Sabbath

Carrion to San Nicholas (Saturday, June 12th)
Stella and I decided we had had three days of walking in cold and wind and rain and that was enough. So after debating a bit this morning, and looking up at the sky, we bought bus tickets from Carrion to Terradillos, about 27 km. The bus wasn´t leaving until 12:45, so we had hours to walk around and explore Carrion, a really neat little town. It is about 2500 people, though it used to be 10,000. However, there is new construction going on, so it must be growing again. It is located on a river and has a beautiful park and river walk. We walked out to San Zoilo, an old monastery that is now a shi-shi hotel resort. On Corpus Christi, last Sunday, they had a beautiful flower display out there, as they do in many places here. Like the Tournament of Roses Parade, everything has to be out of flower petals or natural elements. But unlike the parade, these designs are flat, like huge carpets, created on the sidewalks and lawns. They are one day only events, and apparently get vacuumed up afterwards. Posters had shown us pictures from previous years, but we were far too late to see this year's. It was a nice walk out to San Zoilo anyway, across the river and we got to see another Roman road through the woods (below right).

Carrion is a town with a lot of little squares or public areas for gathering. And lots of storks' nests. Like many other towns the same size, it also has public art and much of it related to the Camino, such as this scallop shell fountain, which was in one of the little squares. Mostly we enjoyed people watching. We stopped in a little alimentacion to replenish our food supply. And we saw another 'a caballo' pilgrim, but this one had a lame horse that wasn't doing well at all.

When the time came, we caught the bus. Fortunately, we had told the bus driver where we were getting out. He stopped in this little tiny village off to one side of the road. We had not seen any sign and had no idea where we where. We had to ask the whole bus several times if this was Terradillos. They must have thought we were really dumb.

So we got off the bus, found our way through the tired, dusty collection of buildings to the alburgue and found our backpacks which we had shipped ahead, thinking we would be walking. We said hello to some familiar faces, shouldered our packs and took off for 6 km towards San Nicholas. We noticed in passing some dilapidated buildings that the local building material of choice was mud and straw, just like the Hebrews had used to make bricks when they were slaves in Egypt. Only it didn't look like it was holding up so well under the Spanish sun and rain and time.

The fields we walked through were beautiful, nearly ripe wheat fields. Along the way, we also came across a labyrinth in a little rest area that someone had created just for us pilgrims!

The clouds were beginning to build in the skies all around us again, so we hurried through the fields on the dirt track. We made it to San Nicholas shortly before the evening rainstorm hit.

The private alburgue, Albergueria Laganares, at San Nicholas was delightful. We got to do and hang our laundry out in the the beautiful little courtyard out back (after the storm passed by), and then, there was this gorgeous post-storm rainbow visible across the fields from our upstairs window (more vivid in real life than in the picture). Our room was essentially a private room with two bunkbeds, but we didn't have to share it with anyone. The walls didn't go the whole way to the ceiling, however, so noises traveled. It was a small place with just four, four-person rooms upstairs and a private room downstairs. It was very colorful, and done in sort of a 'Spanish country' style, traditional for this region. Very homey. Lovely bathroom and shower facilities. After we got settled in, cleaned up and did our laundry, we sat in the little gathering area at the top of the steps and had some local wine, and some fruit, cheese and crackers from our backpacks as a late lunch to keep us until dinner.

We shared dinner at the table with two women from Canada, a niece and aunt. First course was 'sopa verde,' a creamy green soup of unknown green veggies creamed together, but probably spinach, maybe some broccoli. Second course, I chose pescado, fish, which was thankfully headless, and lightly fried, served with a small salad on the plate. Dessert was flan (we're comparing flans as we go across the country - they vary widely in quality!). Everything was delicious. A number of local folks were dining there as well, which is always a good sign!

The owners of the alburgue couldn't have been nicer. We forgot to call that evening for 'transporte de muchilla' (taking our backpacks to the next place), and when I couldn't get a phone line and he didn't want to fire up the internet, he just called for us and took care of it. Rated one of our better stays!