You should
not quit Fromista without taking a last backward glance at its church. It is
half past six in the morning when we leave the town. There is an artificial
path (andadero, in Spanish) that runs parallel to the road. Walking along
this path a pilgrim reaches us. He is wearing shorts and he carries a bottle
of water in each one of his pockets, so he walks in a weird way. His name is
Alvaro and he is from Malaga and comes from Saint Jean Pie de Port (France).
andadero.
The
walker, who has had more than his share of traditional paths, now has
these modern paths (andaderos).
A
little bit before arriving at Poblacion de Campos we overtake the French
old grandma. She looks just on the verge of snapping into two, but you
should have seen how this woman resists.
-"Bonjour!".
-"Bonjour!".
When
we arrive at Poblacion de Campos we see they have festivities because the
main street is full of fairgoers that sleep in their mobile homes at this
time. The ground is covered with litter and paper cups. The last young people and teenagers, surprised by dawn, saunter up and down the
village streets. Some of them, a little bit tipsy, take the mickey out of
the pilgrims.
Paca
and I quit the modern path (andadero) and taking a red soil track, amid
cereal fields, sunflowers and poplars we arrive at Villovieca. From there,
following the semi-dry channel of a river we arrive at Villarmentero de
Campos where we come back to the modern path again. When we are walking on
this path the Xacobea cycling tour overtakes us. The six or seven walkers
in this bit are surrounded by a swarm of about a hundred cyclists that,
after a while, disappear into the distance. Calm falls back to the Camino.
The walkers slowly overtake the steles which, almost all of them with the
Camino sign torn off, mark the modern path and keep cars out.
Villarcázar de Sirga. Paca and
Salva are very happy...
In
Villalcazar we visit the wonderful church and have breakfast. There we find
Fernando, Javier and Pepe. We arrive at Carrion very soon, after a nice
stroll.
Monastery of Santa Clara in
Carrión.
It
is half past eleven a.m. when we enter the Hospederia of Monastery of
Santa Clara, our lodgings for today.
The
double room is a little Spartan, it costs 4000 pesetas and the little nuns
do not make out a bill. They brand our credentials and we remain at the
convent.
We
visit the town with calm,
especially the church of Santiago. We have lunch
with Pepe, Fernando and Javier : the pilgrims’ menu at Meson La
Corte. We are there with almost all the pilgrims we know. There are about twenty of us. In
the evening we visit the pilgrims’ hostel and we know its manager. She
is a talkative and solicitous woman, she is the sister of a priest who
showed us the church of Santiago. They have a computer in the hostel but,
surprise, surprise!, it does not work. We also visit the Monastery of
Saint Zoilo.
Paca
and I have dinner, this time alone and à la carte, in the same restaurant
we had lunch. Some foreign pilgrims do the same, as do the red-haired
Yasmine, who is without her Spanish lover this time, and a huge German man
that, looking at our croquettes, licks his lips. We wink at them good-naturedly
from our table. All of them are honest walkers. The false pilgrims already
took the evening bus.
We
have a nightcap in the España bar, then we head for Santa Clara hostel.
We go to bed.
*Ave
María Purisima.- A kind of old traditional greeting for entering a
convent, it means a salute to the Inmaculate Conception Virgin. The answer
to this salute is « Sin pecado concebida » and it means
« the one who got pregnant without sin ».
Stage
15  Stage 16 |