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This Camino route is far from the cafe con leche and menu del peregrino ambiance of the Francés.
Enjoying your post - reliving my camino in May - we were at least 4/5 pilgrims - loved that Church at Wamba - keep posting and buen caminoThursday 23 November 2017 Day two
Puente Duero to Peñaflor de Hornija. 28.6 km Total 28.6km
'Anchoas y Jamones'
Wonderful breakfast of coffee and tostada and mermelada all made by me! When Arturo is there you aren't even allowed to turn on the tap without supervision!
Key hidden and off I went, along the Duero river to Siamancas with a fine church - open - and a bar for coffee. Two major items on the TV news, neither related to the UK budget yesterday with big implications for the catastrophe that is Brexit. (Other opinions are of course available.)
No! Much more important than that. Two unrelated robberies in Spain. One was of 500kg of anchoas (anchovies) and the other of a large quantity of jamones (Serrano ham on the bone). The latter was recorded in eery monochrome CCTV. Much telepunditry.
At my age, and with my predispositions, I'm unlikely to take up a life of crime. But if I did, I can think of few things I would rather steal than jamon and anchoas! Food for thought!
Siamancas a fine town with 32 million documents in the national archive among its attractions.
Suddenly as you leave Siamancas you are back on the meseta, a vast plateau devoid of trees which in season produces wheat and sunflowers. Ploughing time right now with some winter wheat just appearing, but essentially the landscape is featureless. You either love it or hate it. I love it. It is bit like walking get on Mars if the film 'The Martian' is to be believed.
Ciguñuela next - a church might have been visited or a bar, but an elderly widower waylaid me for a bit of Spanish conversation practice - me not him. He wanted to show me a modern sculpture of a pilgrim reading a map which I would surely have missed. He took my photo and I took his.
From there across the flatlands 7km to Wamba.
There are two common deceptions on the meseta - a town whose church you can see in the distance at least an hour before you arrive and a town which nestles hidden in a hollow almost causing despair that you will ever find it. Wamba us the latter category. Lovely caña and bocadillo in Bar El Rincón. And a coffee for good measure.
Then 7 km to Peñaflor de Hornija which is in the other category - you can see it for ages, but wonder if you will ever reach it. Towards the end I missed an arrow and found myself a ploughed field away from the path. I don't like walking across a ploughed field especially as there was a man nearby raking a huge field and removing large stones. So I circled around the perimeter of several fields before escaping. My gpx trace looks like figure skating. During the night I dreamt of a woman whose job it was to put the stones back into fields!
I found the albergue and found the hospitalera. Not much else to find. I visited the church in which three ladies 'of a certain age' were having choir practice. I found the bar and was delighted he was able to rustle up a bocadillo. Again. This Camino route is far from the cafe con leche and menu del peregrino ambiance of the Francés.
There is a supermarket - but it was closed. There is a frutería - but it was closed.
A good night's sleep.
Total pilgrims met - 0
Thanks Jill. The fact that the ladies of the choir were practising in November makes me think you will find something liturgical if you pass by Peñaflor de Hornija in Semana Santa. (I am a priestLove your posts, thank you! Looking forward to following in your footsteps in March.
Jill
I think Arturo might be a 'ladies' man'. He was charm personified to we three peregrinas but really upset our male companion.Yes, Arturo is a character. He was very upset with some pilgrims who got up and left in the morning without folding their blankets. You have been warned! Leave the room neat.
I remember reading his comments at the time I think - certainly one of your companions @UndermanagerI think Arturo might be a 'ladies' man'. He was charm personified to we three peregrinas but really upset our male companion.
Oh my goodness, Timr, and my paltry local walk was rewarded with a wonderful mug of homemade sopa de puerros. I am enjoying your posts, very much so.Friday 24 November Day 3
Peñaflor de Hornija to Medina de Rioseco 36.4km Total 65km
The 'Holy Family' a 'Sacred Thorn' a town 'with nothing' and a town with less.
