Dec. 30, 2010:
I've said it before, but it bears repeating...Castrojeriz has just about the nicest people on the planet. The municipal albergue was unmanned, but still open when we (me and the pilgrims from Austria and Poland) arrived at 1:00. Apparently the hospitalero was on holidays. Within one hour of arriving, no fewer than three people from the town popped in to see how we were doing, and to assure us that the heat would come on later in the evening (it was on a timer).
Having realized the hard way in Estella that my rain gear was, to say the least, inadequate, I remembered that there was a good store in Castrojeriz that specialized in gear for the Camino. I got my poncho there the last time, and I remembered exactly where it was in town, (which is not hard in Castrojeriz). Popping in, I was greeted by the same elderly gent that served me the last time. He helped me pick out a good poncho for the road. When I mentioned that this was the second one I was buying from him, he was thrilled that I remembered his little store. He talked about how the store had been there since his grandfather's time, 105 years or so. In parting, I told him that I hope to find him well if I ever come through town again. He responded by saying that if he's not in the store he'll be at home (and pointed out his house across the street). He said if I do come by again he'd have me over for coffee or a drink. So either he was really nice, really happy for repeat business, or really insincere. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and go with the first.
There were more pilgrims than usual in the Castrojeriz albergue, including Erlantz, from a town just outside of Bilbao, who was doing the camino in several stages over several vacations. He recognized my name as being (very) basque and we got to chatting. Turns out, he's from a town, Mungia, that is 10km south of Plentzia, where my grandfather grew up. That's one of the things I love about this road...you never know what kind of links you'll uncover. There's another one later on in this blog entry....
The walk out of Castrojeriz was decidedly easy, with the only obstacle coming early on. It was the monster hill just outside the city that needed climbing. I remember the climb from the last time as being excruciating. This time around, it wasn't so bad...oh, it was tough, but nowhere near as tough as that second day out of Valcarlos.
After the hill, it was pretty much flat and straight, all the way to Fromista. One Interesting thing is that all the memories I have of these small meseta towns have been jumbled together. Frankly, there's really not much to distinguish or remember one from the next. Now that I'm re-walking the road, my brain is starting to disentangle that information. For instance, I was a couple of km outside of Boadilla del Camino and my legs were decidedly rubbery. I thought to myself "it's ok, there's a rest area just outside of Boadilla...I can rest there". It wasn't "I wonder if" or "I think there might be"; I knew it as a fact. Sure enough, just before the Boadilla sign, there was the rest stop, just as I pictured it. Weird.
Had to spend the night in a pension, since all the albergues in Fromista were closed. Along with pretty much everything else. The walk to Carrion today was also uneventful, though mercifully, there were open cafes in every town I walked through along the way. Arriving in Carrion, which is a good-sized city, it looked like this place was shut down as well, went from one albergue (closed) to another (closed) to a hostal (closed) to a pension (closed), and finally found an open albergue...in a convent on the edge of town. The nun who welcomes pilgrims is a sweet lady who really goes out of her way to make pilgrims feel welcome. Especially pilgrims who had been wandering around town aimlessly for an hour. As she stamped my pilgrim passport, she mentioned that there was a nun in her order (in San Sebastian) who is also named Ormaechea. Again, I love the links.
Am very comfortable, if somewhat chilled in the pilgrim dormitory. Will continue on to Terradillos de los Templarios tomorrow for Noche Vieja. New year's eve with the Templars...sounds like fun :-)
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