Sometimes, things work out well. We booked the hotel in Burgos, sight unseen on the Spanish version of hotels.com for a very, very reasonable price.  On arriving to the hotel, we find out it is a 4 star hotel and we have a suite! The Beverley Hillbillies are home!  A salon downstairs, and a very spacious living and sleeping area upstairs, we had a world of choices on where to hang our laundry!

This morning we started about 8:15 for Hornillos, with a first stop being any place that sold food and coffee. We hit the jackpot! Lots if excellent coffee and food got a very reasonable price.  Fueled, we did the approximately 12 miles to Hornillos in record time! Here is Hornillos as we approach it.

We are staying in a Casa Rural, Sol y Sol. It is a very pleasant place with a younger owner whose family has connections with Emilio Estevez. “The Way” is a really big deal for the residents along the Camino.

We are now roughly 212 miles into the journey. We are learning a great deal about ourselves, or fellow Peregrinos, and the purpose of the Camino. More to come, later.

From 5:30 am to 8:00 am, it rained. Lots and lots. As we started our hike at 8:30, we were fine, rain wise … but not mud wise.  Our really light weight trail running shoes became Frankenstein boots, weighing several pounds each.

Now for the Molinos.  Molinos are windmills in Spanish. Everywhere you look, there’s a field if Molinos.

What was cool about today, was we passed a couple of very interesting ruins. This is the remains of a 13th century convent.

And below, the ruins of the castle of Castrojerez.

Like every day before on the camino, we have found or place, washed up, done laundry, and can now focus on the important stuff, like communicating.

How does one communicate on the Camino? Certainly, English is a very useful language. However, in many of the rural areas the residents or proprietors of the shops may not speak English. So, some Spanish is very helpful.

Now, many of our fellow Peregrinos are from other countries. How do you speak to them? There are french, German, Italian, Austrian, dutch, Brazilians, etc.  You really have no idea concerning which is the appropriate language to simply say,  “hi”. The solution? Say,  “Buen Camino” (the official greeting), then say “good morning”, or some such English expression to test the English speaking waters.

That doesn’t always work. We have needed to carry on short conversations in french (very difficult). For example, yesterday 2 women showed up at the Casa Rural who spoke only french and thought they had a reservation there.  The host was not there and it was clear there were no more rooms available. Fortunately, we had the Internet, so we used Google translate (Diane’s idea) to speak to them and then Bill called the host (who didn’t speak french and only a little English) to negotiate a solution. After 10 or 15 minutes, the French women had a room (elsewhere) and all was happy.

Back to languages: While Germans usually seem to speak several languages, including English, Austrians (based on our limited sampling of 2), are less polyglots. Bill had to break out his very rusty German to attempt communications with these 2 (not pretty).

Really the most universal language is a smile and patience. It really does work.

First, some numbers.  Today is day 17. We have walked approximately 240 miles.

When last we left our readers, we showed a picture of castle ruins above Castrojerez. Seems it was built in the 8th century and continued in use until sometime in the 16th century. Somehow, we got inspired and decided to climb up to it. The view was worth it! Here’s Castrojerez from above.

Today’s walk was a roughly 16 miler so we started early. We had to wait out this local traffic jam on leaving Castrojerez.

One thing we’ve seen for scores of miles is sunflowers. Fields and fields of sunflowers. The challenge of taking a picture of them is that they have always been pay their prime. Not today. We finally found a field worth photographing. (Keep in mind that the photographer is not necessarily worth taking photographs).

Now for the titled topic.  On checking the weather reports, today looked to be the first day in several days without a significant risk of rain. So, Bill packed his rain gear. Yep, it rained! At least he knew exactly where to find the gear!

We are now in Fromista doing the chores that Peregrinos do. Hope all is well with each of you.

In the United States, we are very used to the English system of measure: inches, feet and miles, cups, quarts and gallons, and ounces, pounds, and, well, more pounds. Surely other English speaking countries use this system, right? Nope.

We’ve spoken with: English, Scottish, Irish, Australian, New Zealanders, and Canadians and NO ONE uses the English system. Just us Yanks.

And don’t try the continental countries (France, Germany, Spain, Italy, etc.) … it’s all the metric system.

Bottom line: if you want to be able to talk distances, weights or volumes, you’ll want to be conversational in metric measures.

The local Spaniards we have met have been remarkably gracious. More than willing to offer help, even as you slaughter their language.  They will even offer a ” Buen Camino “, even though they have probably said that 150 times already that day.

Today, we crossed over 250 miles and are just shy of half way. Tomorrow, we get to that point.

