Carrion Churches

JL has suggested that I write about why people such as myself (without any religious motivation) keep returning again and again to the Camino. Not easy to explain unless you’ve been here and done it. For my part, I like feeling the sense of history all around me (in Australia we are a bit deprived of this). Also, I know that I can walk this path without ever getting lost; there are so many pilgrims doing it and it is so well marked (a bonus for me being slightly geographically challenged!)

This morning, I left San Zoilo with the intention of visiting two of the Carrion churches before catching the bus to Terradillos. The bus would transport me 17km of bring Camino with no services. I went first to the church of Santiago (not open till later) and then to Santa Maria. The latter commemorates the legend? that each year the Christians were obliged to hand over 100 virgins to the conquering Moors. How could they keep finding 100 year after year?

Church of Santiago 

Church of Santa Maria

San Zoilo

Blogger is driving me mad when I try to post photos, so I’ll just write text for a while and add my photos later.

After leaving Villalcázar. It was back on the senda for another 5 kms. Carrion finally came into view as many more pilgrims started passing me. It was a bright morning, though still fairly chilly and the wheat fields blowing in the wind in great waves of green. Someone told me yesterday that the Canal de Castilla which goes through Frómista was built to transport grain north to Santander for export. Growing wheat has been going on here since Roman times.

I arrived in Carrion just as the ALSA bus was pulling in. I tried to buy a ticket for tomorrow in the bar, but was told that it was not possible to purchase in advance. The driver was having a coffee and was in no hurry to depart even though he was half an hour late!

I set off to walk right through the town to my destination just across the river: the Real Monasterio de San Zoilo. This hotel is in a converted historic building rather like a Parador, but not as efficiently run. For a start, the room layout, in a square round the cloisters on two levels, is impossible to fathom. People literally go round in circles looking for their room and the dining room.

What’s more, I found the room to be boiling hot - which is silly, given that electricity in Spain is so expensive. It was a beautiful room , though, once I’d opened the windows!

I had lunch in the dining room: Castillian soup with an egg in the middle, followed by a pork dish with goats cheese accompanied by a nice glass of Tempranillo. I might add that this part of the Camino is notorious for laying pilgrims low with gastro ailments (including me in the past). I thought I ought to be safe in this hotel as everyone would scream about it on TripAdvisor.

After a siesta and only slightly groggy from sleep, I walked back over the bridge into town. I wanted to find a supermarket to stock up with fruit. The park by the river was really nice in the Spring sunshine. I also explored some of the monastery grounds, all surrounded by a very high wall to keep the hoi poloi from annoying the monks in years gone by!

Lovely room in San Zoilo

Cloister

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Villalcázar

Blogger started playing up yesterday and I accidentally deleted the post I had written. The internet signal also kept dropping out as it was getting overloaded in the hotel.

So, starting again...

On the way to Carrion, I stopped in Villalcázar de Sirga. I had spent the night there previously in Las Cantigas Hostal, in a room with a view of the church directly opposite my window. I had a coffee and discovered that the church didn’t open till 11.00am. It was now 10.05 am and I didn’t really want to hang about.

These four stood for half an hour discussing the tympanum whilst waiting for the church to open.

Carrion

Pilgrims on the way to Villalcázar 

Leaving my hotel at 8.30 am

Church at Villalcázar

The temperature dropped to 2 degrees last night, but these old buildings seem to retain some warmth from the previous day so I only felt cold when I stepped outside. There were some Spanish pilgrims who woke before 7.00 am and conducted a loud conversation in the corridor outside my door. They had obviously requested breakfast at 7 whilst I had decided that 8 was quite early enough.

Fromista San Martín Church

A few more pics:

Rude man is just below the roof!

Model of partially collapsed church before restoration.

Fromista and Villamentero

Up before the crack of dawn, which is 7.30 am in these parts. After a quick cup of tea, I was off to get breakfast at the station before catching the 8.00 am train to Fromista, changing at Valladolid onto a very slow regional train. The weather was bright and sunny. The first stop after Madrid was Segovia Guiomar, where there was snow on the ground this time last year.

On arrival in Fromista, I had the obligatory 2nd breakfast and then spent half an hour looking round the Romanesque church and taking lots of photos (too many to post here). On my way by 12.00, I walked along the senda for 2 hours till I came to a nice shady lunch spot already occupied by 3 pilgrims (a German,  Canadian and a Lithuanian girl). They were doing a 30 km day, but we’re fairly impressed by my advanced age even if I was only doing 10.

I’m now settled into to La Casona de Dona Petra in Villarmentero, a historic building which “rests on the remains of an ancient pilgrims hospital” and a huge underground silo “whose age and past use are unknown”. The weather has been sunny all day, but with a cold northeasterly wind whistling round the streets of Fromista.

Breakfast in Chamartin Station, including the Spanish favourite of tomato pulp w olive oil on toast.

San Martin Church in Fromista.

Rude little man (pic from my Romanesque book, as he is rather high up for me to photograph). 

Lunch spot w George from Germany: he had not heard of Der Pass  on TV.

View from my window tonight.

Perth to Madrid

This year the Emirates chefs are making a real effort to produce menus which are more interesting to gourmet travellers such as myself! The starters include traditional Arabic mezze. There are even instructions on how to roast the aubergines. “We turn them over an open flame until the skin begins to bubble or we bake them in the oven until they blister, or we throw them on hot coals and watch them char. We discard the bitter peel and keep the creamy smoky flesh and that is the foundation for two of our most famous mezze items. For moutabel, we whip the roasted aubergine pulp with tahini, lemon, olive oil, garlic and seasoning until it’s almost smooth. The result is creamy with tart and smoky contrasting flavours which are further offset with sweet pomegranate seeds”. Not bad at all!

Dinner:

Trad Arabic Mezze

Humus, muhammara, baba ghanouj, stuffed vine leaves, olives.

Barramundi w asparagus and pearl barley risotto.

(The above description was from the lunch menu).

I watched one film on the Madrid leg:

Crazy Rich Asians. I have to say that when I lived in Singapore for seven years, I didn’t come across anyone like this. Nor did I meet any Singaporeans who spoke perfectly pronounced English. Did they send all those actors to elocution lessons? Still, it was a nice love story to while away a couple of hours.

This was a nice touch!

On arrival at Chamartin Station in the early afternoon, it was noisy and crowded being a May Day public holiday. It took me a while to orientate myself and find the correct exit. As my hotel was just down the road (Barcelo Imagine) I decided to go there first even though I had business in the station. After a hot bath and a beer, I started to feel more human and walked back to the station to purchase my Seniors Rail Card (€6) and a ticket to Fromista for tomorrow (€24) as well as a new set of ear plugs - a Camino necessity.

I went to bed at 7.00 pm and woke up at 3.00 am. Nothing to be done about jet lag. It goes away eventually.