Yesterday, I travelled a small 18.5 kilometres to Carrion de los Condes, and was at my destination by 1 p.m. I stayed at the Monastery of the Santa Clara. As incredible as the building is, the space with ones fellow travellers is extremely cramped. By now, I am used to pilgrims getting up at 5.30 a.m. in order to get a start on their journey. I wonder why the hurry. I like to get up at 7.00 a.m and start the day with a hot shower and a cafe con leche.
The problem is that I have slightly miscalculated my timing on this journey. I have a flight booked to fly to London from Santiago de Compostella on May 30th. Therefore, there are not enough days left to walk the whole distance. Therefore, I am taking a bus to Leon for just over 100 kilometres, which should cut off about 4 days walking. I will really miss walking over the flat landscape of the meseta. There is something meditatively attractive about the flat lands.
Two days ago, Pepe caught up to me at Castrojeriz. Somehow he had travelled from Burgos to that town in one day. Anyway, we spent a little more time on the walk together and had dinner a couple of times. We said our final goodbyes yesterday. I had already had my dinner a little earlier, had dropped into the local church and there he was. He asked me to join him for dinner and I really did not have the heart to tell him that I had already eaten. Therefore I ended up eating twice that evening with - of course the requisite amount of red wine. Still no hangover!
So, I will be sad not to see Pepe again on this trip. You will be always in my heart. "Estoy estar chupao"`
Hey Tim ... I finally got to your blog and managed to catch up with you! Good work, my friend ... I wish I was there with you!
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry that it took me this long to witness your journey, but I've been too caught up with my own crap, etc. Anyway ... I'm with you now - keep up the quest ... and the walking!
Love,
Bruno C.