Author: Thom

This is the rather impressive entrance to the Iglesia de Santa María in Villalcázar de Sirga. We had lunch directly across the street, in a quaint, local place I’d had lunch with Eamon three years previous. I’d love to explore this church, but it hasn’t been open either time. Date: 16 April 2016 Place: Villalcázar de Sirga (Castilla y León, […]

After some hours of walking, we approach the village of Villalcázar de Sirga and its monumental Iglesia de Santa María. The rain has been replaced for the moment by a driving wind. Fortunately, the Way was relatively flat and straight, so it was pretty much head down and forge onwards to lunch, which we absolutely planned on having in this […]

Two important things you will notice in this photo. First, it’s raining. Still raining. Secondly, the village of Villarmentero de Campos appears a little run-down. Many of the rural villages of northern Spain we walked through have similar issues. In the 1980s and 1990s, there was a depopulating as many left the villages seeking work in the cities. With the […]

In the past, I’ve shared various markers of pilgrim remembrance, both the grand and the humble. Nearly every day, you will find shrines of pilgrims who had died on the Way. Please, in your mercy pray for them. Date: 16 April 2016 Place: Between Revenga de Campos and Villarmentaro de Campos (Castilla y León, Spain) Today’s Map:

As you leave the village of Revenga de Campos, this forlorn statue of the great saint stands to cheer you on. Honestly, he doesn’t look all that encouraging to me, but I’ll take what I can get. I do admire the sheer amount of public art found on the Camino. Date: 16 April 2016 Place: Revenga de Campos (Castilla y […]

When we climbed the Alto de Mostalares the previous morning, Brian from the Evergreen State College and I had a lovely and wide-ranging conversation. At the time, he was trying to remember a quote for me. Here, as we have our second breakfast in Revenga de Campos, he remembered and typed it up for me. He also quoted me and […]

We had our second breakfast in the village of Revenga de Campos, a name that means something like “revenge of the fields” or, more probably, “fields of revenge”. For what reason the name, I’ve no clue. We ate and talked with the Evergreen students in a place called Bar Angeles. I think you can work out what that means on […]

Here is a wider shot of the Camino, with the Río Ucieza lapping at the road. It was pouring rain when I took this picture, and it showed no signs of stopping. As you can see from Francine and the other peregrinos ahead, the ponchos and other rain gear is on. It was so bad, that we elected not to […]

For a while, the Camino follows the Río Ucieza. Here we see it has overflowed its banks and is now lapping at the very edge of the Camino. A harbinger of things to come. Date: 16 April 2016 Place: Somewhere along the Río Ucieza, past Población de Campos (Castilla y León, Spain) Today’s Map:

As you can see, the Camino runs along the highway here. What is slightly more difficult to see is that there are large sheets of standing water here. There were sections where we had to walk on the grass or even the highway to avoid multi-meter-long puddles. Did I mention that northern Castilla was experiencing hundred-year rains during the month […]