(Mis)Adventures

Atapuerca, Spain

2011-10-08T17:46:00.001-04:00

On a blistery and cold October Saturday, we woke up early and headed north of Madrid to a small town we passed through along the Camino de Santiago called Atapuerca. At first glance, there wasn't much to the town. We found a small cafe, albergue, and about fifty or so houses of locals living in a small enclave 20 km from Burgos. Upon closer inspection, what we found just outside the town was one of the newest finds in the search for the ancient peoples of Europe and Atapuerca has some of the oldest. In the 19th century, a mining company punched holes in the earth to lay track to move minerals. The company went bust a few years later and left the track. Fast forward to the 1970's and a graduate student looking to work on a dissertation and we find the name Trinidad de Torres, the most overlooked person in the story of remains on the Sierra de Atapuerca. He sacrificed a summer and endured agonizing heat to go in search of bear skeletons for his project. What he found were human remains and artifacts that dated back 800,000 years, much older than anything found before.

His mentor, the famous Emiliano Aguirre, helped to bring in a team in the early 80's and start excavations to uncover more remains. There has been a treasure trove of things including the species Homo antecessor. The foundation set up at the site offers a daily tour of a small camp that imitates how they believed the people of the area lived. They also offer a tour of the excavation sites. We found out the hard way while hiking the Camino that we couldn't just show up and go along. We made a reservation and had a guide take us through the camp.

She took us through various stations to show us how they made weapons, sharpened weapons, and painted the animals they killed on walls.

They had buildings set up to imitate smoke houses and housing for the people. We were allowed to walk up to them but not inside.

Here is a depiction of how they believed they buried their dead based on grave sites found.

There were some interactive parts of the tour. The first one was the use of a boomerang shaped object attached to a cord. If you've ever seen Crocodile Dundee II, you would recognize the apparatus. It was an instrument used for communication by swinging it on the cord. As it cut through the air, it made a buzzing sound that increased and decreased with speed. The tour guide let some of the people try it out. Pictured below, this guy tried to throw the javelins they made for hunting. He would have gone hungry. Another guy was allowed to try the bow and arrow.

In the tent we could enter, the girl showed us how they made fire with flints. Definitely one of the best tour guides we've ever had.

After the hour tour of the small campsite, we packed into the bus and headed to the excavation site. The guy explained what they were finding, where they found important pieces, and how the project continued to unearth new treasures.

That part of the tour wasn't as exciting as we'd expected because we couldn't see much beyond a bunch of scaffolding and digging tools. The public wasn't allowed to get close to the more important places where they were digging.

After we finished our tour, we stopped into a small cafe near the site and had some lunch before heading on back to Madrid. We had a great day and finally got to visit the site we tried to see when we were hiking the Camino de Santiago. This is a must see for anyone who loves archaeological sites.

Camino de Santiago - Day 31

2011-09-21T23:44:00.001-04:00

Day 31: Arca do Pino - Santiago de Compostela
Distance: 19.2 km(11.9 miles)
Approximate Walking Time: 4-5 hours
Altitude: Start at 357 m(1,171 ft.) and descend down to 288 m(945 ft.).

Trying to sleep the night before the last day's walk was impossible. I think I woke up at least 7 times throughout the night and each time, I was more intent than the last that it was time to get up. Around 5:00 a.m., I quit fighting the excitement and rolled out of bed. Izzy was already awake. Our Danish and Korean friends were already starting to stir so I knew that they were excited as well. We all washed up and dressed quickly and were out the door by 5:30 a.m. We cut through town instead of backtracking and picked up the trail near a public pool. The part where we entered the woods was a bit confusing because there seemed to be several forks in the path. We had to look carefully to find the yellow arrow but it was there. For the next two and a half hours, we wandered through the woods with the occasional bit along paved road on our way to Santiago. Nothing took away from our excitement.

The trail entered Santiago from the northeast and looped around the airport. As we passed by, a plane taxied out and took off. It definitely woke us up. Around the airport, we saw that there was a thick fog everywhere but we hoped it would burn off as the sun came up. As you can see from the pictures, it didn't at all. It was hard to take pictures because the camera couldn't find a focal point.

Previous pilgrims left words of encouragement on the stop sign. Funny it wasn't in Spanish. About 5 km outside of Santiago was the small town of Monte do Gozo. It had the biggest albergue of the entire Camino at 400 beds. Many people hiked there the previous day and woke up to take a leisurely stroll into Santiago. The houses in the town were made of stone and were beautiful.

There was a huge monument just outside of the albergue. We tried to find a way in to get a stamp but it sat out in the middle of a fenced off field and we couldn't find a way in. Many albergues closed daily for cleaning at 8:30 or 9:00 a.m. after the pilgrims left.

After a couple of long roads, we started to get closer and we could make out the city in the distance. The number of people walking seemed to increase exponentially the closer we got.

We crossed over the highway and followed the signs through town.

As we passed more and more buildings and we found ourselves in the city proper, the excitement was palpable. We were a mere few minutes from finishing our 800 km hike.

Around 10:20 a.m., we reached the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. 31 days after we started hiking in Saint Jean Pied de Port, France. We took some pictures then walked around the corner to Pilgrim Office to get our compostela. The line wasn't very long. After a 10 minute wait, we were able to get our final stamp and our names in Latin on a certificate that verifies we walked the Camino de Santiago. While we were there, we saw our Italian Egyptologist friend.

After collecting our certificates, we parted ways with everyone so we could go to the bus station and buy tickets and they could get a room and drop off their bags at an albergue. The two Danish guys planned to go on to Finisterre to see the ocean. We visited Finisterre in July and took a picture of the hiker boot plaque at the lighthouse there. We bought overpriced bus tickets for 45 - 50 euros a piece to get back to Madrid on an overnight bus. There were tickets for an express bus that left at 2:30 p.m. and cost 80 euros a piece. We rushed back to the Cathedral for the pilgrims mass given each day at 12:00 p.m. We arrived a bit late because we were looking for a friend and had to stand. The priests read out the names of the countries and starting point of the previous day's arrivals. After a multi language service in German, French, Spanish, English, and Italian, we witnessed one of the most amazing things. The best part of it was the total surprise. The Cathedral was packed with people and the priests prepared the Botafumeiro, which is one of the largest incense burners in the world. It's a ceremony only performed on special days or when the amount of pilgrims is high. They loaded it and set it to swinging. You can see the ceremony at the bottom of the page. The history behind it is that it was designed to spread large amounts of incense and cover up the rank smell of nasty pilgrims. It's had several accidents over the years with no deaths reported. Once, the ropes broke and it flew out of the top window. Can you imagine what someone in the 16th century would have thought of something like that landing at their feet and not killing them?

We were able to have lunch with the Danes and our Korean friend. We caught up with Shawn and his mother, an Italian guy we met three weeks earlier in La Rioja, a Swiss couple we met the first day, our friend José we met the first day, and our Canadian friend Rick we met the third day. It was great to see everyone and we all felt overjoyed to be there. We all had a drink at a nice cafe at the Hotel Costa Vella.

With great sadness, we left Santiago and caught our bus back to Madrid. We arrived early the next morning and went home. The scales showed us we'd lost quite a bit of weight and we felt great. We hope to return and hike the Camino del Norte soon.

Camino de Santiago - Days 28 - 30

2011-09-19T23:04:00.000-04:00

Day 28: Portomarín - Palas del Rei

Distance: 24 km(15 miles)

Approximate Walking Time: 6-7 hours

Altitude: Start at 386 m(1,266 ft.) and ascend to 711 m(2,333 ft.) and go up and down gradually descending to 566 m(1,857 ft.).

From Sarria all the way to Santiago, there was a noticeable rise in the amount of people and it became annoying quickly. We woke up around 6:00 a.m. and started getting ready quietly. There were a lot of people also getting ready and being quite noisy about it. One lady started screaming for someone to turn on the lights. When she was told others were still sleeping and to go outside, she screamed louder for someone to turn on the lights. We quickly packed our things and headed out to get away from her and the others like her. We headed back through town, down the stairs, across the bridge, and up into the mountains. We passed through the town of Gonzar, which was basically a stopover point for pilgrims and headed on up to Ventas de Naron. The trail went through the woods for most of our walk to Ventas. We even overheard a couple coming out of the woods telling someone on the phone they had lost time because they had to find a secluded place to poop in the woods.

The sky was beautiful for most of the morning. We passed by many farms and fields of sunflowers. It was Sunday and many people who lived along the trail were out for a morning stroll. We also saw many taxis with cheating hikers. Apparently, it's not an uncommon practice on this part of the trail to pay a taxi to slowly drive you along the Camino. Of course, the only taxis that were acceptable were the ones with blacked out windows.

We passed through Ligonde and Airexe before getting to Palas de Rei. We met a nice Italian guy who worked in England as an Egyptologist at a museum. I talked with him for several hours as we hiked about what he did. He'd been to Egypt many times and had some interesting insights into Egyptian history and the current state of affairs. He also told me how he'd walked the Camino del Norte and the Portuguese route from Lisbon. He was planning to do the hike from England that involved taking a boat from Southampton to La Coruña. He was very patient and waited with me while I waited on Izzy who stopped to snack on blackberries that grew along the trail.

Just outside of Palas de Rei, we came across a tourist desk. They had great information and maps of the town. Nearby was a large albergue but they informed us we could walk on into town to find another municipal one. Since it was Sunday, we didn't wonder if someone had left a pot or two by chance in the kitchen because we wouldn't be able to purchase anything from the stores. Everything was always closed on Sunday. We checked in after waiting in line for a while. We were starting to feel pressure to walk fast throughout the day so we ensured ourself a cheap bed.

The town has an interesting history. The legend of the towns name says it came from the name of a palace built by a Visigoth king in the 8th century. Most of the Romanesque architecture occurred after the establishment of the Camino de Santiago in the 10th - 12th centuries. We walked around the town for a bit and visited some churches and small shops that were open. We had a delicious lunch with our Danish friends and Shawn from Colorado just up the street from the albergue. The restaurant was called Meson A Forxa and had delicious cider chicken. Our only complaint was they advertised a nice custard dessert but brought out pudding cups. The waitress then gave us attitude when we requested a change. The only downside to Palas de Rei was the bathroom in the albergue. The room they put us in had enough beds for twelve people. In the bathroom, the showers were unisex with no shower curtain. Everyone eventually came to the agreement that two at a time would shower and someone else would guard the door. It's one thing to have separate sex bathrooms that have no shower curtains but a unisex one was a bit over the top.

Day 29: Palas del Rei - Arzúa
Distance: 28.7 km(17.8 miles)
Approximate Walking Time: 7-8 hours
Altitude: Start at 566 m(1,857 ft.) and descend to 423 m(1,388 ft.) and go up and down gradually descending to 385 m(1,263 ft.).

We got up early and out by 6:30 a.m. I finally had a great night sleep amidst a sea of snoring thanks to my Danish friends giving me some earplugs. We followed the yellow arrows out of town but we'd have ended up in the same place had we just followed the N-547. I guess they wanted us to see some more houses. We turned back into the woods as directed by the yellow arrows and found it difficult to navigate. It was really dark and our iPod lights weren't helping us find where to go. We walked up and down a road looking for arrows in places where they normally were but found nothing. Thankfully, our Danish friends showed up with flashlights and helped us find our way. We walked with them the rest of the day.

We walked through the villages of San Xulian, Casanova, and Furelos. The trail was a paved road with a fresh layer of cow dung. Most of the morning was overcast and cold and to boot, we had to stop often to pick small rocks out of our shoes.

We crossed a medieval bridge to enter Melide. The eastern part of the city was quaint and more historic than the modern part. We walked on into town and searched for a supermarket to reload on food supplies.

Above is an horreo in the historic part of town. Below is someone's mailbox.

As you can see from more of these pictures, the newer, modern part of town lacked the charm of the historic part. We found an Eroski market and stopped to get lunch and dinner for the next two days. We lost our Danish friends as they continued on but we knew we'd see them later in Arzúa. The supermarket took us a lot longer than we anticipated due to the one person working the register and a line that stretched to the back of the store. When we finished, we walked through the town and rested on a bench at the edge of town to have some breakfast. We almost got run over twice crossing the streets in Melide. A lot of people stopped there for the day and we thought about it but it was only 10:00 a.m. and we were right on schedule to arrive in Santiago on Wednesday.

The trail dipped back out into the countryside. We walked for a bit until our friend Shawn and his mother caught up with us. I walked and talked with him and a Spanish guy about basketball for a while and Izzy walked with his mother. After being worn out by his mother, Izzy slowed down and walked with Shawn and I walked with his mother. Her pace was unbelievable. I kept waiting on her to stop and she finally did 20 minutes after I'd already been saying in my head, Stop! Stop! Stop! We let them go on and continued on at our own pace.

This entrance into the forest had one of the worst smells of the entire Camino.

Along the way, there were some beautiful buildings.

As we neared Arzúa, our feet grew very tired. We figured out a couple of short cuts and took them. I felt bad at the time but when we arrived to the albergue, I didn't feel bad at all. Just outside of Arzúa was another small town called Ribadosa. There was an albergue there and it looked like a nice place to stay for five euros. A bunch of people were calling it a day and forming a line there.

When we got to Arzúa, we walked through most of the town and took the fork off to the left and down a hill to the municipal albergue. We got in line and as we waited, we saw our Danish friends there. They were telling us how nice it was. As the line wound down, we realized that they were running out of space. We shared some exasperated looks until we were told we would get the last two beds in the albergue. Wow. It was crazy and we couldn't believe that a town that is the convergence of two Camino trails would have such a small municipal albergue. What do they do in the summer when the number of hikers is double or triple? The town owes its existence and survival to the confluence of the trails and yet they don't do enough to provide for them. Some other people we met told us that Spanish law requires them to find you a place to sleep if you don't want to go to a private albergue. We walked around the town a bit but it was boring and didn't have much to see other than the nice places right around our albergue. We wasted away the afternoon having wine and beer with our friends and chatting about what we were all going to do once we finished in two days.

We were getting so close we could think of nothing more than finishing. We washed our clothes and had a nice private shower at the albergue. We spent the evening having cheese, chorizo, chips, and wine with our Danish friends and chatting about each other's cultures and countries.

Day 30: Arzúa - Arca do Pino
Distance: 18.8 km(11.7 miles)
Approximate Walking Time: 4-5 hours
Altitude: Start at 385 m(1,263 ft.) and go up and down and descend to 357 m(1,171 ft.).

We woke up early and were out of the albergue by 6:30 on our second to last day. Our excitement was growing but it usually dwindled after two hours of walking and reality setting in that we were still quite a ways from our goal. We had bright moonlight but the trail quickly entered a forest outside of Arzúa and it was pitch black. We walked for a while and wondered if we were on the right path because we couldn't find any yellow arrows for a while. Our Danish friends caught up to us as they always did and provided light until the sun rose. It revealed a beautiful, cloudless sky and made us think that our arrival to Santiago would be a beautiful one. We passed through the town of Sarceda and kept going until 9:00 a.m. when we stopped for breakfast and to empty our shoes.

The villages along the way to Arca do Pino had some of the most beautiful flowers of the whole Camino.

For the most part, we all chatted about movies and things that interested us. It really helped having fun people walk with us. Meeting people was the best part of the whole experience.

We stopped here just outside of St. Irene to take a break. The tall windmill was beautiful and the weather continued to be very cooperative. At one point, a German girl whom we'd seen two weeks earlier in León passed us by. As she passed us, we noticed a strange odor that seemed to come from her. We passed it off as just another rank Camino smell until we saw her pass other people and all of them smelled themselves and the air around them. I don't know how she went without showering because they were definitely the highlight of my day.

Near the windmill we found this monument and fountain built for the pilgrims. Thank you to whoever made sure that there is always a fountain of fresh water for pilgrims.

When we got to the town of O Pedrouzo, it took us a bit to realize we'd made it to Arca do Pino. At one point, you can cross the highway or turn left and head up into town. If you want to find the municipal albergue, turning left is the way to go. Otherwise, you'll just bypass the town. We waited in line for a bit and it turned into a nightmare as people were simply remembering who they were behind and that was how the line flowed. One smug guy cut off the line and subjected us to his frantic making out with his new found girlfriend. The albergue had a real kitchen with pots, pans, dishes and foodstuffs. It was a nice surprise. We bought some things at the grocery store and made dinner there. The inside of the albergue was nice and had lots of nooks with several beds. The showers had some privacy but not a lot. The town itself wasn't very exciting and only had a one or two nice things to see. The most exciting part for us was seeing our friend José, whom we hadn't seen since Santo Domingo de la Calzada nearly three weeks earlier. We had lunch with some hikers who'd been walking the Camino del Norte and asked them all about their experiences.

More than anything, we were excited to be near the end. We all tossed and turned and did our best to sleep as we prepared for our last day and arrival to Santiago de Compostela.

Camino de Santiago - Days 25 - 27

2011-09-16T22:03:00.001-04:00

Day 25: O Cebreiro - Triacastela

Distance: 20.5 km(12.7 miles)

Approximate Walking Time: 5-6 hours

Altitude: Start at 1,293 m(4,242 ft.), descend a bit to 1,226 m(4,022 ft.), and back up to 1,335 m(4,380 ft.) at Alto de Poyo, then descend down to 665 m(2,182 ft.).

We were up and out early around 6:30 a.m. We made some use of the useless kitchen by getting ready there. The trail was easy to find as it was right beside the albergue. Even though we were already pretty high up, we continued to ascend up higher along the trail. We only passed one or two people. The moonlight was bright enough to guide us through the woods and up over the mountaintop. The trail dead ended into an old dirt road which we followed through a still sleeping farm village. Surprisingly, it was a bit warm out and we found ourselves sweating a bit.

