Middle of the Meseta

Well, we are mired in the Meseta, that flat, hot, dry part of Spain that gave rise to the saying "In Spain the rain falls mainly on the plain."  We are halfway between Burgos and Leon, staying tonight in an 11th century Monastery just outside the town of Carrion de los Condes.

The walk out of Burgos is much more pleasant than the approach to Burgos, and it was not overly warm but it was quite humid.  Ty and I have taken to walking together (I've nicknamed us the 'Old Guys Rule Delegation') and we wondered on several occasions if we were going to have to make a run for it to avoid a thunderstorm.  Thankfully, the rain held off.  We stayed in the town of Hornillos del Camino, in an albergue I had stayed in two years ago.  The proprietess remembered me and was glad that we had returned.  Unfortunately, most albergues are not air conditioned and this particular one was not set up to take advantage of the cool nights.  Plus we had a candidate for the snoring Olympics amongst us, thus we did not rest overly well.

The next day took us to the town of Castrojeriz, which is a town I happen to like, generally, though I did not care to stay in the municipal albergue again, as we did two years.  The municipal is fine, but it has a bunch of bunkbeds in one room, and when too many people show up they simply throw mattresses on the floor.  So, I found a private albergue that turned out to be pretty nice (no bunk beds), and had a fantastic kitchen, plus a deal with the restaurant around the corner for a special deal on the pilgrim meal.  I do find myself wondering about some of these albergues.  Most of them have some interesting features - suffice to say you can tell that they were definitely reconfigured to house the maximum number of pilgrims with relative comfort.  I often think "I wonder if this is up to code", but ultimately have decided that as long as the place seems well-cared for and clean, I will try not to ask too many inconvenient questions.

Castrojeriz is, like most Spanish towns, an interesting one, with quite a history.  It's most notable feature is an old ruined castle on top of the hill overlooking the town.  It's a medieval Christian castle from 10th century that was captured from the Muslims during the Reconquest.  The 10th century fortress was built on the ruins of a 1st century Roman Fort which was built on the ruins of a Celtiberian 'Castro' or walled village from some time before that.  Now, Castrojeriz mostly caters to pilgrims.

On the way to Castrojeriz you walk through a ruined monastery they've built a road through, that served pilgrims from the 13th century to who knows when.  It's always an interesting thing to me when I see something like that and wonder what the people who built whatever thing I'm looking at and who passed it by over the years would think if they could see the world today, and it makes me wonder what pilgrims 500 or 1000 years from now will think about our time in history?  I find myself hoping that we will acquit ourselves well in the stark lens of hindsight, but given what seems to be going on in the world today, it is hard to be hopeful.

We stayed last night in the town of Fromista.  On the way in, Ty and I chatted with three other American pilgrims, Greg, Joe, and Julie.  It was good to spend the walk with them and I learned that we have many things in common.  This was for me, a godsend, because I have been feeling a bit of homesickness the last few days, odd as that may sound.  While I love this country, and the group of people I'm with couldn't be better, the fact of the matter is that I am still coming up on a month outside of my normal routine and social circles, both at work, and in my personal life.  And while I embrace this opportunity to have a different perspective on my life, and am grateful to be here, the fact of the matter is that my life is pretty good, and I like, and I miss it.  I miss talking regularly with friends, both near and far, I miss binge-watching Netflix, I miss working in the garage and in the yard, and yes, I even miss going in to the office and my colleagues.  So, it was good to have a taste of home.

Fromista is a neat town.  I know that's a shocker.  It has a church (another shocker) that is widely considered the best example of pure Romanesque architecture in Spain.  Again, I did not wish to repeat my experience of two years ago at the Municipal albergue, so we stayed at a private one instead.  Again it was very nice, but it was clear that the proprietors were only interested in running an albergue as a business propisition, and not as a service to pilgrims.  This was a bit disappointing to me because I do believe you can run a profitable business (especially an albergue) and yet still display empathy and interest for and in your customers.

The place we had dinner, however, was a different story.  We had spent the afternoon sitting in the plaza outside the church drinking Sangria in the hot summer sun, which is a very Spanish thing to do, so I wanted to do something different for dinner.  We went back to the place we had my birthday dinner in Fromista on the Camino two years before.  The gal working the bar and who waited on us remembered me and we struck up a great conversation.  She was so excited that I had pictures in my phone of the restaurant from two years before.  I ended up giving her my card, and she said she'd email me.  We'll see...

Tomorrow will likely be a difficult day; it's not overly long (16.5 miles) but the first 11 are broken up only by a guy selling refreshments from the back of a pickup truck.  The good news is that the temperature should drop about 10 degrees tomorrow, so hopefully we will have a good walk just the same.