Rest days from Burgos to Santiago

[Eben Jacobs]

Thank you for this great forum.

We are a 60+ couple who will be cycling the Camino from Burgos to Santiago. Due to some knee injuries, walking is not an option. However we would like to get the Pilgrimage experience AND be a tourist on the route. It therefor make sense to have our "rest days" not only to rest, but to experience the culture, do sightseeing, buying a few souvenirs etc. Which towns/cities would be the most sensible to have our rest days as "tourist days".
Help would be much appreciated.

 

[Waka]

Definitely Leon, the cathedral is stunning as is the city. Not sure after Leon because that was my last rest day.

 

[jungleboy]

+1 for León.

Burgos and León are easily the two cities with the most to offer in terms of cultural tourism on the Camino Francés, and that's where we took our two rest days. Try to give yourself a day in Burgos before you start if possible; the cathedral is really stunning and there are several other things of note to see as well.

 

[Turga]

Don't miss León and Astorga. Do miss Sarria.

 

[naplesdon]

Agree with Leon and Astorga. However as far as spending the night in Astorga, I would suggest a small village several kms beyond Astorga which would be a great place to stay, it is Castillo de los Polvazares. It is a village being restored to the traditional construction practices of the region. I would recommend the casa rural named Flores del Camino. A Fabulous owner with spacious rooms and a town with some very creative restaurants.
Molinaseca would be another place for a great rest stop after doing the mountain to Cruz de Ferro and so would O'Cebreira, even though it is a little commercial.

 

[Kurt5280]

Again...Leon and Astorga

 

[Anamiri]

Thank you for this great forum.

We are a 60+ couple who will be cycling the Camino from Burgos to Santiago. Due to some knee injuries, walking is not an option. However we would like to get the Pilgrimage experience AND be a tourist on the route. It therefor make sense to have our "rest days" not only to rest, but to experience the culture, do sightseeing, buying a few souvenirs etc. Which towns/cities would be the most sensible to have our rest days as "tourist days".
Help would be much appreciated.

You may not want a whole day but some time in these places, so maybe a shorter day to accommodate
Definitely Leon of course, and Astorga - and go through the Gaudi palace, its quite different.
The mountains as you go into Galecia are beautiful.
We absolutely loved Rabanal (but a lot of people go on to Foncebaden). Im glad we stayed at Rabanal instead, the village really puts it on for the pilgrims. Opposite the shop they provide a pilgrim park with heaps of outdoor furniture to relax on, umbrellas and free tents, like a little resort. and it was where we first saw the mountain dogs strolling around, they were amazing. And great food, the best albergues, and singing in the church by the monks in the evening. And at the bottom as you head up there are the fences woven with the crosses and a guy dressed as a Templar knight had a falcon. There were great cafes and bars between Astorga and Rabanal as well.
Its where I learned about tinto de verana, very refreshing.
Molinaseca was a lovely little town at the bottom of the first mountain. They have formed a large swimming area in the river. If its hot, it looks like a nice place for a swim stop, and was generally a pretty place in good order. Maybe a good place to end a day so you can swim and look around.
Ponferada is just a little on from there, and you should visit the Templar castle.
O Cebreiro is at the top of the second mountain and was a lovely little place, I wished I spent more time there.
If you take the detour to Samos, the Monastry there is massive and worth a look there.
And if you have time at the end, Finistere was great. We wanted a few days there at the end, so we took a taxi. I wished we stayed longer, it was excellent. We missed out on Muxia, next time...

 

[JabbaPapa]

Thank you for this great forum.

We are a 60+ couple who will be cycling the Camino from Burgos to Santiago. Due to some knee injuries, walking is not an option. However we would like to get the Pilgrimage experience AND be a tourist on the route. It therefor make sense to have our "rest days" not only to rest, but to experience the culture, do sightseeing, buying a few souvenirs etc. Which towns/cities would be the most sensible to have our rest days as "tourist days".
Help would be much appreciated.

Why not just cycle at about "normal" hiking speed ?

I've come across a few bike pilgrims who've made that choice, over the years, and as far as I can tell, their pilgrimages were deeply enhanced by slowing down to daily walking speed rather than trying to keep up with the typical bikers.

And cripes, not even the deadliest "purist" could possibly accuse either of you of being "tourigrinos" for slowing down and keeping pace with the walkers you might want to keep peace and pleasure with, even whilst that slow pace gave you all opportunity for your tourism jollies .... All of the slow biker pilgrims I've ever met have been wonderful and wise ones.

Give yourselves enough time to make every day both a biking day and a touristy day, and you'll find that your pilgrim days will just somehow be those very same.

 

[Eben Jacobs]

Why not just cycle at about "normal" hiking speed ?

I've come across a few bike pilgrims who've made that choice, over the years, and as far as I can tell, their pilgrimages were deeply enhanced by slowing down to daily walking speed rather than trying to keep up with the typical bikers.

And cripes, not even the deadliest "purist" could possibly accuse either of you of being "tourigrinos" for slowing down and keeping pace with the walkers you might want to keep peace and pleasure with, even whilst that slow pace gave you all opportunity for your tourism jollies .... All of the slow biker pilgrims I've ever met have been wonderful and wise ones.

