Camino Day 19: Hornillos to Castrojeriz

Date: April 19th, 2022

Distance: 20km/12.4miles

Time: About 5 hours (8:00am-1:15pm)

We had been on a streak of sunny, nice days. It was about time for a humbling. This morning’s weather was brutal- cold, nippy, rainy, windy. Big shoutout to the the $2 rain poncho I bought on amazon, which has saved my ass on this trip on multiple days already.

The poles went into my bag pretty quickly because my hands got too numb to use them. An hour in, the trail was incredibly muddy, and it was caking the bottom of our shoes. Each step was squishy and uncomfortable and a couple more pounds than it should have been. I kept moving over to the grass at the edge of the trail and dragging my shoes through it to get some of the excess mud off. That gets old after an hour, so.. pretty miserable start to the day.

I don’t want to say that I was complaining the whole morning… but I was complaining the whole morning. It be like that sometimes.

I said a little prayer to the gods when Chris and I came upon this lone coffee/rest stop about 8km in. I was about done for.

I had a good laugh in the bathroom trying to put my hair up- my hands were so numb and cramped that I could barely twist my hairtie around my hair. We warmed out hands on cups of coffee and were then reluctant to head back out in it. We walked and talked. Sometimes it’s nice to walk alone, other times it’s nice to suffer with someone else.

Fortunately, it wasn’t raining in the afternoon, and it got less windy as well. It was also a blessing that today was a short 20km day, and we arrived early around 1pm. (My earliest arrival time yet!) We headed straight for the only open restaurant and had drinks and hot soups.

The vibes in this stony town (and in our albergue) were described as “murdery.” Everything was quiet, empty, closed. Our little albergue was a freezing dungeon with stone walls and eerie, long museum-esque hallways with roped off, old furniture. The little Spanish man ran who ran the place had a whistling lisp, which just elevated the plot of our Castrojeriz horror film.

I took a scalding hot shower, the thought of which had been keeping me going for most of the day. At 5pm, we sat by the heater in the dining room and watched “The Way” (a great movie about the Camino, if you haven’t seen it!). We pointed out places we had passed and inaccuracies (snoring sounds not loud enough in the albergue scenes).

After a salad & lentil soup dinner with the 6 of us in the albergue (Chris, Nuno, Carlos, 2 Swedes and myself), the man running the albergue gave us a tour of the cellar. All the houses in this town used to be connected through these cellars, but they’re private now. This one had been turned into a little shrine and sitting area.

As we walked down the stairs, Nuno stood at the top and said, “Say goodbye.” (hahah)

And that’s how this Camino story ends, folks. Some say they’re still down there. 😉

Disclaimer: Kidding, I am definitely safe and not in a cellar somewhere.