Vitalie Ciobanu

Data Analyst as a Service

Tag: walking

  • Stage 11. Belorado – Agés

    Stage 11. Belorado – Agés

    Until km 11-12, the route was a relatively easy uphill but monotonous, surrounded by rolling hills and expansive fields. The standout stop in this stretch was La Taberna de Espinosa, a delightful hostel with a bar in Espinosa del Camino. The hosts were warm, welcoming and with a good sense of humor, but the real highlight was their toast: toasted bread, local tomatoes and champignons combined into what might be the best toast tasted in a long time! A strong recommendation for anyone passing through.

    The toast!
    The hostel

    Passing Villafranca Montes de Oca, the landscape changed. A steep and somewhat longish climb emerged, adding excitement to the route. For those who enjoy a good uphill challenge, this section was a treat. After conquering it and reaching 1100+ meters of elevation, next 15 km were rewarding: oak, pine, and heather forests dominating the trail, bringing cool shade and a tranquil atmosphere while slowly rolling down the mountain.

    Elevation Belorado- Agés stage

    This woodland stretch continued all the way to San Juan de Ortega, a tiny town with many terraces, a perfect spot to pause if you need to. From there, another less forested path led us directly to Agés.

    Main square San Juan de Ortega

    Tonight’s stop is at Albergue El Pajar de Agés, a pleasant place with shared rooms with eight beds (15 euros per night). Linen options include single-use (1 euro) or washable sets (7 euros). While there’s no kitchen, amenities like a microwave, water heater and coffee vending machine are available. Laundry and drying services cost 5 euros each.

    Bathroom and shower
    The room

    For a quick bite, a veggie soup at a small corner establishment did the trick, though hunger wasn’t high thanks to a steady intake of bananas and bars throughout the day. We booked dinner at the same spot, ordering a vegetable paella – the place looked promising at midday, so hopes are high.

  • Stage 10. Santo Domingo de la Calzada – Belorado

    Stage 10. Santo Domingo de la Calzada – Belorado

    One of the most noticeable aspects of this stage is its proximity to highly transited roads. While the trail is well separated from the traffic, the constant hum of passing trucks and the gusts of wind they generate are ever-present companions. It’s a reminder that even on a pilgrimage, modern infrastructure is never far away.

    Another striking change was the landscape itself. Gone were the vineyards that had accompanied us in the last two days. Instead, vast fields of wheat stretched in every direction.

    Even after completing the stage, I felt good and ventured a few kilometers alone to view the remains of a castle from the mountain’s edge and wander through a nearby forest and camps. Even at 900 meters altitude, wheat fields still dominated the terrain. Guess this is the agricultural theme of this region.

    Overall, this stage does not boast many remarkable sights, but it does pass through Viloria de Rioja, the birthplace of Santo Domingo de la Calzada, who was born in 1019. His house stood for centuries until it finally collapsed in 1980, according to a note left at the site. Though little remains of his original home, his legacy continues to shape the Camino and the town that bears his name.

    Main square with the former house right near the house visible on the right
    Info about the house of Santo Domingo de la Calzada

    We stopped at Albergue Cuatro Cantones, a welcoming and well-maintained place. The price for a bed in a shared room of 20-22 people is 15 euros, while smaller rooms were available for around 17 euros.

    The facilities are thoughtfully arranged, with each room having a separate space containing two toilets, two sinks, and two showers. Each bed is equipped with its own power supply and light, a small but appreciated detail.

    The albergue also has its own restaurant, offering lunch and dinner (I remember seeing a vegetarian option but can’t remember what it is), but not breakfast. While there is no kitchen, there is a place with a microwave, water heater, fridge and a vending machine stocked with snacks, chocolates, beers and coke. There is also a coffee machine but I did not see what flavors it has or the cost. Kitchen supplies are sparse and I didn’t notice any salt or spices, but overall, the place has a warm and inviting atmosphere.