We stopped in the small town of Hospital de Condesa for some breakfast. Some of the small towns between O Cebreiro and Triacastela had albergues but most of them were bare bones and only provided housing for farming families. A lot of the streets were well paved with cow manure and stunk really bad. The saving grace for these places was that their towns were in a great location in terms of offering views of the surrounding countryside. From Hospital de Condesa, we followed the trail a little ways along the highway and then the dirt trail to Alto de Poyo. That is the highest point of the last part of the trail. The ascent up to the town was steep and challenging.

In that part of Spain, many people own cows and we saw several shepherds taking their cows from one pasture to another. Several times we had to stop as the shepherds and dogs moved their cows to a new place. Some were caked with cow poop and others were nice and clean. We had some people behind us who stopped the farmers and gave them hell for letting the cows live in such filth. The farmers saw no problem with it.

Occasionally, we would pass little small stone churches. Most of the buildings in Galicia had a distinctive look to them like the church above. They looked like stones had been stacked neatly one on top of another to form a building. Most of the fields were divided by stone fences. It was eerie to see the similarities between Galicia and Scotland since Galicia's roots were Celtic like Scotland. Eventually, we started making our way downhill towards Triacastela.

Along the way, we passed through a small village called Fonfría. They had an albergue there but it was closed so we couldn't get any information about it. It seemed like the only reason to stay there was to enjoy a night of isolation and peace. The town was lined with ramshackle houses, and some had tons of garlic cloves hanging from the balconies. Maybe that's a superstition.

From Fonfría, we continued downhill until we arrived to Triacastela. At the entrance to the town, we had to detour around some construction. A couple of salesmen placed themselves along the detour and tried to sell us walking sticks and other Camino related souvenirs. We walked on into town in search of the municipal albergue. We found it out in a large field and with a few people already in line waiting for the 1:00 p.m. opening. We decided to check out the other private albergues in town but most were double the cost so we returned and waited in line. While waiting, we met a nice girl from Korea. We checked in and paid our five euros and got a semi-private room with two other people for the night. When we went for a shower, we were welcomed to an interesting scene that can only be chalked up to cultural difference. The men's showers were divided with curtains while the woman simply had a wide open room with shower heads and no privacy whatsoever. For most of the Spanish woman, this wasn't a big deal as nudity is no big deal to them but most of the foreigners felt a bit uncomfortable and showered in bathing suits. So the lesson here is, carry a bathing suit for the occasional awkward shower.

Triacastela had nearly 800 people so that meant it was big enough to have a decent supermarket. We had to wait until 5:00 p.m. to poke around it. It didn't take long to walk around the town. There was a church at the far end of town and another in the middle. The one in the middle had a nice, old cemetery. Izzy had a lot of fun taking pictures in the town because most of buildings were old. The Camino cut right through the heart of town and rejoined the LU-633 to leave town. Like a lot of other small farm towns, there were a lot of German Shepherd dogs roaming the streets. We found a nice bar to have a drink and take advantage of their free wifi. Most of the albergues that had internet service charged extortion prices so we made it a habit of walking around the town looking for open signals to use instead. The town was a small farming community that depended on the pilgrims for money.

Promptly at 5:00 p.m., we met the supermarket worker opening the doors and wandered through. Since the kitchens had been taken away from us, we decided to take the Spanish attitude to dinner; cheese and chorizo with a bottle of wine. We bought ourselves some nice Manchego cheese(although in Galicia, tetilla cheese is a better choice), a log of locally made chorizo sausage and a bottle of wine to wash it all down. We shared everything with our new Korean friend and watched a guy the albergue hired to perform for the pilgrims. It was a great evening.

Day 26: Triacastela - Sarria
Distance: 16.1 km(10 miles)
Approximate Walking Time: 4-5 hours
Altitude: Start at 665 m(2,182 ft.) and ascend up to 900 m(2,953 ft.) and descend back down to 453 m(1,486 ft.).

The next day almost seemed like a waste and Izzy was a tad bit irritated we didn't go further but it turned out to be a decision for the best. We were up, washed, packed, and out on the trail around 6:40 a.m. We trudged through town trying to loosen up our tight muscles and preparing for the small mountain we had to cross to get to Sarria. From Triacastela, there were two options. One was to head towards Samos(longer by a few km), where there was a monastery albergue that had monks that performed for pilgrims. The other was to head for San Xil(Gil) and go more directly to Sarria. We wanted to head to San Xil. At the edge of town where the trail rejoins the road was a trick. We turned left at first but some of the people already out walking told us that we would end up in Samos if we went left. Instead, we had to turn back right and find a small road on the left to head towards San Xil. Thank god we ran into other people who had already figured it out.

From Triacastela, the trail goes up through San Xil and then descends back down to Sarria. The trail was a bit tricky as it seems to follow a paved road then dips off onto a more Camino type setting of large rocks and dirt. It seemed that following the road would lead you to the right place regardless. We followed along a nearly tunnel like trail in pitch blackness. Out of nowhere, another hiker came cutting through the group nearly running and pushing people aside to get through. It was a bit dangerous and irritating that he was in such a hurry. We had to endure him for the next several hours running ahead and stopping long enough we would pass him, and then running ahead again. He's pictured above in one of his famous running ahead jogs.

All morning we battled through fog as is typical in Galicia. The connections with Galicia and the Celtics never ends. All of Spain is beautiful and sunny and hot and yet in the northwest corner of the country, it's cold, wet, rainy, and foggy year round. We passed through San Xil just before 8:00 a.m. and found streets covered in cow manure, tractors, and empty. We headed on up to the top of the mountain and saw nothing but thick fog. At times, we passed through portions where the trail was lined with stone walls on each side and it rained under the trees but not out in the open.

We bypassed the small village of Furela and found the albergue of Calvor a few more kilometers down the road but didn't realize it was associated with Calvor. It seemed to be even more secluded than others we'd seen. Just another hour later, we arrived to a town and thought we'd made it to Calvor until we saw signs welcoming us to Sarria. There were many cow pastures along the road and another Korean guy we'd met was walking through them chatting with the farmers. He told us he found out the corn we saw growing in fields wasn't for people but only animal feed. That explained why the Spanish don't eat much corn on the cob.

We followed the Camino along the main road into town. There were some albergues that made the smart decision to set up at the entrance to town to catch some pilgrims that didn't wander far enough in to find a cheaper place. We stopped into the town's tourist office and got a map and some advice on where to find the municipal albergue. We found it in the middle of town and waited in line for nearly two hours to get a bed. We felt lazy stopping at 11:00 a.m. and Izzy tried to get us to move on but Sarria seemed like a nice place to stop and had all of the conveniences of a city. We also met two Danes, who would become our walking buddies for the rest of the way to Santiago.

Sarria was decorated with many traces and homages to the Camino de Santiago. Everywhere you looked, there were yellow arrows, murals, pilgrims hospitals, places advertising pilgrim meals, and albergues. It's no wonder because Sarria is the minimum required starting point to get the compostela certificate at the end. This means that many take a few days off of work and go to Sarria and walk the minimum 100 kilometers to receive the same certificate Izzy and I would get for walking nearly 800 kilometers. Something just seems off with that. They also require hikers who start in Sarria to get a minimum of two stamps per day to prove they did walk it.

The view of the Galician countryside was nice from Sarria. It's elevation isn't as high as Villafranca del Bierzo or O Cebreiro but it was nice. After walking up the main road, the trail heads out of town along the LU-633 towards the fortress and Magdalena Convent. The old fortress was hard to see from the road and we had to cut through some parking lots to get a good view of it. It was part of the once grander city that was given township status by the king because of its importance to the Camino de Santiago. We visited the Convent but it was closed for the siesta.

We spent time roaming around the city and getting some things in the supermarket. Since the town had over 10,000 people, the supermarkets were well stocked and we felt like we were in heaven seeing all of the choices after suffering through small town shops. We went to a local internet cafe and tried to catch up on emails and loading pictures. We had a drink with our friend Shawn from Colorado and dinner on the steps out front of the albergue. It consisted of more chorizo, cheese, and wine since there was no kitchen. We noticed that each night, we were staying with the same people who snored loudly. This forced us to let others cut us in line so we could get placed in a different room. Throughout the night, I woke up every half hour to shake the bed because the guy below me snored incessantly. The joys of communal living.

Day 27: Sarria - Portomarín
Distance: 24.7 km(15.3 miles)
Approximate Walking Time: 6-7 hours
Altitude: Start at 453 m(1,486 ft.) and ascend up to 643 m(2,142 ft.) and descend back down to 386 m(1,266 ft.).

The next morning we were awoken by the sound of lots of plastic bags rustling around. The Danes had warned us about it and it made us a laugh a bit. We quit fighting trying to sleep through it and got up and packed our bags. We were out the door a little before 7:00 a.m. and headed out of town towards the Magdalena Convent. The trail descended out of town and followed the train tracks a bit then crossed under the highway. We tried to walk without using lights and it worked for a bit until other hikers behind us got close with their lights. We ascended back up a steep incline towards Barbadelo. There wasn't much there except an overpriced albergue. We caught up with the noisy old men there and they lead us down the wrong path past a large rabble of dogs. After realizing we'd gone the wrong way, we backtracked and found the right way. Two kilometers later, they did it again but we realized what they did and went the right way. One of them realized it too but couldn't talk the rest of them into turning around.

After Barbadelo, the trail continued it up and down rhythm but without such steep ascents and descents. We passed through farms and found a friendly cat near a stream. We stopped to pet it a while. When we continued walking, the cat followed us and jumped up on my shoulders for a bit.

Most of the countryside looked the same throughout the day. It varied from small farming villages to stone wall lined dirt paths to paved country road. We saw lots of small food storage houses called horreos(pronounced o-ray-os). They were built to hold grain and corn as it dries and cures after harvest. The designs were usually similar with slight variations on height and color. They appeared to be mini churches. We found out all about them when we stopped to chat with some old Gallego men who were out for a stroll.

In some places, the trail was difficult for bikers and they had to get off and walk like the rest of us.

The trees covering the trail were beautiful. It made me think of being home in Savannah.

Along the way, we passed the famous kilometer 100. In Galicia, there were markers nearly every kilometer letting you know how far you had to go and in what province you were. Many people stopped to have their picture taken with the famous 100 kilometer and sign it. We did neither, just a simple shot.

Here is an horreo that had a slight variation with a painting design on it.

We found this monument dedicated to Pope Benedict XVI.

We found many places where people had left friends a message. It's quite normal for groups of people to split up during the day since people walk at different paces. At times, Izzy and I walked with different people we'd met and chatted about all kinds of things as we walked. It's really one of the joys of walking the Camino.

We arrived to Portomarín a little after 12:00 p.m. It wasn't a long walk but we were in no hurry to move along. There was an old goat herder out with his flock and he waved to all of the girls that passed by. The guys got nothing, not even a head nod. We crossed the tall bridge and climbed the steps up into the city. We stopped following the yellow arrows and headed into town to find the albergue. It was cold and the wind made it worse. We went to the main square then took a road off to the left of the cathedral up to the municipal albergue. We waited in line with our Danish friends for about an hour. It was five euros as usual and had a kitchen but no cookware. At least, we thought they didn't. We found a small pot that was big enough to cook in.

Our friend Shawn told us that the small bridge underneath the large one was an open air brothel in the 16th century. I haven't been able to check the veracity of his story but it sounded believable. We visited the bridge over the Miño River. There were steps that led all the way down to it. The area down by the old bridge was part of the old city that was moved in the 1960's up to its current location. The town was moved because of the construction of the Belesar Reservoir in 1962. We found a massive dog wandering around down below. He was nice enough to stop and let us pet him. A lot of teenagers were out swimming in the little bit of water that flowed as a river.

Here's a shot of the inside of the albergue in Portomarin.

After walking around for a bit, we headed back and did some laundry. We split the dryer with our Korean and Danish friends. The Danes were smart and brought playing cards with them to pass down time. A book is always a good idea and some places have a rotating library of books. We used the small pot down in the kitchen to make ourselves some pasta for dinner. The two people working at the albergue looked puzzled to see us in the kitchen but we were determined to undermine their cheating us out of a kitchen. One person told us the local restaurants had probably worked out a deal with them to get more business.

Camino de Santiago - Days 22 - 24

2011-09-13T12:46:00.001-04:00

Day 22: Rabanal del Camino - Molinaseca
Distance: 25.5 km(15.8 miles)
Approximate Walking Time: 7-8 hours
Altitude: Start out at 1150 m(3,773 ft.), rise up to 1,500 m(4,921 ft.) and walk at that altitude for 5 km and descend down to 580 m(1,903 ft.).

I don't think we slept any better the entire hike as we did the night after walking 35 km to Rabanal. We were treated to yet another orchestra of snoring and farting. The morning presented us with a problem that also ensured we wouldn't hike that much in one day again, our clothes didn't dry. We had to use some spare clothes we had packed and hang the still damp ones from our bags so they could dry as we walked. We headed out a little before seven and finally had a bright moon to give us some light. We sliced our way through a mountainside ascending up, up, up.

The first small town we came to was Foncebadón, a small village of twenty or so people 6 km from Rabanal. The morning light was just breaking over the horizon and put a golden glow on everything. Most of the valleys were filled with big puffy clouds. The views were incredible and we went at a slower pace because we were looking at everything around us while navigating the tough path of rocks.

After passing through Foncebadón, we continued on ascending up to the highest point of the French Path of the Camino de Santiago at Cruz de Ferro. The wooden post measures almost 5 meters (16 ft.) tall and the cross atop is made of iron. The original cross is housed in the Camino de Santiago museum in Astorga. A couple of interesting theories about the cross's origin say that it dates back to the Roman occupation and signaled a territory boundary. Another theory says that it was erected to provide pilgrims with an easy to see marker of the trail.

There was a well marked path around the cross and many people left stones there as part of a way of marking that they had passed by. There were lots of benches and lots of people who drove up to spend the day enjoying the beautiful views around the area. From the Cruz de Ferro, we went down into a shallow valley and passed by the small stopover town of Manjarín. There was a small outpost type place to stop and have a coffee. The smart ass at the bar directed us to the woods to find a bathroom. The views were beautiful and we saw more valleys full of clouds.

After passing through Manjarín, we ascended back up and began a steep descent down towards our destination for the day, Molinaseca. As we walked down, we met a nice guy and his mom who were walking the trail. We didn't know it at the time, but we would see them everyday until we arrived to Santiago. Both were kind and humble people and the mom blew us away when she told us she was 78 years old. The funny part was that her son was having to half jog to keep up with her walking pace. The view of Ponferrada off in the distance was incredible. We stopped for a bit in El Acebo to take a break and have our sandwich snack. It was a small town nestled in the side of the mountain and had lots of older folks out doing their everyday activities.

The trail from El Acebo to Molinaseca was rugged and there was no shade whatsoever to block the hot sun. The trail was drier and it seemed a lot dustier than other places with so many people walking and kicking up dirt. I saw several people having to put on knee braces and move slower than normal through the descent. Fortunately, my knee didn't cause me any problems. We saw the usual progression of yellow arrows directing us along the path and they were accompanied by blue ones going the opposite direction. We wound our way around a small mountain and finally saw Molinaseca a few hundred meters off in the distance.

Above is one of the three representations of Santiago. Here he is the pilgrim. We found two albergues, one private and one public. The private cost around 10 euros and the public was 5 euros and even had the option of sleeping outside. The kitchen was pretty bare boned but had enough for us to cook some dinner. The beds were all upstairs and the building had big windows that allowed in a lot of natural light. We went through our normal progression of washing our clothes and ourselves and rested for a bit. An older guy was next to us practicing some meditations to relax. I wonder if it worked.

We wandered through the town for a bit checking out the buildings. A lot of people were relaxing by the small river with a swim or just napping in the sun. For most of the bikers, they could just jump right in without changing out of their clothes. We had a beer at a local place and combed through the grocery stores for something to cook for dinner. The town was quaint and full of many nice old house made of stone with wooden balconies. The town dates back to the 17th century and probably existed as a place of residence for workers in the local iron mine.

Day 23: Molinaseca - Villafranca del Bierzo
Distance: 30.2 km(18.8 miles)
Approximate Walking Time: 8-9 hours
Altitude: Start at 580 m(1,903 ft.) and descend down to 512 m(1,680 ft.) at Ponferrada, continue descending to 489 m(1,604 ft.), ascend up to 600 m(1,969 ft.) and end at 500 m(1,640 ft.).

We headed out a little later than usual because we caught up on some much needed rest. Even at 7 a.m., it was still dark outside. We walked along a long stretch of road that cut through a small town and took us into Ponferrada. It was another town of the Roman rule and actually dates back even further into the Neolithic period. Many hikers went on into the city instead of staying in Molinaseca like us and after getting there, I began to regret our decision to stop.

One of the first major sites we came to was the Castle of the Templar Knights. It was built in the 12th century over the confluence of two rivers. Some believe it was built over the site of a previous Celtic Temple. The Knights of the Templar were rumored to have provided protection to the pilgrims of the Camino de Santiago. Unfortunately for us, the castle wasn't open at 8:30 a.m. so we were only able to take some photos and try to imagine what it looked like on the inside. We walked up the right side of the castle to a main square next to a large Cathedral. There we could see a huge and clock tower and lots of small cafes lining the square. The city proved to be beautiful and we treated ourselves to some pulgas(a small puff pastry with chorizo inside) at a local bakery.

