Fromista to Carrion de los Condes

Sundays trip me up. From a walking point of view every day is the same day but in Spain there aint a lot open on Sundays. I hadn´´t planned for it so was reduced to a (for me) disgusting breakfast of cafe con leche and horribly synthetic sickly vacuum packed sweet cake like thing. But this is the camino and you get what you get. After 9 kms and no other prospects around I couldn´´t afford to be too choosey. To make matters worse they were banging out old 70´´s music - nights in white satin greeted me on arrival. So out of place after a peaceful country walk.

Then about 6km further I found a tiny ¨alimentacio¨ whch is the closest the Spanish have to a dairy. There I bought a baguette, a small box of processed cheese triangles, a tomato that had seen better days but was definitely the only possible choice when considering his box mates, and an orange and a nectarine, which I am holding out some hope for. This will have to do me for lunch today and breakfast tomorrow because tomorrow is the day to be out walking at 4.30am under the milky way and there is no food shelter village or water fountain for 17.5km.

As I write this I am making use of a computer in the albergue here run by some nuns. When I arrived and rang the bell someone did come to the door but then sign languaged me that they were all at mass and I could sit and wait. Deciding that church could take all day on a Sunday I was encouraged by another pilgrim to have a shower and choose a bed - a good option as it turns out.

They will feed us tonight so no worries about food for this evening.

Tomorrow I will pass the half way point between St Jean Pied de Port and Santiago. Of course it won´´t be half way if I choose to walk on the extra to Finisterre. At this point I am thinking I just might ut will make up my mind once I get to Santiago. It would add another 3 or 4 days walking.

Now completing this post a few hours later. Have bumped into Karena, a guy from Barcelona who began his Camino there and joined Camino Frances in Logrono anda Spaniard who lives in Sweden and learned his English there. What a merry band of travellers we are. All good and very pleasant ways to spend afternoons, wandering and looking at towns or sitting quitely nursing a drink for a couple of hours during the Spanish siesta.

Today turned out to be the feast of Corpus Christi and I saw a hug flower festival in town (and was glad I didn´´t wait for the nuns to finish praying before I had my shower).

Now an early night with alarm set for 4am - almost like ashram days!