One Year Ago: Some Kind of Desolation

(from my journal)

Itero de la Vega
Third Sunday of Easter

Hot. Dry. Sunny. The Meseta – at least what we’ve seen of it so far – has not, however, lived up to its reputation for “flat”. We had two trying climbs today, one before lunch, one after.

We left San Bol early, partly with the idea of getting to Castrojeriz in time for an 11AM Sunday Mass.

Along the way, we passed the enormous ruin of the 12th Century Monastery of Saint Anthony. Its arches – which used to connect the church with a pilgrim’s hostel – tower over the road. The church is a ruin, and the old hostel is long gone, but a new albergue is nestled into the ruin.

Castrojeriz surrounds a tall hill, atop which sits the ruin of a Visigoth castle.

We made for the largest church, only to discover it was locked up. We’d have missed the Mass anyway, so we stopped for lunch and tried the other churches we passed in the town, five all together.

All of them were closed.

One, in fact, was under reconstruction, and one small church appeared to have been converted into a government building.

We passed out of the town and back into the Meseta.

It was a rough afternoon, where I stopped several times for water and the reapplication of sunscreen. And that final hill was a killer.

We left Burgos Province behind and entered Palencia Province. Five different signs told us so.

All the photos for day 13.