    Main entrance
    The boss 🙂
    Restroom
    3rd floor
    The team
    Our room

    Finding a vegan-friendly meal proves to be challenging on St. James Way; we settled for a bar-restaurant that offered a lentil dish as the main course, with vegetables and potatoes ordered as separate dishes. While it wasn’t an exceptional meal, it was nourishing enough to keep us going. As always, I won’t share the name of the place, or link, unless I fully recommend a place, which isn’t the case here.

    For dinner, we kept it simple – just infusion tea and some local sweets for me (non-vegan).

    Someone wants to free Castillo from Leon
    The castle, or what’s left from it
    The city from the highest peak nearby

  • Stage 9. Nájera – Santo Domingo de la Calzada

    Stage 9. Nájera – Santo Domingo de la Calzada

    The journey from Nájera to Santo Domingo de la Calzada was short but nice-ish. Covering around 21 kilometers, it took us through rolling hills, vineyards and more historic villages.

    We started the day earlier than yesterday, thinking of reaching the destination early. The morning promised rain for today but we were lucky enough to only pass through wind and cold 😅

    The first few kilometers (small but steady uphill) brought us through fields and vineyards, again, the heart of La Rioja’s famous winemaking region.

    Stage 9’s elevation graph

    The beautiful vineyard road led us to Azofra, a small town with a long pilgrimage history, where we paused to warm up a little and go to the bathroom. From there, the trail began to climb towards Cirueña, a village with a mix of old traditions and modern golf courses – a surprising contrast on the Camino. The walk became a bit challenging here due to the short but steep hill but the scenery made every step worth it!

    Finally, reaching Santo Domingo de la Calzada, a town deeply tied to the Camino’s history. The Cathedral of Santo Domingo, famous for its legend of the rooster and the hen, stood proudly in the main square.

    We settled in at Albergue Cisterciense. Run by Cistercian nuns, it offers a peaceful atmosphere, simple accommodations, and the chance to participate in religious services. Nonetheless, keep in mind that there is no heating.

    We had lunch at a place where they had only a vegan hamburger with chips (12 euros), because the two places we had favorited were closed, although being opened on google maps. Nothing impressive here, not the best hamburger of my life, but neither the worst.

    After lunch we went to do the laundry at EcoLaundry. A place where you can use their mobile app to program everything, very convenient, but it only allows a minimum payment of 10 euros. So using the cheapest laundry of 5 euros and cheapest drying programs of 3 euros, leaves you with 2 spare euros 🤨 so we had to use a longer drying cycle to use them.

    Hey Garmin, I am your father.

  • Stage 7. Torres del Río – Logroño

    Stage 7. Torres del Río – Logroño

    Ahhh, last day, 20 km only. And the total ascent was very soft, nothing hard.

    The morning/breakfast is already slightly described in the previous post, nothing else to mention.

    In general this day went by very fast. Only by mid-distance we reached the first city – Viana. The rest of the route passes through camps and forests.

    Overall a nice and easy day. We reached Logróño in 4 hours and a half and stopped at a nice hotel to thank our bodies for the effort done during the last days. A good shower, with hot water, is everything I needed! Afterwards we went to Calle Laurel, a famous street/area with bars and restaurants offering various types of pinchos. since there weren’t many vegan options, we repeated more than ones in the same place. The best was a place that offer mushrooms grilled in garlic sauce – Bar Cid . It was mazing!

    Bar Cid

    Today, we had a quick and small breakfast in the first open cafeteria, since it Sunday and Easter, there were not a lot of options either.

    However, for lunch we went to a known place called Sol Veggie. This was wow!! You can really see the difference between a place with vegan options and a vegan place. We ordered too much and had to cancel one dish because it was too much for our stomach 😂 Everything was super tasty! We also ordered vegan shawarma for the train back home, that I can’t wait to eat after posting this post 😛

    After lunch Lucía went to have a quick siesta and I went to buy some baclava from a place I dreamed about all week 😅🤤 this is a Syrian place called Pastelería Damasco. They have the best baclava I have ever eaten! If you go there, cautious, this desert is very addictive! I warned you!

