Fromista to Carrión de Los Condes – day 16- 19.2 kms….
After a great day yesterday and extolling the virtues of the Spanish Meseta, today made me realise what all the warnings had been about!
Leaving the town of Fromista around 7.30am…had waited for breakfast…which again was probably not worth the hours of coolness wasted!
Past Spanish villas locked up like Fort Knox! I have just realised that every hotel…we are locked in or out at night too…there must be a high risk of break-ins! Around about here I ran into an Irishman (Mathew) who I walked with out of town…
Over the proverbial bridge lined with this very strong smelling yellow flower …
And through the last outpost!! Little did I know – there was a fork in the road…riverside way or the traditional way…he and I took the traditional way! Dumb move….the next 4kms was road side exposed walking – although this first 6kms was filled with Irish humour…
Around 6kms, he carried on, and I gave my feet their first 10 minute rest!
In a very picturesque (?) part of town outside a hay baling storage factory – this little town (Problacion de Campos) was devoid of cafes and in fact any other sign of life…
And I was on my own ponding the open roads…counting imaginary sheep in my head!
The odd sprinkling of Poppies to add colour to the day!
Finally the next town…Revenga de Campos…these names were producing a rather hopeless feeling (first Problem, secondly Revenge!) ok so around 9kms in and again no bar or toilet! Of course it wasn’t really bush wee country …as one was on the side of the road and in open view of the rest of the pilgrims! (For miles)
This kinda says it all…just me and my shadow…both needing a bathroom and a stone path that was very much starting to reverberate on my tender feet! Another 5kms of this (alone) finally stumbled (literally and physically) into the village of Villalcázar de Sirga…where the one cafe of the day was bursting with gasping pilgrims…and a steady run on the bathroom!
I spent about an hour here (putting off the inevitable…last 6kms) visiting the church
Which was lovely and cool inside…
Checking out more blooming roses…roses grow so well in this climate!
And basically wasting time…knowing my feet were going to struggle on the homeward straight!
Oh and they did…in the midday heat of 30 degrees (feels like 40 – for me at least and my very hot painful right foot!) I did have to stop about 2kms out and take my shoe off for a few minutes!
Finally arrived a little after 1pm at Carrión de Los Condes…and googled my hotel of course it was on the other side of town so let’s just hobble for another kilometre!
Through town and out the other side…
Over this bridge…then walked around in circles for half an hour trying to find the hotel…which is part of the Monasterio de San Zoilo…The monastery of San Zoilo was a Benedictine monastery in Spain between the 10th and 19th centuries. Today, the complex, on the banks of the river Carrión in Carrión de los Condes, houses a luxury hotel …. And that’s where I am for the night!
This is the river Carrion …. The best part of my day, lounging in the garden bar eating Pizza for mid afternoon lunch(dinner) with a cool beer…although not before plunging my feet (and legs) into a cold bath…
Tomorrow is 17kms of the last 6 (open air roadside walking) I did today…so I made a thoughtful decision (for my feet) to booked a taxi to the next town…sleep in a little and visit the monastery when it opens at 10am before I have to check out and taxi at midday!
All who wander are not Lost girls 