Three days all alone

Well, not really totally alone, since there were people in the towns where I stayed. But there are very few peregrinos on this camino, which is a shame, because it is beautiful -- especially in spring with the flowers. Though I lost the shade of the pine forests three days ago, the beauty of the meseta is that the flowers are incredible and sometimes just stretch endlessly. Lots of red, yellow, white, pink, purple, and blue, with fields of wheat, potatoes, lentils, and barley.

I´ve had to walk a couple of very short days because of the location of the albergues. My first day out of Valladolid, I was in a town called Ciguñuela, only about 13 kms from Valladolid. But the albergue was in the house where the teacher used to live and had been made into a very nice sleeping place for peregrinos. At about 5 in the afternoon, a bunch of women from the tiny town came to use the big industrial kitchen to make traditional sweets. They are having a bake sale to help pay attorney´s fees for a tae kwan do teacher they believe has been falsely accused of something (they didn´t say what, but I take it it was something connected with a young female student). They baked for hours and hours, concoctions made of lard, sugar, eggs, wine, and flour -- not exactly for those watching their weight, their blood sugar, or their cholesterol. It was fun talking to them, they thought I was crazy of course, but it was nice to have some human contact.

The next day was a more standard 24 km to a town called Castromonte, which the guide I´m using describes as having a "delightful" plaza mayor and an "imposing" church spire. I´m all in favor of being generous with the adjectives, but these two were quite a stretch, IMO. But the albergue, now THAT was delightful! It is located in a school built in 1930, half is now the Casa de Cultura (where women go to dance and exercise, not sure what else happens there), and half is the albergue. I had a huge bedroom with about 10 bunks all to myself, not to mention the kitchen with fancy dancy washing machine (soap there for using, too!), stove, micro-wave, not to mention boiling hot water in the showers.

But it was a good think I brought the draft of my article to work on because it was a LONG afternoon. Luckily, the Bar Caribe in the "delightful" plaza mayor managed to scrounge up some eggs and chorizo for my lunch. When I went in to eat, there were several tables of workers eating their lunch, so I asked the guy behind the bar if I could eat. He asked -- ¿Trajiste la comida? (Did you bring your lunch?). Then I looked at the tables and saw that the workers were all eating out of their own lunch boxes, just drinking the bar´s wine and water. When I told him no, he graciously told me his wife would make me eggs and salad. Turns out the couple running this bar is 91, so you can imagine how guiltly I felt having her go to the special trouble of making my lunch.

Today was another short day to this town of Medina de Rioseco. Just 15 kms, through endless fields, but with a ton of birds singing. Here the albergue is in a convent from the XVI century run by the nuns -- private room, sheets, a towel, all for 6€. And the town itself is hopping with weekend visitors, since it has a lot of pretty squares, all colonnaded, and a big exhibition in the Santiago church, which I will be sure to visit this afternoon.

 

And then, bright and early tomorrow morning, my walk starts towards a town called Villalón, and the first 8 km are right on the side of the Canal de Castilla, heavily shaded and cool. The weather has been great so far, not a drop of rain has fallen on me, but I´m sure that will come at some point!