Day 19 – Fromista to Carrion de los Condes (June 14)

Map: Day 19

It was exciting to be in Spain for last night’s World Cup game against Holland. Sadly, they lost. And badly. We were at a table in the hotel bar with the only three Dutch people in the place. It was quite amusing when Holland scored their first goal because the three of them started cheering, much to the dismay of the rest of the bar.

We had originally planned to leave at midnight so we could walk under the light of the full moon. We decided this wasn’t the best idea because we’d end up getting to Carrion really early and the albergues don’t typically open until noon or 1:00. We ended up setting the alarm for 3:30 with plans to be out the door by 4:00. We paid our bill last night and the hotel woman showed us how to get out of the hotel and where to put the key since they lock everything up at night. We had to go through a couple of doors, lock one of them behind us, put the key in the drop box and then go out the front gate, which was closed. Small problem. The front gate had a padlock on it and we didn’t realize this until Heather put the key into the dropbox so were locked into no man’s land. We had to climb the front gate to get out. It’s all part of the experience.

It was a very quiet walk at 4:00 in the morning and I finally got to use the headlamp that I brought. One thing you learn on the Camino is the comfort of the yellow arrows that tell you which direction to go. When you don’t see one for a while, you start to wonder if you’re heading in the right direction. In the dark, it becomes even more difficult to see them but fortunately we managed. We walked quietly for about 45 minutes before we saw any other pilgrims.

We stopped in Villovieco to eat our “breakfast” – ham, cheese and tomato sandwiches we bought the night before. We stopped for coffee and tea in Villalcazar de Sirga and then moved on to our final stop. Because we started so early, we rolled into town by 10:30. We stayed at the first albergue we saw, Santa Clara Convent. And it was already open so we happily paid our 7 Euros for a room with only 3 beds, got settled in, showered and washed our clothes, all by 11:30. Now we have the whole day to drink wine! And we get to drink it with the not one, not two but three Austin folks we met today: Peter and Eric (aka “West Lake kids” – nickname they gave to themselves) and Shane, who now lives in Grand Junction, CO.

In the evening, we attended a concert in the church. It was a guy playing guitar and while the music was very beautiful, it also made you very sleepy. After the concert, we went straight to bed.

Buen Camino!