Day 14: From Boadilla to Calzadilla de la Cueza, 42 Km on our 33rd Anniversary

Okay, first things first: 33 years ago today, we were married in Royal Oak Michigan in front of a whole lot of relatives, many of whom are not with us today.  Somehow, we’re still ticking!  What a place to celebrate an anniversary!

I sat in the bar at the albergue last night until after 10 PM trying to upload Tina’s video on a painfully slow WiFi network for yesterday’s blog post.  Finally, I gave up and went to the bunk room.  I had a very important job: I had the bed in front of the window.

These bunk rooms can become a sauna.  The night before, in a perfectly nice, new albergue, we got almost no sleep because there was no cross ventilation and ten+ people sleeping in the same room.

Last night the room was bigger and the forecast called for overnight thunderstorms.  No rain overnight, but cool temperatures.  I did my job.  People slept--as did I.

We’d expected to make a later start, but with no overnight rain, we opted to start at 5:30 and to try to walk a full 42 kilometers, taking advantage of the forecasted cooler weather and flat terrain, to make it to Calzadilla de la Cueza, another small town on the Meseta.

A little more than an hour out, the first town we reached was Fromista.  What a cool town!  For starters, it had multiple places to eat  This is where we should have walked to yesterday.  We found a place to have breakfast, Bar Manchego, and while we were having our tortilla Española, our friend Jacob came walking along.  He joined us and we walked together for half of the day.

Fromista has one legitimate architectural gem, the church of San Martin, a beautifully restored Romanesque Church from 1066.  It’s stunning.  Romanesque churches can be pretty solid looking, with none of the fancy stonework of the later gothic churches.  This church, if you look closely, is adorned with all kinds of unique stone carvings.  It’s amazing.  People come by the busload to visit it.

La Iglesia de San Martin

During the first half of the day, the small towns came one after another, which was very cool.  The Camino paralleled the main highway, but early in the morning, it didn't matter.

Jacob and Paco on a decidedly less sexy part of the Camino.

We stopped for a Coke in the town of Villarmentero de Campos at an albergue which had tons of animals on the property, something we hadn't noticed when we dropped our packs and ordered.  Here's Tina making friends with some chickens.

No, there's nothing in this back pack for you!

We get out of this albergue, and get ready to continue the trek, but the Camino is blocked by sheep!  This town is just full of farm animals.

We were very lucky with the weather.  While the rest of Europe was setting record high temperatures, a front must have rolled through here.  Our high was forecast to be 70 F.  Our thought was: as long as it's not raining, and the terrain is flat, let's go as far as we can.

We arrived in the city of Carrion de Los Arcos.  This was supposed to be our stopping point.  It's the destination point on Day 16 of the guidebook that everybody uses.  We stopped in the 12th century Romanesque church Santa Maria del Camino, and lit three candles for Tina's family.

Santa Maria del Camino

Most of the people we knew were staying in this town, but with the weather so forgiving and the terrain so flat, we decided to go to the next town--despite the fact that it was 17 kilometers away.  The pilgrims we ran into kept reminding us of this--even though it was common knowledge.  (17 kilometers with no facilities and no potable water...)

So we decided to have a sandwich.  We found a bar, and I was able to get both a gluten free bocadillo and a gluten free beer.  I was psyched!

One happy man.

Seriously, this next piece has everybody psyched out.  There are 17 kilometers between Carillon and Calzadillas.  On a burning hot day, that sounds like death valley.  There is no potable water.  There are no phones.

Tina and I were each carrying close to 2 liters of water--and it wasn't a hot day.  What could go wrong?  About a kilometer out of town, the skies opened up and we got drenched with freezing cold rain.  Our shoes and socks were drenched.  Decision time: forge ahead and risk blisters or turn around and stay in a four star hotel for your anniversary.  I should stop the blog right here...

We forged on.

This is what 17 km of nothing looks like. 

Thanks to misleading signage, we thought we were making great time, but the last four kilometers took an eternity.  Here's the view of the little town where we're staying:

I know, it's like the last photo but with buildings. Trust me.  This is what heaven looks like.

We decided to book a double room in a Hostal instead of an albergue.  Hey!  It's our anniversary!  We had a lovely dinner in the Hostal's restaurant and I'm sitting in the bar, in the dark, finishing this blog.

Tomorrow's weather may be a carbon copy of today--but with more rain.  We're going to try to do something like 38 kilometers.  Our objective is to maximize the amount of time we get to spend in Leon.  Tina will let you know how things turn out!