I got my halfway certificate today after we got back from El Burgo Ranero. Went with Sue and we were both quite pleased with our certificates! I asked him if there was any significance to the dragon and he didn’t know, but was so nice about doing the whole thing.
Sue and I were in different hotels, but both walked from Sahagun to El Burgo Ranero, then got a prearranged taxi back to Sahagun, so 2 nights in the same place which was a treat. Beautiful cold to cool morning to walk, so nice. Morning Sahagun shot of an old bridge and a statue that was repeated, but with different carving in El Burgo Ranero. In the Burgo photo, there’s a building behind and to the right that I think was a silo. Isn’t it pretty? Love it that they put such detail into things like this – or used to. Not mentioned in my book, so not ancient, just pretty.
This statue covers it all for the Camino, Jesus, Mary and the pilgrim.
Sahagun is the biggest town between Burgos and Leon. Today, Saturday, was market day and the place was very busy. It’s a small accessible town, so nice to see it filled up with people and the markets that went for blocks with clothes, food, nuts, purses, things like that. Then everyone eating in cafes and talking and talking. It really is a wonderful culture for taking time to talk and drink coffee/beer/wine. The kids all played in the main plaza on scooters, roller skates, running around while parents sat around the side eating, drinking – but mostly talking. I should have gotten a picture of that whole scene, but was sitting with Sue and talking (guess it’s rubbing off) and didn’t think of it. But I did get a short video of my clothes drying on the little balcony with a gathering of only about 10 below on the restaurant. Not a special party or anything, just an afternoon. I did pick up that at least some of the time, the guys were talking about a game.
There are churches here, of course. One is falling down and they’re trying to preserve it, the arch is from 1662 and is one of the entries to the city, used to be the facade of a church – must have been huge. Next is the Convento de las Madres Benedictinas, consecrated in 1184. It’s been completely rebuilt, and right next to it, they’re continuing to work on rebuilding and oh man, they have their work cut out for them!
The main church I spent time in was the Iglesia de San Lorenzo. The current building is early 13c. Amazing because the brick is just beautiful. I went in and was lucky that there was a women there so I could go in and see their platforms that they carry on Santa Samana, Holy Week. The last time I’d seen this was when Rick, the kids and I got to Granada 15 years ago and realized it was Santa Samana. Everything closed and procession after procession of men (now mixed with women) carrying these incredibly heavy platforms through the street.\
This church had all statues and I didn’t see any giant reliquaries of silver like in Granada, but these statues were big enough! To Americans, the costumes are disconcerting, the statue outside shows the hoods that they wear with the robes. I asked about this and she said that it was just the custom and it made the people carrying the platforms anonymous, it was all about what they were carrying. She and the other couple who were Spanish all understood right away why I thought it looked negative, rather than celebratory. I only took a few photos, but you get the idea. These were actually three of the smaller platforms.
The brick work, again, just gorgeous.
Here’s a curious thing. Sue and I realized the dead looking trees (assuming they grow and bloom in the spring) had been spliced to make continuous arches for the plazas they surrounded. They were in several places around the town. This photo shows a few connected trees:
Another curious thing – what was this about? An arch just randomly (to me) placed on the path today:
Tomorrow, we get transferred back to El Burgo Ranero and will carry on hiking from where we left off today.
Reb's Walks! 