Cycling Zamora to Palencia, Spain: Across the Open Fields
11-12 March 2019
Zamora to Villalpando (11 March 2019, 54 km, 33.5 mi)
If you’ve ever tried to find your way around in an old European city, you know how incredibly confusing it can be. The infrastructure dates back to times long before cars were around. Streets are short and often don’t go very far before dead-ending, sometimes in intersections that have lots of roads going off on crazy angles. Many roads allow only one-way traffic. And street signs are very discreetly placed on the sides of buildings, where they can be almost impossible to see.
These quirks also give us problems on our bikes. This morning, we got confused a couple of times on our way out of Zamora. But one thing we have discovered is that if you’re anywhere near the Camino de Santiago, everyone in town knows exactly where the route is. And people will gladly stop what they are doing - even pulling over to park and get out of their car - to help lost pilgrims find their way back to the route. This morning was no different.
Unfortunately, although this has been helpful to us over the past few days, we are actually leaving the Camino de Santiago today, and heading northeast on EuroVelo 1. We hope to return to Spain someday soon to finish the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, but for now we need to move on to the east.
However, when we stopped to figure out where we were, and to be sure we were still on the bike route, a helpful Spaniard stopped his truck along the road, got out, and walked over to help direct us back to the Camino. He was quite insistent that we were far off course, and would have to go back into town to find the route. At first we tried to assure him that we were not that lost, but to no avail. We finally agreed with him, and he seemed satisfied that he had helped us avoid a serious routing mistake. It was hard not to appreciate his effort.
Another common occurrence is shouts of “Buen Camino!” (i.e., have a good journey on the camino) from people passing by. It’s really energizing to have the feeling that the whole community supports people making the trip to Santiago.
But our current journey on the Camino has come to an end, for now.
Once we finally found our way out of Zamora, we were back in the open fields of the Castilla y León plateau. It’s absolutely amazing how wide open the vistas are in this region. The terrain is not completely flat - there are low, rolling hills. But there are almost no trees. Really.
There are even fewer trees than in Kansas. On the Great Plains of the USA, people often build their homes out on the open prairie. So the grasslands are occasionally punctuated by groups of farm buildings and houses, that usually have trees planted around them. In Spain, we haven’t seen any houses out among the fields. As a result, this section of the plateau is almost completely treeless.
No trees here, just huge fields. Near Molacillos, Spain (northeast of Zamora). Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
The lack of houses and other infrastructure out in the fields suggests that folks must live in the villages, and “commute” to the fields to work. Yet another striking thing about this leg of the trip is that small towns seem deserted when we pass through. We often don’t see any people at all. Maybe they are having the same problem as towns in the Midwestern USA, where the number of farm jobs is declining as agriculture becomes more mechanized. We don’t really know if that’s happening here. But the quiet towns are strikingly different from the vibrant villages of Extremadura, which were always full of people going about their daily business.
A quaint village, on the plains north of Zamora, Spain. These towns have been very quiet, with few people out and about. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Another change we’ve observed is in the architecture. When we were in the mountains, a lot of the buildings were constructed from stone. And throughout Andalusía and Extremadura, homes were typically covered in white stucco. In the villages we are passing through now, many of the buildings are built from mud bricks, or covered with a dried mud coating that isn’t painted. Using the earth as a construction material makes sense, given the lack of other local resources, like wood or stone.
One of many mud-brick buildings we’ve seen along the route north of Zamora, Spain. This one is in San Martín de Valderaduey. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Another similarity to the high plains of the USA is the wind. Today we biked into a strong headwind all day, which was very tiring. We decided to make it a short riding day, and to stay in the town of Villalpando at a hotel called the Posada Los Condestables. Up until now, we had only seen the term “posada” used for historic hotels in Portugal (the equivalent in Spain is a parador). This hotel was not as upscale as the Spanish paradors, or Portuguese posadas. But it was a lovingly renovated manor house in the village. Our room was very spatious compared with typical European hotels. And we enjoyed the elegant ambiance of the hotel’s courtyard. In the evening, we went down to sit in the lobby for a while, and enjoyed the warmth of a crackling wood fire burning in the historic fireplace.
The Posada Los Condestables, Villalpando, Spain. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Housed in a renovated mansion in Villalpando, Spain, the Posada Los Condestables has a lovely, interior courtyard. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Walking around town, we discovered that Villalpando has several fascinating ruins. But there is very little information available about them. We were struck by the preponderance of brick used in the town’s architecture. It’s very different from all of the other types of construction we’ve seen so far in Spain. From what we’ve been able to learn, the use of bricks - especially brick arches and vaulted ceilings - is indicative of the Mudéjar style of architecture. It’s a blend of Moorish and Christian styles that evolved after the Christian reconquest of Iberia, but before most of the Moors were driven out of the region. The Christian elite often employed Moorish craftsmen to build their new palaces and churches, resulting in the hybrid construction techniques.
Ruins of the Iglesia Santa María la Antigüa in Villalpando, Spain. It was constructed in 1170 A.D. in the Mudéjar style - with a blend of Moorish and Christian influences. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
The Arco de Santiago provides a truly grand entrance to the village of Villalpando, Spain. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
For a town with barely over 1,500 residents, Villalpando turned out to be a fascinating place to spend the night. We were lucky to discover this gem out on the plains of Castilla y León.
Villalpando to Palencia (12 March 2019, 85 km, 52.7 mi)
We had a relatively long biking day planned for today, so we had hoped to get out on the road early in the morning. Unfortunately, we were foiled by a flat tire. PedalingGuy’s back tire had lost its pressure overnight. While changing the tire in the driveway next to the posada, we discovered a number of thorns stuck in the tire. That’s never a good thing. We pulled eight tiny thorns out of the tire, replaced the tube, and set out across the plains of Spain.
The terrain continues to be mostly flat and treeless. As if to add emphasis, today we passed at least six towns with names ending in “de campos,” meaning “of the fields” (for example, Villamayor de Campos). That’s a pretty accurate description of this area. It’s truly impressive.
More giant fields of grass, near Santa Eufamia, Spain. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
We passed the village of Torremormojón, population 57 (down from 78 residents in 2004). Like many of the towns in this area, we didn’t see any of the inhabitants when we passed through. But the grand old church and crumbling city wall recall a more prosperous past. Copyright © 2018-2019 Pedals and Puffins.
Along the way, we stopped for a snack break in Medina del Rioseco, the biggest city we would ride through for the day. As we were ready to leave, we discovered that PedalingGuy’s back tire was going flat again. What a drag. It was a pretty slow leak, so he just pumped up the tire rather than replacing the tube, with the hope that it would make it all the way to Palencia. But we would need to replace the tube later, and check the tire to see whether we had missed any additional thorns embedded in the rubber.
On top of that, I’ve had a slow leak in my back tire for a couple of weeks. The tube needs to be pumped up again every 4 days or so. That means we’ve already had four flat tires, in barely more than 1,000 km of travel. Not good. We’ll be looking to buy more spares in Palencia.
We arrived in Palencia and checked into a hostal in the heart of the city. Before cleaning ourselves, we headed back out to a car wash that also had a special area for cleaning bikes, and washed the dust and grime off of our very dirty bikes. They look pretty spiffy now. We also replaced the tubes in both back tires. Hopefully we can get new spares on our rest day, tomorrow.
