Camino : Frómista to Calzadilla de la Cueza

By 9AM, after having breakfast with my friend, I saw my friend off to the fork in the road that led to the Frómista rail station so he could go back to Germany.

I then kept walking on the Camino towards Carrion De Los Condes. I was surprised to see the couple of folks again whom I had seen two days ago in Hontanas. Generally, I was not meeting people a second time on the Camino once I saw them, because they were following the 33-stage program, and I was hoping to finish a bit faster than 33 days.

Today I saw the two pilgrims from 2 days ago because they had started their walk earlier in the day and had caught up with me, something they would not be able to do had I started between 5 and 6 AM per my regular routine. This gave the three of us a chance to talk and walk together.

Bjorn was Danish and came from a place close to Copenhagen. He worked as a priest for the past 20 years and looked much younger than his 48 years of age. I learned that the Danish state paid his priest's salary that afforded a pretty comfortable lifestyle. He also gets the standard six weeks of holidays a year. Moreover, since he has to perform his ecclesiastical duties six days a week, he gets many more days off during the year as well.

After getting a degree from the school of theology, one has to intern in a seminary for four months and then apply to a church to get a job as a priest. He said that he did not formally write his sermons but thought about it on long walks with his dogs. Bjorn also educated me on the sixteenth century church reformations and the Lutheran sect that he belonged to.

While talking and walking, we had reached Población de Campos. We took a coffee break and resumed. Now I was walking next to Magnus, a 38-year-old Swedish advertisement industry executive from Stockholm, who was laid off recently from the US ad agency Ogilvy & Mather, but was being paid a severance salary for the rest of the year per the Swedish law. He was mulling over what to do next in his career while walking the Camino.

We came to a spot where there were two routes possible on the Camino, one shorter that passed next to the highway and the other longer one that meandered through the farmlands. We took the latter one.

Magnus and I talked about Lenny, the giant Viking lookalike that we both saw in Hontanas. Lenny had joined in for the community dinner with us. Lenny was living in Ontario for 5 months to ensure the continuity of his health insurance, 5 months in northeast Cuba where he stayed in a resort for less than $500 Canadian per week, and rest of the time, he traveled around in Europe.

As we neared a city with some building structures, I saw nests very high up, and there was a stork on each of them.

I was by Villaveico and the two Scandinavians were not with me anymore as they were walking a slower pace. The metallic sculpture above was one of the many similar ones I'd seen along the way so far.

The Camino kept going through yet more beautiful bucolic scenes.

Just a few minutes before Villalcazár de Sirga, was a huge, abandoned looking monastery.

A small, cute house with the wind vane and the insignia of the Camino was where I had to turn to finally reach Villalcazár de Sirga.

Iglesia de Santa Maria La Blanca, from the 17th century was right in front of me and it was very beautiful. For 1€ entry fee. I could go and take some pictures.

Santa María La Blanca was built in the transition from Romanesque to Gothic style, from the second half of the 12th century to the last third of the 13th century. The medieval name of the town was "Villasirga", as it was called by the Cantigas, and their church looks like a castle. The reference to "Sirga", connotes the path towards Santiago. The Knights Templar, who protected the pilgrims bound for the Holy Land, built the temple-fortress in praise of Saint Mary.

Right on the steps, I met Maria, the person I had met in the morning at breakfast. She had told me that after working for a travel agency in Germany for 40 years, she was let go once that agency was acquired by an American company. However, with the help of her severance package, she was comfortably set and she could travel the world.

There were interesting bronze sculptures along the way.

After seeing more sights, I was on my way to the next town of Carrion de los Condes which was a big town and most pilgrims were going to stop there for the night.

After walking for an hour, I arrived at Carrion de los Condes and admired the big mural on the wall.

Right at the start of this big town was a nice bar with lots of pilgrims hanging out.

There were many sculptures around there.

A museum of antiquities with a freize was on the way as well.

I was hungry. I also wanted to get some water and snacks because the next town was far away, over 17 kilometers.

I had been seeing the ads for the restaurant Naturale on the Camino for the past few miles and when I passed it, it seemed to be hopping and so I stopped by for a meal. They had pictures of dishes outside and I ordered the Turbot fish. It was excellent along with the frizzante vino blanco.

As I ate, I stuck up a conversation with a lady sitting across me who was a psychologist working for the government health department. She said that previously, there were taboos associated with seeing a psychologist, but now it's a more socially accepted practice.

She said that it is better to work for the government than private practice because of the certainty of getting a compensation that guarantees a good life. That also includes the generous vacation packages that Europeans enjoy. She had gone on the Camino before, but on a bicycle.

I was on the last section of the walk for the day, and passed the river Carrión.

On the way there was a hotel that was converted from an old monument.

I saw another roadside sculpture and then the path turned into a rural farmland path.

It sometimes went parallel to the road.

Some farms were growing a beautiful yellow flowering crop.

Although not in the forecast, it started raining and kept raining for the rest of the day.

The greens and yellows were very calming.

I was progressively tired and awaiting the end of the hike desperately. Without warning, the constant climb ended, revealing Calzadilla de la Cueza, my destination for the day.

I found the municipal Albergue. It had 10 beds, it was past 7pm and I was the only person who had shown up so far!

Although they were a couple of restaurants in the vicinity, I was too tired and wet to do anything about it and just slept in a few minutes.