Hola! Another day at the office - 21k walked & got to Burgos, the historic capital of Castile. We cracked the 500 mark today - only 491k to go!! Yahoo!! Our friend Janie Naylor emailed Sal today to say she just made it Santiago - that it had rained heavily once she got over to Galicia - argh! We have had enough of wet weather. I walked a lot of the day with Svantia, a tall German girl 24 yrs old, speaks 3 languages ( German, English, Spanish) who could walk...

¡Buenas! Day 14, 22k, hard work, long miles thru a pine forest, footsore, attitude average. Not a good sleep last night - big Dutchman next to me snoring full blast - and he woke up saying he hadn't slept a wink! And the best part - he just walked into the same Albergue we are in tonight!!! Argh!! I think I might get Sal to sort him out! We are staying at a modern secular Albergue tonight - had enough of quaint, low ceiling, head banging places with character ...

¡Hola! Day 13- 21k today, 237k completed (about the same as walking from Nelson to Kaikoura), 534k to go to Santiago. Weather typical changeable spring weather - 4 seasons in one day. Last night was special - stayed in the Iglesia de San Juan Bautista (John the Baptist), community meal ( see pic), great fun, noisy, lots of talking in about 10 languages, speeches in Spanglish/ French/Korean. Then the mass in church and the priest didn't turn up - the old girls ...

¡Buenos! Day 12, Nájera to Grañon =28k walked, longest day so far! Gem of the day - a 2hr conversation in Spanish with my new companero de Camino, Ivan from near Madrid ( see pic) 1st time I've lasted this long talking Spanish - my brain usually gets burned out after about 15mins. We talked about politics, money, marriage, the church, who brings up the kids and pretty much solved all the world's problems - all the while we ate up the kms. I always feel like ...

¡Hola! Day 11 - Navarrete to Nájera 16k, 583 to go. Weather perfect for walking - fine, warm (T-shirt), through rolling wine country. La Rioja is famous for its red wine. They seem to prune the vines down to couple of sticks that look like they would never grow again ( see pic - also if you expand photo you will see snow on the hills behind - that's why it is still pretty cold). Started walking at 8am - 1st thing I saw was a stork in its nest on top of a bi...