Day 18: Carrión de los Condes to Terradillos de los Templarios (Wendy)

We started today discussing the relative merits and drawbacks to a stay like we had in Carrión. We spent the night at the San Zoilo Monastery, a very old (functioning from the 10th through the 19th centuries) monastery that has been converted into a luxury hotel. For just over 100 euros, we had a private room in one of the old monk cells, though the room was spacious and had a big tub for more epsom salt soaking. I suspect many cells had been combined into one hotel room, but perhaps not. Having never been a monk, I can’t really say. The building was gorgeous, the food was delicious, our bodies were refreshed. That was all fantastic, though Bob’s physical rejuvenation was marred by a bout of stomach issues which we suspect came from a bad sandwich he had while we were doing our laundry in town that afternoon.

The drawback to such physical luxury is the mental exertion needed to get back in the mode where walking for many miles in the dark before having your morning coffee seems like a reasonable thing to do. 

This discussion kept us occupied this morning until the blessed coffee bar food truck appeared at the 6.5 km mark, about an hour and a half into our morning walk. Fortified with our standards (fresh orange juice, cortado/café con leche, and bocadillo de jamón/tortilla), the rest of the day looked much more doable.

The landscape today was unremarkable. Sadly, the cloudy, sometimes rainy, day kept Bob from getting his morning sunrise photo, though the rain helped keep the flies and gnats at bay a bit. 

The two highlights today were first, unexpectedly meeting up again with Richard, the fellow from Berlin we met back on Day 3 in Larrasoaña. Though he walks much faster than us, he had taken a rest day and has a cold, so we were pleasantly surprised to reconnect.

The second, and bigger highlight, was passing the halfway mark around midday today! We are now just over halfway done with our Camino, both in days and distance. Happily, my knees are nearly healed, Bob’s foot pain management regiment seems to be working, we are definitely stronger, and we’re excited to be moving into this second half. As Bob commented earlier this week, though, it’s a bittersweet excitement. We’re happy to make progress and see the kilometers click away. We’re excited that it seems like we will be able to walk the entire route after all. But sadly, each passing day brings us one day closer to the end of this beautiful experience.