Author: Kara Rountree

Day 25 – Sept 30, 2022 – Burgos to Rabé de las Calzadas (13.04 km / 8.1 miles)

Today was a good day. We arrived at our destination early and were told at dinner the nuns of the convent in town invited all pilgrims to their nightly prayers at 8p. 

The nuns of Centro La Milagrosa (Hijas de la Caridad) convene nightly to thank God for the day and to bless the pilgrims walking the Camino. It was beautiful. They gave us a medal to protect, bless and keep us safe on our journey. 

One thing we’ve noticed is the age of the priests and nuns in the churches. We’ve seen very few under 70 years old. Where are all the young people who will replace these people when they eventually retire or pass away?  We have found ourselves pondering the status of the church and what it is doing to stay relevant with today’s youth.  

Something to think about. 

Day 26 – Oct 1, 2022 – Rabé de las Calzadas to Arroyo San Bol (13.53 km / 8.41 miles)

We officially entered the Meseta today. We have now walked over 300 km (193 miles). 

The meseta is the vast flat plains in central Spain. Beginning just after Burgos, and ending in Astorga, the Camino runs through the northern point of the meseta for about 220km. Many pilgrims skip this section and bus through, but not the Rountrees. We will walk all the crazy kilometers. 

As we walk past endless fields, I try to imagine the landscape in full bloom with amber waves of grain and tall proud vibrant sunflowers.  Unfortunately, this time of year, there are only sad drooping sunflowers, harvested wheat, and fields prepped for the upcoming winter. Luckily I have a good imagination. 

Today’s 13 kilometers flew by and we both felt strong when we rolled into our reserved albergue at 12:30. We could have easily kept going, but we have our next few days’ albuergues booked and rescheduling one causes a domino effect of changes we didn’t want to deal with, so we stuck with it. 

We slept in a very small (10 bed) municipal albergue in the middle of nowhere. This was the first time we’d encountered a location with no cell service, no WiFi, no bar, or café available to us.  We were literally off the grid.  Thank goodness we had indoor plumbing though!

Since we couldn’t officially check into our albergue until 2pm and with no other food available nearby, we sat on a granite bench by a babbling brook and emptied our packs of every scrap of food we had on us for our lunch. It wasn’t gourmet, by any means, but it kept us going us until dinner.  The sun and breeze were warm and we laid on a bench and took a nap until the albergue opened at 2pm. 

After the hosts served us an amazing dinner of paella and salad they left us to our own devices. We learned three of the people in our group were actors in Barcelona and performed in a comedy there. They regailed us with an act from their play which was quite funny. 

Then (at 9p) a knock came at the door. When we opened it, there stood two very tired injured pilgrims looking for a bed. We had a couple no shows so there were beds open. We couldn’t turn them away. We called the albergue hosts to get permission to let them stay. They agreed and we took down their passport information and took their 10€ each for the beds and left everything on the check-in desk for the hosts. They were very grateful for the beds. 

Day 27 – Oct 2, 2022 – Arroyo San Bol to Castrojeriz (13.77 km / 8.56 miles)

The walk today was a fairly easy one.  There were no major hills to climb, the trail was mostly dirt/rock until a sucky stretch of road walking for the last few kilometers near the end. I actually led the way some of the day today. It helps that Rex is mildly injured, but I am still excited about my increased speed. I am usually always behind him and by a lot. 

We had been experiencing cooler weather lately, but it did start heating up again today.  Boy we miss the cooler weather already. It is much easier to walk when it’s not so hot. Even though it was only the high 70’s today the sun is pretty intense here when there is no shade to protect us. 

We stayed at an albergue called Albergue Rosalía tonight. We picked it in part for the name which is my mom’s name in Spanish. It was the perfect choice. We didn’t have to deal with bunk beds and the pilgrim meal was fantastic!  We had homemade bread and hummus, salad with delicious tomatoes grown in the owner’s garden, paella, roasted chicken and something called “chocolate heaven” for desert. We walked away from the table fully fueled for a long hiking day tomorrow. Just what we needed!

Day 21 – Sept 26, 2022 – Agés to Casteñeras (17 km / 10.56 miles) in 17 minutes 

We are continuing our path forward today, just not by foot power. Today we took a taxi to our next lodging in order to maximize rest for Rex.  The road (again N120) followed the Camino path the majority of the way. 

We arrived to the hotel early and luckily our room was ready.  We took advantage of a semi-stable WiFi connection and made good use of this down day. Rex made an appointment with a foot doctor who fit him in on short notice. We brought a pack filled with our dirty laundry to find a lavandería and an ATM while we’re in town after the appointment to make use of the services available in the larger city. 

