All posts tagged: Travel

Day 11 – Villafranca de Montes de Oca to Atapuerca

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The archaeological site of Atapuerca has rich fossil remains from the earliest humans in Europe, nearly a million years ago. It’s designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but I’m on my way to the village of Atapuerca, which is about 4 km away from the site. This 18,5 km walking day begins with a light drizzle and mist, and continues like this for much of the way. The path starts going steeply uphill as soon as I leave San Antón Abad and continues to climb upwards for a long time. This is the only pilgrim I see occasionally, and the mist continues as we’re at 1000 meters now. These unpopulated forests provided perfect cover for the notorious outlaws who roamed its slopes and ambushed medieval pilgrims, something I vividly can picture today… At first the forest has a kind of eerie beauty, but the path is seemingly endless, and it’s a long, damp and lonely walk today. Endless, endless, endless. Where are all the pilgrims today? I arrive at San Juan de Ortega, a chapel and …

Day 9 – Santo Domingo de la Calzada to Belorado

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Today is overcast and humid and it feels great to walk, because by now my body is used to walking longer distances with the backpack. It took about a week, as they say. The road today runs for large parts along the busy N-120 highway, and in one place even weaving through ongoing road works. I had to step through mud with bulldozers, trucks, and men wearing helmets and yellow safety vests! Not exactly the idyllic setting from the last few days… At one point as I approached Grañon, I hear a strange sound and look up. It’s a paraglider flying over the fields with the help of a motor, and he swings by and waves to me and this cheers me up! After an hour and a half I reach Grañon. This village is the only one that is some distance from the busy N-120 road, which gives it a peaceful setting. It’s wonderful to sit in the shade of the tree and have breakfast, and watch the other pilgrims slowly approaching on the …

Day 8 – Azofra to Santo Domingo de la Calzada

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This is a “rest day” for me, as I will only walk 15.4 km. I’ve made a conscious choice to have a few of these to explore the new place I’m coming to, wash clothes that have time to dry for the next day, and simply just to give my body a break and allow myself to rest. Leaving Azofra I’m greeted by one of the few sunrises I see this year. It was one of the highlights last year, and the reward of early mornings to escape the heat in the afternoons. Self-portrait with a mirror window, showing the sum of my kit. My backpack weighs 6 kg and with a full water bottle and my fanny pack I carry almost 7 kg. This after I have chased every last gram and only brought the bare essentials. Vines in the early morning sun. I’m out the door by 6:45 and aim to stop in Cirueña for breakfast. However, Cirueña turns out to be a ghost town and the café by the golf course is …

Day 7 – Ventosa to Azofra

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It’s a fantastic morning when I leave Ventosa, with clear blue skies and brilliant sunshine, and there is the moon still lingering in the sky. I’m the last one out of the door just before eight o’clock. The typical morning pilgrim shadow, where each pebble is magnified by the low-lying sun. Leaving Ventosa behind, I stop and look back. Suddenly the path changes character and looks more like the bottom of a riverbed than a path made for walking. But yes, the yellow arrow is there. Can you spot it? Here I catch up with Kristine and Rachel. Poor Kristine must have been battling with this awful, stony stretch for quite some time. The children Amalia and Ava walk when the path gets challenging, in fact Amalia walks a lot and even pushes the cart herself. We spend some time walking together into the next town Nájera. The cliffs made of the rich, red clay soil of La Rioja, acts as a backdrop to the old part of Nájera and the river Río Nájerilla runs …

Day 6 – Logroño to Ventosa

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Leaving Logroño in the early morning sunshine, I walk past Parroquia de Santiago El Real. This is the oldest church in the area, completed in 1527. It has a single central nave and a Renaissance doorway by Juan Raón.  I also pass a tall chimney, the only thing left of the town’s old tobacco factory, which was in use from 1890 to 1978 in a building that used to be the 17th-century convent of La Merced. It takes me the best part of 45 minutes to finally leave the city behind me, on and alongside busy main roads. The next section is better, as I enter a the shady parkland of Parque de San Miguel, and walk along a reservoir. Here I meet the pilgrim Marcelino Lobato Castillo in his wooden shed, and he stamps my Camino passport. I stop and talk to him for a while, and he tells me that he’s been on a pilgrimage to India for three years! He was also the first pilgrim to make the Portuguese coastal road with …