Give yourselves enough time to make every day both a biking day and a touristy day, and you'll find that your pilgrim days will just somehow be those very same.

I thank you so much for your reply. This is exactly what we have in mind and so glad that you confirm it as a good idea.

 

[nycwalking]

If you stop at Samos ask Monks if you can attend vespers after evening Mass. Quite a nice service.

As others stated: stay in Burgos an extra day and tour Cathedral. And, walk around city there are a number of small interesting museums.

Buen camino.

 

[Anamiri]

If you stop at Samos ask Monks if you can attend vespers after evening Mass. Quite a nice service.

As others stated: stay in Burgos an extra day and tour Cathedral. And, walk around city there are a number of small interesting museums.

Buen camino.

I cant believe I forgot about this. In Burgos there was a museum of anthropology (I cant remember its exact name) Quite close to the cathedral, across the river. It was amazing, we were enthralled, and spent about 3 hours there. There were hardly any other people and we had the place to ourselves, its huge and really well set-up, no money spared. Really amazing. You will walk past earlier but probably not notice, a famous archaeological site after Ages. This museum is the public face of that site, and much much more. You will recognize the reason for the land formations you've walked over in the past weeks. It was the highlight of Burgos and the earlier walking for us.

And yes the Burgos cathedral. Later when you see the one in Leon, you'l find they are very different.

 

[Dsavid Keyte]

Thank you for this great forum.

We are a 60+ couple who will be cycling the Camino from Burgos to Santiago. Due to some knee injuries, walking is not an option. However we would like to get the Pilgrimage experience AND be a tourist on the route. It therefor make sense to have our "rest days" not only to rest, but to experience the culture, do sightseeing, buying a few souvenirs etc. Which towns/cities would be the most sensible to have our rest days as "tourist days".
Help would be much appreciated.

I live in León and as has been said it is a lovely town, well worth a couple of days exploring

 

[Priscilla NC]

The museum in Burgos is the Museum of Human Evolution. I too spent a lot of time there, it was fascinating. Actually, I liked it better than the Cathedral, which was amazing.

It was an easy walk to get there.

 

[caminka]

there are plenty of towns to explore, big and small. making a short(er) morning stroll/bike is an excellent idea to keep in the spirit of walking and in the spirit of exploring.

burgos and león merit two days each. I recommend a visit to one of the burgos' 'suburban' monasteries, cartuja de miraflores or huelgas reales.
an easy day could be spent in castrojeriz (going up to the castle ruins in addition to all the churches and conveto de las clarisas), frómista (touring all the churches and perhaps enjoying a dinner in the original pilgrim hospice), sahagún (museum in la peregrina plus the (pre)romanesque churches and the display in monasterio de las benedictinas), astorga (cathedral, gaudi palace with its museum of pilgrimages, chocolate museum, all of the roman remains), ponferrada (castillo, bierzo museum, perhaps a stroll to one of the preromanesque churches or a taxi ride to las médulas).
an exploring afternoon could be spent in villalcázar de sirga, carrión de los condes, mansilla de las mulas, castrillo de los polvazares, molinaseca, cacabelos, villafranca del bierzo, samos, sarria, portomarín, melide, arzúa.
if you are prepared to take a backpack-free stroll in the afternoon, some towns and village have interesting local places on the outskirt or just off camino francés. some may be waymarked as short routes (called PR, pequenos recorridos), or ask in the albergue or in the local bar. for example, santo tomás de las ollas north of ponferrada, celtic castro above pieros, igrexa de santiago just off cf in barbadelos, celtic castro above castromaior, vilar de donas near portos. castillo de pambre is reachable on a local route from palas do rei.

 

[naplesdon]

Indeed, Caminka. One of the reasons to walk from 7am to noon and then explore where ever you land. There is so much to see, so much to absorb.

 

[peregrina2000]

castillo de pambre is reachable on a local route from palas do rei.

Just to add a ps to that, I remember joining the Camino Francés in Palas from some other camino and deciding I wanted to flee. So after Palas do Rei, I took a left turn and went to La Borboleta, https://www.gronze.com/galicia/lugo/o-vilar-remonde/albergue-pension-bolboreta. From there I had a nice afternoon walk to the Castillo de Pambre, which unfortunately was under reconstruction at the time. It is a pretty inpressive construction. But the most amazing thing for me was to see how even a km or two off the Camino you could be out in "nowhere land" and far from the crowds and the economic boost that the camino has brought to little places. Highly recommended detour.

 

[caminka]

From there I had a nice afternoon walk to the Castillo de Pambre, which unfortunately was under reconstruction at the time.

I sometimes wonder about the route from a bolboreta to castillo pambre, or vice versa. is there a bridge across the river under the castle that leads directly to a bolboreta (o vilar)? when I was there in 2009 I had to go there and back via sambreixo some km west towards pontecampana. on google maps there are tracks leading down to the river from both sides but no bridge. this would be a great alternative camino to skip off cf in palas do rei and join it in, say, disicabo.