Day 21 cont'd

So I am off on my own again. Am curious to see whether I walk as fast as I did when "carried along" by Leo. Thank you, Leo!

Fast and easy walk - 8.6 km in 1 hour 38 minutes to Boadilla del Camino. Very long pause there where I met the two Dutch ladies again we had met several times before - Leo impressive with his fluency in Dutch. Not Leo any longer. Also met the German lady from Aachen again and various others I had not seen before.

Quick and easy walk to Fromista, a major town for end of stage, mostly on what I assume is the tow path along the Canal de Castilla which we eventually crossed over lock gates. However this lock system is different from the one I had experienced near Beziers, on the Canal du Midi in France. There you have a succession of 7 levels each separated by lock gates from it's "neighbour". Whereas here you have 4 levels with one gate at the top and one at the bottom of the lot - no look gates between levels. The different levels are just huge steps the length of a boat. I saw a boat going on the canal carrying tourists - you can do part of the camino this way!

I photographed the top level which I had to cross with the camino - did not stop to take my photo from the lock gate because the railing was so low that I preferred to get across quickly. Could not get close enough to the bottom one because of the high vegetation, but I could hear it.

At one point I found that fields were green again, sunflowers, clover and what I think was kale. Came across parts of the old open air irrigation system again, but nothing modern like in the Rioja vinyards.

Finally Fromista where I went all over the place having lost the arrows when going round an old church which very much needed renovation. Found what looked like the parish church, St Peter's, which is being renovated. Unusual high altar depicting Jesus being taken down from the cross. And after a longish pause leaving Fromista there was a beautifully renovated church, St Martin's. And at last the final straight never ending three or so kilometres to Población.
PS I had opted for the communal dinner. A French couple with no English and four Americans and one Irish woman with no French. Not one language in common for all of them and I stuck between them. During the evening conversation became almost completely split between the two groups, me making part of the French.Read more