Maundy Thursday
Via POBLACION DE CAMPOS, REVENGA, VILLARMENTERO DE CAMPOS, VILLACA'ZAR DE SIRGA
Approx 20 km
Not a very long walk today, and I got to my destination at about 1pm, which was very early!
It was not the most scenic of days, mainly walking next to a main road on a dirt path. It was dusty and windy and was a case of head down and power on! I had one little stop for coffee early on at an Albergue, which was very nice - seats out in the sunshine and Gregorian chants playing. There were 2 very cute dogs who were enjoying all the attention being paid to them!
I stayed in a Monestry (Santa Clara) in Carrion De Los Condes, which was very spooky! The bedroom door kept opening by itself, which gave me the creeps, because it was a very heavy door! I wouldn't have been surprised to find out that the place was haunted - it was built in the 1200s! For the history buffs out there, Carrion is reputed to be the place where the Moorish Underlords required the Christains to surrender 100 Virgins every year - how intense is that?!
I spent the afternoon doing some washing with a lovely Korean girl called Jong Hee. At one point, she looked down at my feet and gasped in horror (I'm still not sure why she was so horrified. Sure, they were swollen and covered in rashes and had a few blisters, but otherwise they looked reasonably normal!). Anyway, she pushed me down onto a chair and squatted down to look at them, banging them with her fists and threading her fingers through my toes - she kept asking if my feet were 'sick'! Bless her. I'm not sure what the problem was but it was unreal to get a foot massage!!!
After that I sat in the last slivers of afternoon sunshine soaking my feet in freezing cold water that my friend Jon got from a spring in San Bol. The water is supposed to have healing qualities - once you dip your feet in the water you have no more problems with blisters and aches. (In case you're wondering, my feet continued to get blisters and aches for the next 20 days).
After dinner, I headed into town to watch the Maundy Thursday Parade, which was certainly different to the parades back home! It was a very sombre affair with dirge-like music and serious looking men carrying huge statues of Jesus and The Virgin Mary. Crowds of people followed the procession, and I get swept up in the frenzy of people. Little Spanish Nannas were out in droves, wearing furs and pushing me out of their way! I don't think they approved of my going out outfit (thongs and trackies), judging from a few of the looks I got!!
*In an aside, I came across two Spanish women today who were walking the Camino. They really stood out to me, because where the rest of us are filthy and smelly, and carrying 10kg+ on our backs, they had on tiny little fashionable backpacks, actual wooden walking sticks (usually used by the elderly), highly fashionable clothing - and - they had their HAIR AND MAKE UP DONE!!!! And when they walked past me ......I ....smelt....perfume!!!!!! It reminded me of when I was in Burgos. Stefi and I were sitting on the church steps in our 'best' clothes (Trackies that were in desperate need of a wash and thongs...not to forget the burnt jacket I was still sporting). All these stunning women were walking past in dresses and heels, immaculate makeup and hair etc. Stefi and I were staring at them wistfully and sniffing after them.... "Did you smell her"? "Oh my god, she smelt soooo good"..... Oh, the envy!
Anyway, I was thinking about these women for a while, and then I realised that today is the official start of the Easter celebrations in Spain, and as such, a lot of Spanish 'daytrippers' will be on the road for the next week or so. They tend to walk a few days of the Camino each year, starting where they left off the previous year. A lot of them pay to have their backpacks transported from town to town so they don't have to carry them. I guess it makes the Camino a bit more 'holiday' like for them!
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