October 04th, 2013

Yesterday we walked 20.5 Km from Fromista to Carrion De Los Contes. Marianne: no, we did not get to go inside the famous church.  Per usual,  we got into town  too late.  But we did stay in an albergue right next to it.  Anyway, yesterday the weather was great Camino weather:  sunny, bright blue skies, thousands of clouds floating above us, the big, white marshmallow fluff, animal-shaped ones, not the ones that rain on you.  Funny, up until now I never was a weather weeny - if it was sunny I walked to my car, if it was rainy I ran to my car - now I´ve become a real weather obsessive, along with my fellow pilgrims.  Itś like, you´ĺl see this young guy in the albergue buried in his I-phone and you´ĺl ask, "Ḧey, whatś the weather forecast for tomorrow?"  Everntually, without looking up, he´ll reply, "Ummm...haven´t checked yet."  But you´ll  get a better forecast when you start out the next morning and you pass a little old Spanish lady or gent taking their morning walk.  After wishing you "Buen Camino" they´ll point to the sky and say "luvia", (rain) or "no luvia", (no rain) or "luvia mas tarde". (rain later). Then you´ŕe prepared.  Yesterday the Camino ran parallel to a rural highway for most of the day, but it was nice, there were fields and trees on either side of the road, and we had a nice (dry) dirt path to walk along, though there was quite a long stretch of concrete sidewalk, too, hard on the feet and worse if you have a problem with stick-tock.  That´s the tock...tock...tock...tock sound walking sticks make when hitting a hard surface, as opposed to stick-thud, the sound of sticks on dirt.  Some pilgrims like stick-tock, they find it a comforting sound.   Tom thinks it´s a good idea, he says it lets people know youŕe coming and wards off dogs.  Other pilgrims can´t stand the sound of stick-tock, it drives them crazy.  Me, I never noticed it until I head other pilgrims discussing the subject and it doesn´t bother me.  But later in the day two Camino singers were following me for a while.  The road was level and soft under our feet, but I kept wishing a rocky hill would pop up so they would be too out of breath to sing!  Okay, I know, Iḿ sorry, that was a Camino my bad and Iĺl probably be punished for it with a blister.  On the other hand maybe I´ve already been punished for this future transgression when my camera stopped working a while ago, back at the House of Smiles.  (By the way, we learned the reason that the owner of that albergue isn´t Camino registered and doesn have a stamp is because along with welcoming pilgrims he also feeds and shelters the homeless in his albergue and he doesn´t want there to be any distinction between pilgrims and homeless.  Talk about spirit of the Camino). Anyway, my camera breaking was such a cataclysmic even that I figure Iḿ entitled to at least a dozen more Camino my bads, though I´m not going out of my way to commit any.  We stopped for lunch at a cafe in the tiny village of Villarmentero de Campos.  The cafe was sheltered behind a line of trees, but behind the tress it was basically in the middle of a field with pretty stone tables in the yard and long wooden tables on the patio and inside.  Inside the cafe Bob Marley music was playing and there was a big painting of Bob Marley on the wall, surrounded by graffiti that the owner encouraged his customers to write, giving us a marker for that purpose (I wrote that I like the Bob Marley motif).  We arrived at Carrion de los Condes unable to get into the albergue that was written up as the best in the guide book, so we ended up staying at what was probably the really best one.  For 5 euros each we stayed in a convent run by two sweet nuns, the Espiritu Santo Convent.  It was so nice, a big room with real beds, not bunk beds, so neat and clean with pretty spreads on the beds and all the blankets we wanted.  We really liked it there.  We had to scramble to find a place to eat dinner, and when we finally found a restaurant it was full of our fellow pilgrims, I think we got the last two seats and it took forever to be waited on, but the food was good as always.   I alote a huge plate of spaghetti with meat sauce followed by steak and fries, and I let Tom eat my ice cream.  Tom had salad, fish with fries, fruit salad and my ice cream. 11 euros each.  Today we are going to try and take on 26 km to the town of Terradillos de Templarios.  We´ll see if we make it.  My you all meet your goals for today, however great or humble they may be.  If you don have any goals, just have a wonderful day anyway!  Love, Patti 8)