Day 5 – Sansol to Logroño

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Today I’m heading to Logroño, which is a 21,3 km walk, on mostly natural paths and dirt tracks through farmland. Here is a view from the Alto de Nuestra Señora del Poyo, looking out over a vineyard. This is still Navarra, but just before Logroño, we’ll enter the region of La Rioja. Just outside Sansol in Torres del Río, I meet the two Swedish women from yesterday’s dinner, Malin and Maria, and we continue to walk together. It’s always fun to get to know more about the new people I meet along the way. They come from Malmö, a city in southern Sweden opposite Copenhagen, where I myself enjoyed living for over six years. We stop and rest in Viana and have a late breakfast or early lunch in my case, at the café tucked beside the church Iglesia de Santa Maria. Here in Viana we meet Elin and Rickard, Kristina and also Kristine with her children again, as they are leaving the café when we arrive. I’m glad to see that there often seems …

Day 4 – Villamayor de Monjardín to Sansol

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Today, believe it or not, I actually got lost! I didn’t think it was possible, as the trails are generally well marked. Also, I sat on the balcony yesterday and watched pilgrims walk by on the street below. So what made me go up into the village and start walking on an unmarked dirt road, at the top of the village? Happily leaving Villamayor de Monjardín behind me early in the morning. I follow my app Organic Maps which usually is reliable. I’m full of energy, and feel like I’m flying along the trail at the top of the ridge. Eventually I come to the conclusion that I must be on an unmarked cycle path. I’m not too worried, despite the lack of the yellow arrows that usually show the way. During the previous days, the paths for pilgrims on foot and pilgrims on bicycles often crossed each other. Sooner or later this road will cross the camino, I think optimistically. It doesn’t. It ends on a paved road for cars with no edge to …

Day 3 – Estella to Villamayor de Monjardín

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Last year I had to start very early every morning to beat the heat, and I enjoyed the wonderful sunrises. This year is very different. It seems like overcast days and rain will be more the norm, and I figured I might as well have a lie in, since I won’t be walking far today. Well, it doesn’t work out as I had planned, as I wake up early to the rustle of backpacks and people moving about, and then the blinds are pulled up and the windows are thrown wide open by the staff as early as seven o’clock, so I guess the day has started for me too. Amazingly my feet and legs feel fit for another day of walking, and I’m out of the door just before 9 o’clock, which is late in anyone’s book. Leaving Estella, a town I would have liked to explore more. After Estella I pass a delightful forge just outside the small village of Ayegui. It’s called La Forage de Ayegui and it’s run by the most …

Day 2 – Puente la Reina to Estella

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I leave Puente la Reina for this hike of 22 km, under lightning and thunder. The rain continues to pour down for most of the day, causing the roads and paths to quickly turn into rivers and small lakes. At first I walk on the edges as much as I can to avoid the water. I need to keep my feet as dry as possible, to avoid getting blisters. But as the day progresses and the rain continues, I give up. Nevertheless, I appreciate today’s stage. The landscape is beautiful and the forces of the weather do not make it any less so. Approaching the medieval hilltop village of Cirauqui. I didn’t run into many pilgrims today except Leonardo from Italy, who I bumped into now and then, whose cheerful yellow rucksack cover was the only reminder of the absent sun. Waterfalls in the steep alleyways of Cirauqui! Today’s outfit. The sun hat I bought also turned out to be a perfect rain hat, as it held the hood of the rain poncho in place …

Day 1 – Pamplona to Puente la Reina

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I’m exited to start my camino. This first leg is between Pamplona and Puente la Reina, a distance of 24 km, and I leave the hostel at 6:30. It turns out to be a beautiful day with sunshine, and I’m enjoying myself. Before I even leave Pamplona, ​​I meet Ricardo from Mexico. I notice him because he is walking very slowly. We team up and eventually find our way out of town. He is also starting from Pamplona and will go all the way to Santiago de Compostela. We share stories and have a good time before I tell him to feel free to move on, as I suspect he really is a fast walker, because he’s just described a religious ceremony in Mexico in honour of St. John involving two days of straight walking 90 km on asphalt, which he has done not once but twice. In the distance we spot the mountain we’ll have to cross to get to Puente la Reina. On the way at last and feeling very happy! On the …