there are no views.  After a short distance among the green fields, we walk around the perimeter of the Burgos Airport.  Then you have a choice of walking 8 km along the highway into the city or the same distance in a park-like setting along the river.  You know the choice I made, but even so it’s a slog on hard surfaces for the most part.

I’ve been in Burgos a couple of times.  Cathie and I stayed here for a week last year waiting for her leg to heal.  I opted for one night, but most pilgrims take a day off here.  Of course I had to partake in one of the regions specialities, Morcilla sausage.  It’s a blood sausage, but unlike the British version, much nicer.  Besides spices, it contains rice and when cooked the outside becomes crispy.  For dinner I opted for Tapas, as they are plentiful and varied in Burgos.

The next morning bright and early, I head out of the city into the country.  It’s is here that the Meseta starts. The Meseta is a high plateau in Central Spain and it’s fields produce grain crops, most of which are not irrigated.   Primary flat, with some valleys cutting through, it is easy walking for pilgrims.  Many pilgrims dread the vast expanse and either take a bus or train to avoid this section of the Camino.  For me, it is my favorite part of the Camino.  It’s basically flat farm land, but I notice the texture in the landscape with it’s different colors and slightly undulating land.  So for about the next 125 miles it’s easy walking, unless the weather turns bad.

At the starting of the Meseta in the small town of Rabe de las Calzadaz, is a small chapel, the Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal.  On my previous walk, this chapel was closed up tight, but today and I believe every day, nuns are there to greet pilgrims.  It is said that Saint Catherine Laboure saw apparitions of the Virgin Mary in the chapel in 1830.  Each pilgrim is given the Medal of the Immaculate or the miraculous medal and given a blessing by one of the nuns. 

GETTING IN THE RHYTHM

I WALK SLOWLY, BUT NEVER BACKWARDS

Abraham Lincoln 

I took a day off in Santo Domingo de la Calzada not because I actually needed to, but because I figured I deserved it.  Well, truth be told my feet did need a rest and what better place to do it, in a town where there is not one, but two Paradores.  For those of you who don’t know about the Paradores, they are a Spanish government owned chain of hotels in the 4 and 5 star realm.  Some are new resort type establishments, but many are hotels placed inside of existing historic buildings.  And that is the case in Santo Domingo.

From the hotel website:

The hotel occupies a former 12th-century hospital near the cathedral, erected by St. Dominic to take in pilgrims traveling on the Way of St. James. It has a regal, elegant style, with majestic function rooms and a lobby filled with Gothic arches and wood coffered ceilings. Fine materials and eye-catching colors—whites and blues—give way to comfortable guest rooms decorated with exquisite taste.

I figured that since this place took in pilgrims in the 12th century there was no reason they couldn’t do so today.  I didn’t eat there as their 45€ fixed price menu was a little steep for a pilgrim’s meal.

I managed to do my laundry, make an adjustment on my trekking poles, enjoy walking about the town and basically being lazy.  But after two nights of luxury, it was time to hit the trail and rejoin my fellow pilgrims.

On the way to my next stop, I walked for a while with several pilgrims for a short time.  Remember most are walking faster than me, in fact today I don’t think I passed anyone.  I did  manage to meet pilgrims from Brazil, Latvia, New Zealand, Hungry, Korea, Tennessee and California.  It was a 14 mile day, but I stopped at just about every town and took a break to air out my feet.

I stopped for the night at Belorado, where in 2015 I was kept awake all night by a snoring English woman.  Not wanting to repeat the experience, I reserved a private room in the local albergue, where, by the way, the Pilgrim’s menu is only 10€.

Walking slowly has it’s advantages.  First of all, I see more.  Knowing I have reserved a room ahead allows me to go slow and not worry about where I’m going to sleep.  I get to think about things in general and for the future.

Walking between Belorado and my next stop in Villafranca Montes de Oca, I actually was walking the same speed as Julia, from Germany.  She is just walking for a week after leaving her job.  Many Europeans walk short portions of the Camino, taking a week or two off to walk.  Later they return and walk the next section, arriving in Santiago after several years.

