Walking the Camino de Santiago
Just as you leave the village of Itero de la Vega, you will come upon this abandoned house, painted in… well, whatever this is. In 2016, I got a better photo of the portion with the psychedelic gnomes. Here, I chose to focus on the section from Nightmare Before Christmas. As we started out of town, though we didn’t know […]
» Read more
This little unnamed plaza is located in the village of Itero de la Vega, where Calle Santa María crosses Calle Pisuerga. All along the Camino, the sort of marker you see here has been associated with medieval boundaries. Since this is literally in the middle of the town, that’s not the case here. This is called the Rollo de justicia […]
» Read more
Good morning! It’s about eight o’clock in the morning of Monday, 15 April 2013, in the village of Itero de la Vega, and Eamon and I are walking on our way out of town and down the Way. This spoon caught my eye as we walked. It was stuffed into the crumbling brickwork of a building we passed in the […]
» Read more
There’s a beautiful café/albergue as you enter Itero de la Vega. For the life of me, I cannot remember that we stayed here, though. We generally adopted a rule not to stay at the first albergue in a town. I’m pretty sure that we grabbed dinner here, though, and Francine and I had lunch here three years later. In any […]
» Read more
This church and cemetery are probably located just before you enter Itero de la Vega, though I can’t be certain. Google maps streetview is no help here, and I did not note it in my journal. It might be the Ermita de Nuestra Señora de la Piedad. Or not. We were in any case quite exhausted by this point, having […]
» Read more
We ultimately passed three different signs welcoming us to the Province of Palencia. This was my favourite, both because it was the oldest and most dignified, but also because there was shade nearby. There’s a map carved on the other side showing the route of the Camino through the province. Date: 14 April 2013Place: between Castrojeriz and Itero de la […]
» Read more
The Camino weirdly sidesteps the village of Itero del Castillo, as the bridge across the Río Pisuerga (the eponymous Puente de Itero del Castillo) lies perhaps a kilometer to the south. Although it’s a highway bridge, with a roadbed of 20th century asphalt, the bridge itself is much older. The original 11th/12th century bridge was rebuilt in the 16th century, […]
» Read more
Once you descend from the Colina de Mostalares, the Meseta opens wide before you. This photo of Eamon is, to me, one of the most iconic photos from our first Camino. It captures the lonely vista of the Meseta, where you walk alone with God, often with no other human being in sight. Many pilgrims take similar photos, and I […]
» Read more
The way down the ridge was steep, and it was also paved. This is pretty unusual, and I’m not a fan. Bikes whizzed past us on this hill, and they were going fast enough that they would not have been able to stop if a walker made and unexpected stop or turn. Three years later Francine and I walked down […]
» Read more
We rested at the top of the ridge for some time, catching our breath and hydrating. The view was spectacular. My photos of the view towards Castrojeriz weren’t great, but this one really encapsulates the entirety of the place. Your eye can follow the Camino, snaking away from us towards the distant horizon. Glorious. And yes, the way down is […]
» Read more