Castrojeriz to Boadilla del Camino

Last night, dinner didn’t disappoint! It was everything I had hoped for and while it didn’t look like much when placed in front of this hungry pilgrim, I was unable to finish! We were seated by a father and son who are from Madrid, an Australian, French woman, and another guy who I didn’t catch where he was from. Conversation around the table was focused on Holly and the Spanish guys as she tried to practice her Spanish and find out bits about their lives. I chimed in when I understood what was being said, but focus for me was on the food at 7pm and hopefully bed by 8!! While it was a short day, I was tired and hungry as usual and honestly didn’t want to work so hard to converse!
As for today, there’s nothing like catching a sunrise on top of a mountain after a long climb. What a rewarding walk first thing in the morning. It’s like our albergue knew people liked to head out early on this day to catch the sunrise on top because breakfast was at 6:30 and normally it’s 7-8am. We woke up at 6am and were first in the breakfast room. Cold walk again but we opted for shorts rather than leggings because we figured the climb would warm our legs up in no time. Funny how fast we can walk when it’s cold, hoping to get that blood circulating and warm us up. We were fine. In fact I was better than fine. I’ve done this climb 3 times in the past and each time it kicked my butt so I went into it with respect. Much to my surprise I managed that mountain better than the other 3 times, and I was 11 years younger the first time! I guess those morning 4-5 mile walks back home all year a few times a week have helped! I didn’t even break a sweat or have to peel off my jacket. To be fair, one of those times I did it was in the heat of the day and the little pesky flies swarmed my sweating head and body. I was batting them away the whole time. This time, not one. They weren’t awake yet! Once at the top we were just in time for the beautiful sunrise and the spotlight on the ground below highlighting what we had walked for a few days. What a peaceful sight. Of course what goes up, must come down, so we headed down quite a hill back to the flat desolate land of the meseta. We stopped at the hermitage Ermita San Nicholas, a church which is now both a church and albergue previously run by Benedictine Monks, but now is run by Italian hospitaleros. It’s rustic, but they serve communal dinner by candlelight to those who stay and offer the ancient ritual of washing pilgrims’ feet. I got a few photos, donated some coins, and got a stamp from this special place. About 1km from there we came upon the small village of Itero de la Vega. We were 10km (halfway) into our walk and there was a popular bar/restaurant that had food and coffee so we stopped there for a break. I’m so glad we did. I had a cafe americano, and a delicious jamon y queso bocadillo that had tomato and lettuce on it (usually it’s just a thin slice of ham and cheese so it felt fancy!). That carried me through the day perfectly. We arrived after 20km to Boadillo del Camino to our private room. We felt we had an easy day only walking 20km, but our feet were ready. Part of keeping our feet and bodies happy is not pushing them 30+km. The days we do that we are just asking for trouble (blisters, shin splints, tendinitis, etc). We need to do it here and there but doing that most days is insane. One girl we passed today did 40km the day before. That’s just mad! I’m not sure why anyone would, it’s not enjoyable. I’ve done 35-38km on a couple times on previous caminos and I will never again. So, we arrived at our accommodation and checked in. Our backpacks were transported today and we went to the area where they are all piled up. Mine wasn’t there, but thankfully Holly’s was. I have an AirTag in it so I wasn’t too worried about losing it forever but it was quite an inconvenience to wait a couple hours for it to be retrieved from where it was dropped off in the town ahead. Not a big deal, just meant I got my shower a couple hours later. While waiting we ran into Bill from Connecticut. He took a rest day yesterday at the place we stayed at 2 nights ago and walked 18 miles today! I didn’t think we’d see him again due to his rest day, but he made up for lost time and hoofed it! I like him. He was a teacher for over 40 years, definitely a man I feel safe around. He has 3 adult daughters, and you can tell he was a good daddy to them. They always come up in his conversations and he’s proud of them.
No communal dinner tonight but the place we are staying at has a restaurant which seems to be serving all day (no siesta!), so I’m hoping for an earlier dinner and early to bed. We have about 25km into Carrion de Los Condes tomorrow. That’s all I have for today, I’ll check in tomorrow ❤️Read more