We started the day in Boadilla del Camino under sunny skies.
Here is the albergue in Boadilla where we had breakfast.
We also had lunch at the albergue yesterday afternoon. There were a lot of tired and hungry looking pilgrims at lunch, and there was a big crowd at breakfast early this morning. Although the man running the restaurant was besieged with pilgrims that he is unlikely to ever see again, he didn’t rush them but was attentive to each one. He wasn’t annoyed when he couldn’t understand them but laughed and smiled.
The Meseta is behind us, and the Camino goes through flat farmland.
The Camino turned onto a path beside the Canal de Castilla.
We walked along the canal for about an hour and then came to the village of Fromista.
We went into the cathedral and found a statue of Santiago as a pilgrim.
After leaving Fromista, we walked alongside a highway for about a mile.
The Camino turned off the highway and went into the village of Poblacion de Campos. We arrived in the village at around 11 a.m. We were hungry and stopped at a hotel as some stragglers in the hotel’s dining room were finishing up a late breakfast. We asked an older woman who was clearing dishes if we could get something to eat. She seemed a little exasperated at first. She asked if we wanted lunch or breakfast. We told her whatever she had was fine. She brought us eggs and toast. The longer we sat and ate, the more food she brought, and the more she smiled. As we were leaving, she handed us oranges, “para el Camino.”
When we left the hotel, bells from a nearby church were ringing. We followed the bells to the church for Mass.
We walked into the church and sat in a pew toward the rear. Several minutes later, a man and his wife, smiling and nodding, climbed over us to take their regular Sunday morning spot on the pew beside us. People entering the church also turned to us and smiled.
After Mass, we walked down a hill and rejoined the Camino.
Here is the church seen from the Camino.
After walking for several miles, Anne told me that she saw an army of warriors ahead on the Camino.
I told her that it was a flock of sheep, but she wouldn’t listen.
She plunged in to battle—until the shepherd and his dog steered her away from the flock.
Fortunately, no one was hurt, and we continued on with our adventures.
The path we were on ran beside the rio Ucieza.
Near the end of the path was a bridge over the river.
A short distance from the bridge was the Ermita de la Virgen del Rio.
Leaving the footpath, we walked beside a road into the village of Villalcazar de Sirga, our destination for the day.
At the church in Villalcazar, we found another statue of Santiago the pilgrim.
He looks unhappy. Maybe he has shin splints. (Mine feel better, and the swelling has subsided.)
At dinner, Anne and I walked into a restaurant behind a large group who got the last tables. Three German pilgrims having dinner motioned us over to sit with them. We sat and talked with them as best we could—they didn’t speak much English, and we don’t speak German, but it didn’t really matter. Their kindness said enough.
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