The weekend before we left, we tried out all of our equipment on a two day walk in South Downs National Park on the South Downs Way.
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It was very cold (35 degrees) and VERY windy. We are walking along the English Channel and you can see the white cliffs in the background – we are east of Dover, however
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On April 2, after a flight from London and a cab ride from Biarritz, we arrived at our B & B in St. Jean Pied de Port – the traditional starting point for the Camino Frances
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That afternoon we stopped at the Pilgrim Office in St. Jean to register our walk and find out any last information. We were told that the Route Napoleon was closed because of bad weather. A Brazilian pilgrim had died the week before we left after getting disoriented in the Fog and sepping off a cliff. So we plan to walk an alternate route that runs through a valley with a steep climb at the end.
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St. jean is a very picturesque medieval town and this was a typical street.
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On the morning of April 2, we began our pilgimage!
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The rounte took us through a very beautiful valley.
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We stopped in a small town for lunch – bread, cheese and wine!
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After lunch we continued our climb to Ibaneta Pass (the Cize Passes in French)
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We did not encounter much snow our walk over the Pyrenees. This is left from a blizzard on 3/15. But just two days after we walked here, the rounte was closed by snow and pilgrims had to walk on the road!
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This is the view back down to the valley in France from near the top of the pass.
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Tom got to the top before me and caught this picture or me slowly climbing – my legs were like jello!
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Tom and me at Ibaneta Pass in the Pyrenees Mountains
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We stayed at a wonderful albergue in the tiny town of Roncesvalles. It was newly built inside an ancient monestery.
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This was our first pilgrim menu. We didn’t realize at the time but we caught two women from Mexico, Alma & Alvira, who ended up being close friends. We walked with them for about two thirds of our walk but unfortunately got separated at the very end!
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The next morning, we walked out of our albergue at about 7:00 am – in the dark!
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After walkign for about an our, we came on this open bar, serving breakfast! We weren’t the first!
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The second day of walking took us on an up and down route through farms in the Basque foothills of the Pyrenees mountains.
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Little towns like this, nestled in the valleys were common. You can see the Camino in the distance winding its way toward Pamplona
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Basque countryside
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The sun is out and life is good! We stayed thiis night in a little industrial town called Zubiri.
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We left Zubiri the next morning thinking we would qickly find a nice spot for breakfast like the one the prior day. Not.
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After two hours of walking we finally stopped and sat on the small wall eating the last of our bread and cheese from the previous day’s lung.
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Little did we know, we gave up too soon! We cam across this wonderful little outdoor bar with a wood oven about 15 minutes later. Here is Tom with our South African friend Jo ordering the “rest” of our breakfast.
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Tom is definitely the photographer of the two of us! Here he is framing apicture, looking over his glasses, as we approach the outskirts of Pamplona.
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The urban landscape of Pamplona was beginning to take over this small village
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Everywhere we went, the spring runoff was going strong. We wondered if the bridge we are standing on is where Martin Sheen dropped his pack into the river.
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Camino inspired designes were everywhere! Here the outside of this house is decorated with shells and with a pretty cool jeans planter.
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We entered Pamplona through this gate along the ancient city fortifications.
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Tom and I spent a day sightseeing and resting in Pamplona. We started out by eating breakfast in Café Iruna – pone of Hemminway’s haunts.
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Parts of the cathedral in Pamplona date back to the 12th century. Recently archeologists have also discovered that it was built atop Roman ruins.
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All of the churches in Spain were filled with ornate, gold retabalos and art.
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We caught these nuns hurrying toward the Cathedral as we left.
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Of course, Pamplona is famous for the running of the Bulls – this is the entrance to the famous bull ring through which the bulls are chased.
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Throughout Navarre, the Spanish province with the biggest share of Basque Country, we say Basque nationalist signs. This one, saying “Basque Prisoners, Basque Country” was common.
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The museum in Pamplona house many of the fabulous Roman artifacts discovered in the city.
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We woke on Day 5 to hudge wet snow flakes. We assumed that as the day brightened, the snow would change to rains….
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But it was still snowing as we left Pamplona
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The rain and snow turned sections of the Camino into a stream.
