CDS15: Hornillos to Castrojeriz

We got up, left our adorable albergue and headed out! It was back to lots of green today which was nice. It was overall, just another day of walking. We had to walk pretty far to get to the first town to be able to stop for breakfast. It was a cute cafe and low and behold, who catches up to us? Silvano. He passed us at breakfast with two friends and we passed them when they stopped. Debbie was laughing at our breakfast choices this morning because I got a banana and coffee and she got yummier treats!

The walk was mostly flat and went directly through these cool ruins. Before the ruins, I was COMPLETELY anxious because the path was narrow through a beautiful countryside and all I could hear were all the BEES. It was stressing me out, being able to hear all of them buzz, that I had to put my headphones in and listen to my audiobook to drown it out! Eventually Silvano’s group caught up to me (Debbie said to head on) and Silvano walked the last couple of kilometers with me coming chatting which was nice. Once we got to the outskirts of Castrojeriz, I found a bench to wait for Debbie.

We decided to go to the municipal albergue at the end of town for a shorter walk the next day. In doing that, we has to walk around a giant castle on a hill. I saw the road to the Castillo and decided I was going to do it later! We made it to the albergue, got settled, rested. My shin or shins (depending on the moment) were still on fire. I put some oil I bought at the farmacia in Burgos, filled up my water from a fountain in the square and headed out to the road I saw led to the castle.

Honestly, it took me about 3/4 of the walk up to finally calm down and stop panicking. I was walking up a hillside trail, alone, past abandoned houses and buildings, in a tiny town, in a foreign country, where I don’t really speak the language. That’s like the beginning of every news headline of women who end up dead abroad. Doing something alone in a foreign place. I’ve also seen that horror movie! I know how it ends. So, that was fun. I worked really hard to not let my own external fears get in the way of me being able to do what I want and be able to enjoy it, by myself. After 3/4 of the way, almost turning back, steering clear of a person walking down, and a group of nice cycalists passing me, I was sure I wasn’t going to die. At least, not be murdered. The heat and incline up to the castle might kill me, but not people!

I made it to the top and what a sight to see! It was absolutely GORGEOUS. I went all the way to the castle, where the bikers were exploring and took tons of photos.

AND! Because technology is sometimes freaking AWESOME I was able to use the camera feature of Google translate (even offline cause I had Spanish downloaded) to hover over and READ all of the signs explaining the history of the castle! It wasnt flawless, but absolutely well enough that I could understand what I was looking at, where I was standing, and what happened. So that was rad! So for example here is the same paragraph in both Spanish and the Google translate.

Castle was mostly empty, except for the bikers who ultimately left. So I had the place to myself! Full of steep narrow staircases and beautiful views of the whole valley. I took a photo of what I think our path for tomorrow is, from the top of the castle, but I’m not sure if it’s right.

When I got back, Debbie said to me that I would never guess who was sleeping next to us and I didn’t know who. IT’S THE PRIEST! Everyone has been talking about the priest on this journey and I have been wanting to see him! He’s in the bed next to us and has this giant statue of Mary he is carrying around. Intense!

We went out to eat, had some paella and sat in the sun. My shins have been terrible lately. Just shooting pain up the front of them, but on the outside muscle. No good. And after the walk to the castle today, I was done. They hurt so bad. Debbie was going to look for the pharmacy, but Silvano’s instructions were vague and her feet hurt too much to wander around. However, two lovely ladies from Quebec offered to go for her and alas, we have made two new friends. Cousins, Marguerite and Cyrille. They were the two young ladies walking with Silvano into town. We talked to them for a while and they are just wonderful!