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Falcon walking

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I arrived in Pamplona on Iberia right on time. The time I added at the Madrid airport to my Vodafone card did not work, so I took the bus to Pamplona on arrival instead of walking to Cizur Menor. SIM cards really do expire after nine months, and they would not give me my old number.

At 1600 I was bed 24 of 116 at the albergue in Pamplona. Jose went to great pains to tell me that I would not have been able to stay this summer; if you do not walk in, no bed. But with the place nearly empty, they took my money and threw principle out the window. Actually, the principle is that walkers should not be denied a bed by someone just starting the pilgrimage, so it is intact. It is a good principle, and it also is good that they waive the rigid rule when no one would be denied a bed. I first headed for Paderborn, but decided I did not want to walk down and up the hill for food and shopping, and the Jesus y Maria albergue is just around the corner from the Vodafone store.

Nothing has changed much in Pamplona. It looks like the crowds are gone, but I am sure they will return in the spring. The computer is slow and is 1 Euro for 20 minutes, so more later.
 
A selection of Camino Jewellery
It must feel great to get your feet back on the Way! We look forward to hearing more as you progress. God bless you that each day brings a new revelation about Him.

Bon Chemin,

Michael
 
I thought I saw you on the 2010 thread- couldn't wait that long huh??!! Happy walking Falcon!
Margaret
 
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Buen Camino Falcon! Hope you have a fantastic camino, and I'll be looking forward to your updates along the way.

lynne
 
The 2024 Camino guides will be coming out little by little. Here is a collection of the ones that are out so far.
Small albergues have less internet. The business card for Uterga says it has internet, but it does not.

I have a new memory for Pamplona. The police rousted a mime from the Plaza del Castillo during the evening family hour. I do not know why, but I do know that mimes stop being silent when the police show up! So much for the mime code of honor...

And there was a dead bed bug body on my sleeping liner in the morning at Jesus y Maria. I have treated everything with permethrin, so I don´t know if I killed the little guy, or if he had been dead for weeks and just fallen from bunk above. I was not bitten, and I have not met anyone complaining of bed bug bites.

The hospitalero from Roncesvalles (Dutch -Franz) began walking part of the Camino, and I had dinner with him in Uterga. The Sheen filming had taken over the place, and a group of 100 pilgrims had just left. There were only 30 pilgrims in Pamplona, 8 pilgrims at Uterga, and only five in Cirauqui (a marvelous place, but she will close at the end of October). At opening in Estella, the line was only five pilgrims long. I probably will stay in the parroquial across the river. It really is much nicer than the big one.

The free internet at the library is for 30 minutes, so my time is up. My pace will be slow and leisurely. The first week is more of a training regimen, so distances will be comfortable as I build up. No pain, no gain, but that is not a slogan to push too hard!

Falcon on foot
 
The association albergue in Estella did fill most of the annex, so there is a burst of pilgrims on the Camino. The parroquial albergue has just seven in it, and has a very nice young man as hospitalero. The parroquial is so much newer and nicer, but you meet fewer pilgrims. The path has been dry and hard packed, and the skies clear. The top temperature has been below 80F even in the afternoon, and the evenings are very pleasant. Sunflowers have been harvested, but this weekend was grape and pimiento harvest. The library is about halfway between the association and parroquial albergues. The path is still steep in the steep parts ...
 
I´m getting ready to begin walking again... sounds like I should take a bus and start BEHIND you to avoid the bustle of pilgrims....
 
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
Since my days of 30km walking are mostly behind me, I took the bus from Los Arcos to Logrono and walked on to Ventosa to pick up a little distance. I know I will have to pick up a few more days, so there will be some more transportation ahead.

Walking the Camino with some innocence is good. For several days, I walked with Lars, a Swede, who has a map of western Europe, fairly new boots, many extra kilos of body weight, no guide book, no Spanish, a lousy poncho, and a sleeping bag he never pulled out of its bag, and now cannot get back in. He is completely helpless. I guided him as best I could, but left him at the tourist office in Logrono with an handful of maps and instructions for the stores where he could get trekking poles and pants. The route out of Logrono is complex, requiring lots of turns and could yellow arrow finding skills. For two day, Lars seemingly had not found a single turn. I feel the approprate guilt, but he has to do this on his own. He walks a little faster than I (everyone does), so he was pulling me off my pace and disrupting my natural break cycles. Lars burned his face so badly the first day out of Pamplona, that the cracks that formed over the next two days began to bleed. I gave him sunblock on the second day, but it was too late to stop the early damage.