After staying longer than we probably should have, we headed on out of town. We followed the yellow arrows through the city. Along the way, we passed several schools and voiced our thanks that we didn't have to worry about returning to our own for work. After a good hour of criss crossing the town and passing through an old hospital, we left behind the outskirts of Ponferrada. The view of the coming mountains was always in sight and in the back of our minds. It had only been a day since our last climb but it wasn't as steep as our first day's climb up the Pyrenees.

As we walked through the small towns, we saw lots of people roasting red peppers on small top grills. It's a famous tradition in the Bierzo region of Spain to roast red peppers for over an hour and enjoy their wonderful flavor. The trail for the most part followed along a small country road and our feet loved having pavement underneath instead of uneven rocks. We spent most of the morning walking through various small farming communities. None of them had albergues but the last one had a hotel or two. After the last small community, we arrived to Camponaraya. There, we found a small place to stop and have a snack and rest. We saw this awesome mural on the wall next to our stopping point.

After two years of teaching English to Spaniards, some signs just couldn't escape our meticulousness. For instance, this proprietor was not wise to the fact that a tapa is not a lid. While technically it's the right translation, it completely misses the meaning.

There was a nice picnic area just outside of town where the trail dips back out into the countryside. Our next stop would be the town of Cacabelos, a famous wine town. We weaved our way through tons of vineyards on a dirt path. The best part of hiking the Camino in September was watching the grape harvest. You can literally stop and watch them cut the grapes and load them into tubs that are then carried into town.

Cacabelos begged us to stop but we had other intentions of getting further along the Camino. The town had beautiful buildings and a wine culture that was great. The trail followed the main road into town along a street lined with beautiful houses and tasty looking restaurants. We stopped at the first church we found and had lunch. The albergues there cost 5 euros and the municipal one was located at the far end of town, which is great when you are ready to leave in the morning.

We slowly walked through the town, taking in all of its sights. We saw some familiar faces of friends we'd met. Most of them were stopping for the night and we couldn't blame them, it was a beautiful town.

Hindsight is always 20/20 and in hindsight, we should have stopped. The next two hours of hiking were brutal. Our rule of thumb had been to stop by 1:00 or 2:00 in the afternoon before the day's heat became unbearable. We broke our own rule and continued on in high heat, uphill, and our packs feeling heavier by the second. We climbed our way out of town and started cutting through vineyards again, watching the harvests. Quite a few bikers passed us and I never felt more envious of someone in my life. My near breaking point happened when all of my water became hot.

We went up and down, up and down and finally made it to Villafranca del Bierzo. Our idea for continuing on was based on knowing we'd have to climb a huge mountain first thing in the morning instead of later in the day. We decided we'd rather ascend when it's cooler rather than when we're nearing the end of the day. The two main albergues were right along the Camino at the entrance to the town. We chose to stay at the Ave Fenix and paid 6 euros a piece. They didn't have a kitchen but that was fine because we'd carried enough stuff to make sandwiches. We washed ourselves and our things and headed into town to poke around.

Once we were free of our bags and clean and a little rested, we were able to really appreciate the location of Villafranca del Bierzo. It's nestled in the hills of the mountains and the many white buildings against the greenery of the mountains makes for beautiful landscape. The town itself sits down in a bowl and thus, from the albergues, you have a bird's eye view of everything. It's no wonder that the town's roots trace back to the Neolithic times and the Bronze Age. We walked down into town and visited the supermarket and some of the local sites, like the Saint Nicholas Church(from the 17th century) and the Castle. Villafranca is a town just big enough to need some time to explore but small enough it can be easily done in an afternoon.

We ran into some people we'd met very early in the Camino and hadn't seen for two weeks. The one amazing thing about the Camino was the way you ran into people. Some people we saw daily and others would come and go along the way. There was a huge plaza in the middle of town with lots of restaurant terraces. We also sat for a while and stretched our bodies on a nice grassy area across from Saint Nicholas Church and next to the Collegiate Church of Saint Mary. It's just not a small Spanish town without at least one church dedicated to Saint Mary. Around dusk, we headed back to the albergue, where we slept in the "young person's room." It, thankfully, was free of snoring and could have provided one of the most peaceful nights but the town was having a celebration in which fireworks exploded and music played until 3 a.m.

Day 24: Villafranca del Bierzo - O Cebreiro
Distance: 30.5 km(19 miles)
Approximate Walking Time: 8-9 hours
Altitude: Start at 500 m(1,640 ft.) and ascend up to 600 m(1,969 ft.) continue for 12 km at a steady altitude then ascend up to 1,293 m(4,242 ft.).

The next morning, we rose early and hit the trail around 6:15 a.m. We knew the day was going to be one of the toughest yet and we wanted to get through it got hot. We followed the trail through Villafranca del Bierzo and ascended up out of town. The trail followed the town's famous Calle del Agua. The country road we were on headed up into the mountains and led us around to the highway. We walked underneath it for a while guided by the light of the moon and the occasional hiker with a headlamp. Around daybreak, we started to arrive to the first of many small towns we would pass that day. The first two were called Pereje and Trabadelo. The trail led us through them but if we had wanted to skip them, we could just continue along the main road. We walked through both towns and they were nothing more than old houses and some stores.

From Trabadelo, we crossed under the highway's overpass and headed over to La Portela de Valcarce. It was a bit tricky following the arrows and there were several paths that looked like they could have been the Camino but weren't. We rested at La Portela next to another statue of Santiago the Pilgrim.

As we left La Portela, we could see the mountains in front of us but never the one we were going to climb.

Over the next couple of hours, we passed through the towns of Ambasmestas, Vega de Valcarce, and Ruitelan. Vega de Valcarce was a recommended stopping point if we had stopped in Cacabelos. It had several albergues but we weren't able to find out how much they were charging. After visiting Vega de Valcarce, I changed my mind on wanting to have stopped in Cacabelos. There was nothing to do and not much to see there. The trail followed the small country road through all of the towns and farms associated with them. We saw many cows and some horses that were showing off and racing with each other as people passed.

Suddenly outside of Vega de Valcarce, the trail started to rise and rise and rise. As noted in the altitude for the day, we were about to double our distance above sea level. The trail cut off from the road and returned to rock and dirt paths.

The first part of the ascent looked like the picture below. It was hot and the trail passed by tons of fields full of cows and their excrement. This made for a climb full of sweat, flies, and terrible smells. It was by far much worse than the first day.

There were some small enclaves along the way and we stopped at one to get an ice cold Aquarius and rest for a bit. We watched a local dog terrorize a guy every time he walked past it. We met him later in O Cebreiro and he turned out to be a guy from Florida who'd just started the trail in Astorga. He had a rough day and the dog exacerbated his frustration.

The views became even more stunning as we got higher and the climb became a bit gentler. The first part was difficult but it got better as we went on. The trail left the shade of the tree canopy and followed along an old dirt road. There were two more towns to stop in, La Faba and Laguna de Castilla. Both were small farm communities with streets freshly paved with cow poop, one or two small cafes, and a water fountain.

One of the best parts of that section of the Camino were the grasshoppers. They were everywhere and had beautiful blue and red colors when they opened their wing and jumped. We caught a couple on our bags.

Just a few kilometers before arriving to O Cebreiro, we reached this important point, the Galician border. We both felt a huge relief knowing we were entering the last of the regions of Spain we would have to get to Santiago.

As the trail finally started to level off, we realized that we had arrived to O Cebreiro. There was a huge plaque dedicated to the Camino de Santiago with a depiction of all the Caminos that come from various European countries. We walked through the town to the municipal albergue at the far end of town. It was five euros. We later learned that all of the Galician municipal albergues had the same price of 5 euros and none of them had kitchenware.

We washed ourselves and our things and hung them out to dry. We awoke from a short nap to find it pouring rain outside and we had to run out and get all of our things off the line. This led us to another interesting cultural encounter of a big difference between Europeans and Americans, the automatic dryer. There were two dryers and a lot of people with wet clothes. I spent a good half hour waiting in line and chatting with different people I had seen along the way. When my time came, I loaded the dryer along with a couple of Spaniards and an Italian guy. None of them really understood how the dryer worked. They all expected the 30 minutes we paid for to dry lots of really wet clothes. After a good 30 minutes, I paid for 30 more and everyone seemed baffled that the clothes weren't dry. After the second 30 minutes, we all had to take our stuff out and hang it up a little longer because the people behind us in line were growing antsy. I tried to explain to everyone how the dryer worked as it dried our clothes.

After the clothes were dry, we walked around the town. All of the buildings were made of stone and some had thatch roofs. We found a lot of old farming equipment and a litter of kittens that provided a lot of entertainment. There was a small church dedicated to Saint Mary and other places of cultural significance like old pilgrim hospitals associated with the Camino de Santiago. The town's founding dates back to the Pre-Roman times.

We had dinner at a local Casa Rural with our friend Shawn we'd met from Colorado. We saw the old guy who had chased the dog around the town further down the mountain too. We chatted about life back in the U.S. and enjoyed our dinner of soup, pasta, and ribs. We had to hurry back to the albergue before 10:00 p.m. because they lock the doors everyday to provide peace and quiet for the resting pilgrims and we didn't want to rest outside in the cold. Surprisingly, it was relatively quiet considering the large amount of people sharing the room with us.

Camino de Santiago - Days 19 - 21

2011-09-10T14:21:00.000-04:00

Day 19: Mansilla de las Mulas - La Virgen del Camino
Distance: 27.7 km(17.2 miles)
Approximate Walking Time: 7-8 hours
Altitude: Start at 795 m(2,608 ft.) and rise up to 840 m(2,756 ft.) and then go up and down into León at 837 m(2,746 ft.) and rise up to 900 m(2,953 ft.).

We left Mansilla de las Mulas around 6:30 and walked with the same Spaniards we'd met a few days earlier. It was their last day for the year and the following one, they plan to finish the Camino from León to Santiago de Compostela. Most of the walking was through the suburbs of the city of León. We passed by a few remaining farm fields in the early hours and quickly hit the suburban sprawl around 9:00 a.m. The donkey we saw was used to humans and tried to play cute to get some food out of us.

We crossed over a bridge and into León around 10:45 a.m. It's a good size city with a little over 130,000 people. It was founded over 2,000 years ago by the Romans and was a stronghold of the Spanish kingdom of Castilla y León. It was lost for a while during the Muslim invasion but quickly recaptured by the remaining Spaniards in the Kingdom of Asturias. It's famous for its 13th century gothic Cathedral that stands as the hallmark of the same architectural style. We visited León in July with Izzy's parents and have pictures of the Cathedral in a previous post.

We handled some bank business and continued to follow the trail through the town. It gave us a view of the city we hadn't had before. There were two large albergues there, a municipal one and another run by nuns. Both cost 5 euros and had long lines. If you walk the Camino and have never been to León, you should stay the day and venture around the town. We followed the trail past the Cathedral and went in to collect a stamp. We had to go to the back to the museum and deal with a most unpleasant woman who seemed offended we didn't want a ticket to go in the museum.

An important building we hadn't seen before in León was the San Marcos Monastery. The idea for the building goes back to the 13th century also, just after the reconquest of the city. It was first used as a hospital for pilgrims on their journey to Santiago. The façade shows elements of the influence of the Spanish Renaissance style.

After passing through León, we walked through Trobajo del Camino and on to La Virgen del Camino. Both were small suburbs of the bigger city. The main albergue in Virgen del Camino, Don Antonino, was a bit off the path but comfortable and clean. It cost 5 euros and had a great kitchen and hot showers. We visited the supermarket and purchased some pisto to make one of our favorite trail meals, chicken and rice with pisto sauce. We also met a newer group of pilgrims since most of the ones we were walking with stayed behind in León or finished for the year. The small town of Virgen del Camino has an interesting legend. In 1505, the virgin Mary appeared to a local shepherd at the site of the local hermitage. There is a statue commemorating it in the Cathedral of León.

Day 20: La Virgen del Camino - Hospital de Órbigo
Distance: 23.7 km(14.7 miles)
Approximate Walking Time: 6-7 hours
Altitude: Start at 900 m(2,953 ft.) and slowly descend down to 820 m(2,690 ft.).

The next morning we awoke well rested and set off for Hospital de Órbigo. The walking continued to be across mainly flat stretches of land with occasional ascents and descents, none of which were steep. We followed the main road out of town and had some confusing missteps along the dirt trails. Again, problems caused by not having flashlights. We accidentally led two older French ladies down the wrong path. We walked and talked with them for a bit and their headlamps made seeing a whole lot easier. One of them was having some trouble getting started. We walked through a couple of unimpressive back road towns, Valverde de la Virgen and San Miguel del Camino. Both seem to simply be stop off points or small communities of farmers grouped together.

The trail followed along the N-120 for most of the day with occasional moments of feeling like we were out in the wilderness. Around 9:00, we entered Villadangos del Paramo, a suggested stopping point on the French guide. We stopped at one of the first gas station and purchased some of the softest bread of the trip. If you've been to Spain, you'll know that their bread can cut your mouth all to hell so finding soft bread was a bit of a treat for us. We finished off our peanut butter, had a bit of a rest, and headed on to the next town. There were several albergues in Villadangos, two of which are 3 euros and 5 euros a piece. At 9:00 a.m., we had no intention of calling it a day. In the next town we passed, San Martín del Camino, an old lady beat her dusty rug from the second story above us. We were too tired to move or care.

We finally arrived to Hospital de Órbigo around 1:00 in the afternoon as the heat was starting to become stronger. The day was quite monotonous as the trail simply followed the highway from León past a bunch of corn and grain fields. The odd thing about the corn fields in Spain is that the crop is merely for animal feed and none of it is used for human consumption. We entered the town from the east and crossed the long bridge connecting the two sides of the town. The bridge was built in the 13th century and was the site of a resistance that blocked the movement of Napoleon's troops in the 19th century.

We checked into the Municipal albergue for 5 euros. We had two bunk beds in a room of twelve or fourteen beds. After taking a shower, we went out back to wash our clothes and met an older Swedish guy we hadn't seen since day 3 in Pamplona. He told us of how he walked many kilometers each day, something like 40, and now he was having a lot of trouble with his knees and legs and couldn't walk more than ten or twelve a day. The lesson we learned from him and many others was not to overexert your body and listen to it when the limits are reached. We walked long days but never more than two in a row and we slowed our pace so as not to over exert ourselves. The tortoises had finally caught up to the hare.

We spent the afternoon wandering around the town. We found lots of old stone buildings, some fun graffiti, and tried to walk through the grassy field under the bridge. Sadly, it was fenced off because of the restoration work on the wall connected to the bridge. Izzy found a prickly plant by brushing up against it. It produced a stinging sensation on her foot until we washed it off with water. We cooked dinner at the albergue of scrambled eggs and vegetables. I spent the evening making sure our clothes didn't blow off the line and into a large stream of water and Izzy played with two small kittens.

Day 21: Hospital de Órbigo - Rabanal del Camino
Distance: 35.8 km(22.3 miles)
Approximate Walking Time: 9-10 hours
Altitude: Start at 820 m(2,690 ft.), rise up to 920 m(3,018 ft.), descend to 870 m(2,854 ft.) at Astorga then ascend up to 1150 m(3,773 ft.).

Little did we know we were about to embark on one of the most difficult days of the entire trip and it didn't even include a steep ascent. We covered nearly 36 km this day and asked ourselves repeatedly how people did this day in and day out. No wonder many people were having severe leg and foot problems. We left Hospital de Órbigo early in pitch darkness. There were two paths to Astorga, the traditional along the N-120 highway of 15 km and another through the countryside of 16 km. We elected the extra km to get away from the highway. We saw one of the most beautiful sunrises of the entire trip.

We made our way through fields of hay, up and down steep hills, and through the forest. It felt wonderful to not see cars passing every ten seconds. We passed through a large corn field just outside of Hospital de Órbigo and entered Villares de Órbigo. Halfway to the next town, Santibañez, we passed a small cart with drinks and snacks for pilgrims. They had a donation box to leave something to help provide more snacks for future pilgrims.

We finally arrived to Astorga a little before 10:00 a.m. Our legs were tired and a bit wobbly from walking 16 km without stopping. We followed the yellow arrows into town. The streets were lined with a lot of clean looking architecture. Astorga is another relic of the Roman occupation and was established as a military outpost in the first century A.D. There was an albergue at the entrance to the town with a statue of a pilgrim out front. Just past that, we found the main square with the town hall and lots of restaurants. We stopped for a few minutes to take some pictures and find a bread store but there wasn't one. As we walked on to the Cathedral, we passed the white bread truck and waved them down to buy a loaf of bread. We continued on to the large square with the Episcopal Palace and Cathedral for our morning break.

We rested for a bit in front of Gaudi's Episcopal Palace. One of the best feelings each day was taking off our boots and letting our feet air out. We sat and stared at another creation of one of our favorite Spanish architects. The palace was originally built as just that, a palace. After a fire left it in ruins, a local bishop contracted Gaudí to rework it into something more modern. He had the bishop photograph the building and the area around it so he could design something appropriate. In the midst of many other projects, Gaudí managed to offer up this design and construction began immediately after the plans were approved. The palace is now a museum of artifacts from the various trails of the Camino de Santiago. It cost 2.50 with the pilgrim's passport to visit. We escaped the cold for a bit and took a walk around. We didn't go inside the Cathedral because it was Sunday morning and closed for the mass. We did collect a stamp from the office though. It was built during the 15th and 16th centuries and has a more baroque style. Astorga was a recommended stopping point but we wanted to continue on to Rabanal del Camino. Around the town, there were several old Roman ruin sites, old medieval city walls, and great places to eat. There were several albergues scattered throughout the town that were as cheap as 5 euros. We also bought some mantecadas, the town's famous sweet dessert.

