Carrión de los Condes-Terradillo de Templarios

To Santiago 405 Kms

(Distance  25 Kms // Time walking 6 hours and 15 minutes)

_{We leave Clarisas nuns’ hostel at quarter past six in the morning. The pilgrims go through Carrion following the yellow arrows in semi-darkness. Dawn slowly breaks. A group of boys and girls come back home after a Friday night on the town. They shout and gesticulate with the naiveness of those who think they are the first people in the whole world that go to bed at the break of day. They unavoidably shout at pilgrims and mock them. Pilgrims are the only people that, apart from young people, walk along the street at this time. Pilgrims accept « human inclemency » with indifference, their monotonous pace does not change. Youngsters shouting and laughing vanish at once.}

Church of Santiago in Carrión, the yellow arrow...

_{We cross the bridge over Carrion River and, after traipsing a little bit, we arrive at a roundabout in the road. We take the road towards Villotilla. When we walk along this road a kilometre, a car, plenty of noisy young people coming from a night on the razzle, brakes beside us and, when we were ready for the same old thing :}

• _{« Good luck! Enjoy the Camino! Buen Camino!*»}

_{Paca and I thank the boys, and we are both very happy to find that some young people who stay up all night also have good feelings.}

_{We arrive at the old Roman roadway that goes to Astorga, it leads us towards Calzadilla de la Cueza in a straight line. Our long shadows always go ahead, we try catching them as if we were children.}

_{We have breakfast in Calzadilla. There, we say good-bye to Pepe, Fernando y Javier. Paca and I are not tired, because our last stages were short, and we want to go further. They remain at the Calzadilla hostel. We give them our address, just in case we do not see them anymore.}

_{When we quit Calzadilla we take a new track from the road. There are only a few signs on the track. Walking along this track keeps us out of the road.}

_{Three beautiful girls in theirs twenties meet us. They look fresh, untired and lively. They say they are from San Sebastian and they are Javieristas*. They tell they are going to Santiago to a congress of young Christian people. We quit them beside Ledigos because Paca and I are going in the village so as to have a snack. After a while, at a crossroads near Terradillos de Templarios, we see to our great amazement how the three Javierista beauties hitchhike a Nissan Patrol of the Guardia Civil*. We think that it is just a joke, but the Benemerita* car stops and the girls speak to the guards. Walking, we overtake all of them. In a few minutes the law and order car overtakes us and the three lasses, very happy, bid us good-bye from the car. Long live the Guardia Civil! Trust Javieristas girls and you will see...}