A rest day provided time to visit the laundromat and to walk around photographing the delightful city of Leon. Who knew that Hogworts was here in Northern Spain? The Casa de Botines was designed by Gaudi in an exaggerated Gothic style like a Disney caricature of a medieval castle. It …
“Dos personnes para Leon, por favor Señor” – and with that, we had two tickets – thanks to the Translate app from Google. We were at the bus station in Burgos, with half a dozen other pilgrims planning to skip the Meseta, each for their own reasons. We had done the maths: with …
We visited the Museo de la Evolución Humanes – the Museum of Human Evolution. They told us that, being a Tuesday, Atapuerca was closed today, and tomorrow’s tour was already booked out. ‘Besides’, they said, ‘the tour is all in Spanish and the artefacts are all here at the museum’. …
Up at sunrise, we set off in fog – and our first frost! Our lack of gloves meant that we were quickly walking with both sticks clipped together and alternating one hand in the coat pocket to keep the hands thawed. We were heading to Atapuerca and then on to …
We departed Vilamayor del Rio before dawn, aiming to reach Villafranca Montes de Oca. The streets were deserted and the light made stark contrasts, giving the buildings an unearthly cast. It was slow going, mostly uphill until we were able to take a break for breakfast at Belorado. Belorado is …
The air was thick, stuffy and heavy with humanity as I woke around 0230am. 26 bunks, all full, and only two small windows slightly ajar. There was no air movement. I forced myself to settle in a bid to conform to the 07.00am rule. Several people snored, making for quite …
We departed Azofra after dropping off our bags at the Municipal Albergue for despatch to Santo Domingo de la Calzada – home of the rooster and chicken. We quickly found that our headlights are not adequate to the task – while new batteries might help, I suspect we will ultimately need …
An early start from Los Arcos saw us walking through another wonderful sunrise. But I had no energy – there’s a lesson here about the need for protein, rather than carbs (paella), for sustained energy. We were making for Viana. As we walked, a light rain started to fall. We …
We were up early and downstairs for a very quick coffee then out the door by 0630. The headlamps worked well, although we nearly missed the first turn. Walking through a spider web convinced us that the woman who left before us must’ve missed the turn too, or at least …
