Boog's Blog

15 October cold morning cool afternoon

No flat tire, no socks, no hills, almost no roads, good 2nd century Roman Villa with Swatsika, changing standards…

Yesterday we stayed in a hotel that had two garbage cans in the room. Excellent upgrade. Today, only one but hooks on the back of the door, another fine addition to Boog needs. Even more, today, a one star, with an elevator. Becoming much easier to please the Boogs.

Even flatter today and QB, who walked the full route today, said it was all like her picture at the top of this post. KB took the roads, much longer, similar nothingness but there is an offshoot to an excavated Roman Villa. Lots of Mosaics but one intrigued me the most, the Swatiska.

Many histories, many cultures, but not much real scholarship as I understand it. Probably goes back 5000 years but much of what I could find is fuzzy.

As a side note QB and KB were discussing all the terms for architecture in the churches and the similarity to the incessant to terminology of 18th- 19th century British Sailing vessels, think of the novels by Patrick O’Brian, and the power of Bishops/Abbots compared to ship captains.

The next town is Sahagun where a Bishop excommunicated a whole town for not listening to him and while he went to Rome to recover the goods the townsfolk raided from the monastery little is written of the final result. A mutiny.

QB’s leg held out all day! My tires did the same. Not quite the same achievement but …..

Was 6 degrees C when we left this morning. I forgot socks. Cold toes.

14 October Cool and sunny

Less hacking, less coughing, less waddle and more walking.

QB takes to the trail today, in pain but not defeated. No cortisone shot as yet. As KB writes this QB is on the bed with ice on the knee. It appears that one only has to say rodilla, the spanish for knee, to get ice in a hotel. Does not seem to matter what other words are put around the knee word, of for that matter if any words need to be spoken.

Want ice for your drinks? Not so easy. Point to your knee on the Camino and ice is immediately proffered.

The bike may be fixed, will know better in the morning but am very optimistic. Took it to a bicycle repair place, serves as repairs for agricultural tires that are taller than I am, as well as other repairs. The repair person understood my lament of three days in a row and that I needed to both fix the tire and solve the root problem. He searched and searched the tire itself for many minutes, just as I had and just as had two others. We both searched the rim.

This time he found it. A glass shard, wedged into the space between the treads, and protruding may a thousandth of a mm through the kelvar backing inside the tire. With a knife he dug out the shard, then patched the tire from the inside before putting in a new tube. Time will tell but I am optimistic.

The path from Fromista to Carrion (sorry, but it is a river name and de los Condors refers to the Counts – I like my incorrect translation, Carrion of the Condors much better) is a dedicated path next to the road. For almost the whole way it looks like the picture. Here the Meseta is without large grades.

The name comes from the dishonor caused by the Counts who married and mistreated the daughters of El Cid, as explained in an epic poem. Carrion is the name of the local river, pictured.

In Carrion we found a market, another of the department store type markets except that this one had no bread and no ham stalls. Lots of clothing and socks and one cheese vendor and one roasted chicken vendor. QB gambled and purchased leggings for the cold mornings.

More churches here and a monastery. We are staying at a hotel that is part of the monastery. Very nice place. San Zoilo Hotel Real Monasterio.

13 October Cool in the morning and warming significantly in the evening

Picture is from San Martin, more shots of which are on Flickr.

Hacking and Waddling. Both of us. Both have a cold with a persistent dry cough. Both are still penguins. KB did not take any Aleve today and that was a disaster. QB is getting closer to a plan. Just waiting for confirmation from her doctor on the amount of Cortisone she should take for her little flap medial meniscus with a possible small tear that is causing all the problem. MRI before she left confirmed the diagnosis and we suspect her first shot has long worn off from the constant strain.

Apparently the medical system in Spain is quite good and there are 24 hour Centro Santo places that one can visit – afternoons or evening best if you do not have an appointment. Hope to walk in to one tomorrow with the recommended dosage from her “Medico”.

When the taxis came this am to take QB to Fromista I wheeled out my bike. Another FLAT, pinch ado. Like many rural places the persons here have multiple jobs. When the taxi pulled up he said he runs the local bike repair service. Thirty minutes later with a tube patched and QB off in the taxi I was riding the Meseta again. Lovely ride until the last 2 kms when, once again a flat in the same tire.

Three days in a row. Same tire. Nothing causing it that any of the repair folks could find. I could find nothing but all the same a third flat. Something has to be wrong with the tire itself as new tubes and patches did not work. Two to four hours of riding and a flat, on excellent roads.

Tomorrow will take the bike to a larger bike shop and see if I can get a new tire or some other solution.

Fromista:

– Cereal region maybe from the Latin “frumentum” . Earlier a breadbasket of the Roman empire. Sure looks like Nebraska.

-Has the purest extant example of the three nave rounded apse Jaca style of Romanesque.