We followed the white dirt path out of town to Murias de Rechivaldo. The main square next to the church is a must see spot. There was a small albergue there for 5 euros. For the next 15 km, we encountered an unusually large amount of people out walking the trail. We were confused a bit because we hadn't seen too many people in the early morning hours. As we approached the next town, we figured out that it was a group of tourists, mostly German, who had come to have a Sunday walk along the Camino de Santiago as part of their Spanish experience. We saw their bus just outside the town of Santa Catalina de Somoza.

Santa Catalina was a nice town with a couple of nice albergues that had chairs and tables out in their patio area. We stopped and rested for a bit and took some pictures of little artisan shops with blue doors decorated with lots of Compostela themed souvenirs like walking sticks and the sea shell. We walked another 4 km to El Ganso but found only a small albergue open and serving lunch. The municipal albergue looked like it had closed up for the year.

From El Ganso, we walked the last 6 km to Rabanal del Camino. The weather cooperated with us for most of the day and continued to be overcast. Those 6 km were some of the most painful of the entire trip for us. We were tired, our backs ached from carrying our heavy packs, and we just wanted to rest in a bed for hours. Along the way, we had a beautiful view of the distant Galician mountains and we found another stretch of fence covered in crosses. Around 5:00 p.m., we finally arrived to Rabanal del Camino.

The only downside of arriving so late was we didn't have much time to rest before showering and washing our clothes. We were in a difficult fight of wanting to rest but knowing that we needed to do some cleaning before resting. We managed to wash everything but the weather turned bad and rained. It was damp and cold the rest of the night and none of our things dried properly. We stayed at the municipal albergue and paid 4 euros. Free wifi was included. There were several other nice albergues, including one run by some British at the entry to the town. We ate one of our favorite meals of the entire trip that night at a restaurant called La Posada. Their dessert, natillas, were some of the best we had throughout our 2 1/2 years of living in Spain. We walked around the town for a bit in between the sprinkles of rain and took a few pictures. We called it a night early and went to bed to try and recover from the long day of walking.

Camino de Santiago - Days 16 - 18

2011-09-08T11:39:00.000-04:00

Day 16: Carrión de los Condes - Ledigos
Distance: 23.4 km(14.5 miles)
Approximate Walking Time: 5-6 hours
Altitude: Start at 830 m(2,723 ft.) and ascend slowly up to 889 m(2,917 ft.) at Ledigos.

Leaving Carrión de los Condes was a daunting proposition. It had one of the longest stretches of trail without a stopping point. We woke up before 6:00 a.m. and headed out at 6:15 a.m. to trek along the 17.2 km to Calzadilla de la Cueza. We walked for 4 hours along an old country road and the white dirt and rock lined trail. It was cold most of the morning. There weren't any clouds and we saw lots of shooting stars all across the sky. We did find one enterprising man. He set up a stand about 10 km from Carrión that sold coffee, tea, and breakfast items. We didn't stop but our friend who did told us the coffee wasn't good. We ate fruit and an energy bar and pushed on to Calzadilla. It was pretty flat most of the way.

At times, the long stretches were a bit overwhelming. The landscape became monotonous with yellow field after yellow field. The one thing our minds quickly adjusted to was keeping us moving because we had no other choice.

Calzadilla was a welcome site and we stopped at a local cafe for a much needed break and an Aquarius. If you've never been to Spain, then you wouldn't know the wonders of Aquarius. It's a simple isotonic drink with a lemon or orange flavor made by Coca Cola Spain. Izzy also had some spider bites that we had to drain. Insect repellant is a must have.

After a nice half hour break, we headed on to Ledigos, the halfway point from Saint Jean Pied de Port. The trail followed the N-120 the rest of the way. We saw our second set of hikers with a dog. It looked like a greyhound and was limping along after its owners. To add insult to injury, they stopped him and put a small pack on his back for him to carry. I love dogs but it looked like the poor animals we saw being dragged along by their owners were tired and unhappy. It seemed like they were only there for the owners selfish reasons.

A creepy guy passed us the first day. His ripped jeans and black shirt and greasy long hair made him seem a bit out of place. We lagged for a bit and let him get out of sight.

The trail descended a bit around a curve and down into Ledigos. The French guide suggested continuing on to Terradillos de Los Templarios. We didn't because the albergues there didn't have kitchens and the one in Ledigos did. It also had the supermarket. We paid 6 euros for a bed. They offered us a double room to ourselves for 9 euros each. They had a bar attached to the albergue that served a pilgrim's special. When I asked about a supermarket, the girl took me into a storage room next to the bar and let me pick out things we wanted to cook. We had been carrying a jar of pisto for a couple of days so we used it with rice to make a rather filling dish. Aside from the kitchen, there was really no other reason to stay in Ledigos. The town was small and full of flies. We walked around it in about twenty minutes. There was one old church and tons of houses made of adobe as you can see below. This was one of our least favorite albergues but it had everything we needed to get by, including high speed internet to pass the time.

Day 17: Ledigos - Bercianos del real Camino
Distance: 26.6 km(16.5 miles)
Approximate Walking Time: 6-7 hours
Altitude: Start at 889 m(2,917 ft.) and end at 854 m(2,801 ft.) with some ups and downs but nothing steep.

We woke up at 5:30 a.m. and packed our things. Around 6:00, a group of us tried to open the door to leave but it was locked. One guy told us he told the girl who ran the albergue to have the door unlocked by 6:00 but she didn't wake up and do it. Instead of waiting around on her, Izzy and I climbed out of a window in the stairwell and headed off. This was our first warning sign that the day was bound to hold challenges and problems. We walked the next two km to Terradillos. The town had several albergues, all around 7 - 8 euros along the trail. 3 km from Terradillos was the small village of Moratinos. About the time we arrived there, the sun was coming out. We took a small break to empty our shoes of rocks and take out some fruit for breakfast. The albergue there cost 8 euros and didn't let pilgrims leave until 7:00 a.m. As we headed out, the trail split off and headed right, we went left. For some unknown reason, we just didn't see the signs and wandered around a private hunting field for an hour. Needless to say, it threw off our day and put us in a bad mood. We eventually righted our wrong and made our way through San Nicolás del Camino and on to our first stop in the province of León, Sahagún.

It was a 10 km walk from Moratinos to Sahagún along the highway and we walked most of it in silence. The problem with wasting an hour of walking time was that it made our day a lot longer and it was difficult to just push the thoughts aside as we could only continue to walk. As we entered Sahagún, we were greeted by the sign below directing us to an albergue. We went to a pharmacy and bought more vaseline and a set of earplugs(called tapones). Many of the buildings were made of brick and stone. We stopped at the ruins of some churches to have our breakfast.

Sahagún was founded after two martyrs, Facundo and Primitivo, were killed and their remains recovered and put to rest in what would become a local monastery. We visited the Church of Saint Tirso and Saint Lorenzo. The Church of Saint Lorenzo was built in the 12th century and the tower added in the 14th. The Church of Saint Lorenzo was also built in the 12th century and was made almost exclusively of brick, a newer construction material. We also passed by the Monastery of Saint Bendito and the watchtower attached to it. The monastery dates back to the 11th century and the kings Alfonso of León. An arch also dedicated to San Bendito was erected in the 17th century and still stood over the road that led out of town.

We walked through the arch and headed out of town across the famous Sahagún Bridge over the Cea River. For another 10 km, we walked along the white dirt and rocky path to Bercianos del Real Camino. About 3 km outside of Sahagún we reached a crossroad that goes through Calzada del Coto and takes an alternate route through Calzadilla de los Hermanillos to Mansilla. The trail goes for 20 km without passing through anywhere. We decided against it and walked on to Bercianos. Someone who's walked the trail in the summer heat knows how unbearable it can be and had trees planted all along the Camino to provide shade. It was a life saver being able to walk in the shade as the sun's full force grew stronger and stronger.

We passed a field full of scarecrows near Bercianos.

We arrived to Bercianos around 1:00 and had to wait for a half hour until the albergue opened. We sat and ate our lunch and took our shoes off to let our feet breathe. Often times, the best rest was letting our feet just breathe. We checked in as soon as they opened. The price was a donation and included dinner. The dinner was a typical soup of ham, eggs, and bread, a second course of tuna salad, and some chopped fruit for dessert. Afterwards, they had everyone sing a song to the tune of La Bamba but with new words that reflect the experience of walking the Camino. It was quite summer camp like. A word of advice, get a bottom bunk as the ceiling of the albergue was made of adobe and bits of dirt fell off periodically throughout the night and woke Izzy up.

We spent the afternoon wandering around the town after we washed ourselves and our clothes. The one troubling part of the albergue was the large number of wasps hanging out in the trees by the clothes washing area. The town was a bit dreary and old. There was an interesting mix of old stone buildings, others that looked to be crumbling apart because they were made of adobe, and new, modern brick buildings like the local church and tower. It was odd to not see an old church in the town. The one good things about Bercianos was the supermarket. Compared to other places, it had an abundance of supplies at reasonable prices.

Day 18: Bercianos del Real Camino - Mansilla de las Mulas
Distance: 26.3 km(16.3 miles)
Approximate Walking Time: 6-7 hours
Altitude: Start at 854 m(2,801 ft.) and slowly descend down to 795 m(2,608 ft.).

We woke up around 5:45 a.m. and got ready to leave. It took a little longer than usual because there were limited toilets at the albergue. There was a free breakfast of coffee and cookies downstairs. We took some and headed out the door. We walked with a group of Spaniards we met because they had lots of bright flashlights. The stars were bright and we saw more shooting across the morning sky.

Our first stop was in the town of El Burgo Ranero, about 8 km from Bercianos. About the time we arrived, the morning sun was rising over the horizon and spilling beautiful golden light on everything. The pictures we took in the early morning hours always had an incredible golden color to them. The town was small but had some nice places to stop and have coffee. The albergue there only accepts a donation to stay.

From there, we trekked nearly 13 km to the next town of Reliegos. Along the way, we passed by more fields of golden hay. That part of the Camino was quite monotonous and didn't offer much in the way of scenery. The only thing that changed were the smells. Occasionally, the smell of cows and their feces filled the air, then it changed to nothing, then to the smell of a rotting animal carcass. A small country road ran parallel to the Camino most of the day and, fortunately, we had more trees to shade us from the sun.

We went over a big hill and down into Reliegos. There, we experienced a rare thing on the Camino, a bar sold us a loaf of bread. This probably had something to do with the fact that it was not the typical old grumpy man behind the bar without a clue of how to think outside of his small world. We had some breakfast of peanut butter and bread and continued on. The town's albergue had some fun paintings and graffiti on the outside.

We arrived to Mansilla de las Mulas about a quarter before 1:00. The town's buildings had an old stone look to them and there was a monument that expressed the feeling of the Camino better than any other. It was a white cross with three tired backpackers looking as exhausted as anyone on the Camino feels when they arrive to their destination. We followed the yellow arrows through the town and to the local municipal albergue. They asked for a donation of 5 euros. It kind of defeated the purpose of a donation. We checked around and took a room that only had 6 beds hoping we wouldn't get a snorer. We were wrong. The office closed for lunch but asked pilgrims to go ahead and grab a bed and settle up when it reopened at 5:00 p.m. Nothing will stand between a Spaniard and their lunch/siesta time. We washed our clothes and ourselves and headed to the supermarket. Mansilla was a big town with all of the luxuries of a supermarket, pharmacy, and ATM. We reloaded our supplies for lunch and dinner, returned to put them away, and headed out to see the town.

Mansilla de las Mulas had tons of buildings made of stone. It was famous for having large walls built back in the 11th and 12th centuries. They were part of the ongoing effort to kick the Moors out of Spain. We visited the Churches of Saint Mary and Saint Martin. Both structures were quite different from each other, mainly because the Church of Saint Mary had been reconstructed in the 18th century. The Church of Saint Martin was built in 1220 when a host of new churches flooded into the town. We walked around for an hour or so checking out the town. There is an alternate route outside of Mansilla that takes a different way into León, the next day's stop. That evening, one of our Canadian friends told us how he had left his camera at the previous albergue. The people working at the one in Mansilla helped him to get in touch with them and the camera was found and returned to him that night. It was quite a relief for him because he had spent 3 extra hours walking because he turned around and went back but no one was there to let him in to find it. There were many people who tried to make us suspicious of everyone and others who showed that good people were everywhere.

Camino de Santiago - Days 13 - 15

2011-09-05T12:55:00.000-04:00

Day 13: Burgos - Hontanas
Distance: 30.6 km(19 miles)
Approximate Walking Time: 7-8 hours
Altitude: Start at 856 m(2,808 ft.), ascend up to 900 m(2,952 ft.) near Hornillos, descend down to 825 m(2,706 ft.) at Hornillos, ascend again to 900 m(2,952 ft.) and end at 870 m(2,854 ft.)

We left Burgos at 6:00 a.m. when they opened the albergue for everyone to leave. Some albergues didn't open their doors until 6:00 and some had a door that locked from the outside, that way anyone could leave but no one could just walk in. We joined a group of people we'd met at the start and all of us worked together to follow the sea shells out of town. At times, the trail crossed the street from the left side to the right and back again. Eventually, we arrived at the edge of the city and headed out into the morning's darkness. We walked the next few km to the town of Tardajos. There, a nice man took us to the local bread factory because the bartender refused to sell us a loaf of bread. He told us someone had helped him when he was walking the Camino and when he saw us get shot down for bread, he knew it was his turn. It was a humbling gesture of kindness. Aside from the bread factory, there wasn't much to see in Tardajos except the old church.

Just 2 more km from Tardajos was the small village of Rabe de las Calzadas. It was a bit smaller than Tardajos but the houses were more beautiful. Most were made of large brown stone and had the old style Spanish doors. We followed the trail through the town and back out into the golden hay fields.

The fields weren't as bright and golden as normal without the morning light shining on them. Whenever it was overcast, it felt colder and the wind blew harder. About the time we left Rabe de las Calzadas, the bikers started to pass us. The bikers shared most of the Camino with the walkers except in certain parts where they used the National Roads. We never saw them until 9:30 or 10:00 and they continued to pass us throughout the day until we stopped. Biking the Camino from Saint Jean is another option and it only takes a little less than 2 weeks to bike the entire length.

Another 8 km from Rabe was Hornillos del Camino. It was recommended as a stopping point for the day but since we arrived at 11:00 a.m., we had no intention of calling it a day. They did have a 5 euro municipal albergue with a kitchen but the supermarket left a lot to be desired. Buy things to cook in Burgos if you plan to stay in Hornillos. It rained on us while we sat and took a much needed break. There was a big descent into Hornillos and we walked in with a couple of Canadians we'd met at the beginning. One thing that we all talked about a lot was how we were going to pamper ourselves at a beach after we finished. A lot of times, our minds focused on something positive when the Camino became tough or monotonous. From Hornillos, we walked 10 km to Hontanas. We passed through the same fields kilometer after kilometer. The only sounds we heard were the crunching of our feet on rock, the crackling of the fields, and the sounds of hunting season. One positive thing about the Camino was that we almost always could see the town where we wanted to stop off in the distance. Not this day as Hontanas was down in a bowl. At one point, we passed a sign telling us we had .5 km to go and we still couldn't see it.

Hontanas was a small village of about 60 people. All of the buildings looked quite similar and were made of large brown stone. We checked in to the municipal albergue for 5 euros because they had a kitchen. There was no internet. There were two other albergues for 4 and 6 euros a piece. We were the first to arrive and could pick any bed we wanted. Our room had 8 bunk beds and we took two bottom ones because we didn't want to bother with climbing up a shoddy ladder with sore feet. There were several restaurants in town but none looked like a stand out place. We purchased a few things from the supermarket, otherwise known as a cooler and some vegetables in some guy's bar. We made a nice vegetable soup for dinner. The town had a couple of nice churches, a hermitage, and a photo gallery of the Camino. It was run by two hippies who were trying to be artistic but came off as quite pompous. There tag line was that they had walked the trail so many times that they didn't count kilometers anymore. I have news for them, everyone who walked through that town counted the kilometers to and from it. Hontanas wasn't the most exciting of towns but our first 30 km day took it out of us. We were also introduced to two constant nuisances that would be one of the worst parts of the walk across the Spanish meseta, flies and the smell of cow manure.

Day 14: Hontanas - Boadilla
Distance: 28.4 km(17.6 miles)
Approximate Walking Time: 6.5-7.5 hours
Altitude: Start at 870 m(2,854 ft.), descend to 804 m(2,638 ft.) at Castrojeriz, ascend up to 920 m(3,018 ft.) just after Castrojeriz and back down 765 m(2,510 ft.) at Boadilla.

We slept well in Hontanas and woke up rather chipper at 5:45 a.m. the next day. Even the pervasive smell of manure didn't dampen our mood. We washed and packed and left at 6:15. It was one of the clearest mornings of the whole trip and the walk under the stars was a delight. It never got old staring at the sky as we walked. The trail went on out of town and followed along a narrow path at the base of a large hill. We saw a couple of people walking along the road in the distance and the Camino eventually rejoined the road as walked into San Anton, a small village that exists as a few houses surrounding an old abandoned monastery. It was built by Alfonso VII in the 12th century as a hospital and refuge for pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago. Now, they are preserved as ruins of the medieval building it once was. From there, we marched on a few more km to Castrojeriz.

