Pilgrims on the Way

Pilgrims often leave encouragements for the pilgrims following them. This one is on the back of a stop sign, which seems appropriate. It may seem cheesy, but sometimes this sort of pep talk is incredibly helpful to a flagging pilgrim on a bad day. At least, it was for me. Date: 18 April 2016 Place: Between Terradillos de los Templarios […]

After our second breakfast, it was back to the Big Flat. Despite the looming clouds, it was a beautiful day for walking. The air was cool, but not windy, and eventually the sun broke through the clouds. This was, as you might imagine, a welcome break from the trials of the last few days. Walking the Meseta favours contemplation. You […]

Francine is so excited, she’s a blur! We stopped for second breakfast in the delightful Albergue de Jacques de Molay in Terradillos de los Templarios, which is, of course, entirely appropriate. It’s a homey place with a big fireplace. The walls bear a suspicious resemblance to our own dining room in terms of colour and texture – not to mention […]

After about an hour and a half of early-morning hiking, we came to the village of Terradillos de los Templarios. This is an ancient village associated with the Knights Templar, the legend of El Cid, and is even mentioned in the Codex Calixtinus as a “prosperous and excellent village, abundant in bread, wine, meat and all kinds of products”. We […]

We had our first breakfast of April 18 early in the morning in the bar of the Albergue La Morena in Ledigos. For some reason, everybody was moving slower than usual this morning. It might have been the wine from the night before. Of course, what you see here are our packs and the breakfast aftermath. Date: 18 April 2016 […]

In Ledigos, we stayed at a relatively new place, the Albergue La Morena. It first opened in 2015, and it’s clean and comfortable. Here we see the Washington State Pilgrims: Francine with a group of students and friends from the Evergreen State College, of whom I have spoken before in these pages. Now you get to see them! Date: 17 […]

Just as we crested a hillside and spotted the village of Ledigos for the first time, dark storm clouds hove into view. I scoffed that they were nothing – a piffle. Francine, apparently afraid of jinxing the weather before we got into our albergue, shushed me. But it was too late, as the sky started pelting us with hail. We […]

After a while, we came to a place where the Camino crossed the highway and continued on the other side of the road. Needless to say, we continued to walk on the highway. Today had been enough of a cold, wet slog that we decided to knock off early, in the next town we came to. We arrived in Ledigos […]

No, not Hobbit homes. These are bodegas, underground storage most often used as wine cellars. Although we will come upon them frequently in the coming week, these are the first major ones we sighted. As you can see, we are walking along the highway at this point, which is never my favourite. Date: 17 April 2016 Place: Between Calzadilla de […]