April 20, 2025, Carrion De Los Condes

Day 2, the walk was a couple miles shorter than yesterday, easier terrain, lots less mud, but felt harder since I am still trying to recover from the day before. We set out from Frómista at 8:30 after our breakfast at the hotel.

We decided last night to use the alternative route, the standard route walks adjacent to the road, we opted for the route next to the river most of the way. Later on it would rejoin with the main route.

We met up with a German walker by the name of Mateo, he was easy to talk with and he asked each of us many questions. To be honest it felt like we got grilled, I think Malcolm was a little happy when Mateo moved on to me.

Mateo talking to Malcolm behind me

Eventually the to paths merge in the town of Villalcazar de Sirga. On the outskirts of town was my first spotting of a family bodega built into the side of the hill for food storage. It was a little rougher than I expected, probably with modern refrigeration theses are not in much use except for family get together.

Being Easter Sunday the town was very quiet, we ducked into the Santa Maria de Blanca church to look around and get a stamp for our pilgrims passport. The church had a painting altar, in a side chapel was 3 tombs. It was disappointing that the description of the occupants was on Spanish only, I didn’t think to use my google translator.

Walking out of the church you can feel how each step down to the curb is uncomfortable due to my sore legs. Directly across the street was a cafe/bar open for some simple food. I went for a smoothie and a tuna sandwich. It’s interesting that, unlike a tuna sandwich in the states, theirs is made with olive oil instead of mayonnaise. But after the morning of walking it tastes good, I almost asked for a shot of rum in my smoothie.

After our breakfast we parted ways with Mateo and walked on the main road to Carrion de Los Condes about 4 miles. It’s noisier next to the road, so I was happy with the choice of the alternative route even if it added an additional half mile. There was a long gradual hill towards the city before walking down into town.

Looking back from where we started

Our destination is a busy little city that hosts a lot of pilgrims. We stopped in at a very busy bar to have a Coke and some water before finding our hotel. Had a nice conversation with 2 guys, one from Road Island and the other from Vancouver, Canada.

We are staying in a old monastery that was converted to a hotel, it is very large. The hotel has a whole area set up like a museum and I could walk through it’s cloister.