Days 21-22 The Halfway Mark
Day 21
Frómista to Carrión de los Condes--11.78 miles; 405 km. to go
Carry on to Carrión in 4 hours with the scent of new mown hay in the air. In fact, that´s one of the major smells on the meseta--that and the occasional farm whiff.
Carrión is pleasant enough and even has a couple of historical notes of interest. When the Moors ruled this area, umpty-ump years ago, they demanded an annual tribute of 100 virgins from the Christians. The Christians weren´t much better what with Alfonso VI of Leon murdering his brother Sancho II of Castilla. And then there were the Counts of Carrión who married the daughters of El Cid, stole their dowries, and then tied them to oak trees and beat them. El Cid had the counts murdered, and they are now buried at the Monasterio de San Zoilo where I stay the night.
I can´t resist a gorgeous, historical hotel that oozes authentic medieval atmosphere at every turn. This place is a find, which I´ll put on my future website. CNN, a restaurant with way-overpriced fancy cuisine (I stuff my camera bag with walnut dinner rolls), and the bath gel amenity helps clean my socks.
My hotel
I must take this opportunity to pay my respect to those Indian women in Mexico who can get clothes all sparkly white by pounding them on a rock in a river. I work on my pants for an hour in a luxury sink, and they still look dirty.
Day 22
Carrión de los Condes to Terradillos de Templarios--16.12 miles; 379 km. to go
The big landmark day. Somewhere out here I pass the halfway mark from St. Jean Pied de Port to Santiago de Compostela. It seems like I´ve been walking forever, and there´s still two feet to go on the map.
Flowers beside the Camino
The few towns I walk through today are built partly of adobe and partly of brick. That´s because there´s supposedly not enough stone in the area--surprising since I´ve been walking on every kind of stone imaginable for the last several hours.
The middle of nowhere
Today´s section of walking must be where Shirley Maclaine had her hallucinations. Yes, I realize that some people like her stuff. I don´t get any of it. I had to skip entire 100-page sections on her book called The Camino, which I thought did a vast diservice to the real-life Camino. Anyway, the only notable quote I carried away from her book was her "conscious decision to walk without a bra." Oh, puleeze. There are other American-written, entirely self-absorbed books that are just as awful. Which ones do I like, you ask? There is one written by Jack Hite, which is well done. The funniest one comes from an English author named Tim Moore, who walked the Camino with a donkey. In England his book is called Spanish Steps, and in the U.S. it´s called something like Travels With My Ass. Funniest thing I ever read. How can you not have a sense of humor when you do a walk like this.
Of course, the Coke machine doesn't work.
Frómista to Carrión de los Condes--11.78 miles; 405 km. to go
Carry on to Carrión in 4 hours with the scent of new mown hay in the air. In fact, that´s one of the major smells on the meseta--that and the occasional farm whiff.
Carrión is pleasant enough and even has a couple of historical notes of interest. When the Moors ruled this area, umpty-ump years ago, they demanded an annual tribute of 100 virgins from the Christians. The Christians weren´t much better what with Alfonso VI of Leon murdering his brother Sancho II of Castilla. And then there were the Counts of Carrión who married the daughters of El Cid, stole their dowries, and then tied them to oak trees and beat them. El Cid had the counts murdered, and they are now buried at the Monasterio de San Zoilo where I stay the night.
I can´t resist a gorgeous, historical hotel that oozes authentic medieval atmosphere at every turn. This place is a find, which I´ll put on my future website. CNN, a restaurant with way-overpriced fancy cuisine (I stuff my camera bag with walnut dinner rolls), and the bath gel amenity helps clean my socks.
My hotel
I must take this opportunity to pay my respect to those Indian women in Mexico who can get clothes all sparkly white by pounding them on a rock in a river. I work on my pants for an hour in a luxury sink, and they still look dirty.
Day 22
Carrión de los Condes to Terradillos de Templarios--16.12 miles; 379 km. to go
The big landmark day. Somewhere out here I pass the halfway mark from St. Jean Pied de Port to Santiago de Compostela. It seems like I´ve been walking forever, and there´s still two feet to go on the map.
Flowers beside the Camino
The few towns I walk through today are built partly of adobe and partly of brick. That´s because there´s supposedly not enough stone in the area--surprising since I´ve been walking on every kind of stone imaginable for the last several hours.
The middle of nowhere
Today´s section of walking must be where Shirley Maclaine had her hallucinations. Yes, I realize that some people like her stuff. I don´t get any of it. I had to skip entire 100-page sections on her book called The Camino, which I thought did a vast diservice to the real-life Camino. Anyway, the only notable quote I carried away from her book was her "conscious decision to walk without a bra." Oh, puleeze. There are other American-written, entirely self-absorbed books that are just as awful. Which ones do I like, you ask? There is one written by Jack Hite, which is well done. The funniest one comes from an English author named Tim Moore, who walked the Camino with a donkey. In England his book is called Spanish Steps, and in the U.S. it´s called something like Travels With My Ass. Funniest thing I ever read. How can you not have a sense of humor when you do a walk like this.
Of course, the Coke machine doesn't work.
posted by Pam on the road at 6:12 AM
1 Comments:
7/18/06
Mis ojos,
We're back from 2 weeks in Maui: 7 books down, lots of hiking, birding and snorkeling, and swimming---finally feel rested.
The Camino doesn't sound restful, but the sights (spelled both "s" ways) and the stories are wonderful and witty. Thank you for my morning chuckle. I liked the Austrian direction-challenged story as well as the charming tales of past atrocities---the poor daughters of El Cid. Nice photos, too. I wish you could include a few more of yourself and fellow pilgrims. Speaking of which, the pilgrim hierarchy was a delicious bit of writing.
So, how did the Camino pilgrims react to the head-butting event at the World Cup? And, did you get a chance to see that Italian team? It was almost enough to make a spider woman out of me---are looks required to play on the Italian team? Lucca Toni made a soccer fan out of me.
We've had house guests since we've been back--Val, and now Marty from SF. He has his 23 foot Winnebago parked in our driveway, so it gives the neighbors something to "admire." He's driving it across country and then flying to France with his parents (from the Pittsburgh area) to help his sister's boyfriend renovate a farm in Southern France.
Let me know if you need me to post some bubble bath to you somewhere along the way.
muchas besas, tu amiga querida
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