I seem to be enjoying detours. Sorry.
But please bear with me because this is a
really good one.
From Peñaflor, instead of forging ahead to Castromonte, we can take a left - either from the village proper or about halfway to Castromonte - and walk via La Santa Espina to Urueña, 20.9km.
A walled town with 189 residents, but 5 Bookstores and 12 museums. Not to mention walls, history back to Roman times, and the Romanesque Ermita Nuestra Señora de la Anunciada, a beautiful example of Lombard Romanesque.
It inspires poetry.
Accommodation:
Hotel enfrente del castillo de Urueña, la villa del libro, con maravillosos paisajes y atardeceres.
www.pozolico.com
Página web de la Casa Rural Villa de Urueña
www.villadeuruena.es
Food:
A bunch of restaurants. No shortage of choice.
Wow. Let's go!
www.xn--uruea-rta.es
Urueña en Valladolid (Castilla y León). Pueblos con encanto. Descubre los pueblos y lugares con más encanto del país.
www.lospueblosmasbonitosdeespana.org
www.xn--uruea-rta.es
www.xn--uruea-rta.es
The next day, we can find our way back to the camino via either Castromonte (17.5km) or going direct to Medina de Rioseco (24.2km).
Here's a map (yellow tracks; turquoise is the Dutch camino track):
View attachment 113077
Edit. La Santa Espina is a trippy place in its own right. Much of the town was a postwar Francoist project.
From:
es.m.wikipedia.org
There is an old Cistercian monastery, too:
La Santa Espina
www.lasantaespina.es
The monastery has a dark recent past, being used in the civil war as a concentration camp for 4300 Republican political prisoners.
