C#21 – 29th Sept from Frómista to Carrion de los Condes, 19.3kms

Today was a day of music. We had a easy day of walking, reaching a beautiful little town dominated by its church and a albergue run by nuns. We decided to see if we could get in. We arrived about midday, early, and queued to sign in.  We were the last two accepted! We were lucky.

So the nuns have a singing session before dinner. We all sat in the foyer and listened to the nuns sing songs in Spanish, English, Korean and French. We were asked to introduce ourselves, say why we are doing the Camino and then offer up a song of our own. A lot of reasons were shared. See below. But you guessed it. Neither of us had a song to sing. I sang chorally but individually was too much to ask. The Koreans, on the other hand, sang with such conviction and pleasure.

Reasons for doing the Camino:

1. to help decide whether to retire or not
2. to deal with grief
3. to walk
4. to think
5. to do something after the death of their spouse
6. to take the ashes of a family member to Finnisterra
7. To find a wife (who is Christian and will do as she is told)!!!
8. To become a better man so the wife will fall back in love with him!
9. To contemplate faith
10. to decide if a calling to the priesthood is the right thing to do.
11. to do it because it was recommended
12. to have an adventure.
13. To find the old me
14. For God
15. For my mother
16. My mother told me to
17. My mother did it so I thought I would too
18. For my husband who died before we could do it together
19. To manage depression
20. To get off canabis

After our singing, we then headed to the church to listen to a free concert for pilgrims of classical, Spanish guitar. Wow. I was so moved by the emotion of the music and the incredible skill of the guitarist. The acoustics of the church were superb. A special experience.