Yesterday evening we visited one of the many churches in Carrion - Santa Maria del Camino. It has the most spectacular decorated wall above and behind the high altar. It's covered in a huge carved scene showing various saints focused on the Blessed Virgin Mary plus Biblical scenes, and all covered in gold.
All the churches in this town have clocks that chime the hour and the quarters, but they chime a few seconds apart. The nearest first, then a fainter one, and finally a very distant one. I tried to remember how fast sound travels. Would that account for the time lag?
Many church towers round here have storks nests on them. The old convent in a Carrion, has a rickety bell tower held up by steel scaffolding, and several nests.
In one of the tiny villages I passed through today, there was a modern church, with what I guessed must be a purpose built metal tower for them storks. They seemed quite at home.
The strong wind which had made pitching the tent so difficult continued all night. A clear sky, and temperature dropped to 9 degrees by 7am. Note to self - pack an extra blanket next camping trip. We are 900 metres above the sea, so cold nights are perhaps to be expected.
Our first stop today was at Sahagun, a small town with an Irish pub! We had a coffee and cake at a cafe opposite, then B stocked up on groceries at the local Spar.
My route took me under a high speed railway that is under construction. Yet the parallel ordinary two-tracked electrified, line more or less parallel to it seemed to be devoid of trains, at least during the half hour I cycled alongside it. Again the mystery of how Spain can justify construction of these grand pieces of infrastructure.
At Mansillas de las Mulas we stopped next to the parish pump where all the town's old men congregated to set the world to rights. I expect their wives were busy at home, cleaning and cooking while they relaxed.
We'll be cooking on the Trangia by tomorrow. Note to self - buy a spare full canister of gaz for the big camping stove. We'll try and cook some potatoes tonight, but if all fails, can get chips at the campsite's cafe. Campsite also has wifi, but it's a bit slow, so not attempting to add photos.
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Speed of sound is about 300mph. So it takes about 5 seconds to travel a mile. So, if there was a delay of (say) 3 seconds, then the church would be about 1km away. So, yes, it is quite possible that all the clocks were at the right time, and the delay was caused by the distance. On the other hand, this is Spain we are talking about, so if the clocks were all at the correct time, it was probably just pure coincidence !
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