Olvidate del tiempo pasado, y haz del Camino tu vida.
- painted on the wall in a café in Grañon
Today we left Rioja behind and entered our fourth Spanish region: Castilla y León. We will be here for a while!
It was a day of walking on a dirt track with green wheat fields on the left and the motorway on the right, through a series of villages strung along the Way like pearls on a chain: Grañon, Redecilla del Camino, Castildelgado, Viloria de Rioja, Villamayor del Rio, Belorado, Tosantos, Villambistia. A day of undramatic scenery, a day for focusing on the details: a rose, a poppy, a snail, a stork's nest atop a church.
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| Redecilla del Camino |
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| Castildelgado |
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| Villamayor del Rio |
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| Tosantos |
After the crazy 217-bed
albergue in Santo Domingo de la Calzada, we were ready to go back to our policy of ending the day in a small village a few kilometres after the end of the "official" stage, so we walked right past the queue of people waiting for the municipal hostel to open in Belorado, backpacks lined up outside the door. We stopped in Belorado only to eat our lunch, on a bench outside the church, where storks flew overhead and landed on their massive nests on the church roof, clacking their beaks. We walked separately in the afternoon, and I took a detour to the hermitage carved into the cliff in Tosantos. It is unfortunately kept closed, but the spot was beautiful!
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| Eremita de Tosantos |
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| Eremita de Tosantos |
In the meantime Marius had run into Winfried, whom we have bumped into regularly since France, and they called ahead to make sure there were beds available at a small hostel in the next village, Villambistia. Here we have found a quiet place to stay, with only 12 bunks, and a great deal: dinner, bed and breakfast all for 15 euros!
I'm following you guys. I like the way you find good quiet spots despite being on the Camino Frances (except nSanto Domingo de la Calzado and its chickens in the church. Godd strategy as it is a beautiful Camino. The weather looks pretty darn good too. Montrealers are having their annual spring attack! City closing street to give away flowers and or compost, terraces bursting at the seams, parks full of kiddies, bicycles EVERYWHERE, lilac smells and happy faces. Gone those damn winter clothes! Hi to Marius.
ReplyDeleteThe chickens clucked when I went by! It's supposed to be good luck! Enjoy Spring in Montreal, Suzanne!
DeleteWow! 217 beds! I had one terrible and very similar albergue in Spain last year, now unforgettable memory. Hope you will run into nice albergue from now on.
ReplyDeleteIt was very large but well-organised, and nobody in my room snored 😁
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