!Hola! Yesterday we climbed to O Sobriero, the biggest hill of our trip! We climbed the equivalent of 82 flights of stairs. We saw lots of animals along the way, as well as some pretty spectacular views. There were plenty of other friendly pilgrims, I even got to try the few words of Polish I know with a man from Poland! When we finished our climb we learned about the Celtic influence here in Galicia and then headed to Sarria, where we stayed for the night. Today we begin the last 100km of our journey! The Camino is going to get busier and busier the closer we get to Santiago. I can’t believe that we have less than a week left! We are taking so many pictures and soaking in every moment. —Annie
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Hello friends and family! I’m not counting which day it is anymore, because we’re on the Camino! It’s been really nice to be on the trail, where the only numbers are how many kilometers we’re walking and how much cafe con leche costs. Before we got on the trail from Rabanal del Camino, the very sweet women at the albergue made sure we ate PLENTY of bread - laughing when she got a resounding NO to the offer of more. We had a big day today, walking about 25km with some very large hills (mountains by MN standards). One of the very large hills lead to Cruz de Ferro, or “Cross of Iron”. Nanette told us a little bit about the history of the cross. Although there’s a cross there now, it was actually said to be a spot of good energy by the Celtics first. It’s a cross that sits on a tall pile of rocks that are left there by pilgrims on the way. Pilgrims will often start their journey with a rock in order to symbolize carrying weight of some sort, that may be more than just physical. How I u...
Hi everyone!! Today we walked another 20k from Astorga to Rabanal del Camino. We’re leaving the Meseta, so we started to get a little change of scenery and a cool breeze kept it from being too hot today (even if sometimes it was more of a wind than a breeze at times). We walked, we ran a little, we met a lovely woman from New Zealand, and Justin and Sammi played some awesome banjo for us outside of the cowboy bar. Our albergue tonight is super charming and a bunch of us have our own little house to stay in. There’s also a fun little hippy garden/park/hangout in town that we visited. To finish off the day Alex gave a presentation on St.James and who he was/why he is of particular importance in Spain and then a bunch of us went to see a service of chanting monks in the little church in town. Tomorrow we drop off our rocks at Cruz de Ferro so it’s time for bed. Adios! Abby
Hello!!! Friends, family, welcome to another exciting addition to this blog. Today we bussed from the bustling city of Burgos to Hornillos del Camino. Rain was in the forecast for the entire day, so starting out the day in gloomy Hornillos set the mood for a long, 21km walk. We walked about 5km to this tiny spot called San Bole for our first checkpoint. I call this a “spot”, because it wasn’t much more than an albergue. The next stretch until the second checkpoint was 10km. The terrain today was relatively flat, with little to no trees. All you could see for miles was wind mills, and grass. Thank god it was overcast for the most part today, because there would’ve been zero shade if it had been sunny. About halfway through the day we stopped at this cute little cafe to take a break. It was amazing, let me tell ya. We ordered patatas fritas, chocolate churros, and tortilla (an egg and potato bake). Not only was the food great, but the bathrooms had the holy bathroom trinity: toilet p...
Hello everyone! Today has been a day. We started at 8am and reached our destination for the night at 8:30pm. After a homemade breakfast in Santo Domingo de la Calzada, we hopped on the bus and went to Villafranca Montes de Oca. Once there, we walked about 4 kilometers to “Monumento a los Caídos” (Monument to the Fallen). Claire P. gave us an informative presentation about the Spanish Civil War and the massacre that occurred at that site. 300 Republicans were killed in the night there, and the Monument was erected in their honor. From there, we walked another 8 kilometers to San Juan de Ortega. The terrain was hilly and the weather was sunny. Once in San Juan de Ortega, we visited Albergue Monasterio San Juan. Nanette taught us that San Juan de Ortega (Saint John of Ortega in English, also the patron Saint of pregnancy) who was a pilgrim himself before dedicating his life to serving pilgrims. Santo Domingo ...
Santo Domingo de la Calzada
Friends!! Family!! Friends of family! Welcome to this blog! My name is Amy and I’m an incoming sophomore at the U, majoring in political science. Today our troupe of pilgrims made a 21.3km journey to the town of Santo Domingo de la Calzada. We started this morning in Logroño, and took a 30 minute bus ride to the town of Nájera to explore this church called Santa Maria La Real. The church was built around a cave carved into the side of a cliff, meaning some of the church was literally part rock. Now, we’ve seen a lot of churches so far, but this one was crazy cool. It was quite expansive and the detailing on a lot of the tombs was unreal. Like really, some of the tombs scared me. The church was built because some really important guy wandered into the cave and saw a statue of the Virgin Mary, and proclaimed that there should be a church built there. We got to see the supposed statue that inspired this, and oh my gosh if I ever found that in a cave by myself, I would run. It was e...
Estella
Hi, this is Alex Schatz. We've been walking about twenty kilometers per day since the 18th. Unfortunately, I've been out for the past day and a half due to injured feet. They may be inflamed or something, so I'm staying off them as much as possible so they heal quickly. Despite that, I've had the chance to take a bunch of pictures. Here they are. I've taken about four hundred since getting here, so here's not even scratching the surface.