Camino de Santiago Day 1 \ April 20

Burgos to Tardajos and stayed in Rabe de las Calzadas
(10.2 KM)
Stayed at Hostel Ospital Santa Marina y Santiago (owned by Michelle)

We didn’t leave Burgos this day until about 2pm as we had to go to the post office. Ended up sending three boxes, which is a good thing as long as they are on the other side to great us. Grabbed a Baguette, olives, laughing cow, apples, and figs for the road. Finally, before officially becoming pilgrims, we had a couple café con leches (coffee with milk) in the hotel bar.

One thing every guidebook and website stress is that you must have a sleeping bag. Well, go figure, we don’t. We bought some cheap blankets instead. They take up a ton of room by don’t weigh much. I am covered up in mine as we speak and it is just fine. In the end, we are probably carrying less weight because of the bags bulkiness. Whatever, it seems to work, but I do like the look of everyones tiny little sleeping bags.

We left the city center of Burgos around 2ish I guess. Nathan went and got his Pilgrim Credential stamped (Cort and I did this the day before) and off we went. Every Pilgrim needs to have this Pilgrim Passport in order to show their status as a pilgrim and to stay in the pilgrim accommodations along the Camino de Santiago.

We don’t have a map, but we do have a general guidebook. So far, a map is completely not necessary as the route is well marked with the Camino sea shells and yellow arrows. Just put one foot in front of the other and you are off. After leaving Burgos proper we were quickly on a dirt path a few hundred meters from the train tracks. Very easy walk, only had to deal with motorway walking a few times.

We did stop once to eat some cheese, bread and figs at a little park along the way. Arrived in the first town of Tardajos much earlier than expected. Had planned to stay in Tadajos but instead had a cup of café and were on our way again. A short time later (less than 2km) we where in Rabe de las Calzadas. This is a lesser town than Tardajos but fantastically charming. Cobbled roads and a beautiful bell tower over the village.

We stayed at …………… at the Plaza Mayor for Rabe. Michelle is the wonderful woman who lets pilgrims into her home. It was a bit more than we had planned to pay (20 Euro including an insanely good dinner) but in the end it was perfect. Really, 20 Euros for a stellar meal and a great nights sleep isn’t bad.

Dinner was a traditional Pilgrims meal. It was a stew with veggies, blood sausage, and hotdogs. Served with fresh bread and a pitcher of wine of course. This pilgrims hostel only has eight bed as it is Michelle’s home so there were only five us for diner and in the room. As it turns out the other two pilgrims were from the States as well. Actually, they have been living in South Africa for about seven years now. They seem quite happy in their life there. They are doing Missionary type work and have traveled quick extensively through the Southern countries of Africa. The seem to be very cool people….hopefully we will run into them again on the Camino.
Oh wait, what was I on about…dinner. Ok, I mentioned the stew and bread and wine. It was all served around Michelle’s kitchen table and we ate and had wonderful conversations. Our new friend told us about life in South Africa and a cool road trip they took around the country on a Harley. We told them about our motivations for coming on the Camino. Michelle, the home owner, told us about her many trips on the Camino and how the number of Pilgrams is half of normal because of the economy. It seems there is no corner of the planet not effected…..scary.
Anyway, I am now going to try and get some sleep as we plan to walk 20ish km tomorrow and Nathan and I have lost our iPod charger….which I actually think is a good thing. I almost sent mine ahead today in the mail anyway. It almost seems wrong to listen to tunes on the Camino. A blessing in disguise I do believe.

(sorry for all the misspelled words, spell check is not working)

Burgos \ April 18 & 19

Sorry about the gap in the entries. Have jumped by almost two weeks but it was a crazy couple weeks and didn't have as much time as I had hoped to blog. I will do my very best to get those missing cities (including the entirety of the Algraves, Cascais, and Porto in Portugal as well as Vigo, our trip back to Madrid and Figueres in Spain).

