Author: Thom

And here we have the Reason I Love Spain, #432: Christianity in the public sphere. How many places in the United States have statues of the Immaculate Conception in a town square? OK, I get that here we’re a secular culture with a constantly litigated separation of Church and State, but I find this beautiful and moving. Sometimes I think […]

This pilgrim seems to be walking in the wrong direction. He’s located in the Plaza Piña Merino, and behind him you can see the Iglesia de Santa María del Camino. This is, of course, Santiago himself welcoming us to the old center of town. He’s definitely looking pretty windswept! I took a much better photo of the statue in 2016. […]

The end of my longest Camino day – something like 33km – is finally in sight! After the eternal final 6km, Eamon and I arrive in the town of Carrión de los Condes. This place has been inhabited since at least Paleolithic times, with the Celto-Iberians, Romans, Visigoths, and Moors at various times living here. Despite the plethora of history […]

The six or so kilometers between Villalcázar de Sirga and Carrión de los Condes is a dead straight shot along a mostly empty highway, with oceans of grassy Meseta to each side. Even small differences in length of stride and pace add up quickly here, and Eamon soon pulled ahead of me and over the horizon. For about an hour, […]

In the end, we decided to push on to Carrión de los Condes. This section is dead flat, dead straight, and next to the P-980 highway the entire time. This long, lonely stretch of the Camino is the place where many pilgrims, alone with their thoughts, experience the toughest mental portion of their pilgrimage. Date: 15 April 2013Place: between Villalcázar […]

I think every pilgrim walking through Villalcáza takes this photo. I know Francine certainly did in 2016. It’s pretty clear we’re struggling in the heat – I’m wearing shorts! This statue, dedicated to longtime hospitalero Pablo Payo Pérez (1920-2003), is directly across from the Iglesia de Santa María la Blanca. It’s also right next to the café where Eamon and […]

While I have certainly taken better photos of this massive sculpture, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to post this first one. This type of sculpture is known as a tympanum, and this particular example is part of the “porch” of the Iglesia de Santa María in Villalcázar de Sirga. The upper register shows Christ in majesty, surrounded by angels […]

This rather imposing structure is the Iglesia de Santa María la Blanca in Villalcázar de Sirga. Both times I’ve passed through this town, the church was locked. It’s funny; the default state for churches in Navarra, La Rioja, and Galicia is “open”, while in most of Castilla y León, the default state is “locked tight”. Construction on this Templar fortress-church […]

Before long, Eamon and I arrived at the town of Villalcázar de Sirga. It was a very different route and weather three years later, when Francine and I walked here. It was three in the afternoon when we arrived here, and the heat of the day was enough that I zipped off the legs of my hiking pants. I can […]

Eventually, the Camino takes its leave of the Río Ucieza. As you strike “inland”, this building dominates the area. Although the current building dates to the 18th century, it was built over the remains of older churches from the 13th and 16th centuries. The oldest structure, parts of which are still apparently standing as part of the sacristy, belong to a […]