May 8, 2017
Day Forty Two: Carrion de Los Condes to Bercianos Real Camino: The gloves come off
We returned to the same restaurant that had produced the quail salad last night. Fast service, ham and eggs, orange juice, quite large coffee, reasonable prices - it is such a pleasure when you can do business in a way that makes both parties to the transaction very satisfied. We probably got the better part of the bargain, because this food was precisely what we needed to set off on today's mission with suitable gusto.
This was the first day of this trip where we started iin the morning without all our sweaters and without the long fingered cycling gloves. a month and a half ago the blog had declared "It's Summertime!", but that was obviously premature. Now, at last, freezing may not be part of our daily routine. I guess soon enough broiling will be.
Back on the street we immediately found that Carrion is lots larger than how it appeared as we came in from one end and stuck, the night before. A pastry "for the road" from the bakery turned out to be top quality, and I even spotted a store with a selection of yellow power tools in the window. Bathtub, ham and eggs, pastries, power tools, for better or worse these are the things in life that make me happy. So five stars to Carrion de los Condes!
As we were leaving town, we passed the numerous walkers who were also taking to the way. One of them wore a hat that said "Jesus Reigns". This slightly unusual headwear caused me to look at this walker for an instant longer, and he said "Do you have any pain? I can pray for you." I truthfully said no, but Dodie truthfully said yes. Surprisingly we are somewhat used to having people pray for us in the street, though that has all been in the southern US, where people are sure that going out on the roads on our little bikes requires extra protection.
But today we were encountering Stefan, from Sweden. Stefan had had some sort of spiritual awakening and was now walking the Camino. As you will see, it is not quite clear to me how these things link for him, but anyway here he was. Stefan said to Dodie "You are going too fast, I can't keep up, how can I pray for you?" So we stopped, and Dodie explained about her knee. Stefan put his hand on it, and said a prayer. Then he asked if it felt better, but Dodie could not say it did. Stefan seemed disappointed, but we said maybe it will feel better later. So we cycled on. But in a minute Dodie had the idea that someone like Stefan might appreciate our Madonna bottle that we had filled with Lourdes water. so I grabbed it and cycled back to find him.
The offered gift gave Stefan some problems, in rejecting it without hurting my feelings. He explained that he was not a Catholic, and therefore did not go in for Mary stuff. Oh of course, Swedish - Lutheran, Protestant kind of stuff.
Back with Dodie, I reviewed what I of course knew, but just don't generally think about. Martin Luther thought that the pantheon of saints, the use of them and priests to intercede before God, all the statues and carvings and stuff were humbug. Rather people should have a direct and simple link to the deity. Right. Of course, the protestants then went out and knocked the heads off as many catholic statues as they could find, which was rather rude.
Anyway, it was easy now to see how offering a Madonna filled with magic water to a Protestant was not on. But then the question arises, why was the fellow on this walk, past churches stuffed with graven images and suchlike, and to the burial place of a saint often called on for slaying moors and other duties?
I think I have the answer. The Camino generates lots of people with knee and foot problems. From Stefan's web site I see he rather specializes in fixing these through prayer. So this is the place for him to be.
(Theological side note: Dodie says the website identifies Stefan not as a protestant but as a born again Christian. This still means, apparently, that he is not into Mary or other saints, sticking only to the Trinity.)
Now we set out on the road to Sahagun, which was essentially flat. In fact it reminded us most of our our own province of Saskachewan, known for flatness and wheat fields, plus no one about. When we were cycling there, we had taken one photo of me lying in the middle of the flat road, illustrating the flatness and isolation. Dodie is a little more cautious these days, and did not want me lying in the middle of the road. But the possibility was just the same.
After the excitement of things like the bulls, horses, and market of Arles, cycling here was very calm. For some it might be boring, but we just found it pleasant. We were out pedalling in the sunshine and fresh air, with green fields, trees, and also the calls of the cuckoo around.
We also enjoyed watching the walkers. They are interesting in general, and sometimes there is a special one. Like today, one with two dogs. Talk about taking the dogs out for a walk!
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We passed several villages, but did not have much interaction with them. One of these was Terradillos de Templarios. Maybe that would have been a good one to check out. According to a guide book we picked up, published by the region of Castilla y Leon, this place - population 22 - was once under the jurisdiction of the Order of the Temple of Jerusalem - the Knights Templar. This government issued book says that this is where the last Knights buried the goose that laid the golden eggs.
The town of Sahagun is said to have lots of interesting stuff, but if so we managed to miss it. we did get a stamp in the municipal albergue, a former Cluny monastery, but we quickly set out again on N120.
We seem to write a lot about N120, but it's legit. N120 is a big part of the route hereabouts:
We actually left N120, which dives south, and followed the official Camino as we made for Bercianos. Our game today was to get as close to Leon as possible while not cycling so long that we would find no vacant place to stay. We decided that Bercianos was a good compromise. All along we had been watching the walkers and trying to guess where they had starteed and where they would want to end, always trying to predict where we would find a vacancy. Now as we neared Bercianos at the time of day when walkers often stop, we took a keener interest in who was on the trail.
I gloated a bit as we passed people with our bikes, knowing we would probably beat them to a bed. As we approached one with a bad knee, I said to Dodie "Oh, good, that one has a bad knee", which earned me a rebuke. There was a bit of a hill leading into Bercianos, so I charged ahead, leaving Dodie and also passing a pile more of walkers. I swept into Hostal Rivera and scooped the key to a room, 40 euros. I can not exactly say that this was the last key, but anyway -Cool. Plus, by quitting early I would have a chance to finish this blog entry early. I need that because the tablet has now slowed down to less than a crawl, and lots of time will be taken to totally wipe it and then restore all the functions. If this is the last entry you read for a while, the reason will be that I have permanently and regrettably disabled the thing. But, it should be ok.
Today's ride: 54 km (34 miles)
Total: 1,898 km (1,179 miles)
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