Day 19 - Población de Campos - 21km

The football hooligans stayed put. My good night's rest is thankful.

When I left the Italian refugio this morning, they surprised us again by reciting a pilgrim farewell prayer as we headed out. They sure are keen on rituals and ordinances here :)

Did some shopping in a Spanish grocery store. Didn't understand all the signs, but managed to get the gist of most of them by comparing to French.

Later this morning, after a few kilometers, I found myself right in the middle of the Dothraki Sea. Nothing but grass, grass, and more grass on either side of the road. No mountains or villages in sight. The world had turned yellow, set off against an endless blue sky. Solitude galore, but so beautiful. I expected to run into a Khalasar any time.
(If you didn't get this bit, read or watch Game of Thrones.)

After about 16km I ended up in a town called Fromista. Sat down at a little restaurant and ordered myself a glass of ice cold coke and a cheese spinach. I had planned on spending the night here, but this place seemed void of anything, and they didn't even speak English at the pilgrim information stand, how bad is that?!? So I decided then and there to add another 4-5 km to the next village.

The fields between the two towns very much reminded me of home. Utter flatness, green crops alternated with embankments and treelines. Any pictures taken here will be suspected to have been taken in the Netherlands. But seriously, this is what the Spanish countryside looks like right here. Nothing really is original back home, is it :)

As I sat down somewhere to rest my legs, I noticed a weird little creature a few feet away. Something I had never seen before and didn't know existed. It's like a robin crossbred with a butterfly or something. A bird-like body, eyes on the side, butterfly wings which it flapped in a bird-like fashion, antennae up front, and a long thin proboscis-shaped extremity where its nose would be. The Lorrrrrd works in mysterious ways!

As the title says, I'm in Problación de Campos. The town is nothing much to write home about either, but the people here a very nice. They offered me a glass of wine when I checked in to the refugio. Ran in to some old acquaintances here, like the Spanish guy I spent several kilometers with and who served as my walking dictionary, and this English couple I keep running in to but whom I haven't mentioned on here before.

Someone here helped me out: The creature I noticed turns out to be called a Hummingbird Hawk Moth. So now I can ask Paul to look up a picture on Google and add it to this post ;)