Camino Day 21: Sahagún – Calzadilla de los Hermanillos (30/03/17)

 

The next morning David and I met up with Matthew and Heather for breakfast in a café in Plaza Mayor; now quiet and deserted in the early morning compared with the bustle of the previous afternoon.

Plaza Mayor, Sahagun

We made our way out of town – back past our albergue and down the steep slope to the rio Cea where we paused to look at the impressive stone crucifix before crossing the Puente de Canto – built by Alfonso VI in 1085 on Roman foundations and renewed in the 16^th Century. It was amazing to think that this solid little bridge was the only river crossing in Sahagún until as late as 1992.

On the far side of the bridge is a poplar grove that legend says miraculously grew from the shafts of the lances of Charlemagne’s soldiers that were planted in the ground when Charlemagne was pursuing the Muslim Caliph Aigolando.

I was still feeling somewhat discouraged and morose and took the opportunity to quietly hang back from the others and have a stretch of walking by myself. My frame of mind was made worse by the fact that I was feeling very tired because my sinuses were really bothering me during the night hours so that I was waking up at 5am every morning with sinus pressure and a headache behind my right eye which then kept me awake or caused me to dose fitfully. Although the pressure and headache would go away after about an hour, once I got up and took a decongestant and some Ibuprofen, the result was that I wasn’t getting enough sleep, which only exacerbated my vaguely melancholic state. It was hard to say if the sinus problems were due to the ongoing issues with Sarcoidosis, an allergy to some type of pollen on the Meseta or maybe the dustiness of some of the albergues.

Podiatric repairs

After crossing a roundabout and passing under the A-231, we stopped for second breakfast at Calzada de Coto and afterwards found a nearby small children’s playground where I set up a mobile outdoor Podiatry Clinic and performed another repair job on Heather’s feet – renewing the dressings and areas of padding to keep her moving. Although some of Heather’s blisters were slowly getting larger because of her digital deformities and were causing her some discomfort, overall, she was doing really well and I was impressed how well she kept going. 

Leaving Cazada de Coto, we somehow managed to get to take the wrong track and after about fifteen or twenty minutes realised that the A-231 was still on our left and the railway line in the distance on our right, when in fact we should have been heading towards the railway line. We managed to double back, past some woods and after asking a local man walking his dog for directions, followed a path alongside the railway line back to the bridge that crossed over it and so rejoined the Camino path.

Yellow flowering Rush

The detour hadn’t been a total waste of time though, as we had found that the side of the track was speckled with a constellation of beautiful small crocuses coloured a delicate white with petals fringed with light purple and a centre of yellow stamens and anther. 

Wild Geranium

Toadflax

The more we looked, the more unobtrusive and delicate wild flowers we started to see in what had initially seemed like only dry grass; a yellow flowering Rush, wild lilac Geraniums and a species of Toadflax. We had also stopped to watch a Red Kite hunting over some nearby fields, which suddenly dropped out of sight onto it’s prey. Matthew also pointed out the sun which had a circular halo around it; presumably due to ice crystals in the upper atmosphere?

After crossing the railway, we walked along a fine stretch of Roman road; the ancient Via Traiana. A wide orange dusty track proceeded through gloriously isolated countryside, past fields and scrubland and lined by trees and bushes. The silence was broken only by the crunch of our feet, the occasional call of a Cuckoo or the sigh of the breeze in the trees and grass and I loved it! My Camino guidebook stated that there were still some original Roman milestones along this stretch and indeed , we did see several small white stone pillars, but whether these were Roman or more modern markers I couldn’t say. It didn’t matter – I still enjoyed thinking of the Romans crunching along in the gravel just as we were at that moment.

Matthew & Heather near end of detour

The weather was sunny with a slight breeze and I got slightly sunburned on my arms. The weather was also getting warmer and more humid and by now we were feeling a little tired, so we stopped for a rest and a snack at the Fuente de Peregrino – a delightfully cool and shady spot where a natural spring flows into a stone trough and is shaded by Poplar trees. The trees provided shelter for birds which sang with fluty notes and added to the sense of tranquility. My shoulders and neck were also getting sore, as I needed to adjust the straps on my bag and Matthew kindly gave me a therapeutic massage which was most restorative.

Via Traiana

We felt very refreshed and could have stayed at this spot for a long time, but we pressed on and reached Calzadilla de los Hermanillos after 8 hours and 50 minutes. Calzadilla itself is no more than a large village, but was interesting nonetheless. The Hermanillos in it’s name refers to Franciscan Friars sent out from Sahagún to man this intermediate pilgrim station between Sahagún and Mansilla de las Mulas.