  • Stage 6. Estella – Torres del Río

    Stage 6. Estella – Torres del Río

    What a day! Out of the 6 hours we were moving, I think we were under somewhat heavy rain 5 hours.

    About the night, all good. Comfortable beds, clean bathrooms, good service although laundry services a little too expensive – 7 euros per bag.

    Other than the rain during the day, the route passes through nice places and many green areas.

    The route passes through a nice place that works with metal – smithy – https://www.laforjadeayegui.com/.

    A few meters later you reach a wine factory that arranged a spring with running water AND a wine one 😀 there is a limit of 100 liters a day 😛

    https://www.irache.com/ if you have spare time, you can also visit the wine museum.

    Left – wine. Right – water.

    When we reached our planned destination and stopped to eat at the only open restaurant, since it was the Easter Friday, it was a challenge to find something open, we decided to go to the next city to sleep and thus do less the next day.

    The next city was about 7 km away, so we did almost 30 km this day. Luckily the rain stopped a little, because the road goes through open land with a lot of wind and muddy roads.

    We reached Torres del Río and stopped at the first hostel that we saw – Hostal San Andrés. The only good thing here was during the night nobody was snoring! 😂

    To summarize the hostel, during check in we were told there is a restaurant with some vegan options. We ended up ordering pasta with tomato sauces and rice with mushrooms, again, and Lucia ordered minestra de verduras, a Spanish dish with vegetables and ravioli with spinach, that I believe have eggs…

    Man’s bathroom and showers were “outside” the main building and it was quite average. The showers with no hot water, just enough to make you shower as quick as possible and leave, especially in a cold day and bathroom with no heating and the door widely open. The shower space was small with no place to hang clothes or towel, so it remained hanged in the door from outside. Did I mention the room had no heating and it had the same temperas outside because the door is always opened?! When I went to the bathroom during the night, I used lady’s room, it was closer 🙂

    Also during check in we were told they don’t have vegetable milk but they will get one for us from a store in the nearby city. Also they can toast some bread for us. Turned out in the morning nobody knew nothing about this, so there was no milk and no way to toast bread. We went to a small shop around the corner and bought a bagel that we put some olive oil and salt on it. And here we were, before the last day of our St James Way during this vacation.

    Agora Hostel
    Agora Hostel bathroom

  • Stage 5. Puente de Reina – Estella

    Stage 5. Puente de Reina – Estella

    The morning was hard. We got a the world champion of snoring near right near us and I barely felt asleep at around 1am and woke up many times until 5-ish when I no longer could sleep until 6, when someone’s alarm rang. Somehow that snoring guy stopped and I managed to sleep until 7.

    The bathroom, toilets, sinks, everything, was a complete mess this morning. Sometimes I still think “homo sapiens” is a compliment for us, as a species.

    Again, very shortly, we do not recommend Albergue Padres Reparadores in Puente de Reina unless you’re really really really short on money!

    Today was the first day with lots of sun. But, since it was windy, the cloudy moments felt chilly! I took my jacket off and put it on several times.

    There were not that many interesting or wow views today, so I didn’t take many pictures.

    What was nice though, we saw two places with some small things to eat free of charge, you leave a donation and that’s it.

    Other than this, at lunch time we stopped to eat the sandwiches with hummus made in the morning and headed to our destination, a small city named Estella. We stopped at a private hostel – Agora Hostel. 20 euros per night per person. Very nice hostel, with nice rooms, comfortable beds with a private curtains each, clean bathrooms and nice showers. They offer laundry services of one medium size bag of clothes for 7 euros. There is also kitchen available until 8:15pm (we did not enter to see how it is). They also have breakfast, don’t remember the price, that includes toasted bread, yogurt, outs and a juice. We did not order it. We bought some vegetable milk again (coco, this time) and cornflakes so we’ll have this only.