Castojeriz sits at the base of a large hill that has a fortress at its top. One of our friends told us that it had been built to provide protection for the Roman gold rush at Las Médulas outside of Ponferrada. The castle itself dates back to Roman times, was modified by the Visigoths and Moors during their respective occupations of Iberia and later severely damaged by an earthquake in Lisbon in 1755. Seismologists estimate that earthquake to have been somewhere between an 8.5 - 9 on the Richter scale and the effects were felt as far away as Finland so it's not surprising the castle was damaged.

The city itself holds a lot of historical importance in Spain. From the 8th - 14th centuries, Spain was inhabited by the Moors of North Africa. The town of Castrojeriz was returned to the kingdom of Castilla sometime near the end of the 10th century, which was considered progress in repelling the Moors south. The houses in the town were built around the Camino de Santiago and its also one of the longest stretches of the Camino through a town that doesn't change to another street. We found a couple of churches in town, the main one being St. John's Church. It had 3 naves and was built before the gothic influence. We stopped at the first hostel in town because they had a cafe and the owner helped me find the local bread delivery driver for our morning baguette.

The clouds melted away as we left and the sun started to shine. On the other side ofCastrojeriz, we could see the mountain we had to climb. The ascent stared us down as we approached and up up up we went to around 930 m(3,051 ft.) from 805 m(2,641 ft.) in town. After nearly two weeks of walking, we had grown accustomed to the ups and downs of the trail. We went at our own pace and never really got tired. There were a couple of younger kids who ran on up. At the top, it looked like some giant had sliced off the peak. It was completely flat until we arrived to the other side and had to go down. The bikers really struggled going up but the trail was paved going down and they just cut loose and made the rest of us walking jealous.

We walked on for a few km and found the Fitero Bridge. It stands at the edge of the province of Burgos near the Saint Nicholas hospital for pilgrims. The hospital seemed to still be open to pilgrims. The bridge is dated from the 10th century and attributed to Alfonso VI. It connects Burgos Province with the province of Palencia over the Pisuerga River. We passed a nice sign welcoming us to the province. The next town was Itero de la Vega and was a decent sized town with almost 200 residents. That doesn't sound like a lot but when the last place you stayed in had 20, 200 seems huge. There was a nice albergue at the entrance to the town and we found a supermarket but it was closed due to it being Sunday. We had some lunch in a square near the market and listened to the church bells ring for twenty solid minutes. We rested for a bit and took some pictures of the town before walking on to Boadilla, our destination for the day.

From Itero de la Vega to Boadilla, the trail was a bit boring and monotonous. Earlier, we had the mountain to climb and that provided us with nice views. The rest of the way, we went through more crackling hay fields that offered no place to sneak off and pee. This was more of a problem for Izzy than me. As we walked, we begged the clouds to cover the sun a bit but they didn't cooperate so we put on sunscreen. The trail was lined with large rocks that hurt your feet the entire way to Boadilla. As we arrived, we passed a shepherd with his dogs and flock. We found some interesting sand sculptures there but it was nearly impossible to snap any photos because the flies kept trying to carry us off.

We stopped for a bit at the entrance to the town because we thought of walking on to the next. We checked out the albergue there but they wanted 7 or 8 euros and didn't have a restaurant. We walked on into town and checked out the Casa Rural "En el Camino" and checked in. They charged 6 euros for a bed and 9 euros for dinner, communal style. They served dinner at 7:00 and 8:30. This allowed the Spaniards to eat later as they like to do and the rest of the world could eat at 7:00. We had delicious chick pea soup and roast beef for dinner. One thing rings true all around the world, small town cooking can't be beat. It wasn't elegant and refined but it was delicious and filling. We had a walk around the town. It was quiet except for a couple of groups of old men sitting around shooting the breeze. There was a famous statue in front of St. Mary's Church decorated with animal designs and others symbols of the Camino. The town was famous too as one of the boundary places between the Christian and Muslim lands during the Moor occupation. The smell of manure was so strong that I became convinced it was part of the foundation of the town. The flies outside were so bad it almost became pointless to even try to swat them away. Fortunately, most people have beaded curtains hanging in their doorways to keep the flies out of the houses.

Day 15: Boadilla - Carrión de los Condes
Distance: 26.9 km(16.7 miles)
Approximate Walking Time: 5.5-6.5 hours
Altitude: Start at 765 m(2,510 ft.) and slowly ascend to 830 m(2,723 ft.) at Carrión de los Condes.

We slept on and off throughout the cacophony of snorers, bed rustlers, and night talkers. The noise became unbearable around 5:30 a.m. Instead of continuing to fight it, we got up, packed our things, and headed out into the unescapable stench of manure. Leaving Boadilla was simple but there was a key left turn a kilometer outside of town that could easily be missed. When we saw the turn, we used our small lights and looked for a few minutes before finding the small yellow arrow to lead us left. We met a few people who missed the turn because they couldn't find the arrow in the dark. A couple of kilometers after turning, we came to a fork in the trail and chose to go left as there was no clear indication. We should have stayed right but we found a small trail leading back to the original. It was clear we weren't the first to take the wrong turn. We walked for a bit longer and arrived to Fromista around 8:00 a.m. It's one of the biggest towns with nearly 1,000 people. It had a famous landmark, the Saint Martin Church and several other smaller churches. It also had a famous work of art with cultural significance to the Camino de Santiago. Of course, we didn't get to see these things because none of them were open at 8:00 a.m. We had to settle for a walk around the town and off we went towards Población de Campos. As Izzy shows you below, always fill your water bottle whenever you find a fountain.

We spent the rest of the day walking alongside the P-980 National Road. While it wasn't as nice to simply walk alongside the road, we did enjoy having the kilometer markers letting us know how much further we had to go. We passed by Población de Campos, Revenga de Campos, Villarmentero de Campos, Villalcázar de Sirga, and ended at Carrión de los Condes. Most of the towns were set back from the highway and all offered albergues, cafes, and rest areas with water fountains and picnic tables.

Here's a statue dedicated to pilgrims in Revenga de Campos. It was a nice town.

We started to see directions spray painted on the roads directing us to various bars and albergues.

The last 6 km to Carrión de los Condes was long and hot. From time to time, the clouds would cover the sun and give us a small reprieve. We stopped in Villarmentero around 10:00 a.m. There was a nice albergue by the road with a large open grass area and tons of tables. A lot of people stopped for a coffee break and some were having pints of beer. Yikes! Villalcázar was the last major town before Carrión. It's famous for its 12th century St. Mary's Church built by the Templars. There are many historical accounts of the protection the Templars provided for pilgrims as they walked to Santiago.

Carrión de los Condes has been inhabited since the pre-Roman days. Archaeological evidence dating as far back as the 3rd century BCE has been found in and around the city. It was full of various churches, the most famous being Our Lady of Bethlehem Church, several medieval hospitals, some hermitages, and the famous Saint Zoilo Monastery. Our first stop was the local tourist office to get a map and directions to the albergue Espíritu Santo. It was a convent run by nuns now used as a shelter for pilgrims. They charged 5 euros and had some nice rooms. They even had a computer room with a small box for you to put in money whenever you used the computer. Sadly, the computer was quite old and couldn't do more than one thing at a time. It seems PC incompetence is worldwide. We showered, washed our clothes, and headed out to explore the town.

Walking through the streets of Carrión de los Condes felt like walking back in time. Everything was old and well preserved. Many people slowly meandered through the streets going about their daily business. We went to the Our Lady of Bethlehem Church but it was closed for the afternoon siesta. It became impossible to get anything done from 3 - 5 p.m. in the small towns as the only activity people believe should exist at those hours is eating, drinking, and sleeping. From the church, we followed the Camino out of town to visit the famous Monastery of Saint Zoilo. It was built in the 10th century and became famous along the Camino de Santiago as a place that fed the pilgrims wine and bread. The monastery was under renovations when we visited but we were still able to see lots of the original architecture, the recently discovered sarcophaguses of the Counts for which the town is named, and some Islamic rugs dating to the 11th century. The visit was 1.50 euro. In Spanish style, an over priced hotel is attached to the monastery and used the old rooms as the guestrooms.

After our wander around the town, we went to the supermarket and bought a few things to cook a jambalaya, or American paella as our friend would call it and relax with some wine. Also in Spanish fashion, an old guy saw us cooking at 6:30 p.m. and asked us why we were eating so early and if that meant the world was ending. Later that night, his wife forced us out of the room with her unbearable snoring. We slept the night in the computer room. In the morning, before we left, we took a mental picture of her. That way, if she showed up at the same albergue, we could leave or get a bed far far away from her. I hate to be one to say it but some people make the Camino a bad experience.

Camino de Santiago - Days 10 - 12

2011-09-02T10:18:00.001-04:00

Day 10: Santo Domingo de la Calzada - Belorado
Distance: 23 km(14.3 miles)
Approximate Walking Time: 5-6 hours
Altitude: Start at 641 m(2,103 ft.) and slowly ascend up to 772 m(2,532 ft.).

We left Santo Domingo around 6:30 a.m. The Camino followed the main street out of town. We came across some confused pilgrims and together, we had to play find the obscure yellow arrow in the dark. We found it across the road and followed the trail back into the hay fields. We went up and down and up and down until we arrived to Grañon around 8:00 a.m. As we approached the town, the sun started to break over the horizon and we turned around to watch it rise. Like dominoes, everyone behind us turned around and stood and watched it rise. One of the best things about walking the Camino was watching the sun rise every morning.

Most of the town was up by the time we arrived. We decided to keep on walking instead of stopping to buy bread because we figured somewhere else along the way would have it. We were wrong. There were shops in Grañon and if you need a bite to eat, this is the last place to stop until you reach Belorado. Grañon's famous church is dedicated the St. John the Baptist and was built in the 15th or 16th century. Grañon has an interesting legend that goes like this: There was an oak grove that the residents of Grañon and Santo Domingo fought over. After many daily squabbles and fights, it was decided that each town would pick one fighter to fight in hand to hand combat to determine which town would get the rights to the grove. While the fighter from Santo Domingo chose to bath himself in oil so as to be impossible to grab, the people of Grañon chose a farm worker who ate lots of large red beans and was strong. When the two began to fight, the one from Grañon realized he couldn't grab the oil slick guy from Santo Domingo so he proceeded to insert one of his fingers in the rectum of his opponent, lifted him over his head, and threw him a great distance. Thus, the oak grove went to the town of Grañon.

Grañon is the last town on the Camino in the region of La Rioja. Here, we entered the region of the longest stretch of the Camino, Castilla y León.

The next town we passed through was Redecilla del Camino. It was famous along the Camino for having a Roman Baptismal Pool in the church. We didn't get a chance to see it because the church was still closed at 9:00 a.m. when we arrived. The town is over 1,000 years old and has a few buildings that date just before the beginning of the 11th century. The local store didn't have any bread because they were too lazy to bake it and have it ready at 9:00 a.m. How late the people in town sleep is a mystery because we only saw two construction workers outside when we passed through.

We continued on and passed through more hay fields and the towns of Castildelgado and Viloria de Rioja. Both were small villages of 80 and 70 residents respectively. Both had nice houses but were full of flies and the ever pervasive smell of cow dung. How the residents have accustomed themselves to breathing air that reeks as bad as it did is beyond my comprehension. We stopped to take a short break but the constant irritation of swatting at flies and smelling cow patties inspired us to move on quicker than we wanted to.

We passed through another town, Villamayor del Río, on our way to Belorado. The five kilometers after Villamayor were long and boring because the scenery didn't change much and the Camino followed the N-120. Lots of big trucks pulling cargo honked and waved as they drove by. There was always encouragement from people as we walked. We met a nice family from Colorado as we entered the city. The father had done the trail a few times and wanted to walk it one more time before he couldn't travel anymore. He had his wife and daughter with him. Entering Belorado was nice and relieving. There was an albergue that cost 5 euros right at the entrance to the town. It had something like 100 spaces but it was a full km outside of town and seemed quite impersonal. They used a swimming pool as a draw for pilgrims but there was another one in town with a pool also. We went on into town because we felt like we would stop for lunch and move on afterwards because the overcast day made it easier to walk.

We stopped in the main square and made sandwiches. It was a great place to relax because there was a gazebo surrounded by lots of trees in the middle. Belorado had all of the conveniences we wanted, a full supermarket. We bought some bread and enjoyed some much needed rest. As we ate, the square filled with families and retirees out enjoying the nice weather. As we pondered moving on, a dark cloud began to form in the distance and we decided we should stay put for the night. Just around the corner from the main square, we found the albergue Cuatro Cantones. It cost 6 euros. It had the option of more private rooms, a pool, and a kitchen. The guy at the front desk was Brazilian and spoke four languages quite well. There was another albergue in town, El Caminante. It was 5 euros but didn't have a kitchen.

The town was enjoyable. The buildings were mostly made of old stone and gave a real medieval feel. Just across the street from our albergue was one of the best murals of the Camino we would see. The town's origins were Celtic and later, the Romans moved in. The main church was Saint Mary's Church. It was built in the 16th century and had an amazing portal and nave. The town had a great museum on the main square dedicated to the Camino de Santiago and its history. We saw many signs that signaled the upcoming Onion Festival. It was to commence the next day and we were saddened by this. As we walked the Camino, we discovered that had we started one day later, we would have arrived just in time for many festivals in several of the towns along the way. Our dinner of hot dogs wasn't the best but it filled us up. Around 7:00 p.m., a strong thunderstorm blew through and made us glad we didn't continue on to the next town. We went to bed early but awoke often because of the pesky people in our room snoring loud and talking in their sleep. It was a long night.

Day 11: Belorado - Agés
Distance: 28 km(17.4 miles)
Approximate Walking Time: 7-8 hours
Altitude: Start at 772 m(2,532 ft.) and ascend up to 1,150 m(3,773 ft.) 3 km past Villafranca Montes de Oca and descend to 1,101 m(3,612 ft.).

Izzy woke me up at 5:30 when the snorers reached an unbearable level. We packed and left quietly since we couldn't sleep any longer. We followed the path out of town and crossed the bridge over a small river. It was quite dark and the sky was covered in clouds so we couldn't see much except when the large trucks passed by and shined their lights. Just as we left the town, it started to rain. We spotted an office building near the road and crossed over to stand under its shelter until the rain passed. We waited about a half hour until the rain cleared out. The good thing about the Camino was that it didn't get overly muddy after the rain. We slowly ascended up to the first town of the day, Tosantos. It had an interesting church set against a large mountain back drop. Sadly, we couldn't get a great picture of it because of the lack of light at the time of day we passed by. From there, we headed on to Villambistia and Espinosa del Camino. All three villages only had 80 or so inhabitants and were dotted with old houses, old churches, and of course, the mandatory smells of farms and cows. Most places had at least one fountain of drinkable water in them. The general rule was that if there was no sign indicating non potable water, it was safe. That may not always be true. There was an albergue in Espinosa advertising a communal dinner.

We stopped in Villafranca Montes de Oca because it was the largest of the small towns thus far. It had loads of cafes and bars to satisfy the demand of the truckers passing through to avoid the highway tolls. We found their supermarket, a cooler in a bar with the barest of selections. We sat on the bench in front of the municipal albergue (6 euros per night) and had some breakfast. We had thought of walking here the day before but the rain stopped us. It was a nice town and sat at the base(948 m(3,110 ft.)) of a large mountain. We wandered around the church and poked our head in for a quick peak. The town was founded by the Romans. Later, it was overrun and destroyed by the Moor Invasion. There were some caves near the towns bearing their name. After a bit of a break, we started our steep ascent.

The rise out of town was steep and on terribly uneven ground. The view was breathtaking. We found an encouraging sign showing us that Santiago de Compostela was slowly getting closer. At the top of the mountain was a nice rest area where we found an old man listening to talk radio and flirting with any female pilgrim that walked past. The trail cut through forest and felt like the first few days all over again. As a tip, do ensure you have what you need when you leave Villafranca because the next stop is San Juan de Ortega, 12 km away.

We took the picture below to show how much you can descend and ascend in a typical day. This was one of the worst examples of how the trail dips into a small valley and then rises back up to the same height. Walking over stones all day was painful on the feet.

After a long and sometimes muddy 12 km, we arrived to San Juan de Ortega. It was listed as a stopping point for the day on the French office suggestion list. We don't know why because there wasn't a whole lot to do there other than walk around the monastery and the church. There were only two albergues. One was private and the other was based out of the monastery. It was built by the town's namesake, San Juan and his devotion to helping pilgrims on their journey. He had the church and monastery built to provide a place of shelter to the pilgrims. They date back to his lifetime sometime in the 11th century. The modern day town itself didn't even register 30 inhabitants. The monastery and the church were nice but a thirty minute break was all we needed before moving on to Agés. The main reason we continued walking was to have more time the following day in Burgos.

It was only another 4 km to Agés. Outside of San Juan, we found a sign telling us that we could continue on the traditional trail to Agés or take an alternate route that was greener. The word green in this sense means that you will bypass a lot of the industrial parts of Burgos along the traditional trail. Even though we found the sign, the new addition to the trail didn't seem to be open so we continued on to Agés.

The town was small but lovely. We contemplated going on to Atapuerca but a quick call to the albergues there told us we should stay in Agés. The albergues in Atapuerca cost around 7 euros and they didn't have any type of kitchen. There was a loud mouth woman in Agés using the stereotypical sales pitch of how her place was the nicest on the whole Camino and she wasn't in the business of duping pilgrims, only trying to help them, blah, blah, blah. She had two buildings, one with a hostel style accommodation for 9 euros a night and a house around the corner with beds and a private bathroom for 5 euros a night. We chose the 5 euro beds. The downfall to Agés was that none of them had proper kitchens so we ate canned lentils and chickpeas heated in the microwave for dinner.

