Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Day 20 (10/12) - Hornillos del Camino to Castrojeriz (18.9km)

We got around pretty early and had breakfast in the albergue but still ended up starting later than usual, a bit after 8am. It had rained fairly heavily in the night so we got into rain gear, etc. at the beginning. It was windy and rained a bit, enough to get gear wet but nothing more than that. The path was gravel track and pretty good walking for the first 5 or 6km. Then, a major annoyance was a few long sections of the gravel track that had turned to mud with clay oozing up between the rocks, coating our shoes so that we were carrying quite a bit of goo. After a few miles of that and 11km total, we came to a nice village (Hontanas) hidden in a little valley and had tortilla (potato omelet) sandwiches and coffee. Continued on with raindrops blowing into us in stiff breeze but thankfully (!!) no more muddy stretches. We arrived Castrojeriz a bit earlier than expected. We stayed here last year in a nice casa rural (closed this year) and we wanted anyway to stay somewhere else and ended up in "El Meson", a somewhat older place with attached bar and restaurant, and our room is quite nice. Had a couple glasses of red wine and snack to unwind and rested a bit. Dinner was at La Taverna, a place that we had wanted to try last year but it was closed. It is in a building from 1697. I had white bean and sausage soup, meatballs with potatoes and aged sheep cheese with quince jam for dessert. Cindy had garlic soup, fish and potatoes, with melon for dessert. Of course, a bottle of red wine included and all for 11 euros (ca. $14) each.

Today we reached the 400km mark - approximately 240 miles - of walking!







A bit blustery but nothing too difficult -- but then we had a few miles with sticky clay on the road service. Definitely unpleasant!





the meseta - big spaces!





Second breakfast. Spanish omelette (egg & potatoes) sandwich with coffee. I prefer cafe con leche and Cindy likes cafe americano. We stopped at a bar in Hontanas (below). Definitely very popular spot in mid-morning on a blustery day.











The camino is very well marked with signs like this or painted yellow arrows on rocks, road or walls of houses.





Todays destination is Castrojeriz - hillside town below the ruins of ancient castle.











We treated ourselves to a simple hotel style room at Hostal El Meson. A "hostal" is a hotel or pensionne.





Dinner was at La Taverna, in a building dating to 1697 and home-style cooking.





White bean and sausage soup (above) for me and garlic soup below for CIndy.











Cindy had fish and I had meatballs. Accompanied by a bottle of red wine and dessert. All for ~$14 each. What a deal!







Location:Castrojeriz,Spain

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