Fuente de Peregrino

We located the municipal albergue and were surprised to find that it was self- service. We had to sign ourselves into the visitor’s book and stamp our own credencials. A cleaner calls once a day. A middle-aged Japanese pilgrim had already arrived before us and showed us what to do. I unfortunately made a faux pas when I first met him by asking if he was Korean (as we had met numerous Koreans and no Japanese pilgrims hitherto), rather than “where are you from?” which is of course what I should have asked. However, I felt that the long lecture I got in response about how rude it was in his culture to guess someone’s nationality instead of asking where they were from, slightly excessive! He was friendly enough though, worked as a Chef in Belgium and was walking the Camino for the second time.

Decisons, decisions!

After a short perusal of the albergue, David in his role as a retired Fire Officer, pointed out to me various areas of concern where fire regulations were being infringed or were just being totally ignored; there was only one exit from the building, there were bars over the windows, the partitions between the sleeping quarters were constructed from easily combustible MDF and his biggest concern – a PVC armchair situated extremely close to the wood burning stove. David invited me to feel the temperature of the PVC – which was nearly too hot to touch and he quietly moved the armchair much further away from the stove. Seeing albergues through the eyes of a Fire Safety Officer is very concerning indeed!

Our friendly shopkeeper

After a shower and a rest, we went in search of a local shop to buy provisions for the next day as we knew we would be walking across a large empty stretch of the Meseta. Some hand painted arrows on the road led off to the left and when we met two local men talking on a street corner we asked about the location of the shop (Tiende) and a tiny middle-aged man beamed at us, pointed proudly at his chest and turning out to be the shop keeper, led us to the front door of his shop, before disappearing around the back, whilst chasing his little brown dog, to open up from inside.

Mudejar east end of the Hermitage of the Virgin of Sorrows

What a shop it was! A veritable Aladdin’s cave full of every conceivable product – wheels of cheese, joints of ham to be sliced on a bacon slicer, fruit, vegetables, bread, eggs, shelves groaning with provisions, boxes of pastries and delicious biscuits! The choice was mesmerising and we got quite carried away, choosing stuff for our picnic the following day!

The Wash House

Our shopkeeper kept tempting us with more interesting foodstuffs as he could see that we were easily persuadable, but even we declined some Whiskey he suggested! A tiny old woman appeared, who we presumed to be the owner’s mother and sat on a chair to watch us. We were interested how both of them were only about five feet in height as we also noticed other very small people in villages in the area and wondered if this was a particular feature of the inhabitants in this area?  The shop took me back to my childhood in the 1970’s when my grandmother who lived on the Stranmillis Road in Belfast, used to send me down to a shop just like it, staffed by an elderly lady called Maudie, to pick up some “messages” as we say in Ireland. Back home, shops like this one have nearly disappeared, except in the most remote areas, superseded during my lifetime by the exorable rise of the Supermarket.

After stocking up, we found a surprisingly trendy bar for a drink and again met our Japanese friend reading a Kindle. Matthew and Heather headed back to the albergue for a rest and David and I wandered around the village. There were a few interesting things to see; the Hermitage of the Virgin of the Sorrows which has Romanesque and Mudejar elements – Mass was being celebrated, so we didn’t go inside. There was an interesting covered Wash House on the edge of the village that has recently been restored and consists of a spring fed stone trough with stone rubbing boards along the sides, where traditionally, the woman of the village would have come together to communally wash their clothes. Finally, near the parish church a small green had been turned into an open-air museum with examples of Roman stonework from the Via Traiana such as milestone pillars and irrigation channels. Interesting information boards gave more information and there was also a reconstruction of a section of Roman road.

Matthew enjoying his dining experience

When I had been planning the trip, I had come across the website for a Casa Rural called Casa El Cura which had looked really lovely and appeared to serve high quality meals made from locally sourced seasonal ingredients. We decided we would go and investigate as it was time for dinner! When we arrived the owners were most apologetic – there was already a large party of German pilgrims and they had exhausted the evening’s menu, but if we were willing to take whatever they could serve us, they were sure they could “throw something together” for us? We agreed. The meal turned out to be a culinary tour de force – a gourmet experience! It was definitely the best meal that we have had on the Camino – trumping even the one David and I had at Cirueña! A lovely fresh salad was followed by mussels in lemon juice, a main course of hake and white asparagus accompanied by an excellent light white wine, a dessert of lemon mousse and finished off with chocolates and coffee; and all for €12 each! If you are in Calzadilla de los Hermanillos do not miss this culinary experience!