    For the dinner we wanted to go to a place called NamasTé but it was closed. We went to another place just next door called Mundo. They had some vegan options. Although not great, the food was ok. We had croquetas with mushrooms, guacamole with chips and olives separately, and a vegan burger.

    The bathroom from yesterday’s hostel
    The bathroom from yesterday’s hostel
    Main square of Puente de Reina
    The Bridge of Rabia
    Bridge of Rabia
    Today’s route
    Horse mobile maintenance service 🙂
    Sheep crossing a road

  • Stage 4. Pamplona – Puente de Reina

    Stage 4. Pamplona – Puente de Reina

    Ok, hard night. I woke up many many times…

    After having a quick breakfast, we started the walk at 8am. Crossing the city we enter a somewhat long asphalt road going up slowly. After about 7 km we enter the off-road path and start the heaviest uphill at about 10th km. We reach and cross the 700+m mountain – Sierra del Perdón, famous for its sculptures- at km 14.

    Sierra del Perdón

    The downhill part is steep as well and with some stones. Nothing too difficult but may seem like this for some people.

    Afterwards, it’s kind of straight road until the hostel. Ohhh, the hostel. We stopped at the one with the lowest cost – 9 euros per night – Albergue Padres Reparadores, https://maps.app.goo.gl/H9fVNskPhi8CbWqw7?g_st=ic. Well, you get what you pay for.

    The beds are well used. The pillows should have been changed years ago. Kitchen is, well, equipped let’s say but most of this equipment is also waiting for a new replacement. Bathroom and toilet, in the same room, are not very clean, to say the least. Either the washing machine or the dryer cost 3 euros.

    Will see how the night goes. Tomorrow we have about 22 km to Estella.

    Pamplona
    Pamplona
    Pamplona
    Today’s route
    Cizur – Zariquiegui
    The highest point
    Obanos

  • Stage 3. Llarasoaña – Pamplona

    Stage 3. Llarasoaña – Pamplona

    Rainy day 😂😂 luckily it was a short one.

    First, about the dinner and breakfast. The starter had maybe a 50% portion of hummus , for two people, with two 5-6cm sticks of bread. As main dish there was a vegetable soup, very likely to be frozen vegetables and only boiled some time. For second, we had a small portion of rice with champions, also seemed to be something pre-cooked and only warmed up or something.

    We shared the table with one Italian guy, Fabio, and one from Netherlands, Arnold, if I’m writing it correctly. Very nice guys with whom we shared the dinner and some discussion. Both plan to reach Santiago de Compostela. Good luck to them!

    Breakfast topped it all 😀 a sandwich with hummus, where we hardly noticed the taste of hummus and when opening the sandwich it looked like someone “cleaned” the fork only, because there was no hummus there 🤣 to summarize, paying 15 euros for the dinner and 5 for the breakfast at Pension San Nicolas in Larrasoaña does not worth it.

    It started raining yesterday during dinner and continued until today afternoon. That means we got the cold and somewhat wet boots today and started walking through the rainy snow 🙂

    The route is pretty nice and easy. Not much to say or show in photos, as we made fewer pictures than usual.

    After the rain stopped, the sun showed up and started shining brightly. I had to change my socks because I felt my feet would not last long in the wet boots.

    Other than this, we reached Pamplona and checked in the municipality’s hostel, Jesus and Maria. Quite big I can say, with long corridors with few 8-beds compartments. Shared rooms for the bathrooms and toilets, so anyone use any cabin available. The hostel has laundromat either free laundry and 1euro dryer (which works whenever and however it wants). We put our clothes 3 times to have them fully dry.

    For lunch we went to Baratza Makrobiotika vegan restaurant. Daily menu changes so we started with croquetas and tortilla de patatas. Then we had a very tasty vegetable soup fennel cream. Then we had a dish with a mix of other things which delicious as well. For desert we had lemon pie and chocolate cake. Everything made in house! We got another tortilla in a sandwich to do and 2 empanadas (dumplings) for tomorrow. Overall, a place to recommend!

