Terradillos de Los Templarios

We left this morning right before sunrise.  Below is a picture of the front of the Monasterio de San Zoilo we stay in last night as well as a picture of it a little further down the road with the sun rising over it. We walked over 17 miles today and today was the first day I almost broke down and cried. The first 12 miles was down a long straight road with no little villages to stop in, just a gravel road that seemed to never stop and fields. I strained my back yesterday while bending over and getting things out of my suitcase and I've been nursing a large blister on my right heel (see pic below). Everything just seemed to hurt and I didn't know how I was going to get through the day, we were on our feet walking for 8 hours.  I kept hearing "Don't give up Mommy!"; "You are strong, you got this!"; "You girls are amazing", and I pushed on. One foot in front of another trudging through Northern Spain.

It helps when you have new people to talk to along the way.  Today We walked with some new friends; Ruth from Reno and Jane from Fresno.  They are on a group tour called "Spanish Steps" and by coincidence have been staying in some of the same hotels we've been staying in.  Below is a picture of them with Lee.  I also walked for about a half hour today with a young lady from Taiwan named Wen and we had some interesting conversation as I lived in her country as a young girl.  Also, for the last few days we have been seeing a couple of Spanish gentlemen walking with their dog. This is the only dog we've seen walking thus far so we had to ask them about it. The dog is three years old and every year they do a section of the Camino together. We were concerned, but the dog really seems to enjoy herself.

We always have snacks with us to eat throughout the day; fruit, sandwiches, trail mix, etc. Well, I have a confession to make;  I ate all the M&M's out of the trail mix today.  This afternoon when Lee asked for a handful of trail mix, she got a handful of nuts and raisins. She looked at me and said "what happened to all the M&M's?  I was quilty...and had no one else to blame it on!

We are saying in Terradillos de Los Templarios tonight.  A humble village that once was a stronghold of the Knights Templar.  We are staying in a nice hostel and we were able to do a much needed load of wash this afternoon.  It's time to take it off the clothesline and have dinner.

We have something to celebrate tonight...we are half way now to Santiago.  I am amazed that we have come so far in 2 1/2 weeks!  Tomorrow we head for El Burgo Ranero.

Blown all the way to Carrion de Los Condes

The news as we awoke this morning:"Showers and a heavier thunderstorm this morning; heavy afternoon rain; windy; watch for flooding!"

We were prepared for the worst when we left this morning. It was sprinkling when we left Fromista this morning but only for a short while.  There were no heavy thunderstorms or flooding but there was WIND.  Our path today crossed the plains; it was about as flat as it can get.  We walked in gusts of about 40mph winds today coming out of the South.  We were headed West so it hit us from the left side knocking us off balance for at least 12 of the 12.7 we walked today. It seems like everyday provides a new and different challenge for us out here on the Camino; a today's was the wind!  Several days ago I wrote about the wind turbines as we crossed over some mountain peaks; as that's normally where we see them. Today we saw them spinning so fast here on the plains that I thought they would go airborne!

We ate lunch today in the town of Villalcazar de Sirga.  This little town has been welcoming pilgrims here since the 12th century when it became a command post for the Knights Templar.  The town is home to the magnificent Templar church of Santa Maria la Virgen Blanca housing the tombs of nobles and royalty.

Tonight we are staying in a restored monastery dating from the 11th century in the town of Carrion de Los Condes. This interesting town retains a medieval atmosphere with its meandering side streets and old, old buildings. There was a dog sitting on the roof of a house watching people entering the city.  See picture below.  The hotel, it's grounds and our room are beautiful.  Yes, we scored a bath tub as well!

Below are some pictures we took today. We head to Terradillos de Los Templarios in the morning.

Fromista, stop your misting please!

"If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living"  Joseph Campbell

The quote above is out of the guidebook we are following.  The track we have been following, The Camino de Santiago was laid two thousand years ago.  Millions of piligrims have walked this same road since and millions more will walk it in the future. It takes dedication and perseverance to get up each day and set off walking again and again and again. Today was our 15th day of walking down this path and we have 20 more days to go.

