Author: Thom

This treeless stretch of the Meseta just past Hontanas is no fun in the heat. Then, as you round a hill, an eerie sight comes into view. This bare ruin to the left is known as San Miguel. I’ve been told that it’s the remains of a castle, or a convent, or even a mill. What seems clear, however, is […]

This is a view of the bell tower of the Iglesia de La Inmaculada Concepción in Hontanas. Here’s the thing that bugged me about this: the clock is off-center. Drives me bats. There’s a belfry joke in there somewhere, but you’ll have to assemble it yourself. And yes, I think the clock is accurate. We spent a LOT of time […]

Well, street, anyway. Like many of the old medieval villages on the Camino, the Camino itself is the main street. It winds past the church, any cafés or bars, shops, bakeries, you name it. And, of course, since it’s the Camino, basically everybody is going in the same direction. Note those ominous, grey clouds on the horizon. More on them […]

As I’ve mentioned before, many of the towns and villages of the Meseta are in river valleys. Here we are coming to the first town of the day, Hontanas, looking for some breakfast. It’s still pretty early – Hontanas is only an hour or so past San Bol. In other news, I think we left the straw hat at San […]

In the early dawn light, Francine and I cast long shadows across the Meseta. I really never get tired of taking this sort of picture. I suspect that I’ve already posted a similar image from earlier in the Camino, but darned if I can find it. You can just see some windmills off to the right. This part of Spain […]

We left San Bol about dawn on the 13th of April, 2016. One of the great things about the Camino is that it follows a route from the east to the west, so in the morning the sun is usually behind you. Just after we left, I turned around and snapped this photo. It’s not great, but hopefully it will […]

This is the lighting fixture in the dome of the albergue at San Bol. There was just something that struck me as oddly elegant about the chandelier in this refurbished bodega in the middle of nowhere. Date: 14 April 2016 Place: Arroyo de San Bol (Castilla y León, Spain) Today’s map:

One of the great things to recommend this albergue is the communal meal. When we were there, a bed for the night was a mere €5. For an additional €5, you could buy into a meal prepared by the hospitaleros. Needless to say, everybody did, because (a) even doubling the cost of the night was still what most albergues charge […]

San Bol might just be my favourite albergue. Certainly, it is in the top five. It is an old bodega on the site of a thousand-year-old Roman spa in the middle of nowhere, converted into an albergue decades ago. It has enjoyed quite a checkered history – at one point, it was apparently owned by Jamaican Rastafarians. Nowadays, it’s run […]