Today is Wednesday the 17th of April, 2024 and I’m on a train going south to Leon with the bicycle and panniers . Kind of fun the train travels exactly along route AS375 which is the route I took going north from Pola de Lena north to to Oviedo when I road the Via de la Plata last year. The 10 mile descent was a switchbacked, 2 lane road with grades of 12%-17% and with tractor trailers screeching by brakes smoking. Mine were smoking too!
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| 2023 northbound on bike. |
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| Puerto de Pajares |
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| The descent from Hell last year. |
I will get to Leon on the train around six and hustle right to the albergue to try to get a bed. Had some wonderful pinchos (pinchos = free tapas) at Bar Begonia, and a few others. Bar Gitana had a lovely bartender, very charismatic.
Etapa 1 Leon-Sahagún
So awake at 6:30 AM and the albergue throws us out by 8:45 it’s about 36° which for me is very cold. I am now having coffee and pastries waiting for it to warm up at Café Ananya. Set off for Sahagún. Rolling sort of flat landscape and I was on gravel about 40% of the time. Many pilgrims all walking the other way along the Camino de Santiago Frances, I am the only one traveling east. Because I pass all of them I must’ve said Buen Camino to 500 people today.
I stopped for a glass of wine and a Pincho in Burgo de Ranero about 18 km from Sahagún. In Sahagún I walked around waiting to get into the albergue gate and the town gets smaller the more you walk around. But everybody very nice. All the bartenders are waiting for the high season of the Camino de Santiago. The albergue is very nice, lovely beds, and very few people. Every bed has its own electric outlet. And the showers are nice and
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| Dormitory in an albergue |
The albergue in Frómista was open with a nice yard with a place to hang laundry and sit in the sun. But the real highlight of Frómista were the voluptuously curved, quadruple locks. The visitor center was open, and I obtained a PDF, a nice one, of a map of the Canal de Castilla with landmarks and crossings marked. Construction of the canal began in 1753.
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| Locks (esclusas) in Frómista |
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| Same locks from above |
I had morcilla matachana finally in a restaurant next to the hostel. Fried crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside.
ETAPA 3 4/20/24
Very cold in the morning again about 35° and I started off at about 9 o’clock all gravel and a lot rougher than the gravel of the Erie Canal towpath. Very few people, I only saw maybe five bicyclists all day and a few people walking. I detoured into several small towns, one of which was Olmos de Pisuerga. Just as I entered the town, there was a small bar open and the woman there was very surprised to see me and asked me how I found it and how I knew it was open. I told her it was just by luck, and that I would publicize her on Facebook. She had only opened a week or two before and is the only open bar for 10 km in either direction. A coca cola and on my way.
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| The bridge that leads to Olmos de Pisuerga |
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| Aqueduct Abánades carrying the canal over the River Valdavia at Melgar de Fermental |
As I was nearing the end of the day my rear bicycle tire threw a rock off into the bushes with a sound like a pistol shot, I waited for the sharp hiss of a flat. I made it to the next town with the large bulge in the tire still holding air. I had a beer in the bar and asked about a bicycle shop. Everybody laughed and also informed me that Alar de Rey was 2 km up the road and that I was in San Vicente which had no businesses except the bar. So I finished my beer and biked gently to Alar de Rey, went to a bar and asked advice. No bicycle shop and worse, nowhere to sleep. So I bicycled on road back south (and downhill!) toward Herrera de Pisuerga where I found a lovely private albergue for only €20, which is cheap for the private ones—- the municipal albergues only charge between €4-10. I had pizza for dinner in the bar La Estación, friendly Morrocan bartender. The next morning Sunday morning, I reinforced my tire on the inside with a tire patch and fibre packing tape and set off toward Burgos.
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| Free secure bike parking at Herrera de Pisuerga. |
On the way to Burgos the bicycle was shifting oddly, but manageably. 15 km down the road I stopped at another tiny town, Sotresgudo, that had an open bar and ordered a coffee and a piece of potato tortilla. Very nice bartender. I started off downhill and went about a half of a kilometer and suddenly my rear shift cable snapped. So I made it back to the bar which is called Bar Yoin and the bartender called a friend who is a mechanic who came in about ½ hour (on a Sunday) and ingeniously jury rigged my cable well enough so I could make it with two gears to the first town with a bicycle shop which would be Villadiego another 15 km and kind of hilly which was noticeable due to my lack of gearing.
I went to the restaurant La Cueva in Villadiego and rented a room from the same owners in a hotel called Safari. The bicycle shop was supposed open tomorrow, Monday. The small bridge right near the hotel looked to be just a modern concrete bridge, but when I walked down under to the edge of the river Brulles I discovered that it was a beautiful Medieval three arched stone bridge. There were a few benches with grass growing up around them-- perfect spot to have a beer and reminiscent of the Green River at Rowe Road.
