D19- Hontanas to Itero de la Vega 21.3 k

Walked so far 334.4 km. 432.6km to go km
After a lovely night at the Albergue Santo Brigida we set off about 7am after a quick coffee. It wasn’t just as cold as the day before but there was still a chill in the air. After 5km we came to the ruins of San Anton monastery and pilgrims hospital. There is an 12 bed Albergue run by volunteers on site. We ventured a few more kms and stopped for breakfast at a cafe as we entered the town of Castrojeriz. It was a fair sized town but not much activity to be seen, maybe being a Saturday morning everyone was still indoors. Leaving Castrojeriz we walked for a bit then saw a sign that said we had a 1050m climb up the Alto de Mostelares. It was a long windy km ascent and at the top there is a picnic area with beautiful views over the countryside we had left behind. The descent on the other side was much steeper but the scenery was amazing. We continued on the trail a bit further and saw the old pilgrim hospital of San Nicolas and now a small albergue. Just after this we cross the Puente Fitero and we are now in the region of Palencia. Our albergue Puente Fitero was 1.5 km after this, very nice albergue and we had a room for five which we shared with Chris and Kate. We ate lasagna for dinner washed down with the best sangria we have had so far.Read more