14 Sept. continued....

We came across an interesting alberque that was in an old church, it had only 12 bunk beds and pilgrims wishing to stay all contriubted to the evening meal.
There was a breeze blowing which saved us because it was till very warm.  Sandy had run out of water as we came into Boadilla, we heard of an amazing alberque there with a swimming pool, awesome breakfast and a little cafe.  We found it and sat at the cafe, which was full of people, and had 2 bottles of the most delicious lemonade (each!), removed our boots and aired our toes!  With 16 Km still to walk we didn´t linger too long.
Our walk took us along a canal which was used for irrigation of the adjacent fields.  There were a few trees so a little shade was welcome.  The terrain was basically flat, we wee all listening to ur tunes and were averaging about 4 km per hour.
>We arrived in Fromista at our prebooked accomodatin, changed our sweat soaked tops and proceeded to the bar for beer!  and chips, medicinal to replace all the salt we lost sweating. Showers and pilgrim dinner of spinach lasgna and salad, red wine and aqua.  Some young spaniards were staying at our hotel and soon they came out in their matador outfits (read tight) on their way to the bullfight which we learned was 10 km away. When they returned Joanie said one had blood on his clothing - so the bull must have been gored.  We are not sure if they actually kill the bull these days.  We had another glass of red and decided we should get some much needed sleep.  TOmorrow is not a mega km day but we still wnt to start early.


Sunday Sep 15

We left Fromista at 7Ññ30 this morning and walked to Carrion....20.7 km. We took the spiritual route which was a path beside a tree lined river, much more pleasant than the slightly shorter route which was a path beside the highway.  Along the way we stpped in Villalcazar de Sirga at a Templar church, we made it on time for 1 pm mass.  Before the mass we had a look around at the architechure, crypts, alters and stained glass.  Once mann started we were sort of trapped but we didn´t have the luxury of time to stay for it all and it was rude to leave part way through!  finally we got up the nerve to just get up and go.  Once outside we decided to stay in the town and have  a pilgrim lunch.  This comes with your choice of water or vino, of course we unanimously chose wine.  Bye the time we got back on the camino it was 3pm and the sun was hot.  We decided vino should in future wait till the end of the day.  By 4:30 we arrived at our place of rest in Carrion de los Condes, it was a monestary con verted into a hotel.  Very beautiful, after showers we had a walk around the grounds and the church which is in the process of renovation.  We didn´t want a large meal, having had a big lunch so we pted for the cafeteria and pizza and beer.  The server was a bit doubtful when we ordered 4 grande beer and he brought over an empty glass to show us the size.  He was quite surprized to hear us all say Si Si!  Ice cold beer! We love it.  Our conversation was a lot of fun as we made up poems and reflected on our camino both the one we are currently walking and the one we did in 2011.

Graeme sent us a poem and we would like to share it with all the blog readers....thx >Graeme

Four pilgrims walk the camino trail
To find themselves or to tell the tale
Of paths walked just to reach the end
With friends and bonds that will not rend
A spiritual quest, perhaps or not
A look back at life and what you¨´ve got
The simple ways of time gone by
The questions of ¨what¨or ¨why¨
But as the sun rises and you set off by foot
Remember that for you we root
And our love for you, you can depend

and then Graeme says.....not bad after 3 beers !!


Monday Sept 16

Breakfast was filling this morning, fruit, oj, toast, croissants, cafe con leche, yogurt, cheese, meats, as much as you could eat for 8.9 euros....We had 17.5 km to walk with no services.  By the time we left the San Zoilo monestary it was 9am, a bit late for pilgrims.  The road was an old roman one, very long and  straight. WE were all listening to tunes or stories from the Vinyl Cafe, so spontaneous laughter was erupting every so often.  There wasn´t much shade but I think we all felt the day was not so hard. Nevertheless we were happy to arrive in Calzadilla de la Cueza for grande beers.  The population of this town is 60 people! The internet is not working anywhere in town, so not blog again tonight, hopefully tomorrow.  We had pizza and another small beer and coke then  off to our rooms for rest and showers.  There is nothing to do here and going for a walk seems crazy when we walked all day.  There is no supermercade, when we came into town we saw a truck with a bunch of locals around it buying fruit and vegetables and there had probably been a bread man earlier.  We amused ourselves by washing our clothes in the bathroom sink till it was time to go for dinner at 7.30.  Tonight we were offered soup or salad and pork or turkey, everything comes with chips, which are usually lukewarm.  We had 2 bottles of red and called it a night with a plan to hit the camino trail at 6:30 and stop for coffee after 6km

Sept. 17 Tuesday

Early to rise today we were walking under a starry sky, the milky way and big dipper.  It was the coldest morning so far.  We planned to stop for coffee after 6km but missed the only coffee shop in town, so rather than go back we decided to go another 3km  to the next place. At 9:15 we were in a very nice cosy place, we had two cafe con leches each and chocolate croissants, did some foot repair and sock change and we were off again.  The terrain was mostly flat with few trees. There were several little areas with a house or two where everything looked either abandoned or closed up tight.  At one there was a man sitting on a stool, at first I thought he was another pilgrim but then I saw he was dunking pidgeons in a boiling tub of water to remove the feathers!!  I asked him if I could take a photo via pantomine and his rapid Spanish I took to mean ok!
As the temperture rose we were changing out of jackets into cooler4 tops. The sun seems to be mostly on our left so if we appear brown on one side when you see us next....thats why!   There were undeground wine storage places built into the side of the hill....they looked like minitature houses.
We arrived in Sahgun at 1:30, all of us hungry and looking for a room and beer of course.  We found a quaint hotel which was  very clean, two rooms for 6t euros.  Beers were next with olives , chips and cheese.-.
One thing we have noticed on our travels is the smokers and also the cigarette machines, which are a thing of the past at least in westrn Canada.
Well thats it for now.....the girls and I are off to find dinner.  THis is the first internet place we have found and there is only 2 computers....I had to wait for one to free up.....Hopefully they won´t be so few and far between in the coming days.
We love all the comments and encouragement from home....thx from us all. xx