I woke refreshed and had coffee (instant) and a banana. Note that this reduced my total carried supply of comestibles to a small tin of liver paté. No other molecules apart from a couple more sachets of instant coffee. And some blood pressure tablets. Shops very hard to come by on this Camino. The liver paté not exactly gourmet and only for use in periculo mortis.
I had got up early - note that useful daylight is not until about 8am here - because I planned a long day because I wanted to divert to the ancient monastery of La Santa Espina which would add about 10km.
After 3km I came to the diversion which said, alarmingly 8km to Castromonte and 18km to La Santa Espina but I checked and found this was the cumulative total to Castromonte via LSE. So I committed. Pure meseta again. No human. One or two large agricultural machines. The odd tree. After an hour or so I began to hear the monastery clock chimes before I could see it. Finally I saw the huge stone wall enclosing the monastery and then the gate house.
The monastery of La Santa Espina, to this day preserves a thorn from the Crown of Thorns (hence it's name) given by King Louis IX of France who bought it long ago and built the Sainte Chapelle in Paris in which to keep it. The monastery was begun in 1147. There are no longer any Cistercian monks there. They were scattered in Napoleonic times, somehow preserving the relic which made its way to Rome for safe keeping. But the Abbey building was restored by a minister in the Franco government. The buildings had meanwhile become an orphanage and more recently an agricultural college. The politician Raphael is buried there with his wife in huge sarcophagi in the Chapel of St Raphael.
In the absence of Cistercians there are Brothers of de la Salle, a well known educational order. There are just four or five left, all very old.
I went in and looked around sheepishly sering no one. The church closed. I bumped into an old stooped cheerful man, shuffling along. Brother Josémaria. A big welcome. Yes he could bring good me to the church. Wait. He took out a Nokia, surely 20 years old and with stiff fingers picked out a string of numbers one by one. He roared into it, 'Tim is here, sacerdote, apocopo de Timothy' (short for Timothy). We waited and along came an older and shorter brother, Jesús. I had them all - Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Jesús had learned English in Cork 'forty years ago' and had not forgotten it. He showed me around the majestic though simple Cistercian style church. He had a great grasp of the history and the art works. And he brought me to see the sacred spine, the thorn from the Crown of Thorns. It came back from Rome with a certificate stating it was the one that had come in mid nineteenth century. It's tiny. The size of a splinter. Is it real? I don't know. Does it matter??
I bade an affectionate farewell to Josémaria and Jesús. They begged me to stay for lunch but I had distance to travel. They are a dying breed of very committed men. Jesús asked where I would go next. 'Castromonte' I said. 'A town with nothing' he said.
I set out and 8km brought me there. Church closed. Strangely the previous day, San Clemente, had been the town fiesta. But of this no sign. I did find a bar in the right. 4 old guys playing cards. After about 20 mins a cadaverous and cheerless barman came and served me a https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/black-friday-on-cdm.51797/#post-569273. I ate a handful of commentary crisps. 'A town with nothing.'
@KinkyOne @Undermanager @peregrina2000 I MISSED the bar with the two centenarians. I'll have to go back!
9km to Valverde de Campos. If Castromonte was 'a town with nothing' this was a town with less. Nada. But for some it is home.
From there it is 5km to Medina de Rioseco. A long 36km for me. Getting chilly when I arrived. You can see the town with its many churches long before you arrive.
The first building in the town is the Poor Clares Convent. I've written about it here, heartachingly.
https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/black-friday-on-cdm.51797/#post-569273
I did get to the supermarket! Remember I had only had instant coffee, a banana, a San Miguel, and a handful of crisps in my 36km. I bought bananas and mandarins and chocolate and olives and bread and cheese and chorizo and tuna paté and vino tinto and sparkling water and albondigas in tomato sauce, and pasta. I ate well and slept well, woken by torrential rain. Jesús would be happy. He had told me they had had no rain for six months.
Total pilgrims met - 0.
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