The beginning, the Pyrennees, the first Pilgrim meal. The day you become a pilgrim, though you don't know what it means yet.
Day 2. (6/29) Roncesvalles>Zubiri. 21.5km.
The second day of discovery. Your legs are adjusting, your feet too. You meet people you have crossed in Roncesvalles and you start realizing that you all share something special. Maybe it's just the hurting legs or the blisters. Soon you realize it is something else. You're on the same road, and though you know where it is going, you're not sure what it will bring you.
Day 3. (6/30) Zubiri>Pamplona. 22km.
First contact as a pilgrim with a large city. To add to the cultural "shock", on a Sunday. People are out with families, chilling, and you're just looking for yellow arrows and a pilgrim's menu. Pamplona is nice but empty on a Sunday. The only thing to do is enjoy una cerveza con limon with Hemingway and walk where the bulls will run for the encierro.
Day 4. (7/1) Pamplona>Mañeru. 29km.
First day with no pain to the knee. I celebrated by walking an extra 5km after the suggested stop. Enjoyed the beautiful landscapes of Navarra.
Day 5. (7/2) Mañeru>Villamayor del Jardin. 26km.
Slow day today, marked by two important events: finding the wine fountain of Irache and joining a charming young Irish couple to walk with. Beautiful landscapes continue.
Day 6. (7/3) Villamayor del Jardin > Torres del Rio. 20.6km.
Lovely walk with my new Irish friends. As it would turn out, the last one we will do together though we still follow each other via Facebook.
Day 7. (7/4) Torres del Rio > Navarrete. 33km.
Today I left the hills of Navarra for the vineyards of la Rioja.
After a disappointing encounter with an urban environment, I decided to leave Logroño behind today and pushed to the quiet town of Navarrete. Found a beautiful little church there and later enjoyed a few pinchos with a CcL (cerveza con limon, my new beverage of choice after finding that red wine disturbed my sleep). A quiet afternoon & night.
Day 8. (7/5) Navarrete > Nájera. 18km.
Snores from my Dutch co-sleepers keeping me up at night and the heat of the day made it impossible for me to go past Nájera. There I found an albergue and slept for about 2-3 hours. This is when I decided to start all my days at 5am (start walking at approximately 5:30am) to avoid the heat, which now starts earlier and earlier, around 11am. After my nap, I visited the Museo Arceologico de Nájera, and then the Monasterio.
Day 9. (7/6) Nájera > Santo Domingo de la Calzada. 21km.
Today I passed the 200km mark since the beginning of the trip. I walked most of today with a Spanish pilgrim from Burgos. Also, upon my arrival in Santo Domingo, I encountered the first people I met on my camino the first night in Roncesvalles. A lovely Spanish couple with a little boy the age of my son. Our paths crossed several times until I finally lost track of them after day 3. It was nice to see them again. It was as if I was finding old friends though we have only shared sleeping quarters a couple of times and also shared a road.
In Santo Domingo, I visited the Cathedral which was quite nice.
Day 10. (7/7) Santo Domingo de la Calzada > Belorado. 23km.
Today, the Spanish pilgrim encountered yesterday has decided to join me again. As much as I have enjoyed the company of my fellow compañeros de camino, fellow peregrinos, especially because I have been alone most of the time, today I have found myself looking for solitude. However, for precisely this reason, because on the camino pilgrims come and go, I have decided to enjoy the company while it was there.
Belorado is a nice little town with two churches (one for Winter, one for Summer) and has the unique distinction of housing a sort of camino "walk of fame" with foot and hand prints of various local or international "celebrities", among which the two people who, as trivial as it sounds, are partially responsible for my trip, actor Martin Sheen and his son Emilio Estevez who directed The Way. Then, I enjoyed a quiet Spanish Sunday, drinking agua gaseosa con limon, a non-alcoholic variation of the CcL, eating a tortilla con morcilla de Burgos. Glad I'm walking so much or I would gain 10lbs!
Day 11. (7/8) Belorado > San Juan de Ortega. 24km.
I have come to the conclusion today that the Michelin dude has never walked the camino. His little green (easy), yellow (medium), red (difficult) symbols to indicate how difficult the etapa is is at best a distant suggestion.
The trail between Belorado and San Juan is at first very pleasant. You have to climb a little, but then are rewarded by a shady forest which is quite a change from the Rioja fields you have now been crossing for days. Then as you continue walking, the forest path turns into a vast clearing resembling more a highway under construction than anything else. And it's LONG. And because some pilgrims are either ahead or behind, you are alone, at noon, in the heat, in this chalky endless highway reflecting the light (and the heat), and you start to wonder who will find your carcass if bad luck chose to strike right here and then. Unpleasant thoughts though they may be, and joke aside, it was the difficult part of the etapa today, but as a good peregrina that I have become, I put one foot in front of the other and arrived to San Juan de Ortega. There, I dropped my (living) carcass onto an albergue bed and fell asleep in minutes. Only to find out an hour later that the pueblo of San Juan de Ortega consists of one street, one bar and one church. So after having a lovely lunch/dinner in the one bar with a trio a Spanish elders, I went to walk on the one street, then went to the one church for a benediction of the pilgrims (that can't hurt, right?) and then back to the one bar for a cerveza con limon. With nothing else to do than drink and pray, I did a bit of both. On with more gusto than the other. (I'll let you guess which one).
Day 12. (7/9) San Juan de Ortega > Burgos. 30km. (via the river)
Long walk before entering the city if you take the road not suggested by the Michelin guy. The recommended route (27.5km) goes through the industrial area, so you follow the recommendations of the locals to take the road that circles the airport to the South. Then follows the river. And is an extra 3 kilometers. Because that is exactly what you want to do after walking 27km. To add a few more. Just for fun, for kicks.
But when you arrive in Burgos, actually arrive, zombie-style, you are rewarded by the beautiful cathedral, a modern albergue and a nice meal. And lest we forget las yemas de Burgos. (A sweet confection made of egg yoke and sugar. Yum.)
Day 13. (7/10) Burgos > Hontanas. 32km.
Coming out of Burgos, you're happy to realize you are still in fact on the camino, as there are hardly any yellow arrows or visible shells anywhere. Then you cross a few pueblos with nothing distinctive about them other than the fact that they have food, drink and restrooms you can use. Then between Hornillos del Camino (20km de Burgos) and Hontanas (12km), you get an early idea of what the meseta will be like. Seas of wheat fields dancing in the wind, hardly any shade; you start counting your water. Only it will be hotter.
Today also marked 300km since SJPP.
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