22nd of August we enjoyed the great choice of the breakfast buffet, which offered even very juicy Santiago de Compostela cakes which we never had before and grabbed two apples for our tour.
Leaving town through a gate in the city wall which was in the style of the moors we passed a suburb of Burgos called “Villabilla” which reminded me of a German TV-advertisement for washing-up liquid where Villariba and Villabajo are both cleaning their Paella pans, but due to the detergent used by Villariba they were already continuing their fiesta while Villabajo was still scrubbing their pans. As there exists a supermarket chain in Austria called Billa I wondered if we would still cross “Villalidl” and “Villaaldi”.
After we left the valley of the Rio Arlanzón we had to climb more and more into the high plateau of the Meseta. At Rabé de las Calzadas a nun was blessing pilgrims in the Eremita de la Virgen de Monasterio and gave us a little amulet of Saint Maryfor our continuation. After some sunflower fields it got to be more and more huge grain fields which were empty after having been harvested. Only the horizon was full of windmills because this area was known for its constant blowing wind. I thought of us two biking through the wide Spanish landscape like Don Quixote and Sancho Panza riding against windmills. I wanted to take a photo of us like the two figures of Miguel de Cervantes, not being from La Mancha but from Munich, fighting in the year 2025 for windmills as other giants are telling us windmills are bad for us. It took only three attempts with the timer to get the right photo like a Kung Fu fighter for windmills.
Rolling down to Hontanas we met a guy who had biked all the way from Berlin and was on his way back. He tried to camp in Spain but complained about the campgrounds charging him for his little tent the price of a camping van. So he ended up with wild camping. Robert was joking about him biking a tent through Europe just for the case of an emergency, but luckily there was never such an emergency. I would not have imagined Robert wild camping. But never say never. He grew over all his imaginations in this trip and did day stretches he never ever dreamt of.
In Hontanas we had lunch and got to know two Dutch bikers at the neighbouring table, Angelie and André from Rotterdam, where we will hopefully pass on our way back. They had just started their tour in Burgos.
We followed a valley on a beautiful single trail before we joined the road again, passing through the ruins of the convent de San Antón which originally was a hospital for pilgrims. The next village Castrojeriz had several churches and the ruin of a castello on the hilltop. I imagined Burgos looking like this a thousand years ago before they started to build the cathedral. We stopped by a beautiful pilgrim hostel called the “Espacio Interior” run by the artist Nia while she creates art in her own atelier. It was a very welcoming place and we were invited in by Chihiro, a Japanese girl. She offered us something to drink and told us her story about how she was having the blues after finishing the Camino in Santiago, and remembered this place with the garden and the beautiful atmosphere so she asked if she could volunteer there. She is staying here for a year. There were also guests from Landsberg staying and we had a short talk with them before we continued our tour back in the heat outside.
Robert was quite ahead of me as I was not so fit today and I could see two Roberts mirroring in the mirage at the horizon. I discovered an Eremita of Santo Nicolás de Puentetitero before I crossed the bridge over the river Pisuerga and met Robert on the other side, him being already in the province of Palencia.
At Boadilla del Camino I saw the ruins of a pigeonry which fascinated me being completely made out of clay. Last leg to Frómista where we followed the Canal de Castilla on the last kilometres. It was constructed between 1753 and 1849 to transport grain to the coast. Frómista has four oval shaped locks in a row. We arrived just before sunset at the pilgrims’ hostel. Luckily the restaurant El Chiringuito del Camino was open and served the best vegetarian dish I had had so far on the entire tour. Back up on our bunk beds and try to get some sleep.