BURGOS
We are finally in Burgos which is where we start our walk across Northern Spain on the Camino de Santiago. It was quite an interesting day attempting to get here. Arranged for a wake up call and a 6am taxi from our hotel in Figueres. It was to be an easy day…a two hour train back to Barcelona then a 40 minute wait to jump on our six hour train to Burgos.

That, my friends, was not to be. The taxi was a no show and as it was a quite Saturday morning the guy at reception was unable to reach anyone to pick us up. The reception guy told us that it was a quick 10 minute walk to the train station. I am sure that someone familiar with all the twisting roads and alleyways would agree with him. We, on the other hand, got terrible lost, watching the minutes tick by on my cheap Hello Kitty watch (which at the time of posting this has died a sad Hello Kitty death). We asked anyone who was up at that hour but as it turns out we were on some crazy highway when our first train left without us. Remember the only way to make our long train was to be on the 6:40 train to Barcelona.

Finally got to the train station, grabbed a coffee and jumped on the 7:20am train that got us to Barcelona 10 minutes after our train had left for Burgos. Thankfully the lines were chill at the train station. Hit up customer service to give us a stamp then over to the medium distance counters to get a new ticket. Only had to pay the reservation fee again (10 Euro) and wait several hours and take a slow train (9 hours vs. 6 on the high speed train). I actually think it all work out quite well. These things are what make travel interesting and fun.

Cortney and I decided in the last hour of the train trip to hit up the café car for for a glass of wine. Not sure how it happened by the language thing led to Cort and I kickin’ back two bottles of wine….in a very lady like way I must add. A few minute till our station the lights went off throughout the train and we were in pitch black tunnel after tunnel. Super fun making our way back to our car to get our packs.

After finally arriving in Burgos we started walking t0 our hotel. Figured we are going to walk 400-500km from here anyway...why not start now. From the train station, that is the main train station, it takes about five minutes to walk to our centrally located hotel. It would appear that there are two train stations in town, our arrival station being quite far from town. It was getting late but we kept trying to find the hotel. Everyone we asked said it was very far but the map said something different. Finally called for a taxi and within another 30 minutes we were chillin' in our very nice hotel.

Burgos is a beautiful city, cut in half by a river. The center everything we wanted to see was a short walk from our hotel. Sent three boxes of our stuff to Santiago de Compestela (0ur final destination on the walk). Crossing our fingers that our much needed gear arrives at the post office on the other side. If not I guess we are traveling light and catching some funky bugs along the way.

As we spent the better part of a day sipping coffee and wandering around historic Burgos we saw quite a few Pilgrims of the Camino de Santiago. Some of these folks have been walking for two weeks already. Bet it was a shocker to walk into a big town like Burgos (population around 160,000). Most of our soon to be fellow pilgrims had seashells on their packs, a symbol of St. James. On our wandering around town we also began to run across the markers you follow along the Camino which include the seashell markers and yellow painted arrows.

Well, tomorrow we will put one foot in front of the other and see what happens. Wish us luck!

Seville, Spain March 30,31 and April 1

Doubled back to Madrid in order to jump on a fantastic high speed train to Seville. Love doing this First Class thing. Trains are typically a nice comfy way to travel (at least the more developed countries) but this was one step up. Sat in my big cushy seat and drank vino, ate one of the best transportation meals I have ever had and had a lovely view of the landscape zooming by.

We stayed at the Samay Hostel near the center of Seville. Since there were six of us we got a room to ourselves. Most people think that hostels are for the 20 something’s but it just isn’t true. The younger crowd definitely out number everyone else but you can easily steer away from the party hostels. At the Samay there were quite a few over 50’s and a few parents with kids like us.

I adore Seville. This is one of those cities I could live in. Finally over our jet lag and ready to get some serious sightseeing on. Our hostel was in Barrio Santa Cruz which is a high energy neighborhood right in the middle of everything. After getting settled in and getting a bit of a seiseta in we decided to just wander our ‘barrio’. In some ways it reminded me a lot of the cobbled alley like roads of Venice. The lanes are so small in fact that that we often had to jump into a doorway to avoid getting run over. Good fun.

