Terradillos de los Templarios to Bercianos del Real Camino

It rained and then it rained some more…
and the scenery changed, it was quieter and the grey sky has made all the difference to the colours

Looks like a stumpy white jacaranda… it has appeared beside us only as we entered this part of the Camino
This grows along the way and is called Spanish Broom and the scent is like an even heavier jasmine than we have had at home.

It’s raining on my side – the half way column of the Camino Frances
…and it’s raining on her side too – the other half way column of the Camino Frances
Busted…..how do you resist ‘a sign’.

Walking up the avenue…

Yep….Tammin in Winter.  We woke this morning to the gentle sound of rain on the roof.  Out came the wet weather gear…again …and we ventured out.  “Team Norway” a group of three women from Norway were bemoaning the fact that they had come on the camino for many reasons and one of them was to enjoy the sunny climate of Spain!  They then said that the temperature in Oslo today was 30 degrees Celcius…hmmmm.

Once you get going and the water proofing holds, it’s actually quite pleasant to walk along in the rain.  There seems to be a greater sense of quiet, not so many people talking and basically everyone is simply moving along.  What you do notice is that the backdrop of the grey sky makes all the other colours “pop”.  The greens just look deeper than those we have at home.

Although our accomodation had us reach our half way point the official geographical half way point on the Camino Frances (measured from St Jean Pied de Port – where we started from) is marked with a bridge, an 11th Century church (which was attached to a hospital for pilgrims which was built several centuries prior to that) and two columns(photos above)  and is a little further on just before the next town, Sahagun.  It bucketed at the time, but no resisting the photo opportunity.  Photos done we then walked on to the town of Sahagún.  Medieval relics, ancient churches, Roman paths and bridges abound – but the sign saying Cake and Coffee – captured our attention for about 35 minutes!!

We then clearly had to work off the afore mentioned cakes and put a hoof on  heading to our final stop for the day, Bercianos del Real Camino.  We came across a church which are still trying to fathom.  The Church of Ermita de Nuestra de Perales (11th century) sadly has been “renovated” by the locals – unfortunately they may have picked up their paint at the Dulux sale!!  See photo above.  The more puzzling is that on the side wall, framed was a series of medals in a display case – most of them Nazi war medals.  A fellow Australian, David took a photo, I will see if I can upload it tonight.  The region is well known for its staunch support of Franco, perhaps this may have something to do with it.

So, 25 km later we made it to Bercianos (Bruce Rock) and settled in for a meal and a drink… bigger day tomorrow – 27km.

 

 

 

5 thoughts on “Terradillos de los Templarios to Bercianos del Real Camino”

  1. How were the cakes ? I remember Spain as having the worst bread in Europe so I hope the cakes are much better and after a 25k walk you deserve a nice cake to accompany the coffee or in Lori’s case, the pint of shandy.

    1. Lori can’t remember the cakes because of the size of the shandy….actually they were GREAT and we lingered a while hoping for the rain to pass…their bread has improved and we are eating too much of it…

  2. Dulux colours have just got to be better than gold leaf bling or has your Croatian heritage trumped Australian nurturing. Think of Fremantle recycled brick houses with the obligitory “lady of fatima” blue brIck dotted throughout the brickwork.

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