The town had a lot of old buildings built from stone. The town dates back to the Roman times and the church was built in the 10th century. We walked around the town for a bit and made friends with some new faces we'd seen the past couple of days. We met one couple who'd hiked all the way across France from Straussbourg. They were incredible, patient people. They had been walking with a Belgian who started in Le Puy, France, just south of Lyon. They were the type of people that make the Camino very special. Since we didn't sleep well the night before, we went to bed early.

Day 12: Agés - Burgos
Distance: 24 km(15 miles)
Approximate Walking Time: 5-6 hours
Altitude: Start at 1101 m(3,612 ft.) and descend to 953 m(3,127 ft.) at Atapuerca, then back up to 1100 m(3,608 ft.) and then descend to 856 m(2,808 ft.) in Burgos.

We left around 6:30 and walked on to Atapuerca. As we walked along the road between Agés and Atapuerca, we saw a large building alone in a field and a big sign advertising the yacimientos de Atapuerca. It turned out to be an archaeological site of recently discovered human remains predating any other remains of people thought to have lived in the Iberian peninsula. We wasted a couple of hours hanging out and waiting for the offices to open only to find out we needed a reservation and the trip out to the site would be three hours long. We left and headed through Atapuerca and started up the only mountain we would have to cross for the day.

The ascent was steep, rocky and bordered by a military zone. The fencing the military used to keep trespassers out was a bit of a joke. It consisted of loosely laid barbed wire that almost anyone could just walk through with a couple of easy bending motions. The only thing that alerted us to the military nature of the land was the occasional sign telling us to keep out. The trail was so rocky that the bikers had to walk up instead of riding. We saw a baby snake cross the path. It would be the first and last we saw during the entire hike. At the top, we found a large open meadow covered with rocks and a beautiful view of the valley below and Burgos.

The path to Burgos was anything but direct and wound through the small villages of Cardeñuela Riopico, Orbaneja Riopico, and Villafría. Most of them were small farming communities or people who didn't want to live in the hustle and bustle of a bigger city. Occasionally, we passed large fields full of blooming sunflowers. For the most part, the trail consisted of walking on a boring, paved road. After we walked through the last town, we crossed the highway, walked around the airport, and into the outer edge of Burgos. We took the recommendation of catching the bus into the city center from a pilgrim who had walked the trail several times. We made the decision based on losing the two hours waiting in Atapuerca waiting for the office to open and tell us we had no chance of seeing the site. I felt bad but we wanted time to walk around Burgos and run some errands.

The Camino went past the north side of the Cathedral and the municipal albergue was just before it. It was a huge building with 140 beds spread throughout six floors. The layout was nice. There were four bed cubbies with divided walls. We were lucky and they put us against the wall. Our cubby had two beds instead of four. It cost 5 euros and had great information about the rest of the albergues in the Burgos province. This helped us determine how far we were willing to walk the next few days. There was no kitchen so we had to eat at a restaurant. This didn't bother us though because we had planned to dine with a guy from Brussels we met in Agés.

There have been people in the region of Burgos since the Iron Age. It's a well established region and took its formal name of Burgos sometime in the late 9th century. It has all of the conveniences of a major city and most people on the Camino choose to stay an extra day to see the town. For many of the Spanish people we met, Burgos would be the end of this year's hike and the starting point for the next year. It's quite common for Spanish people to the do the Camino 10-12 days at a time as most don't have the vacation time to do the entire thing at once. If they do, most don't want to spend their entire year's vacation hiking. We didn't have that luxury so we spent the day walking around.

We visited the famous Cathedral. It cost 2.50 euros for pilgrims to get in. It was started in the early 13th century and built under the strictest of French gothic standards. The main entrance was designed to incorporate the Portal to Saint Mary, the namesake of the church. The main chapel was elaborately decorated with gold and sculptures of famous biblical scenes. The tomb of the famous figure El Cid and his wife, Doña Jimena were between the main Chapel and the choir. The organ and choir area were amazing. The wood carved chairs and the organ pipes surrounded by amazing sculptures were remarkable. There were 14-15 chapels scattered throughout the Church. Each one was dedicated to a Saint or famous biblical figure and elaborately decorated. There was a museum full of various artifacts from the church and to leave, we went down to the crypt and basement levels of the church. As we left, it hit me just how intricate the building really was.

For the rest of the day, we walked around Burgos. There was a river running through the heart of the city and a tree lined road to provide lots of shade from the sun. We took advantage of being in a big city and caught the bus in front of the Royal Theater out to the Decathlon. It's the Spanish version of a sports shop. We bought some new trekking socks and a new shirt. We also went to the supermarket across the parking lot to resupply ourselves with sandwich meat and some snacks. There was a free Hipercor bus that took us from the Theater out to the Hipercor and Decathlon. We had dinner on the square out front of the Cathedral. It's hard to make a recommendation of a place to eat as most of the places in Burgos offer delicious food as part of their Pilgrim Special.

Camino de Santiago - Days 7-9

2011-08-30T07:17:00.001-04:00

Day 7: Torres del Río - Logroño

Distance: 20.4 km(12.7 miles)

Approximate Walking Time: 5-6 hours

Altitude: Start out at 425 m(1,394 ft.) rise up to 580 m(1,902 ft.) after leaving Torres del Río, then descend to 384 m(1,260 ft.).

The morning we left Torres del Río, the sky was clear. One of the best parts of the Camino is that you get to see a sky full of stars every morning. We were able to take a great picture of the town's outline against the rising sun. For some reason, the walking was tough the whole day. I don't want to give the impression that this day was especially difficult but I think the 30 km we walked the day before made our bodies sorer than we realized. We also didn't fill up our water bottles before leaving so our supply was a bit low and we couldn't rehydrate. There were only two places to stop, Viana and Logroño. Until we arrived in Viana, we went up and down and up and down through fields of vineyards.

The trail crossed the N-111 from time to time until we arrived to Viana. It was the last stop before entering the second region of the Camino, La Rioja. It looked different and the architecture of the buildings was different from most of the others we had seen thus far in Navarra. The buildings had a brown stone exterior and a cleaner feel. We stopped in the main square next to the church to have some breakfast. Even though it was Sunday, the local bakery was open and serving fresh bread. Next to the plaza is the 13th century Saint Mary's Church. As the Camino leaves the town, there is another church, Saint Peter's Church, that is in ruins but has some nice murals that have been recently discovered. You can freely enter and walk around the remains of the church.

The next ten kilometers were very hard on our feet because we were trying to not take as many breaks. Sadly, it was actually some of the easiest walking but getting our feet accustomed to not taking so many breaks was difficult. There wasn't a lot of up and down and the trail is paved most of the way. We walked along small streams that ran between local farms and vineyards. Since it was Sunday, we passed a lot of people out having a nice walk in the pleasant weather. We could see Logroño throughout most of the walk and that helped to keep us moving. Just outside of Logroño is a nice park with a nature reserve and lots of wildlife. We would have stopped to enjoy it more but our feet and our stomachs insisted we keep moving.

When we arrived to Logroño, it was quite a relief. It was strange to us that this 20 km day hurt so bad. We checked in to the municipal albergue. They charged 7 euros and wanted a real passport in addition to the pilgrim credential. After resting for a bit, we went to Cafe Moderno a few blocks away to have lunch as there was no stove at the albergue. Even if there had been one, none of the supermarkets were open. In Spain, nothing other than restaurants and large department stores open on Sunday. We had a delicious meal and headed back to take a nap. We spent the afternoon wandering around the town but didn't take many photos because we visited Logroño in June. You can click here to see those pictures. Logroño is the capital of Spain's best wine region and has tons of great food. In the evening, we went to Calle Laurel, the happening street where all of the best bars are located. We hopped from one place to another with our group of Spanish friends because many of them were returning home after a week of hiking. It was sad to see them go but as we would learn, that's part of the Camino. At each major city, we would lose people we'd just met and meet more the next day.

Day 8: Logroño - Nájera
Distance: 29 km(18 miles) (33 km(20.5 miles) detour through Ventosa)
Approximate Walking Time: 6-7 hours (7-8 hours detour through Ventosa)
Altitude: Start at 384 m(1,260 ft.), rise up to 630 m(2,066 ft.) a few km past the turn off to Ventosa, then descend to 491 m(1,611 ft.).

We woke up early and left Logroño at 5:30 because we wanted to get to Nájera before the afternoon heat. Getting out of Logroño can be a bit tricky. We had to pay close attention to the arrows and backtrack from time to time. We walked through a park and out of the city on a nicely paved sidewalk. It connects a large family recreation park to the city. It was darker than usual and a bit chilly. After a few km, we came to another nature preserve and followed the trail around it to a science center for school children. The Camino continued through this area and returned to the vineyards rising higher and higher. We eventually found the highway and a long fence covered in crosses made from a variety of materials. The fence was over a km long and not one bit of it was untouched by the crosses.

Just past the fence of crosses, we could see Navarrete in the distance. It's 12 km from Logroño and we had walked the entire way without stopping to take a break. We passed little old ladies out for their morning walk. They greeted us and bid us a great trip. We climbed the stairs up into the town and ambled through the streets to the bakery. There was a lot of construction and the main road was torn up. We found a bakery pulling fresh bread out of the oven and bought a loaf. We stopped for a half hour to rest and have some breakfast. We passed the municipal albergue along the way, it cost 5-6 euros.

Leaving Navarrete, we passed through more vineyards and past a couple of nice bodegas. The Camino follows the highway for a while. After a few km of walking, we came to a place where you can choose to continue along the dusty, rocky path that runs parallel to the highway or detour through Ventosa. The town has obviously paid someone to put them on the trail and they have opened albergues and restaurants to accommodate pilgrims but its not part of the original trail. The large sign they've put out where the trail branches off has been decorated by disgruntled pilgrims who disagree with Ventosa being marked as part of the Camino. We ventured through it and there really isn't much to see. Most of the people who left an hour after us arrived to Nájera before we did.

After leaving Ventosa, we walked through more vineyards and past some interesting places where people had stacked tons of rocks on top of each other. We passed lots of farmers out preparing their crops for harvest. Some of them waved and others ignored us. Out in this part of the Camino, it can get a bit hot and there isn't much shade. Be sure to have sunscreen in your bag. The only thing you hear is the same noise you hear everyday, the crunching of rock under your shoes. We found a small stone hut and stopped there to make lunch. Upon looking inside, we discovered more mementos left by previous pilgrims like notes, wine bottles, and some had even painted the stones.

We arrived to Nájera around 1:30. We had to walk through the entire town and almost out again before finding the municipal albergue. The price was a donation. It's one of a few albergues that run completely off of donations and volunteers. The guy who checked us in bid us a great journey the next morning at 6:30 when we left. The people were incredible. The room where we slept had 50 or so bunk beds. It sounds like the perfect chance for people to take advantage and nick your stuff but no one ever touched our things. We made it a habit to always carry the few valuables we had with us. They had a nice kitchen so we cooked ourselves some pasta for dinner. One of our Spanish friends told us the restaurant El Buen Yantar had excellent food. The town is nice and has an interesting rock formation set behind it. We spent the afternoon wandering around the old streets and relaxing down by the river. One guy told us he put on his sandals and walked out and stood in the water to relax his feet. We watched a Spanish family while away the afternoon chatting and snacking. As we settled for the evening, we hoped that we wouldn't have to climb the tall rock formation behind the town to begin our next day.

Day 9: Nájera - Santo Domingo de la Calzada

Distance: 21.2 km(13.2 miles)

Approximate Walking Time: 5 - 6 hours

Altitude: Start at 491 m(1,611 ft.) and rise up to 590 m(1,935 ft.), descend back to 491 m(1,611 ft.), rise up to 750 m(2,460 ft.) and end at 641 m(2,103 ft.).

We left Nájera around 6:30. It wasn't too cold and most of the volunteer staff woke up to let us out and wish us good luck. We walked back through the town and started ascending up towards the huge rock formation behind it. We went up, up, up 100 m to the top. There were large groups of people trying to walk together. At the top, we found more vineyards and watched a beautiful sunrise. We usually ate a small snack in the morning consisting of an energy bar called Clif bars. By day 9, we'd had our fill of them so we started to buy fruit to have for breakfast. After our walk up and down to get out of Nájera, the Camino is pretty level for the next 5 km to Azofra. The only people in the streets there were fellow pilgrims. It's a small town with a large albergue of 100 places next to the Parochial Church. The trail continues on out of town and through the golden hay fields and vineyards. As we got closer to Castilla y León, the vineyards became more sparse and the golden fields more frequent.

Here at this watering hole along the trail, we found a monument to someone who'd died and walked the Camino. It was the third or fourth one we'd seen so far and wouldn't be the last. The warning sign was behind a bush next to the monument and fountain.

Just outside of Cirueña was a posh golf club and rows of cookie cutter houses. We were tired from reaching the highest point of the day and stopped in town to rest. Like every town along the Camino, there were several bars, cafes, and a rest area with picnic tables and a water fountain. They also had a large pilgrim sculpture like many of the other towns. From Cirueña, it was another 6 km to Santo Domingo de la Calzada.

Santo Domingo is named for Domingo García, a man who set up a hermitage in the current town as a refuge for passing pilgrims. The story of his inspiration is that he was denied entry into the hermitages in Valvanera and San Millán de la Cogolla. King Alfonso VI of León helped him as he saw the development of the Camino was good for his kingdom. The church there houses his remains and he has been attributed with curing a demon possessed French pilgrim after he visited the tomb and also a German pilgrim who was suffering from an eye disorder and regained all of his vision upon visiting the tomb. The town is also famous for the story of the rooster that sang after being cooked and put on a plate. The miracle of the singing rooster saved the life of another German pilgrim who rejected a local girl's declaration of love for him. Heartbroken by his rejection, she accused him of stealing her jar of silver. The miracle of the singing rooster is attributed to Saint Domingo and interpreted as the Saint intervening to save the young man's life. The church charges 3 euros to get in and see the depiction of the story and the relief of the Saint.

Below is a picture of the city walls built by one of the kings to protect the city in the 14th century. We wandered around the town for a bit after getting settled in and cleaned up. It was a nice town and has a local tourism office with a map and a great exhibition of the history of the Camino de Santiago.

The town hall is on the Plaza de España and was built on top of part of the medieval city walls. There was a good restaurant called Casa Madariaga in the square that the albergue recommended for dinner. We decided to cook at the albergue because they had an excellent kitchen and the town has actual supermarkets so we could buy real food to cook. If you prefer to cook instead of eating out every meal, you must take advantage of the towns that have actual supermarkets. As we learned, not everywhere has a supermarket but merely a cooler in a bar with a handful of items and this qualifies for the classification status of having a market. There were two main albergues in Santo Domingo, one was part of a monastery and has around 30 beds and the other was the municipal one with over 220 beds. They were both donation based albergues and some of the best on the entire Camino. The municipal even had a separate room for snorers as you can see from the sign. While we didn't suffer from snoring that night, we did have a guy wake us up with night terrors and screaming in French.

Camino de Santiago - Days 4-6

2011-08-25T13:27:00.000-04:00

Day 4: Cizur Menor - Puente La Reina

Distance: 20.4 km(12.7 miles)

Approximate Walking Time: 5-6 hours

Altitude: Start at 460 m(1,510 ft.), rise to 780 m(2,560 ft.) at Alto de Perdón, and end at 345 m(1,132 ft.).

We left Cizur Menor at 6:30 a.m. and headed towards Puente La Reina. We learned a valuable lesson that night. Earplugs are a great investment. Leaving Cizur Menor, we passed through lots of sunflower fields. A lot of people had wandered out and picked out shapes like faces or words. We ascended up to Zariquiegui. It's just far enough away that when you arrive, the small shops are open for a bite to eat or something cold to drink. We follow the trail up the highest point of the day at Alto de Perdón. There's nothing there except a large sculpture of pilgrims and a guy selling snacks and drinks out of a truck. The view is beautiful of all of the golden fields of Navarra.

The descent from Alto de Perdón was a bit rough. The rocks were large and going down was quite steep. It eventually leveled off into rolling hills going up and down and passed through the towns of Uterga, Muruzabal, and Obanos. There were medieval churches and nice plazas in Obanos. We walked through the woods and along the highway a few more km to Puente La Reina. There were several private albergues there, the one just beyond the famous medieval bridge even had a pool. The local monastery, Reparadores(built in the 12th century) was 4 euros and the privates were 8 euros. We stayed at the monastery. The town had a nice supermarket and the albergue had a good kitchen. There are some good restaurants in town with the Pilgrim Special. The highlight of the town was the medieval bridge on the westside of town. It was built in the 13th century and offers a great place to relax by the river with lots of shade.

At the end of each day, a warm foot soak is always welcome. We used warm water and soap. Another great recipe is to use epsom salts and vinegar. Taking care of your feet is always priority number 1.

Day 5: Puente La Reina - Estella
Distance: 22.4 km(13.9 miles)
Approximate Walking Time: 5-6 hours
Altitude: Start at 350 m(1,148 ft.) and rise up to 470 m(1,541 ft.) at Cirauqui and end at 430m (1,410 ft.).

We left at 6:10 from Puente La Reina. The albergue there was one of the few that allow dogs. We saw a couple sleeping with theirs outside. Even though it was dark out, the bright white dirt and rocks made it easy to follow the Camino. We walked for a bit on level ground then ascended sharply up to the highway. The clouds were a bit ominous and threatened rain. We passed through Manerua, a small town that was still asleep. Just 3 km beyond that, we arrived to Cirauqui. The albergues there cost around 8-10 euros. As you can see from the picture above, there isn't a house out of place in this town on a hill. There is a nice bakery at the entrance to the town. If it's early, stop there as there aren't any others. The croissants we ate were fresh and still warm.

