Santo Domingo de la Calzada to Belorado

Up and leaving our lovely Parador hotel by 7:20. We left one pack for globetrotters to carry on to Belorado. David wanted us to have our own room so we are booked into the Hotel Belorado tonight (45 € 1 star). For the pack moving you fill out a label and call them to come pick it up. You put 7 € s in their envelope and attach it to your bag and call them to pick it up and write the destination town plus hotel.

It was a chilly beautiful morn but by 1 pm it is hot again. So nice to be sharing a pack that only weighs 15 lbs! Today's walk was 24 KM and only 300 meters in ascent; this again does not seem to count the rolling hills. Today we were mostly on graded tracks through rolling hills of sunflowers past their prime, cut hay fields with the bales ready to be collected. Walked through a potato field blindly following other perigrinos who thought they had a short cut. We passed through 5 towns including one that wasn't shown on the map! That disoriented me and I thought we were closer to Belorado than we were.

This hotel is a real step down from a parador and I would prefer to be at the albergue as at least then you have a washing machine and place to hang laundry.
We are now in the province of Castilla Y Leon which may be the oldest state in Europe and we will spend 50% of our time traveling through this large area. The ancient area of Castilla is well known for its castles and we keep looking for the Moorish influences. The Moors were in this area prior to the Camino de Santiago.
We took the advice of the foot doctor we saw at the Albergues and changed socks throughout the day at about every 5 KM. Socks and liners not being used were pinned to the back pack to dry. We both think that this did help with the feet but I do have a new blister.

We are sitting in the town square anxiously waiting for the Perigrino Meal to start, 7 pm is the earliest. We have decided that on tomorrow's walk to San Juan de Ortega, which is a climb of 4 mountains, that we will have 1 back pack transported. We made that arrangement a few minutes ago and also booked a room in a Casa Rural. Accommodations at this place look very basic according to the guide books we are carrying. The Albergue there is a Monastery that has only cold showers ....mattresses on the floor. I am really hoping that the guide books are out of date! I am going to have to go look at Kay's notes as to where they stayed.
We enjoy reading Kay's memoirs of their trip 9 years ago. I think that was 2 years before the Camino became a recognized UNESCO heritage area. We have heard that Rick Steve is going to do a guide book of this area and that he did the Way earlier this year.