Day 23 to 26: Burgos to Frómista via Hornillos and Castrojeriz

"eat a live toad first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you all day"
-Anonymous

My live toad this morning came in the form of a large, large hill just outside of Castrojeriz. Took two hours to climb it, through a fog so thick you couldn't see more than a few feet in front of you. Getting to the top was quite the experience though. It was a flat-topped hill, which would have had views for miles around were it not for the morning fog. It cleared a little just as I reached the top, but the endless vistas I was hoping for were unfortunately still hidden by the fog.

Rewind a bit...The road from Burgos to Hornillos can be described in one word: Wet. If I were to use more than one, they´d be wet, cold, gloomy, muddy, windy as hell and utterly miserable. I was supposed to have made it into Hontanas that day, but decided for the sake of my health and sanity that I should stay in Hornillos, some 10k short. No biggie; I had planned a short 10k walk into Castrojeriz the next day. During the second downpour and windstorm, my cheap-ass poncho decided it had had enough and tore itself to shreds right before my eyes. Pain in the butt - now I had to walk without any real cover from the rain. Made it though, and managed to dry my clothes a fair bit by morning.

The walk into Castrojeriz was much more pleasant. It started off windy and cold, but turned into a gorgeous fall day by early afternoon. Castrojeriz is the friendliest cities I've come to on the camino. No, make that any city I've ever been to. Scratch that, it's the friendliest city in the world. Everyone there just seems to be in a good mood all the time, and they'll smile at you and chat you up for no reason whatsoever. Really enjoyed the few hours I spent there. Even the restaurant down the street opened especially for me this morning. It was closed, but the owner saw me peering into the window, and he let me in and treated me to a coffee on the house. Great, great city Castrojeriz. I also managed to replace my poncho with something a little more substantial (ie, it won't shred, even during a nuclear strike.)

so...back to today. Despite the fact that I wasn't late enough to catch the restaurant being open, I actually did get a very late start this morning. I was supposed to get to Frómista today, but when I realized the time when I was having the coffee, I knew that wouldn't happen. When it took me 2 hours to climb that damn mountain, I was positive I'd have to stop at the town just before Frómista. After I (slightly) twisted my ankle with 15k to go, I knew I'd never get there today. Well, I did. Took me 10 hours, but I did finally manage to haul my butt into town. It's a nice enough city...much bigger than Castrojeriz, but still small enough to maintain it's rural quaintness. Surprisingly, despite my late arrival, I managed to get a bed at the albergue, and I'm just about ready to crash. 25k in one day, including a giant hill and a gimpy ankle will do that to ya.

On to Carrion de los Condes tomorrow, which, after today, is a laughable 18.5k (ha ha). More pictures coming soon, including some spectacular ones taken from various high points on the Meseta. There's even one with me wrestling a very rare feral Spanish panda. Stay tuned...