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"

Day 11 – Najera to Santa Domingo de la Calzada

Day 11 – April 13 Najera (Km 584) to Santo Domingo de la Calzada (Km 563) = 21 km Cumulative – 188 km

"Santo Domingo de la Calzada, La Rioja, España 08 04 13 18:08

Today I walked 22 km from Najera to Santo Domingo. Should have been an easy 22 km but it seemed quite long. Tonight I am staying in a hotel. Last night was in an alburgue, a hostel with about 60 beds in one room. Very nice but very crowded.

I am in wine country and there are vineyards everywhere. I am traveling approximately west southwest and there are ranges of mountains on both the north and the south. The ones to the south are snow capped. Most of these small towns and villages have a medieval centre and then modern suburbs. The weather has been for the most part quite cool. Spain generally is having a very cool and wet spring. My feet still hurt but not as much. I am very careful preparing them for the day and when I take my boots off. The two moments of truth each day are when you put your feet into your boots and when you hoist your pack onto your back. Today I left Najera at about 07:20 and arrived in Santo Domingo at around 14:00.

Today I did something I have never done before in my life. I am paying to have the hotel do my laundry. I have probably stayed in thousands of hotels and I HAVE NEVER PAID TO HAVE MY LAUNDRY DONE … BUT TODAY I AM. One reason is the laundry facilities in the alburgues can be quite limited. Last night there were none at all. And things have been so wet here that it has been hard to get my clothes dried out properly.

So far I have walked 14 days I think. I started on April 3 and I have walked 188 km. Tomorrow I go to Belorado.

I am going to send this as I may be running out of time

Len"

Day 10 – Navarrete to Najera

Day 10 – April 12 Navarrete (Km 600) to Najera (Km 584) = 16 km. Cumulative 167

Najera, La Rioja, Spain 08 04 12 14:30

Today I am at the alburgue in Najera a very nice single story building beside the river. I am not sure yet what river. Today 16 km mostly through endless vineyards, a few showing the forest green leaves of spring. And mountain ranges both to the north and to the south, some significantly snow capped. The sun did come out today and I expect mostly sun for the next week.

I left Navarrette at 08:40 and was here about 14:00. The sign on the door said open at 16:00. but a few minutes later a very pleasant man who proved to be the hospitalero came, opened up and I was the first person signed in.

I now have 12 “sellos” (seals or badges) in my “credenciales” so I am making progress. I am 2 days behind the plan and 1 day behind my cohort but for good reason and I have enough flex in my schedule.

This morning I met a man from Switzerland by the name of OLE. The proprietor of the Hostal in Navarrette slept in so we had to rouse him and breakfast was late. Nice man and like many hostels, bars and restaurants a family business. Anyway the interesting thing was that Ole not only was from Switzerland but he had walked from Switzerland. Not all this year. In 2006 he had walked from Switzerland to Le Puy in the south of France. Quite a number of people seemed to have also started at Le Puy. Ole was walking much faster and much longer than me each day. He plans to be in Santiago when we are in Leon.

Tomorrow I will walk to Santo Domingo de la Calzada about 22 km. Then we will see where to next.

18 days to Leon

Len

Day 9 - Logrono to Navarrete

Day 9 – April 11 - Logrono (Km 613) to Navarrete (Km 600) = 20 km - Cumulative -151

"Navarrette La Rioja

Today is a short day only 13 km from Logroño. I left Logroño at 08:10 and arrived here at 11:45. I resisted the seductive temptation to continue. The next town is Ventosa and there is only a small alburgue. If it is full you are out of luck. And my feet will welcome the short day.

Len"

NB: Somehow my pedometer and Dad's pedometer got a little out of sink the last few days, but he's at Navarrete and we both agree that's 151 km!!

Day 8 Logrono - Day of Rest and Recovery

"Well my clothes are clean, my feet feel better, my camera is in my hands, and I can walk tomorrow. All is right with the world. Except that it is raining hard and has been off and on for several days. However in Galicia (to which we are headed but not for a month or so) there have been torrential rains and massive flooding. The news clips show rivers of water flowing down roads. I hope that is all done with by the time we get there."

Day 7 - Torres del Rio to Logrono

Day 7 – April 9 - Torres del Rio (Km 633) to Logrono (Km 620) = 13 km – Cumulative – 131 km

Logrono, La Rioja, Spain 08 04 09 15:29

“Today completes one full week on the Camino and I have walked 130 km from the northwest corner of Navarra to the southwest and have now entered the Comunidad of La Rioja.

I wrote a long message yesterday PM and when I went to send it the internet connection was broken. Could not save, could not print, could not send so I lost it; so I may repeat myself a bit.

I am in the municipal alburgue in Logrono. Free internet and no time limit.

I had been considering staying over in Logroño as a rest day but another event supervened. I have lost my camera. I don’t mind losing the camera itself. I have already replaced it. But the chip in the camera has all the pictures from the first week.

Last night I went to dinner with Elizabeth from BC (a retired nurse) and Tony from Barcelona (a retired informatician = a computer person). Every alburgue has a closing time, usually 10:00 PM, but most are flexible. Not this one. We got back at 10:15 and the place was locked up like a medieval fortress. Iron gates everywhere. After trying various things like trying to attract some ones attention and climbing in a second story window, we went to the police station across the road. At first they thought they might have a key but they could not find it. Then they literally burgled the place, got the door open and let us in. But in the confusion I lost track of my camera which had been in my hand. I have looked everywhere carefully and will go back to the alburgue this PM - I will leave a message but if it does not show up by tomorrow I will have to move on.”

Later…

“I went back to the alburgue fully expecting that they had not seen the
camera but they had it. Another small miracle on the Camino.

Of course now I have two cameras but in the great scheme of things that is a
minor problem. Do not bring another camera!

Len”

Day 6 - Los Arcos to Torres del rio

Day 6 – April 8 Los Arcos (Km 642) to Torres del Rio (Km 633) = 9 km Cumulative - 118 km

Torres del rio Navarra Spain08 04 08 12:53

First a check-in and then I will go over my messages. Again a timed computer but it is early and I am the only one at this alburgue (very nice) so far so I will keep using Euros until I have done everythjing needed. Except I have to sign in again every 20 minutes. Today a short day only 9 km to give my feet a rest and catch up on things. So far I have travelled about 118 km and am more than 25% of the way to Leon. While the rain held off all the way to Los Arcos, it rained all night. Which was ok except a few km of the path today was a mud track which after the rain was a quagmire.

The countryside is lush and rolling mostly farmland. I am now in southwestern Navarra and entering wine growing country. Yesterday I experienced one of the small miracles of the Camino. In the village of Irache just west of Estella there is a large Bodega (winery) that is right beside the Camino. And in the wallof the Bodega they have installed a free wine fountain for pilgrims. There are two taps - one for vino and one for agua. And you can drink as much as you want of either. So I had a few tablespoonsful of wine and a cup of water.

Overall this is an amazing total immersion international experience. Today I walked part of the way with Tony, a retired informaticiaen from Barcelona. His English is about the same level as my Spanish but our French is about at the same level. So we conversed using all three languages at the same time and it works. We shared a beer in the bar on the way into town and my thought was my feet hurt like hell but it is wonderful to be here.

Most of the alburgues so far have been very good to excellent. This one is 6 Euros and has everything I need. It is communal living and is simple and certainly not primitive. Some are municipal and staffed by volunteers. This one is private and run by a very nice lady named Mari.

Well enough for now. Others are waiting to use the computer.

Len"