Being a tourist in Soria

I'm sure most of you have never heard of this town but it strikes me as eminently livable and pleasant. They once had 35 Romanesque churches (which would beat out Zamora) but most have been destroyed (unlike Zamora). But what's left is really nice. I particularly liked the cloister in the "concatedral". 

Just beautiful but the real gems come on Sunday!

Soria is also known as the place where Antonio Machado was a professor for many years. He is one of my favorite Spanish poets. 

 

Anyone who has walked a camino probably knows his "caminante no hay camino, se hace el camino al andar."  So true. 

Sunday update. Sitting in a square with hundreds of Sorianos. I know Spanish cities are lively but this is amazing. One woman explained to me that it's because they suffer so much in winter that the nice weather brings everyone out to celebrate-- sounds like Chicago. 

This morning was just amazing. First to the church and cloister of San Juan Del Duero. I was so glad I got there right at 10 when it opened because that gave me a half hour before the steady stream of tour buses. 

Then up to the cave of San Saturio, a 6 C noble who gave up his riches and went to live in the cave. 

I lit candles for the many happy and sad things in my life these days. 

And then I went to the extremely interesting town museum, with artifacts from Paleolithic forward. Lots of space dedicated to the pre-Romans (Celt ibéricos) and the town of Numantia nearby whose residents held out till the end against those Roman invaders. I was touched to see the collection of belt buckles, just like the ones I had seen in the Civil War museum in Gandesa -- probably all found on battlefields long after the rest had decomposed. 

Lunch and a walk in a couple of parks to follow. Then tomorrow at 6, backpack back on and off I go to Abejar, another long day of 38. 

In Soria!

Well it's thundering out my window so I may not see many of the sights today but I made it before the thunderstorms. 

I was one lucky peregrina today. Though it was raining steadily when I left a little after 6, by 7:30 it had tapered off and then was dry for the rest of the day. Glad I was going in the right direction. 

Walking in the rain is good for hunkering down and thinking without distraction (unless you're distracted by the water slowly dropping into your shoe or the way the wind blows rain across your face). I had a lot of time to think of friends who have lost their mom, dad, or step-dad since I started walking, and of course thought about my own mamacita a lot. But there were happy things too-- a wedding today! A baby to be born soon. 

And then the rain stopped. What a walk!  Medieval castle towers and ruins, 

3 or 4 amazing little Romanesque churches with great capitals and tympanums 

And the endless fields of emerald green. 

Tomorrow I'll be a tourist, doing the same thing I did today --looking at Romanesque churches, but this time without a backpack on my back. Woo hoo. 

21 kms that seemed much longer.

Today is Friday. That meant that I had a short 20 kms to the little town of Pozalmuro. So I slept in and left at a leisurely 7:30. 

The first five kms were more of the same lovely green fields, interrupted by my first livestock crossing. 

Then into Muro, whose residents apparently decided that the highest and best use for a crumbling medieval tower was a cell phone tower. 

But the best surprise was right outside of town where a sign pointing off-camino said "200 m to the Roman fountain". 

A 200 m detour is ok since that's less than a half km round trip but I have to confess that I walked right on past the "1km to medieval bridge" and "1.4 km to the chapel" of some Saint. Be judicious with your detours, I always say. 

I knew there would be an ascent, nothing awful but I was huffing and puffing a bit. Nothing like getting to the top and looking down to see no village below and then casting your eyes over to the next hill and seeing the telltale ribbon pieces of the trail. Which meant another ascent to take me finally above the village. 

This tiny town has a room with a few beds behind the docyor's office where pilgrims are welcome.  There's even a hot 

shower and clean bathroom. 

And to top it all off there's a bar in town that will cook meals. Pilgrim heaven. 

Best laid plans

Well first the good news. After a hearty if not healthy meal in the empty bar in Pozalmuro, population 35, I spent the afternoon talking with the woman behind the counter, her husband and daughter. A few telenovelas and game shows later (thank goodness for Internet) I was ready to head back to my little room behind the doctors office. My new friend the barmaid said she wanted to come with me. When we got there and went back to my room, it was truly freezing. No problem, she said. Drag a mattress down the hall, move the table in the waiting room do the mattress can go next to the heater. And then her magic hands flipped the fusebox and two little heaters started working. How lucky is that-- just another camino angel! 

I woke up at 5 raring to go. Looked at the weather forecast on my phone-- cloudy with t-storms in afternoon. No problem, I thought kind of smugly. I'll head out early, zip through those 37 kms and be safely in Soria before the brunt of it. 

Only thing I forget to do was to open the door of my little cave-- only to see that even though my phone said it was cloudy  here, it's actually raining at a pretty good clip. So much for a quick straight shot to Burgos. Should be a long slog. 

Tarazona to Agreda--streams, rivers, waterfalls

A really lovely day on an almost asphalt-free 26 kms. 

The first five kms were a local trail along a stream. Lots of cottonwood. 

Then up around a reservoir, through a wildlife preserve, and back to another wooded trail along a stream. 

Never saw another person after the reservoir for the next 25 kms. I was considering following a sign to a posted lookout about 200 m off camino but after a few rocky shimmies up a steep path, good sense took over and I returned to the camino. I had no phone service and had not seen another person anywhere so it seemed like the sensible thing to do. 

This town has an important Moorish and Jewish history and the tourist office has given me lots of info on places to visit this afternoon. 

Love you guys. 

Afternoon in Tarazona

Lots to see and do here. This is quite an interesting little city. Its cathedral ranges from the Romanesque to baroque so everyone will like at least some part. It was closed for 30 years but in the 90s boom it was renovated and re-opened. 

My favorite is the mudejar and there are several of those. 

Old bull ring 

Hanging houses in old judería (Jewish quarter) 

Most ornate city hall ever. 

Tomorrow's walk is either 24or 28 but I suppose it could be some other number as well. 

Loving this walk. Tomorrow Agreda. 

Borja to Tarazona -- 30 very varied kms

Leaving town I came by a beautiful old mudejar building, with a new charmless but well maintained building off to one side, and flanked by two ruins. Kind of sums up the situation in Borja. 

The first few kms went through vineyards and other crops and the sun was rising. 

Then about 300 m up, past a church where a elderly senora botched a repair to s church fresco and her "Ecce homo" has become a minor tourist attraction, though I'm not sure why. 

Up to the top, calvario, with beautiful views. 

Then some kms along the ridge. At first it was through pine forests 

But as the wind picked up I found myself in windmill heaven. I counted 97 as I stopped and did a complete circle. 

After a few more kms and the beginning of the descent things got interesting. The camino went through a pretty inhospitable area-- still some crops but many abandoned farms, overgrown plots, and a fairly hard to discern path. Without the GPS I would not have found my way. Do you see a camino here? 

But I was fine and made it over the hills and around the fields 

And arrived at 12:30 in the lovely town of Tarazona. 

Lots to visit this afternoon but first it's time to eat.