Day 25 – 27 entering the Meseta 

Day 25 – Sept 30, 2022 – Burgos to Rabé de las Calzadas (13.04 km / 8.1 miles)

Today was a good day. We arrived at our destination early and were told at dinner the nuns of the convent in town invited all pilgrims to their nightly prayers at 8p. 

The nuns of Centro La Milagrosa (Hijas de la Caridad) convene nightly to thank God for the day and to bless the pilgrims walking the Camino. It was beautiful. They gave us a medal to protect, bless and keep us safe on our journey. 

One thing we’ve noticed is the age of the priests and nuns in the churches. We’ve seen very few under 70 years old. Where are all the young people who will replace these people when they eventually retire or pass away?  We have found ourselves pondering the status of the church and what it is doing to stay relevant with today’s youth.  

Something to think about. 

Day 26 – Oct 1, 2022 – Rabé de las Calzadas to Arroyo San Bol (13.53 km / 8.41 miles)

We officially entered the Meseta today. We have now walked over 300 km (193 miles). 

The meseta is the vast flat plains in central Spain. Beginning just after Burgos, and ending in Astorga, the Camino runs through the northern point of the meseta for about 220km. Many pilgrims skip this section and bus through, but not the Rountrees. We will walk all the crazy kilometers. 

As we walk past endless fields, I try to imagine the landscape in full bloom with amber waves of grain and tall proud vibrant sunflowers.  Unfortunately, this time of year, there are only sad drooping sunflowers, harvested wheat, and fields prepped for the upcoming winter. Luckily I have a good imagination. 

Today’s 13 kilometers flew by and we both felt strong when we rolled into our reserved albergue at 12:30. We could have easily kept going, but we have our next few days’ albuergues booked and rescheduling one causes a domino effect of changes we didn’t want to deal with, so we stuck with it. 

We slept in a very small (10 bed) municipal albergue in the middle of nowhere. This was the first time we’d encountered a location with no cell service, no WiFi, no bar, or café available to us.  We were literally off the grid.  Thank goodness we had indoor plumbing though!

Since we couldn’t officially check into our albergue until 2pm and with no other food available nearby, we sat on a granite bench by a babbling brook and emptied our packs of every scrap of food we had on us for our lunch. It wasn’t gourmet, by any means, but it kept us going us until dinner.  The sun and breeze were warm and we laid on a bench and took a nap until the albergue opened at 2pm. 

After the hosts served us an amazing dinner of paella and salad they left us to our own devices. We learned three of the people in our group were actors in Barcelona and performed in a comedy there. They regailed us with an act from their play which was quite funny. 

Then (at 9p) a knock came at the door. When we opened it, there stood two very tired injured pilgrims looking for a bed. We had a couple no shows so there were beds open. We couldn’t turn them away. We called the albergue hosts to get permission to let them stay. They agreed and we took down their passport information and took their 10€ each for the beds and left everything on the check-in desk for the hosts. They were very grateful for the beds. 

Day 27 – Oct 2, 2022 – Arroyo San Bol to Castrojeriz (13.77 km / 8.56 miles)

The walk today was a fairly easy one.  There were no major hills to climb, the trail was mostly dirt/rock until a sucky stretch of road walking for the last few kilometers near the end. I actually led the way some of the day today. It helps that Rex is mildly injured, but I am still excited about my increased speed. I am usually always behind him and by a lot. 

We had been experiencing cooler weather lately, but it did start heating up again today.  Boy we miss the cooler weather already. It is much easier to walk when it’s not so hot. Even though it was only the high 70’s today the sun is pretty intense here when there is no shade to protect us. 

We stayed at an albergue called Albergue Rosalía tonight. We picked it in part for the name which is my mom’s name in Spanish. It was the perfect choice. We didn’t have to deal with bunk beds and the pilgrim meal was fantastic!  We had homemade bread and hummus, salad with delicious tomatoes grown in the owner’s garden, paella, roasted chicken and something called “chocolate heaven” for desert. We walked away from the table fully fueled for a long hiking day tomorrow. Just what we needed!