Day 15- Belorado to Villafranca Montes de Oca

Depart Time: 7:30 Temp: 62F RH: 95%

Walked m: 7.7 mi. Camino 2024: 99 mi.

We had a very nice, restful evening in our La Huella room last night. In spite of all the festivities that continued through much of the evening, our room was obviously quite soundproof as the only way that one might suspect a lot of celebrating went on was all the trash left behind by the revelers, as we walked on our way out of the town.

Evidence of serious partying last night
Not much partying, if any, transpired in this area of town.
interesting wall art seen as we made our way through Belorado
Looking back at Belorado as we picked up the Camino
crossing the main road out of Belorado,
wooden pedestrian bridge beside stone bridge attributed to San Juan de Ortega.
leaving the bridge and Belorado…
… and joining the Camino earthen path
more art as we walk beside N-120
more art
sunflower field on right, along the river hidden by the trees on right
dodging puddles from yesterday’s showers
more fields, typical of today’s walk
taking a breather at the end of a long grade

At the halfway point of today’s walk we were looking forward to having a nice breakfast break at the San Roque albergue/bar in Villambistia, as we have on our previous 5 Caminos. But it was closed for the day, as it seems the staff was in Belorado joining the festivities we witnessed yesterday.

Not only were we disappointed, but we realized that only one other village remained with a potential breakfast stop until Villafranca and our fears were validated when we found it also closed for the day when we got there a half hour later.

So, Linda found and claimed a suitable bench and we scrambled through our daypacks for any remaining nibbles, and had an emergency “snack-breakfast” before moving on to Villafranca.

tired after 5 miles and no breakfast
another long grade and still no breakfast stop
down into the valley leading into Villfranca Montes de Oca.
just before walking along N-120 and heavy traffic for last half-mile into Villafranca
a final walk through a wooded area…
before joining the trucks at the traffic intersection in Villafranca.

We stopped at the first bar in Villafranca (pop.147) and got off our feet at a table inside and ordered a belated, but satisfying ColaCao (hot chocolate) and tostadas.

After breakfast and just before walking up the steep hill to our hotel, we walked passed the nice Casa Rural where our granddaughters spent the night on their next to last day on their Camino in May.

Katelyn and Blakes’s stop in Villafranca

We checked into San Anton Abad for the 6th time and were actually recognized by the lady who welcomed us in 2014 and several times since.

This historic Hospital de la Reina hosted up to 18,000 pilgrims per year in the 17th century and was later converted into this boutique hotel and albergue.

The view from our window in Hotel San Anton Abad.

As on previous visits we have a grand view of the 18th century Iglesia de Santiago from our room window.

our lunch/dinner wine

We’ve 23 miles to cover tomorrow to reach our destination tomorrow in Burgos. Along with our routine activities we devoted some time discussing how to make our way to Burgos either by walking or taxi or both and will decide in the morning, also taking weather conditions into consideration,

Still full from our late breakfast and mid-afternoon lunch/dinner, we opted to skip tonight’s pilgrimage dinner at the hotel.

It’s raining at 7:30, so we’ll retire early to give our bodies some extra healing time.

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