Walking the Camino de Santiago
Day three of Sahagún Week! Sahagún is a city of ruins. Here I stand posing with a statue of a traditional pilgrim’s staff in front of what was once el Monasterio Real de San Benito. In 1820, the Spanish government dissolved the monasteries. The monks were turned out into the street. Moveable goods were plundered. Land and buildings were seized and […]
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Day two of Sahagún Week! This funky medieval building is across the street from yesterday’s statue. The surrounding buildings are decidedly more modern, as you can see. What this building is and how it survived I’ve no idea. Virtually all of the nearby buildings, other than a church and an old monastery, appear to have been built in the 20th […]
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Day one of Sahagún Week! This whimsical larger-than-life statue of Santiago greets pilgrims entering the town center of Sahagún. He stands in front of an albergue that appears to have once been a monastery and directly across the street from a hostal, a restaurant, and a funky medieval building we’ll be featuring tomorrow. Date: 17 April 2013Place: Sahagún (Province of […]
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Sahagún is what I call a “pilgrim-friendly” town. Despite its modest population (about 2,500), it boasts half a dozen albergues and hostals, numerous bars and restaurants including an Irish Pub, and a bewildering number of churches. Although this year we only stopped for a long lunch, the town was memorable enough that when Francine and I came back to the […]
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After crossing the highway again (this time going under rather than over) we arrive in Sahagún. Dirt road gives way to asphalt, farms to grain elevators, and eventually open countryside to narrow streets. We are soon walking along railroad tracks. This is a proper town. Although it’s not much bigger than Carrión de los Condes – where we stayed two […]
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This monument just before the city of Sahagún is said to mark the halfway point on the Camino in Spain, from Roncesvalles to Santiago de Compostela. Today’s photo is a rare montage, cheesy postcard style. On the left we have Bernardo de Sedirac (d. 1128?) who founded the local Cluniac abbey and became Primate of Spain, and on the right is […]
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Just before the city of Sahagún, the Camino takes a little detour to the Ermita de la Virgen del Puente. This is said to mark the halfway point of the Camino Francés in Spain, midway between Roncesvalles and Santiago de Compostela. There’s a monument nearby stating this, and if it’s not exactly correct, it’s pretty close. I like to think that this […]
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For a while the Camino cuts through the Meseta, until you start coming to an area with more trees than usual, the red soil giving way once more to greenery. Ahead of us is the Ermita de la Virgen del Puente and a monument which is said to mark the halfway point of the Camino Francés in Spain. Eamon here appears almost […]
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I find that León province looks very much the same as Palencia Province: red earth, green grass, blue sky. Farms and fields to the horizon, with only the occasional habitation marring the beautiful monotony. In the distance is the city of Sahagún, our lunch destination. Just ahead of me are Eamon and Santiago. Date: 17 April 2013Place: between San Nicolás […]
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Just before we cross the busy N-120 highway, we come to a marker telling us that we are leaving the Province of Palencia. We shall now be entering the Province of León, centered on the great city of the same name. It will be several days yet before we arrive in the city, where I will rendezvous with Francine, who […]
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