Walking the Camino

We stayed at an Albergue last night that had some strict rules for admission:
1. No Bike Riders
2. No Pilgrims that are having their luggage transported between Albergues
3. No Pilgrims being supported by vehicles or other means.
In other words real Pilgrims that are walking and carrying their gear all the way to Santiago de Compostela.
It might be an unpopular view, but I do not think bicycle riders are doing a pilgrimage. The whole idea of doing the Camino is that its slow and difficult. Zooming down a hill in 700 Euro dual suspension mountain bike is not a Pilgrimage. The Camino was set up for walking. In some places the track is so narrow that two pilgrims can barely pass. However it doesn’t matter how narrow the track is, because you always have to be on the lookout for a Bike rider passing you with no warning. I am all for Bicycle touring, and have done plenty myself, but the camino is not the place.

Some of the things we have observed about people riding the Camino de Santiago by bike.

1. They travel in groups, rarely individually. Sometimes in groups as large as 10.

2. They often do not warn people they are going to pass people.  This cause you always to be expecting a bike rider to suddenly appear. We have been walking side by side, and had a bike rider pass between us with no warning!

# Bike riders passing on a narrow track on the Camino de santiago. The road was only 100 metres away, and we ended up rejoining it, but they had to ride now the track, forcing pilgrims to stop to let them pass.

A thread on a Camino forum about Bike Riders here

Again (because of the hotel room) we slept late, but we knew we did not have far to walk. The weather has been sunny but windy, and cool, which is nice for walking.

Leaving around 10am we left Burgos stopping for breakfast a a bakery along the way. Leaving Burgos was much nicer than entering Burgos. We walked though a park, past a gaol, and soon we were back in the country-side. We stopped for Lunch in Tarjardos. Walking from Tarjardos to Rabe, we met Maria, who gave us advice on the best Albergue to stay in at Rabe.

We are staying at the Santa  Marina albergue, after walking a mere 12km.

Sitting outside the Albergue writing the blog

Judy's white feet

Today we are experiencing an interruption to our regular program, otherwise known as a rest day. A few reasons for this – Greg needs to rest his foot, we’ve been walking for 11 days straight and we’re in Burgos which has the fabulous World Heritage-listed Cathedral.

So we slept in this morning until the outrageously late time of just after 8am, messed around on the internet reading emails and checking out important stuff like Spain’s time zone (Greg will post more on this later, stay tuned folks). We Skyped Greg’s mum and dad from just outside the hotel and were able to show them a bit of the nearby Cathedral and other bits of local scenery. We ambled off to breakfast at 10.30, wandered around the Cathedral which is truly magnificent, and had lunch at 3pm. It’s a good thing we’re not spending our entire trip in such relaxed holiday mode or we’d both be morbidly obese, but it’s nice to spend a day like this every now and then.

Our Belgian friends Jan and Christl are going home tonight and came to visit us. I’m sorry they are finishing their camino and hope they get to come back and finish it next year. Quite a few of the pilgrims we have met are finishing in Burgos, and in the days ahead it will be interesting to see who we meet up with again, and the new friends we make.