Walking the Camino de Santiago
We climbed the Alto de Mostalares with a passel of Evergreen students that we had been walking with on and off for several days: Brian, Tracy, Cooper, and Michelle. Brian and I climbed much of this side by side, discussing poetry and philosophy, both of which seemed to be demanded by the terrain and view. We were trying, I think, […]
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This was taken from about halfway up the Colina de Mostalares. Click through to see the full size. That little red dot on the right is Francine. The hill just left of center is Castrojeriz. Needless to say, the photograph doesn’t do the remotest justice to the scene. Date: 15 April 2016 Place: Colina de Mostalares (Castilla y León, Spain) […]
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As I mentioned yesterday, the Meseta sometimes has these wrinkles, sudden steep ridges that run for sometimes dozens of kilometers. Well, this is the bottom of one of them, the Colina de Mostalares. It’s a twelve-degree climb up, and then an eighteen-degree climb down. Here’s Francine laughing at the absurdity of it all. Date: 15 April 2016 Place: Colina de […]
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Some obvious takeaways from this photo: it’s raining and there’s a heck of a ridge there ahead of us. Now, mostly the Meseta is flat as Nebraska, but it does have these wrinkles, sudden steep ridges that run for sometimes dozens of kilometers. They’re too long to go around, or there’s private property or dangerous terrain blocking the flat bits, […]
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We left our albergue in Castrojeriz just after dawn on April 15, 2016. The waterfall of the night before had calmed down somewhat, as you can see from this photo. It was a grey, rainy morning, the start to a grey stormy day. Well, week, really. Our goal today is the town of Frómista, a distance of about 25km as […]
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After our dinner at El Meson, Francine retired to our albergue and I took a walk around the town. When I started, it was sprinkling a little, but it was soon pouring rain. To get back to the albergue, I had to avoid one of the steep stair streets that had become a waterfall. This meant striking down mazy side […]
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A rare composite photo that sums up our evening in Castrojeriz. On the left is our albergue, the wonderfully comfortable and brand-spanking-new Albergue Rosalia. The proprietors are young and enthusiastic, and the entire place was built into several older connected buildings and designed with homey comfort in mind. They preserved the old exposed wooden beams and quirkily uneven walls and […]
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This street-level window in Castrojeriz is just down the way from our albergue. It’s an odd one, what with its relatively small size, peculiar shape, and the fact that it latches on the outside. And what’s with the knocker on the middle panel under the Tau cross of the Order of San Antón? Part of me wonders if it’s not […]
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This park and monument were built in 1974 to commemorate the thousandth anniversary of the proclamation of the Fuero, or Charter, of the town of Castrojeriz. The historical plaque is provided as a bonus picture below. We wandered through Castrojeriz, past a half-dozen or so churches, some unlikely looking albergues, and this park before we ran into a trio of […]
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As we walked past the Iglesia de Santo Domingo in Castrojeriz, we couldn’t help but stop by these skulls in the walls. No, they’re not a warning against pirates. These are meant to remind you that you will die – memento mori – so that you will take stock of your life and amend it. Always a good reminder, but […]
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