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.
Página web de la Casa Rural Villa de Urueña
Food:
A bunch of restaurants. No shortage of choice.
Wow. Let's go!
Urueña en Valladolid (Castilla y León). Pueblos con encanto. Descubre los pueblos y lugares con más encanto del país.
www.lospueblosmasbonitosdeespana.org
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:
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.