On leaving Fromista, the sun was just rising and peeked out from behind the rain clouds to shine in this church.

It is the Iglesia de San Martin, an 11th century church which is purported to be one of the finest examples of Romanesque architecture in Spain. All we know is that it looked very cool in the sunlight.

The best way to describe the walk to Carrion is wet!  It rained for about an hour and one half during 3 separate occasions.  Yes, the rain gear was readily available and was willingly used.

The next two days will be big ones. We’ll need to do about 16 miles tomorrow, then 20b on Friday. Today, we’ll focus on rest and taking care of our feet!

First, a note about Carrion de Los Condes. As best I can figure, carrion in Spanish means the same thing as it does in English. Dead, rotting animals. And Conde means “Count”, like: Conde Dracula.  So, the town is named for the carnage caused by the counts. As you read the history of the town, and the centuries of battles between Moors and locals, local king vs. another king, etc., “carrion” seems appropriate.

The walk from Carrion to Ledigos was beautiful, but nondescript. Like walking across the Great Plains. Here’s a photo:

Ledigos, where we stayed the night, is a very small farming community with just one alburgue (hostel) as a place to stay.  We were able to book a private room for two, but with shared bathrooms, etc. It served it’s purpose, for cleaning, eating and resting.

Another 15 miles in the bank.

Hey, I don’t make these names up! They are real towns with extensive histories. They just aren’t the: Smallville, Pleasanton, Centerville kinds of names we are used to.

Today was a long one; roughly 22 miles. We ate now about 280 miles into this walk, and over half way! As a matter of fact, we went through an old decaying archway today that said: “half way! ” (you hand to expand the photo … and translate)

The next photo should be compared with yesterday’s photo of Diane walking down the Camino. One of these things is not like the other. Can you guess? Yep, very dark, black skies! We spent a lot of time in rain gear!

Now, for the Tolkien fans: Over the last couple of days, we passed several homes built into the sides of the hills. I tried to capture them, but we recognize that I am photo-challenged. Here goes:

In many ways, we do wish that Hobbits lived here. At least then they’d understand the importance of breakfast, and … second breakfasts, and … tweensies …!

No 22 miler for us today! Barely 12 miles.  Here’s another photo of Diane on the trail in the Meseta.  Can you spot the difference?

Yep, she’s already wearing the rain gear. It rained for the first 1/2 hour of our hike, then let up for the remainder. That was nice.

We also spotted more of those beautiful lavender flowers that seem to grow where they have no right to grow. Here’s one:

A couple of days ago, we had to make a decision on which trail option to choose, as there were 2 options, each with something different to see. The option we didn’t choose eventually led to an old Roman road that Caesar Augustus used to travel to the gold mines of Astorga. Hey, we HAD to see that, right?

Bill found a point where the 2 trails were reasonably close, then found a dirt road across a farmers field, then found a way across the high speed rail talks that stood in the walk and then across a swamp and … we were on the Roman road! Here’s Diane slogging along the Roman road.

Once again, the photographer isn’t the best …

On entering Mansilla, we quickly found that this town has more charm than just the typical 2,000 year old history (typical?) This is a village that the urbanites from Leon like to visit. We had lunch at a funky restaurant named, “Curiosa”, or “Curious”. None of the plates matched, the walls were lined with mismatched headboards, the beautiful picture frames enclosed either a hot water bottle or a fry pan, etc. And the food; awesome! No Peregrino porridge, here!

Now, on to our chores. Tomorrow, we’re back in the big cities, at least for 1 night.

This morning broke crisp and bright as we walked out onto the bridge outside of town and looked back at the remains of the walls of the city.

We noted something about the river below: it looked just like the river from the scene in “The Way” where Martin Sheen loses his backpack. Interestingly, the bridge itself is NOT the same from the movie. We think that was actually on the east side of Pamplona, about 250 miles from here. Well, when you make a movie, you can do anything you want!

Very quickly, we realized that the air was colder than we had felt recently. A quick scan of the horizon showed the mountains, our first view of mountains … or even hills, in 8 days of walking. And the colder air must have been coming down from there!

In 12 miles, we reached Leon. Wow! These Spanish cities are breathtaking, and Leon need apologize to no one for its beauty. Here’s the church:

Once again, the picture doesn’t do justice.  After lunch in a modernesque Leon restaurant, we leaded to our treat of the trip: We are staying in the Parador San Marcos (from the movie). Here’s Diane just outside the entrance:

Diane is currently in the oversized bathtub, enjoying the “finer things of life! “