We walked up a steep hill onto the "Alta Meseta".
We came to an ancient, 12th century "Pilgrim Hospital", Saint Nicolas de Puentetitero.
It was lovely. You could stay there (it was an Albergue). It was just this one building, with no electricity. It had candles on candlesticks. There was a volunteer there serving tiny cups of coffee and Chips Ahoy cookies.
I was looking at the apse and I discovered a guitar! I quickly played "Four Strong Winds" and "Scarborough Fair". I expected the guy to tell me to quit playing. I practiced a few chords. It was a classical guitar so it was too big for my fingers. I really miss playing music! And I found a piano one day and a guitar the next day. The guy told me that the guitar belonged to the Albergue and that I played very well.
I wish we could have stayed there, it was so lovely and quiet. Very spiritual.
After that we walked to a town called Boadillo. We stopped for lunch at an Albergue with a pool. You could not swim in the pool unless you were a guest there. I was just dying to jump in! We were planning to go further so no swimming.
All the pilgrims who took one look at this albergue stayed there! It reminded me of the Maiden Castle in the Holy Grail story. The Knights of the Round Table were searching for the Holy Grail when they came upon the Maiden Castle. They went inside and after that they could not leave. It was hard for us to leave this place. It had a beautiful patio with great food and lots of roses and other flowers. All the people there looked happy and relaxed. WE almost didn´t leave!
We walked along a canal after that. There are two canals here, the Canal de Pisuerga and the Canal de Castilla. They are used for irrigation so they can turn the Meseta, which is basically a desert, into farms and forests. The canals are older but they are still developing the irrigation systems and planting groves of trees. It is beautiful what they have done.
The long walk to Fromiste got me kind of grumpy. There are no pilgrims in fromiste because they all stayed at that place with the pool.
There is a gorgeous little Romanesque church here, just gorgeous, but workmen are working on the patio around the church so it is fenced off and dusty. I don´t know if we can get in or not.
Okay that is all for today.
Expect: The Flowers of Spain. I am making Anselmo photograph lots of flowers. I´ll upload the flowers when I get home.
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