Day 15- Castrojeriz to Fromista (25km/15.5 mile)

Second day of Maseta brought lower temperatures and I had to take out my hat n gloves. I was quite happy the heat wave ended since there isn’t much shade in Maseta. Last night when I got to Castrojeriz, I was mesmerized by the castle on the village mountain. I asked people and they said it might be a 25 minute walk up to the castle at night time. I kept thinking and then I got lazy. I also wasn’t very keen on a proper dinner so I went to the supermarket and grabbed a few things and crashed early. You will laugh but I was craving for strawberry yogurt so much that I ate literally four yogurts tonight, Yepp I did 🤪….

I loved walking out of the village next morning. It had a really old world charm to it. Beautiful church, old houses, the very old village structures and beautiful flowers that pretty much all the villagers have been growing on their front yards. This morning had a very good feel about it.

Little did I know, I was in for a surprise and of course that was because of my lack of preparation. I knew there was an incline but I did not check the elevation chart the night before. There was a steep, strenuous climb out of Castrojeriz on to the Maseta. And then of course what goes up comes down as well.

It was 3000 feet elevation gain in about 3 miles.

I was huffing and puffing and got to the top and then as I turned back the entire valley and the village was visible from there. It was indeed a very beautiful morning.

Once on the top it was a flat walk for a while. It was pretty chilly this morning especially at the top. I was glad that I had my woolens with me, coz many people were regretting forwarding those further to other towns based on the previous week’s forecast.

And just as I started to walk down, it was just breathtaking because you could see the fields of poppy on top of the green everywhere. I just wish pictures can capture the beauty, they don’t even come close.

The walk kept going with the green fields on my side and poppies popping their head out of the greens everywhere. It was stunning. Finally, got to a small village and that was my coffee break.

The last part of the walk today into my destination village was quiet and serene, right by the river. The river goes all the way to the town right next to you. It was a quiet afternoon and this small river next was quite calm. Thankfully there were plenty of trees and it was great to walk under the shade of those.

By the time I hit the bridge that is on the main picture, my feet were quite tired. It was a decent day but it included a lot of elevation changes. I got to my accommodations and I started inquiring about the vegetarian options in the little town. I wasn’t very positive that I’ll get some thing based on what I was told. So, I thought I’d stop by the supermarket and see whatever I can find and will put together a sandwich or something.

There were hardly three or four places in this town to eat out, two were closedtill 8pm and were serving chicken dinners. The other one I walked in and whatever the owner told me in his spanish did not sound very appealing to me. As I was about to turn into supermarket, I saw this really cool looking door and I was admiring it when it felt like there were noises coming from inside. I took my chances and opened it and voila!… People were sitting inside , was a restaurant.

I walked in and I said you open for dinner and he said yes we are. I had a big smile, one it was a restaurant that was serving dinner and he actually replied in English so I didn’t have to pull my Google translate out. I asked him if he has anything vegetarian on the menu and he replied I got you, come sit. I loved that man😀.

That was enough for me. I was super happy to see Belinda here as well she invited me to her table. This is a girl who has been walking from past 40 days as she started her walk in France from Le Puy. This is a longer route to Santiago. She has already covered the distance which I am going to cover by the time, I reach Santiago. I’m quite impressed by her. Then, I had the most wonderful dinner when I was thinking I was just gonna go ahead to supermarket for something .

Things turn out to be the best for you when you least expect them.