The doctor was very nice and spoke enough broken English to compliment our broken Spanish for us to describe what was going on. After asking questions and examining his foot, she said it was most likely plantar fasciitis or possibly a heel spur. I had done the painful but effective remedy for plantar fasciitis on him the other night and he didn’t cry, so I think it may be a heel spur. The doctor suggested new shoe inserts and started measuring his feet so she could make him custom inserts. She told us to come back tomorrow at 5pm to pick them up. What?  She’s doing this overnight?  Indeed she is. On top of that, she is only charging us 90€ for the consultation and the inserts.  

We have a couple of rest days planned in Burgos and this will give him time to recover and test out his new inserts exploring the town before we have to load our packs up again. Hopefully this takes care of the heel pain and this will all be behind us. 

Day 22 – Sept 27, 2022 – Casteñeras to Burgos (7 km) REST 

Happy Birthday to me!  Today we walked with fully loaded packs for 7 km into Burgos. It was an easy day walking a flat trail along the river to our AC Marriott hotel where we will rest for the next two nights. 

We have been roaming around finding drinks and pintxos today for lunch. We need to find a department store (Walmart doesn’t exist here). We need some base layers for the cold. Mornings have started out in the mid-30’s here already. I do hope it’s a fluke, but we need to be prepared. 

Of course we plan to find pizza for my birthday dinner.  We are also on the hunt for Tarta De Santiago as my birthday cake. I first heard of this when I was first researching the Camino.  I have been excited to try one and have been holding out until my birthday to make it extra special, but for some reason we couldn’t find it in Burgos anywhere!  We were told it would be more prevalent as we get to Galicia or closer to Santiago, so it looks like I may have to wait until then. I urge you to make the yummy dessert yourself and enjoy it for me.  Here’s the recipe.

While having our pizza dinner in this large city, our new friend Blanca entered the restaurant with her new friend Zaina from Brazil. Small world!  We ate together then set out to the only restaurant in the city I learned had Tarta de Santiago on their menu. When we got there, the restaurant was closed!  So we gave up our search and settled on going to a chocolateria Zaina wanted to go to. To my surprise, there in the case was one solitary slice of the cake I had been searching for all day! I made my excited selection and upon hearing my story, the young man behind the counter plated the slice and said no charge since it was my birthday.  More Camino magic!

Day 23 – Sept 28, 2022 – Burgos (Rest)

We rested today then attended pilgrim mass at the Cathedral. It was a beautiful mass recited in Spanish with a blessing to the pilgrims at the end. 

Day 24 – Sept 29, 2022 – Burgos (Rest)

It was a beautiful rainy day. Perfect weather to hunker down and rest. We had to move from our hotel to a private room in a hostal down the street, but that wasn’t a big deal. Then we had to pick up the second revision of Rex’s inserts. The arches were too high in the original set. Hopefully this revision will take care of it and his pain will be relieved. We will hit to trail again tomorrow. 

We sent Rex’s pack ahead again. Unfortunately, lightening the load hasn’t changed his pain level. But until he sees a doctor, I didn’t want him adding his pack weight again when we are walking.

We started the day exhausted from lack of sleep and it was a very cold morning (39 degrees). We’ve begun thinking we don’t have the cold weather clothes needed for October in northern Spain. We will need to buy a couple extra base layer items in Burgos before the next phase of the hike. 

Patience and tolerance is being tested for both of us right now.  Last night we were in a large albergue which included a smaller group of Italian men traveling together.  This group of young men had not been taught basic consideration of others. When they came into the dorm in the afternoon while several were napping (including Rex and I) they were loud, throwing around their packs and boots, then they began singing and hollering across the dorm. Ugh! Then this morning at 5:45a one of their alarms sounded like a siren for over a minute.  Once it was turned off, they got up, turned the bright room light on and loudly began packing their things to leave. There were only 5 of them out of the 24 in the room. I couldn’t believe it. I took a deep breath, in and out, counted to 10 and then did it again, and again, and again. 

The walk today was beautiful. We left the rolling farmland and climbed for much of the morning a path lined by thick, almost jungle-like trees which provided a nice change of scenery and kept us shaded and cool all day as we hiked.

Once we arrived at our Albergue we n Agés, our people-tolerance tanks near empty from the night before, we walked into the large sleeping area to select our bunks only to find a large group of Korean pilgrims had strewn their stuff everywhere making it difficult to get to our top bunks and settle in. Cultural differences are very noticeable to us lately. Common courtesy seems to be seriously lacking – or maybe it’s our American ideal of common courtesy?  Either way, we’re excited for a few days off the trail in a hotel room in Burgos to reset. 

Once settled in, it was shower time. The shower was possessed… it would go cold or hot whenever it wanted. It started perfect, then after getting all soaped up, it would scald, making you jump back and wait, so then it would be freezing. Ugh. How can I rinse off?  Grrrr. As the shower head rained down it also sprayed upward from a leaky seal around the shower head drizzling our towels and dry clean clothes. This happened to both of us. Some serious maintenance and s needed here. I am not in the right mindset for this at all. 

