Puente Duero to Villanubla/Valladolid (19.98 miles / 32.17 kms)

Today was a very long and tiring day, and therefore probably a long blog. It started well and then went to, ok, Valladolid!

Our hospitalero woke us up at 6:30 this morning playing some type of upbeat Spanish rumba music. Even though it’s early enough to get out the door by 8:00 am as required here it still takes tome because there is only one bathroom for the six people here.

It’s funny how that talkative and friendly hospitalero changed to a hurry and get out of the door, matter of fact, person. But he has to get ready for the next group of peregrinos, even though he has only had people there ten days out of the last eighteen days. That’s because only approximately six hundred peregrinos go all the way to Santiago on the Camino de Madrid.

Everyone has there own morning breakfast plan and mine is two yogurts, some rice cakes and cheese, and orange juice. For me it’s important to eat something to help start and keep that morning energy.

I was the last to leave and I keep trying to be the first because it usually makes it easier at the end of the day like it ended today.

The Camino started out of town as a nice hard surface trail, and about a half mile later moved onto a frontage road along a highway and the surface changed to soft fresh plowed soil. The wheels of the Wheelie immediately sank into the soft soil and I knew my energy would be spent after a few miles, and I just moved onto the highway and hoped I would continue to parallel the Camino. I caught up to Alan and Kim who had started early and were well ahead of me. I saw them struggling along on that plowed soil and having just as much trouble as me. When they saw me pass they moved onto the road and we walked together until we got to Simancas.

Simancas was another beautiful little town. It had a hotel but it was just far enough away that it would have been a push the day before to get there.

Yes, another beautiful town with old stone bridges, castle walls, wonderful history, etc., etc., gand why not stop and smell the roses? Because, there is so bmuch beauty and history in Spain, and along the Caminos, that it would take years to stop and smell all the roses, so you just take a whiff as you go by.

I stopped for my morning meditation and Alan and Kim went on. About twenty minute later Linda and Claudio showed up. They had stopped to have breakfast.

I started up again after they had left because my blisters on my feet were starting to bother me and slow me down. I had placed mole skin on the tall guy toe on my left foot but apparently it moved down and the top of the toe right below the nail was rubbed raw to the point that it looks like I might loose the toenail. Then the toe next to it developed a blister because the mole skin had bunched and moved down, and then rubbed against that toe. I have been a little upset at myself for getting blisters as I never got one on both other Caminos, but I have to remind myself that I have not really walked in eighteen months and I have tender feet.

My new knee is a little stiff in the morning but it has not bothered me, and at times I forget that I had it replaced four months ago. I don’t take that for granted and try to be cautious with it.

A little slower in my pace I made it to the little village of Wamba in the afternoon. I was pretty tired and was craving orange juice when I saw the only little bar there. I always feel like I am a character in one of those western movies where the stranger rides into town and everyone stops to stare at him. Curtains open slightly as people peek out at the stranger, people whisper something about the stranger to each other, and the kids run along next to him with the dog tagging along. You get my point, but it really happens to me mainly because I have the Wheelie (maybe my bad guy hat too). And actually before I saw the bar, two young boys, maybe nine or ten, came up to me and pointed out the bar, but they didn’t have a dog.

I walked into the bar, and had left my Wheelie outside, and the previously loud place went silent as I stepped in. Always an awkward feeling, but that changed quickly as the owner and his nineteen year old son immediately made me feel at home. There were plates of appetizers on the counter and they offered them to me before I could order a drink. There were battered cubes of fish on a tooth pick that were delicious. The owner as that I liked them and he kept offering them to me. After they were all gone his wife brought out another plate of fresh ones and offered them to me again. Two orange juices and long friendly conversations later I realized I had to go, but I wanted to stay since it’s great to meet such nice people.

After a Buen Camino from almost all the customers in the bar I went to the edge of the village and started the very steep uphill climb the four or five miles to the albergue at Penaflor de Hornija, and the only place to stay there. I had asked the young man at the bar about getting there and he had said it was a nice highway there, so I decided to turn around and walk the highway instead. Well, there’s where everything more than turned around for me!

I went back the short distance to the road, VP-5501, and looked at my Google map to make sure I had the right road and off I went. I figured it would take a few hours and to make time go quicker I decided to call Mindee while I walked. After close to an hour she asked if the town I was walking to was Villanubla? No, I said, I am walking to Penaflor de Hornija! But she said, my Ted phone finder shows you walking to Villanubla. What the heck! Apparently I was on the right road and instead of turning left I went right!

