Day 18 of walking - Hontanas to Itero de Verga 21km

Our sunrise on Wednesday. Note the moon in the picture.

We left the albergue in Hontanas at 7 am in the dark. I really love seeing the night turn into day! The day was overcast and cool thankfully because there was no shade along the way. The high point of the day was literally, the high point 1050 meters which was the hill we had to traverse. I don’t have any idea why the original pilgrims just couldn’t have gone around this hill because shortly after summiting  it, we began a steep descent. Another observation along the way is the fact that switchbacks are an unknown here. There is only one way up and that is straight up.

               
On the way up!

  About to go down

The prize on the other side that made it worth it was this beautiful tree lined road which lead to a sweet little village called Castrojeriz. We were just passing through but got some photos. 

Made it to Itero de la Verga and were surprised to find that we were house guests and shared the house with 6 other people. We had semi-private rooms with doors we could lock. All 8 of us shared 2 bathrooms which was quite comfortable. The owners, Jose Maria and his wife cooked us dinner which was quite good. The room and dinner cost 22€. Other travelers in our house were 4 men from France. They spoke only French and therefore ignored myself and Marty. I’m pretty sure they knew English, just refused to try to speak it😬.  It’s all good. They were on a once a year vacation to hike together for 10 days. Their suitcases arrived by car and they took off this morning with tiny backpacks and enough water and, I suppose, money to make it to their next stop. 

Before the day ended we were made aware of the fact that we have crossed into Palencia the 4th of the 6 provinces in Spain we will be visiting.