What to do when everything seems to be going wrong or is just harder than it should be?  Find the closest bar and have a drink! It was cold outside so we selected a table inside. When a small group came in and said they wanted food, I was told to stand and give up the table. I am a paying customer and was there first. The bar owner wasn’t nice at all. She didn’t try to reseat us. Merely barked and shoo’d me away. Wow!  We finished our drinks and left. 

We’ve really enjoyed the communal dinners each night at most of our albergues. They are usually cheaper than going to a restaurant and definitely more convenient. You typically pay 10-12€ per person and you eat what they serve you. Pretty simple. The communal dinner didn’t turn out to be a o communal after all.  There were about 30 people dining. We sat at a table for four and met a lovely couple from the UK. When the meal started we were served soup, then the sides and main were brought out to the large table. There they stopped. We sat patiently expecting to be brought smaller serving platters of the dishes and when they didn’t arrive, we asked where our servings were. The hostess said that everything had already been brought out and needed to be shared. Everything was placed on the table where the huge group of Korean pilgrims were seated. They ate everything!  There was nothing else. To be honest, much of the blame needs to be placed on the hostess for not explaining this and not allowing it to happen. If you serve food to my table, I’d expect it to be intended for my table. Our table mate who was fluent in Spanish expressed our concern over a 12€ bowl of soup and a single chicken leg, but wasn’t making much progress with the hostess. They served all the food they had and couldn’t just make us more. We were offered a special ice cream cone for the misunderstanding. 

What is the Camino trying to tell us?  I think it is time to make a change in how we book our lodging.  We’ll look to book albergues with smaller rooms or fewer beds per room. The giant barracks-style rooms with 30-40 beds are not for us anymore – been there, done that. 

This too, shall pass. Today was just not our day. No matter what, we will keep moving forward. We will not stop until we reach Santiago. We know this is supposed to be hard. Nothing worth achieving is ever easy. We expected the physical challenge of walking 562 would be our toughest test. We never expected the time off the trail would be even harder at times. 

Tomorrow is a new day!

Day 17 – Sept 22, 2022 – Cirueña to Redecilla del Camino (16.88 km / 10.5 miles)

Day 18 – Sept 23, 2022 – Redecilla del Camino to Belorado (11.74 km / 7.3 miles)

At the start of the day, we had walked 234 km or 145 miles in our journey.  The steps are starting to blur together and we are finding it difficult to even remember where we were the night before. 

We walked close to the N120 highway today next to harvested wheat fields and sad sunflowers. The landscape is so different from the gorgeous mountains and sweet villages from miles before. 

We are staying in Belorado in a nice semi-commercial albergue. It has its own restaurant and bar on premise and it even has a pool. However, it was much too cold to swim. We opted not to stay in the dorms tonight and booked two beds in a four bed mixed room.  No top bunk for Rex tonight!

I finally got pizza for dinner tonight. Yippie! It was worth the wait. We got two personal sized pizzas and both came out in wood fired oven perfection. They were served with their own cutters. We’d never seen this before and enjoyed the satisfying crunch as we cut into them. We left happy with full bellies. 

Day 19 – Sept 24, 2022 – Belorado to Villafranca Montes de Oca (11.80 km / 7.33 miles)

We woke up later today since the mornings are now much cooler as it we get into late September. The temperatures still get to the low 80’s (26 Celsius) in the afternoons.  When it is over 70 degrees my hiking performance deminishs greatly.  So starting early has been a must up until now. 

We are deep into farm land now. Except for the grape vineyards, all the fields have been harvested, so we don’t know what was planted there previously except for a few random sunflowers. The sunflower fields must have been beautiful at the height of their season. It is beautiful walking through the rolling hills with fields all around us, but our photos are just not doing justice to what our eyes are seeing, so we’ve slowed down on the photo taking. 

With 3 km left to go, we began to climb. For nearly a km we walked steeply through vineyards and harvested hay fields. There was very little shade today. At the very top we spotted a few shaded benches and concrete recliners. I know the description doesn’t sound appealing, but those concrete recliners were so comfortable and appeared at the perfect time. Rex even attempted a little nap. 

As we walked into the city of Cirueña, we immediately noticed it had very few services. There were a lot of Se Vente (for sale) signed on apartment buildings and it was eerily quiet. Rex thought it felt post apocalyptic. Had something happened in this town that scared off all its residents?  Maybe the one employer in town shut down?  It was very strange, but we wound our way through overgrown weedy sidewalks and eventually found our albergue. It looks like we’ll be staying in tonight, since there isn’t anything in town to go explore. We have a private room this time, so hopefully we get a good night’s sleep.