Walking the Camino de Santiago
There’s no way around it. These days, the village of Villamayor is basically a truck stop on the N-120. The full name of the place is Villamajor del Río, and my guidebook notes that it is sometimes called “the place of three lies” as the “major” implies a large town, where this is a small village, and the creek it’s […]
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This. This is the Meseta. Or a great deal of it, anyway. For a couple of weeks, the Camino crosses this great central Spanish plateau, home of endless fields of grain. Many pilgrims these days choose to skip some or all of the Meseta, but I think this is a mistake. It’s flat. It’s boring. It’s empty. It’s lonely. Yes, […]
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This iconic sign appears after a solid bit of roadwalking from Viloria de Rioja, just as the Camino is about to rejoin the N-120 highway. I’ve no idea what it means or how long it’s been there. We saw it in 2013, and it was still there in 2016. Although it’s meaning is unknown (to me, at least), I think […]
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As I’ve mentioned over the past few days, our spirits were pretty low on this stretch of the Camino. We were exhausted, walking into the wind, and I was sick with a cold. And then, in this unassuming little village, we passed a group of pilgrims. For once, we were not the slowest pilgrims! Huzzah! The very thought gave us […]
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There’s no doubt that the Meseta is beautiful. While this is a look down on the ubiquitous N-120 highway, there were points where the Camino dipped into a shallow valley and all you could see was a blue hemisphere above and a green hemisphere below, horizon to horizon. The wind was back with a vengeance, and we were definitely struggling. […]
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To cheer myself up, I bought a chocolate bar while we were in Castildelgado. I only had a couple of bites before I put it in my backpack and then promptly forgot about it for a several weeks. By the time I found it again, it had dried out to a chalky, crumbly mess. It was, however, totally worth it […]
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While I don’t actually remember the subject of the conversation, I’m pretty sure we weren’t actually lost. Castiledelgado is a pretty small village, and there’s an arrow right there. But while Viola and Eamon are discussing, I’m having sneezing fits as my cold comes on full force. Date: 10 April 2013Place: Castiledelgado (Province of Burgos, Castilla y León, Spain)Today started: […]
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After lunching on pinchos in Redecilla del Camino, we continued on our way into the Meseta. It has been said that this weeks-long stretch of the Camino will break your brain, and I certainly felt it that afternoon. The crazy headwind started up again, which is always a morale-sapper. In addition, I was fighting a cold and terribly missing Francine. […]
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This magnificent 12th century Baptismal font is located in the Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Calle in the small town of Redecilla del Camino. The base is decorated by eight columns, representing the Resurrection on the “eighth day” of creation. The number eight figures prominently in fonts from antiquity to the present day. The decoration on the bowl represents […]
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This church of Our Lady of the Street (or perhaps “of the Way”) is, perhaps fittingly, located on Calle Major in the small town of Redecilla del Camino. The Calle Major itself is in fact the route of the Camino through the town, and may have been (re)paved by Santo Domingo. The town itself dates to sometime before the ninth […]
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