Fromista to Carrion De Los Condes

Breakfast at Villovecio. Liz, John from Australia, Nell from Ireland, Peter from UK and Godweg from Norway. Boots off,friendly house dogs coming for a pet and great fruit juice what more could you ask for?.

Ermita Virgen del rio

View from the church.....

Group (French Norwegian Irish and German) siesta at Ermita Virgen del rio.

We decide to take the Miam Miam Dodo alternative route that runs paralled to main road, its longer but we are rewarded with a gorgeous walk into Carrion -quiet isolation and mountain vistas to the north. There are a few worn old signs that you could miss but we keep spotting the french group in the distance so are kept on course. When we meet up with the main route just outside Carrion the pilgrims that took it seem hot,tired and footsore.

Carrion De Los Condes aka 'Carry on up the Camino'

.

A dusty sleepy little town the kind I like. We meet up with a gang of people for dinner taking over two big tables in the restaurant where Richard, an English pilgrim with a wry sense of humor, organises everything perfectly despite unruly ex colonials, 6 languages and multiple changed orders (but then he has a solar powered charger on the top of his backpack to charge his phone so planning comes naturally) Afterwards we all attend the blessing in the Santa Maria Albergue which is attached to the church in the centre of town.
Its a full house with pilgrims sitting on the steps of the stairs and the floor or squashed into doorways. The blessing is warm, intimate and moving and the nuns belief and devotion has a gentle implacability that impacts everyone there. They enable each of us to bear witness to our pilgrimage and provide a chance to reflect on the journey so far and to refocus on what lies ahead. At the end of the service we are each given a little paper star the nuns have made and we carefully put our stars in a 'safe place' The sisters do this everyday of the year for all the dusty crowds passing through their door. Now they really are Camino angels.