Teradillos de los Templarios

Here is a good look at some of the nice wheat farmland-not too many rocks. In fact, in this area, most of the building is done either with adobe (clayey mud with straw) or bricks, as can be seen in this adobe wall and the Templar church in Terradillos, which has a lot of brick.


A 17 mile walk today, but I am feeling stronger and not as many toes bandaged anymore, so I did okay, getting in about 1 pm. This is a small village of less than 200 people, so not much here in town. There is a Templar church as this area was once in the Templar domain. It should be interesting to check it out later. NO wi fi, but this albergue has free internet, so I am in luck. Nice newer place on the edge of town, and it has a bar and restaurant with pergrino menu, so I am all set since I have enough groceries to last me through tomorrow.

By the way, I am approximately halfway done with my camino. There are about 400 km (250 miles) left to Santiago.

Sometimes the afternoons can be a bit long and boring once my shower and clothes washing chores are done and nothing in the towns is open from 2 to 5 pm. A lot of people take naps, I usually try to catch up on email and blog and then do some reading, both in the guidebooks about the upcoming walk or the novels that I have downloaded to the Kindle reader on my ITouch. Right now I am reading Dan Brown´s latest, The Lost Symbol, which is kind of preposterous and not all that good. Around 5 pm, many of the fellow pergrinos starting congregating in whatever local bar is most convenient to drink vino tinto or cerveza until the dinner hours.

Yesterday in Carrion, I shared some wine with a group of kids, all of them young enough for me to be their father. One from Australia, Germany, Scotland, Brazil, and two more, I am not sure where they are from. Of course the subject got around to the United States and their image of Americans. They were surprised to even find Americans who wanted to make the camino, so I hope I was a good ambassador for us.

Most restaurants that cater to pergrinos start serving an earlier dinner than in most parts of Spain, in order to accomodate the pilgrims, who usually make the bulk of their business. The usual start time for dinner is 7 pm, but some even serve at 6 pm, unheard of early for Spain.