A km outside of Cirauqui, it started to rain a bit so we pulled out our rain jackets and wrapped ourselves and our bags. A lot of people had huge ponchos to cover themselves and their bags. They are a great investment but that day was the only we encountered rain while walking so they would have been extra weight. The gamble is yours to make. We waited a bit in a tunnel under the highway for the rain to subside before walking on up to Lorca. If it's really nasty, you can just take the paved road up to Lorca by the tunnel instead of following the muddy trail. Lorca had a handful of albergues. We stopped in one to warm up and have coffee.

From Lorca, we walked on through more golden fields of hay and grain. The rainy clouds dissipated and we were able to enjoy a beautiful day. The next town we came to was Villatuerta. There's a river, which isn't even quite a stream, at the entrance to the town. We stopped there to rest our feet and fill our empty stomachs with a sandwich. The walk through the town is all uphill. Most of the houses and buildings are nice and have a sleek stone look.

From Villatuerta, our next stop was Estella, our stopping point for the day. The town was beautiful and quite old. Founded in 1090, it is one of the bigger towns along the Camino de Santiago in the Navarra region. There were several albergues in the city. One is based on a donation and the municipal one is 6 euros, had a decent kitchen for cooking, and all the flies you could ever want. The best thing to do in Estella is go for a nice stroll after showering and washing clothes at the albergue. We visited the grocery store and stocked up on some cold cuts for sandwiches and something to cook for dinner. We joined some Spanish friends we'd met the first few days and had a drink and lunch at a restaurant called La Casa Nova. We recommend the stuffed red peppers, tuna steak, and chickpeas. We spent the afternoon answering questions of our time in Spain and strolling around and enjoying the town.

Day 6: Estella - Torres del Rio

Distance: 29.5 km(18 miles)

Approximate Walking Time: 7 - 8 hours

Altitude: Start out at 425 m(1,394 ft.), rise up to 605 m(1,985 ft.) and descend to 440 m(1,444 ft.).

As became customary in Navarra, we awoke early to face a steep climb. We left Estella around 6:30 and walked through the town and its suburb of Ayegui. There are albergues there as well but if you really want to visit the towns on the trail, its a better option to stay in Estella. The trail markings aren't very easy to find early in the morning. We followed the road when we left Ayegui instead of turning left and following the trail past the Monastery. It's an impressive building and there's a wine bodega(Bodega Irache) near it with a fountain of wine for pilgrims. The trail continues through the golden hay fields of Spain and the morning light creates an incredibly golden light on them. Just outside Ayegui is a camp ground where you can pitch your tent for 10 euros. Some smarter pilgrims pitched theirs across the road from it for free.

We went up, up, up towards Villamayor de Monjardin. We passed through the small town of Azqueta. Most of the town was still asleep. Many of the pilgrims stopped at the local parish to collect a stamp in their credencial. There are many people who collect lots of stamps but in order to do this, you must buy a big book or you will have to buy two or three of the smaller ones. We only used one and only collected stamps at the albergues and major Cathedrals in Burgos, León, and Astorga. We ascended on up to Villamayor and stopped there to have a coffee and a snack. The town doesn't have a whole lot to offer other than over priced breakfast food. There are a couple of albergues there. Leaving Villamayor, we descended back down towards Los Arcos over the next 12 km. The terrain is rocky and beautiful. At times, all we could hear was the crackling of the golden wheat fields. We passed from one to another and occasionally, we passed by vineyards and their nearly ready to be harvested grapes.

Los Arcos was the recommended stopping point by the office of the Friends of the Camino in Saint Jean. It's 21 km from Estella. We arrived there around 12:15 and felt it was too early to stop. The heat wasn't bad and we wanted to spend Sunday in Logroño. We decided to stop and rest for an hour and a half. We checked out the albergue situation there during our break. There were several private ones for around 8 euros and a municipal one for 5.50 euros. It had wireless internet. There were some decent markets there and it seemed to be a good place to stop. The town wasn't as charming as some of the others and seemed to be dirtier. We stopped at the main square next to the cathedral and watched pilgrims stream through as we rested and ate a sandwich. Most were headed to the municipal albergue just outside the old part of town. Next to it was an interesting museum that had a nice lawn to rest on and old sculptures decorating it.

We left Los Arcos around 1:45 and headed on to Torres del Río. It was only 8 km from Los Arcos and the nice weather made our walk more enjoyable. The nice thing about walking after 2 o'clock is that you pretty much have the whole camino to yourself. We saw one other person out walking and one guy out hunting in the fields with his dogs. The fields crackled the entire walk. Torres del Río sits across the river from Sansol. Both were on the high points of hills and we had to walk down and cross the river and walk back up into Torres del Río. There wasn't much to the town. There were two private albergues, both charging 7 euros. We chose Casa Mariela. There was a hotel in town with a pool and they charged 10 euros. Cooking was out of the question so we made more sandwiches. There was one small shop in town and it looked like a war storage closet set up with tons of rations. The old couple that run it are most agreeable and have mastered the art of sign language of pointing instead of learning another language. An interesting monument in Torres del Río is the octagonal Templar Church. They charged 1 euro to go in but we poked our head in for a quick gander for free. It's rumored to be stylized just like the one in Jerusalem. The last picture is something that is also quite standard on the Camino de Santiago, the boot rack. Here, most albergues request you leave your dirty, dusty shoes so as to not track all through the rooms and make their cleaning process more difficult.

Camino de Santiago - Days 1-3

2011-08-23T19:49:00.002-04:00

On August 21, we set off for Saint Jean Pied de Port, France. It's considered the starting point for the Camino Francés(French Trail) of the Camino de Santiago. The Camino is a pilgrimage that dates back to the medieval days of Spain. It's existence is owed to the discovery of the remains of James, one of the 12 apostles of Christ. The legend goes that his remains were smuggled out of Jerusalem and buried at the site of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. It was one of the three important pilgrimages along with the one to Jerusalem and Rome. There are routes that begin from many points all over Europe like Paris, Le Puy, and Irun. There several routes across Spain and Portugal but we chose to walk the traditional camino. To plan for the route, you should budget for 30-34 nights averaging 7 euros a night for public albergues. All of the public ones in Galicia are 5 euros and all of the privates are 10 euros. In the other provinces, the prices vary but average about the same as in Galicia. You don't need to carry a lot of food with you as you stay in a town each night and can buy supplies there. We usually carried some meat and cheese to make a sandwich and something for a snack. Buying bread can be tricky as you start out long before the bakeries open. If you see a white truck driving around and honking its horn, they are selling bread. Just flag them down and ask for a barra de pan for your daily bread supply if you can't find a bakery. You can just carry a snack and purchase food along the way or eat at a restaurant. A lunch special or pilgrim special will you usually run you 10 euros and include: 2 courses, bread, dessert, and a drink.

Our Supplies: A backpack, 2-3 days of lightweight clothes(preferably that can breathe), soap to wash clothes, running shoes(we saw many people wearing hiking boots but they don't breathe and cause lots of blisters. We used Asics Tiger shoes with mesh tops so our feet could breathe and stay dry and we never got a blister. That's not a guarantee you won't, just stating that hiking boots aren't the best option.), sandals for the afternoon around the town, shower supplies, a sleeping bag(or lightweight silk liner is better option), a flashlight for early morning walking, anti-blister socks, vaseline for your feet, a brace for the knee, food for one day, bottle of water, and of course, a camera.

Arriving to Saint Jean Pied de Port can be tricky as it's a small village with few transport options to get there. Many people come from Paris and catch a train passing through Bayonne that stops in Saint Jean. We found out that a bus company runs a once daily bus from Pamplona. It leaves at 2:00 p.m. and costs around 10 euros. We caught an early morning bus from Madrid and arrived in Pamplona at 1:30 and continued on to Saint Jean. Our first order of business was finding an albergue, (auberge in French). We stayed at one we found for 10 euros a night. If you go to the accueil(welcome) office, they will find you one and give you a great packet of information on daily walking suggestions and a list of albergues along the camino. After checking in, we walked around the town and enjoyed the afternoon. It was hot but that didn't surprise us too much as it was late August.

Day 1: St Jean Pied de Port - Roncesvalles
Distance: 27.1 km(16.8 miles)
Approximate Walking Time: 7-8 hours
Altitude: Start at 240 m(787 ft), rise to 1,400 m(4,593 ft) and end at 950 m(3,116 ft).

Bright and early on the 22nd, we woke up and got ready. Our goal for the day was to reach Roncesvalles in Spain. At 6:30, we were ready with our packed bags. We set out and the trail quickly welcomed us with a steep ascent out of town. The views were beautiful and our first sunrise in the Pyrenees was breathtaking, just like the walk. The first day took us through the Cize Pass. After 7 km, we reached a private albergue with a rather unpleasant man working there who wants nothing to do with you unless you purchase something from his overpriced establishment. He has no spirit of the camino and should be bypassed. They charge 30 euros a night to stay there. The trail continued on through cow/horse pastures and continued to offer amazing views. We were lucky to have a not so sunny day with a fair amount of wind. There were water fountains at 7 km and again at 20 km. There was one man with a refreshment stand at the top and he didn't overcharge. After 18-19 km, we reached the border with Spain and crossed into the Navarra region.

The descent into Roncesvalles was steep and rough on the knees. If you have a knee brace, this is the time to wear it. We arrived at 3:30 and checked in to the local monastery. It's the main albergue. It cost 10 euros and had a kitchen. Unfortunately, the only food you can buy is from vending machines so if you want to cook here, you must buy something in Saint Jean like pasta and sauce to be cooked there. Otherwise, you will have to go to the local restaurants for a 10 euro Pilgrim Menu Special. We arrived tired, sore, and soaked with sweat. As would become our daily routine for the rest of the hike, we checked in, took a shower, hand washed our clothes, hung them, then rested our bodies and our feet.

Day 2: Roncesvalles - Zubiri
Distance: 20.5 km(12.7 miles)
Approximate Walking Time: 5-6 hours
Altitude: Start at 950 m(3,116 ft) and descend to 550 m(1,804 ft).

We woke up at 6:00 a.m. and headed out at 6:30 after washing up and packing our things. Nearly everyone in the monastery was awake by 6:30 as the deadline to leave most albergues is 8:00 a.m. The trail wound through some woods for a bit. This is the part where you will need a flashlight. We passed through the small towns of Espinal, Lintzoain, and ended in Zubiri. The guide suggested we go on another 5 km to Larrasoaña but my knee was throbbing from the rough terrain and the descent so we stopped in Zubiri. The municipal alberge was off the trail in the town and cost 4 euros a person. It had a sufficient enough kitchen to cook in and we found some shops with food. At this point, we contemplated throwing in the towel because of the knee problem but decided to continue on. The knee brace helped.

Day 3: Zubiri - Cizur Menor(just outside of Pamplona)
Distance: 25 km(15.5 miles)
Approximate Walking Time: 5-6 hours
Altitude: Start at 550 m(1,804 ft) - end at 450 m(1,476 ft) with several steep ascents

Day 3 was a tough day because we were fighting off the urge to go home by continuing to walk. It's a beautiful walk through the woods and passes by calming streams and the fishing holes of locals. We started to meet people we'd seen for the first two days and discuss our various aches and pains. The most important question on the trail is "Where are you from?" It's a difficult adjustment carrying 15-20 pounds of weight on your back while walking up and down steep inclines. Outside of Zubiri, it's a bit industrious but it quickly returned to the mountainous terrain of Navarra. Fortunately, the day offered several kilometers of streams beside the trail and they have a great calming effect. One of the last ascents to get into Pamplona was steep and required a bit of fence hopping. A few km before reaching Pamplona, I realized I'd left my sunglasses in Zubiri. We entered into a small town called Trinidad de Arre, which is part of Pamplona. The trail led us through the important parts of the city and many people stopped at the municipal albergue there because it can hold over 100 people. We toured the city and walked the next 5 km outside of the city to the small town of Cizur Menor. There was an albergue off to the left as you enter the town that is 4 euros and another one around the corner for 8 euros. The town's shop is a bit scant on cooking supplies so we ate sandwiches again and overpaid for the meat and cheese. There were plenty of stores in Pamplona that we should have stopped in for supplies but we figured that there would be a real supermarket in Cizur. Here, we met a guy from Sweden and a fun Canadian who would walk all the way to Santiago as well. The best part of doing the camino is meeting the people and hearing their stories. The bonds formed are strong and lasting.

Ljubljana, Slovenia

2011-08-12T20:09:00.000-04:00

The last stop on our Eastern/Central Europe tour was Ljubljana, Slovenia. And all I can say is, what a great way to end a trip. We had no expectations of Ljubljana nor of Slovenia but both turned out to be great places. We found a couchsurfing host immediately and they turned out to be the one of the nicest couple we'd meet on the trip. When we arrived to the city, we had to find an ATM. This proved challenging as the ones all around the train station were out of money. After finding money, we then had to purchase a travel card so we could use the buses. It was a big relief to finally arrive to their house and drop off our bags. They gave us some maps and showed us a few points of interest and set us off to explore their city. Like most of the other countries in this part of the world, Slovenia has belonged to several large empire including the Romans, Habsburg, and, most recently, Yugoslavia. Slovenia was the first country to leave the Yugoslav Republic and set off a firestorm of controversy and fighting when they made the move. Getting around is fairly easy as over 92% of the population between 25 and 62 speak a second language and 72% of that same sample speak a third. Slovenia is one of the top multilingual countries in the EU.

Ljubljana is filled with beautiful and interesting architecture. Lots of the buildings have bright colors and fun designs on them. Preseren Square is the main center of the city and became a place of high importance due to its having a city gate from medieval times at the site. The older buildings were damaged in an earthquake and the modern baroque structures of today are what replaced them. The square is named for the statue's namesake, France Preseren, a leading poet of Slovenia. He is depicted with his muse. Another popular building is the Urbanc House on the square.

The city centers around the Preseren Square and Ljubljana Castle at the heart of the historic part. There are several bridges throughout the city and Preseren Square connects to the side with the castle via the Triple Bridge. It was constructed after the original wooden bridge burned in a fire. Originally, there was only one bridge but it was expanded to provide two additional bridges for pedestrians. Now that that part of the city is 100% pedestrian, there are is a triple pedestrian bridge.

Down the river from the Triple Bridge is the Dragon Bridge. It was built by an architect from Vienna when the city was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It is sometimes referred to by locals as mother-in-law bridge.

The Butcher's Bridge is covered with interesting sculptures and locks left by couples in love. They usually sign their names and put the date they leave the lock on the bridge.

Robba's fountain sits in front of the Town Hall at the base of the mountain of Ljubljana Castle. It's a celebration of the joining of the Sava, Krka, and Ljubljana Rivers. The original is preserved in the National Gallery and the copy is in front of Town Hall.

The Town Hall has a famous clock tower on top and sits at the heart of the old city.

Down the street from the Town Hall is St. Nicholas Cathedral. The site was once host to an old Romanesque Church that burned down. Afterwards, the diocese took the opportunity to construct a Cathedral in it's place. This was later burned down by the Ottomans. In the 18th century, an architect redesigned the church in its present Barqoue style and boy is it over the top Baroque. Look at the paintings on the ceilings and the elaborate doorways to enter the church.

There's a nice walkway along the river that provides shade and a great view of the city.

There is a cable car to take you up the hill to Ljubljana Castle but we elected to walk. Be warned, it's a bit of a steep climb.

The location of the castle was once inhabited by a Roman fortification but this was demolished to build a new castle with proper towers for defending the city against the Ottomans. It also had a couple of peasant uprisings to contend with as well. When the city changed hands in the 19th century, so did the castle and its uses. It was used as a military storage facility and then a prison once returned to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1905, the city bought it and turned it into a museum. For just a few Euros, you can tour the castle and get a 3-D museum tour. It is a guaranteed 20 minute nap.

The views from the different parts of the castle and the walk up are incredible.

Once we finished at the castle, we wanted to see one more spot before having dinner at a local pizzeria our couchsurfing host recommended. It's compulsory to visit the Congress Square of Ljubljana as it holds a powerful place in Slovenian history. It has a park, referred to as Star Park due to its shape. Surrounding the square is a famous church, the philharmonic, the Kazina palace(one of a few buildings to survive the 1895 earthquake), and the University of Ljubljana. The square was the site of a celebration of freedom from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, joining the Yugoslav Republic, the protests that began the process of leaving the Yugoslav Republic, and celebrating freedom once again as a sovereign nation. What an inspiring place it is and beautiful too.

After walking around the square for a bit, we went to Pizzeria Foculus. It was a great recommendation from our host and we enjoyed the dinner a lot. We spent the evening hanging out with our host at her house instead of going out because we had an 815 am bus to Venice. Getting to Italy from Ljubljana can be a bit of a challenge as the the trains only run to Trst and from there you can connect to Italian cities. Overall, we had a great time in Ljubljana and hope to visit more of the beautiful Slovenian countryside one day along with Lake Bled.

Zagreb, Croatia

2011-08-10T14:25:00.001-04:00

Our last stop in Croatia was Zagreb, the capital. We'd heard not so positive reviews from other people at hostels about Zagreb. Most of them eluded to a boring city with not much going on. What a diamond in the rough Zagreb is. First off, the temperatures in the midst of August heat everywhere else in Europe is a wonderful 23 C(74 F). On top of that, we discovered a lively city not brimming with tourists that is easy to get around with the well connected tram network. It also doesn't have a beach. We're pretty sure we discovered why they gave us the misinformation. For us, Zagreb was a welcome break from the overcrowded beach towns down south. It sits right at the base of a large mountain. It provides the city with winter ski resorts and a barrier from cold harsh winters. Like most cities around the crossroads of eastern and western Europe, Zagreb's origins are associated with Roman settlements. The city formally united under ban Josip Jelacic. He was able to bring together the two sections, the clergy based Kaptol and the farmed based Gradec. He is commemorated with the statue below in a square named for him as well. It changed names under the Republic of Yugoslavia but since its dissolution, it was renamed for Jelacic.