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| River Brulles |
When the Cueva restaurant reopened at 8:30 at night, I had garlic soup and morcilla for €15 and it was almost more than I could eat. Monday morning slept in and then had coffee in the kitchen of this big house/hotel The Safari, and then went to the bar by Cueva and had another coffee and then knocked on the door of the bike shop. I called the number on the door and they answered and said they would not open today. So I waited a half hour or so for it to warm up a little bit, and then biked off with my two gears towards Burgos.
ETAPA 5 Villadiego-Burgos
Some steep hills but I never walked. There came a decision whether to stay on the N120 or take the A231. I thought the “A” meant “Autonómica”, a type of local road but it turned out that in this case it meant “Autopista” i.e limited access interstate. I was about a half a kilometer in with no way off before I realized my mistake. The speed limit was 120 km an hour with tractor trailers hurtling past and cars honking at me. There was a wide breakdown lane with a protective rumble strip but it was scary. I was also worried about police either arresting me or fining me. Finally I saw a parallel side road (the N120) in the distance. I biked on until it angled closer to the autopista and finally chose a spot to cross. So very carefully I crossed my two lanes of traffic, luckily there was very little traffic. I could see nothing on the horizon when I crossed, and then I tossed the bicycle over the guard rails in the middle divider strip, and crossed the other two lanes, hid the bike in some tall grass and scouted out a place where I could get off the autopista. All along both sides of autopistas here there is 8-10 foot tall page wire fencing to keep deer off the road, no gates no openings. I found a spot about 30 yards up the road where the fence was laid down about halfway and there was also a man with a tractor irrigating or spraying some crops. I asked him advice and he pointed. Yeah, you can get to the N120. Great-- went back and got my bike and he help me get it over the fence. I biked down some farm roads and finally made it to the relative safety of the N120.
The fencing along the auropista
Colorful graffiti under the A231
The wind today was howling well over 20 miles an hour all the time with gusts that, since you can’t see them coming, almost blew me off the bike. Eventually my road converged with the Camino Frances, which is sometimes the same as Eurovelo1, and I saw some hikers and some other bicyclists and asked them advice. Should I take the dirt road Camino or stay on blacktop and they said stay on the blacktop Camino is very bad so I did, and I made it to Burgos and checked into the albergue €10. There was some confusion about which bed was mine in the dormitory but finally settled into bed 364. Big albergue.
One of the employees gave me the name of a bike shop that could replace my broken cable but it was a three hour wait for it to open at 5PM so I settled in a little bit, charged my phone and bicycled to Decathalon, a fantastic chain sporting goods store, where they fixed my cable for free did not even charge me for the part and I bought some warmer clothes. Now I’m sitting in the plaza and just had a sandwich, bacon and hotdogs with mustard, and a glass of Ribera red wine.
ETAPA 6 Burgos-Castrojeriz
So from Burgos very cold again in the morning I headed out for Castrojeriz and spent most of the day on dirt road single track lanes with grass up to my knees through fields of rich green wheat on one side and fields of bright yellow rapeseed on the other.
Castrojeriz is small, steep little town with a castle perched high above. I went to one bar near the albergue but it was expensive and full of tourist pilgrims so moved to the next bar La Taberna-- you know the second bar is always the best. It was small and funky and good price. The day has been cloudy all day, a little less wind, but never warmed up. In the morning the volunteers in the albergue threw me out at 8 checkout time as usual and I loaded the bike but left it parked outside the hostel and hiked up to the castle. Tough short steep climb up the front way, I was grabbing at roots and branches to keep from backsliding. Formidable castle dating to the 9th Century with Roman, Visigoth, and Medieval constructions. 360º views with a Cinereous Vulture (no photo sadly) perched on a rampart. The trail back down the back way was longer but less treacherous. There was a hard frost last night and at 10AM plants in shade were still frozen.
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| Castle on hill on the right |
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| Castle in middle in distance |
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| On the way up |
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| From the top |
Etapa 7 Castrojeriz-Frómista April 24th
By this time it had warmed up enough to set off on the Camino de Santiago back toward Frómista. Today I was traveling west, the same way as all the other pilgrims so I passed some who I had met while biking east on the Camino and was able to renew acquaintances. Met Brendon in the morning in a bar having a sandwich, he’s from Chicago, but with an Irish accent from Dublin. End of The day I’m sitting on the canal having a beer and he caught up to me and I had an extra beer in my backpack and shared it with him. The notable part of the ride was the extremely steep hill, 12% on loose gravel right out of Castrojeriz and then the downhill side was asphalt but 18%-- long ankle twisting push up and white knuckle braking on the way down.