This morning we left Castrojeriz, crossed the Rio Odrilla and then climbed the Alto de Mostelares to the top of the Meseta. It was a steep climb, at the very beginning of the climb we passed the grave of a former pilgrim,  Lee & I just looked at each other and smiled. I have a confession to make: Lee is stronger at climbing hills than I and she reached the top a couple of minutes before I did. She pulled out her hermonica and starting playing a tune on it to help me get he rest of the way up the hill. The pictures of today's hike aren't very clear but that's because the day wasn't clear. It was foggy and it sprinkled pretty much all day today. We were in our full rain gear again; we've heard we have one more day of rain before it clears.

Today's hike was 15.7 miles.  We stopped about 6 miles out and had an early lunch in the village of Itero de la Vega right after entering the Province of Palencia.  Land of Fields with an extensive agricultural area well served with rivers and canals that irrigate its rich soils.  We walked along the Canal de Castilla that flows from Boadilla del Camino all the way to (our final destination) Fromista along a peaceful tree-lined path.

Tonight we are staying at the Hotel San Martin, which it right next to a beautiful 11th century Church of San Martin. The church was consecrated in 1066 and is reputedly one of the finest examples of pure Romanesque in Spain. Below are a few pictures of the church and others taken today. Tomorrow we will be following our bliss all the way to Carrion de Los Condes.  Now it's time to recover from today!

 

Castrojeriz

Todays walk from Hornillos del Camino to Castrojeriz was only 12.6 miles but it felt like 20 miles. We started out at daybreak again and gradually climbed to the top of Alto Meseta. In yesterday's post I mistakenly said that this next week would be relatively flat.  What I have learned is that once you climb to the top of the Meseta its relatively flat.  Rain water tends to pool onto of the Meseta, since there is nowhere for the water to run off to. It sprinkled for about two hours today and we had a couple of miles of mud to walk through on the Meseta. Yuck! Below is a picture of our shoes after we've cleaned most of the caked on mud off them. About half way across the Meseta we decended and crossed the Rio Sansol and then climbed back up to the top of the Meseta again. Mud, mud, mud there was nothing we could do to avoid it except walk through it being very careful not to fall into it.  Finally about an hour of making our way across the Meseta we decended into the classic pilgrim village of Hontanas for a rest and bite to eat.  The rain stopped, the sun broke through, we removed our rain gear and headed for Castrojeriz about 6 miles down the road.

About three miles down the road we passed under St. Anthony's archway.  This was an ancient monastery and hospice in the 11th century and connected to the work of the hermit Saint Anthony of Egypt (San Anton Adad) patron saint of animals and is usually depicted with a pig at his feet. The Orders sacred symbol was the "T" shaped cross known as the Tau - nineteenth letter of the Greek alphabet and symbolizing divine protection against evil and sickness. Increasingly referred to and worn as the Pilgrims Cross.  The Order was known for its ability to cure the medieval scourge known as Saint Anthony's Fire (a fungal skin disease often turning gangrenous leading to death) essentially by using the power of the Tau (Love) in its healing practice.

Castrojeriz is famous for its Garlic Festival in July. Tonight I had some really tasty garlic soup which is very popular in this region of Spain, cod with red peppers and flan for dessert. Lee had a pasta soup and succulent prawns a rice pudding for dessert.  We are both fat and happy tonight!

While walking to our hotel this afternoon we came across a skull and crossbones carved in stone on the side of a building.  Above it was carved "Mors".  I am guessing this meant death to the Mors.  The Mors were Muslims that took over most of Spain centuries ago until the Christian armies fought and drove them out of Spain. There are history books written about the wars if you are interested.

Below is are a couple of pictures of the hotel room we are staying in tonight (yes a bath tub!) as well as other pictures from today.  We head to Fromista tomorrow.

