Pilgrims on the Way

After what must have been the longest 800m of my life, we finally spotted the little albergue in the middle of nowhere: San Bol. If you look carefully (or, you know, zoom in) you will spot it off to the left in this photo, in the shadow of a lovely grove of trees. As you can tell from the quality […]

It was about a quarter to six when we came upon this second sign for the Albergue San Bol. This was a sign of pure hope. It was slightly more official than the previous sign, and it promised a respite in less than a kilometer! We might even be there by 6:00pm, perhaps in time for the dinner promised by […]

It’s almost 5:30pm, and by my reckoning, Eamon and I should have already arrived at the hypothetical Albergue San Bol. It was at about this point that I resigned myself to sleeping outdoors tonight. If you look carefully, you can see windmills on the horizon. The only question is which of us is Don Quixote, and which of us is […]

Amid the endless rolling green sea of the Meseta, this “sign” for San Bol did nothing to ease my mind about whether or not this place actually existed. Or whether it was actually an albergue and not a road-side breakfast stand. Date: 13 April 2013Place: between Hornillos del Camino and San Bol (Province of Burgos, Castilla y León, Spain)Today started: […]

And thank goodness for that! When this odd little building appeared, I initially feared this might be the isolated “San Bol” albergue of legend, but as it turns out we were only up to the spot marked “Depósito de Agua” on the map below. It did not appear on the map I had to hand, and in the Meseta I […]

The sign as you leave Hornillos del Camino is considerably less friendly than the one when you enter. It seemed an ill omen. Still, we had run out of options, and we were determined to make it to that dot in the middle of nowhere on our map labelled “San Bol” (Fuente Sambol on the map below). Walking in trust. […]

It might not look like much, but this bench was an important moment of my first Camino. The albergue in Hornillos del Camino was full. It was after four in the afternoon, we were exhausted, and the nearest town was another 10km. Eamon and sat on this bench for almost a half hour while we figured out what to do […]

The albergue was full; there was no room at the inn. Completo. I took this photo of Santiago and Eamon moments after we received the news. We were stunned and didn’t know what to do next. You can see it all on Santiago’s face. It was after four in the afternoon, and the nearest town was another 10km. Santiago decided […]

Welcome to one of the loveliest villages on this part of the Camino. I’m pretty sure that most of the villages buildings are within the range of this photo. This was to be our stopping point for the day, and we were looking forward to settling in at the albergue, right across a small plaza from the church. If you […]

Between the previous photo and this one, I took numerous photos that all looked vaguely the same: the wide rolling terrain of this part of the Meseta, with only one or at most two people in view. In this one, we see something new: the village of Hornillos del Camino in the distance. This was meant to be our stopping […]