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| View of the gravel climb |
I had a tuna empanada for breakfast at the bakery in Frómista and talked to the guys I met yesterday on the Camino. All towpath heading down the Ramal del Norte of the canal today to Palencia. Very bumpy but not dangerous, but very annoying and loud. Fantastic locks all day and I stopped at all of them. Somehow missed a double lock in Grijota.
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| An arqueta, housing overflow valves for the canal |
Saw one other biker on the towpath, young German guy bike camping the eurovelo from Portugal back to Germany. Very nice guy. We talked for about 15 minutes and then went on our own ways. He is camping and is cold. At the last lock just before entering Palencia I stopped and had a sandwich of liver pate and tomatoes, and opened a bottle of white wine before I went into town to look for a room. So I get into Palencia and there are no rooms. I look here I looked there. Finally somebody recommended Hotel Monclus and for $40 I got a room probably the cheapest in Palencia. I biked to the local Decathalon and bought a cell phone holder for the handlebars (the first one must have gotten torn off while working the bicycle over the fence on the A231) and also went to Mercadona (favorite grocery store in Spain) so I have food-- bread, smoked sardines, sweet roasted red pepper and thin sliced cured Ibérica ham. Trompicón dive bar pincho/tapa place. Full of local characters, no frills, tasty pinchos and I’ll go back.
Morcilla
Etapa 9 Palencia-Valladolid. April 26
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| Eurovelo 1 marker |
So now it’s Friday morning I get up I get the bike ready I put my new cell phone holder on the handlebars, get a cup of coffee and a churro and off for Valladolid. The path was a lot smoother than yesterday’s joint jarring, bone rattling rocky path. Pretty much on Eurovelo1 and only saw one other biker, who was in a hurry and didn’t want to talk. Lots of great locks had a sandwich next to one of them. Weather was a little warmer than before.
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| The End of the Canal |
Valladolid. Valladolid is not on a Camino therefore no cheap albergues so I booked an Airbnb for $24. It’s on the 4th floor but the bicycle fit, barely, in the elevator. Great tapas Bar de Zamora and Bar de Corcha best so far and great wine from Toro vineyards which are nearby. I’m writing this Saturday morning 27 April and it’s not raining yet but I’m going to stay a second night since daylong cold rain predicted for tomorrow.
Canal Etapa 10 Valladolid-Toro
Sunday, April 28, 2024 I am in bed waiting for the weather to warm up a little bit. It’s 8:30 in the morning. I am in the 4th floor Airbnb of Delive. Yesterday I spent most of the day walking-- went to the river, saw the Medieval bridge, had wine and wonderful tapas, especially the micuit duck liver.
The Puente Mayor, Valladolid 
Micuit de Pato!!
I took a siesta in the afternoon did not sleep but rested. It rained pretty hard from about 11 to about 3. Cold and miserable I was glad I did the second night here in Valladolid. All of the tapas were terrific, but the most fun was the last bar, where a Dominican woman was working. Her name is Orkidea. and the bar is Geminis.
I had planned the next leg of the trip only to Tordesillas but it’s too short a day (even for me) so I will go on to Toro about 67 km. Sunday bicycling to Toro the first half was on a gravel path Eurovelo1, kind of slow going with thunderstorms visible in the distance but when I got to Torrecilla de la Albadesa it clouded up real dark and windy right over me. I was just about to have a snack and when it started to rain I found a church that had a roof over the entrance. I sat on the steps just as it started to pour with hailstones the size of chick peas and at the same time the front door opened about 40 people lots of little kids and the adults throwing candies and coins on the ground and little kids are running to get them. It might have been a baptism. So I ate my sandwich and tossed some céntimos on the ground for the kids and waited about an hour with the rest of the congregation for the rain to let up. I turned off the gravel Eurovelo though and hot- footed it north up to the N122 for a faster sprint to try to stay ahead of the showers. In Toro (again no albergues or hostels) I stopped at the first open bar Sunday afternoon and it turned out there was a hotel upstairs so for €48 (my limit was going to be €50) very nice room, showered got dressed, walked around the Plaza Mayor, the Espolon there’s a Promenade around the outskirts of the city very high up you can see 100 miles and it’s at least 270° view if you walk around beautiful. Stopped at a bar, Ecuadorian woman, and her sister and many others and we drank a lot of red wine and now it is Monday morning.
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| One view from the Espolón, Toro. The yellow field is rapeseed. |
Etapa 11 Toro-Zamora April 29, Monday
I’ll have a short bike I think to Zamora mostly on dirt about 35 km. Bright and sunny today. Well, it was about 40 km but 90% on gravel and some of it was really hard bouncy elbow jarring stuff. But it was beautiful, not right alongside the river, but through great huge fields of wheat and vineyards, short stubby vineyards, and the wheat was topping out and there was a huge climb didn’t look so big on the map profile, but it was a pretty good climbing loose gravel and there was some walking involved. I saw no other people from Toro to Zamora.