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And it kept snowing as we climbed to Alto de Perdon – the last rise of the Pyrennes.
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If you saw the movie, The Way, you might remember the place where Jerg stood by a metal statute and wondered how big its waist was? Well, this was our view of the same statute – in a blizzard and 4 inches of drifting snow!
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As we descended, however, the now stopped and we could begin to see the wind farm we had walked under near those statues!
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Who would have believed that that same afternoon we would com across this couple getting wedding pictures taken.
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I had the chance also to buy the earrings you see in the same town from a group of enterprising elementary school girls!
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Our albergue that night was part of a monestery
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And our number one priority along with everyone else, was to get our shoes dry!
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This bilding, at the beginnind of day 6 was iconic – notice the family crest and the camino sign on its walls
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We joined other pilgrims taking pictures at the gate leaving the town and across a medieval bridge that gave the town its name – Puente de Reina.
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It was common to pass markers such as these left by earlier pilgrims
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Our walk on Day Six took us on the first visible section of ancient Roman road,
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And across the remains of an ancient Roman Bridge,
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And led to our first sight of vineyards. We are entering the Spanish region of La Reioja – the country’s most well know wine region.
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Was this the bridge where Martin Sheen lost his pack….
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This was a memorial to a Danish pilgrim. It reads: “Suddenly in the middle of the sunshine, without notice, you rushed about happy in your camino walk and were forever gone. Arne Skov Schmidt, 16 May, 76 years, we honor your memory.”
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Once we walked out the Pyrenees, towns were not discretely tucked into the valleys, but built on the hilltops with the church at the highest point. This one is Ciriuaqui.
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Along with other pilgrims we have shed our packs, leaned them up against the wall and are shopping for our lunch!
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I added a cross to this collection in the chain link fence along the autopista!
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Almost to our destination for the night, we stopped at this 9th century chapel – Hermita San Miquel.
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It is no longer a functioning church, but is instead a way point for pilgrims to reflect, and to leave a bit of themselves….
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This ancient cross has marked the way for centuries and greeted us at the entrance to our desitnation, Estella.
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These apartments in Estella are built right up against the river.
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We attended mass at this church. The kids we using the front door as their soccer goal!
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Up early, the next, day seven, you can see Tom’s socks hanging out to dry!
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That morning we walked by the wine fountain run by a local winery – Vino Tinto for breakfast, yum!
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Our lunch stop this day was at the tow in the distance on the side of this hill capped with an ancient fortress
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This ancient fountain was at the base of the hill with the fortress (in the background) and has been greeting pilgrims at the entrance to the town of Monjardin for centuries.
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We passed on the bath…
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But we started our practice of lighting candles – this one was for our congregation – Emmanuel Lutheran. We liked the idea of leaving a little bit of Lutheran spirituality in these catholic churches. Maybe Martin Luther is smiling….
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In addition to vinyards, La Rioja was host to many olive orchards, this ancient tree was typical.
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This picture, taken just before our lunch shows the Camino stretching before us across the countryside of La Reioja. Little did we know that wine we bought in Monjardin would lead to our first speed bump as Tom pulled a muscle a few minutes after this picture, trying to open it.
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After Tom’s mishap, we hightailed it to the next town, Los Arcos, found a spot for early dinner. This is the porch at the local church lighted for mass as we head to our albergue.
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The next morning, April 9, we headed out early. Tom was initally feeling better after taking a couple of 600mg ibuprophen from the local farmacia
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It was a beautiful morning as the sun rose over a village off to the side of the Camino.
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Our route took us past a number of these small huts built into the hillsides.
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Here, still feeling better, we are eating lunch along the side of the path. By later that afternoon, however, the ibuprophen was starting to affect Tom’s digestion….
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This church in Viana is where Caesar Borgia was buried. This retabalo is typical of Spanish Churches
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All along the way, the churches and towns have representations of St. James – here, St. James, the pilgrim is portrayed.
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From Viana, we walked to Logrono, the capital of La Rioja, and our first big city since Pamplona. We had seen stork nexts earlier, but they were everywhere in this portion of the walk.
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The teaher pointed out Tom, sitting at a café table on this square, as an example of a modern pilgrim!