Bye, bye Burgos hello Hornillos del Camino

Today we left behind the large beautiful city of Burgos and entered Spain's Meseta. Today's walk was 13.0 miles mostly through wheat, barley and oat fields.  We crossed over the Rio Arlanzon, had coffee and tea in the small village of Tarjados before climbing to the top of the Meseta. We saw another shepherd with a huge herd of sheep; this time they stayed grazing on the side of the hill. The Meseta is pretty barrin, and we had some showers again today. Our final destination today was the small village of Hornillos del Camino. It's very peaceful here compared to the city we left earlier today. We are staying in a small hotel and the innkeeper's just made us dinner. First course was a wonderful fish soup with potatoes and fish and a really tasty broth.

We have completed two whole weeks of walking so far, today we started our third week.  This coming week is going to be relatively flat walking across the Spanish plains. This is when we will experience the vast emptiness and endless horizons.  We've heard that these will be trying times, a different type of struggle than we had these past couple of weeks. Lee is prepared for it with her IPod and Strauss music, I plan to just look and listen to the nature that surrounds me.  Spain is beautiful country!  The areas we have walked through have been so fruitful.  We seen fig trees, almonds, walnuts, grapes, apples, pears and all sorts of vegetables.  Bread is a staple here, it is served with every meal along with wine.  Neither Lee or I drink wine so we usually just drink water with our meals. There are cheeses, ham and salami that is out of this world and the pastries are to die for!  We are eating very well here in Spain and each region we cross through has its specialities.

Below are pictures of our dinner tonight as well as a few pictures from our day.  Tomorrow we are headed for Castrojeriz.

Beautiful Burgos!

We spent the night last night in a small village outside of San Juan de Ortega called Atapuerca.
The prehistoric caves were found in this town in the 70's with the earliest remains ever discovered in Europe dating back over 900,000 years! Wow!

Our friends from Holland and our friend Patrica all stayed at the same small hotel. We all had dinner together last night and breakfast this morning. We enjoyed our conversations and getting to know them a little better.  We headed for Burgos right after breakfast. It was raining and very windy off and on throughout the day. We had one mountain to climb (Alto Cruceiro), with a huge crucifix on top. The views were beautiful from on top and we could see Burgos way off in the distance.  From there it was down hill and flat the rest of the way.  We walked 13.4 miles today, about 4 miles along the Rio Arlanzon that runs right long side of Burgos. The path just seemed to go on and on.

Tonight's hotel is right next to the huge Cathedral and right on the Camino. The picture below was taken right off our balcony this afternoon. The Catedral de Santa Maria XIIIth is amount the most beautiful of Spain's many cathedrals and one of its largest. It was built essentially in a Gothic style and has been embellished by great master builders and architects down through the centuries.  It is an amazing site to see!

Tomorrow we head to Hornillos del Camino. We hope you enjoy our pictures from today!

San Juan de Ortega

We left Belorado at day break in the rain. It rained for 3 hours which meant we had mud and slippery rocks to deal with. We are Southern California girls and we don't hike in the rain because there's not a whole lot of it where we come from. Today we had on all our rain gear: rain pants, rain coat, gaiters for our boots and a gaiter for our neck to keep the cold out.  We crossed over the Rio Tiron and the Rio Oca.  Then we climbed up to the top of two peaks;  Alto Mojapan and Alto Pedraja.  The highest elevation was 3,773.  We passed through several small villages during the first part of the day: Tosantos, Villambistia, Epinosa and then we had lunch in Villafranca. The second half of the day we climbed, and climbed and climbed. Passing oak trees along the way and then pines trees towards the top.  We hiked for about 3 hours across the top of the mountain range where we saw huge wind turbines spinning away.  We then made our decent down to the quaint village of San Juan de Ortega. This small hamlet has one cafe, a hostel, a church some homes and that's about it. The town is named after San Juan who was a disciple of Saint Dominic and like his mentor became known for his great works to serve the pilgrim to Santiago.  The church was built in the early 1400's. San Juan is entombed in the church in a simple stone sarcophagus, shown pictured below.  In the center of the church there is a very ornate crypt of Queen Isabel of Castile also pictured below.

Today we walked 15.1 miles.  We are now over one third of the way to Santiago.  Only 340 miles to go!