Castrojerez to Boadilla del Camino

We’re back on the Camino.

It was hard leaving the hotel in Castojerez.

The people running the hotel were very  kind. 

And the hotel was charming.When we left there were hugs and kisses. We promised to return.  

Starting out the walk today, my leg is much better.  The swelling and pain are gone.  But my leg is stiff from the middle of my shin down over the top of my foot.  I can feel it pull with each step.

We started out under cloudy skies.  The Camino headed up a high meseta into the clouds.To help my leg, we loaded all our heavy stuff into my backpack and left it at the hotel for a Camino delivery service. Anne is carrying her backpack, which should be lighter, but doesn’t feel like it.  I walk slowly, and Anne slows down to wait for me.

The trip along the top of the meseta is short. After just a few minutes, we walk back down.

The Camino leads past an old albuerge beside the rio Pisuerga.

And then goes over a bridge just beyond the albergue.

Near the village of Itero de la Vega is a border maker for the province of Palencia, which is part of the autonomous region of Castile-Leon.We stop in a cafe in Itero de la Vega and each order tortilla patata—elsewhere we’ve been, it’s called tortilla Espanola.  I asked for tortilla Espanola in a bar yesterday and was quickly corrected.

When we leave the cafe, it’s starting to rain.  By the time we get to the outskirts of the village, it’s raining hard.  We are about a mile out of town and we hear thunder overhead.

As we come down a hill to Boadilla del Camino, which is our day’s destination, the rain stops.We are walking less today than we had originally planned.  We have redone our schedule to reduce the distance we walk each day.  Up to this point, we have followed the schedule in John Brierley’s guidebook.   We have found, however, that the distances are too long for us. Some days in Brierley’s book are as long as 30 kilometers, with is over 18 miles.  A typical day for Brierley is around 25 kilometers.  Anne and I have decided on a 20 kilometer limit, with an occasional 25 km day when necessary.

This change of schedule will increase the number of days that we’re on the Camino.  Brierley’s book schedules 33 days from St. John to Santiago with no lay days.  We added on five days to Brierly’s schedule to deal with rain or injury.  We also planned on using some of those five extra days in Burgos, Leon, and Santiago.  We are not even half way through the Camino, and we have burned through all of our extra days.  

Re-doing Brierley’s schedule to limit our typical day to 20 km adds an extra five days to the trip.  As it stands, our new schedule has us arriving in Santiago on June 20, and our flight back to the U.S. leaves from Madrid on June 15.  Also, based on our experience on the Camino, we will need at least three more rest days before Santiago.  And that doesn’t give us any extra days in Leon and Santiago.  Realistically, we will need an additional 10 days to two weeks beyond our scheduled departure date to finish the Camino.

By the time we get to Boadilla del Camino the sun is out.

Here is a monument in front of the hotel where we are spending the night.

And here is the view from the front of the hotel back to where we came from today.By the end of today’s walk, my leg is sore and swollen, although not as bad as it was before we rested in Castrojerez.  Discussing how we should proceed leads to the first serious disagreement between Anne and me.  I suggest that we tack on extra time to account for our new schedule, including time for my leg to heal.  Anne agrees to extend the trip but wants to know how long.  I don’t know, because I don’t know how long my leg will take to heal.  Anne wants to put a limit on the trip because she wants to get back home to help Hollis, who announced her engagement shortly before we left.

Also, Anne has carried a backpack all day, walking slower than she would like through rain, mud, and thunder and lightening.  And now she just wants to know how much longer this will continue.

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