The well below is part of a legend of how Zagreb got its name. The word zagrabiti means to scoop. The legend goes that a general was leading soldiers across the area when he stuck his sword in the ground and water came out. Now the fountain below is said to be the spot where he stuck his sword and the naming of Zagreb came about from the water.

Burza Square and the home to the Croatian stock market exchange.

Everything to the right. Just one thing to the left.

The Cathedral of Zagreb is in a part of the city known as the Kaptol. It has had clergy and religious figures since the 11th century. The original structure was built in 1094 and added on to over the centuries. An earthquake in 1880 damaged the Cathedral to the point of needing a major reconstruction, thus the more modern architectural style. The golden statue outside is the Virgin Mary.

The Cathedral was surrounded by a turreted wall in the Renaissance style. The wall was added when the encroaching Ottoman Turks threatened to destroy the city and Cathedral. The walls are now some of the best preserved of their style in Europe.

Inside the Cathedral, one of the walls has a large wall with lots of writing on it.

Outside of the church along the Renaissance walls, there is an old clock.

Below is the Donac Market. It's located near the Cathedral and is one of the most famous markets in the city. There are tons of people selling fruits, veggies, and other food stuffs.

The streets in Zagreb embody the image of the old images of European capitals.

We wandered through the streets of upper town and we found the St. Mark's Church. Some scholars think that there is evidence this church dates back to the 13th century. It's important as a landmark and is famous for its tiled roof. The tiles are shaped to show the coat of arms of Zagreb and the Dalmatia kingdom.

Down the street from St. Mark's is the Museum of Naive Arts. Izzy was intrigued by what the naive arts were and we found out that its full of paintings from artists who were never formally trained or schooled. Here are some of their works.

A little further down the street from the Naive Museum is the Museum of Broken Relationships. It's full of artifacts that people have submitted that remind them of their failed relationships. Below are some fake breasts one girl was forced to wear by her husband and the other a love letter a girl glued to a mirror and broke it. It's an interesting and large collection of artifacts from all over.

After we finished at the museum, we strolled around the down town checking out old architectural delights. Below is the Opera House. It was built under the Austro-Hungarian empire and now sits on the square dedicated to the Yugoslav leader Tito.

Across from the theater is the Mimara museum on Roosevelt Square. It houses many pieces of artwork.

We took a picture of this Government Archives building because it has some nice owl sculptures on top.

The Zagreb train station was built in 1892 in order to connect the city to Vienna and Budapest. Across from it is King Tomislav Square. He was the first king of Croatia and united all of the lands into one country after defending them from the Hungarians. The square is a great place and lots of locals hang out there in the summer to enjoy being outside.

One of the neat things about Zagreb is that they have gas lighted lanterns on the streets. Most of them are in the Kaptol area and each night, two men walk around lighting them. We tried to find them and watch them do it but they had already lit the lanterns at 7 pm when we got there. We had dinner across the street from Cathedral. We searched for a restaurant that serves Cevapcici(pronounced Chevapchichi). It's a sausage made of pork, beef, and veal. They serve them in large portions and they are delicious.

Early the next morning, we caught a train to Ljubljana, Slovenia for the last leg of our 5 week journey.

Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia

2011-08-09T18:01:00.000-04:00

Tuesday morning, we left early to catch our bus and so we wouldn't have to stand the whole ride as we'd seen people do yesterday to Zadar. The ride was about 3 hours and, of course, we had to stop for a 20 minute break 20 minutes from the park. Oh the bus drivers in Croatia. They love to stop for 20 minute breaks when they're almost to a major drop off point. The drive had been nice but a bit scary at some points. The bus drivers love to pass people on blind turns on small mountain roads. Finally, we arrived to the park and most of the people filed out of the bus. The air was noticeably chillier than Zadar. Before going to the park, we stopped in one of the hotels to find out if there was a luggage storage area nearby. They were nice enough to let us leave our stuff in their storage room for free for the day. Free of our heavy bags, we headed to Plitvice Lakes National Park.

The park costs around 15 Euros to get into, less if you have a student ID, and you get to wander around all day from 8 am to 7 pm. There are 16 lakes that form cascades and large waterfalls all over the park. The National Park was founded in 1949 to protect the lakes. It sits near the border with Bosnia. Most of the waterfalls are created naturally by the build up of moss, algae, and bacteria to form a travertine. The great thing about the lakes is how the color of the water can change from clear to green to blue to dark blue all depending on the angle of how you see them.

At this dock, you take a boat across the river and decide to head north or south. There are long lines and the park authorities have no idea how to handle masses of people. The docks are sound but look a bit questionable when there are tons of people standing on them. There are boats to take you to another place but you have to fight to get into the line. While those of us who observe line etiquette line up up the steps, the others who arrive just jump right in and cut people who've been standing around for a while. The guys who run the park could care less.

The name Plitvice is said to come from the Croatian word for shallow. The basins there are all small and shallow when filled with the water.

Most of the trees in the park are beech, fir, or spruce trees. The forest around the lakes is one of the last places in Europe where you find brown bears and wolves. We didn't see any though.

Just a lot of ducks and fish.

Here's a great picture. Any ideas whats going on?

We walked towards the Large Waterfall. Here, you climb up the side of the mountain to get a view of it and you also get a great view of the rest of the lakes.

After we finished our first walk, we went back to the dock where you cross the river. We had some time before the bus came and we wanted to walk north a bit. Some of those lakes are so clear. It's unbelievable.

There were lots of fallen trees in the water.

A leaf partially eaten by insects that live in the park.

Zadar, Croatia

2011-08-08T17:56:00.002-04:00

Monday morning, we woke up early to catch our bus to Zadar. It started to seem pointless to go there for a day but it was a stop off before going to the Plitvice Lakes National Park. The bus ride gave us an interesting insight into Croatian bus riding philosophy. The seat numbers on our tickets had no corresponding seats on the bus. As more and more people piled on to the bus, a general mood of confusion and frustration took over. The company oversold the bus and packed the seats and the aisle was full of standing people for most of the ride, which took a few hours and put us in Zadar later than we expected. As we got off the bus, we fought through the crowd of people screaming "accommodation maybe." Why they added the maybe, we still don't understand because in other Croatian towns, they just slyly offer a room as if they were selling you crack. After checking in to our hostel, we debated on spending time at the beach or walking around the old town. In the end, we decided the old town would be better to visit.

Zadar's history is similar to that of many Croatian coastal towns. It had an extensive trade network and has been inhabited by Greeks, Phoenicians, and various other groups throughout its long history. We stayed northwest of the center so we had to catch a bus to get to it. There's a pedestrian only bridge that connects the northern part of Zadar with the old town. When you enter here, there are lots of shops and people selling roasted corn. The street leads to the Town Hall and main square.

A short walk from the main square is a large, rusty orange colored church. Just to the right of it is the famous five wells square. It has, logically, five wells evenly space apart and all used to draw water centuries ago.

Just around the corner from these five wells is the main entrance gate to the city. The middle arch is wide enough for carts and the two side ones for people. It was built in the mid 16th century by the Venetian, Michele Sanmicheli. His Venetian roots show with the lion that represents the kingdom of Venice.

The large round building is St. Donatus Church. It's from the 9th century and is one of the best preserved pieces of Dalmatia architecture. Inside is a large collection of metalworks from old Dalmatian artists. Across from it is the St. Anastasia Cathedral. The building's Romanesque style dates from the 12th century. It was named after the patron's ashes were received there, thus replacing St. Peter as the patron of the church. Pope John Paul II visited the cathedral in 2003.

In the square between the two churches, there are lots of old artifacts from the Greek and Roman times in Zadar. If you can see the kid in the first picture, we watched him throw rocks at the restaurant tables at the far end of the square. After a couple of them bounced just right and into the midst of several people, the kids were run off by unhappy drinkers. It's comforting to know the lack of parental control is a worldwide phenomenon.

One of Zadar's most unique attractions is the sea organ. It's a collection of pipes on the edge of the old town that plays notes as the water passes through it and triggers the pipes to play notes. The sounds are quite ominous and rise and fall with the waves of the water. Kids and adults alike looked at the organ openings and tried to peer down into the holes to see the pipes. We recorded some of the music with our smaller camera.

Next to the sea organ is a large monument to the sun. It's a large, circular spot full of solar panels. It wasn't clear what the panels power. We've since found out that shortly after the sun sets, the panels light up and play various light shows. Click here to see the show.

We visited some local markets and bought some fruit to enjoy for our dinner. We spent the evening coloring Izzy's hair and getting ready to head to one of the highlights of our 5 week trip, the Plitvice Lakes National Park.

Split and Hvar, Croatia

2011-08-07T05:52:00.001-04:00

After our two days in Dubrovnik, we started our journey north along the Croatian coast. The drive is beautiful. The sea is always in view and you pass through tons of small towns and outposts set up just for relaxing and enjoying getting away. The only annoying thing about traveling to southern Croatia is that you have to pass through the small section of Bosnia that touches the sea. This means a long line for an arbitrary passport check, in which they don't even check for all passports. We arrived to Split later than we expected but with plenty of time to check in to our hostel and go wander around. We followed the directions to our hostel, the Three Turtles B&B. When we arrived, the guy informed us the hostel website only booked one bed for the first night and two for the second. He refused to do anything to help us other than let us use his internet to book another hostel. As we looked for another place, he hounded us to let him know if he could release the beds for the following night. We held out as long as we could just to annoy him because he had no sympathy for the fact we were without a place for the night. We finally found a place and continued walking another 20 minutes in the heat, pouring sweat to another place. It turned out to be a lot nicer. After settling in, we went down to the beach and had a swim to cool off before wandering through the old town. Split is a lot like the port at Athens, lots of boats and lots of people trying to find their boat to get them to an island or Italy. The main difference is there are always tons of people at the bus and train stations waiting for new arrivals to offer them accommodation. Their manner is tad skeptical and they often come off as not reputable people.

Like Dubrovnik, Split has an old town that is fortified by an old city wall. You can't climb on top and walk around but walking around the inside is nice. It's not built into a hill and so its much easier to get around. There is a main square with a large church, old Greek style columns, and a bunch of vendors and artisans selling their goods. The Greek looking ruins correspond to a colony set up in the 6th century by the Greeks called Aspálathos. This name evolved through Romanized Latin, Dalmatian language, and finally came out as Split in Slavic tongue. The old town centers around the Diocletian's Palace he had built for himself when he retired from politics. The palace has served as a town for those who stayed in the area throughout the various power struggles and changing of hands of the city of Split.

There are tons of small shops throughout the town. You can freely wander outside of the walls or through old parts of the palace that aren't used by anyone now.

We made the mistake of spotting a cheap place to eat and going and eating there. The food was kind of stale tasting and made us feel ill afterwards. We walked through the Republik Square and watched an entertaining photo session with a bride and groom. The videographer was especially entertaining with the effects he was trying to create by running in large swooping circles. After our terrible meal, we just walked along the harbor to enjoy the sunset.

On Sunday, we took a ferry out to Hvar Island. There are several famous islands around Split and the port is always busy with ferries leaving to these islands and other ports in Italy. The tickets were relatively inexpensive(23 Euros roundtrip for both of us). Hvar island is a long and thin island. It's unusual that it has such a wide open fertile plain with fresh water springs that provides for the widespread growth of olive groves, fruit orchards, and fields of lavender. The lavender is probably its more famous crop because it makes the island smell sweet and fragrant. The Ancient Greeks are responsible for settling the area and setting up the various field divisions. Sadly, we weren't able to ride out to the fields because we didn't have a car and the buses on the island are mainly for getting you to the cities. We went to the city of Hvar to see what it was about.

Hvar looked like a distant cousin of Dubrovnik and Split. It was an old stone city with fortified walls around it and a large fortress sat above it on the mountain behind the city. It looked like you could go there and wander through it but we only had 4 hours on the island so we didn't want to waste them trying to find how to get to the fortress. What we found though is that Hvar City is like a small outpost of the French Riviera type culture. There were sailboats all over the place and there were several megayachts moored in the harbor.

The streets through the town are quaint. We didn't see many tourists walking through them. I'm not sure if its because everyone just comes to Hvar to swim and be at the beach or because it was hot that day and walking around wasn't the best idea.

After walking a bit, we got hot ourselves and decided to put our feet in the water to cool off. Then we had some ice cream and wandered along the paths leading out from the city. There were a lot of hotels and activities there for enjoying the water. The island doesn't have any sand beaches so many people just take chairs out and find a place between the rocks to set up. Around 4:30, we headed back to the bus stop to catch it back to the port. This became a big problem. The buses are scheduled around the ferries but they didn't provide enough to meet the demand of people needing to leave. People were pushing and shoving to get their bags under the bus and get on it. We found some other people there and split a taxi with a family and a couple of guys who also decided the cattle car wasn't for us.

Back in Split, we had a nice dinner and meandered back to our hostel to get some rest before our trip to Zadar.

Dubrovnik, Croatia

2011-08-05T04:35:00.002-04:00

At times, this trip has worn us thin. 5 weeks is a long time to spend on the road living out of suitcase. While I know others will laugh at a mere 5 weeks, I think for most of us that sounds like a long vacation. After lugging our bags across Belgrade, we packed into a bus bound for Dubrovnik. It was the only direct link between the two cities. The train option would have taken us to Bar, Montenegro or possibly through Sarajevo, Bosnia. The bus was full of loud and obnoxious people talking too loud the entire ride. We managed to sleep a bit but it was never comfortable. Every time I woke up, my neck and back ached more than the previous time. After winding through back roads, passing through Sarajevo, we came to a town near the Croatian border called Mostar. On the side of the road, an old man with a van was waiting to pick up the people on the bus headed to Dubrovnik. We all hopped in and off we went. The ride would have been nice had we not had to pee the entire time and the driver didn't look for every bumpy road in the country. After we crossed the border into Croatia, the overcast weather disappeared and sunshine and blue skies prevailed. We stopped for an hour at a gas station waiting on one of the Split-Dubrovnik buses to pick us up. We arrived 2 hours late, hot and irritable. We waited for a bus that took us less than half way to our hostel and had to walk the next 20 minutes but we finally made it. Since the day was almost done, we decided to go to the beach instead of the old town and relax.

On Friday morning, we woke up late and spent the morning lying in bed catching up on much needed sleep. One thing Izzy has been frustrated with on our trip is the Europeans reluctance to use air conditioning when the heat of hell itself is making its presence known all around us. Bathing daily to rid ourselves of the stickiness is simply a must do. After having leftovers for lunch, we hopped on the local bus to Dubrovnik old town. Our first trip took us the wrong way. The downside of things being lost in translation. We finally arrived in a sea of people. It was insanity.

Dubrovnik has an interesting past. Originally known as Ragusa, the legend goes that the city was founded on a large rock to provide Dalmatian refugees protection. Newer excavations around the city point to a more advanced civilization that was present at the current site of the city. Dubrovnik fell under Byzantine control for a while and continued to operate as a port. After the Crusades, it became part of the Venetian empire. This is easy to see as the city has a bit of the feel of Venice, just not nearly as confusing and labyrinth like. We started our tour of the city by walking down the main thoroughfare.

Dubrovnik was an early adopter of what are considered to be modern laws. They opened their first pharmacy in the early 14th century and its still open. They abolished slavery practice in the early 15th century, 4 centuries before the Brits or US. The city later became part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and fell under the control of the Nazis after the Austro-Hungarian Empire fell apart. This was a difficult time for the city. Local citizens were executed with no trial. Later, when Croatia became part of Yugoslavia, the current name of Dubrovnik was adopted. It later suffered some destruction when the Yugoslav wars broke out after the break up of the republic. The Serbians laid siege to the city as they claimed it was part of Montenegro. In 1992, it was freed by the Croatian army.

Occasionally we had to suffer from big hairy men thinking a speedo was the best idea for playing soccer volleyball. Yikes!

Just outside the city walls, there are a lot of great places to swim. As we would discover along the Dalamatia Coast, there is no such thing as a sandy beach. And that is quite nice!

It was quite hot and we really wanted to go for a swim but Izzy forgot to wear her bathing suit. Instead, we walked around the twisting and winding streets. There are still lots of locals that live in the city and carry on about their daily life without much bother from the tourists. Except of course for the occasional public urinator.

While walking through the streets, we spotted a lot of people walking along the top of the old city walls. The wall runs about 1.24 miles (2km) around the city. It has various small towers and big towers that were used to defend the city. The view from up there is amazing and you can see some of the small islands that you can visit while you are visiting.

Below is a place at the entrance of the city where you can get fresh, cold water to drink or refill your empty bottle.

The only thing about the walk is there was nowhere to hide from the sun. There is a place halfway along the walk to stop and have a drink or use the bathroom.

After our walk around the city walls, we went back to visit a couple of the spots we'd missed earlier and to put our feet in the water and cool down a bit. We ate dinner at a small pub and returned to our hostel, one of the best we've ever stayed in. Near our hostel is a long street with lots of restaurants. We found a girl selling small doughnuts with lots of fun toppings. We ordered some with cinnamon and sugar and watched the sunset, it was great.