Castrojeriz - another 21km easy day

Today was loaded with new and different experiences.

First, back to our little laundry room. Here's a photo of the gathering weather last evening - the dark gray clouds were beautiful and threatening, but no rain. The children of our innkeepers were playing outdoors happily.


The cots were the softest, most comfortable beds we've slept on so far - I was out by 9:00 and slept right to the alarm at 6:30. We got up and packed, then toddled over to the kitchen we'd been shown the day before. It had been totally overrun by French speaking gentlemen who were impatient with the coffee machine but were all intent on standing in the small kitchen to wait for the coffee. We grabbed a roll, a jam packet, and a piece of white bread each and escaped to the dining table, where we added a banana and water to round out our "first breakfast". After writing a very simple note of thanks to "el Abuelo", we left at about 10 minutes to 8:00.
It was a very Pacific Northwest sort of morning, cloudy and breezy, occasionally sprinkling here and there,
but quite pleasant walking conditions.
We soon got onto some really soft mud tracks, the stuff loaded up under the arch of my boot 'til I felt I was walking on tennis balls :-). Where we could, we walked a little to the side of the path where footing was a bit less slippery.








You can see a few fellow peregrinos strung out ahead on the path -
A little more than two hours walk brought us to Hontanas and a beautiful new small bar and albergue just opened last year. The young men behind the bar were friendly and helpful, we loaded up on second breakfast and a delicious cafe con leche. I should have taken a photo - sorry.
Restored in stomach and spirit, we made for Castrojeriz. In the Castrojeriz area there is a lot of ancient pilgrim history. We came by this ruin of a convent that took care of peregrinos.






"Siglo" means century, so, built in the 1400's, but the general idea of the place dated from 11something.
Shortly after we passed this church, Castrojeriz came into view in the distance. There is a substantial ruin on the top of the hill next to the town, and the view of the two was quite impressive. I thought about a photo, but told myself to hold off until we were a little closer. I didn't see the squall coming, but B noticed it and we pulled over to put on his rain pants.
Now, I have a difficulty with rain pants at home. I feel I get wetter with sweat inside them than it's worth being protected from rain outside. In this case, however, we were soon robbed of any view of the town by a downpour that drenched my pants, which I didn't mind as it wasn't cold, BUT it also caused water to run down and soak my socks and the inside of my boots. Extremely bad idea........
We trucked on for about 45 minutes through the rain and passed several small hotels and the municipal albergue, looking for a particular albergue we'd read about. Couldn't find it. Got to the end of town and I, in utter discomfort and frustration, stepped into the last albergue and said "I don't care what this place has or doesn't have, I'm done for today".
We're 30 in one room, shared bath/shower room, breakfast will be available by donation. Everyones hanging out on their bunks as it is still pouring outside.


So, B is a little antsy, we've been "relaxing" for about an hour and a half, no laundry as it would never dry in this humid room. Somebody just started playing a flute or pan pipe of some sort. Should be an interesting afternoon/evening. I'll leave you with this funny that B just forwarded from yesterday in the University district in Burgos -


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