Camino bore, day 14.

Thurs May 13th, Boadilla to Carrion.
The journal reads, "This must have been the most boring walk so far!.... just like the A15." Arrived a very ordinary town, but the albergue was good in that it was in a convent, and we had BEDS not BUNKS. This is quite refreshing, as it means you can guarantee being able to sit up on your bed; the distance between top and bottom bunk is often very small.

Pilgrim-shaped hole

Convent at carrion

The highlight of the day was the mass presided over by a very jolly priest, who at the end of it did some special thing for pilgrims, including a jolly song in the style of Radio 2 offerings. It went on and on with its 'Oh camino, wonderful camino! Camino wonderful!'-type lines, that I was soon exploding with giggles into my hankie. It seemed the right thing to do, and the priest beamed his way through the whole thing, and there was a great air of merriment. Not sure how he managed it in this rather grey place on a drizzly cold spring evening. But perhaps in priesthood terms, to be given a church on the camino is to strike lucky.

We stocked up in this very ordinary town with chocolate milk, and drank some warmed-up on arrival. Entertainment on the way provided in the now-familiar way by posing next to representation of pilgrim, adopting the pose of the particular image. The convent is a very plain-looking building, notice puddles, but nevertheless pilgrims still walked around in sandals for blessed relief. Dinner was from a plastic menu - not a good sign, and it wasn't.

In 2011 on May 13th, I drove my favourite blue van to go and collect some furniture from the suppliers for a local business. It's what I do, as some former bishop once said. Sometimes anyway. And I enjoy seeing over the hedges that you can't see over from  a car (why?), and here I'm picking up stuff from Binbrook http://www.bcar.org.uk/binbrook_history.html airfield, which is now a business park. Dreary convent buildings, bridges over motorways, and now the ubiquitous Blue Van. One looks in vain in this particular post for something of the sunny, exotic South.