Day four on the meseta and we meet a different meseta. This could have been a soulless day, if that is possible on a pilgrimage. The traditional route was 20km on a path alongside the road, dead straight, dead flat, dead boring. An alternative was to turn off after 3km and do about 13km on a tree -lined riverside track offering both shade and silence. It had the disadvantage of missing the villages so no food or water but we decided to take it anyway.
The day started grey overcast and with a strong cold wind. There was a little rain so we put on our ponchos but soon the sky had cleared. For a while we walked with a lady from Victoria, Vancouver Island who was also a keen cyclist. She was in her 70s, this was her first trip to Europe and was walking with a younger friend who had agreed to accompany her. She and her husband were keen boaties (they had retired aged 46!) and new the San Juan Islands well so we had much to talk about.
The riverside walk was marvellous. Very pretty, very peaceful , just the croaking of frogs, the cuckoo of the coco birds and the wind rustling the poplar trees. A good day for quiet contemplation and a lot of people were walking on their own today.
It didn’t last forever though and for the last 6km from Villalcazar de Sirga to Carron de Los Condes we were back on the path alongside the road, dead straight, dead boring. The cold wind stayed with us all day quite strong and from the west straight into our faces. Far off to the north we could see snow on the mountains so maybe it was coming from somewhere there. Barbara put her poncho back on which kept her warm but it flapped all over the place. We walked through fields of bright green wheat about knee high. The wind was making the fields look like the waves on a choppy sea. I should have posted some video, it was quite mesmerising. I haven’t heard of people getting sea sick on the Camino, hundreds of kilometres inland, but it could be possible.
There must be over a thousand churches on the Camino so we ration ourselves as to how many we visit. Yesterday we excelled and visited two. It was Sunday after all. The first was at Villalcazar de Sirga, the church of Santa Maria la Virgen Blanca. The white virgin. This had been a commandery of the Knights Templar and had been an enormous complex with a fortified tower, surrounding walls, gates, church, cloister, chapter houses, residences, pilgrims’ hospice, silos, stables etc. Most of this had been lost to earthquakes over the centuries but what remains is still pretty magnificent. It was also a great place to get in out of the wind and sit down and rest the legs. We didn’t think we should eat our lunch in there though.
The second church is here where we are staying in Carrion de Los Condes. Our hotel is located in the Moasterio de San Zoila. This is a monastery of major historic and artistic importance founded in the 10th century. It has a beautiful church but for me the best part was a magnificent renaissance cloister. The ceiling has hundreds of intricately carved busts of kings, saints, patriarchs, prophets angels and of course Santiago. It was a very serene place, totally cut off from the outside world. Of course there is a miracle associated with the church, a blind pilgrim was brought to the monastery to sleep, but instead he stood vigil before the church’s relics, and in the morning he found his sight restored.
The hotel is grand, luxurious, sumptuous. We pilgrims are not suffering much. In fact we feel a bit out of place. We come in a bit smelly, sweaty, grubby, mud on the boots, not dressed at all like the regular guests. The hotel with all its ultra modern facilities is very well integrated with the thousand year old monastery. The food is excellent every day but here the food has been the best. Of course being the best the portions are also the smallest. And the wine was only one third of a glass. No other pilgrims other than those who are guests of the hotel eat here. It is way too expensive.
We resisted the temptations of the devil and didn’t use the Ipods today but the theme tune was : Blowin’ in the wind by Bob Dylan
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you can call him a man
The answer my friend is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.