6. Burgos to Leon: Eating KMs for Breakfast

Burgos to Leon: 111 miles/178.9kms, 7 Days

(Burgos, Hornillos del Camino, Castrojeriz, Fromista,Carrion, Terradillos, 

Bercianos del Real Camino, Mansilla)

1/2 Way at Sahagun: Only 400kms More To Go!

Out of Burgos we hit the halfway mark. Woohoo! Only 400kms left to go. Kaia and Cruz had long gained their walking legs. Parker and I are feeling great about our progress, and more importantly, our kids are having fun. With the flat terrain ahead, we were pumped to cover some big miles/kms over the next seven days. We continued waking up early to take advantage of the cooler hours of the morning, see the stars, and watch the sunrise. By 8:30am or 9:00am we had usually walked at least 10kms. 

Pro tip for parents: use miles when a distance is far, this helps with your target milage goal to be less discouraging. Use kilometers when you want to feel good about your progress. Kilometers are way more impressive throughout and at the end of a day! This mental exercise works well for adults too. I often joked with the kids that they ate KMs for breakfast. 

The Meseta is the interior plateau of Spain, think the Midwest of America. There is a lot of talk about it because there is no shade and many people find it very boring. A lot of pilgrims skip this stage by taking a bus or by renting a bike. In the morning, we saw a lot of walkers turned into bikers (easy to spot as they had their backpacks on instead of using panniers). We were the crazies intent on walking. The days were hot, but as long as we started early we knocked out our miles/kms before noon.

Me: "Guys, Sunflowers!!!".... My kids: "ok, mom."

The rolling hills out of Burgos offered pastures of wheat, barley, oats, and sunflowers. Apparently, my family has an appropriate amount of appreciation for sunflowers. I was told that I am a bit over zealous.  But I love sunflowers, so don't mind me...I took a photo of every field we walked by. My kids, "yes mom, we see the sunflowers. Mom, please, no more photos of us with the sunflowers."

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Monk Selfie!

On our first day out of Burgos, we met some of our favorite people on our walk. Brother Lucas is a monk/priest from Germany doing a pilgrimage on his six week holiday. Of course, my first question was, "do you wear your robe while walking?!. Yes, he did, but it was light-weight, he said. We also met Nele (one of our favorite peeople),  a young German on a month walk before she started University. Eppei was a kind, retired man from Japan. Alba and Maria are from Spain. They were walking solo, met in Pamplona, and are now walking together. One morning, we also walked with Jocelyn for a few hours, an ultra-marathoner from the USA. She was walking/running the Camino in 17 days (she did it!). The rest of us pretty much kept the same schedule and looked forward to running into each other throughout the day as we walked, or in cafes and towns.

The same evening, the church was steps away from where we were staying and I went to mass. Cruz joined me. To our surprise, Brother Lucas was offering the mass. As he walks through the Camino, he introduces himself to the clergy and is often invited to do the service. At mass, we were also Nele, Maria, and Alba. Many attendants at mass are catholic, others are other denominations of Christianity, some might be atheist. Still many others are on their own spiritual path.. The beautiful thing about the Camino is that it doesn't matter what draws you to mass, all are welcome. 

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The Beautiful Arc Anton

The Meseta gave us some of the most incredible Roman and medieval sites. Arc Anton is a hospital from the 15th century that took care of pilgrims as they made their way to Santiago. Under the arches, bread was placed for pilgrims from long ago as they passed the arch. It had fallen in disrepair but it serves as a reminder of the gateway in once was/is to our destination. On this stretch, we also passed and visited the oldest church on the Camino, The Church of Santa Martin de Fromista. This Roman Church over 1,000 years old. We pass many churches of all sizes throughout the day. Even if it's for just a few minutes, we visit each one. We are so lucky to be able to visit these sites.

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Extra Workouts for these Crazy Kids

While we walked, the kids came up with the game, "three clues to guess a movie". My family has watched ALL the movies. This game would go on for an hour or longer at a time. Of course they went through every Superhero movie, Disney, and everything in between. I have watched only a few movies all the way through (I read books, I do not watch things). What was I doing when they watched all these movies? I'm guess laundry, cleaning, or probably some reading. But I still enjoyed somewhat participating. 

Another game we played to keep us occupied was the Alphabet Game. One would start with an A Animal, the next person had to repeat the A animal and choose a B animal and so on and so forth, until we reached Z. The last person had to recite all the animals from A-Z. We also did this with superheroes we made up. It was sometimes exhausting in the heat but it kept us focused and engaged. It was also a good distraction and a good way to pass the time.

The kids stopped at every playground we passed during our walk. They jumped on the swings and went down slides. Throughout Spain (and in France), we saw exercise equipment outside, usually at a park. They loved hopping from one to another. They also did little side routes throughout the day. At the end of the day, they probably ended up doing a couple extra kilometers from all their side excursions.

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Prep for our Communal Meal

On the Camino you will sometimes find a donativo albergue. It is sustained by volunteers who have previously walked a Camino (there are many routes). Often, there is a meal offered and it is all by donation. We stayed at the donativo at Bercianos del Real Camino. We met volunteers: Robbie from New Zealand, Fillipo from Italy, and Francesca from Spain. Kaia, Cruz, Nele, Eppei, and I, along with other pilgrims, helped prepare the vegetarian meal. Parker helped clean up the dishes with the Italians after dinner. There was a lot of singing in Italian involved. He said he had no idea what they were singing but it was fun. And of course, very loud.

Donativo Meal

The volunteers set up the table outside on the street. We shared a lively meal amongst pilgrims from, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Japan,  Australia,  and South Africa. After dinner, we went to a prayer room. Most shared their reason for being on the Camino and what it had given them back so far. It was moving. Then we all went up the hill to watch the sunset together. It was one of our favorite experiences with some of our favorite pilgrims.

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Parker and I were anticipating a stretch from Carrion to Terradillos de los Templanos, it was 17kms with no town in between. He carried tons of snacks for us as usual, but the challenge was to keep the kids motivated. That morning was one of our first chilly mornings where we wore our fleeces. The cold was actually helpful because it kept us moving. 

We set off at 5am because leaving early made the time fly in the mornings. We followed the Milky Way and watched the sunrise. The guidebook says that there is a "food truck" type trailer with coffee and snacks at 10kms. Parker and I know better than to trust in those promises. There was a food truck at 10km but it wasn't open yet. We took a quick break by the side of the road and had a snack. Someone walked by, said Buen Camino and took a photo of us. Then we busted out the next 7kms to the first town for a big breakfast. Our kids walked 17kms pretty much straight through with no complaints. 

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On our way to Leon, we also kept running into our other pilgrim friends, Frank from the UK, Johnny from Australia, Ana from Croatia, and Jade from the States. We knew most of the pilgrims on this section (those within a day of either side of us at least). It was really wonderful for the kids to see our  friends throughout the day.  They all loved Kaia and Cruz. They treated our kids with so much kindness and also respect for putting in the effort us big kids did. We all had to walk the same kilometers, no matter our age.

The Meseta became one of our favorite sections of our walk. Because it was so flat, it was fun to knock out big miles/kms.  The Meseta rewarded us with brilliant stars in our early mornings, amazing sunrises, endless sunflowers, medieval churches, and wonderful new friends.