Pilgrims on the Way

We met a lot of pilgrims on the stretch after Carrión de los Condes. Because it’s a choke point on the Camino, what with that empty 17.5km stretch right after, many pilgrims spend the night to take that long flat in the morning. Here we see our old friend Santiago from Columbia taking a quick break to rest his weary […]

Once past the outlying buildings of Carrión de los Condes, it’s something like 17.5 km to the next habitation. That’s about 11 miles. Or four and a half hours of solid walking without respite. And most of it looks like this. Oh, there are spots of trees, planted either as row-on-row tree farms or for the eventual shade of pilgrims […]

In front of the Monasterio de San Zoilo stand a series of small monuments, each of which depicts the coat of arms of the Spanish provinces through which the northern Camino routes run. For a look at the complete set, check out the images from our 2016 Camino. For today, however, I’m concentrating on the Asturias monument. I’ve never been […]

This statue of our Lord sits in a grassy courtyard in front of the walls of the Monasterio de San Zoilo. What I find both fascinating and delightful about this statue is the fact that it was paid for in part and erected by the city government. You don’t see that sort of thing around where I live. The monument […]

Just after crossing the Río Carrión, Eamon and I walk past the Monasterio de San Zoilo. This was once one of the largest and wealthiest Benedictine monasteries in Castilla y León, and the building itself was the “first architectural works of Cluniac Romanesque in the Iberian Peninsula“. Sadly, these days it’s a hotel. The relics of Saint Zoilus are entombed here. […]

This pillar is outside one of the many churches found in the town of Carrión de los Condes. Unfortunately, I’m not sure which one. It might the the Iglesia de Santa María del Camino. The image is striking, and I’m not exactly sure of what it’s meant to depict. If you’ve any idea, let me know! Date: 16 April 2013Place: […]

We were out the door before 7:30 on the morning of the fifteenth day of my Camino, having spent the night in the town of Carrión de los Condes on the Meseta. Here is the Plaza Piña Merino, just after sunrise. We wanted to get an early start, both because we expected the afternoon temperatures to be hot, and because […]

For reasons I can’t adequately explain, this random ram relief in Carrión de los Condes is, for me, emblematic of my entire Camino. It’s literally just stuck, by itself, on the side of a building. Where did it originally come from? Some forgotten church or monastery? And why was it placed here? Date: 15 April 2013Place: Carrión de los Condes […]

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 […]