The first night in Seville we got our tapas on big time. Found a great little tapas bar and gave a bunch of goodies a try. During this dinning experience I realized that everyone in Spain dines outside no matter the temperature. In fact, most places don’t really have enough room to hold more that a couple tables. I really notice as it was bloody cold out and has been but everyone still eats outside. Very Colorado of them.

On our second day we did a nice walking tour around town and spent some quality time at the park near our hostel….rockin’ slide park for the girls. Amazing how quickly little kids make friends. Ever time we hit up a slide park, which is often, the girls have conversations with kids that don’t speak a word of English. Even though I don’t want to have kids of my own, they are pretty cool little beings.

After the park we went to the Cathedral. Ever city in Spain it seams has a major Cathedral and they are always simply referred to as ‘the Cathedral’. Mr. Christopher Columbus has a fancy little crypt here. Never been a fan of they guy so it was not such a draw for me. But….this Cathedral was absolutely overwhelming. I look at things we build today and wonder where our creativity and honor has gone. The delicate sculpting of the Cathedral in Seville are mind blowing. For me this is the number one attraction in Seville. Next we walked the 30 plus levels to the top of the Giralda Tower (Cathedral tower). The views on the way up were great but wow…the view of Seville from the top of the Giralda Tower is one you don’t want to miss.

I think this is also the day we took a horse drawn carriage ride around the touristy stuff. The best part of the carriage ride was the stroll through Parque de Maria Luisa and Plaza de Espana. I usually am not one to do a carriage ride but I must admit that this was a great idea….thanks mom.

Since I am a bit behind on my journal I can’t quite remember which day we went to the Flamenco Dancing. I do know that is was the same day that we ate ice cream at a hoppin’ plaza just behind our hostel and guess what….we hit up another slide park after ice cream. Anyway, we went to a Flamenco Dance show at a bar like setting (kid friendly). First drink was included and since we were watching Flanenco Dancing in it’s birthplace we decided to have a Spanish specialty….Sangrias!

The show was super cool, I really wish I had any kind of talent. I have to get my dance on behind closed doors, I think my dreams of becoming a Flamenco Dancer will remain just that. We did get some video of the dancing, will have mom post it for me as it is on her Flip.

After the show we went once again for tapas. We have already fallen into the Spanish ways of dinning after 9 or 10pm. The bar\tapas joint we hit up this time was jam packed and everyone was loving their eats. Legs of ham hung from the ceilings (common around Spain). Everything in Spain is ham….ham this….ham that. Thank Goddess I love me the ham. Would love to take a leg with us on the Camino de Santiago…just strap it to the back of my pack. Wicked!

Let’s see how did we get out of Seville. Oh, that’s right! Getting to Portugal from Seville looks like it would be easy by not so. We ended up taking a bus as it cut the travel time in half. As we were sitting in front of our bus, mere moments from loading luggage I notice that one of the stops was Lagoa and two or three stops later was Lagos (main and final stop…big tourist city).

We had bought tickets for Lagos, of course, as that is where everyone goes in the Algraves region of Portugal (Southern Portugal). I turned to everyone and said ’wouldn’t it be funny if our resort were actually at Lagoa since the names are so similar’. Well we pulled out our confirmation and lo and behold the Boca da Rio was is Lagoa. If a bus doesn’t have a record of tickets for a particular town they don’t stop so we had to sort it out. We did get off in Lagoa instead of Lagos. What was really amusing is that most of the folks on the bus were also tourist and they assumed that the fact that we where getting off ment it was Lagos. Luckily for them the bus driver let them know that the stop was Lagoa not Lagos.

Easy trip to the Algraves. Portugal should be fantastic!

More photos of Seville

Toledo, Spain \ March 28, 29

Madrid was amazing and I would love to spend a hell of a lot more time there but off we go. After hitting up the ‘Big Smoke’ of Madrid it’s time to slow down the pace and enter the medieval walled cited of Toledo. Toledo is one old mother, I’m talkin’ 192 BC things were happening here. UNESCO listed the city as part of World Heritage in 1987. There is defiantly a Venetian feel to this city. Toledo is a labyrinthine of curvy, curly walkways that turn out to be actual roads. Amazing to turn a corner and watch a car squeezed themselves up a lane only an inch bigger than they are. Very cool, hope to get to drive around here.