The church has been deconsecrated. It looks wonderful with its very clean lines and lack of retablos or frescos or puti or other adornment. Nice change.

Took a number of pictures of this fine example (one book called it the best example of Romanesque) and posted them on the Flickr site, same URL as always.

Dated 13 October for those who look later

One of the pics in this blog is from another church here, Iglesia San Pedro, 16th century gothic.

Note the stork nests on the belfry. We like the stork nests.

12 October Nippy in the morning and warming in the afternoon

Took the road today. Not a doubt in my mind about which route I would take today, not after yesterday.

To readers who have been following this adventure on a daily basis your day of grace is over and back to the regular routine. A days grace on a pilgrimage of sorts.

Hardly could have been better today. The famed flat Meseta is far from flat but wonderful to ride. Two nice 100 meter or so climbs, a few shorter rises, some long descents with a tailwind, lovely scenery, no traffic on small roads or on the National (auto route nearby and today is Columbus day, a full holiday in Castile, even the pharmacies are closed; he returned in 1497 with riches to be greeted by his well known sponsors Ferdinand and Isabella).

We are staying in Castrogeriz (or with a j, have seen it both ways), a lovely terraced hillside town. Quite steep with old cobbles and fine old buildings and a large number of churches for such a small town. Supposedly here since Celtiberian times when, from its heights, it guarded the roads to the Galician gold mines. Fought over many times, always a treat for the locals, and changed hands many times. Around 975 settled into Christian hands.

A fuero (a founding document of sorts issued by the ruler) was granted. We have seen many mentioned but most are the usual boring ones of land grants, taxes waived, labor promised, roads opened. This one had two unusual provisions.

-A new form of knighthood to anyone who could afford a horse.

– A provision that killing of Jews would be treated the same as killing a Christian (no mention of Muslims). A building remains that is locally called the synagogue.

Big excitement: the hotel has a dryer (also a washer, but it is broken) and we can hand wash our stuff and dry it instead of hanging on the bike or backpack. We are especially looking forward to Barcelona because Google tells us the only self-service laundry in Spain can be found there. Better than ham.

As for the road choice, it was dictated by what turned out to be a poor choice yesterday. Yesterday, decided to try to bike the camino as it was to be nice. Was excellent until about 8 kilometers from Hornillos (furnace). Turned into a muddy Roman road with large stones and a big 100 meter climb. The climb was even worse than I might have expected and about half way up I realized why, a flat tire. Rain, mud, and a flat. The Evil Trinity of cycle touring.

Tried to remove tire from rim but could not. A German youth stopped to help and he too failed; my levers broke. Just on too tight. Walked it down a dangerous road of rocks and mud for about 3-4 kilometers into Hornillos. Two nice Spanish lads, big and strong, with good tools tried to remove the tire. Nope. Tried really hard and finally gave up; especially when my brakes broke during the effort.

Nothing to do but to take a taxi back to Burgos to the Decathlon, a large sports store similar, but much bigger, than REI, it has a good repair shop. Decathlons are all over France and Spain. Very friendly, helpful and professional.

New tube, brakes, quite a bit less cash in our pockets we headed back to the small rural town where we had lodgings. QB joined me on the expedition as she arrived in Hornillos just before the taxi arrived. QB had a bad day, has caught Jeff’s cold, but worse, her knee gave out part way through the days walk and a taxi was called. As knee will not allow walking at reasonable speeds for the appropriate distance, this may be the end of the Camino walk for her. Very disappointed, but is consulting with Dr. H.

The rural place did not look encouraging from the outside but inside the owner turned out to have outstanding hospitality skills and made us comfortable, had our luggage in the room, tried to help in any way he could, and provided a fine dinner of fish soup, cheese omelette, pork loin and desert. All properly prepared.

Naturally no wi-fi or even data connectivity in this very rural location of Isar, about 2-3 kms
from Hornillos.

Naturally I took the road today.

10 October partly cloudy

Last evening we had dinner with two women from Perth. Both doing the Camino in parts. As they are government workers every seven years they get a three month sabbatical and a 22% bonus pay so that they …… may go home to visit the mother country, England. Long maternity, sabbaticals and a country that accepts three month to one year abscenses with full job guarantees. Nice place it seems.

Went to the cathedral and paid our entrance fee. Well worth it. Repeat, well worth it. Having seen a number of cathedrals and monasteries on this trip this one stands out. Maybe Leon and Santiago will be in the same league of “stuff” There is so much to see there – if one is interested in a lesson in medieval architecture and painting one just walks from chapel to chapel.

The cathedral started in 1024 and has been in constant addition and renovation. One walks from the 12th century to the present century chapels and works in a nice linear fashion. The quality of the stone carvings and art work is overwhelming.

For the mediavalists we have put up 37 pictures on the flickr site.
Many are details of the work. Dated 10 October and called photos 1-37. Trying out a new flickr uploader.

