Day 19 Fromista to Carrion de los Condes (6 April)

Had a good sleep at the hostel. Breakfast was okay. The hostess gave me a souvenir thimble which I guess after paying 45 euros (10 more than the book said) for the night, didn´t seem very generous. We left around 0830 and I think we were the last to leave the town which is fine by me. Another beautiful morning. Yesterday and today the sun and moon were visible. Still seeing storks here in Fromista and in Boadilla. The birds are really singing today. The forsythia are in bloom and we´ve passed some hyacinths as well. We stopped for coffee in Villarmenter de Compos and ran into an American (www.walkingeast.com) who has been walking for 12 or 18 months. Walked across the U.S.A. and is now heading to Jerusalem. That´s the second person I´ve met who walked across the U.S.A. The first was a South African woman who did it in 8 months. Cullen refuses to walk across the U.S.A. Guess I´ll have to cross that off my list of things to do! We arrived and decided to stay at the Monastery de Santa Clara for the night. There is also an albergue run by a different order of nuns, but this is the first place and we thought it might be the one recommended by the hospitalero in Castrojeriz. Oh well. They have a lot of shops in this town. There was a pretty decent outdoor shop selling the altus rain ponchos and a lot of other hiking gear. A nice grocery store not from the albergue where we picked up supplies for tonight and tomorrow. We were warned in the Brierley book to pack what we need because there is nothing for 10 miles once we leave here in the morning.