As I write this, I am in another old pilgrim hospital converted to a hotel.  Built in 1377 by Queen of Castile Doña Juana Manuel, wife of King Enrique II for taking care of the poor and the people who passed through Villafranca Montes de Oca.  The property for a time was abandoned and it fell into complete disrepair.  It is now a three star hotel.  What better place to stop for the night.

OK HERE’S SOME PHOTOS

MOVING RIGHT ALONG

Despite the effort, blisters and pain, the way to Santiago also presents us with new friends - people from all over the world!

I’M PUBLISHING THIS WITHOUT PHOTOS.  HAVING PROBLEMS

We, us pilgrims that is, experienced a couple of mostly dry days and then the rains came down again.  Luckily only for a day, but it kept the mud nice and wet.  I am slowly progressing along at my desired pace.  Slow is my desired speed and as such it is a special occasion if I actually pass someone.  I can see them ahead of me, and at first I can’t tell if they are going faster or slower than me.  After about 30 minutes I can detect that I am closing in on them.  It may take sometime for me to catch up, but usually they stop for some reason, take a photo, tie their boots and I can gain really fast.  Upon the event of overtaking, I usually slow down to say “Hola” and to find out if they speak English.  If they do, I will dally along at their pace for conversation.  Sometimes we walk together for a long time, other times it is clear that they want to be alone, or I just don’t like them and I pick up my pace again.

One person I met was Karin, from Austria.  She was staying in the same albergue as me a couple of nights.  She speaks English, but I still have some difficulty understanding her because of her strong accent.  We share a couple of meals together along with time walking.  As it is on the Camino, we will cross paths again.

Although I have shared dinner with several pilgrims, Jeff and Deb, Adrian, Phill to name a few, on this camino I meet fewer pilgrims.  One reason is I believe that fewer people are walking. Perhaps it’s the bad weather that Northern Spain has been experiencing.  More than likely is the fact that I’m not following the usual guide book stages.  Let me explain to those of you who are not familiar with planning your daily walk.

There are several guide books for the Camino, plus various apps and web sites to help you decide how far to walk and where to stay each day.  The most popular is one written by and Englishmen named Birelery called A Pilgrims Guide to the Camino de Santiago.  I think I found a better one in The Village to Village Guide to Hiking the Camino de Santiago.  Anyway, most guides are set up with “stages” or comfortable distances to walk between towns which have services for pilgrims.  So what happens, because most pilgrims follow the Birelery guide, that the end town for each stage gets crowded with many pilgrims.  I have chosen to go slower this time and not walk the usual 14 to 18 miles each day.  I am trying to keep my daily mileage between 10 and 12 miles and as such I am often staying in towns in the middle of a stage.  So, I see fewer pilgrims.  In the morning I take off ahead of those who are starting the stage I am in the middle of and I am behind those who start at the end of the aforementioned stage.  Get it?

I was in Logroño the other night, a large city of about 200,000 and the end of a stage.  Still there were not many pilgrims.  I had a private room in an albergue and the bunk room with about 15 beds only had two other pilgrims.  It wasn’t like this when I walked in 2015.

Speaking of Logroño, I decided to walk an entire stage that day because I didn’t want to stay where we had last year.  As such I walked 17 miles and paid the price.  I didn’t even feel it coming on, but I ended up with a blister on my big toe.  Such is the life of a pilgrim.

The next day, not wanting to repeat my experience of the day before, I changed things up a bit and walked about 2 km off the Camino to the hilltop village of Sotes.  The town used to be on the Camino route, but has since been eliminated from the path.  There is a sign in the village square which must have been placed there when the Camino still ran through town. It says in part “The villagers are used to the constant presence of visitors and pilgrims and are noted for their friendly and hospitable character.”  Well,  this day I was the only pilgrim in the village bar filled with locals.  I can’t say that they were really hospitable, but they weren’t giving me the evil eye either.

I spent the night in a Casa Rural, like a B&B only in rural areas.  Most are a family run business and cater to tourist and pilgrims alike.  I was the only guest as most pilgrims keep to the marked path.  Antonio and his wife live in the house next door, so I had the whole house to myself.  Dinner and breakfast was provided, with dinner consisting of soup and salad, bread, thinly sliced chicken breast, fried eggs and desert.  Oh, and don’t forget the bottle of wine to wash it all down.

