Población de Campos

This morning we fell in with Sheryl and Janice who have only one more day on the Camino. It was good to have their company and discuss the Canadian health service, the danger of meeting a coyote on your morning walk to the coffee shop and what Janice might do in retirement. We chose a slightly longer but much gentler route which allowed us to skirt a river rather than a major road.
My feet are doing well but in the interest of full disclosure I thought I’d share photographic evidence of my daily routine to prevent toe blisters. My toes start the morning looking normal and then each one is bound up in a tedious and time-consuming process which so far has kept toe blisters at bay.
We separated from our friends at Villalcazar de Sirga where we stopped at the fortress-like church of the White Virgin (who bestows blessings on passing pilgrims). After pondering the artwork on the altarpiece we resolved to study it in more detail later (though this may never happen).
The final 6km were today’s hardest. It was hot, the landscape flat and a bit monotonous and our path ran alongside the road. Maybe this is why people struggle on the Meseta. I was wholeheartedly thankful for clouds - most importantly for shade but also for visual interest.
We reached Carrion de los Condes just as a Corpus Christi procession was passing through. The children who’d taken their first communion 40 days ago were the central attraction, walking on streets decorated with cut grass, rose petals and (we thought) dyed sawdust. The whole town seemed to be celebrating.
Soon afterwards we reached our hotel, a rather lovely former Cluny monastery, with its own splendid cloisters and church. When the heavens opened we were hugely grateful to be indoors. Before dinner, the sun reappeared and we returned to the town to hear a small group of nuns lead some hymn singing. Each pilgrim was asked to introduce him or herself and explain why they were doing the Camino. The singing itself was nothing special but the whole experience was affecting, like so many things on the Camino. Fiona and I went to mass and then returned to the hotel for dinner.Read more