What to do? I was too tired to walk back to Wamba and then Penaflor de Hornija, and I decided to continue on the Villanubla and just get a hotel and walk back in the morning. Then, almost seven miles later, I arrived in Villanubla and found no hotels! I was pretty exhausted when I got there and got lots of no’s when I asked people on the streets if there was a hotel hostal in Villanubla. Finally a man directed me around the corner to a hotel and I was ecstatic! Unfortunately it was closed so I wandered to a restaurant and in my broken Spanish asked a man who directed me to a hotel about a half mile away. It was short but seemed like ten miles because I was so tired. The area is industrial and south of the airport and it is spares, not a place you would find a hotel, but there it was, the Venus Hotel.

As I walked up I got a funny feeling about the place, and I was just thinking it’s my exhaustion. Weird that the entrance was at the rear, away from the highway, and there was a long driveway going to what looked like a security gated entrance with a guard shack. There was a big wood gate eight to ten feet tall and it opened to let a car in as I walked up to the window. Yes it was a window, one like at a bank or movie theater, thick glass with an opening to pass your money and receive your ticket. Just then a handsome young man and a beautiful young woman, with a short skirt and high heel shoes, walked up to the window and both gave me a friendly ola,

While I was standing there I noticed the hotel rates were posted on the window, 30€ for two hours, €40 for four hours, and €67 for the night. There was a special for €160, but I could not figure out what that was but I am assuming it’s more than just a room.

I only had 7% power left on my phone and tired calling a cab but my Spanish was so bad that they hung up on me. I stuck my head into the little window opening and begged the lady to call me a cab. I think when she saw me crying she felt sorry for me and said ok. Alright, I didn’t cry, but I was close.

They opened the big gate and told me to step in. Wow, I felt like I was going into a prison or high security area. As it turned out there was a man and woman and they had called a cab for me and had a place inside for me to sit and charge my phone. They turned out to be nice people. I asked if there was a hotel close by that was nice and not too expensive and they gave me the name, Hotel Conde Ansiruz.

When the cab came I just gave the driver the name of the hotel and I figured he’d drive me the two miles there. Well, he drove me to Valladolid, a big city six to seven miles away.

When he pulled up to the hotel I was getting ready for the shock of an expensive, very nice, hotel, but I was so tired I didn’t care. It was after six and I was tired and hungry, and there were two restaurants and a bar here. To my shock the room was €45, plus €4.5 for breakfast.

My room was surprisingly very nice and I am enjoining it. I was very fortunate because I got one of the last rooms available because it’s a Catholic Confirmation Holiday weekend and there are ten parties staying here this weekend. There is all sorts of dancing and celebrations going on in various rooms and outside patios, and I like the sound of all that celebration.

I poked holes in all my blisters and soaked in a hot tub of water to soften and hopefully speed in their healing. I brought some needles and threads, rubbed them with antibiotic ointment and stuck them through the blisters and cut off the threads so they stick out both ends. This is an old trick, which hopefully will work. It will help drain and wick the moisture out of the blister. Just puncturing the blister sometimes doesn’t work because it closes up and that in turn builds up pressure and causes the pain.

I am off to a late dinner here in the hotel because, as it is in most of Spain, dinner isn’t until after 9:00 pm. Hopefully I can stay awake and enjoy the meal. Long story, but a long day that turned out good at the end.

As always, please excuse the typos, grammar, and spelling, etc., because I am writing this on my phone and don’t always review it, especially tonight!

Best wishes to all,

Ted

Leaving in the morning and looking back to Puente Duero.

Alan and Kim.

Me.

Simancas.

Heading out of Simancas.

An old Shepard’s cabin and a Camino sign.

Steep uphill climb that’s hard to tell in this photo. Notice the two bicyclists struggling going uphill.

Steel sculptures of pilgrims all along the Camino in this area.

More sculptures.

The long stretch before Wamba.

The beautiful scenery on the right highway, but going in the wrong direction, to Villanubla instead of Penaflor de Hornija.

After a very long stressful day the Hotel Conde Ansurez wasn’t a bad place to end up at.

Had to get two zumos de naranja grandes ( large orange juices).

Going to my room.

This could spoil me!

Deck to watch the view and dry my clothes. I have to keep them low so they don’t show as it’s not an albergue where you hang your clothes anywhere you can to dry.

Better than one bathroom for six people.

What a mess. I might loose the toenail on the tall guy and the other blister started because it got rubbed against the bunched up mole skin.

Threads sewn into the blister to help drain and wick the moister away.

All the literature on the Camino de Madrid note that it is level.

A rough overview of the Camino de Madrid. It meets the Camino Francis at Sahagún, and then continues to Santiago.