Ventosa 6:30am
I am having a late start today so I am in the kitchen keeping out of the way of people packing up in the rather cramped dorm. I have a bed booked at Ciruena so I can take it slow. Dinner last night was a bit flat. Everyone said they came on the Camino because they like walking. I think I passed on some of my pain as well - I feel I've made a fool of myself lately and need to get my emotions sorted. J from Manchester has real emotional pain but passed on sharing.
This is Annette's last day on the Camino so I won't get to chat with her anymore. She is getting a bus to Burgos and meeting her family for a holiday. Silly thing- I didn't read the instructions on the coffee machine correctly and now I have sweet coffee.
Najera 10am.
Walked about the last 5km with the 4 Americans I have met on the Camino most days. They are from Pennsylvania near Harrisburg where Hershey chocolate comes from. It is raining to the South and I'm hoping it will pass over while I have breakfast but I don't like my chances. Breakfast was coffee and a little bacon sandwich - big thick chunks sitting on a tiny bit of toast. Living in Spain is so cheap - I can see why the English buy houses here. It is uphill from here to Ciruena but fairly gradual and only 15km. Discovered from some of the interpretation signs that Najera which is now in La Roija was once capital of Navarre. (11th and 12th centuries).
Azofra 12:45
The road from Najera has had posts every km saying the distance to Santiago counting down from 582km. If these carry on all the way I can see myself breaking the rhythm of the Camino as I time each km. The church at the monastery in Najera had a huge gilt reredos with lots of statues. There was a woman from Venezuela there and I commented that she should weep as America was pillaged to provide the wealth in Spain. We got talking about Venezuelan currency controls. She got most of her money out when she moved to Spain and being older than she looked was able to move her pension each month at the official exchange rate. Way better than the black market rate. Met Ignacio from Argentina on the trail. In spite of being way younger than me he looks tired and seems to be very slow.
I would have liked to do the side trip to San Millan Yuso monastery where Spanish was first written in 10th century but it would require a whole day from Azofra to Ciruena.
A question for Alistair - why do many of the vineyards have no wires? Some of them the vines are very gnarly so they aren't new.
Ciruena 4:45pm
Put my parka on twice between Azofra and Ciruena but neither time did the heavy drops progress to actual rain. The A12 is being built next to the Camino near Azofra so soon there will be another kilometer of noise. There was a construction truck on the Camino. It left going the same direction as me just before I got to it which is good. If it came towards me I think I might have had to climb in the bushes to let it past. The kilometer posts are still continuing and are getting a bit depressing when late in the day I'm going slow.
Ciruena has whole streets of houses with nobody living in them. They were built at the peak of the housing bubble and couldn't be sold when it burst. Ciruena isn't close to anywhere so I don't know why they thought people would want to live here just because they built a huge golf course.
I have finally caught up with the family from New Zealand. Mum, Dad and the youngest 4 of their 8 children.
I am having a late start today so I am in the kitchen keeping out of the way of people packing up in the rather cramped dorm. I have a bed booked at Ciruena so I can take it slow. Dinner last night was a bit flat. Everyone said they came on the Camino because they like walking. I think I passed on some of my pain as well - I feel I've made a fool of myself lately and need to get my emotions sorted. J from Manchester has real emotional pain but passed on sharing.
This is Annette's last day on the Camino so I won't get to chat with her anymore. She is getting a bus to Burgos and meeting her family for a holiday. Silly thing- I didn't read the instructions on the coffee machine correctly and now I have sweet coffee.
Najera 10am.
Walked about the last 5km with the 4 Americans I have met on the Camino most days. They are from Pennsylvania near Harrisburg where Hershey chocolate comes from. It is raining to the South and I'm hoping it will pass over while I have breakfast but I don't like my chances. Breakfast was coffee and a little bacon sandwich - big thick chunks sitting on a tiny bit of toast. Living in Spain is so cheap - I can see why the English buy houses here. It is uphill from here to Ciruena but fairly gradual and only 15km. Discovered from some of the interpretation signs that Najera which is now in La Roija was once capital of Navarre. (11th and 12th centuries).
Azofra 12:45
The road from Najera has had posts every km saying the distance to Santiago counting down from 582km. If these carry on all the way I can see myself breaking the rhythm of the Camino as I time each km. The church at the monastery in Najera had a huge gilt reredos with lots of statues. There was a woman from Venezuela there and I commented that she should weep as America was pillaged to provide the wealth in Spain. We got talking about Venezuelan currency controls. She got most of her money out when she moved to Spain and being older than she looked was able to move her pension each month at the official exchange rate. Way better than the black market rate. Met Ignacio from Argentina on the trail. In spite of being way younger than me he looks tired and seems to be very slow.
I would have liked to do the side trip to San Millan Yuso monastery where Spanish was first written in 10th century but it would require a whole day from Azofra to Ciruena.
A question for Alistair - why do many of the vineyards have no wires? Some of them the vines are very gnarly so they aren't new.
Ciruena 4:45pm
Put my parka on twice between Azofra and Ciruena but neither time did the heavy drops progress to actual rain. The A12 is being built next to the Camino near Azofra so soon there will be another kilometer of noise. There was a construction truck on the Camino. It left going the same direction as me just before I got to it which is good. If it came towards me I think I might have had to climb in the bushes to let it past. The kilometer posts are still continuing and are getting a bit depressing when late in the day I'm going slow.
Ciruena has whole streets of houses with nobody living in them. They were built at the peak of the housing bubble and couldn't be sold when it burst. Ciruena isn't close to anywhere so I don't know why they thought people would want to live here just because they built a huge golf course.
I have finally caught up with the family from New Zealand. Mum, Dad and the youngest 4 of their 8 children.
No comments:
Post a Comment