Day 16, Fromista to Carrion de los Condes

With a friend at Villacazar de Sirga

June 19

 Slept last night in Fromista with the windows wide open. It was chilly out, but cosy under the blankets, with a full moon still in the sky as day broke.

The hotel was only meant to be a one-star, but had a great breakfast at the civilised hour of 7am and hit the road for a relatively short day.

Started a new audio book as I wandered along, taking the alternate, but longer course along a river bank, rather then along the highway. After a couple of hours I was caught by my friend Josie and we stopped quite soon for coffee at a little bar at a crossroads, joining a few farmers who had their tractors parked outside.

 Stopped again at the village of Villacazar de Sirga (town of the canal towpath), where there is a very fine Knights Templar church from the 13th century.

Had another coffee and visited the church (see some photos in the album at the bottom of this page).

The sky had been threatening all day, the temperature down, and we had a few spots of rain, but we walked in to the town of Carrion de los Condes at about 1pm.

I was booked in to the San Zoilo Real Monasterio, an 11th century monastery which has been restored as a four-star hotel. I feel a bit out of depth here, as it's very elegant and there don't seem to be many pilgrims around.

 Just the same, I splurged for a lunch of Castilian soup, which seemed to consist of a lot of bread and garlic, with an egg or two in it and cooked in a piping hot terra cotta ramekin, which took ages to cool and nearly scorched my tongue.

Along with bread, raw garlic, olive tapenade tomato and a beer, I was quite knocked out. I'm still writing, but about to take a siesta.





Here's the photos so far - I'll try to take a walk around the monastery later and add to the album.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/8ZARHyS6pkWG7CRX9

Download from the watch: https://app.suunto.com/move/petergibbs/5d0a581b8bfe5db5d7e237ad

Here's a link to the monastery website: sanzoilo.com