We lucked out with the timing. Went to noon mass. Heard the Organ, latin chants in the side censor, a very Baroque chapel larger than most of the churches we have visited. 14 priests on the dais, dressed in 5 different garbs. A formal mass.

Then off to have some tea and pastry. Found a chocalateria, a large chain in Spain. George and Bob and Libby and several other chocoholics would have loved it,

more of same chocolates on the menu

This being Sunday and a festival holiday, here, as Columbus returned to Castille in 1497 to meet and greet his patrons, it is a big wedding day. Wedding cakes in the shops.

And for those who believe we are not really here together (though this could be photoshopped) here are Boogs in front of the cathedral

And tonight, as a change from the standard fare, off to try Paella at a local restaurant.

October 9 Rain and wind followed by more rain and more wind.

Not the best day for a bike ride and it turned out even worse.

Yesterday’s ride on the N120 was terrible. Trucks and double trucks passing in convoy at 120 km/ph…. large and very dangerous partial vacuum. So, today I looked for a better route. Found one not listed in any of the guide books or reference material it is was certainly better than any of their routes.

Got into Burgos in a heavy rain but found the way in easy as there was a bike lane marked to central city. As a very minor turning, I was going barely faster than walking, my bike skidded out on a slippery patch of pavement. Down I went. Landed squarely on my left hip. Some nice folks helped me us and I tried to get to the cathedral before the leg stiffened and the pain became too bad.

I do not think anything is broken or dislocated; very lucky as I landed on a hard stone suffice. Very much swollen ( two hours of icing before I sat down to write this ) and significant amount of Alleve. I can only hobble. Hopefully a rest day here will give it a chance to heal sufficiently to do the next leg.

QB’s leg is still hurting but hurting less. The rest here will do her good too.

We conked out for three hours with the ice on me and blankets on QB.

Lots of history to Burgos but as Wikipedia covers it well, and the intricacies of the fighting between Castille, Leon, Navarre, Napoleon (later of course) are best left to their summaries.

The really big deals here are the old castle ( defensive from the 9th century ) and the catedral.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgos

Monastery pics and tourist shot of Burgos.

8 October foggy and cool turning windy and sunny. 1.2 ESB

QB wisely took the several advice given and took a taxi.

KB had two rides. Half excellent on Camino roads and side roads and half very poor sharing a national road with convoys of double trucks; being passed downhill required stopping each time to let them pass.

San Juan was a helper to Santo Domingo and became a major force in his own way.  Many bridges and roads and hospitals. Pope gave him special protection. Local lords gave him lands to finance the good works and increase their commerce and population. 

12th century monastery here under repair for 35 plus years. QB has pictures; no net connection here to transfer them.

At breakfast we met an Italian walker returning from Santiago. He has been walking the various Camino roads for 10 years. Showed us a newspaper article ( he carries a very big scrapbook ) article about him. 9800 kms so far. On the Spanish news this evening.

Meeting more Americans as well as more people in general. Canadians outnumber Americans according to the local statistics.

At lunch we tried the Danone branded Cuajada served as usual with honey. Can now pronounce it well enough to order it with some comprehension. 

Through the fog you might be able to see a small monastery built directly into the hill.

7 October Partly cloudy still warm but getting cooler as we ascend the heights

An unusually bad ride today. Really the first very poor ride of the adventure. Nothing to see, the same nothing QB saw yesterday (yesterday I had a good zigzag and interesting sights) with no real alternatives except the National highway. Many large trucks, convoys, etc. Got off a few times to ride the rocky Camino. The large double trucks tailgate one another and leave a nasty partial vacuum when they rapidly pass by.

The morning started nicely with a change of pace. As QB’s leg is still quite swollen thought it best to take the morning to see Santo Domingo, the cathedral, and enjoy the four star Parador.

Shots of yet another retablo, this one from the cathedral at Santo Domingo. Pics not included.

Santo Domingo is named after a person who for many of his 100 years devoted himself to helping pilgrims make the trip more easily. A bridge in town (bridges are a real big thing in the 11th century), a hospital, accommodations, food, comfort items.

In Belorado there are two churches, each open half the year. Unusual set up. Each has excellent stork nests on top, picture included.

Just before Belorado we passed into Castile y Leon.

One of the more pleasant aspects of traveling is Spain is the meal time. In France if QB and I met after 13:00 or 13:30 we could not eat together; all restaurants closed. In Spain as long as we meet after 6 am we can be well fed.

Times of the day: We were instructed at a local panaderia that Buenos Dias ends only after Comida (which starts at 14:00, see earlier posts for full time schedule); only then does it become Buenos Tardes. As to Noches, after about 20:30.

May not be any blog entry published tomorrow as we climb even higher to a really remote village, maybe smaller than a village about half way to Burgos. Will get to above 1100 meters so it may be a lot colder.

