Modúbar de San Cibrián to Mecerreyes

Thursday 22 September 2022

Distance: 22.8 km Time: 6:00 Ascent: 300m Descent: 260m – Wikiloc

Cold in the morning, hot in the afternoon, it was a long day for us and we were glad to stop at the small 10th century village of Mecerreyes instead of continuing another 7 km to Covarrubias to complete the stage. We didn’t encounter anyone on the country tracks and the villages were almost deserted too.

Los Ausines (pop 110) is divided into three barrios along the Ausín River but we can only see Quintanilla – the other barrios require an extra hour’s walking. Did El Cid pass through here?

To reach Los Ausines (Barrio de Quintanilla) you must cross …

Los Ausines Train Station (opened 1927, closed 1984)
On the Santander-Mediterranean railway which was never completed, intended to connect Santander and Valencia.

Our notes describe this as the watchtower for the Abbey of San Quirce
But what Abbey needs a 2 meter high mesh fence topped with barbed wire and monitored by CCTV?

Cubillo del Campo (pop 88) is linked to the times of the repopulation of no man’s land between the Christian and Muslim territories during the 10th and 11th centuries. Nearby are some of the famous limestone quarries with which Burgos Cathedral was built.

Only 2.7 km to go for a tortilla. But will the bar be open?

We could smell tortilla cooking as we approached the village of Cubillo del Campo
The bar was open. Runny egg and finely chopped potato, only Spanish can make tortillas like this!

Cubillo del Campo with its 16th century Church of Saint Marina

The longest Tizona sword (one of El Cid’s swords) in the world, about sixty meters long, on a hill above Cubillo del Campo
It’s made from stones from the quarry used to build Burgos Cathedral

We stopped to chat with a shepherd taking his sheep to graze

Now we are going backwards on the Camino de la Lana that connects Valencia with Burgos but we didn’t see any pilgrims

We walked beside a lavender field for about 5 km; must be beautiful in flower

“Mecerreyes” (pop 208) is derived from Arabic (maza rais), meaning meadow or field. Although there is no documentation that testifies to the passage of El Cid through Mecerreyes, it was and still is on the way to the important town of Covarrubias.