Camino Frances: Stage 16: Frómista to Carrión de los Condes

September 8, 2018

Almost 75% of the official Camino path today was along sendas, a wide gravel pilgrims' path built next to major roads. Although these were well marked, we opted to veer off this route @ 2.5 miles into our walk and instead, take an alternative route along the river Ucieza. We re-joined the official route @ 3.5 miles from our destination of Carrión de los Condes. Although it appears that we'll be walking more of these sendas on our way to Santiago, I'm glad we were able to find an alternative today.

Our route today was listed as 12.7 miles, but my Garmin watch logged more than 15 miles. Rich walked the entire route, but his feet were very tired and sore by the end of the day. We have a very short day tomorrow (less than 11 miles), but he's not sure yet if he's going to walk or give his feet a day of rest (seems appropriate as tomorrow is Sunday).

The scenery and terrain were pretty much the same as what we've seen the last week or so: lots and lots of wheat fields on fairly flat terrain. Even the river Ucieza was not a scenic distraction, as it was very slow moving and muddy and even looked stagnant.

Along the way, we stopped at the small town of Villalcázar de Sirga where we had lunch and visited the 13th century church of Santa Maria la Virgen Blanca (a church of the Knights Templar). Our hotel for the night is the refurbished Real Monasterio de San Zoilo, with beautiful grounds and so many hallways and hidden rooms we've already gotten lost.

We now have 18 more stages, 19 more days and 255 more miles to Santiago. We have a rest day scheduled in León on the 14th of September, Rich's birthday, and we're all counting down the days. Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Buen Camino