Day 20 – Boadilla to Carrión de Los Condes

33.1 km ~ 46,588 steps

Song of the Day: Don’t – Ed Sheeran

Well, today I had intended to take the scenic route and then due to a bit of a sketchy run in, we ended up having to change plans so we were stuck along the road all day. Maverick, at only 11 months old, continues to impress me because I don’t even need to keep him on a leash and even with cars whizzing by or walking through a city, he’s perfectly at ease. And while he tends to make things quite difficult, today he happened to land us in a nice surprise.

Lots of walking by roads today unfortunately.

Tomorrow we start the day with a 17 km stretch of no towns or water or services so I knew we’d need to do that stretch early so he wouldn’t be hot, meaning we’d have to stay here in Carrión for the night. After calling ahead to all the albergues and hostals in town and getting “no perros” from all of them, I turned to booking.com to see if there were any dog friendly places. There was only one. We could have found somewhere to camp, but with the crazy thunderstorms that have been coming out of nowhere in the evening the past 3 days, I didn’t want to risk it. So grumpily, I did what I had to do and reserved the 50€ room for the night.

We happened to run into Trish here as she was zipping by on her bike. She ended up walking with us for quite a while, and I loved being able to see a friendly face and chat while we walked. Eventually, she headed on to Carrion with plans to find a cafe where we can eat lunch together when Maverick and I finally make it there from walking. Not like I’m in any huge rush to check into my expensive place for the night.

After a great lunch with Trish, and unfortunately having to say goodbye to our other friend Tobiah who was leaving El Camino today, we attempted to find our way to Casa Tia Paula where we have our  reservation. After crossing the river and probably looking like we were lost, two kind older gentlemen direct us down the road to what appears to be an apartment? Office? To my surprise, it ends up that we are staying the night in our very own beautiful apartment with a washer, stove, refrigerator, and best of all a full blown jacuzzi! So Maverick, tonight I say thank you

After enjoying at least an hour or more in my lovely state of the art jacuzzi and lounging on the huge bed even longer, we thought it was about time we got out and explored the city. This is one of my favorite places we’ve been, though looking back now I almost forget about it. But it truly is a great little city. There’s a nice mix of both old and new here. Plenty of cafes offering different things. A great store for anything you could need on the camino – blister creams and bandages, toothpaste, deodorant, sunglasses, all in one soap, hats, trekking poles, etc. While wandering around I was even stopped and asked where things were a couple times so apparently I must look like I know what I’m doing? I think the bath made me look actually human and not just dirty pilgrim for the first time in weeks now. And I even knew where to direct them! (But that was just because I really had just gone to the grocery store myself, lucky timing)

The bar we ate dinner at was at some sort of fancy hotel, but they were still so kind and let Maverick and I eat on the patio even though it was “closed” for the night. The bartender said I would just have to come in to him to get my food, but then he ended up bringing it out to me after we had gotten to talking about dogs, him showing me pictures of his on his phone. And even though this was a fancy place to be staying and Maverick and I were the furthest cry from fancy, other people at the bar were so friendly, inviting me to sit with them and chat. Such a nice place.

We were enjoying the day and enjoying exploring Carrion so much we went for a walk by the river even though we had already walked so much that day.

Ready for the long lonely stretch tomorrow morning!