Belorado to San Juan Ortega

The hotel we stayed in last night in Belorado was the only place in town we could find that had a room available:

We are planning on spending the night in the village of San Juan Ortega in an abergue.  We called ahead yesterday to reserve a room in the town’s only pensione, but it was full, completo.  And the albergue is not answering the phone. Anne is concerned that it will fill up quickly, and we won’t find a bed.  So we are leaving Belorado early. We are on the Camino at 7:15 a.m. And we are walking fast.

In the next village, Tosantos, a hermitage has been built into bluffs above the village:

We passed through the village of Espinosa del Camino:

The Camino then went up and over a hill:

And then to the village of Villafranca Montes de Oca:

In Villafranca, we believe we have discovered why the priest prayed for us last night.  Villafranca is split by a busy highway that narrows as it goes through the village.

The Camino goes right along the side of the highway at its narrowest part:

Big rig trucks race through Villafranca, barely slowing. We have to peer around corners of buildings before stepping out to make sure that we don’t get hit by a truck. The priest’s prayers were effective because we make it though Villafranca in one piece. 

We then climbed a long hill behind the village:

At the top of the hill is another memorial to Republicans murdered by Franco’s forces during the Spanish Civil War:

Much of the day was spent on a wide path on the top of the hill we had just climbed

Near our destination, a large group of pilgrims stared gaining on us.  We walked faster to make sure that we beat them to the albergue.  

We made it to the albergue in record time, at a little after one o’clock.  It was empty when we checked in and claimed our beds:

The albergue is attached to the village church where Mass will be held tonight:

Anne painted a picture of the outside of the church in San Juan Ortega:

After Mass is a communal supper at the albergue.  The people who run the albergue will kick us out at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning.  Then it is on to Burgos where we will spend an extra day at a hotel in the middle of town.