My Journey to Santiago de Compostela Part XVIII

We left Carrion de los Condes by daybreak.  Before leaving the albergue, I saw a painting of San Filippo Neri who was called the Apostle of Rome for his role in evangelizing the Catholics who were drifting away from the Christian faith during the reign of the Medicis.  The convent is ran by the Sisters of the Congregation of Filipenses named after him.

It was a straight and flat road to Calzadilla de la Cueza, which happened to be at halfway between Saint Jean Pied de Port and Santiago de Compostela.  We had just achieved 385 kilometers of the 770 of the Camino Frances.  So I took out my flask of Irish Whiskey so Lindsay and I made a toast to celebrate.

At Calzadilla de la Cueza, 17 kms away from Carrion de los Condes, as we all sat for lunch, I tried to call and get a room (or a bed) at Terradillos de los Templarios which was the normal stop after Carrion de los Condes.  Nothing was available at Terradillos or at the following towns (Moratinos or San Nicolas del Real Camino) that were 3.4 kms and 6 kms respectively from Terradillos.  I bid farewell to all the crowd gathered at lunch and headed to Sahagun by myself, another 26 kms away, so I ended up walking almost 40 kms that day.  It was the opportunity to enjoy my loneliness and reflect on my purpose for doing the Camino.  Hopefully I had bought more water in Calzadilla because I would need it, for the day was quite warm and the trail didn’t bear many trees to hide from the shining sun.

I reached Sahagún quite exhausted and needing a shower to recover.  Since it was dinner time, I joined Nadine and her friends Antje from Germany and Cynthia from Mexico for drinks and a delicious meal.