Breakfast and conversations
When I woke up in the morning, I somehow managed to get into the only shower for 10 people and then went to pack my things. Yesterday I ordered breakfast and really hoped that it would be at least a little nutritious.
While I and 5 other people were waiting for breakfast, I met a pilgrim from Finland who complained that it was warmer at home than in Spain. He also impressed me with the fact that, unlike most pilgrims, he walked 40-50 km a day, not 20-30 km. Respect.
After having a tasteless breakfast of croissants with the usual butter and jam from small plastic containers, I took my things and went down the corridor. I was almost the last one to leave Alberge, and that day, for the first time in my entire trip, tears came to my eyes when I thought I had to run again. Okay, they didn’t, I sat on a bench for a while and shed tears to the music because I didn’t want to run. But I had to run because this project was not only about overcoming the Camino de Santiago distance but also about raising funds for the guys at the front.
Easy day
Since the third day had completely knocked me out and I realized that 92 km would just kill me, I decided to take an “easy day” and run only 42-44 kilometers, finishing in the town of Belorado, in a cool hostel that had a very good rating on Google Maps.
The weather best reflected my mood – clouds, snow falling, cold, windy. I didn’t want to film anything, I just pushed my body forward kilometer after kilometer.
In one of the shops I bought bananas, but I didn’t even want to drink coffee. It was difficult to move forward, the weather did not help to improve my mood.
My path passed by snow-covered vineyards, but there was nothing to catch my eye.
Santo Domingo de la Calzada
Moving through small towns, I reached a city called Santo Domingo de la Calzada, where the biggest attraction was the cathedral of the same name. I liked the cathedral for several reasons. Firstly, it was warm, so I was able to warm up a little bit, and secondly, there were a lot of beautiful and interesting things in it, but this is more revealed in the video from my trip to these cities – Camino de Santiago charity run. Days three and four.
In addition to the beautiful cathedral, this place helped to cheer me up with my much-loved chicken lasagne, which I missed so much in the early days (I still remember how delicious those lasagnas were).
The way to Belorado
As mentioned at the beginning of this post, my final destination was to be the town of Belorado. After the lasagne, I was moving along quite briskly. So cheerful that I even thought that 40 kilometers a day was not serious enough for a quick Camino de Santiago and even looked at where else I could spend the night. The problem was that the next big city after Belorado was Burgos, which I simply could not reach that day (+50km), and in other smaller towns, everything was either closed or there was nothing but one albergue, which could also be closed. So I decided that I would not change my plan and spend the night in Belorado.
Passing through the small towns, I passed through the Rioche region and moved on to the Burgess region. Well, that’s what I call them. It was snowing less, but the cold wind hadn’t gone away, so it was quite chilly to move on.
Belorado
And so, at 4pm, I reach Belorado. At the entrance to the town, there is a huge albergue decorated with various flags, but it is of course still closed because it is off-season. There are also many big, cool albergues in the city itself, but they are still closed. I’m heading to my new but small albergue, Hostel B, which welcomes not only pilgrims but also ordinary tourists.
I pass by a beautiful square with benches lined up in a circle, mentally joke that it would be nice not to spend the night under them, and reach the door of the albergue/hostel. I pull the handle – it’s locked. I ring the bell – silence. I start to call the phone number listed on the hostel’s website and hear the phone ringing outside the hostel. I hear it, but I realize that no one will answer the phone.
I find another number and get an answer. But they say they are closed and will open in 3 days. It’s a thrill. I call Nastia and the two of us start looking at all the albergues in this city – through the app and on maps. Everything is closed. I even knocked on a few of them – no one was there.
Then despair set in.
Realizing that in Belorado I could only spend the night under a bench, I started looking through all the albergues from the next towns and, surprisingly, in the town of Espinosa del Camino, in one of the two albergues, namely Casa Las Alamas, I was told that they would be happy to accommodate me. And that you can even order dinner there. But at that moment I was not happy about it. I was shaking with cold and despair.
To somehow regain my senses and collect my thoughts, I went to the entrance of someone’s garage, just to hide from the wind and eat some chocolate. You can see what it looked like in the video here
Casa Las Alamas
The 8 kilometres to the place to spend the night seemed like an eternity. I passed through 2 more small towns with nothing and no one in them and finally reached a town that consisted of 10 houses, two of which were Alberge’s.
I was met by a couple of German pensioners who welcomed me as if I were their grandson. As I was the only pilgrim that day, I was given a small, private room with a comfortable bed, where I didn’t even have to use a sleeping bag. It was definitely the best night’s stay on my Camino de Santiago.
While my hosts were preparing dinner (vegetable soup, pasta with meat, wine, and dessert), I washed my clothes and rested on the bed for a while. During dinner we talked a lot and they told me that they used to live in a village of 100 houses somewhere else on the Way, but it was too crowded for them, so they moved to Espinosa del Camino, where everyone knows each other, but everyone stays within their homes and families. At the same time, they said that when the owner of the house was sick and did not go out in the morning to buy bread (which is brought by car because there is no store in the village) for 2 days, a neighbor came to see if they were still alive and needed help.
They also told us that the house we were staying in was very old and that the kitchen on the ground floor (where we had dinner) used to be a barn where cattle slept. This was done so that the cattle would heat the room and the house would not be so cold.
After dinner, we talked for about an hour until I went to my room. There is one peculiarity in this albergue, they have a lot of cats. The hosts assured me that they never come to the pilgrims, but I’m not an ordinary pilgrim, I’m a cat person 🙂 So I spent the night with a cool red pregnant cat, who came as soon as I turned off the light, settled on my legs and stayed there until the morning.