Do not overprepare, but at least prepare a little bit!!

This morning out of Ventosa required a poncho for a few minutes, but it is a nice day. The albergue in Ventosa is still one of the nicest along the way, but does not have internet. I asked the hospitalera about it, and she said they were in a dead zone, and it would be too expensive. The owner operates the Red Albergue system, so you would think that he would view the internet as vital to his work.

The path from Ventosa to Najera is almost as rough as cobblestone from the boot prints left when it was mud!

The computer is getting weird, so more later.

Falcon flying
 
The gnats that fly around your face in the fields when the sun comes out, so they join you and stay with you for miles, or do they play tag-team as you walk, and leave as a new gnat shows up? Perhaps on my next Camino, I will take a can of flourescent orange paint, and spray the gnats as they appear so I can see if they stay or go...

The weather has been beautiful for walking with a high overcast in the morning, no rain to speak of, and only occasionally uncomfortable direct sun in the afternoon.

Lars found me at the bus stop in Najera, where I had a laptop in the hotel lobby for a little while. He asked where I was going, so I said Burgos, though I wanted to go just to Santo Domingo to pick up a few more miles, and he said he was going to Santo Domingo. I had guessed right. Then, twenty minutes later, he said he would go to Burgos, too. Great. When we got to Burgos, I showed him the tourist office for more maps, took the tour of the cathedral, then returned to the bus station for the 1730 bus to Santo Domingo de Silos. The bus arrived at 1850, just in time for the 1900 vespers. After vespers, I checked into the hostal attached to the hotel, had a beer, tortilla Frances, and a good night sleep. The next morning, I took the bus back to Burgos and walked to Rabe, staying in the new albergue. I was alone until just before dinner, then a group of seven showed up. I was the only cena sale, so it was not much of a financial day for the albergue. The other seven cooked together, though the hospitalera did the cooking to keep her kitchen clean. There is something about this website that gets messy when the text box gets full in the second Internet Explorer window, so I cannot see what I am typing anymore.

The walk into Hontanas is very nice, and I love the way the town just appears.

Falcon resting
 
Am enjoying your accounts falcon.
I have some lovely photos of the approach to Hontanas with lots of wildflowers still, even though it was mid-June. I imagine you saw quite a different, dustier look as you approached at this time of year.
Margaret
 
The 2024 Camino guides will be coming out little by little. Here is a collection of the ones that are out so far.
Hontanas filled last night, with the municipal overflow facilities opening. The dinner rooms were packed. It is a long weekend, so many Europeans are out for a walk. It will clear, I suspect. The sky is completely clear this morning as I type in a crowded bar over a cafe con leche..
 
Itero de La Vega

The weather continues to be perfect. There is a new albergue in Itero almost next to the downtown bar, named La Mochila. I am staying in the Hostal Fitero albergue, but the new one looks quite nice. There are only six pilgrims in the beds for about 20, so the crowd must have walked further to party at Boadilla. Eduardo, at least I think his name is Eduardo, at En El Camino will have an excellent crowd for dinner.

The Ermita de San Nicolas at the bridge is closed for the season. I have had bad internet connections, but this one is among the worst! More later when I can get my Euro´s worth.
 
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Boadilla

Eduardo and family will close the albergue En El Camino at the end of October, but he is still busy. Seven English teachers from Madrid planned on taking the train from Fromist this morning, but apparently there i no train, so Eduardo arranged for three cars from his family to drive them to Valencia. That is hospitality.

I stayed in Itero, which was quite lively for the long weekend, at least at the downtown bar.

I was housed with eight Germans and two Spanish, so we got up EARLY.

