We overslept a bit and didn't leave the Albergue until after 7am, and decided to eat breakfast at the only place open in Ages, El Alquemista. After a quick meal of normal tortilla de patatas and coffee, we headed to Atapuerca, only about 2 kilometers away. Atapuerca is a famous World Heritage site where I think they found the remains of the oldest humans. Since we weren't tourists, we had a long day ahead, and it wasn't open that early, we continued on to Cardenuela Riopico, another 6 kilometers along. We made our first stop there at Bocaterio San Miguel. Besides the usual coffee, I couldn't resist a delicious looking cream filled long John. At this point, it was getting close to noon and we still had almost 14 kilometers to go to Burgos, so we ... read more

We left Santo Domingo de Calzadas just after 7am, heading towards Granon for breakfast. Just as we were heading uphill, as usual for most Spanish towns, it started to rain lightly. Some pilgrims in front of stopped to cover there packs and/or put on their ponchos. Since I already had my raincoat on, I kept going, anxious to get some breakfast and hot coffee. We stopped at the Bar My Way (cool that they used the same name ad I am for this trip), and tried to stay dry while we ate breakfast and rested. I didn't think to take my shoes off, but I did cover my backpack, opened the hood on my lightweight raincoat, and removed the bottom legs of my pants. By the time we were ready to go, it had stopped raining ... read more

Last night I waited for Raresh to show, for dinner, but when he did, he was with a Spanish pilgrim named Juan and they had bought stuff to make dinner. So, I went looking for someplace with interesting tapas and found a great place called El Gitano Loco. I ordered 3 tapas; one of stuffed eggs, one of croqueta, and one of paella, for a total of 6 euros with a soda. Everything was delicious and I left stuffed. See the photo to get a better idea of what there was. We left Logrono about 6:15 for our long walk of about 30 kilometers. Around 10 kilometers later we reached Naverrete and stopped for breakfast at the Bar Caminante, passing the ruins of an old church/pilgrims hospital. After my usual tortilla and coffee breakfast, we headed ... read more

Ayegui to Torres del Rio: We left the albergue in Ayegui right at 6:30, without breakfast, and stopped at the edge of town for water and a pastry. Since we'd already seen, and sampled the free wine from the famous Irache wine fountain, we passed it by and walked another 5 or 6 kilometers to Azqueta for our breakfast stop. I got my usual tortilla and coffee, and after a brief break we got back on the trail. The climb we'd dreaded so much, to Villamayor de Monjardin, turned out to be almost a joke. Yes, it was pretty continuously uphill, but not that steep or that long. In fact, we were through the town and out the other side before we knew it. On our way to Los Arcos, about 9 kilometers ahead, with no ... read more

Cizur Menor to Maneru: Last night we ate the Pilgrims Menu. I had the house soup, filet of hake with fries, and a delicious local dessert. I negotiated with the waitress and got a coffee instead of the water and wine. Everything was quite good and filling, as usual. Although there was a festival in town and the music was pretty loud, I fell asleep quickly and slept most of the night, waking up a bit late, at almost 7:30, along with my Camino friends. We quickly packed up and headed out, myself, Raresh, and the Danish lady named Kirsten Underlen. Today was a special day, since we would reach the Alto de Perdon, a highpoint on the Camino where they have a group of metal sculptures of pilgrims. Since we hadn't had breakfast yet, ... read more