Camino Day Fifteen- Hornillios del Camino to Castrojeriz (13.2 Miles)

Day fifteen begins with us walking for the second of nine days in the Meseta. The Meseta is a high altitude plateau in the interior of Spain covering a significant portion of the country. Treeless and largely flat it is fields of cereal crops. The Meseta is considered the second stage of the Camino that challenges the mind. The first phase challenges one’s body and the last stage is a challenge to one’s soul.

Our walk brought us wonderful countryside and we often found ourselves alone on the trail. We visited two churches and the ruins of a Monastery. With our bodies all healed, the day allowed us to reflect on where we had been for the last two weeks on the Camino and look forward to what was still to come. It was perhaps our most optimistic and positive day yet.

The beautiful Collegiate Church of Our Lady of the Apple Tree stands on the site where the Virgin Mary appeared to St James. He was passing through on horseback through an apple orchard and Mary appeared. Among the miracles attributed to Mary is that she is credited with saving several masons from falls that would have been fatal without her intervention during construction of the church.