Arroyo de la Toja

Well, we got off to our early start and met up immediately with a group including Sally the dog! For those who have asked, Sally and her owner, Florence, walked from their home in Bordeaux to Burgos last year. This time they are walking from Burgos to Santiago. They walked a brisk pace and chatted a lot which helped us a lot, and the terrain was flat and weather a very cool 3 degrees, reaching the 10km breakfast spot in just under 2 hours. We didn’t see much of the scenery around us with the fast walking and chatting. After the break we slowed a little but made it to the Albergue we wanted at 11:30, before opening time. We got in easily this time as we were early. We treated ourselves to a wonderful hamburger for lunch which went down really well.
Carrion de las Condes is a lovely town, combining the beautiful old buildings and roads with some very modern restaurants and shops and is quite big.
The Albergue Peregrino Parochial de Santa Maria is run by the Augustine Sisters. There is another Albergue in town linked to the Monastery of Santa Clara run by the Madres Clarisas.
We had a light, early dinner and beer before Mass at Santa Maria which is the parish connected to the Albergue. Mass was full with 49 pilgrims and plenty of parishioners too. It makes such a difference to a Parish having dedicated sisters involved. They brought an energy and lovely music. The priest was beautiful too and he gave each one of us an individual pilgrim blessing along with a paper star that the sisters had made. When we got back to the Albergue we socialised a little in the outside garden area before heading to bed.Read more