First, the numbers: we have now hiked for 12 days and completed 175 miles. We are roughly 1/3 of the way. For perspective, we’ve hiked about from our home in Danville to Lake Tahoe.

When preparing for a long trek, one of the things you are always taught is to try everything out beforehand. Mostly, we did that. When it came to rain gear, Bill had a high tech solution but Diane choose the low tech $5 poncho solution. Clearly, Bill had the better choice, right?

It started to rain. Diane pulled on her $5 poncho. Bill reached for his high tech, ultra light weight pack cover and realized he hadn’t a clue how to put it on! No worries, necessity is the mother of invention! In a few short minutes, Bill’s high tech backpack was covered with a high tech, ultra low weight cover. But, Bill wasn’t …

Bill then realized that his high tech breathable wind breaker and ultra light weight rain pants were underneath this ultra light weight, high tech cover. Hmm! This is a pain!

So he did what every stubborn, high tech buying guy on the planet would do, he pretended that the rain was going to stop any moment, so there’s no NEED to get that high tech gear (which is buried), out! It rained for nearly an hour, straight. Maybe I’ll work on my rain gear a bit this afternoon in the room …

First note: the Casa Rural, La Aldea Encantada, was wonderful. Ana and get family are great hosts and make this place more than worth the 1 km.  hike off the Camino.

The first town we hit was Belorado. A lot of interesting history, with another church built into the hillside. If you look at the picture below, you may be able to make out the windows in the hillside to the left of the church.

Now, while walking through the streets of Belorado, Diane spotted some very interesting plaques in the street. We noted that each plaque has the hand and shoe print of a famous person. Note this plaque, below. The date, ’09, and the hand written name “Emilio” should provide a clue. While not very readable, the small sign in the upper left says:”Emilio Estevez”. It seems he made this plaque in ’09 when he made the movie, “The Way”.

Finally, we passed another church built into the hillside. This time, that German film crew was up there continuing with their movie. We again turned down a cameo role.

Okay, okay. Bill learned his lesson regarding rain gear. He started today very prepared.

The things to note about the photo are: 1) The high tech green rain cover over the backpack.  2) (hard to see) The high tech breathable, yet waterproof windbreaker in the pouch hanging from the bottom right of the pack.  3) Not a cloud in the sky!  Yep, all dressed up and no place to go!. Well, tomorrow it may rain!

We started this morning leaving the hotel San Anton de Abad,  and their beautiful gardens at around 8:30.

The trail immediately took us into the mountains, where we hit almost 4,000′ before beginning the descent towards the Meseta and Burgos (with our stop in Atapuerca). The cool thing was we were back in the forests!

Unfortunately, it was only a few miles of forest before we dropped back down into the drier grasslands (think Oakdale, Calif.). Still, it was very enjoyable.

We will now have roughly 8 days of the Meseta (dry lands) before we reach Leon, and the beginnings of the more verdant Galicia.

Walking 12 to 18 miles a day requires fuel. What does the Peregrino eat to keep up the pace?

Breakfast: A right start is critical, right? In Spain, however, breakfast is an under rated meal. Bread, toasted, some jam, a small coffee and you’re off! Not so fast. If you want the deluxe, for a couple euro more, add a slice of luncheon ham, a slice of luncheon cheese and an orange juice. For power eaters like Diane and I, we are immediately searching out the next snack or meal.

Lunch: Again, the Spanish Peregrino meal is not substantial. Usually, it is a portion of french bread with tomato smeared across the interior, then Serrano ham and a good cheese inside. It is actually quite tasty, but not always filling given the smaller breakfast. For Diane, who doesn’t eat meat, she will often buy the bread only and put a store bought can of tuna inside.

To drink, many serve a glass of wine, a tall glass of beer or, for the same money, the world’s smallest diet coke. Since we stopped drinking 2 years ago, we opt for the coke.

Dinner: Almost every town has multiple restaurants offering Peregrino menus for roughly 10 euro. These are great! 3 course meals, salad or soup, multiple main course options, and dessert. Add to that, they offer 1 bottle of wine … or water, per 2 persons. A great deal if you drink as the Rioja wines are renowned. The water is not so bad, either.

Snacks: The real way Peregrinos survive is snacks! After laundry and showers, the Peregrino immediately hunts down the nearest grocery shop to purchase fruit, sweets, proteins, anything with caloric value.

You want to make some money? Sell snacks to Peregrinos along the Camino.

It’s been noted earlier in the blog that necessity is the mother of invention.  Diane choose that motto this morning when it came to her coffee. She took the backpacking stove, a pot of water, and her Starbucks Via outside of the Casa Rural we stayed in, and in short order was very happy!

With coffee flowing through our veins, we were soon on the trail. While crossing over a range of dry hills, we saw these flowers growing up through really compact, rocky soil. You wouldn’t expect such delicate flowers to grow in such harsh soil. Perhaps like the rose in Spanish Harlem.

