Day 12 – Santo Domingo to Belorado

Day 12 – April 14 Santo Domingo (Km 563) to Belorado (Km 541) = 22 km – Cumulative - 210 km

"Belorado, Castilla y Leon, Spain 08 04 14 16:47

Again a quick check in and then more details. As you can see I have now passed out of La Rioja and into Castilla Y Leon. La Rioja is one of the smaller comunidades of Spain and Castilla y Leon is , I think, the largest. I/We (Mom and Dick and Sue Schubert are joining dad and will do the rest of El Camino with Dad) will be in Castilla and Leon for about 3 and a half weeks, so I will not put that in the location again until, we are ready to pass into Galicia.

Today I walked the 22 km from Santo Domingo de la Calzada (means Santo Domingo of the Highway) to Belorado. I have now passed the 200 km mark ( 210 I think and the book says I have another 541 to Santiago. Tomorrow will be a short day, only 12 km. Today I had intended to stop in Villamayor del Rio but I missed the alburgue, so I walked the extra 5 km to Belorado. I had to push myself for the last 5 km but I am glad I did. The place I found to stay is perfect. It looks newly constructed, is modern and immaculate and has both a hotel and an alburgue. As there hotel is only 30 € , I chose a hotel room. Very simple but very nice. It does not have a long bathtub to soak in but it does have a very elegant shower.

It has a dining room that opens at a decent hour (18:30) serving a pilgrim menu, and three computers. I told her(the lady at the alburgue) “Es todo que quiero, una habitacione, un restaurant y el internet nada mas” - All I want in life is a room, a restaurant and the internet, nothing more.

There is a bit of a climb up Montes de Oca the day after tomorrow so I am positioning myself for that. Tomorrow I will walk the 12 km to Villafranca Monters de Oca and I will do the climb the next morning when I am fresh. Then there is a 12 km stretch through a forest with no villages or services. I am approaching Burgos, which is the last city before Leon but Leon is still 230 km away. I will walk as far as I can and then on April 28 I will take a bus or a train to Leon to be there for your arrival (the arrival of Mom and Dick and Sue Schubert who will do the rest of El Camino with Dad). Then I have decided that on May 1 we will take the train to Astorga (about 50 km west of Leon and start the rest of the Camino from there).

Today is cool with some sun and many clouds. For a while on the approach to Belorado I thought it might rain.

Today for the first time since Roncesvalles my little toe on my right foot did not hurt. Only on the Camino would this be worthy of mention in international email.

I think I told you before (or maybe it was one of the messages lost in the ether) that I thought I had trimmed my toenails well before leaving, and I had not brought a nail clipper with me. But there was a little tag of nail on the litle toe of my right foot that was catching in my sock and causing tenderness and some pain in that toe. Even though I tried to protect it (including splinting it to the adjacent toe) it still hurt. In Logroño I was able to buy a small nail clipper and fix the problem but it is only today that the toe is better. Otherwise I deal with foot problems day by day. Today was not too bad.

Nothing else to report, at least nothing else as important as my little toe!

Len"