14 October Cool and sunny

Less hacking, less coughing, less waddle and more walking.

QB takes to the trail today, in pain but not defeated. No cortisone shot as yet. As KB writes this QB is on the bed with ice on the knee. It appears that one only has to say rodilla, the spanish for knee, to get ice in a hotel. Does not seem to matter what other words are put around the knee word, of for that matter if any words need to be spoken.

Want ice for your drinks? Not so easy. Point to your knee on the Camino and ice is immediately proffered.

The bike may be fixed, will know better in the morning but am very optimistic. Took it to a bicycle repair place, serves as repairs for agricultural tires that are taller than I am, as well as other repairs. The repair person understood my lament of three days in a row and that I needed to both fix the tire and solve the root problem. He searched and searched the tire itself for many minutes, just as I had and just as had two others. We both searched the rim.

This time he found it. A glass shard, wedged into the space between the treads, and protruding may a thousandth of a mm through the kelvar backing inside the tire. With a knife he dug out the shard, then patched the tire from the inside before putting in a new tube. Time will tell but I am optimistic.

The path from Fromista to Carrion (sorry, but it is a river name and de los Condors refers to the Counts – I like my incorrect translation, Carrion of the Condors much better) is a dedicated path next to the road. For almost the whole way it looks like the picture. Here the Meseta is without large grades.

The name comes from the dishonor caused by the Counts who married and mistreated the daughters of El Cid, as explained in an epic poem. Carrion is the name of the local river, pictured.

In Carrion we found a market, another of the department store type markets except that this one had no bread and no ham stalls. Lots of clothing and socks and one cheese vendor and one roasted chicken vendor. QB gambled and purchased leggings for the cold mornings.

More churches here and a monastery. We are staying at a hotel that is part of the monastery. Very nice place. San Zoilo Hotel Real Monasterio.