Author: Thom

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, […]

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 […]