QB notes on the French: while checking into parador yesterday, a Frenchwomen (whose English was less than or equal to my French) behind us asked where we were from. I said “U.S.” She said she thought I was English because I had an English accent. I assured her I was not a Brit and had an American accent. She, with some authority, stated that I did have an English accent; she recognized it because she had been to London and, American accents were too difficult to understand (citing Kentucky as, apparently, a prime example). The conversation ended there (before my head started hurting as much as my knee). Best to cede the supreme knowledge of the French.

Bus tomorrow and next day with lots of Aleve. Hope to walk again after Burgos.

6 October sunny, nice weather, 1.2 ESB. Maybe for cycling, but too hot for walking, and no shade to rest in.

QB walk of about 15mi summarized here: Najera–>nothing–>Azofra–>nothing–>nothing–>golf course/Ciruena/nothing–>nothing–>nothing–>defective leg stops working–>Santo Domingo–>beer.

For those who may have marched with Glen Cook’s “Black Company” series, the terrain today resembled some of his world.

Life on the road. At rest stop before the golf course, QB was offered some cucumber by pelerins from Nanaimo (they were surprised I knew of that place). In trade, QB offered them a choice of yogurt. They chose the tastiest Muesli flavor and QB had to make do with the plain yogs (no good deed, etc…, but maybe a quality reincarnation?). A further offer of apple slice was made and accepted by QB.

QB had a very hard last few kms due to a very bad leg. Limping.

KB did a bit of zigzagging (zigzaguear en Español ) with a side trip to the old Monastery Yuso.
Standard story of Shepard seeing something and then handling out miracles. Became a good spot for a monastery and then everyone (Navarre and Castille) wanted the properties so privileges were granted and the place grew.

Once again, for the medievalists among the gentle readers, 8-9 pictures have been put up on the Flickr site.

The pictures include some interesting shots of illustrated books, hymnals, the actual hymnal books, shots of the monastery itself. There is one painting with Hebrew near the top of the picture.

Herb, Moshe, or maybe our Basque scholar Bob can translate and explain the image.

Here is a picture of the Sacristy:

Boogs as Pelerins:

Lunch was at a four star Parador near the unvisited Cathedral (2+Euros). After the monastery visits and many retablos we took a break from from the spectacle; Burgos is just days away and the books advise we need two to three days in the cathedral, apart from the other sites.

Jamon Iberico was purchased at great expense. Served with a salsa (closely resembling aioli) made of eggs, oil, salt, pimento, and a small amount of garlic. One takes the salsa and puts it on the provided toast slices and then piles on the ham. We removed much of the fat so we had, on average, about a half portion by weight. Not the least bit stringy, very smooth. Quite enjoyable and a nice treat.

We are staying at another Parador, the one QB sent a geotagging photo of (QB has been taking a picture of most places we stay with the Blackberry which has a geotagging feature so we have a map of our trip). This photo is of the four star parador in the city center.

Wasteland view from QB walk:

5 October sunny day, perfect banana fish weather for a bike ride. No wind.

While QB walked the way I tried to avoid the Camino path. Much prefer the road as is does not disturb the walkers and does not rattle my bones and bike with the rocks and boulders and dirt. Today it was hard to avoid parts of the Camino.

Once again KB carefully plotted the route using the info from the tourist office and the panoply of books and maps. Once again, dead ends or roads that should exist but have now merged with the grand auto route. Founds ways around, mostly, but at times had to ride the Camino itself.

Ride though Rioja is a ride through the vineyards on the hills. Many hills ( 1.1 ESB today) with many smiling grapes. It is vendage time and some workers are out collecting. QB got a picture.

One stop along the was was to Navarette, a hilltop town (naturally ) with a church reputed to have one of the best, if not the best, retablos in Spain. Will let the art experts judge from the included photos. Paid a Euro to illuminate the church so a to be able to see them and later photograph them. QB’s photos were taken when the church was not lit; they were dumped. These are from the Nexus so not as fine grained and missing much of the real beauty.

with some putti

When we met up we had some excellent, very light and not sweet, Rioja Rosado with our tapas lunch. KB Spanish failed today when he thought he was getting calamari and got tripe instead. The other dishes were excellent with the veal with pimento leading a good pack.

Then off to the Monastery of Santa Maria la Real – a good find with a soap opera story. Started in 1054 via a vision by a real king its property was fought over for centuries. Included a bishop assaulting some monks to get some reliquaries, a bishop being excommunicated, a pope sitting out the fight for a long time, and some wonderful stone work.

So as not to boor the non-medievalists in the group pictures taken at the Monastery are posted on flicker.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/boogskbqb/ Titled Monastery of Santa Maria la Real in case they are not longer the lead photos.

Here is the setting on Najara facing red sandstone hills similar to Sedona in Arizona.