Author: Thom

Because it’s a long four or five hour stretch after Carrión de los Condes before the next village, everybody packs their second breakfast and lunch. The local government has thoughtfully provided picnic areas like this every so often along this part of the Camino. As you can see, they were less useful this time than one might normally expect. Date: […]

A couple of kilometers up the Camino, we come to the first place with standing water on the road. Fortunately, it wasn’t particularly deep, and it was relatively easy to cross without getting your shoes too wet. It was, however, a harbinger of things to come. Date: 17 April 2016 Place: Between Carrión de los Condes and Calzadilla de la […]

In the long, straight stretch between Carrión de los Condes and Calzadilla de la Cueza, the Camino crosses a number of seasonal streams. As you can see, there’s quite a lot of water, as the streams have overflowed their banks and flooded the nearby farmland. It would soon get worse. All throughout the day, we passed wells and concrete irrigation […]

Across the boulevard from the Monasterio de San Zoilo is a series of monuments depicting the arms of the Kingdoms and regions of Northern Spain through which the various Camino routes pass. From left to right, these are: Aragon, Navarra, La Rioja, Castilla y León, Asturias, and Galicia. I am once again struck by the unabashedly Catholic symbolism to be […]

On the way out of Carrión de los Condes, we walked along a boulevard overlooking floodwaters of the Río Carrión on the right. On the left, we passed the massive Monasterio De San Zoilo. It was originally a Benedictine monastery that joined the Congregation of Cluny in the 11th century. The fortunes of the Cluniac monks waxed and waned over […]

Yesterday, I posted a photo of Francine crossing this bridge. This is a look back across the river. As you can see, the floodwaters are dangerously high. You can see in the distance past the trees where the bed of the river normally is. What you can’t see is the water lapping at the edges of the part of the […]

As we crossed the Río Carrión, we noticed that the river below had overflowed its banks. You can sort of see that in this photo. At the other end of the bridge, we saw some local men by the water’s edge, animatedly discussing the river. The water had risen so high, that it was threatening to top the bridge by […]

As we headed out of Carrión de los Condes, we passed any number of churches, including this beauty, the Iglesia de San Andrés Apostol. Mass scheduling in this town is interesting, as at each of the churches the schedule for the whole town is posted. I’ve included a bonus image of that below. It’s definitely an interesting way to do […]

After spending the night in an honest-to-goodness private room with a bath (and bathtub!), we hit the trail bright and early. Here’s Francine with some early morning sleepiness as we wind our way through the narrow streets of Carrión de los Condes towards the Camino proper. Our packs are heavier than usual today, as we are carrying enough food to […]