San Juan de Ortega to Burgos - May 21

There were a couple of alternative routes to Burgos so the road was less crowded with Pilgrims - each having made a choice between the less scenic "industrial suburbs", or the slightly longer route through countryside and parkland. Guess which route I chose?

The area between San Juan and Burgos includes the great limestone Atapuerca Massif. So there was a great rocky climb to the top of the Massif and then our route veered south of the highlands through farmland, then A pretty boring rocky path around the Burgos Airport and finally down to the river for a 6-7 km walk through treed parkland. In all today's walk was over 27 km, altitude adjusted for the climb over the Massif.

Approaching Alto Crucerio at 1080 m

I was walking with two other women today - Sonali, a young 22 year old Canadian woman from Toronto and Franziska, a Swiss woman closer to my age - me being the senior in the crowd. We were joined for a while by a couple of Spanish Ladies with whom Sonali had walked with on a previous day. We had good conversation for a lot of the way and the settled into a comfortable silence for the rest of the walk as we each enjoyed our surroundings, lost in our own thoughts. There is a wonderful bond which develops between Pilgrims who walk together for a time and now I have two new Facebook Friends as a consequence.

The area includes some very famous archeological digs where they have found the oldest human remains in Europe. The excavations, which have been ongoing since 1994 have found pre-Neanderthal remains from a previously unknown subspecies of hominid, Homo antecessor, who may be the common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans (info thanks to my Cultural Handbook of the Camino). A large billboard marked the road leading to the excavation along with a few monoliths placed at the side of the road.

Today started really cold - I finally broke down and pulled out the leather gloves I had brought. The walk to the first village was brisk and although the skies threatened rain, none appeared. I was glad to reach the breakfast stop at the village of Ages. Lo and behold - bacon and eggs was on the menu which I could not pass up. A word of explanation is necessary here. Spaniards eat tostadas (toast) for breakfast - they eat eggs as a main dish for dinner, so it isn't often that you are able to get a regular North America breakfast - let alone eggs and bacon. It was perfectly cooked, but they need to learn that we prefer our bread toasted with this dish.

We arrived at Burgos at around 3:30. I had decided to stay an extra day and do some sightseeing and to give my feet a rest. Franziska and I found rooms in the nice Hotel Norte y Londres. A nice treat to have a private room and bath for 2 nights! Only 46 EUR a night for a decent hotel in the centre of Burgos less than a km from the Cathedral. It is Thurs morning as I write this blog. Will write later today and tell you what I have seen and also I will be able to upload pictures for past days as the internet speed is pretty good here.

The view from my room

 

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Belorado to San Juan de Ortega May 19

Uploaded: May 19 narrative only - wifi too slow to handle pictures

Pictures Uploaded on May 21

We woke today to cold temps and rain. Not more than a sprinkle at first and it was not too unpleasant as I walked the nearly 5 km to my hoped for breakfast stop at Tosantos. No such luck as the bar promised 50 m down the road was non existent and as well it started to rain a steady drizzle. I put on my trusty rain jacket, which covered both me and my backpack down to my knees. Standard issue rain gear for pilgrims.

I had more luck at my next stop Villambistia, where for a mere 4.80 EUR I got a really nice warm tortilla bocadilla and a cafe con leche. I can only eat about half of the bocadilla, but that leaves a half to stow away for my lunch. This was just what I needed to pick up my pace for the long walk ahead.

 

The towns of Espinosa and Villafranca arrived quickly now that I was keeping a good pace and I fortified with a glass of Zoma (fresh squeezed OJ) at Villafranca as it was the last village for 10.8 km when I would arrive at San Juan de Ortega.

A memorial at a mass grave of men from Burgos from 1938 during the Spanish Civil War.

 

There was Interesting geography in those 10 km. There are two high points (Alto Mojapan and Alto Pedraja both at about 1100 m separated by a very steep sided valley of maybe 100 m descent over perhaps a kilometre known as Puerto de la Pedraja. According to my Cultural Guide to the Camino, this divides the watersheds of the Ebro, flowing to the Mediterrean, and the Duero, which empties into the Atlantic.

There is a monument on the east side to men of Burgos whose bodies were dumped on this spot in the civil war of 1936.

 

We walked a Good 8 km or so on a muddy road through a pine forest, which was a change from the wheat fields. The road was part of a trail system for what looked like 4X4 off road enthusiasts and mountain bikers. In fact one convoy of vehicles passed me twice on the road. I guess they were circling around the paths.

It wasn't long before we arrived at The Monastery and Church of San Juan de Ortega. 7EUR for the bed and 7.5 EUR for dinner so not a bad deal. I arrived just before 2 pm after a good days walk, but wet, cold and tired so crawled into my warm sleeping bag and napped for a few hours after eating my lunch.

 

 

 

The master Hospitalaro who ran it all! Greeting and checking in over 62 pilgrims and seeing to their needs including serving dinner! He never stopped for a moment the whole time I was there an always a smile on his face.

Tomorrow we walk into Burgos, which will be a tiring 26.1 km through the industrial outskirts of town before we get to the nice bit. I am thinking of taking an extra day there to do a bit of sightseeing, and if so will look for a library for decent internet, so I can upload todays pictures.

 

 

 

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