The Putzu albergue at the beginning of Boadilla says it is open. Pilgrims are directed to knock on the door. The knocks are replied with barking by some very large dogs. I still recommen En El Camino for stopping.
 
Fromista

There are two albergues in Fromista not identified in most guide books. One has been mentioned on this forum, the Estrella del Camino by the San Pedro church. There also is a new one next to the train station. While there are only about four trains a day that stop at Fromista, many more come down the tracks, and the albergue is right on the tracks. It shares a building with a restaurant, and looks quite nice, was open, and will be until November, but no one was there but the hospitalero.

San Pedro church is open only midday on Saturday and Sunday until next May. Today was its last day of the season for weekdays.

The municipal albergue is quite passable.
 
Carrion de los Condes

A fairly strong north wind keeps my right side windburned, while the left side continues to get sun. At least the ruddy color is even this afternoon.

The RedAlbergue brochure notes the albergue at Villarmentero de Campos before Villasirga, but it is not mentioned in Brierley. It has a great wind-shaded bar and restaurant, but I did not see the inside.

The Albergue Santa Maria in Carrion is about 1/2 full, so the crowd is modest. There was a bicycle group of a dozen early in the morning, but they are far ahead now.

It was a morning for gloves and a long-sleeve shirt. The Germans were in their winter parkas, as though the day would never warm. The temperature inside the albergue last night in Fromista was 50 F, but they had blankets for the sleeping sack crowd. It was a reminder that fall is here.

The weather could not be better in my opinion. The wind was just enough to blow my trekkings into my feet twice, but it was not stirring up much dust. Farmers plowing fields do add to the particulates.
 
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falcon269 said:
... SIM cards really do expire after nine months, and they would not give me my old number...

When the number expires, it's the same with the money left, that belongs to that telephone number.

As you probably know, for security reasons, since now all telephone numbers has to be identified by the company. So, if you purchased a telephone and never gave your name to the company, may be during this month you will lose your number. It only happens wih prepaid numbers.

Buen Camino,

Javier Martin
Madrid, Spain.
 
Boy, was I wrong. Everything filled in Carrion de los Condes last night! An Australian woman was turned away at two albergues, and got the last bed in mine.

San Zoilo was dark and abandoned. Has it closed permanently, does anyone know? Maybe it is seasonal.

I had forgotten how dull the Calzada Romana (Aquitaine) out of Carrion is. The berm is flat and straight. Since the weather today is about 60 degrees F with a quartering tailwind, the absence of trees was not bad, but it must be an oven in the summer.

There is little more to say to a Bulletin Board of old salts (land salts?). It is unchanged for a thousand years.
 
Leon

Change of plans as life intervenes. My 91 year old father is back in the hospital, so, with no objective unment for this pilgrimage (except losing another pound by walking more), I head home early.

A woman in Carrion was coughing, sneezing, and blowing her nose all night long. By morning I could feel my sinuses begin to run. I stayed in the hostal in Calzadilla in case I was becoming infectious. By the time I reached Ledigos, my nose was going full-drip, so I thought I should avoid albergues, as should the French woman in Carrion. Today I have the cough, lung congestion, sneezing, and runny nose. Thanks, typhoid Marie!

I took the train at Sahagun; only 36 minutes to Leon! It has been fun. I ALMOST got to the Peaceable Kingdom in Moratinos. Next time.

The weather still is perfect.

Tom
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
Tom - I'm going to miss your posts!
Keep warm, take care and have a safe journey home.
Hugs,
 
falcon269 said:
The gnats that fly around your face in the fields when the sun comes out, so they join you and stay with you for miles, or do they play tag-team as you walk, and leave as a new gnat shows up? Perhaps on my next Camino, I will take a can of flourescent orange paint, and spray the gnats as they appear so I can see if they stay or go...


You know, I've often wondered about these little beasts too - is it the same gnat for kilometres, or is it a relay of gnat friends, each with his own territory?

Spraying to identify is an idea, but maybe not orange - too reminiscent of the horrors of Guantanamo Bay. And maybe the gnats are innocent too! :lol:

Buen camino when you pick up the rucsack again!!!!!!!!!!!
:arrow:
 

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