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Lest you get the impression that northern Spain stopped developing in the 16th century, the cities were modern and beautiful. This is a fountain in one of the roundabouts in Logrono.
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It had been warming up all day and after lunch as we walked out of Logrono, we decided we needed to zip off our pants and walk in shorts for the first time!
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We now have entered Spanish wine country for real!
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This vineyard outside Navarette where we stayed, was capitalizing on its location on the Camino
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We left Navarette early the next morning with Tom still feeling out of sorts. The gate to this cemetary was moved from the ruins of an 11th century Pilgrim hostal.
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The warm weather continued and you can get a sense of the La Riojan countryside. The mountains in the distance are the Cantabrian range between us and the Atlantic coast of Northern Spain
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This beehive hut was apparently used to store tools. This day it was providing a mid morning break for our Italian friends Micheli, marina and others.
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This umbrella was planted as a precaution abainst sun, I suspect, by
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This farmer weeding his garden.
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Just before our destination for the evening, we stopped with Korean friends, Sinae and Jiane for a beer and late lunch.
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We also rested tired feet!
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These bikers from Equador also stopped outside Najera.
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After a comfortable night in a hotel, abandonment of the ibuprohen for a more reasonable dose of aleve, a long soak in a bathtub and a good night sleep, Tom finally felt better. We set off at our usual early hour. Here you can see the changing architecture. This church in najera was influenced by the Mozarabic tradition that is dominant in north central Spain.
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Our walk this day, April 12, continued along rolling countryside scattered with vineyards. IN the distance, you can see the ruin of an acient pilgrim hostal.
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Our stay this evening was in Santo Domingo de Calzada. Here I enjoyed a walkabout and personal tour from a flirtatious local and
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We ate an especially wonderful pilgrim menu with a small group of pilgrims for Switzerland, Australia, Canada and Germany. We were happy to discover that the Canadians, Donnie and Jane, are curlers!
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This is the storage room in the albergue for sticks, stinky shoes and bikes. Many of the albergues had such facilities.
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Up early on April 13, we crossed an ancient bridge designed by a medieval priest, Santo Domingo, who was an early engineer and developer of the way.
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Messages like this, undoubtedly written by fellow pilgrims were dotted along the journey.
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We arrived in our destination, Belorado, intime to bask in the sun with Jacob and Stella and enjoy a beer.
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This was our Belorado accomodation – we had the bottom bunks of two pushed together and the uncommon luxury of snuggling a bit!
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The beautiful weather stayed with us as we continued. Here’s Tom once again drying those socks!
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Small chapels and churches were scattered all along the way. This one was built in the hillside across the valley from where we were walking.
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Todays walk (April 14th) took us up over a high plateau. Here you can see that we are level with the turbines of one of the ubiquitous wind farms.
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The top of this particular hill was very poignant – it is the site of a mass grave of political prisoners murdered by Franco’s troops during the Spanish Civil War.
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We stopped for lunch at the picnic area near the war site. These fellow pilgrims decided a nap in the sun was also in order.
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In this section of Spain the soil was very rocky and we were amazed anything could grow in it – a far cry from the Palouse.
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Once again we stayed at an albergue housed in a monastery. Here you can see pilgrim laundry hanging in the sun of a center courtyard.
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One of our first sites the following day was this labrynth – most likely placed here by pilgrims.
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One of our favorite breakfast stops. This little store was full of art, great food and great ambience.
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We have picked up supplies and our lunch time bread I stashed!
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Our walk this day led us past the archeological site where the oldest humanoid remains in Europe are still being discovered.
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The current dig is taking place somewhere up on the ridge ahead of us.
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The walk up to the ridge was rugged and difficult!
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We were happy to come down the other side and find this roman fountain still flowing with water.
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We ended the day in Burgos. It is the afternoon of April 15th. We have walked 300 km. Here I am entering one of the beautiful churches in Burgos – San Nicholas.
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The church of San Nicholas contained this very unusual carved stone retabalo.
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Tom caught these kids playing soccer in the street after school.
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The cathedral in Burgos was huge and incredibly ornate, but a bit sterile. We couldn’t imagine worshipping there and loved the smaller church of San Nicholas pictured earlier.
