“Get thee to a nunnery,” said Hamlet to his mother Ophelia. Well tonight, I did just that. My sleeping accomodations were at the Monasterio de Santa Clara, a monastery where nuns are cloistered in another section of this building. There were four beds to a room (no bunk beds – yeah!) and private showers. It felt quite luxurious to me. My favourite part in the whole complex though was a very simple but stunningly beautiful courtyard. Note: this place apparently housed St. Francis of Assisi when he walked the Camino.
After performing all the usual pilgrim duties of showering, washing clothes, etc. Jo Anne and I went exploring. Moya joined us later. One of the gems in Carrion de los Condes is the Church of Santiago. Again, it’s the simplicity that I find so appealing. It was extensively damaged in the War of Independence in the early 1800s and if you look at the facade you’ll see that the heads of the saints were all lopped off by Napoleon’s soldiers. We climbed up to the bell tower via a very narrow and rather scary spiral staircase where I snapped some photos.
Then it was time for dinner and bed. After a long day on the meseta, this pilgrim was dead tired.
