Camino Frances - 2014
Day 18 Saturday 3rd May 2014
Carrión de los Condes to Terradillos de los Templarios
26 km - 5.5. hours
Leaving Carrión de los Condes
Canada Real Leonese rest area, one of the few rest stops between Carrión
and Caldadilla de la Cuesa on the Via Aquitana
Mud brick construction at the rest area
Dianne leaving the rest area
Approaching Caldadilla de la Cueza
Albergue Camino Real at Caldadilla de la Cueza
Hostal Camino Real
On the way to Ledigos
At Ledigos
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Dianne and I had walked together all day. It was long, hot and dusty and in the last two kilometers I got slightly ahead of Dianne who was tiring. The Albergue Los Templarios came into sight and I checked in. Diane carried on and stayed at Albergue Jacques de Molay.
Albergue Los Templarios in new and has good facilities; that night I was only one of three in a room that normally sleeps twelve people. The only other person there that I had met before was Sarah, who came in later.
I was just having a beer when the devil appeared. He said ....Pilgrim Michael, I can end this discomfort you are suffering. You will have a long day tomorrow walking beyond Bercianos to El Burgo Raneo, nearly 32 kilometers. Did you know that there is a Ferrocarril that stops in El Burgo Ranero twice a day; I can put you on the 8:06 train for Leon on Monday morning and within 30 minutes you can be there. This will save two hard days walking and a night in an albergue. You can be checked into the Parador San Marcos, eating good food and drinking fine wine and beers. And there is more, you can stay up late and watch the football match on the TV with a few more beers.
At this point God appeared. I have been listening to your conversation with the devil, he said . Whilst I do not normally endorse products he offers, this one seems to be a good deal to me. When you go to the station, please buy 2 tickets. I'm going to have a day off and come you! And by the way, what time does the match start?
And so it came to pass! On Monday evening Pilgrim Michael was showering in luxury, drying himself of with a huge fluffy white towel, and eyeing the crispy white sheets that were reserved for him that night.
But of course, once you succumb to the devil it is the thin end of the wedge...... The start of the slippery slope. Pilgrim Michael soon convinced himself that there was nothing spiritually rewarding to be had from walking from Leon to Santiago de Compostela. He had already been there, done it and had the T-shirt. And of course, the devil was quick to point out that the 14:20 train out of Leon would deposit Pilgrim Michael in Santiago de Compostela by 8 p.m. that evening. Pilgrim Michael could have three nights in San Martin Pinario, spend a day looking around Santiago, spend a day on a trip to Finisterre, and be home Friday night to supervise the building works at home which had reached the critical roof installation level.
And so it came to pass. The temptation was too great! |
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Accommodation Notes
Albergue Los Templarios
The other albergue.... Jacques de Molay
Albergue Jacques de Molay
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Jacques de Molay and Friday 13th
The Knights Templar, or "Templars" was a medieval military order who's full name was "The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon" and existed for two centuries in the Middle Ages. It was founded in 1119 to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land and named from their original headquarters near Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. They were officially endorsed by the Catholic Church in 1129. Templar knights, who wore distinctive white mantles with a red cross, were among the most skilled fighting units of the Crusades. Non-combatant members of the Order managed a large economic infrastructure throughout Christendom, innovating financial techniques that were an early form of banking and building fortifications across Europe and the Holy Land. They attracted gifts of extensive lands in Europe, particularly in France, which provided a reservoir of funds for their military operations. Their guardianship of crusader's cash made them international financiers, who lent money to kings and frequently acted as treasurers to the French monarchy. Their wealth, pride and exclusiveness made them increasingly unpopular, and they were blamed, unjustly, for the defeats which culminated in the loss of Acre, the last crusader outpost, in 1291.
Rumours about the Templars' secret initiation ceremony created mistrust and King Philip IV of France, deeply in debt to the Order, took advantage of the situation. In the early hours of Friday 13th September 1307 King Philip's officers swooped on houses of the Knights Templar all over France, carrying off the Templars to the dungeons.
Confessions were obtained by torture. When papal intervention stopped their maltreatment, many Templars revoked their confessions and vehemently defended their order; King Philip replied by burning 54 of them alive. The order's Grand Master, Jacques de Molay was burned at the stake, and as he stood in the flames he summoned king and pope to appear with him before God's tribunal. Within the year both King Philip and the Pope were dead, and within a generation Philip's three short-lived sons.... "the cursed kings" .... were all to perish with their heirs, bringing the royal line of Capet to an end.
Grand Master Jacques de Molay being burnt at the stake
Eventually in 1312, Pope Clement V dissolved the Templar organisation and transferred their great estates to the rival crusading order of Knights Hospitaller, who became legal owners only after paying massive fictitious Templar "debts" to Philip IV, the chief beneficiary of the order's downfall.
It is amazing that today we are still highly superstitious of "Friday 13th"following the traumatic events of September 1307! |
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