A Year Long Pilgrimage

I have just completed a four course meal, complete, had I wanted it, with wine and a digestive, along with coffee.  This was a pilgrim meal and cost the grand total of €15!  This has come at the end of four days walking on the Camino Sanabrés, though it was lunch, not dinner. Main course Desert! This is a really interesting route, initially quite easy, though I know there are some steep climbs coming up, but that is for the future. After leaving Granja de Moreruela, I turned onto the Camino Sanabrés, leaving the Via de la Plata behind.  The first days walk headed to Quintos Bridge crossing the Rio Esla.  I was actually headed just over 25 kilometres to the small town of Tábara where I had booked a bottom bed in a private albergue for €12.  As it turned out I was virtually alone as the only other pilgrims staying there were 2 Italian blokes in another section of the dormitory.  The albergue Ups and downs.  I have no idea who the pilgrims are ahead of me...

I am now back on the road and it feels good.  Lots of green crops, wildflowers, and generally quiet tracks.  I had planned to do many more days on the via de la Plata, but due to a variety of reasons it has only amounted to two days, before I head North West on the Camino Sanabrés.   I did give a passing thought to continuing on the la Plata to Astorga, and then turning west to Santiago, but decided I didn't want to deal with the crowds on the leg from Astorga.   I thought I had seen quite a lot of Zamora, but as I headed out of town I realised I hadn't seen much at all.  The path stays along the old town walls, before descending and then heading the 20kms or so towards Montemarta, my destinationfor the night. Leaving Zamora with the first sign (for me) The walls The path takes me past those towers. Supposedly, there was a bar in the one small village, Roales del Pan, that the path passes through, but no such luck.  I went into a tiny little panad...

The more I have been watching  the events of Semana Santa the more I have noticed the men in suits!  That, in a way, is ironical given the vibrantly coloured costumes that the members of the cofradía wear. These pasos were in the church where a rain stopped procession was meant to start, so I am assuming these would have been in it. It is the men in suits that are the captains of proceedings.  Watching them I was struck with how much they were like the men in suits who buzz around the Pope.  An irony, given the news that broke on Easter Monday of Pope Francis's death. These men bustle around the paso, guiding it, calling instructions, and knocking on the paso in coded signals to those carrying it.  I think there must be a specific time before a rest is needed.  I haven't been able to work out if is the length of the accompanying music, or the clock that controls the decision, but the instructions seem to be a three tap warning, then about 30 seconds later a...