Walking the Camino de Santiago
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 […]
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The stretch of Meseta between Hornillos del Camino and Arroyo de San Bol has more than the normal amount of ups and downs. None of them are steep or in any way difficult, but the cumulative effect is that you can’t really spot where it is you’re going until you’re very nearly there. That’s a pretty tiring way of walking. […]
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On the seemingly endless Meseta after Hornillos, Francine found a straw hat. We were pretty sure who it belonged to, so we planned on bringing it back to them. Presumably they would be staying at our destination, San Bol. As it turned out, this was not the case. I can’t remember how long we held on to the silly thing. […]
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This is the Iglesia de San Román in Hornillos del Camino. It’s our view from lunch, as this little plaza is right across the street from the alimentación where we had our sausage and eggs. I particularly enjoy the rooster. We did try to pop in and take a look, but the place was having some renovation work done, and […]
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In my experience, you don’t want your Camino lunch to be too hearty – it slows you down for the afternoon walk, when you’re already probably starting to drag. My breakfast and second breakfast tend to be heavy on carbs, so I like to have a protein-full lunch. Here’s the spot in Hornillos del Camino where we stopped. It’s across […]
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Hornillos del Camino is not a large village. In fact, you can pretty much see all of it in this photo. According to the 2004 census, the total population is 70. Even so, it’s quite charming. It’s got a church, a grocery, and no less than three albergues. Why so many? It’s a long stretch of 12km to the next […]
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The Meseta is a big, mostly flat plateau in the center of Spain. I mean, just take a look at that horizon: flat, flat, flat. However, over the eons, rivers have cut deep valleys in the plateau. Naturally, many towns are built in these river valleys. So while crossing the Meseta is mostly an easy trek, climbing down into the […]
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It’s difficult to get lost on the Camino. Not impossible, of course, particularly if there’s a temporary detour in place or an alternate route. Every so often there’s a sign or the ubiquitous yellow arrow. Since the signs are all maintained by local authorities, what they look like varies from place to place. And then sometimes, you get something like […]
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The land after Burgos begins to flatten out, and by the time you leave the village of Rabé de las Calzadas, you’re deep into farm country. There’s still some terrain, as you can see: low, flat hills and undulating fields. In a couple of days, even this will be gone. This is the great plateau of northern and central Spain […]
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As we leave the village of Rabé de las Calzadas, we pass a little chapel that turns out to actually be a hermitage as well, the Nuestra Señora del Monasterio. These little buildings dot the Camino from one end to the other, an almost daily reminder of Spain’s great Christian heritage. Date: 13 April 2016 Place: Rabé de las Calzadas […]
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