A few years ago we watched the movie ‘The Way’ – with Emilio Estevez and Martin Sheen. Steve was immediately intrigued and began investigating walking the Camino de Santiago. I was in the ‘no way  – no how’ camp. When I retired I began walking 10K plus steps daily. After watching the movie again, I realized I could do this. We leave August 28 to walk the 540 miles of the Camino de Santiago. We ask for your prayers as we walk ‘The Way of St James’.

We hope to update this site with commentary and pictures of the adventures on this pilgrimage, and hope to hear from you.

River route to Burgos

After researching the way to Burgos, we decided to take the alternate route. This is the same distance as the original route, but takes you along a beautiful tree lined parkway along the river. It was a great walk! We saw lots of local people out biking, jogging, or just a Sunday stroll.

We heard from others that took the original route to Burgos, that it was a horrible walk along a busy highway passing by factories.

We dropped our backpacks off at our hotel, and ran into Michael, who we met at the Albergue in Villava. It was fun to catch up!

We went to Mass at the Cathedral, and walked around the surrounding area.

We visited the Museum of Human Evolution ( with the remains excavated in Atapuerca ) in the afternoon since we found out that
Museums are closed on Mondays.

After the museum we headed back towards the Cathedral district for dinner. We found a good location facing the Cathedral. There was some organization that was gathering for a procession. We had no idea what was going to happen, but as it came together, we were glad we had dinner in that spot to watch it come together.

We walked 14 3/4 miles today, but only 13 flights of stairs!

Camino on the highway, not our favorite

Originally I was hoping to start today’s post with- ‘We were lucky today!’

Not so much! We left early this morning, and heard rain as we were getting ready. We put on our rain gear, and when we went outside, it had stopped raining. After about an hours walk we took off the rain gear. We had lots of peaks of sunshine, so we were cautiously optimistic.

We passed many wheat fields, saw farmers baling straw, moving and stacking straw bales.

Perigrinos had added artistic expressions to a field of sunflowers, from happy faces, hearts, and graffiti. We reciprocated the photo opp with a couple from Germany that are bicycling the Camino.

We walked for over 5 1/2 hours and then things changed! Dramatically!

We were less than a mile outside of Hontanas, (where we planned to have lunch) when the winds picked up to what seemed like ‘hurricane’ level – at least 45 – 50 miles per hour! The wind mixed with gravel, and rain was coming on so strong it hurt! Thankfully we had already put on our rain gear!

We were planning to go to Castrojeriz today, but decided we did not want to chance the repeat of our earlier experience. We are happy with todays 13.5 mile stretch, and can make up time, if needed on another nicer day.

We enjoyed another communal dinner this evening. We exchanged ‘caught in the rain’ stories with those that were sitting around us. One couple (Don and Marie from Canada) sought refuge in the cab of one of the farm implements – until the farmer returned to drive it away. They were surprised to get ‘caught’ and also surprised the farmer that didn’t notice them until they climbed out as he climbed in!

We are still having a great time! Everyone is in a great mood no matter what happens that day. We all know we ‘signed up’ for the Camino, and God gives us what we need to go on.

Looking at what we get to climb

What a difference in temperature as we headed out this morning. It was 48 when we left, so we dressed in layers. The wind made it cooler, so we added a later after we reached the first town of San Anton.

San Anton welcomes you into the city thru the 14th century medieval arches that used to connect the monastery with the church. Awesome sight!

We continued on to Castrojeriz, (where we had planned to spend last night). As we approached we could see the remains of the castle on the hilltop. This was a nice village with a very long and narrow Main Street we walked on.

After leaving Castrojeriz, we had a stretch of flat trail, as we approached today’s mountain – Alto de Mostelares. It had a fairly steep grade as we went up – and a long flat area. Then we got to the descent – it was an 18% grade! Not the easiest for our old knees- we had to zig zag our steps going down!

We entered into a new Province today- Palencia. We had a late lunch in Itero de la Vega. We noticed threatening clouds and based on accommodations available in the next town, and a double room here, this is where we are spending the night.

We covered 13.5 miles and walked up 63 flights of stairs.