Camino Day 14; June 18; Hornillos to Castrojeriz

Camino Day 14: Hornillos to Castrojeriz

Numbers: 12.4 miles per Garmin GPS, 33,545 steps and 77 floors per Fitbit

Dave voice:

Day 14 on the Camino, Thursday, June 18 Hornillos to Castrojeriz.

Another light mileage day over easy terrain so our aches and pains were only moderately annoying. Weather was sunny, but windy and not warm. That easy terrain was farmland again with all the visual splendor that entails. The Camino here is usually between six and ten feet wide and doubles as a farm road though sightings of workers or their equipment are very rare. The surface is most often packed earth with a generous number of rocks, some of which are packed into the surface, thus improving footing, while others lay on or protrude from the ground, creating trip hazards. Dave’s new idea is that, if every pilgrim threw two rocks per day off the Camino road (though not into the already rocky farm soil), the problems of bad footing could be resolved in as little as a hundred years. Okay, maybe a thousand. Either way, it’s forward thinking, and it involves each Peregrino in the future of the Camino.

Litter isn’t much of a problem out here, rare enough that isolated examples are surprising. A few cigarette butts (Europeans), tissues, Lugers (Germans, what can you do?), and the occasional condom (did I mention that a lot of our fellow hikers are traveling alone? Turns out, the Camino is a hot "hook-up" place, like the Chuze gym and almost any marathon finish line. (Typical pick-up chatter: "Hey, I notice you’re sweating like a pig and might throw up from too much exercise. Wanna have sex?" Works a surprising percentage of the time.)

Mostly what we see instead are little villages in the distance, most white washed and with red-tiled roofs. Upon closer inspection, many of the buildings are ancient and run-down. Newer buildings – even very new ones – have a 1950s look. The pace of life, especially in the smallest villages, seems incredibly slow, so slow that people like us, who think we’re cruising along at half speed, seem like Type A multitaskers.

Today’s example: We arrive in Castrojeriz, check into our hotel, hit the Farmacia for foot and knee ailment treatments, then mosey to a local – and recommended – restaurant for lunch. We sit under an umbrella on the restaurant patio for a few minutes chatting with a lovely Spanish lady. No server comes until a cook comes out to inform us that the restaurant doesn’t open until 1:00 PM. The time was then 12:59. Uh, okay, we’ll tough it out for one minute. Eventually, around 1:15, a server takes our order. Are we NOT in synch with the life, or what?

Did we mention the older Spanish lady and her husband sitting on the same restaurant patio and, if we were not mistaken, eating food prepared in the premises? Maybe they owned the place. The lady was friendly and curious and didn’t let our ignorance of Spanish (and her ignorance of English) deter her. They live in a "pueblo" 25 K from Castrojeriz and had perhaps come into town for lunch or – this being Spain – perhaps for breakfast. Scout knew almost enough Spanish to hold up her end of the conversation… Almost. The lady was kind enough to try and involve Dave in the talk, asking Scout "Este su esposo un pendejo idiota?" They both laughed for a while about that.

The señora asked us to her home, but, as sweet as she was, we had to beg off. Her esposo had a Luger.

Our hotel here in Castrojeriz is a converted private residence where the owner spent 720,000€ to covert a private residence into a hotel for a tiny number of people. It is 7 floors with 10 rooms. Did we mention that there's a wine cellar and converted horse stables? No? Ok...pictures below along with great views.

Ok, to hotel last night was charming, but...there were flies...can you see them?

Dave making sure we are on the Camino

I didn't have a chance to post this from a few days ago: gorgeous misty morning

Camino signs over the days

Rest break this a.m,

I'm not climbing up there!

Some views and terrain today

Description of San Anton Ruins

Spectacular San Anton Ruins

More San Anton

Castrojeriz has a population of 700, but the foot ailment products exceed those of any CVS in big U.S. Cities

Castrojeriz castle at hilltop above town (borrowed web photo); no, we didn't walk up!

The stamps are accumulating in my passport

14 days of steps on the Camino

Tour of hotel with Raquel and view

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