The World is Quiet Here

We’ve been without wifi for several days now, so I thought I’d post a quick note in lieu of full updates to follow later. We’re currently having breakfast in a bar in Samos, across the street from the stupendous monastery where we spent the night. The bar has wifi (obviously), but we need to get on our way. Chant Mass […]

20 April 2013 After breakfasting in the Benedictine hotel, we walked to the bus station – maybe 1.5 km – and caught the 9:30 bus to Hospital de Orbigo. We walked back across the town to Puente de Orbigo and walked across (and back across) the astonishing medieval bridge there. There´s a jousting field next to the bridge. Jousting is […]

19 April 2013 Arrived in Leon after a relatively 18 km walk, made only slightly tiring by the fact that much of it was on city sidewalks. This is a fantastic city, probably my favourite so far other than Pamplona. Narrow, crooked streets, bursting with life and song and commerce. The cathedral is glorious. There´s an audio tour, of course, […]

It seems like I´ve been walking the long, straight paths of the Meseta forever, though in truth it´s only been six days. Less than a week! But many of the photos taken are of the road I´m travelling, generally a straight line to the horizon. There´s a lot of time to think on the Meseta while you walk through the […]

15 April 2013 Today Eamon and I walked a record-breaking 34 km. The walk to Fromista along the Canal de Castilla was very pleasant; it was not yet hot (we left at 7:30), and a cool breeze blew through the trees beside the canal. Lunch was in Fromista, where I spent some time in the Romanesque masterpiece of the Iglesia […]

Third Sunday of Easter 14 April 2013 Hot. Dry. Sunny. This is the Meseta, a large arid plateau that makes up the middle third of the Camino through Spain. The Meseta is said to be the second trial of the Camino. In the first third, you are tried physically. In the bleak Mesta, you are tried mentally. It has not […]

13 April 2013 Burgos Cathedral this morning. I really wish I could upload photos from this connection, as I probably took a hundred or more. We spent about two hours wandering through this – superlatives fail me – magnificent? glorious? fantastical? – Gothic marvel in stone. I was a little disturbed by the decision to turn much of the structure […]

Boots still wet, and wind still howling, the long deathmarch through the industrial wastelands surrounding Burgos needs little in the way of narration. Suffice to say, it was not the most charming possible introduction to a city. The central portion of the old city is beautiful, but very trendy and expensive. The cathedral is beautiful – perhaps the most spectacular […]

11 April 2013 Felt much better after a good sleep and three boxes of orange juice. We left Belorado in good form and breakfasted in Tosantos. It was a sunny, if breezy still, walk through the countryside we´d come to expect – brilliant green farm fields in bowl-shaped valleys. We lunched in a picturesque truck stop in Villafranca Montes de […]

Patrick was correct, as it turns out. We found out that the local news reported sustained winds of 45 kph on the day we walked into Sto. Domingo.

10 April 2013 After the severe physical trail of yesterday, we were determined to take it easy, starting late and perhaps only going as far as Granon, or maybe Redecilla del Camino, some 11 km distant. Before setting out, we explored the Cathedral. Santo Domingo himself is buried in the crypt, and I knelt there for a while, imploring the […]

09 April 2013 When you think that the Camino can´t get more demanding, it usually does. We left Ventosa (which apparently means “windy”, which should have been our first clue) at about 7:30, despite our best efforts to be out the door by 7. By 9:30, we were drinking our cafe con leche´s in Najera, 10 km on. In Najera, […]

08 April 2013 Short, difficult day today. The roads were fairly easy, but all of us are feeling yesterday. Logrono is a big city, and getting in and out of the cities is a lot of walking on concrete. No fun. Cliff left first and was soon out of sight. Charlie is staying a couple of days in the city […]

07 April 2013 Having been to Mass in Los Arcos, today a rather large group of us set out first thing in the morning. We walked 28 km. From Los Arcos it was a delightfully easy 7 km to Sansol. Onward, we wlked over easy roads through olive groves and vinyards, culminating in a steep, undulating descent into our lunchtime […]

Given the continuing tech issues, my plan is to post short little posts to catch everybody up to date, and to add a “progress” to show where I am and where I´ve been. Still very little luck on the photo front, though I´ve now taken over 1200 photos. A couple of them are even good.