After a few (10) miles down the road, we found Burgos. Their main cathedral is simply amazing! Here are a couple of photos:

And:

All for now …

Sometimes, things work out well. We booked the hotel in Burgos, sight unseen on the Spanish version of hotels.com for a very, very reasonable price.  On arriving to the hotel, we find out it is a 4 star hotel and we have a suite! The Beverley Hillbillies are home!  A salon downstairs, and a very spacious living and sleeping area upstairs, we had a world of choices on where to hang our laundry!

This morning we started about 8:15 for Hornillos, with a first stop being any place that sold food and coffee. We hit the jackpot! Lots if excellent coffee and food got a very reasonable price.  Fueled, we did the approximately 12 miles to Hornillos in record time! Here is Hornillos as we approach it.

We are staying in a Casa Rural, Sol y Sol. It is a very pleasant place with a younger owner whose family has connections with Emilio Estevez. “The Way” is a really big deal for the residents along the Camino.

We are now roughly 212 miles into the journey. We are learning a great deal about ourselves, or fellow Peregrinos, and the purpose of the Camino. More to come, later.

From 5:30 am to 8:00 am, it rained. Lots and lots. As we started our hike at 8:30, we were fine, rain wise … but not mud wise.  Our really light weight trail running shoes became Frankenstein boots, weighing several pounds each.

Now for the Molinos.  Molinos are windmills in Spanish. Everywhere you look, there’s a field if Molinos.

What was cool about today, was we passed a couple of very interesting ruins. This is the remains of a 13th century convent.

And below, the ruins of the castle of Castrojerez.

Like every day before on the camino, we have found or place, washed up, done laundry, and can now focus on the important stuff, like communicating.

How does one communicate on the Camino? Certainly, English is a very useful language. However, in many of the rural areas the residents or proprietors of the shops may not speak English. So, some Spanish is very helpful.

Now, many of our fellow Peregrinos are from other countries. How do you speak to them? There are french, German, Italian, Austrian, dutch, Brazilians, etc.  You really have no idea concerning which is the appropriate language to simply say,  “hi”. The solution? Say,  “Buen Camino” (the official greeting), then say “good morning”, or some such English expression to test the English speaking waters.

That doesn’t always work. We have needed to carry on short conversations in french (very difficult). For example, yesterday 2 women showed up at the Casa Rural who spoke only french and thought they had a reservation there.  The host was not there and it was clear there were no more rooms available. Fortunately, we had the Internet, so we used Google translate (Diane’s idea) to speak to them and then Bill called the host (who didn’t speak french and only a little English) to negotiate a solution. After 10 or 15 minutes, the French women had a room (elsewhere) and all was happy.

Back to languages: While Germans usually seem to speak several languages, including English, Austrians (based on our limited sampling of 2), are less polyglots. Bill had to break out his very rusty German to attempt communications with these 2 (not pretty).

Really the most universal language is a smile and patience. It really does work.

First, some numbers.  Today is day 17. We have walked approximately 240 miles.

When last we left our readers, we showed a picture of castle ruins above Castrojerez. Seems it was built in the 8th century and continued in use until sometime in the 16th century. Somehow, we got inspired and decided to climb up to it. The view was worth it! Here’s Castrojerez from above.

Today’s walk was a roughly 16 miler so we started early. We had to wait out this local traffic jam on leaving Castrojerez.

One thing we’ve seen for scores of miles is sunflowers. Fields and fields of sunflowers. The challenge of taking a picture of them is that they have always been pay their prime. Not today. We finally found a field worth photographing. (Keep in mind that the photographer is not necessarily worth taking photographs).

Now for the titled topic.  On checking the weather reports, today looked to be the first day in several days without a significant risk of rain. So, Bill packed his rain gear. Yep, it rained! At least he knew exactly where to find the gear!

We are now in Fromista doing the chores that Peregrinos do. Hope all is well with each of you.

In the United States, we are very used to the English system of measure: inches, feet and miles, cups, quarts and gallons, and ounces, pounds, and, well, more pounds. Surely other English speaking countries use this system, right? Nope.

We’ve spoken with: English, Scottish, Irish, Australian, New Zealanders, and Canadians and NO ONE uses the English system. Just us Yanks.

And don’t try the continental countries (France, Germany, Spain, Italy, etc.) … it’s all the metric system.

Bottom line: if you want to be able to talk distances, weights or volumes, you’ll want to be conversational in metric measures.

The local Spaniards we have met have been remarkably gracious. More than willing to offer help, even as you slaughter their language.  They will even offer a ” Buen Camino “, even though they have probably said that 150 times already that day.

Today, we crossed over 250 miles and are just shy of half way. Tomorrow, we get to that point.

On leaving Fromista, the sun was just rising and peeked out from behind the rain clouds to shine in this church.

It is the Iglesia de San Martin, an 11th century church which is purported to be one of the finest examples of Romanesque architecture in Spain. All we know is that it looked very cool in the sunlight.

The best way to describe the walk to Carrion is wet!  It rained for about an hour and one half during 3 separate occasions.  Yes, the rain gear was readily available and was willingly used.

The next two days will be big ones. We’ll need to do about 16 miles tomorrow, then 20b on Friday. Today, we’ll focus on rest and taking care of our feet!