    For dinner we made another soup from a packet we bought in the first day, added some chickpeas and fideos. We also toasted some tofu to accompany the soup.

  • Stage 2. Roncesvalles – Llarasoaña

    Stage 2. Roncesvalles – Llarasoaña

    Well, this day was much nicer than the previous one. Much more wild and beautiful.

    Roncesvalles

    Straight from the start we enter a nice path through a forest. It’s kind of short but energizing to start the day with.

    Overall, the entire day passed through nice areas, with many nice views and trails. It was mostly going down today, not lots of uphill some short and steep parts but very manageable. I’ve enjoyed today’s walk.

    We planned to finish in Zubiri, after about 22km. But we reached this city relatively quickly, by lunch time, and since there was no stores or much things to do here, we decided to go to the next bigger city after lunch, Larrasoaña.

    We had lunch in a bar-restaurant. They ran out of falafel the day before so all they could offer was some salad, potato chips, olives and a big sandwich with avocado and tomato. Not a lot but ok to replenish the energy for 5 more km.

    After having lunch we entered a small shop and bought almond milk and biscuits for tomorrow’s breakfast and chickpeas for tonight’s dinner then we moved on.

    We stopped at Pension San Nicolas, a private one, because we wanted to do the laundry and cook. Here we were told they can make us something for dinner and picnic as breakfast as well.

    Laundry: 4 euros. Dryer: 3 euros.

    Other than this, the pension is nice, clean, and bit cold. There is a fully functional kitchen, although no accessories (towels, paper etc). The hosts are nice!

    The boots hace to be left outside. Under a roof, but outside. So in the morning I expect them to be almost frozen 🙂

    Roncesvalles
    Distance to Santiago de Compostela
    Tomorrow’s plan, short route

  • Stage 1. Saint Jean Pied de Port – Roncesvalles

    Stage 1. Saint Jean Pied de Port – Roncesvalles

    First day of the walk. As mentioned in the previous post, today was about the “backup” route, or winter route. Veeeerryyy boring, long distances on asphalt and sharing the road with cars. The entire distance is mostly going up, with the last kilometers having a steeper incline. Only the last 1.5 km is all going down 🙂

    So, today, exactly 15km of asphalt before entering the first trail. 1km+ of beautiful forest trail that ends in the same road with cars. Luckily today was Sunday and there were no trucks.

    Afterwards, shortly after passing the 18th km, we enter an amazing forest with beautiful views, trails, river bridges, small cascades with mostly positive, steep, elevation until the 22nd km, where we get off the forest for few hundred meters to enter another trail. Warning, the water from the spring that you can find here is not treated. Meaning you can drink it, but it’s on your own risk.

    From here, we’re following the same trail, that peaks at 1050m, until the hostel in Roncesvalles.

    The hostel is nice and looked after by volunteers. The kitchen is well equipped. Lots of tables to eat and space to prepare something to eat and then wash everything. We didn’t go to look for lunch options, since there are only 3 places nearby so vegan options are quite limited.

    After about 7km there is a commercial area with few stores, including a supermarket. The prices are very low because the store is treated as duty free, since it’s at the border between France and Spain.

    We got a can of beans, a can of artichokes and some cooked rice. With the half of the onion soup left from yesterday, we made a quick soup to which we added the beans and the rice. It ended up being more solid dish that we enjoyed a lot.

    For dinner went to Hotel Roncesvalles to see what vegan options they have. They were kind enough to make us a quinoa dish with vegetables out of the menu. With a vegetable soup as a starter, it wasn’t that bad. 2 vegetable dishes 🤦🏻‍♂️

    Start of the St. James Way
    Nice house 🙂
    Some drawings on an old building
    Pilgrim monument
    Another monument to pilgrims
    Today’s track and elevation
    Mostly all day like this
    And this, less cars though
    And this
    The first forest trail
    A nice bridge crossing the river
    The last hundred meters of uphill
    A panorama from the highest point of the route
    Map and distance left from here to Santiago
    Soup make in progress
    Our vegan lunch today