I got to Zamora and my favorite bar (known from last year’s trip) was just closing an hour early because Juan had something to do but I’ll go back at 6:30. Met a few bicyclists in the Plaza Mayor and checked into the albergue and I’m on a top bunk. I think roughly 600 km to this point total trip. Tuesday, April 30. Had a wonderful revisit with Juan and Maria in Colima North great pinchos, and talked with a Dutch couple and are now friends on Facebook bicyclists. The hostel was very nice volunteer Swedish, very sweet woman, 72, but I would walk to Madrid with her.
Etapa 12 Zamora-Benavente
Breakfast in the hostel and so I started biking at about 8 o’clock on smaller roads than I took last year for the same destination. Very nice easy biking, small blacktop roads, with very little traffic. There were dozens of abandoned dovecotes, many with the tiled roofs caved in, in Villarrín de Campos. Incongruously there was one new one under construction. The pigeons were for racing, meat, eggs and the guano was used as very high quality fertilizer.
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| Approaching Villarrín de Campos |
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| Dovecote |
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| Some dovecotes are round and some are square |
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| New dovecote under construction |
I bought a bottle of wine in one town and stashed it in my bag for later, and then took the via verde (bike trail) the last 7 km to Benavente. The municipal albergue in Benavente is famous for its bad reviews which is why I avoided it last year. The albergue is unstaffed so, to register and get the key, you have to go about a mile into town to the Office of Tourism. I had arrived at the same time as an Italian fellow was really tired with a big backpack so he gave me his passport and his pilgrim stamp book and I did the walk for him and I signed him in and came back down. He paid me the four dollars when I got back and went up and looked at the room then and put his backpack back on and left. Three other groups of pilgrims came and decided not to stay. Now there are just three of us in the whole place with 20 beds it’s like a private hotel. The guy who snores is gets his own room! It’s cold and dirty and there’s no hot water but it’s terrific.
Etapa 13 Benavente-Astorga May 1
About 70 km with the first half gently but consistently uphill andthe second half flat but consistently hard wind against. I was sometimes on the Camino de Santiago and sometimes on other little roads some very rough gravel.
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| Bodegas-- underground wine storage with ventilation chimneys. |
The last few kilometers were along the railroad line sort of behind town, but I came into town right at the hostel.
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| View from my upper bunk at the albergue in Astorga |
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| New favorite wine from Bierzo. |
Thursday, May 28 AM kick out from the hostel after microwaving my leftover bacon empanada. As usual, the temperature was about 34° at eight in the morning Leon is only a 50km ride and I could see my breath the whole way. Komoot, a navigation app did a great job again except there was a short gravel section I had to walk due to gravel the size of golf balls, and 8% incline but most of the trip was fairly flat with a helping wind.
Had a little trouble finding the correct train station in León. Google maps sent me to the FEVE station but the station I needed is RENFE station a great big station was hard to find. I waited on line for about an hour talk to a few people and bought my train ticket for Oviedo tomorrow they charge me three dollars for the bicycle $10 for my fare. Then checked into the hostel, and one of the women remembered me from a town before because you know these volunteers move around. Then I went up to Begonias, which I think is my favorite bar here although I only know four or five and head to carnitas in the calamari sandwich, and a glass of the same Bierzos I had in Astorga and loved. Tomorrow Oviedo.
So the trip is done. 14 days of biking, almost exactly 800 km of stage riding with a few more riding around town. The canal biking is quite a bit harder than the Erie canal. The towpath is much rougher. There were no stretches as smooth as the Erie canal.
It is now Saturday, May 4 and I am in the apartment of my friend Suso after my train ride from León to Oviedo, where Suso met me and then trained on to Áviles. I would call the trip and unqualified success. There were a few moments of excitement, for example, the broken shifting cable, the tire damage and the interstate adventure. There were some moments while following Komoot routes where I thought the road might just stop in the middle of nowhere. Very glad I chose not to camp because of the cold weather almost every morning was about well between 31° and 37°F. The temperature only rose above 50 a couple of times it might’ve been 61 or 62° at three in the afternoon on one day. But mostly bright sun, with a few clouds, a little bit of rain, which I mostly avoided.
Albergues/Hotel prices—
Leon €10
Sahagun €7
Fromista €14
Herrera de Pisuerga 19.90 private albergurue
Villadiego Safari €45
Burgos albergue €10
Castrojeriz €7
Frómista €14
Palencia Hotel €40
Valladolid Airbnb €25
Valladolid €25
Toro Alba hotel €48
Albergue Zamora €5
Albergue Benavente €4
Albergue Astorga €7
Alb. León €10
€252 total lodging 16 nights so average €15.75/night.
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