Next morning out the door at a leisurely 8 o’clock and put another 19 km behind me.  Walking through fields of wheat, rape seed (think canola oil) and endless vineyards.  Stopped in Nájera, a fair sized city with a population of 8,000, for lunch.  Off with the boots to air out the feet and for a sock change.  Enjoyed conversation with Steve and Glen, two Aussie pilgrims.  At the end of the day I ended up in Azofra a sleepy town with not much going on.  Enjoyed a glass of vino tinto while the Aussie’s enjoyed their beer.  Nice pilgrims dinner for 10 € in the local bar consisting of lentils for the starter, two kind of sausage, Iberian ham, fried eggs and potatoes for the main course, flan for desert and of course a bottle of wine.

The last three days, the weather has be great, with clear sky’s and comfortable temperatures. I am currently in Santo Domingo de la Calzada taking a well deserved day off.  Having walked just under 100 miles, my feet need a rest.  Their are enjoying themselves in the Parador Hotel, a 4 star establishment.  Shh, don’t tell Cathie.

(Backup) RAIN AND MUD

THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS TO ANY PLACE WORTH GOING

Which was certainly true over the past couple of days.  Upon arrival is was raining and it had been raining in Pamplona for a couple of weeks.  As such, the rivers and streams were overflowing and there was some localized flooding.  But not to worry as I had my raincoat and water proof hat and boots.  I now have three days under my belt and the weather has improved.  Today the sun came out.

On the first day out of Pamplona it was pouring as I left my hotel and joined a line of poncho covered pilgrims, heads down, trudging slowly out of the city.  When leaving the city streets you continue on a dirt path which quickly becomes a river.  You pick your way from high spot to high spot trying to keep your feet dry.  Where the water does not flow, you contend with the mud.  In a short while most pilgrims are covered with it to some degree.  This section of the path leads to Alto de Perdón or the Pass of Forgiveness which is an uphill climb from Pamplona.  It is steep in places made more difficult with all the mud.  After some distance the tail levels out as it passes below an earthen dam and you cross over a small stream.  Unfortunately the dam was overflowing in a torrent and the trail was not to be seen in the flood.

To go around we pilgrims had to climb a steep embankment and cross the flow on the top of the dam.  I of course slipped at the top and slid back down.  Hey, what’s a little more mud at that point.  A little scary crossing the overflowing dam that was slowly eroding away.  Nicely placed about halfway up the hill is a small village and a welcome stop for coffee.

At the top, there is a metal statue of 13 pilgrims leaning into the wind.  The inscription reads, “Where the way of the wind meets the way of the stars”.  The statue depicts pilgrims from mid evil times to the present.  And the rain stopped, so it was nice to take a break before heading down the other side.  Downhills are, for me, more difficult than uphills.  It’s tougher on the knees and feet.  I tend to go real slow and to watch where I place my feet.  This particular section of trail is steep with lots of loose rock.  Throw in a little mud and the trekking poles become a life saver.

I arrive at my albergue in the village of Muruzábel and was greeted by Alicia the owner.  She took one look at me with my mud covered clothes and after being told to remove my boots outside, she showed me the washing machine.  I had a nice private room and later sat down with two other pilgrims for a filling pilgrims meal.  Alicia and her husband Carlos run a very nice operation.  I was able to take some shots with my drone and Alicia asked if I would show her 16 year old son the drone when he arrived home from school. So I gave him a demonstration and the next morning Alicia told me that now he wants one.  I think she realized it was a mistake asking me to show him.

The next morning after a simple breakfast of toast, juice and coffee, it was back out into the rain and mud.  Luckily the rain had subsided some and the river levels had decreased.  Early in my walk I passed through Puente la Reina with it’s famous Roman bridge.  On the previous day the river had left it’s banks and a portion of the Camino after the town was under water.  Pilgrims were forced to detour and walk on the highway to the next town.  By mid morning the rain had stopped, but the mud remained making for difficult walking in places.

I am writing this at my stop for the night after my third day.  It was a beautiful walk to the village of Villamayor de Monjardín where I am staying in a beautiful old home where Javier takes in guests.  Just one other pilgrim here, and American woman from Seattle.  The only place for dinner in this village is the only bar, so we shall see.