We stayed and a reasonably nice hotel called the Carlos V. It would appear that our hotel is quite centrally located as it was Mardi Gras loud every night. Not to worry…that’s what ear plugs are for, right? We did get a fantastic breakfast included in the mornings.

The Cathedral is the major attraction in Toledo and I can see why. Quite the little church I must say. I was a bit bummed that we where there on a Sunday but couldn't’t go to the service. I am not Catholic or anything but wow, the Catholic Churches rock, so when we found out that only Spaniards could go to service is was very sad. I should have just gone…I can’t imagine that they have passport control at a church plus I blend in everywhere. My sister even lost me in China when I was standing right next to her. There is something to be said about looking like everyone I guess.

more photos of Toledo

Madrid \ March 25 & 26, 2009

MADRID
The shuttle picked us up at the ridiculous hour of 3:45 am. Actually it was not as terrible as the hour sounds. It gave us time to get our coffee on at DIA and watch the early morning commuters do their thing. Both flights (Denver to Miami and Miami to Madrid) were more than comfortable. We scored on the second flight and got those great seats at the front of economy where you get all the extra leg room. The only downside to those seats are that you are stuck watching the ‘chosen ones’ in First Class get treated right.
We met up with the rest of the Family in Madrid as we were on different airlines because Cortney and I are on an Around the World ticket (which means you go funky, long-layover ways). I quick taxi ride later and we were passed out in the Calridge Hotel. More than a handful of hours later we were up and ready to check out the city. Didn’t get very far as we were all still beat. I always have a ton more trouble recovering from an Eastern travel route. Pretty much a spent day.
On our first night we drug ourselves to a tapas joint across from the hotel. We somehow managed to get ourselves a full set up of amazing tapas (everything from potatoes in a creamy garlic sauce, cheese sandwiches, fish and a few other yummies) and a round of drinks. In the end we had to carry the girls (five and six years old) back to the hotel. Talk about crashing out, wow, there was some sleepin’ going on in our rooms.


MADRID
March 27, 2009
Big tour day today. We try to walk as much as possible because you end up seeing so much more than jumping on the metro or taking a taxi. Wandered our way to the Museo de Prado and the girls saw a fantastic slide park off to the side…we actually managed to talk them into going later.
Our first stop was at the famous Museo de Prado which is in the Golden Triangle of museums (others near by include the Reina Sofia and the Thyssen-Bornemisza. This is one big museum. If you have a number of days in Madrid I would go every other day to the Prado for a few hours so you can really get a good look about. Pick up one of the free floor plans if you only have a day (as we did). Most of the must see pieces are on the main floor which help quite a bit. If you are in Spain you really should see the Velazquezs, Goyas even if it is just to say you saw it in Spain. A little bit about the Prado for all those ‘Art Dorks’ out there. The Prado means ‘meadow’ in Spanish and was built by Juan de Villanueva starting in 1918. I really must go back as we only had a couple hours (just not enough).
We are traveling with kids so the next stop that most people forget about was a park but in this case we hit up the ‘big mother park’ of Madrid Parque del Buen Retiro. Parque del Buen Retiro is basically the ‘Central Park’ of Madrid. The girls wanted to hit up a slide park to have a bit of a play about so off we went in search of such a place. As it turns out taking a bit of a Sunday stroll through Parque del Buen Retiro is a Madrid tradition much like tapas and outdoor café life.
The lake area of Parque del Buen Retiro has at its focal point the Alfonso XII’s Mausoleum with giant marble lions overlooking it. Cafes and buskers make this area of the park a fantastic spot to dine and kick back a vino before continuing your walk about. In the end we never did find the playground but a good time was had by all.
Very sad that we only had two days in Madrid, especially since those where our jetlag days. Thankfully, Madrid is a short easy, cheap trip from anywhere in the states. Another trip here is an absolute.