12 October Nippy in the morning and warming in the afternoon

Took the road today. Not a doubt in my mind about which route I would take today, not after yesterday.

To readers who have been following this adventure on a daily basis your day of grace is over and back to the regular routine. A days grace on a pilgrimage of sorts.

Hardly could have been better today. The famed flat Meseta is far from flat but wonderful to ride. Two nice 100 meter or so climbs, a few shorter rises, some long descents with a tailwind, lovely scenery, no traffic on small roads or on the National (auto route nearby and today is Columbus day, a full holiday in Castile, even the pharmacies are closed; he returned in 1497 with riches to be greeted by his well known sponsors Ferdinand and Isabella).

We are staying in Castrogeriz (or with a j, have seen it both ways), a lovely terraced hillside town. Quite steep with old cobbles and fine old buildings and a large number of churches for such a small town. Supposedly here since Celtiberian times when, from its heights, it guarded the roads to the Galician gold mines. Fought over many times, always a treat for the locals, and changed hands many times. Around 975 settled into Christian hands.

A fuero (a founding document of sorts issued by the ruler) was granted. We have seen many mentioned but most are the usual boring ones of land grants, taxes waived, labor promised, roads opened. This one had two unusual provisions.

-A new form of knighthood to anyone who could afford a horse.

– A provision that killing of Jews would be treated the same as killing a Christian (no mention of Muslims). A building remains that is locally called the synagogue.

Big excitement: the hotel has a dryer (also a washer, but it is broken) and we can hand wash our stuff and dry it instead of hanging on the bike or backpack. We are especially looking forward to Barcelona because Google tells us the only self-service laundry in Spain can be found there. Better than ham.

As for the road choice, it was dictated by what turned out to be a poor choice yesterday. Yesterday, decided to try to bike the camino as it was to be nice. Was excellent until about 8 kilometers from Hornillos (furnace). Turned into a muddy Roman road with large stones and a big 100 meter climb. The climb was even worse than I might have expected and about half way up I realized why, a flat tire. Rain, mud, and a flat. The Evil Trinity of cycle touring.

Tried to remove tire from rim but could not. A German youth stopped to help and he too failed; my levers broke. Just on too tight. Walked it down a dangerous road of rocks and mud for about 3-4 kilometers into Hornillos. Two nice Spanish lads, big and strong, with good tools tried to remove the tire. Nope. Tried really hard and finally gave up; especially when my brakes broke during the effort.

Nothing to do but to take a taxi back to Burgos to the Decathlon, a large sports store similar, but much bigger, than REI, it has a good repair shop. Decathlons are all over France and Spain. Very friendly, helpful and professional.

New tube, brakes, quite a bit less cash in our pockets we headed back to the small rural town where we had lodgings. QB joined me on the expedition as she arrived in Hornillos just before the taxi arrived. QB had a bad day, has caught Jeff’s cold, but worse, her knee gave out part way through the days walk and a taxi was called. As knee will not allow walking at reasonable speeds for the appropriate distance, this may be the end of the Camino walk for her. Very disappointed, but is consulting with Dr. H.

The rural place did not look encouraging from the outside but inside the owner turned out to have outstanding hospitality skills and made us comfortable, had our luggage in the room, tried to help in any way he could, and provided a fine dinner of fish soup, cheese omelette, pork loin and desert. All properly prepared.

Naturally no wi-fi or even data connectivity in this very rural location of Isar, about 2-3 kms
from Hornillos.

Naturally I took the road today.